Got lots to say and lots to show on this blog diary posting! Not so sure you really want to hear about all that's been going on, and thoughts in my noggin. If so...
Sit a spell! You may want to go and get yourself something to drink...
Em(chunka munka) turned 8 months on the 5th! I'm a little late on posting about it, I try to post it on that day, but sometimes I fail! On the weekends I'm not on the computer as much and I've got so much to put in.
You're getting SO big!
So what have you been up to Little Miss?....
*you have mastered(finally) sitting up and can go from laying to sitting and vise versa
*you pull up on EVERYTHING and have even let go twice, only to fall down
*you got your second tooth in on May 7th. it's on the bottom left
{my attempts at some tooth photos}
(excuse the carrots on the side of the nose in the photo...her mama didn't do a great job cleaning her up after lunch!
*you do this scoot/crawl thing. i just know crawling will be VERY SOON!
*you love your mama very much
*you say "mama" ALL the time! and also "bubba" to, but no dada yet
*your scream is ear splitting! and has caused a few headaches
*your wearing size 9-12 month clothes(usually 12 months) and have some really chunky leggies...cheeks too
*we have got you to clap a few times, but not much
*you also will wave and give a kiss(kiss=leaning toward your mouth with hers usually open)
*you enjoy eating baby foods and love star puffs or mum mums much more
*you flap your arms around and do a kind of sitting jumping thing when you are excited
*we haven't tried much "real" food yet, but you've had lots of baby food veggies. your first one was carrots on May 7th. I cooked some baby ones and tried to mush them up, but the baby ones don't mush well. you made faces after about 4 bites... I think because of the texture. your first "bought" baby food to taste was squash on the 10th, you liked them. I've gave you bananas, cantaloupe and strawberries and you like them
We had such a wonderful past weekend, just the 4 of us! The rug rats behaved good and it was so nice.
Saturday we had dinner at Razoos. The kids got balloons and bead necklaces from the waitresses. Em did not care to much for her balloon, or any balloon for that fact. The girl tied it to her chair and every time she looked up at it she would cry and try to scoot as far away as she could from it! It was kind of funny. Have you ever heard such a thing?!!! All kids like balloons I thought!
Has anyone out there heard of or done letter boxing? I know my friend Steph has(not sure she remembers) because she and her son came with Hunt and I about 2 years ago to the Wildlife Refuge in Fort Worth and we tried to search out some(to no luck). Anyway...there is a site called letter boxing where you can go and get clues for hidden boxes all around the world! In the boxes are usually a pad of paper, a stamp and maybe a small prize/goody. Anyway you take a stamp with you so when you find a box you stamp your stamp on their paper along with where you are from and the date, etc... and you stamp their stamp on your paper(totally confused you huh?). If you take a goody, then you are suppose to leave one. The site gives you clues like go to a certain park...go to the bench on the right...head toward the north to the tree...take ten paces to the left...look under the bush and find the box. It's fun doing them and we've done a couple, but have yet to find a box!
We tried another one recently, but didn't find a box. It may be due to the fact that I felt that it was in someone's back yard and I didn't want to go in their yard and get shot!
There is also a more adult version called geocache, in which you use coordinates and a GPS to find ammo boxes, tins, jars, etc. with the same type stuff as letterboxes.
You can go onto the site and pull up co-ordinances of boxes in a certain area or town. They are all over. There was one box that we looked at on a site that had a camera enclosed, so that when you find it you take a photo of yourself. The site had funny photos of the people who found it. Some were of their dogs and one just had a picture of a plastic dinosaur next to it.
So this weekend daddy got a GPS and we headed out Sunday on our search for the 4 that we downloaded. We chose the 4 that were pretty close to where we live. And we found ALL 4 YAY!!!!!
One was near the Keller police station and the other 3 at Bear Creek Park. We all had such a good time! It was fun to try to find them, some were hidden good. There were two that we almost gave up on, but my persistence paid off and when I went to look just one more time I spotted them! FUN!!! Em liked the nice walk through the trails and Hunt liked seeing what was inside the boxes! We DEFINATLY will be doing more in the future!
I snapped photos of our fun!...
