Me and You and William 2

William 2009

2011-08-10T22:35:00.002-05:00

Found this old video of William singing a song he made up. This was about 2 years ago, when he was 3.

Lillian's Words

2010-07-26T19:42:00.002-05:00

Lillian will turn 2 on Sunday.... she has a lot to say... here's a few I can remember:

Care-me-me Mommy! (carry me)

I haf idea!

Some of dat too! (when you're eating something and she wants some)

I love you ever and ever!

Buver did it! (or Wiwwam did it!)

Go to gampa gampas? (grandma and grandpas)

Lemme see tails (when she wants to look at her pigtails in the mirror)

My cuties

2010-06-16T20:02:00.002-05:00

Sometimes they're good, sometimes not... but always so cute!! (in my opinion)

William turns 4!

2010-05-25T20:26:00.003-05:00

I forgot to post of picture from William's 4th birthday celebration. We had a great time at his grandma & grandpa Baileys!

Easter 2010

2010-04-04T20:54:00.005-05:00

This is why you show up on time (or early) for an Easter egg hunt!

"Tails"

2010-03-07T21:20:00.002-06:00

Lillian is a girly-girl and likes her hair in pig-tails... or "tails" as she calls them. She loves her "brover", candy, her dolls, looking at pictures of babies... she's crazy about shoes... but most of all... her daddy!

Say "Cheeeese!"

2010-02-07T17:58:00.001-06:00

They just love having their picture taken and love saying "cheeeese!"

Christmas 2009

2010-01-12T18:39:00.002-06:00

The kids were excited to get presents and excited to get more presents (here they are, getting ready to leave for Christmas at Grandma & Grandpa Baileys)

My little princess

2009-12-05T10:17:00.002-06:00

William called me into the kitchen for this surprise- he picked this bib out all on his own!

The Monkey & the Chicken

2009-10-25T11:55:00.003-05:00

The kids testing out their halloween costumes

Lillian's first haircut (and William got one too)

2009-09-28T22:39:00.005-05:00

Before
During AfterWilliam

Lillian's first haircut was Saturday, September 26th. She did really well with it... and gosh is she cute :o)

Lillian is ONE!

2009-08-10T18:10:00.004-05:00

Happy birthday to our beautiful little girl! Lillian, you are everything a mommy could want in a daughter. I'm absolutely sure no sweeter baby could ever exist(William is pretty close though). Your sweet smile and cute little giggle... the way you squeal when you spot some sweets across the kitchen... the way you give your daddy kisses.... You are sunshine and happiness and WE LOVE YOU!

Frank McCourt - RIP

2009-07-20T21:12:00.003-05:00

I remember reading only one book where upon finishing it, I turned right back to the front page and started over. Angela's Ashes is that good. Later I read 'Tis and Teacher Man and liked them almost as well. How he dealt with so many tragedies and difficulties I can't even imagine, and all with such humor and strength. Today is a sad day for sure. Rest in peace Mr. McCourt. You will be missed.

Mother's Day

2009-06-17T20:19:00.005-05:00

We had a great Mother's Day (I think my posts are getting out of order!) at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Our friend Roy was playing music and it was a beautiful day~ Thought I'd put a few pictures here. After we got home I got to be lazy and Josh cooked a delicious dinner :o)

Beautiful Bride

2009-05-24T22:03:00.005-05:00

Our friends Mikayla and Heath got married yesterday. Doesn't she make the most beautiful bride! Congratulations Stovers!

down teeth

2009-05-09T17:33:00.002-05:00

It's about time I posted a picture of Lillian and her down teeth. William says "Lillian has down teeth but she doesn't have any up teeth". He is anxious for them to come in so he can share more food with her.

interview

2009-04-03T19:22:00.003-05:00

me: William, what do you think of you little sister?
Wm: Uuuumm.. she's... she's the cutest!
(miss cutest just started crying so that's all for now!)

Half-Way to Winfield

2009-04-03T18:57:00.006-05:00

It has been too long since I've posted, so here's what we did during the month of March. We welcomed spring by going on a few family hikes near the lake, dinner at the Hi-Boy and a drive-in movie, and a great camping trip. These pictures were taken by our friend Larry at a super fun campout mid-month. The weather was cool, but not too cool, we spent time with so many great friends and family members, and other than the truck breaking down on the way home, it was the perfect (short) vacation. Later in March we had dear friends Ken, Beth, and Ryan (5) over for a German feast! I hope we'll have even half as much fun in April!

