A Midway Good Time

Our friend, Kristen, is part of a raspberry patch co-op, and due to the cooler temps and regular rain this season, she has a bumper crop that's out of control. She has somebody pick out of her patch, to keep, every 3 days and finally it was our turn. We felt it was an excellent way to spend an evening. Anna hung out in her exer-saucer and Bevan and I got lost in the overgrown patch. There were plenty of bees, spiders, and even a skunk! We got home and I froze the berries individually, bagged them up, and thought, "Now what?" Jam? Pie? Baby food? Any suggestions? I'm new to this.

A Stinkin' Happy Girl!

Enough about our landscaping already! What's the baby been doing lately? Well, other than babbling like crazy and having some pretty interesting diapers, she celebrated 9 months being in our family. She's now older than the time I spent pregnant with her. Last year at this time, I was crazy big, attending baby showers, searching for a house, but still feeling great. She never did cause me any sickness and now, she still never causes us any grief. I still take her to the office with me and out to landscaping job sites. The Mexicans LOVE her and always call her by her first AND middle name (I think it's a cultural thing). She grabs at everthing within reach and inspects it thouroughly, without it going in her mouth. She refuses to crawl and we're not protesting it. Here's her other 9 month stats:

Height: 28.75" (86th)

Weight: 18 lbs. 9 oz. (44th)

Eyes: brown

Hair: Still comin' in thick and dark (what the...?)

Teeth: 5! She cut her first lateral incisor just 3 days ago!

Favorite Food: Ice Cream

Least Favorite Food: Formula (this could be a problem soon...)

Favorite Activity: anything outside, especially walks

Favorite animals: dogs and horses

I could go on and on about her, but lets just say it's been more fun than I ever thought possible. I guess the first one has to be easy to make you want to have more. Next time around, we'll probably get a little Bevan. Heaven help us.

These pictures are Tom's latest and greatest. They were so good I had trouble getting Walmart Photo to realease them without a "photographer's copyright release" form.

Where the green grass grows

We've been putting in a lot of hours with our landscaping, especially getting ready for the sod. We found a solution with the early darkness these days: work in the dark! We actually started using our headlamps to hook up emitters and install the rotor heads. The neighbors said it looked a little creepy, but it got the job done! We finished in barely enough time. The sod arrived Friday morning and was completely installed by noon! Thanks to our fabulous family and a very helpful and strong neighbor, Josh. I guess he could pick up those sod rolls a couple at a time! By the time I got home, it was all finished. Our goal was for it to be done by Swiss Days so everybody stuck in traffic on Center Street would have something nice to look at. We need to keep up that Midway image, after all. We met our goal, barely. Swiss Days actually started that morning and we were excited to sit back and start enjoying summer. Here's a slide show of the progress:

This is later that day, once our street turned into a parking lot. Our house finally has curb appeal! I'll take some more pictures once the flowers get planted, which may not happen until October. But until then, let summer begin!