{our first one}
{there it is!}
{Bear Creek Park area}
{happy girl}
{searching around the bridge}
{we, I, finally found it! We almost gave up on it! very difficult to find! it was way up under the bridge, magnet to the underside. i just happen to see a bit of it sticking out lower than the bridge and decided to poke at it with a stick. after several attempts it finally fell free. it's there, the brown Altoids container. we were apprehensive at sticking out hands under and inside the bridge and surrounding ground}
{Hunt opening it up}
{we kept a rail road pin and left 2 quarters}
{hi Em!}
{hi Bubba...handsome boy!}
{pill container geocache...zip tied...hidden behind a tree branch so as not to see it from the trail, almost gave up on this one to until I decided to go behind some trees. it contained only rolled up log in papers}
{isn't she adorable!}
{we had to stop at the park to play a little}
{go mama go..hahaha...most exercise my butt has got in a long time!}
{our last geocache...}
{daddy spots it}
{an ammo can hidden among sticks and bark behind a tree}
{look at all the junk inside this one. we kept a 4 leaf clover and I can;t remember what we left. we also took a round coin to place in the next geocache we do. there was a note in the box that said they wanted you to take it out and put it in your next one found}
{sister having a drink}
{time to go home}
What a fun time we had!!!
We meet Kelley and Ken for dinner Sunday at Riskey's!...Oh Riskey's how I love your Texas Fries!!! Hunt decided he wanted to ride the horse outside, so daddy put Em on one to!
{hey Tex!}
{ride'um cowgirl!}
Not sure if she liked it or not! She was kind of looking back at us like...someone save me!HAHAHA!!!
Hunt started swim lessons again this Monday. He will be going for 2 weeks like before. Monday was pretty crazy. There were 9 kids in the group! I wasn't happy about there being 9, even though there were 2 teacher! And it was such a mixed level! They did end up moving a couple of kids to other classes, so now there are 7 kids in the class.
Monday...
{little sister kept busy playing in the hot tub and with snacks and toys}
{diving for rings}
{floating}
Just because sometimes I gotta understand if I'm the strange, a-nul, weird, out of this world, picky parent...
At swim lessons there were a set of parents sitting right by Em and I. They had 2 kids in the class. A boy who looked to be 4 or 5 and a girl who looked about the same age. So I was walking over to put my stuff down and I overheard her tell the husband to hurry and get the Benadril! She ran over to the pool and held her arm in the water until her husband returned. She took the Benidril and kept talking about the place on her arm to her husband. He finally told her to calm down. Ok, so now the kids are in the pool and starting class. The first thing that Jessica has the kids take turns doing is diving for rings. A few kids take their turn and then she comes to a little boy who seems a bit confused on putting his face in the water. He puts his face in and comes up with a diving ring. I hear the mother next to me say to her husband..."he can't breath, why aren't they teaching them to breath, this is ridiculous...go tell her he doesn't know how to breath"! The husband goes over to Jessica and tells her that he has NEVER been in the water before. So I hear this and I am like..WHAT!? I'm thinking to my self...he's never been in the water, never swimming, what about at bath time? I sit there quietly and keep my thoughts to my self(hard for me to do). So then the next step Jessica shows and tells them how to do is prone glide. When it comes to this boy again I hear the mom saying..."oh no, this won't do!...get him out of the water, why aren't they teaching him to breath underwater, I can't believe this"! A few more times this goes on and the child never once complains, acts frightend or scared and does everything that he is told! Once more she talkes aloud and says mostly the same things. At that point she looks at me and says..."can you believe this, why don't they teach them to breath underwater, he doesn't know what to do, he has never been in the water, look and I got stung by a wasp!" I smile and say..."really, well they will help them with breathing while they are swimming soon and show them what to do". She again says he doesn't know what to do and has never been in the water. I ask her..."he's never been swimming?...does he know how to hold his breath?" She says no! Then I say..."not even while taking a bath"? She shakes her head. Well it appeard that he was holding his breath while his face was in the water because he wasn't coming up with a mouth full of water or gasping or anything. She tells me that her daughter can swim well. I didn't know at the time that her daughter was in the class to. She makes a couple more comments to her husband about the levels of ability of the kids in the class(which I agree), the class size(I also somewhat agree) and again about the breathing thing and stuff. So my question is...if she thought that her daughter could swim and do SO much better than her son, why did she sign them up for the same beginner class. Why did she not ask questions before this day, while signing them up would have been a good time to ask. And what was the deal with the son never being in the water?....I'm not totally sure, but I can almost bet he has taken a bath before and been in water. Just strange if you ask me....oh and why did she not tell Mrs Black to be sure there were no wasps around...HAHAHA?
