Questions...

How do you load more than 5 pics on your blog?
Do you use YouTube to do your videos?
Have you tried the Blogger video button?
And, what's your favorite? Milk chocolate, or dark chocolate!

Jonathan's Birthday Party.

Score! Gram and Papa gave the little boy a not so little spitoon of change! But they want the spitoon back! Whew!

Jonathan knows just what to do with change. Straight to the pocket!


Daddy got him a cool car car from Automoblox. Here he is enjoying the morning after his birthday. He's wearing the triceratops jammies from Gram, the hat from Uncle Bret, disassembling the X9, and having already played with the dumptruck from Papa. Do you think he enjoys his gifts?

"Here, fishy, fishy" on his hat. Uncle Bret can't wait until Jonathan is potty trained so he can take him fishing.

Uncle Jon and Aunt Marti gave him the Bob the Builder Lego set. He played with it ALL DAY Saturday! I think it was a hit!

Jonathan growing up!

One day old...

Nine days old, in the pot...

One year old...

Two years old...

Three years old.

Jonathan's Birthday Cake!

Here you go, Grandma O! Jonathan's birthday cake that I was desperately trying to assemble one hour before his party, while he pretended to by shy on the phone with you and Grandpa. It's a dragon. This pic isn't very good so here's a link to the cake and directions on how to make it. It's really quite easy, and he loved it!

Jonathan thought it was pretty cool, but everyone kept asking him if it was Puff the Magic Dragon. Sorry, I have never sang the song to him, read the book to him, anything. So he was clueless about who that was. However, he has heard the story "The Dragon Train" several times and knows what a dragon is.


He also thinks orange slice gumdrops are pretty good. Good enough to shove an entire one in his mouth!

Annisia just thought anything related to the cake was just FINE! Check out the wild hair!

Family, Facials, Fraternizing, Phat!

Well, we finally took a family pic again. Annisia and I were both wearing red checks last Sunday. Daddy and Jonathan often wear browns and greens... This is taken in front of our bulging, heavily loaded plum tree. Want some?!


I'll never do this again. I made malt o' meal for breakfast one morning. Annisia prides herself in her spoon abilities. The truth of the matter is, she uses it a little, decides it's not fast enough, and starts shoveling it in with her little hands! So, ladies, this is how you do a malt o' meal facial. Yup, she had to have a bath to get the cemented cereal off her face and out of her hair.

Jonathan hanging out on the morning of his 3rd birthday. He was pleasantly sharing the couch with Annisia, enjoying books.

Later, we went outside. It was chilly. Annisia had already gotten her windbreaker wet playing in Bella's water bowl, so I had to grab one of Jonathan's coats. She also has on a pair of 18 month warm up pants...to big, too. We decided she looks like a little gangsta girl! That's where "phat" came in.

Will you look at these kids?!

Don't let it be said that I won't let my kids get dirty. Jonathan and I planted a rhododendron bush (I dug, he obligingly watered the area and the hole that was eventually dug). Most of our soil here is hard packed clay, so it was a bit slow going. Jonathan was "helpful"...because of his "help", numerous times I came back to finish the planting only to find a hole FULL of water (did I mention he watered the hole? whether I said to or not, and however much he desired to water). Eventually, the shrub was in the ground. Then the work of filling the hole. Have you ever tried to scoop up sopping wet clay with a spade that has wet clay packed on it? Not an easy chore, I tell you. So, hole filled, I began the arduous task of getting all that wet clay off the spade and rake (otherwise it would become cement-like). Doing this created great mud puddles, much to Annisia's delight! I think we have a tomboy on our hands! When Jonathan saw how much fun Annisia was having, he joined in! Needless to say, it was bath time after that! The hose water was too cold...I tried that! ;-)

Camping and Spotting Moose

This past weekend, we went up to our camper parked in , yep, you guessed it, Circle Park. We stayed the night, got up for breakfast and discovered our dog was missing. So we went out looking for her and Michael's brother Bret drove up. I guess he's lucky to have around because we found her within minutes! She was treeing squirrels! (Or they were pretending to be treed just to tease her!) We had to move our trailer, so we brought it up by Bret's in the Hazelton area. We went for a little hike Saturday afternoon to get the kids sleepy and Annisia was asleep in my ERGOcarrier before we got out of the campsite! Jonathan fell asleep within about 20 minutes, so we came back to the campsite. Now, do you think you could sleep like this?!

