And then there were three...

I stopped blogging, a crime against family I know.  It feels like almost a year of our life is lost.  If you haven't guessed this is my kids family photo album.  This is all our lives posted for them to see when they are old. To see all the strange and crazy things their parents did, and to hear about what amazing little children they are.  And speaking of children. . .

Meet Rue, our sweet little baby, who joined us during my blogger shutdown.  She deserves so much more than one post, so I will be filling you in on her arrival and incredible smiles in the next few weeks.  She is the perfect mix of her two older sisters.  Annie's olive completion, and big eyes, Elsie's adorable nose and round cheeks.  The best thing about rue is her smile.  It's all her, no one else's, and she loves to show it off.  Already she is proving not to be just another girl in my husbands quest for a boy.  She is special and unique.  Incredibly beautiful and dramatically different then her sisters.   I am so excited for her to grow up in this crazy family and see who she reveals herself to be.

Elsie's dreamworld

It started two nights ago.  Elsie woke up screaming.  There were snakes in her bed.  Trying to get her,  I run, stumbling in panic.  Snakes are a common sighting around here.  In the garden, under the front porch, slithering out of the basement, but never upstairs.  I get to her room, no snakes.  Just Annie grunting half asleep for us to shut up.  I'm looking under the bed, and everywhere I can think.  No snakes. All clear.  I take Elsie to my room so Annie can sleep.
She's back asleep in seconds, only to wake up thrashing her arms screaming.  So she woke Jon, and the baby (oh yeah we had a baby, I will fill you in on that as I get back into blogging).   Turns out Elsie was having a nightmare.  Her first.  She was convinced snakes were in my bed too.  She woke up a few more times that night.  It was exhausting.
Fast forward to today.  Elsie woke up from her nap, and she's calling "Emmy, Emmy where are you?"  I go upstairs and she's looking under the bed and in her closet for Emmy ( our neighbor).  Of course Emmy is not here, but I get a little spooked thinking she saw someone creeping in the house. So I'm looking now too.  After a minute or so I realize, " Elsie was Emmy here in your sleep?" She replied, "We play hide and seek in my sleeping."  So Elsie dreamed she was playing hide and seek with Emmy, and there are no intruders in my house.  All is safe.  I've never been privy to  a child's dreams before.

Blogger is not being nice

Blogger won't let me show you Annie Jumping off the diving board or Elsie caught in the act destroying an entire loaf of fresh made bread.  Blogger wants money from me for posting pictures now.  Not sure why this happened or how to change it, but it makes me mad.

Not done but finally functional!

 After scrapping and chiseling, then drilling and adding rebar...

 The concrete was poured.

Today it was freed from the mold and we can now walk up our front steps!  If only the basement stairs went this fast.  Only kidding, I'm so impressed with my husband right now and so glad he is mine.  Thank you Texas I love my new front stairs and can't wait to see them finished.

Golf?

 For Father's Day Annie and I took Texas to play Golf.  Please note I have never played or even watched golf.  We went to a litle family course and I was surprised to realize it's actually fun. 

It's going to take me a while to get the hang of it, but Annie is awesome!

Missing something

 Paint and repairs all done, the front porch looks amazing, now we just need front steps.  This might take awhile seeing as how the plumping for the upstairs bathroom sprung a leak and Texas is busy getting that all sorted out.

 We put the flower boxes back up today, and they make the front flower bed look sad.  We need to really tear the whole bed out and put in new soil.  That will have to wait till next year though.

Garden update

Elsie has discovered a love of the garden and I have suddenly found myself in need of Elsie proof garden fencing. She has an insatiable appetite for tomatoes, this morning alone I lost count after 23.   Aside from tomatoes she loves snacking on radish beans, lemon balm, and fennel. 

 Elsie helping in the Garlic patch.

 Overall we had a late start around the tree trunk due to the incredible amount of digging required to get at the roots, but it's all coming along fine now.

 I did a boarder of flowers around the outside of the stump where the soil was to shallow to handle vegetables. 

My rhubarb which is on it's first year is taking over.  I tried to pin it with fennel which has kept it from growing out to much, but once I pull the fennel it will open up. Perhaps I will leave the fennel.

 

This is obviously not plants, but I am so excited to have more than 6 diapers.  We now have 23!  and it has changed my life.   As part of my preparing for baby number 3 I'm stocking up on diapers. Bring on the dirty diapers new baby, I'll be ready.