She didn't sit close to me Tuesday, so I don't know how she was taking it. And Wednesday and today they weren't there. They may have dropped out. Not sure why I feel I needed to tell y'all this, or why you would care... but I just had to share it.
Here are a few photos of swimming on Tuesday...
And from Wednesday...
{practicing arm strokes}
{Miss Em decided today that she would hit the ants with her rattle}
{man that kid LOVES the diving board! he went in so fast and far down that his goggles came off}
I'm just putting in one photo for today's swim class...
Hunt was horsing around today and acting like a scuba diver(he said) and hit the back of his head on the edge of the pool. So now he has a nice little goose egg! Yesterday he hit his head as well while doing a flip under the water(which he actually did)! I guess he didn't learn to sit still until it's your turn though.
Grandma had surgery Monday. She had a heart abilation. Everything went well and she is back home now, hopefully getting some rest. She couldn't rest good at the hosptial for all the machines beeping and going off. Hope you feel better soon Grandma!
Tuesday we meet some of our KECPTA group at Fritz Park Petting Farm. The kids got to learn a little about some of the animals there and do some petting. Of course I took way to many pictures, so here are a few...
{Notice Hunt and his friend "R" holding hands?! They are so cute and almost always love to see each other! If you will recall, they started this hand holding thing a couple of years ago...oh my!}
{let's go pet some animals...}
{Hunt holding "R's" hand...awww young love}
{an attempt to get a group photo...fail}
{Hey, look at mama! Both of y'all! I want to take a picture of you two}
{Hey goobers, look at mama! Oh well!}
{petting the mini horse}
{Awwww...Em wants her Bubba}
{nope...just his hat}
{Farmer Hunt}
{getting a bit sleepy are we?...}
{I don't wanna sit here and watch}
{I wanna go in and pet them}
{Em making a new friend}
Wednesday Hunt, Em and I went back out to the farm to pick us more blackberries. There were more people out today picking. This will be our last trip out there for berries this year I'm thinking. We may go back in a week or so for pick your own beans(they weren't ready yet). We had a fun time as always and thank Gnismer Farm for letting everyone come out to pick their own stuff!
{photo courtise of Hunt}
{berries on the nose}
{dirty face}
{just look at those babies!}
{weighing and paying}
{I put a bandana on sister today, I don't think she cared for it much! but she kept it on}
Man is it just me...I have been so drained the last few weeks. Every day at around 7pm I get so exausted and just run down! Since I'm the only parent here, I have to feed both kids, get them cleaned up and ready for bed. And sometimes one or both are tired and cranky! And at times screaming(Em)! I hope it passes soon...
Well since I'm sharing so much today, what else has been on my mind?...because I know you've been wondering...HA!
Because I've been thinking about all these berries...
Ok...I'm such a dork! You guys know how we've been picking berries and how last year Kelley and I went together and bought a water bath canner and jars and all the poop. And last year we didn't get a chance to do the canning thing with Kelley due to work and timing and such for both of us. And how my stove top is ceramic, which means I can't do canning on it. So the other day I was reading through the "pick your own" site and found that some people have canned using a Coleman Stove! YAY!!! See I'm a nerd! I was SO excited to read this because we have a stove like that and I can now try the canning!!! YAY!!! Man is my life pathetic or what?!! HAHAHA!!! So hopefully soon I can give it a try! I'll let you know how they turn out.