Carrot Soup

2009-03-02T09:34:00.001-06:00

Last night William wanted us to make carrot soup. How do you make it? ....we asked. He said "first you put it on the stove, then you put it in the microwave, then you stir-stir-stir... then you eat it!". Then William asked me to smell his hand.. sniff... hmmm.. then to daddy "smell my hand" and daddy says "what does is smell like?" and William said "HAND!". cutie.

Imaginary Friend

2009-02-21T12:21:00.002-06:00

William turned 3 last week and has an imaginary friend. His name is Dab. (I just found out about him this morning.) Dab likes hair ties, playing with trucks... he likes rocks, fences, grass, leaves and all kinds of stuff (William is looking out the window as he tells me what Dab likes). Dab lives at the camper store. Sometimes I hear William in his room talking to his imaginary friend.

Q&A

2009-01-25T10:42:00.004-06:00

Me: What is your favorite color? Wm: yellow blue
Me: What is your favorite toy? Wm: something. you say what's my favorite toy. (later: talking cars and incredibles)
Me: What is your favorite thing to eat? Wm: blueberries and grapes. I need more of them.
(he then refused to answer any more questions and went off to eat grape tomatoes.)

and YOU want to be my policeman doctor monkey?

2009-01-25T10:32:00.002-06:00

William had fun with his chocolate pudding on Friday night while we weren't looking!

Goodbye 2008

2008-12-30T22:16:00.004-06:00

What can I say about 2008? William went from "almost 2" to "almost 3".... Lillian was born... and overall it was a great year. William is in to Handy Manny (both the toys and the tv show) and loves to eat ramen noodles. He hardly wants to eat anything else but noodles and fruit. Lillian is so sweet- she wakes up smiling and goes to bed smiling- she's too young to give us much trouble. She started sleeping through the night nearly every night in early November- when she was about 3 months old. We all get pretty good sleep. The kids really love each other (I hope that never changes). We welcome 2009 and especially spring weather, camping trips, playing outside, working in the garden, bluegrass festivals, drive-in movies, and going to the park!

The Dreaded Christmas Pictures

2008-12-14T19:05:00.003-06:00

Just like me when I was a kid, my kid hates having his Christmas picture taken. I have been trying to get a decent one for weeks, and it goes something like this "NOOOOOO! waahh.. no way!" He was laying on the floor crying and screeming "cheeeese". As a result, we didn't get a good picture this year. I'm working on putting some older pictures together for a photo card.. the best I can do. Here's a picture from today. If you look closely, you can see the tears.
Before I forget- here's what William says he wants to be when he grows up:
"A doctor, a cop, and a monkey!"

Lillian-Almost 4 Months

2008-11-21T17:23:00.002-06:00

Our little girl is almost 4 months old. She is sooooo sweet and we are enjoying every minute with her! William is a lot of fun too. He is 2 and 3 quarters... and he says the funniest things- like this conversation we had the other day:
Wm: Let's get Lillian and go for a walk in the stroller.
Me: It's too cold out!
Wm: But I'll wear my jacket and Lillian can wear her pumpkin! (that was her halloween costume)

And when he was eating noodles: "I'm Wiyyam.... I'm Wiyyam... I'm Wiyyam Bob Noodle Belly!"

OBAMAAAA!

2008-10-18T20:37:00.017-05:00

We were there............ and as the newspapers just reported, so were 74,996 other people (give or take). Barack Obama visited Kansas City today for a rally at Liberty Memorial. It was a beautiful day and the crowd was anxious and excited. Josh & I and the kids had a late lunch at Kabuki then walked over, and we couldn't believe the line- extending from the south memorial entrance all the way down the hill to union station. People eager to get a glimpse of the next president (or so we hope) although relatively few were close enough to see him. William (2 1/2) had quite a good time and had been excited about this for days. He yelled BARACK OBAMAAAA as loud as he could and got many laughs. When he saw people taking pictures he assumed they were taking his picture, so he would shout "cheeeese!". What a cutie. Lillian seemed less interested in seeing Obama. She was quiet, just looking around taking it all in. I wondered if anyone so young had ever seen so many people.

It was inspiring, exciting, fun. I am so glad were were there.

We were standing near the back of our area, but this picture of the crowd is just a tiny portion of the overflow area that was behind us. Josh said "Obama was like a rock star... people were fainting and passing out.... of course those were the diabetics".

