Garden Update

Here's a little update on our garden.  We had our first harvest!!  Ok, so it was one strawberry, and I have no idea how it tasted, since Wes picked it and shoved it in his mouth faster than I could blink, but I'm considering it gardening success :)

Plus our plants are growing like weeds, and the weeds are growing like weeds (not loving that part of gardening).  We are even seeing some zucchini starting to grow and the tomato plants have pretty much taken over, so hopefully we'll have more to show for our efforts than one strawberry very soon!
Here's how it looked just about a month ago.

Finally Food!!!

Though I don't see how it's possible that Cora is already 5 1/2 months old already, it definitely is possible that this child is ready for some food.  Like a hawk, she has been watching us eat for it seems like a month, she reaches and grabs for any food in the vicinity, and she smacks her lips when we are eating, which is too cute.  It's also pretty cool to see all these "ready for food" signs, because Wes never did any of them.  As amazing of an eater as he is, there was definitely a learning curve in the beginning.  Cora doesn't need any eating lessons, she took to it, mouth open and all, immediately! 

It was pretty hard to deny this cute munchkin a little taste of watermelon a little while ago.  Of course she loved it, and was pretty irritated when we took it away!

She was so ready to eat food, she was almost willing to settle for the box.

The differences between the first and second child always make me laugh, because with Wes, we had the high chair out for weeks and let him sit in it to practice.  I bought the rice cereal early and had sanitized the spoons and bowl.  With Cora, Mike pulled the high chair out of the attic the night we finally fed her and I think we dusted it off, I knew she was ready for food, but I kept forgetting to buy the cereal when I was at the store, and I grabbed a baby spoon out of Wes' drawer which had been there since he was eating rice cereal! But she loved just the same!!

  The night of Cora's first meal, we also had Wes' current favorite meal, which is grilled salmon and artichokes.  He is still an amazing eater and I'm praying that never changes.  He loves dipping the leaves in any sauce daddy makes and of course the hearts are his favorite part!  He keeps saying that he likes white salmon (white fish) better than pink salmon, but you wouldn't be able to tell from his empty plate.

And here's Cora finally getting her first meal: 

She lapped up every last drop and wanted more!  She opened her mouth for the spoon like an old pro and swallowed without pushing any of the cereal out of her mouth.  I think we might have another eater on our hands :)

 Just a little video.

Family Time

On Sunday May 6th, we headed down to San Diego to my mom's cousins house to celebrate her Aunt Emmy and Uncle Kenny's 65th wedding anniversary!

Here's my mom with her Aunt Mary Lou, Uncle Kenny and Aunt Emmy.  These are my mom's mom's sisters.

 My mom's cousins, Steve and Rossayn, have this amazing property with lots of space and fun things for a little boy to checkout!

 Here's Wes playing with a few third or fouth cousins (I'm never sure how that works!)

The bowls of M&M's on the tables were a highlight, and after we ate all the one's at our table, Wes had to go find another bowl.  

It was such a beautiful day to be out side and my parents had a great time visiting with family, I got to talk to a few second (again, ?) cousins that I hadn't seen in years, and Wes had such an AWESOME time (and was so exhausted) we practically had to drag him out :)  But he did calm down long enough to be in the big family picture (unfortunately I didn't get one on my camera, but since I obviously love documenting everything, it was pretty neat to do the group shot!)  Such a nice afternoon, so glad we were able to go!

The Million Dollar Quartet

On Thursday May 3rd Michael and I had our anniversary/my birthday date night at the theater where we saw Million Dollar Quartet.  All I can say is that it was awesome.  And that's not just coming from an Elvis fan, we both thought it was awesome.  It was such a great combination of true story, music (all the actors played their own instruments and sang with such credibility, which is really difficult to pull off when you are impersonating someone), and entertainment.  It had been way too long since we've seen a show together, and Michael and I both love going to the theater, makes me wonder why we wait so long (oh yea, the ticket prices!)

"On December 4th, 1956, one man brought Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley together to play for the first and only time.
His name was Sam Phillips...
The place was Sun Records...
That night they made rock 'n' roll history."

Since I've been to Memphis and to Graceland and Sun Records, and have heard some of these recordings on Elvis Radio, seeing this show was super cool.  I took this picture and the ones below on the sly since when I tried to take one with my regular camera I got yelled at by an usher.  No photography of any kind inside the theater, not even of yourselves!!

Then after the show we went to Red Robin for a little dessert and coffee.  Thanks to Grammy for watching the kiddos!  We had a great time!

I Love My Sissy

No captions needed.

Emergency Room!!

On Cinco de Mayo, Mike took Wes down to Papa Ron's house to spend the morning, have breakfast and visit Great Grandma Virginia.  I was at home hosting a little brunch/diaper drive, so I got all this information after the fact, but the morning started off great and took a turn for the worse:

Wes helped Papa and Haley make eggs, bacon, and pancakes, and then there was some playing and running.  And you know what happens when little boys run...they fall!  Wes was running around the corner into the kitchen when he tripped and crashed right into the corner of this island cabinet.  You can see see the corner in the bottom left of the photo.  Mike said as soon as he heard the crash, he grabbed Wes, put his hand over the gash and said "we'll be heading to the hospital now." (There's a picture of the wound below, so be prepared)

And to the Saddleback Hospital ER they went for six stitches!  But Mike said Wes did awesome, only crying when they stuck the cut with a needle to clean it all out.  And of course he charmed all the doctors and nurses :)  

Yikes!  Glad this happened on Daddy's watch!

