we're about done with new hobbies...

Monday, August 31, 2009

Well, you'll never guess who has a new hobby?
Nope.
It's not Mommy!

It's Bekah.
She has been getting up WAY too early again.

On this day, we were all dressed before 7a.m.
I do not consider this a success...
I find it rather frightening.

ANYWAY,
Beks decided to have a little happy dance in the dog water.
Here is what she looked like after the dance...
I'll give it an 8.
Can you see how high the water got on her outfit?
The dog doesn't drink out of a trough, so she was really getting into it!

Day #2...
She was very proud of herself...
Here, she crouched down & yelled,
"TADA"

Oh yes, Pawpaw will be so proud! :)
On a funny Abby note...
Abby is totally addicted to the Brady Bunch!
{well, they have now changed the programming, so I won't get into the drama that has caused around here}

Anyhow,
Abby said to me,
"Mommy, Bekah's hair looks like Mrs. Brady's!"

Funny girl.

Bloggy love,

time's up...

Our time in Illinois seemed to fly by.
Well, that is,
it flew by when the girls weren't having sleeping issues.
Or sick.

Anyhow, besides the sleep deprivation,
our time there was so much fun!

Here we are at the Chinese buffet in my home town!
Abby, Aunt Frances, GG Betty, Mommy & the Beks...
{is Beks still eating??}
Now...one with Grandma Lene
Last meal @ GG Jane's for this trip...

We'll be back before you know it!
If you can't take the sadness,
we're a mere 14-hour flight away!

{And there's plenty of kimchi for all}
Bloggy love,

the post great aunt shirley has been waiting for...

Wednesday, August 26, 2009


This, my friends,
is a rhubarb pie.

Rhubarb pie is delightful.
I have never made one, but I have eaten my share.
And yours. And YOUR Great Aunt Shirley's.

This pie,
it was good.


Here, I am saying...so sorry you couldn't be here to eat some with me.
I will do my best to enjoy it for you.

When we eat some together someday, let's do it with a little vanilla ice cream
Yum.
Yes, even with that cup of sugar Grandma had to put in it! :)
Fun.
Abby is taking her first turn at washers.
I miss playing washers in the summer...
I guess we could've brought ours to Korea.
But the neighbors probably wouldn't take too kindly to us doing it in the hallway.
Really, next time, it would be wonderful to eat a rhubarb pie with you, Aunt Shirley!
I'll share!
The good news: most people pass it up...more for us!

Bloggy love,

funny girl

I sure don't remember the story here...

so this is as close to a Wordless Wednesday as you'll see me get!






Bloggy love,

just a little playing

Monday, August 24, 2009

The girls had lots of fun visiting with the GGs!
Here they are playing with GG Jane...

Abby writing away & Beks is assisting with GG's plant care...
Let's stand on the little stool. Seems safe.

Here, the girls are working on their balance beam routines...

Bloggy love,


many thanks mr. admin

The best gift I have been given in a long time...
my dear friend came to see ME.

This may not seem like such a big deal,
but
her husband took off work, and hung out with their kids,
so she could drive 4 hours to be with me.
And my kids.

That, was a big deal.

Grandma Lene & Auntie Sar...riding the crazy animals at the park!
Abby going up to the big slide...
I turned around for 2 seconds...our little LT (new nickname Daddy came up with!) was up & climbing!
Beks communicating something to the ducks...hmmm.
Isn't she just precious shoved between the 2 car seats?
Now that is love...

Thank you Auntie Sar for the gift.
It meant the world & we just wanted you to know!

Bloggy love,

random

Wednesday, August 19, 2009


Hodgepodge pictures...
Just some random cuteness!!

Not that we ever have any of that around here! :)


Oh look they're both in a boat...
isn't that cute?

It was cute until I had to push them around in it for 30 minutes, and lost all feeling in my back!
Next time, we splurge for a motor.
This is SO Beks!
Taking my grandma on errands.
One thing I love about back home,
you can just go to someone's house and get fresh fruit & veggies.

Here she is picking up some zucchini. Gonna try a new casserole recipe.
I love my grandmas.
My friend Jennifer's daughter Regan. She is adorable.
Here she is showing Bekah the ropes at the fair.


Bloggy love,

our little country girls...

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Somehow, the entire time we lived in Illinois,
we missed the county fair back in my hometown!

I think it must've been because we would go back
for my grandma's birthday at the end of July.
Missing it by about 2 weeks.

Well, this year, we made it!
After {another!} shopping trip to Decatur,
we decided to stop by the fair on the way home.
I, at least, wanted Abby to see the tractor pull & pet some of the animals.
{Plus, I knew my friend Jennifer would be there with her family!}

I explained the tractor pull to Abby &
she wanted to do it!!
This was even before she knew a goodie bag was involved!