William and Lillian at the rally:

Ok.... this last picture isn't from today's rally, but I couldn't resist adding a picture of "our first black President"...

William's Big Bite

2008-08-31T11:47:00.007-05:00

As I was taking this picture I thought.... "how cute! he's kissing her!".... a few seconds later she let out a wail-- yes, he was biting her ear. William is being nicer to his sister every day now, as he is getting used to having her around. Mostly he just kisses her, but sometimes he's a little rough. I told him to be gentle with her, she is a delicate flower. He said "I want to be a deliclower flower too!". He gives her a sniff like he's smelling a flower, and lots of kisses on top of her head. Lillian turns one month old tomorrow. She weighs almost 9 pounds now and is a good eater. She is almost grown out of her newborn clothes- we may have a week left before she's wearing her 3 month size. They grow so fast!

Happy to be home.....

2008-08-26T20:34:00.003-05:00

We are so happy to be back home......
Sunday morning as I was feeding Lillian, I noticed she felt very warm. Took her temperature and it was 101.5! Very scary for a 3 week old baby. Called Children's Mercy and they said to bring her right in to the ER. They took her temperature and it was 102. When a newborn has a temperature this high that means an automatic hospital stay. Then ran blood, urine, and spinal fluid cultures and 24 hours later we learned that Lillian has an Enterovirus. By Monday morning her fever had come down (and she was eating well and acting normal all along), but we had to stay in the hospital another 24 hours to get all the lab results back and make sure there was nothing bacterial. The preliminary cultures all looked good so we got to come home around noon today and we're so happy to be home, but even more happy that our little girl is feeling well. Since there is really no way to treat a virus, she has to fight it off all by her little self. I got to spend extra time cuddling her while we were in the hospital, without distractions such as tv, phones, computers, and errands. I tried to worry as little as possible, and all the great nurses and doctors at the hospital reassured us that she would be okay. Lillian's very own Aunt Erin is a nurse there at CM South, but unfortunately her days off were the same days we were there. She still came by every day and made sure the nurses were taking extra good care of us. Erin will be a mom herself next week, if little Max doesn't decide to show up before then. We can't wait to meet him!!!

That's Bob Dylan

2008-08-18T14:07:00.002-05:00

More than once now William has pointed at Lillian and said "that's Bob Dylan". We don't know where he got that! William loves his little sister. He has been picking on her some though- so far he bit her ear, her nose, and her foot. Nothing too serious, but boy did she scream! We have to watch him every second. Hopefully he'll get used to her soon and we can all relax a little. I wonder if he'll teach little "bob dylan" to play guitar someday..... he has a guitar, mandolin, harmonica and kazoo. He wants to be in a band like his daddy.

Lillian's first bath

2008-08-06T19:51:00.005-05:00

Lillian is 5 days old today. Her umbilical cord fell off this morning so she had her first real bath. She really liked it! ...until the water got cold.
William was ready with the lotion and anxious for us to finish her bath so they could take a ride in their new double stroller. It was a relatively cool day today and they had fun. She is such a sweet baby. We just love her!!

lillian to earth

2008-08-03T20:54:00.004-05:00

The big day finally came. Now I know that this is not the best picture of me, but I like it just fine. This is my brand new daughter, Lillian Christine. At this age she looks alot like her older brother, William, but I think that will probably change as she gets older. If you look really hard just above Lillians face you will see just a little bit of my new tattoo as well. Maybe I should have a special post for my tattoos, but that will be another day.

Birthdate: 8-01-2008

weight: 6 lbs 6 oz

length: 20"

and lots of hair

Camping

2008-07-11T09:18:00.005-05:00

Some pictures from a camping trip earlier this summer. William had a great time!

Lookie My Got, Mommy!

2008-06-27T11:05:00.002-05:00

William wants to thank his "aunt" Karen for the presents yesterday. As he opened each one he said "Lookie my got, mommy!" which means "look at what I've got!". I will post a picture very soon. He has also starting saying "nice to meet you, mommy!".

close to done

2008-06-07T20:19:00.005-05:00

Well, it's been a long time coming. You may remember, if you've been following along, that I have had a project motorcycle. This is my 1982 suzuki gs650glz. This motorcycle rolled of the japanese production line just 3 months before I was born. If you are looking closely you may notice the brake line just kind of hanging to the side in picture 1. Well, this is because of the totally awesome handlebars I have put on it, I just need to add a little bit of brake line. I am waiting on the last of the parts I should need to actually get it running. I wish this were an American made machine, but as they say beggars can't be choosers. I am also excited because dad just bought a 1979 harley custom chopper. I will be blogging again when something exciting happens. Josh

I'm in a band.....

