more pictures

Zoe practicing her pushing/walking


Hey Leslie & fam, we found a freaky carrot too.

Joshua flexing his muscles

after a grueling set of push ups. Look at his perfect form!

He was "running errands" with my iPod on. He sees me go running with it, and thinks that running and running errands are the same thing. He says "I'm going to run some errands" and starts running around the house (or backyard). Lately, he's been asking for my iPod so he can run some errands (as pictured). This is also confusing because our neighbor is named Erin, so sometimes I say I'm going to run errands and he asks to go to Erin's with me. So complicated.

Yes, Joshua does have pants. It's just easier to roll with the big boy underpants until he has the potty thing down. The more layers he has on, the more likely he is to forget.

just pictures

Zoe enjoying her swing Miss Cherry Bottom

Joshua eating a carrot out of the garden. I can't get him to eat one from the store, but he's willing to eat anything he can pull out of the garden himself (including lettuce, beans, carrots, strawberries, and even a radish!)

Joshua enjoying some smores with the pretty neighbors (and mommy) one night when Craig was flying. Who says girls can't grill :)

Zoe's first pool experience

Zoe ate my card reader

No, not really. I hope not anyway... all I know it that I can't find it. Now that I mention it, I'll have to start watching her diaper for evidence. I am also missing a Toy Story DVD. I am pretty sure she didn't eat that, though. I actually think it's in the DVD player. No, not in it where I could just press eject, I mean rattling around in there amongst all the other pieces. Don't ask me how that happened. Ask the toddler. If it belonged to me, I'd just leave it in there, but it's the neighbor's so I'll have to go about fishing it out sooner or later. I always seem to be missing something, but those are the only 2 things I can think of right now. Anyway, were I not missing a card reader, I would promptly download (upload?) for your viewing pleasure a video of Zoe's newest skill (other than eating all manner of non-comestables) - walking!!! OK, ok, so I'm exaggerating a wee bit tonight, but she has gotten the hang of pushing Joshua's ride-on bus all around the living room. I was spotting her at first because I thought she was going to do a face plant when I let go of the bus, but lo and behold, she had it under control all by herself. Now she just needs some turning lessons so that she can stop hitting the walls, and keep going by herself. She would get all upset when she got to an obstacle and had to stop, until I turned the bus for her and she was off again. What fun!!

here she is checking herself out in the dishwasher reflection

Zoe told me that this was her favorite shirt (wink wink :)
this little girl loves her bathtime!

she also loves almost every food we've given her. Her favorites are shredded mozzerella and smart dogs.

she was trying the sippy cup without much success.

I'm running out of pictures so I'd better start thinking of some things to blog about again! Here are a few more pictures of the kiddos.

Zoe's doing a bunch of fun new things... she's playing a form of peek-a-boo where she looks over the coffee table at me, then ducks down and looks under until I look under at her, then she stands up again until I look over the top at her, and then down, and up and down over and over. She pulls up on everything and can stand for a couple seconds on her own. She says 'Ma' for more and "Ba" for bottle. However, those two words also mean everything else so who knows. When Craig got home from Virginia today, she did say 'Dada' - so cute.

on a roll!

due to the overwhelmingly positive response from all 3 of you, you blog junkies, I shall now post again. what can I say, I'm a sucker for peer pressure.

Here are a couple more pics of the deck that Craig built with some help from my Dad
I love it!And him!!
And him too!!! He's proudly displaying his gecko hat and dino robe. I love his silly outfits! He runs to the mirror in my room about 10 times a day saying "I'yy be wight bak. I hap to go check my seylf" (I'll be right back, I have to go check myself)
Here he is with all his loot from the last day of school (aka mothers day out)

why am I always catching up??!

While I have no explanation for my recent blogging slump, I can only guess it has a lot to do with the beautiful weather and longer days. We've been having so much fun around here, but I'll start small by posting a few of the pictures I've taken since my last blog

Zoe in her new hat that she doesn't like to keep on her head. Joshua likes to wear it, he went to sleep with it on 2 nights ago. He got one too, but for some reason, he likes hers.
And he likes Daddy's...

Here's a picture of the deck! It's finally finished, and it's beautiful!!! We love love love it, and will really enjoy it this summer. There are plants galore of which I will post pictures later, and we also have a little fire pit that we have yet to use.

What is it about Elmo? This was Zoe's first 'encounter' with the little red guy. This is Joshua's Elmo live, so he was dancing and singing. Zoe was just bouncing as fast as she could with excitement, after she finished trying to chew his eyeballs off.

Here's the little princess striking a pose

I'll post more later, I promise

catching up again!

This is how Zoe feels about table food... she's been wearing her bows all week, they finally stay in her hair! SO cute!!
Here she is eating fistfulls of ground up chicken nuggets (that Joshua didn't want) with her 4.5 teeth
Here she is modeling the poncho that Rosemarie made for her. It fits perfectly and she'll be able to wear it for a while. My favorite detail is how Rosemarie left a little extra room at the neck for her 90th percentile head.
Zoe's not the only one growing up fast... here's Joshua pushing his new John Deere tractor stool. We got it for him so that he can get on/off the potty and reach to wash his hands. Notice how he's not wearing any pants - we're down to 2 diapers a day when we're at home, one at naptime and one at bedtime. He hasn't had an accident all week!Here's an updated view of the deck and a few of my projects. The border by the fence has day lilies, butterfly bushes and magnolia bushes that were here when we moved in. Between the day lilies and magnolia bushes are my veggie gardens, and in front of the butterfly bushes are pink petunias that I put in last weekend. Up close is one of two hanging baskets with petunia, verbena and vinca vine. We'll see how it looks when it fills out. The larger pot on the deck has mint, salvia and lemon thyme and the smaller has a petunia and stevia seeds.

Here we have some light & hot pink begonias planted among daylilies that will be yellow, and under the river birch are hot pink dianthus and yellow marigolds.
petunias, imaptients, verbena and vinca vine. I will of course be taking pictures when all these fill out.

I know this window box doesn't look like much. On the left is mint and on the right is red salvia. The rest will be herbs - there are tarragon, stevia, rosemary and oregano seeds in there. Maybe I'll actually use them, maybe they'll just look pretty. The planter on the deck, constructed by my wonderful hubby, has pink petunias and some lavendery blue things I can't remember the name of now. Behind those will be a butterfly bush to replace the one we had to dig up to put the deck in. We liked watching the butterflies and hummingbirds from the kitchen window so hopefully this one will grow quickly!

more impatients, petunias and vinca vine

tulips from the garden in the front yard. No picture yet, but in there now are some red & purple petunias and verbena, and I have a bunch of red salvia to put in once the rain stops. Joshua and I planted some gladiolus bulbs a couple months ago and they're starting to come up now so we'll see how those look by the front steps.