A Smile at Walmart

My little lady, Lillian is officially getting her one year molars. Ahh, how joyous! When Ryan was getting teeth, I never knew. One day I would just notice he had more teeth. That is SO not the case with Lil. The last day and a half my baby Bean has been MISERABLE. I am talking fever, tired, not wanting to eat, the whole bit! So this morning we went to go drop Ryan off for his last day of Rec, (they went to the beach), then I decided to take Lil to Walmart so I could empty my photo card. Even though she was grumpy, grumpy she still had a lot of fun meeting all the people in the store. This child just LOVES to people watch. She loves to sit in the carriage, and say a loud, "HI!" to everyone that walks by. Some were little old ladies who fawned over her for a couple minutes, and some were children who giggled and waved back, and some were big macho men. I found that the best reactions, by far was from the men. The big macho men who walk around thinking their "shit don't stank". They would walk by and she would stick her little hand in the air and say, "HI!". It is as if she caught them off guard, like they had to say hi. It is just amazing to me the reactions that she can get from people. I know that as her Mom, her smile lights up my life. But I didn't realize that she quite possibly could be brightening someone elses day too, with her smile.

I Love Squirrels!

I arrived at home yesterday afternoon and was surprised to find this hanging out in my living room window. This squirrel, by the looks of it, fell down my chimney, and busted through my glass doors on the fireplace. At which point he decided to run in the kitchen and check out the goods in there. Tracking soot from the fireplace EVERYWHERE! Max finally caught up with him, this is when the squirrel thought he was being smart and ran into the screened in window. So when I came home, it was Max on the couch barking out the open window with the squirrel trapped and clinging on for dear life in between the glass and the screen. THANK GOD FOR MAX! I proceeded to FREAK OUT! fully well knowing that Dan was not due home for a long time. I called my across the street neighbor. The only one home was the 18 yr old boy. I threw (almost literally) the kids upstairs, turned the tv on and threw a box of cheezits to them. They sat sharing cheezits for about 20 minutes. If I wasn't so preoccupied I would have taken pictures. Cameron (the neighbor) closed the window so that the squirrel was trapped. His advice to me was "just close the blind, you won't even know he's there" Right. Except that every 5 minutes or so the dog would get up from where he was laying, go over to the window and dig his teeth into the wooden bar on the window, and try to pull it open so to get the squirrel. I opted to call the Animal Control office, thinking they may be able to help me. WRONG! This is how the conversation went, "Hi, I am calling for Animal Control" "What is this regarding?" "Um..I have a squirrel in my house" "HA HA HA HA HA" (thats right, that is the woman laughing at me!) Then she said, "He doesn't get off work until 5pm, I will leave a message, he MIGHT stop by on the way home, but I doubt it." "Gee, thanks for your help" So needless to say, they never came. My good friend Clayton came to my rescue..MY HERO! Clay cut the screen from the outside and proceeded to poke the squirrel out. The following are some fun pics from our ordeal. A big thank you to my hero, Clayton!! :)

A Look Back in Time

Sitting on the Fire Truck!

Look at the difference a couple months make!

Happy 4th!

What a beautiful day it was!! The kids and I went with my mom and the Stack family (minus Brian) to the Raymond parade and festivities in the morning. The kids had a great time, watching the parade, doing some sand art and jumping in the bouncy houses. After, we went for a cookout at the Stack house. There was some great food, great friends and lots of fun!

Here are some pictures from our day! Enjoy!

Ryan James

Ryan had a go see for a print ad for Hasbro toy company (Thank you Auntie Terry. I decided to take some pictures of him while he was all dressed nice. Although he did not get "the job" I think it was a great experience for him, and me! I am constantly trying to find ways to pull Ry out of his little shy shell that he lives in. I think this was a great opportunity for him. He had to go into the little room by himself with people that he didn't know, and kids that he had never met. I think he did a wonderful job!! And look how cute he looks!