Pinetop Tournament 2012

Each year we go to Pinetop to remember my Uncle Willie and have a memorial golf tournament. And every year it rains. No big deal - except this year it rained out the golf game - when some had only played a few holes. It was still a fun weekend of a dinner on Friday night, Saturday golf (lunch for non-golfers), and an after party cookout at my parents rented cabin. This year was especially fun because we shared a rented cabin with the Helsels and the cousins bonded. Most of my extended family comes and we see them for the afterparty which this year involved lots of toys and Liberty playing (mostly) unsupervised for a few hours - which was a peek of what is to come with older kids. All MY cousins were there (9) and some of them are young enough to play with Libs or adopt her as their special buddy.

Andy Visits!

happy happy joy joy. Uncle Andy came on an airplane to hang out with us! This was the best news to Liberty who frequently asks him to "come over and pretend with me?" (usually via her play phone). Liberty kept calling Andy her "dear uncle Andy". She also would tell me that he is her "best friend in the whoooole world" - which is a phrase she had reserved for mommy/daddy - but no longer. We swam, combated a haboob, organized the playroom, cooked out, went out to Liberty Market and Postinos and played played played. As we dropped Andy at the airport Liberty said "I miss him. He can come back whenever he wants" You heard her Dear Uncle Andy.

Waterbeads

I've been wanting to do this project for awhile. This past week while we were stuck inside on a hot day we grew these waterbeads (just add water for a few hours) and then spent the rest of the day pouring, squishing, sorting, dumping, spilling, etc. waterbeads.  It was a lot of fun - they feel so neat and are clean and reusable.  I took a ton of pictures and don't really have the time to go through them, so here is the entire album.  P.S. you can get these at walmart for like $1 in the floral section. Here is a link with much better pictures of these little beads: http://www.meetthedubiens.com/2012/07/water-marbles.html

21 weeks and 3 days

my bump.  The most adorable part about this bump is I'm still 6 pounds less than I was BEFORE I GOT PREGNANT WITH LIBERTY! So, happy slow weight gain party for me.  On a less vain note, I am feeling the baby boy kick a lot more lately and am feeling fine except for tiredness which I normally wouldn't mind except it makes me never finish my bookclub books!  Making some progress on names...2-3 name list...hopefully soon we'll decide.

From BUMP baby #2

What Kind of Animal Quiz

Liberty loves our new little game we call "What kind of animal?" where I quiz her about things animals do - like "What kind of animal likes to eat honey?" - "A BEAR!".  Or in Liberty answering style "How about BEARS!" This video is 5 min long because she decided to go on some cute tangents about hummingbirds and Shamu...

From 2012_7_20 - Waterbeads and what kind of animal VIDEOS

Watching a show

Here she is watching a show with "her baby boy and Madeline".

From 2012_7_20 - Waterbeads and what kind of animal VIDEOS

Princess and the Pea

Just a few bedtime notes about our picky princess.
1 - must have socks. Preferably clean ones with lots of blue.
2 - must have a very particular arrangement of stuffed animals.
3 - usually will need pajama pants even for nap (or shorts if it's too hot - not a skirt). Pants under a nightgown.
4 - she will not give up the socks even when she's sweaty.
5 - cupcake blanket must be flat.  She is never under covers.
6 - sound machine must be turned up if she hears motorcycles or cars going too fast.
7 - wants to wear a pull up even though she doesn't need it and is always dry.
8 - stalling tactics include: glass of water, going peepee last minute, telling daddy goodnight I love you AGAIN, telling her dogs/cats sleep tight, reading "one more tiny tiny really really short book" - or "just a half" of a book.

From 2012_7_20 - Waterbeads and what kind of animal VIDEOS

VACATION! San Diego, CA

Day 1 - dealt with 3 puke stops (car ride from hell). Poor sick Liberty. Hello Lawrence Welk Resort, Escondido!
Day 2 - San Diego Harbor Cruise and Theatre Date Night (Late Night Catechism)
Day 3 - Sea World! and Theatre Date Night (Beatles Experience)
Day 4 - Beach! Luau dinner at Resort
Day 5 - Pools! - 4th of July - down day
Day 6 - Legoland!
Day 7 - Pools! - Cabana - sparklers
Day 8 - Bye Lawrence Welk Resort

 When I asked Liberty today about her favorite parts of the vacation she had this to say: "Ummmmm....feeding the sting rays"
"Building a car with daddy"
"Playing in the sand"
"Don't like roller coasters, too scary"

Liberty had a 24 hour stomach bug that made for some memorable moments for Cameron and I (that we'll keep to ourselves, thank us later). My parents were generous enough to share their beautiful 2 bedroom timeshare and show us a quality vacation. Liberty loved having Mom-mom and Pipa around - mainly to have more people to survey with question after question:
"Mom-mom, what's your favorite color?"
"Pipa, what's your favorite musical instrument?"
"Daddy, what's your favorite fruit?"
"Mommy, what's your favorite part of vacation?"

Oh and for the record her answers are blue, the flute, watermelon and feeding the sting rays. Thanks mom and dad for the special vacation to beautiful California - we love you!

216 photos ahead: click to cruise at your own pace...

It's a BOY!

My hunch was right...we are expecting a baby boy! Liberty's hunch however, was very wrong - but she's coming around to the idea of a brother rather than a sister. Also, 6/9 old wives tales we read about pointed to a boy too. Our ultrasound went great (18 weeks) - baby boy is healthy and still on track to come around Nov. 28. When the tech told us we were having a boy - the first thing Liberty said was "sometimes baby boys puke". :) We all celebrated with dinner at OUTBACK and I pressured Cameron about baby names the whole time. We had a girl name picked out (Abigail) but we only have a very short list of boy names and are undecided. The next day at TARGET Liberty asked to buy the baby some boy socks - so we did - and two shirts she picked out. Now I can stop obsessing about the gender and enjoy my 7 day San Diego vacation with thoughts of our son:)

Playhouse

I bought this playhouse on black Friday last November thinking that when these 113 temps came - we could pull this out and distract ourselves! It has worked. We have had a lot of fun coloring/decorating it and having tea parties, etc inside. Cheetah Girl likes it too (see really cute video).

Chippy

After an evening swim Liberty slipped and fell in the shower, chipping her front tooth! We called our dentist who amazingly called us back within 10 min (at 8pm at night!) and helped us via phone with how to help Liberty in case her injury was more serious. She was bleeding from her lip and around the tooth and the tooth was slightly loose. He suggested to ice it (yea right, she wouldn't even take a Popsicle) and give her some Tylenol for the pain. She had calmed down within 20 min and seemed fine. She slept through the night and Dr. Patrick saw us at 8am the next morning. He also referred us to a pediatric dentist across the street. After exams and xrays both dentists are optimistic she will keep her tooth - but there is a chance the tooth could start to die and discolor - and in that case may need to be removed. For now, the roots don't look too damaged and the fact she is not in pain and is acting normal (sucking thumb, eating, sleeping, not complaining about it) is a good sign too. The dentist will see us again in a couple weeks and maybe in a month we can file the tooth and talk about cosmetic work, but for now we are letting her body heal itself and don't want to cause any more trauma. Here are some awful pictures I took on my phone of our girl Chippy (can you tell I hate my camera phone?).