Pool Petal Stew

One thing we love about going down to the farm is that Grace gets lots of time with her cousins, Brooke, Abby, and Megan. This summer was no exception.


In between getting in and out of the kiddie pool, the girls got to use the play dishes outside. Megan and Abby were running around getting all sorts of delicacies to add to their stew...


...and they let Gracie STIR. She was in heaven. Such a big girl!

Our Girl

It is so fun for us to see Grace getting bigger. When she was an infant we wondered what activities she'd like to do someday, what her personality would look like, what her loves and dislikes would be... And day by day, more of Grace is revealed. Here are her latest quirks and skills...

Grace loves BOOKS. We teacher-parents haven't even forced them on her...honest! We have a basket of them in the living room and her favorite activity involves either looking at books, packing around books, or turning pages of books. Right now her favorite has all sorts of animals in it and she loves to make the fishy face and moo with the cow and point to animals and wait for us to say their names. When she gets to the monkey, we make the monkey face and that leads us to find Uncle Drew and Aunt Annie in the family picture... And that is her second love--toting around and saying all the names of the family members in our two framed family pictures. Don't have a picture of that, but you can imagine us finding those framed pictures in all rooms of the house. (with Grace chanting, "Abby...abby...")

She watches Dad read the paper in the morning and loves to play with paper. She also loves cell phones and pens. We're trying to work on scribbling, but most often the pen is enjoyed more when tasted.

"Uppy, uppy!" Grace says 'up' whenever she wants to sit in her chair outside or her highchair in the kitchen...or when she climbs the stairs, or when she wants to be held... She also says "uppy" when she wants DOWN from her chair or when she wants the music turned ON... We think she's suffering from preposition confusion.



Grace LOVES the water. She says, "POOL" and gets really excited when we start putting on her swimsuit. Several times at G'ma Joan's they went to FILL the pool and Gracie came back with wet clothes. We were home a time or two this summer to use the inflatable pool that Auntie Julie gave her for her birthday. She loves it! Oh, and the bath is second best--she's really into nodding her head YES and we were wondering if she knew how to nod NO...apparently G'ma Joan got to see her do this first when she asked Grace if she was ready to get out of the bath...a fierce nod, NO. :)

And, of course she likes to spoil her daddy whenever possible. She says "Daddy" with the confidence of a well-loved girl.

Never did we think a kid could be so fun. If only we could've somehow had a sneak peek of these moments during those sleepless newborn nights so long ago... :)

Print the Blog???

Has anyone had a company print out their blog in a book before? I have heard that it is possible, but I don't know anyone who's actually had it done and am curious how it actually turns out. Does anyone know the best way to do it? :) LE

"Mommmm..."

"...don't you think it's about time you blogged?"







The Lochheads have been so busy soaking in all the last moments of summer that we haven't taken the time to sit down and record it! We'll post soon! :)

Important Things About Cousin Brooke

These are the important things about Cousin Brooke that Gracie is learning...


Brooke can double as an airplane driver. I learned to hang on after this picture was taken. SO fun!


She has really fuzzy pink slipper socks, and if you play your cards right, Brooke lets you wear them like leg-warmers.


While Mom and Dad are painting the laundry room and arranging storage boxes, it is much more fun to swing with Brooke in the backyard. She is a super swing pusher--and sometimes she swings alongside me!


When Brooke comes to stay with us, it is fairly certain that we will get to do fun things. Our afternoon at the Hatch pool was really fun. Brooke can do an amazing cannon ball off the diving board--and she was brave enough to go down the slide and touch the bottom of the pool AT THE DEEP END! What a fish!


Brooke is very fashionable and loves to share her hot pink sunglasses with me.

We love it when Brooke comes to stay. When are you coming back? :) :)

Sunriver Finale (Part III)

We had a great time! This was moments before our departure...I think Gracie can sense the 8 hour car ride looming... What a great scowl! :)


I wish I had a shot of all of us with our bikes--we went everywhere on them. One day Jeff and I and Drew and Annie rented tandems. They were very fun--Jeff did all the work on our bike...if you look closely you can see me eating bon-bons on the back.


Gracie bonded with Brodie--she calls him "Bro-bro." (He IS kind of like Jeff and Drew's brother...)


Bonding with this particular canine took intricate training on Grace's part.


Jeff and I got to escape to the Lava Caves one afternoon. You can't tell it, but we're hunched over at the very end of the tunnel that we walked through with the lantern. It was nice to escape the scorching weather and trade in tank tops for sweatshirts, if only for two hours.


