Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Let's Post Again, Shall We?

Dear Miss Dinah,

Have we really not written for 2 months? How in the world did that happen?

Well, we should do a quick update right away!

We got a new kitty cat!
Pizwit got lost a few months ago and we searched and searched for her. We weren't planning on getting a new cat soon, but one evening...

Daddy brought this little one home from one of his last seed cleaning jobs, and instantly, we fell in love! She has a similar personality to Pizwit. Very social and loving. She is also highly energetic, and unlike Pizwit, seems to have a very, very quiet meow.

You named her Autumn (you might have said 'awesome')  ;)




Did I mention that she is laid back? 


...We went up to Manhattan a few weeks ago to take care of a few things. We stayed with a wonderful friend of Guinny named Ms. Kay. You called her Miss Aunt Kay Kay, combing her name with your aunt's. She didn't mind though. She said, "I love it! My father used to call me Kay Kay when I was a little girl!"

Here you are playing with 2 of her young grandchildren.


Visiting Great Aunt Leslie on the way home and learning about gardening.



A picture of baby brother from a few weeks ago!


You love going to the doctor's office because you get a lollipop every time. You will talk about it up to a week in advance.


Exploring outside. You put on the hat and backpack (and probably the shoes) all by yourself and are ready to go. You like finding feathers, sticks, rocks, and dandelion seeds. 


Grandpa Tom visited and helped Daddy with the outside of the house. They put brick, decorative siding at the bottom, and it's starting to look beautiful!


Tea parties! We love them. 


Riding our bike to the stump. We like to "jump on the stump."


Hats for baby.


Play dough.


Documenting daily life and sending it to Daddy when he had to go out of town for a week. Here's one we sent to him =D


Painting!



Chalk drawing with baby.


Animal cards for animal buddies. 




I love you,

Mamma <3

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Dinosaurs, etc.

Dear Miss Dinah,

This past week:

This tree stump looks like it satisfies your love of high places :)


First painting: Completed at a library Learn and Play Group.


Sunday swinging with Daddy.


Helping Mamma ride the horsey.


Swimming.


Cooking!




Trying out the new baby seat.


Visiting with dinosaurs at the music festival this weekend. A man wore these on his back and walked around with them. You followed him around all weekend :)


Dancing at the festival.


And on stage!


I love you,

Mamma <3

Saturday, August 3, 2013

A Few Days of Fun

Dear Miss Dinah,

Two nights ago we had a little weather. In fact, the TV shows the thunderstorm warning area in yellow - it is only our county!


Sure enough, we had huge rain and winds (70 mph!?) come through not long after. We ran over to Aunt Julie and Uncle Jeremiah's first so we wouldn't have to be alone, as Daddy was still away working that night :(
Our house is probably a little better equipped for a big storm: it has less windows and is better sound insulated. But, we'd rather have the company!

We heard the in a city just 30 mi. north of us they had flooding in the streets so bad that peoples' car engines were dying when they tried to drive through it. They shouldn't have tried anyway, as the police were trying to direct people away from the water. Apparently, this street flooding is not  uncommon when rain like this comes. 

After the storm passed, which wasn't long, this was the scene out our side door. Little pebbles of hail were covering the ground up against the house. "Rocks!" you exclaimed. 


When Daddy got back late Thursday night he said he was ready for fun this weekend :) He has been working so much lately, and the work is finally letting up a little bit, so he was ready for a well-earned break!

Friday morning we went to "Learn and Play" at the library. The theme was zoo animals, and there were all sorts of games and activities going on in the room. The program is for very young children, so everyone there was probably 0-4 years old. It is a pretty small room, and at one point Daddy made me laugh so hard because he said, "Wow, it's REALLY noisy in here!" I hadn't even given the sound a second thought, but he said it was worse than being around his machine all day (which is very, very loud, and you can hardly talk over it!) I said, "So does that mean you don't want to be a stay at home dad?" :D

