Jacob's First Bath

Jacob’s stubborn umbilical cord took forever to fall off. So he didn’t get his first real bath until he was over a month old. But he really enjoyed it. And so did I.

I was remembering Grace’s first bath. She hated it. Then as we were drying her off, we got a knock on our door. It was one of our neighbors coming to ask if we had left our car door open. Turns out someone had tried to steal it. They couldn’t though, ‘cause it was a newer model. So instead, they stole my nice Graco stroller from the trunk. I was pissed. But it makes for a memorable first bath experience!
Anyway, Jacob’s first bath was nice.
I love his wrinkles. He looks like a little old man.

Father's Day Fun

Here’s my most favorite father on the whole planet: the father of my children. (Isn’t he handsome?)
We had a funny little experience at the Rasmuson family get-together. Ricky’s mom, Marilyn, got him a card, and as Ricky’s sister, Diana, was bringing it to him, she accidentally dropped it and it fell between the floor boards of the deck. Oops!
Then Marilyn informed us that there was a $50 gift card inside, so it had to be retrieved. Our first thought was to send the all-too-willing Chase under the deck after it. But it turned out he wouldn’t fit.
Now what? Well, after beginning to unscrew the boards, I think Mike was able to get it out using some tools and a lot of talented finesse. Then when Ricky opened the card, it was empty. Marilyn forgot to put the gift card in it after all. Oh, well. It was funny, right?
And here’s Ricky sitting back enjoying the show.

Tickle Torture

We love to tickle Grace. When she was a bit younger, she would say, “Tickle my torture!” She just has the greatest giggle.

"I Don't Want the Doggies Get Me!"

Ricky’s family loves dogs. Altogether there are 6 full-grown dogs. This black lab is the newest (and smallest) addition. His name is Armani. Grace takes after her mom, I guess. I’ve never liked dogs as much as the rest of the family. I blame it on several traumatic childhood experiences. Even after knowing Ricky for eight years or so, I can't seem to warm up to them. So, here’s Grace running away from the playful “puppy.” I thought it was a nice photo.

Little Ballerina

Grace is going to start ballet classes this fall. I’m so excited for her! She loves to dance. These pictures were taken the day I bought her dance clothes. She is such a natural.
It's modern interperative dance!

The Playhouse

Chase’s birthday was back in May. His parents got him this awesome playhouse and the whole family got together one Saturday to help build it. It was seriously such a fun day. I love following instructions and putting things together. I even love the tedious things like putting washers on all the bolts (and you would not believe how many bolts there were.)
The instructions stated that two “able” people could put the thing together in like 8 or 12 hours or something ridiculous like that. I don’t know what they meant by “able.” Chase’s dad had worked on it for several hours before we all got together and there were 8 adults working on it the whole of Saturday and it still didn’t get done. But it was still a super fun day. And it only took a couple more days I think to finish it. But all the hard work was definitely worth it.
Chase: "I just knew you loved me, Mommy!"
Complete with rock climbing wall, tunnel, swings, sandbox...
...upper level and slide. And he has this dome thing too. What a great back yard, huh? My biggest complaint about our townhome, tiny back yard.

Sharing Skates

Several months ago (I’m still trying to catch up with all the blogging) we went to Ricky’s parents for Sunday dinner and Grace’s cousin, Chase, showed up with his cool new skates! (And every accessory needed to ensure no broken body parts.) He was so sweet to let Grace try them out. (Although he doesn’t look very happy about it in the photo…)