And here's what you get when you're with Daddy and you get six stitches.  He picked one out for Haley too and a bag of Swedish Fish for me (the bag of fish was suspiciously open and missing half the fish when he got home, hmm?!)  And I actually didn't find any of this out until they got home after my brunch and Wes walked in with a giant knot over his eye and this bright blue bandaid on!  Mike said he didn't want to call and worry me and disturb my brunch.  I have to be honest, I was ok with that.  I know Mike handled it better than I would have (mom freaking out!) and it wasn't anything life or death (praise the Lord!).  And they even made it back to visit with Great Grandma Virginia for a few minutes!

Wes loves suckers, so even a little bit of a giant one put a big smile on his face.

And then the next day, Wes got a very special delivery from his Auntie Caitlin and his Uncle Ben, all the way from Texas!

We love Edible Arragements!  We actually got one from Mike's mom when Wes was born, such a cool gift.  And of course this kid never passes on fruit, so it was the perfect get-well gift for him!  Thanks again Auntie and Uncle!

I took him to see his pediatrician, Dr. Lau, on Monday for a wound check and she said they did an awesome job stitching it up and that it was healing wonderfully (it's been a little over a week now and the cut is all healed up, now we're just trying to keep it from scaring).  With having a super active, nearly fearless almost three year old, I'm assuming another trip or two to the emergency room is in our future.  I just pray it's not too soon!  Thank you Lord for protecting my little guy!

Little Boy, Big Girl

Since we've gotten out all of Wes' old baby toys and gear, it's been fun watching him check them out, ask questions about how he used them when he was a baby and teach Cora about them.  He's taken a liking to the Bumbo seat and Mike snapped these pics of Big Brother sitting in the Bumbo seat and Little Sister sitting up on her own.  And since Cora's too big for it, we just broke down the bouncy seat and it's kind of weird to be getting rid of baby stuff for good now.  No more storing things in the attic.  Michael will be ecstatic when things start moving out but I just keep thinking, "Wow, how fast did that go?"  I'm looking forward to passing on some of our baby things to cousins and friend's since we were so thankful for all the hand-me-downs we received.  Plus it's neat to see the stuff your kids used getting extra life :)

Found My Toes!

Cora recently found her toes and decided they taste delicious!

A Baby Shower for Auntie Caitlin

We were so excited to have Auntie Caitlin back home for a week so we could shower her and baby Delilah with love and presents!  On April 29th, Auntie Madison hosted an owl themed baby shower at her house.  The food was delicious, the decorations were adorable and it was a wonderful girls afternoon!

Cora was a little tired so she's wasn't too happy in these pictures, but she can't wait to meet her new cousin!

 

Presents! Since Auntie Caitlin lives in Texas most people made it easy for her to get everything home so she received lots of gift cards and smaller presents.  Of course I wasn't so considerate.  I just can't help it, I must make things. :)

 I made Delilah a tutu, just like the one Cora received...

 ...and a hair clip for the major holiday's.  I also made burp cloths but forgot to take pictures of them.  (You know we can't live without barf rags with our little munchkin girl!)  

 Wes stayed at home with Grammy and Michael came with me so he could take Cora and I could enjoy myself at the shower.  When this girl needs to sleep, if she's not in her bed, forget about it!  But she got a good nap and had a fun time watching the Dodgers (much to Michael's dismay) on TV with Daddy and Grandpa Al.  Here she is with Grandma Susie and Grandpa Al.  (she totally needs a bow on her head!!)  It was so nice to spend the day with family and celebrate Auntie Caitlin, we love you and we can't wait to meet our new niece/cousin!!

Here's a few of the things I made: 

 Cora's party dress.  This was a dish towel I found at Ikea.  I meant to take a before and after pic, but you know what a dish towel looks like :)  Here's the tutorial.

 Delilah won't need these for a while, but I had made a set of these ABC memory verses for Wes and for our little buddy Tyler, so I made a set for Delilah too.  

I made these tags to cover up the Macy's logo on the box I put her gifts in :) 

Here's the tutu and matching headband I made.  If you remember Cora's newborn pics here, you might remember her tutu that was handmade by my friend Nadine.  And since Nadine still reads my blog, I truly hope she feels that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and not piracy. :)  I loved how Cora's newborn pics turned out and I thought Auntie Caitlin might like to do something similar.  And simply put, every little girl needs a tutu.  Not sure if it's the same one Nadine used, but here's the template for the flower and there's a million of them out there, but here's a simple tutu tutorial. 

Here's the seasonal hair clips, no tutorial for these ones, since I made my own templates, but they are super easy to make, and of course, not an entirely original idea.  I think the pumpkin is my favorite.  I also think I'm done crafting for a while, but then again, I always say that!