Friday night we went to the Wagon Wheel Cafe & Bakery which is about 25 miles away. It is staffed by young Mennonite ladies, and they have the most delicious cookies, breads, cinnamon rolls, and of course are known for their pies. They offer about 10 different varieties of pie. They are open weekdays until 3, except Fridays when they are open for dinner. They were packed (like usual) and so we ended up sitting with a nice older couple who has driven from a city about 40 miles the other direction. Dad had the brisket, and I had chicken fried chicken (for the first time!) and mashed potatoes, you had grilled cheese (and a homemade biscuit) and cottage cheese for your side :) Everyone loved their meal ;)

This morning we went to a lake about 2 hours away. The drive was all back roads - 2 lane highways. It was beautiful! We were trying to decide what the scenery would be called. A prairie? A savannah? We finally decided that it was a range, as in 'home on the range.'

Pictures from my phone from the car could not do it justice.

Notice the red color of the earth on the sides of the road. This is really close to Oklahoma where they are known for this red dirt.

It was beautiful (and mostly green) like this the whole 2 hours! So much land!
 Mamma forgot to back your swim-wings, so we stopped at Dollar General and improvised, which worked out great!


Here it looks like we're on the edge of the water, but actually we are on a sandbar out a ways from the shore. 


You can see the distance to the shore here.


I tried to get us all in the picture, but that was really hard. Here we're making faces at each other.


This was the best that I could do. 


 We swam around a bunch and had a fun time "getting" each other in the water. First we chased Daddy, then me, then you... Daddy would also go under the water and hide. You would say, "Where'd Daddy go?" and then wait expectantly for him to pop up. I went back to shore once while you were still out and as I was coming back out to the water again, I could here you yelling something to me and waiving. When I got back out, Daddy told me you were saying, "Mamma! I good swim!"

Yep, you did good swim :D



I love you, 

Mamma <3

Friday, August 2, 2013

Nooooo, It's Not a Teeth

Dear Miss Dinah,

A brief update using iPhone's wifi (with no pictures because they take way too long to load!)

...


A couple of times while laying in your bed, you seem to enjoy playing this little game with yourself. I hear you having this conversation with yourself. The words in brackets are the words I'm fairly certain you are saying.
"Is it a [teeth]?"
"Nooooo, it's not a [teeth]."
"Is it a [swan]?"
"Nooooo, it's not a [swan]."
"Is it a [duck]?"
"Nooooo, it's not a [duck]."
"Is it a [car drive]?"
"Nooooo, it's not a [car drive]."
"Is it a [puzzle]?"
"Nooooo, it's not a [puzzle]."
"Is it a [teddy bear]?"
"Nooooo, it's not a [teddy bear]."
And so on, and so on, and so on :)


...


You love 'getting' people.
Tickling. Squeezing knees or feet. Whatever.
You learned this from your Daddy.
He'll say, "Get Dinah!" and get you.
Then you will turn the tables and say with a little grin, "Get Dadda!" or "Get Mamma!" or even, "Get Kitty!"

...

I love you,

Mamma <3

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Summer Days

Dear Miss Dinah,

We have had some wonderful days together, and I am missing jotting down parts of our life and stories in your letters. But, we called the internet company a few weeks ago, and they said the soonest they could hook up our internet was August 9th. Better late than never I suppose :) So we wait...

Using Ginni and Grampa's internet, let's do a quick update!

In no particular order, this is what we have been up to for a month:

Lots of morning walks. It's nice before the temperature gets up in the 90's/100's!



Lots of bike riding.


Watering and enjoying.




Hanging around.

Swimming.

Chilling.

This.


Exploring.

Resting.

Climbing!

That.

Wading.

More swimming.

Celebrating 2 years! Grandpa Tom came to join in the celebrations :)



Jumping.

Gardening.

Well, not much gardening really. We've been enjoying a lot of the produce from the garden, and we did help weed and water more at the beginning of the summer. But then, it got hot enough outside that it made this pregnant mamma not feel so great :(




Dancing ... and gymnastic-ing.



Cousin time.


More and more and more climbing.


The zoo.

Sharing a snack.

Lounging.

The fair!

The fair parade lunch.

Visiting Sisi (and aunts).


I love you, love you, love you.

More and more,
every
single
day.

Mamma <3