2008-06-02T11:17:00.002-05:00

Yesterday William (2 yrs, 3 months) picked up his mandolin, sat on the couch- and banged on some strings. Our conversation went like this:
Wm: Wanna play mandolin. I'm in a band.
Me: What kind of band are you in?
Wm: Mine!
Me: Is it a bluegrass band?
Wm: No. orange
A few minutes later.....
Me: What kind of band are you in William?
Wm: rubber!

Humor

2008-05-13T09:25:00.006-05:00

Lately William is really showing his sense of humor, for instance when Josh told him "wave to Mommy" the other evening, he waved to me with his foot and giggled. Some other cute things he has said or done lately:
me: "Hi Spongebob!"
Wm: "Hi Spastrick" (Patrick, the starfish from Spongebob Squarepants)
me: "hi Spongebob"
Wm: "no spunsebob, name's BABY!"

last night when Josh sneezed I said "bless you" and William said "I wanna bless you.... aaaaacho!"

me: "William, if you had a million dollars, what would you buy?"
Wm: "buy milk!"

He is 2yrs plus 3 months now- and can count to 10 --although usually not in the right order. He knows his colors and shapes pretty well, and the names of most animals. If asked: what does *any animal* say?, he says "goes Raaaaarrr"! This is true for people too. Like "William, what does mommy say?", Wm: "goes Raaaarrr".

Learning to Say "Cheese"

2008-05-04T20:42:00.003-05:00

William has started smiling for the camera. He squints his eyes when he does this. Then he says "wanna see baby" because then he wants me to turn the camera around so he can look at the picture I just took. Then he says "I see baby!". We still haven't been able to get him to say his own name. When we say "What's your name?" he usually says "baby!". But sometimes he says something else like "Maggie" (the dog's name) or "boogie"... not sure why "boogie"! On the subject of names, we have a friend named Mike and William calls him "Microwave". Today William said "hi sweetie mommy!". I'm so lucky :o)

Under Repair

2008-04-08T20:12:00.004-05:00

A few years ago Josh and I were at the Sally Mountain Bluegrass Festival in Queen City, MO. After spending a very hot July day in our tent, my Gibson F9 started coming apart at the neck. Recently our friend and excellent mandolin builder (and musician!), Mark Franzke (check out Flinthills Mandolins) started fixing it. He said the saws and hammer are there for comic effect. I didn't think a thing of it! But glad to know they weren't required. He is also putting on some wider frets and will inlay some fretboard dots! I can't wait!!!

Spring!

2008-04-08T18:59:00.003-05:00

Spring is finally here- although it doesn't quite feel like spring today! We are taking advantage of some nice weather on the weekends to put a flowerbed in front of the house. I'm not quite sure what I've planted, but mostly it's blue and lavender flowers. Peony plants line the sidewalk- but it will be a while before they show themselves. I buried some landscaping bricks to create a border- basically level with the ground so as not to get in the way of the lawnmower. Will post some updates as things fill in.

Who is this kid?

2008-03-01T17:00:00.004-06:00

Do you recognize the little boy in the picture? Neither do we! William got a real little boy haircut this morning. He sat quietly in the chair while they clipped several inches of blonde curls from his head. I will miss the long hair-- but it'll be back......
oh.. and that red spot under his nose? He fell off his cousin's bike yesterday. Ouch! Now he goes around the house saying "nose... bike"

The Cute Things He Says

2008-02-26T13:23:00.002-06:00

Every day William says such cute things. I can't possibly remember all of them. This morning as I was leaving for work-- after the usual "bye byes" he said "bye love.... careful"... it was adorable. Last night I was asking him "William, what's your name?". He used to answer "bean bean" for some reason, now he usually says "baby" but last night he said "Cooper" then "Pooper".. then repeated whatever name I said. It was fun to see how well he could pronounce different names. He was best at saying "Josh". He didn't seem to want to say "William".. but he did whisper something like "Wih-um".

William and Gracie

2008-02-20T18:14:00.000-06:00

William and his favorite girlfriend, the lovely Gracie :o)

One year ago.......

