July Miscleaneous

We've had a very busy and fun summer. Here are some pictures to recap:

Lydia all dressed in white for church.

Watching the fireworks with great friends from a great location. Thanks David!

Wyatt, Lydia, and Jack

Popcorn is a must if your toddler is not very interested in the fireworks. Thanks Holly!

Joey, David, and Jack

Holly's parents

Nude swimming at the Parlier house has been a summer highlight.

She's usually very happy when she wakes from a nap, crazy hair and all.

I made laundry detergent. The directions are here and this is the only picture she was missing. If you need any detergent, let me know. I will be using it FOREVER, but it was cheap and it works just as good.  If I ever use it all, I will probably leave the next batch in powder form since I still have an old top-load washer and I don't like a 5 gallon bucket sitting in my hall bathroom shower that never gets used: directions. My Aunt Bev made it this way with Dove soap and it seems fine too. I will be making dishwasher detergent when I run out of my store bought (directions are also on the same blog).

Kim, my mom, and I went to Commerce and shopped at the outlet mall. We bought the girls matching dresses. Aren't they too cute?

My mom bought Lydia a very special present - Ladybug Boots!

Sand and water is the back bone of summer vacation.

Good Morning!

Breakfast in bed.

Lunch at Gazebo with Grammy.

Family reunion at the Otto Community Building.

Lydia and Manuel

Such a cutie!

I said, "Lydia stay inside." I guess she is, mostly...

Manuel thought it was very clever, too.

Eventually, she had weaseled her way out the door.

Ma Rea and 3 week old Aubrey

Riding 4 wheelers at my cousin's grandparents house just up the road. Thanks Nan and Pap! Liz was also watching Santiago, 3.5, and Chloe, 2.

Lydia kept going in the grass and Santiago would come to her rescue and push her out.

This picture could have a million captions. Hehe :)

It has been extremely hot this summer and we go to the park on a regular basis. Lydia has a great time in the water feature.

One day she spotted a turtle.

Hope wasn't too sure about the water.

Going through the tunnel and sliding and swinging has never been so much fun.

On our trip to Commerce, we ventured further south to Athens where there was a Target. I love Target. I wish we had one in Franklin. (sigh) Anyway, I finally found Lydia some bedding. Isn't it just too cute?!?

The curtains were too long, so my awesome mother, cut them off and made two throw pillows (not pictured).

The hair bow holder was once a sea green color with my name on it. My co-worker and awesome friend volunteered to take it home and re-paint it for Lydia. She finished it the same day I bought her bedding and had no idea what it looked like. I just told her to make it 'girly' since her room would probably change 5 times before she went to college. Amazingly, it matches GREAT! Thanks Brooke King for the very cute addition to my child's first girly bedroom.

Going to the local pool is always an adventure.

Kisses for Daddy

I got these super cute magnets for Lydia for Christmas. Most of the time she just rakes them into the floor and I have to put them back on the fridge on a daily basis. She now knows all of her colors and only takes off one color at a time and she usually helps put them back. I am a proud mama.

I can't believe I have to go back to school Monday. (Lydia would say, "Why?" over and over.) It has been a great summer and I'm sad that it was so short. We made some great memories and the fun times will keep coming!

Farm Trip #2

We went to the Farm again this weekend. This time Joey got to come. We left Friday at 11:30, stopped for lunch at McDonald's in Sylva, stopped in Asheville at Dick's Sporting Goods so Joey could buy shoes and Target so I could return Lydia's croc-like shoes that were too big and buy sippy cups that we forgot and socks for Joey to go with his new shoes, took the wrong ramp getting back on I-240, turned around, stopped for gas in Marion (twice since the first one didn't take cards outside and who has time to go in these days), and finally arrrived around 4:20. Lydia fell asleep between Sylva and Asheville, but woke up when I was in Target.

Not a great nap and she wanted O-U-T so we put in a movie in the portable DVD player we borrowed from Luke. Thank you Toy Story 3 for entertaining my child for the remainder of the trip.

We had a wonderful dinner of lasagna, salad, and bread. Gramma made a prune cake without prunes and add cherries - a cherry cake with nuts. It was super good! I started Big Girl by Danielle Steele that Gramma suggested I read. I finished it the next evening. This was not a good book, I just kept hoping that there would be some twist and it would get better. Do not read this book.

Saturday morning my grandad fixed sausage and gravy, Gramma made biscuits, and my mom fried some bacon. I ate 3 (yes, I know, no judgements please) jelly biscuits. My gramma's sister, Bettie, came to visit with her two grandkids, Tate, 10, and Brooke, 2.5. They ate breakfast then we went berry hunting. Lydia went through a stage where she would eat any berry of any kind, but lately she won't touch them. She says "Don't wike it." We ate all the ripe berries close to the branch then ventured to behind the barn where there were HUGE rasberries; red and yellow. Since Brook and Tate were eating these so well, Lydia thought she'd try them and rediscovered her love. They would put them on their fingers and then eat them. It was so cute and I don't have a single picture. UGH.

Gramma likes when we people do her hair.

Joey mowed the entire yard for my grandad. He's such a good man. After he finished mowing the small flat part where the blow-up pool sits, my grandad (another great man) blew it up and we filled it with extremely cold water from the hose adding some extremely hot water from the sink. That way the kiddos wouldn't freeze their booties off. We lathered the girls with sunscreen and let them loose. Lydia loves the water, but Brooke had to make sure her grandma was close by. Brooke had some very cute flip flops that Lydia adored. However, Brooke did not enjoy Lydia wearing them. Overall, the girls had fun and I hope will be closer friends as time goes on. Mom put Lydia to sleep for a nap. Dinner consisted of chicken casserole, fresh grean beans, cole slaw, and cucumbers. YUMMY! We walked to the cemetary and ended the night with a bowl of ice cream before bed.

Lydia enjoyed falling out of the pool.

"Here, Brooke, you need some more sunscreen."

Can you say 'jealous'?

Sunday was a very relaxing day. Joey and I stayed home from church with Lydia while Mom, Gramma, and Grandad walked the 50 yards to church. Lydia swam in the pool some more and I laid in the sun for a very short time. Lunch was lowkey: leftovers and sandwiches. But dinner was another amazing feat: london broil marinated in italian dressing grilled with baked potatoes and fried yellow and green squash form the garden. It started raining after dinner and Lydia and her daddy enjoyed playing in the rain.

Trying on Grandad's pants.

Watching a movie.

Racing to the clothesline and back with Grammy.

Catching rain drops in her mouth.

Lydia gets big candy for pooping in the potty...and makes a mess.

A hornet's nest so large that it tipped over a mailbox.

We enjoyed a bowl of ice cream with warm brownie for dessert. The next morning my mom cooked pancakes. We left after lunch. I needed to stop at a teacher store, so we went through Johnson City on the way home.

Pre-Dating

I have discovered that I can pre-date posts. Since I want to print these some day, I want to record everything chronologically. If you are interested in reading some of the older stuff, check out the archive frequently. :)