Later, we went up Hazelton Rd to fish in the Powder River. We saw these moose on the way, just milling around the willows and munching. Pretty big paddles, don't you think? Nichole, you just have to come visit us.

Uncle Bret is showing Jonathan how to fly fish. Jonathan thought the whole thing was pretty cool. Bret caught a 10 inch rainbow trout, held it out for Jonathan to touch, and just when he was going to touch it, Bret thrust it out and said, "Rowr!" You should have seen Jonathan jump! Needless to say, he didn't want to touch any other ones!!

Do you see Michael in the background sneaking up on the fish?

On the way back, the moose were still there. Sorry about the dark photo, but these are some nice sets of antlers.

Sunday Best & All the Rest

These days, it's almost impossible to get a good picture of these two! Alone, they're fine, but as soon as I put them together, well... This one, taken last Sunday, the 5th, didn't turn out so bad.

Jonathan decided he needed to be playing his duck whistle, something he got from the library reading program.

And Annisia needed to carry around her horsey while modeling her sweet little summer romper she got from Aunty Ang and Uncle Mike. (Check out the little farmers tan!)

Another day, the kids were feeling photogenic. Jonathan likes to have his picture taken when I am trying to get a picture of Annisia, and rarely else!

And Annisia seems to know that's her picture on my cell phone wallpaper! Just like Jonathan (and all other kids, I bet!), she really likes carrying around phones.

Cool kids!

My kids are so cool! I mean, just look at this one. Isn't he cool? He really thinks his sunglasses are neat. The other day, he was trying to put them up on his head like some people do. I don't know where he learned that because neither of us do it.

And then there's Annisia...her little seersucker outfit looked so cool. I wanted one just like it. She is beginning to play the piano too. I hope they enjoy that all their lives.

And this little sailor romper is too adorable. Both kids love to be outside, so that's where we are, even if it's 90 plus degrees!

S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G

A few years ago, we noticed we needed to spell things out so our dog, Bella, didn't get too excited. Like "Are you going to give Bella a h-o-t-d-o-g?" And if the answer was "no", then she wasn't disappointed and felt unloved...you know how it is, don't you?

Then along came Jonathan. He's pretty smart, so we started spelling things like, "Do you know where S-n-u-g-g-l-y and w-o-o-b-y (our word for his pacifier) are?" Well, last night, I found myself spelling around Annisia already. I weaned her in June, but she hasn't been interested in drinking cow's milk yet. Even if I put Nestle Quik chocolate or strawberry powder in it! (Are we sure she's my daughter?!;-) So I have been giving her a bottle of juice in the evening, then rocking her and putting her down to bed. However, I have noticed the juice seems to wire her up a bit. Then we have a half hour or so of play to do before bed, which annoys me...I just want bedtime over already!

Last night, I decided to change tactics. I fed her a bowl of rice cereal with mashed banana and milk. She loved it. Well, Michael walked into the kitchen while I was doing this, and I said, "I decided to feed her some cereal instead of a b-o-t-t-l-e of j-u-i-c-e. Maybe she won't get wired up. Can you hand me that?"(pointing to a sippy cup). Michael said, "So no b-o-t-t-l-e of j-u-i-c-e but she does get a c-u-p-of H2O?" HA! I laughed! Maybe you had to be there!

Visitors, visitors...

We had Leilani with us for a week too, some of it while Mom and Dad were here. Jonathan would stand at the bottom of the stairs in the morning and call, "Aunty Maynani, come down here!" He really loves her. They play this game on her computer where they "build" contraptions then set them in motion. Jonathan's favorite piece to use is a baboon on a treadmill. He calls it the baboon game. Then after Leilani leaves, he gets his own computer out and tries to find the "baboon game." Funny kid! Annisia thinks Aunty Leilani is OK if she carries her around, but don't try to sit down! We brought our camper up to Circle Park again, and spent a couple of afternoons up there getting out of the heat and breathing the mountain air.

Monday, the 30th (Happy Birthday, Scott!) we were up there and got a phone call. "We're 68 miles out of Sheridan. We'll be there around 6pm!" Longtime friends of Michael's, Stuart and Deb, were coming through. We enjoyed dinner (twice baked potatoes, brats, corn on the cob, and watermelon) with them. They stayed the night and we did the tourist shopping thing in the morning. What a great time! We love Stuart and Deb! Thanks for visiting!



And Happy Birthday to you on the 31st, my other friend Debbie. You know who you are...now you're as old as I am! ;-)