Country Fair

Last Friday we attended the Country Fair at our church. It was a lot of fun and Sunshine was especially happy because her cousin came too! Here are some pics from the evening.

Ready to play with the water guns!

They had a photo booth, which I thought was a great idea. The veterinarian and the ballerina liked it as well because they got a prize just for sitting there and smiling!

Exiting the bounce house

First Haircut

Last week I took Sunshine in for her first haircut. I was a little sad that she was old enough to have her hair cut. But her hair looks so much better now! Below are a few pictures I took of her prior to the beauty shop visit.

She's been real cheesy lately...makes taking pictures hilarious and sometimes a little frustrating!

She did a great job holding still- probably because I let her watch

veggie tales on my phone for most of the time.

We had family pictures taken Monday night, so as soon as I get those back I will post a picture of her with her new style.

It's been so long since I posted, that there is so much that I could write. On a sad note, we lost our little dog, Sadie, in an accident over the weekend. We miss her lots, she was such a sweet dog. We are glad that we will be able to get a full sister to Sadie around Christmas time.

Our fall garden is starting to produce. We have lots of okra and peppers right now and hopefully some tomatoes soon. Sunshine has some pumpkins that are about to turn orange- she has really enjoyed checking on them everyday. She also has a cucumber plant that has lots of "Larry's" (veggie tales) on it. She loves to look for "baby Larry's". The other day she picked a Larry and asked if we could take it in the stroller while we went for our run. When we got home she said, "Let's take Larry inside and eat him for lunch." It cracks me up! She put a Larry in the refrigerator a few days ago and then took it out because "Larry was cold." Oh the conversations one can have with a 2 year old!

Well more later, I need to go make that apple pie I've been thinking about making this afternoon.

Conversations

I realized the other day that I haven't posted in about a month! Wow, time flies. We recently purchased a new computer (I love it!), but I haven't been able to transfer pictures from my camera to the computer- which has contributed to my lack of posting. I need to make a phone call to Canon, because unfortunately it doesn't appear to be a simple fix.

However, I thought I could still share what Sunshine has been talking about lately. It is so fun to listen to her develop in her language skills. Lately she has been talking about halves. Yesterday she said, "Do not eat half of my banana." We usually share a banana at breakfast. She and her stuffed animals go "grocery shopping" around the house. She has them order "a half a pound" of cheese or turkey at the deli counter- it is so cute!

We've been encouraging her to tell God what she is thankful for. Here are a few people/items that have been on her list:

Daddy, Mommy, and Larry (from Veggie Tales)

Evie's food (a friend's play food set)

doors

cupcakes, grapes, cheese, bread (she is very specific about the food she is thankful for)

It's so sweet, and often is a reminder to me to be thankful for ALL things.

Lastly, I will share a conversation we had a few weeks ago. We have a bird that built a nest in one of our hanging baskets on the back porch. For at least a week we could hear the little birds chirping/crying for food. One day I took Sunshine out to see them I took the basket off of the hook and let her peer inside. She asked, "Can I hug them?". I explained to her that we could not touch them because they belonged to the mommy bird and she wouldn't like it if we touched them. She then said, "Their mommy will hug them."

So those are just a few conversations from the last few weeks. I am sure there will be many more memorable ones to come!

Texas Staycation

On Monday we returned from our family summer staycation. We had such a great time together as a family. We decided to take our old digital camera since we were going to Sea World, just in case we got splashed by Shamu. I forgot how slow that thing is! I would press the button to take a picture and like 4 seconds later it would take the picture....needless to say that doesn't work so well with a 2 year old. Here are some of the pics from our trip.

We all enjoyed Sea World. It was so fun to watch Sunshine get excited! We

watched all of the shows and visited all of the animal exhibits while we were there.

We spent one morning at the San Antonio Zoo.

We have a Texas State Parks pass-which is really handy.

Here we are at the Colorado Bend State Park.

Sunshine enjoyed climbing around on the trees at the park.

This picture was taken at Enchanted Rock near Fredricksburg. It was SO hot the afternoon we visited. Sunshine was trying to tempt us to get out of the shade.

One of my favorite things about vacation is finding new places to eat. We ate on the Riverwalk in San Antonio twice. Sunshine and I shared a slice of Raspberry Diablo from the Iron Cactus one evening. It was VERY good. I am trying to find a recipe like it so I can make my own!

One night we ate the famous Coopers BBQ in Llano. It was very good. We all three shared this pork chop and still couldn't finish it- it was huge!

The Lake

The weekend before last we went to lake LBJ with some friends. We had so much fun and really enjoyed the time to relax and be away from home. Sunshine loved the fact that the weekend involved water.

T and I were able be out on the lake by ourselves, thanks to our friends'

willingness to play with Sunshine.

This family canoe outing was very memorable. Sunshine used a

little shovel as her oar. It was so cute!!

Sunshine ADORES Abby! Here they are playing in the sand.

T's favorite thing about the lake was the jet ski. It was big enough for all 3 of us to ride on at one time. The first time we took it out, we flipped it on it's side...yea for life jackets! We also took the boat out a lot and I am hoping that next summer Sunshine will be big enough to try tubing.

Family Fun

My Mom, and my sister K and her family came to visit last week. We had such a fun time with them and I was so glad they were able to make the trip from Kansas. We went swimming, ate at some our local favorite places, went to church and to the Waco Zoo. We were sad to see them drive away, but so glad that we were able to spend time together!

Sunshine loved playing with baby J. Baby J was a trooper!
My mom reading to her grand kids.

The Waco Zoo was great! Lots of shade and great exhibits, but not too many that we felt like we would never make it though. Sunshine and her cousin C held hands for part of the trip through the zoo....so cute!

Looking at the giraffes.

The zoo had a splash pad. It was a great way to end the day and get them cooled off for the ride home. They loved it and took great naps on the way home!

I love the 4th of July!

I love celebrating the 4th of July. We always had so much fun celebrating as kids, so I think it has just carried over. We would do fireworks at home, have a cookout, maybe a parade (when we were little), and then drive to Osage City to watch fireworks. My mom always made apple pie, and we would take it with us so that we could eat it while we watched the display. Then we would drive home and celebrate my Grandpa's birthday while we did our night-time fire works.

We had fun celebrating this year. We stopped by the fireworks stand on Saturday and bought our fireworks. I wanted some snap-pops for Sunshine, so I asked the woman working there for a box. She said, "They are buy 1 get 5 free." What??? So we ended up with 300 snap-pops. We still have 200 left, but we are enjoying watching Sunshine step on them or throw them down. I am sure the other 200 will be gone soon. Yesterday, T's sister and her family came over. We went swimming, ate, and then went fishing. Lots of fun! It's so fun to watch the 2 girls play together, eat together, swim together, etc. We ended the night watching fireworks at the George Bush Library. It was a really fun and relaxing day.

In other news, T's Grandpa passed away on the 25th of June. He and his sister flew to Laurel, NE for the memorial service that was held this past Friday. We are glad to have him home, as he has been out a lot recently with travel. This week Sunshine started swim lessons. She is very brave in the water and so she enjoyed her first lesson this morning. It has been a little odd not being in the water with her. Last year we took group lessons, so of course I was with her the entire time. Today I just observed. My mom and my sister Kristen and her family are coming this weekend. We are looking forward to their visit. That's about all for now.