Bonus: Beks got to do the money in the straw.
{hmm...I think she must've hidden the $$ because all I saw was a tootsie roll!!}
Here she is getting all set up...can you see the totally inappropriate footwear?
No? Well it's there!!
We hadn't planned for this.
While everyone else was in boots or sneakers,
Abby had on her sketchers sandals. :)
Oh well, she looked cute!
Starting to look a little freaked out! :)
She even made it into our local online newspaper...www.shelbycountynews.net
Abby impressed me so much that night.
She really wanted to do it...even though she had no idea what she was getting herself into.
If you know Abby, you know that she is hesitant to do things sometimes.
She likes to see what it's all about & then decide whether or not to get involved.
Not this time!
She just jumped at the chance...once she found out there would be goodies, it just sweetened the deal!
I told her over & over how proud I was.
Sometimes this part of parenting is hard.
I want her to try new things and not be afraid, but I also want her to be true to who she is.
Being a people pleaser & doing things just because everyone else is comes with it's own set of problems!
While she tends to stick close to me, I know it won't last forever.
The worst part about it all was knowing that she wasn't going to go very far on the tractor.
I didn't want her to be bothered by it.
Actually, I was probably more bothered by it than necessary.
She was too little to really care. But she won't be someday & that's just part of life.
I, on the other hand, realized how difficult this part of parenting is going to be.
Distancing myself somewhat.
Not taking every experience she has and making it my own with my feelings.
This part of parenting stinks.
I don't want to go back through it all...
grade school, junior high, & high school.
It's not something I look forward to, but I suspect with TWO GIRLS, I'll get my share of emotional drama!!

When we got home, Abby talked to Daddy on the phone & he told her how proud he was of her too.
Her response was,
"It's no big deal. I didn't make it that far anyway!"

Who cares?
She's 4 & she had never even seen a tractor pull before!
I just think she was darn cute on that little tractor & I got some adorable pictures.
The best part...
she thought she might have won!! :)

She has a blue ribbon to PROVE it!

Bloggy love,

oh what a night

Thursday, August 13, 2009

We interrupt the stories from the states to bring you an exciting tale from our night!

{WARNING: Run away NOW if you are squeamish}

So, now that you have been warned, here's the story....

As on many occasions, we started the day out at the BX play area.
From there, we headed over to Camp H's water park.

What a fun afternoon!!

The girls had a great time=Mommy had a great time! :)

We headed home to make dinner, and the girls were in excellent moods...
especially with no naps!!

Abby was in rare form with Beks; she entertained her for a LONG period of time.
See the fun they were having?

Too cute...Abby was saying, "super hero girls."
"Here we come..."

They were running around with colanders and pots on their heads--it was hilarious!
{no video, bad Mommy!}


They even let Indy in on the fun...doesn't he look thrilled?
So after I had all the chop chop chopping done for our big steak salad {yum},
the girls decided to go ahead & take their bath.

It seemed like a great idea...get the bath done before Daddy gets home.
More time to play in the tub.
Spend time with Daddy before bed.
No fight to get pjs on.

HA.

I get the girls in the tub & Beks is happy. Which is a rare occurrence in the tub these days, so I should've seen it coming. I stood up to get the towel from behind the door...I look down, & quietly tell Abby I need to take her out of the bath.

CODE BROWN...I repeat...CODE BROWN

I run to the kitchen to get something to get the poo out of the tub.
Grabbed a ladle.
NO!
Grabbed a big spoon.
COME ON!
Settled for a big measuring cup...
{Meanwhile}
Abby is streaking down the hall naked yelling, "CODE BROWN" and laughing her head off.
She's sopping wet & about ready to bust it.
I tell her to head back to the bathroom...

Because,
we left the baby in the poo water!
Argh. Gross.
I was in such a toot to get the poo out, I forgot her.
Poor baby.
Okay, as I was cleaning the poop up and sanitizing the bath toys and the shower...I didn't really feel too sorry for her!!

Needless to say, that's why I just ate a chocolate chip cookie at 10:30 at night.
I wanted to turn to the wine, but I was so tired that had I drank it, the bathroom would have suffered. I did not need to wake up to such a thing.
Ewwww.

How is it that Abby has never had a code brown.
And Beks. She has had 2. She's only 16 months old, people.
I'm done with them.

Daddy's turn!

{aren't you thankful I didn't take a picture?}

Bloggy love,

hmmm...what should we do with the stale bread?

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

We had a fun time feeding the ducks at the park in Shelbyville!
As you'll see from some video footage, Beks really enjoyed her first experience! :)

Here is Abby sweet talking them into range...
We brought a large duck feeding assembly. I'm pretty sure Otis Dean wasn't very popular with the ducks! Grandma & UB are trying to make sure the girls don't throw themselves into the water. Pawpaw is off doing whatever it is he does!
Abby & her bejeweled self feeding the ducks. They must like bling.
Bubble time

Beks thoroughly enjoying the experience.
She is shouting, "ducks" & "quack"...you can barely tell because she is so excited!

On this trip, Abby surprised me so many times with how brave she was!
She tends to be reserved, so I was excited to see her get in there!!

You wanna pet the ducks? Go girl.


Bloggy love,

Farm Visit...

Friday, August 7, 2009

My mom & I loaded up the girls to go get
fresh goat milk & eggs.

It was fun...the girls LOVED the animals.
Okay, the chickens freaked Abby out a little bit... :)

So here are some pictures of the happy goats...

Mama goose & her 2 cute goslings...
No fear Beks! :)
The BIG lovable farm dog
Beks helping us navigate the rural area...must. find. Target.

Bloggy love,