Catching things up - Again!

I don't understand how things and time can get away from me like they do.  I really do plan on keeping up with the blog and then the next thing you know it's been two weeks and I haven't written anything.

Let me just give a brief run down -

and we will start on the 4th of July.

At the last minute we decided to have a family get together

here at the house for the 4th.

I call the kids and my mom and three hours later

we had dinner.

I had to cook the ribs on the indoor grill because it was raining,

as usual.  I fixed the ribs, some potato salad, corn on the cob, and Cole slaw.

Cut up a couple of fresh tomatoes and called it a meal. 

Little Miss

After we ate, and it stopped raining, we all went out in the back yard for some "family" photos.

Little Miss and her daddy

My mom with Little Miss

Melissa, Justin, and Lorelai

Dan, Lorelai and I

I'm going to have to start holding the little one in pictures - Dan is WAY too tall!

Then Dan and I started singing to Lorelai and we got 

these pictures!

 I told Dan the other day that I needed to take advantage of singing to her now, because she sure won't like it when she gets bigger.  She is the first one to actually like my off key voice (I admit, I can't carry a tune in a bucket - but she doesn't care)!

Then later on that evening, Dan and I took the boat out on the lake for the town fireworks show.  They always shoot the fireworks off "over" the lake and there are hundreds of boats that anchor in the cove to watch.  We went last year in the pontoon boat and took the pups with us, but they weren't real happy with all the noise.  So, this year, since we only have the Bass Tracker, we decided to leave the pups at home.

It was a lovely fireworks show and lasted for about 1/2 an hour.

Right after we got home it started raining again.

And it has continued to rain ever since - not continuously - but I don't think that we have had a single day this month that it has not rained.

We did have a three day week as the kids were both off on the 4th and Justin  also had the 5th off - so it was a nice long weekend for us.

Monday we were back keeping the little one.  She is getting so big - walking is her main mode of transportation now - she will still crawl occasionally - but she is walking more and more every day.  We are trying to transition her to "people" food and this is a very trying time.  She does NOT want to be fed - she wants to do it on her own, but she is a very picky eater right now.  We keep introducing her to things - but most of the time all she will eat is - 

eggs (sometimes), waffles (sometimes), cheerios (all the time), puffs (all the time), chicken (sometimes), steamed carrots (almost all the time), bananas (almost all the time), and apples (almost all the time).  She also likes grits (she is a southern girl after all), and Friday I was able to get her to drink a smoothie.  The only thing that she will let you feed her is yogurt.  We have bought several different types of toddler meals - she won't eat them.  I talked to a friend, who has a baby a couple of weeks younger than our little one, and she said that her little one lived on mashed potatoes and bread for a while before finally starting to eat well.  So, I'll just keep trying to get her to eat.

Yesterday, I spent the day cleaning house - you just can't imagine how much sand and dirt the pups can track in from the back yard.  We (meaning Dan) have cleaned out about three foot away from the patio where we will plant a hedge - but we want to wait until the screen porch is constructed - so that little project will just have to wait a little while.  In the meantime, the dogs track in the mud (remember all the rain?) and then when we are able to play in the "beach", we track in sand.  I have a feeling that until the screen porch is complete this will be an ongoing problem.

This morning we went to church and had a lunch at church.  Then we came home for a while (and the rain started again), before heading into town to the grocery store - didn't need a lot, but always seem to buy more than we need.

Well, that pretty much catching everyone up on happenings around here.  I will try and start doing nightly posts - just to try and stay on top of things - but I don't promise anything.  Sometimes I am just tired at night and want to hit the hay.  Speaking of "hitting the hay", think I'll sign off and go do that myself.

Hope you check back and see if I'm posting again tomorrow!

Until then -

Talk to you later - gator!

Carol