Did I say intricate training? Uncle Drew and Aunt Annie worked diligently with Grace to make the monkey face.


She got pretty good at it! "Grace Face" may stick as the new favorite nickname, Drew and Annie! :)

Sunriver, Oregon...Part II

We loved biking to the pool a couple of afternoons. Here are some fun black and whites...

Sunriver, Oregon...Part I

So...three days after we moved into our new house, we left for our scheduled vacation in Sunriver, Oregon. Talk about TIMING. :) We are now at the end of our week of break with family--Lochheads and Swansons--and have had a fantastic time! We have been able to bike, hike, float the river, relax, and EAT really good food. Although we're not ready to come home tomorrow, it is fun to know that we have lots of home projects to get back to. :) Here are pictures of the hike we took to Benham Falls earlier this week. Grace was a great pack passenger--who wouldn't like the view from up there?--and Jeff was a great pack PACKER.




Before...

After...

Our New House!

Here are a few first pictures...enjoy! LE

Homeless Shenanigans

We are finally in our new home! We are very excited to post pictures of our house and the moving in process, but first I thought we'd reflect on our two weeks of homelessness...

...It was FABULOUS! We were a little apprehensive about living without a home base, but it turns out that living as vagabonds suits us well! Our time without a house allowed us to have some great quality time with friends and family. Special memories seem to be made when you just say "goodnight" instead of "goodbye" at the end of an evening... We stayed with G'ma Dorothy and G'pa Harvey, my parents at the farm, and Matt and Heidi offered their mother-in-law apartment to us for a few nights... We made such great memories mooching off our friends and family!!! :)

Top Ten Memories of Staying with G'ma and G'pa...(in no particular order)
10. Two words: Beef Stroganoff...no one does it like G'ma D!
9. A whole air-conditioned basement to ourselves--and a new bathroom
8. Reading portions of Harvey's memoirs in the evenings
7. Bonding with G'ma Dorothy by napping together (Grace's vote)

6. Dessert after every meal
5. Borrowing painting materials for painting our house on day one
4. Rootbeer for the taking in the fridge
3. Great views of Mt. Spokane off the back deck and a family of 15 "pet" quail to observe
2. Her very own chocolate-lined ice cream cones for dessert (Grace's other vote)

1. Big screen coverage of the Tour de France...Jeff was in bicycle HEAVEN.
Thank you for being so gracious toward us, G'ma and G'pa!!!

Top Ten Memories of Staying with the VanSickles...
10. A great backyard with a zipline, trampoline, and tire swing
9. SECONDS away from great playmates, Alea and Kalei
8. A little cottage just for us...
7. ...and a furnished toyroom that Mimi has set up for little girls
6. Baths with K & A

5. Not having to drive home after playing games with Matt and Heidi
4. The bakery at the bottom of the driveway
3. A free parking spot for our other car during our homeless duration
2. Apple juice at our disposal
1. The best memory that we'll never forget...two girls in their pajamas camping out with books on our front door at 7 AM..."Next time can you not lock the door? We don't know how to get in when you lock it."
We had a great time with you, VanSickles! Thank you for letting us live next door! We wish our new house was located across your back fence... :)

Top Ten Memories of Staying with G'ma Joan and Papa Greg at the farm...
10. G'ma Caroline's 80th Birthday party was a huge success!!! Here's a pic of G'ma's kids and grandkids and great-grandkids...

9. Delicious food every night
8. June is the best time in the Palouse--there are probably 500 different shades of green

7. Lots of play time with cousins for Grace

6. G'ma Joan's KIDDIE POOL

5. Jeff got to fish with Brady (brother-in-law) and we had a fish fry featuring their caught bass
4. Jeff and I (mostly Jeff) raked pine needles in Mom and Dad's windbreak to work off the delicious food eaten during the week
3. 4th of July Parade in Johnson and Jeff's parents came down to celebrate with the Mosers. The fireworks on the 4th didn't phase Grace at all--she was more interested in Papa Greg's popcorn than the fantastic colors and loud booms in the sky
2. "Auntie" Julie and Kalei and Alea came to spend the night at the farm when their parents were in Hawaii--they had a great time checking out the creek, the fort, the playroom...

1. The Webers (my mom's family) had a huge family reunion at Klemgard Park that we got to be part of...mom and I made family tree posters with pictures that helped me sort out all of the 200+ relatives

Thanks for a great week, G'ma Joan and Papa Greg! We always love our time with you.