And...I found a yummy sounding recipe for fruit roll ups! I LOVE FRUIT ROLL UPS!!! Always have! So now along with strawberry preserves I want to try the fruit roll ups. The recipes I found are for 3 types...strawberry, blueberry-peach and peach. YUMMY!!! Hunt likes them to, so this will be a fun and tasty thing for us to do.
Also...have you seen the mini pies in a jar? So adorable! I just keep finding things to make with all these yummy berries we've been picking. Oh and peach picking to come in the near future...yum! You use a small canning jar(4 or 8 oz) and put in pie dough, then your pie filling and then the top crust dough. You can either bake it and eat it right then, or freeze it and bake it to eat later. They bake right in the jar! How cool is that? What a sweet gift! Oh and I ALSO...found a cobbler in a jar recipe to do to! But that one can't be frozen. And a while back I heard about baking a cake in a mug...has anyone done that? Just curious how it turns out.
I'll find some photos and show you all how stinking cute the pies in a jar are!
I'm happy to say that we got ourselves a new ice cream maker here recently. Our old one was like 1000 years old and I think came from hub's grandmother. Sad to say...last year was it's final year! It was rusting out SO bad and leaked everywhere! And the ice cream last year did not turn out right either. We didn't want to spend an arm and a leg on one, but the ones we saw at Lowe's, Walmart and Target were pretty much all plastic. And dang, I want it to last longer than one season! So we found one at Bass Pro that's metal and wooden just like the olden ones. Now...we just need to give it a try. I'll be digging out great grannie's recipes that hub's mom gave me. Yay for summer time and homemade ice cream!!!
::AND FINALLY::
VACATION...FINAL POSTS...
Now for the next to the last vaca post...WOOO HOOO!!!
VACATION-Saturday May 1::Day 7
This was our last full day in Port "A"! We spent the day shopping around at some stores on the island. Just about all the gift shops have the same goodies, but we always feel like we need to go to several just to see what they have. I picked up a few t-shirts and shells, but that was about it.
We enjoyed another meal for lunch at Fins! We'll miss you Fins...HAHAHA!!!
Dinner we ate at The Crazy Cajun. We love Crazy Cajun to!!! Hubs and I ALWAYS get the crab boil and share it. It consists of shrimp, sausage, crab legs,crawfish, potatoes and corn on the cob. SO DELISH!!! Messy, but Delish! They bring all of this goodness out in a huge metal bowl and dump it in front of you on the table. Then you just dig in! Everytime we eat there I always remember the first trip that I took down to the coast. It was a while back when Granny and Mick was alive. We decided one meal that we were going to eat at this little hole in the wall called the Boiling Pot. It looked like a run down, weathered beach shack. Inside it was nothing special with writing all over the walls and butcher block pictures that kids drew. Anyway we order a crab boil for us 4 to share. They brought it out like the Crazy Cajun, in a large bowl and just dumped it down in front of us. I will never forget the look on Granny's face...she curled up her nose and said...Ughhhh!!!! I guess the thought of having to use your fingers and pick at your food and shirmp and stuff kind of turned her stomach! I can't recall who asked for silverware, but we were told that they didn't have any! So there we were trying to chow down using our fingers and doing the best we can. Needless to say I don't think Granny ate her fare share of the boil! But it was really good and now when they dump some yummy boiled up treats in front of hubs and I we don't even blink! We just start to town! Thanks for this funny memory Granny, we miss you!!!
Hunt always enjoys playing with the wooden crab mallet and crawdaddy heads! But we couldn't get him to try the mud bugs! I couldn't get a good photo in the resturant. The camera battery was going dead and I couldn't get it to focus right.
{how's that lemon Em?}
VACATION-Sunday May 2::Leaving Port "A"
Sunday we left Port "A" after a few breakfast tacos at Moby Dicks. But before we totally left the island, we had to stop off at a fish market(can't remember the name)for some shrimp and scallops to take home for some future cooking.
Lunch was again at Bill Miller's BBQ in Schertz.
In a way I was glad to be heading home. I miss just being at home sometimes, but I love going on trips to!!!
{but I'm not ready to go home!}
{(cue:sigh of relief after finishing this post)}
Ok, now you can go back to what you were doing 10 hours ago...before you started reading this posting...ha ha...
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