Not only do we allow our daughter to walk around the yard in nothing but a diaper and rain boots, but we also let her ride the lawn mower with daddy. That’s right folks, we are redneck family at heart! (Please take note of the slide in the middle of the garden!)
Don’t let me fall dad, it looks scary!
I think Ben was explaining why the lawn mower sounded so loud!
Fun times with daddy!
At a yard sale last weekend my mom picked up some bumblebee rain boots for Mikayla and my niece Taylor (in the future). I wasn’t crazy about them at first (I had picked out a pair of pink ones to purchase which are still too big), but once we got them home, Mikayla loved them! She wears them around the house all the time. Of course, she would be cute in anything she puts on (wink, wink)!
Already such an artist!
She looks mischievous, doesn’t she?
Seriously, it doesn’t get much cuter than rain boots and cloth diapers!!
That’s right, we started Pacifier Boot Camp in our house this week. Surprisingly Mikayla is taking it a like a champ. The first night I think she thought we just forgot and went on to sleep after crying for only a few minutes. The next night she cried for 15-20 before falling asleep. Last night was a little trickier because she is teething as well. However, tonight she didn’t even make a sound. She was either really tired (although Ben said she took a really long nap today) or doesn’t mind too much not having her pacifier!
Yesterday was really funny though. She had gone to a friends house for a few hours and must have seen Ben stick her pacifier into the diaper bag because all night she kept going over to it and pointing. When she finally figured out how to get it out of the bag she was so funny. It was like she had found her long lost friend and wouldn’t let it out of her sight the rest of the night! I wish I had gotten some pictures or video. All in all though, I would say we are successfully removing the pacifier!
Mikayla with short, dark hair (Decemberish) and her ever loved pacifier getting into to no good!
I don’t watch a lot of TV. I would actually rather goof around on the computer or watch TV on DVD with Ben. However, as of late I have started enjoying a show on TLC called Cake Boss. If you have never watched or heard of it, you should watch some of the clips here. Seriously, the cakes they create are amazing! They almost look fake they are so good. He comes up with some crazy ideas, but they work! For example, for his wife’s birthday they made a life-size cake of her. It was incredible! Check it out, that’s all! Mikayla thinks you should too!
In case you missed the video Ben posted of Mikayla the other day, here it is. We had gone to Sonic for an after dinner treat and she stole my milkshake!
I caught Mikayla and Shiloh gazing out the window the other day and it was just so cute. I am glad Shiloh plays nicely with Mikayla (or at least tolerates her). Mikayla has really been into kissing lately and she especially loves to give the dog smooches!
Last weekend Mikayla’s good buddy turned one! So we headed north to join her in the beach themed pool party! We had a blast. Thanks Lylah for including us in your special day!
How fun is this birthday cake? It was a crab ice cream cake!
Mikayla was all tuckered out after the festivities, she fell right to sleep!
On our way home we stopped to see some friends we hadn’t seen in over a year. We had a great visit, and the girls even got some play time in before we hit the road home. It was a fast weekend, but one packed with fun and friends! These two are only two months apart. It is hard to believe how much they can change in just two months time.
She was teaching Mikayla the “easy way” to get on the couch!
Showing off their bellies.
Playing with the creepy baby doll.
I love Target’s dollar aisle, and I know I am not the only one. They have a lot of quality fun packed into a few simple aisles. Take for example the Dr. Seuss loot I racked up on a few weeks ago. Love it!
Well, while shopping there the other day I ran across a small container of sidewalk chalk. Since Mikayla has started getting into coloring, I thought she might like some chalk. And she did! The first day we played outside with it for almost an hour. She didn’t even want to quit to eat! She was so cute too, trying to imitate all my little drawings. Check her out in all her cuteness, and please note that my camera wasn’t foggy, it was just that humid outside!
I am a slacker and didn’t get to blog about our eighth and final summer field trip before school started. Our grand summer finale was spent at Barren River Lake “Beach” with Lara, Lylah, Emily and Bella. The girls (Lylah, Bella and Mikayla) had a blast, and so did their mommy’s! The water was a little yucky, but what lake water isn’t really?