2008-02-12T13:40:00.001-06:00

My oh my how they grow. Here is William one year ago :o)
Check out the background of the two pictures. I have killed that plant, drunk that wine, and stained that highchair.

William Turns 2!

2008-02-10T17:42:00.001-06:00

Today our little baby turned 2 years old. We can hardly believe it. Shortly after he woke up he asked for "bean beans" (green beans). A few minutes later he saw the left over birthday cake his Grandma had for him and he said "Happy Birthday!". He also asked for his favorite drink "shocky bock" (chocolate milk). Here are some pictures of him eating green beans and birthday cake......

It's a................

2008-02-08T21:03:00.000-06:00

.........baby! Yes, William is going to be a big brother!! Today was the day I told my co-workers. During our monthly meeting, my boss said a few words about my "utilization" dropping off at the end of FY08, then put this slide on the overhead. Our official due date is August 2nd.

From Mommy to Mom

2008-02-06T20:32:00.001-06:00

A lot can change in a day. Back around Thanksgiving, William suddenly stopped calling me Momma and started calling me Mommy. That was pretty exciting. Today my new name is "Mom". It is so grown up and I'm not ready for it. Maybe when he's sad or hurt he'll call me Mommy again. If that's what it takes, I'll be happy to stay "Mom".

Baby's First Haircut

2008-02-06T18:33:00.000-06:00

Is he still a baby? I guess not. William turns 2 on Sunday (Feb. 10th) and had his very first haircut last Friday..... finally. We loved his curls and had a hard time parting with them. We took him to Shear Madness in Zona Rosa. They are a kids haircut place- and he didn't complain a bit. They did a nice job-- didn't take away his curls but gave him a neater look with a little style, and got the hair out of his eyes. He looks more grown up with his hair cut, but I guess he'll always be my baby.

Snow Day

2008-02-06T18:14:00.000-06:00

We got a lot of snow today so I worked from home. Kind of difficult with a 2 year old running around. Josh went to his granparents house to shovel snow-- so it was just me and William for several hours. Besides getting some work done, it was an eventful day.

I set William in his high chair with a bowl of ravioli. I heard the usual eating noises for a while, then things got really quiet. I went to check on him and found him fast asleep........

Later I was in the living room on the computer, and William was playing in the kitchen. I heard some strange noises which I ignored for a little while then I went in there to check on him. He had pulled a chair up to the kitchen island. He had a big cup of water and he put into the water: my cell phone, my watch, a pack of aaa batteries... and he was stiring it all together with a toothbrush. My phone is pretty well fried so Josh got a new one (free!) today and I get his old one.

I wonder what he was trying to make.....

The Next American Idol

2007-12-06T10:02:00.000-06:00

The other day William picked up his little green plastic guitar and started strumming and singing a little song he made up that goes "mommy.... daddy.... and peanut butter... on the couch" but it sounds more like "mommeeee... daddeee.... peeeee buh.. .on cow-owshhh"

William's Words

2007-10-25T17:59:00.000-05:00

William knows many words now-- some need translation. Starting with the newest:
ga gee = pacifier (don't have any idea where he got "ga gee")
ee-buh = peanut butter
diiink = drink
cacker = cracker
outsigh = outside
nigh nigh = good night
eat, cookie, no way!, ma maa, da da, go go go, light, uh oh, oh no, mine (oh no!), shoes, socks, toes, nose, eyes, hiiii, bye, see ya, clothes, car, baby
all gone (while gesturing with plams up, fingers spread, shoulders shrugged)
A couple of weeks ago I asked William "Where's mommy's kiss?" and Wm gave me an innocent look, shrugged, and said....... "all gone". *sniffle*

In addition to those words and many more, he also repeats a lot of what we say. 21 months is a fun age!

Bad Computer!!

2007-10-19T22:19:00.000-05:00

Today our 3 1/2 year old computer crashed. I spent all day trying to figure out how to fix it. When Josh turned the computer on this morning it just kept acting like it was loading windows, then to a boot screen asking to boot in safe mode, then back to the loading windows page, back to boot screen... an endless cycle. I found my bootable windows xp disk and was able to run a recovery and chkdsk /r to repair the hard drive. It seems to be working-- for now!-- so I am in the process of backing up some 1000+ pictures I've taken since I got the digital camera in Feb. 2006. It was scary to think we lost all of those-- all the pictures since William was born. I found this one from when Wm was about 4 months old. I think these two are just too cute.

Winfield!

2007-09-17T22:22:00.000-05:00

We just returned from 2+ weeks of camping in Winfield-- what a great time we had! But it is good to be home. We didn't have internet access so have not been able to post since we headed out-- at the end of August!

If you've never been to the festival in Winfield, you don't know what you're missing. There is music 24 hours a day and for many folks, it is the best part of their year. I know it is for us. We see so many friends that we only see once a year. We have watched our friends' children grow up there, and now we have our own -- who I might add, is more well known than us, somehow! When we took him around in the stroller we would hear people shout "Hi William!" without saying a word to us.

2 and a half weeks is a long time in the life (and development) of an 18 month old. By the time we left, William was not only saying "bye!" (he has done this for a while now) but he added a "see ya" and followed that with "go!". So his farewell to friends as they were leaving was "bye..see ya..GO!" Yesterday he put his shoes on by himself for the first time ever. The coolest thing was when we finally got home and walked in the door, he was wide-eyed and smiling like.... "I remember this place... sort of!". He was especially excited to see the toys in his room.

It's time for bed so I'll have to continue the update another day........

2007-08-23T12:58:00.000-05:00

Francis Bacon was a scientist during the Age of Exploration who lived from 1561 to 1626 and promoted research based on experimentation. He died from hypothermia sustained from stuffing a snow-packed chicken inside his shirt.
Not to be confused with the 20th Century Anglo-Irish artist (1909-1992) of the same name, although the artist Francis Bacon was what is known as a 'collateral descendant' of his earlier namesake
Retrieved from http://www.conservapedia.com/Francis_Bacon

Cousins

2007-08-06T22:14:00.000-05:00

We spent the weekend out of town. We had a great time seeing family and attending my cousin Gwen's wedding. I didn't get any good pictures inside the church, but got this one in the hotel room-- William is pulling his cousin Anthony's hair... ouch! We are trying to teach him not to do such things. Anthony is a good sport though, and a GREAT kid. We hope William will grow up to be a lot like Anthony. (Click on the picture to bring up a full size view.)

"The Cute One" Eats Spaghetti

2007-08-02T21:17:00.000-05:00

He's a big boy and can feed himself :o)

New Words

2007-08-01T21:46:00.001-05:00

My husband just told me William learned a new word today:

Cookie

he wanted one

Daddy's Slippers

2007-08-01T21:11:00.000-05:00

William is now walking around in BOTH of daddy's shoes. They don't slow him down much. He also climbs on top of the rocking horse then over the back of the couch. He is so proud of himself as he plops over the edge and stretches his feet to the floor.

2007-08-01T13:18:00.000-05:00

Today I checked out a website I read about on another blog www.walkscore.com Walk Score calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc. Our house scored 2 out of 100. My old place in the city got 82 out of 100. (Although I wouldn't walk outside after dark in that neighborhood!)
My mom's house got 43 out of 100.
Our score of "2" makes me feel like we're out in the boonies.

Tomatoes Coming Out of Our Ears

2007-07-30T23:04:00.000-05:00

If I had to have a vegetable (or is it a fruit?) coming out of my ears, I guess I would want it to be a tomato. They are squishy.

After the varmints got into our garden, I went out and picked every ripe or near ripe tomato with big plans of making friends with the neighbors and winning points with the co-workers. While I did take many to work, and many to the in-laws, the neighbors are still waiting--and I'm still staring at these tomatoes! Now I love homegrown tomatoes about as much as anybody, but this is ridiculous (I can now understand why someone would make a movie about killer tomatoes attacking... I have had these nightmares!)

Our Backyard Garden

2007-07-30T22:34:00.000-05:00

This spring we planted a vegetable garden in the backyard. Our yard is kind of steep so handyman Josh built a sort of raised bed. It is level to the ground on one end, and is built up a few feet on the other. It holds 12 tomato plants, many green, red, and yellow bell pepper plants, jalapeno and banana peppers, green beans, cucumber, zucchini, melons, basil and rosemary... a whole section of strawberry plants, onion.... some other stuff I'm forgetting right now but will remember shortly after this post.