Mikayla is such a dare devil when it comes to water, that she didn’t even really want to hold my hand as she waded through. When she would occasionally fall down, she would just sit and laugh. She loves to crack herself up! Here are some snapshots of the day. Lara got a great one of all the girls, so I will have to try and steal that one!
Mikayla was a big help pushing Lylah along, that is until the ground got too hot for her!
After she fell down and was cracking up. Notice the big scrape on her cheek, this is when she was playing with the big kids during our slumber party. She thought she was bigger than she was!
Staple mommy and daughter picture, just ignore my pasty legs!
I am sad that our summer vacation together has ended, but I know Ben is excited to resume his daddy time with Mikayla.
We had a fun trip to Swaziland, but are also glad to be back with our daughter. It was tough to leave her for two weeks! It has been hard talking about our trip, because it wasn’t your typical trip/vacation. We met up with a lot of people to talk about what their organizations are doing on the ground in Swaziland. It was very informative and left us with a lot to think about.
Here are ten thoughts/moments/whatever you want to refer to them as from our trip:
1. Swazis are very hospitable. Wherever we went and whatever we were doing people were very nice. We felt right at home, not like tourists at all.
2. Swazis love their tea and instant coffee. This is a hard one for me to get used to because I am somewhat of a coffee snob, and really am not a huge fan of tea. I am coming around though!
3. I am not sure I could drive in Swaziland, but Ben did a fantastic job. First, they drive on the opposite side of the road! Plus there are all these unwritten etiquette rules you have to follow. For example, people expect you to drive on the shoulder so they can pass you. It works well, but when you aren’t used to it, it makes it kinda tricky! Plus all the cars are five speeds, which I am not a huge fan of driving (I can drive them though). In Mbabane (the capital) every street is on a hill with lots of stop and go. This is tough in a five speed, Ben even had a little trouble sometimes (although he wouldn’t admit it).
4. It is a beautiful place. There are basically three levels (and Ben might correct me on this, but these were my impressions). Highveld which is up in the mountains and has lots of trees. Also, quite cold at night in the winter! Midveld which is in the middle (duh!). It has mountains, hills, trees and grasslands. Lowveld which is more deserty like and hot! It was dry and sandy here. Each level was beautiful in its own way.
5. The food was yummy and even a little Western. They love their meat, we went to several braais while we were there and the majority of the food that was served was meat! Not a very vegetarian friendly place. They also eat a lot of “pop” (not sure on the spelling of this) which is finely ground maize served several ways. One way they served it was in sticky patties. It didn’t have a lot of flavor, but they used it to pick up other food. They also serve it differently in the morning as more of a porridge type dish.
6. There are also fresh fruit trees everywhere, and most people have a garden year round in their yards. We saw lots of avocados, bananas, mangos and spinach. Can you imagine having an avocado tree in your yard…yummy!
7. Livestock rules the roads! No kidding, wherever you drive you have to be extra cautious because there are cows, goats and chickens crossing everywhere, even on the interstate type roads. The animals wonder all over the place grazing. No one has big fences to keep the animals in, they just go where they want. The crazy thing about all this is that everyone knows which livestock belongs to them and have no problem (for the most part) with animals wondering around. Can you imagine that happening here in the states??
8. Housing was interesting too. You had anything from the indigenous mud and grass huts to concrete/brick homes. Some houses were very “Western” and others were out in the bush. We definitely found all levels of living while we were there.
Helping to build the roof of a traditional hut.
9. Converters are no fun! Half the time my hair dryer and straightener wouldn’t work. I even “dried” my hair with the air conditioning from the car a couple of times. Next time I think I will just bye a hair dryer there!
It was like a game to see what converters we needed to plug different things in!
10. We are mores sure of our decision to move there now more than ever. We just aren’t sure what we will be doing, although now we have some more concrete options in mind. I think Mikayla will love it as well!
Here are a few shots of a WKU tradition…the red towel photos!