About a week ago I noticed several tomatoes were on the ground, chewed up by some critter who sneaked in through the fence. Some rascal chewed through a section of the wood just wide enough to sneak through. Josh set up a live trap and the first night he caught a groundhog. The second night he caught a raccoon. The third night-- a possum. Today, another groundhog. geez. All animals were taken far out into the country and released. Personally I'd rather just wrap chicken wire around our entire yard than to deal with these animals. Oh yeah, they also got our first melon of the season at its peak of ripeness! Arrrrrggg!

This picture makes our backyard look huge! If this picture were panoramic, to the left of the picture would be our apple tree, and to the left of that, our garden. William enjoys splashing in his little pool on hot days.

Mom's Shoe

2007-07-30T20:58:00.000-05:00

I need to keep a camera around my neck... I'm always a few seconds too late. Last night the little one was walking around wearing one of my shoes. He does this a lot. He has many funny walking styles, like tip-toe on one foot, like he's trying to do the splits while walking, stomping style walk, and walking backwards. He cracks us up!

Using a Spoon

2007-07-30T20:36:00.000-05:00

William likes to feed himself most days; unfortunately he is very messy! This morning he enjoyed some "yo baby" whole milk yogurt. He's not a great eater, but he loves to point and whine at the yogurt whenever we open the refrigerator. He also tries to climb up into his high chair when he wants a snack. We put the food on the tray, set him in the high chair, then he starts squishing the food around, throwing most of it on the floor... spilling his milk on the tray and splashing his hands in it. Then he wants down. We are lucky that he likes food that is good for him, like broccoli, green beans, blueberries, and grilled chicken. What a funny, happy, sweet little boy we have!

The little one

2007-07-30T00:03:00.001-05:00

some pictures of William when he was *really* little

Josh's Other Babies

2007-07-29T21:29:00.001-05:00

Besides William, these are Josh's other babies. A Martin D2R guitar and Weber Bitterroot mandolin. He plays 'em real good.

Josh's turn

As it says on our profile our favorite music is bluegrass, and I ain't talking about this new age weirdo stuff, I'm talking about old school quick paced wonderful banjoful music. We also like other stuff pretty well, such as Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan and some other songwriter types. If you are new to bluegrass music and would like to get a taste of what I'm into, I would recommend Tony rice, and make sure to listen to the stuff he did in the seventies. I would also like to tell you, if you don't know, check out pandora.com and build your very own radio station. You can use any song title or artist to start out, I would recommend using your favorite song since some artists do things that you might not quite like. When you use a song it will choose songs for your station that closely match the style of that song. J-man OUT

josh's first time

2007-07-29T20:04:00.000-05:00

Check this out. Sweet stuff don't you think.
This is Josh and my blogging debut. I thought maybe I should acquaint everyone with two things I hold very dear to me.
First is my 99 Dodge Ram 1500 V8 MAGNUM
It ain't the biggest made but it does everything I need it to, including pulling our 28' Salem camper.
Second is my 1982 Suzuki gs650glz
I was born in 1982
I just picked this baby up from Gary, the fella that owns the local gun shop which I frequently frequent. It is in need of some work which you might notice. This bike has been sitting without the engine for 15 years now. I have everything I need to get it running, however it is going to take some time and money. I intend to put some taller handlebars and a nice set of saddle bags on, and am also going to have a custom sissy bar put on it. My dad will make it for me, as he has been welding since 1968 with the railroad and now owns a rott iron (This is how he spells it because his mascot is his rottweiler named trick) fence company and also makes metal art and other metal things as well. He can weld anything. His current project is making a trike out of a 1981 Honda cb900f. I will keep you all updated on the project.

Still No Visitors?

2007-07-29T00:29:00.000-05:00

It has been over an hour since my first post. Still no visitors? I am watching the counter sponsored by eHarmony.... waiting for you...... anyone out there??

Why Do I Always Have to Think of a Title?

2007-07-28T23:23:00.000-05:00

This is my first post. I am up past 10:00. Decided to start a blog.... since everyone is doing it. I really don't know how to begin. Thought this would be a good place to store some recipes and pictures. Maybe it would be a good place to complain about things too. This is what I've learned from reading blogs. Most bloogers are witty and funny and know how to spell (that's not me!).

William will probably be the topic of many posts. He is 1 and a half. He talks but only he knows what he's saying. He is illiterate and has no job. We love him. Everybody loves William.

William was named after Willie Nelson. We call him Willie, or William, or Mr. Magoo, or Josie Wales. When he is really bad we call him things we shouldn't. Things that little kids call other little kids. He has only been really bad a few times.