On an explore!

Last week Brian, Daniel, and I went fishing on the hill by my parent's house. Unfortunately, we never got even one bite, but we did have a fun time exploring. It is an amazing thing to see the world through your child's eyes. Everything is a new discovery. From dragonflies, to crawdads, to dung beetles, to lily pads...we enjoyed it all! Here are some photos of our outing.

Playing with a baby crawdad.

Brian swinging Daniel to the next rock.

Yes, we are both wearing mud boots and shorts. Will this perhaps be an upcoming fashion trend? Probably not!

Watching water flow from one lily pad to another. Very cool.

This last photo documents the funniest moment of our outing. Daniel had dropped his crawdad down inside his boot. Luckily, this crawdad was fairly small and could inflict little pain with its pinchers. Brian raised Daniel's leg, as shown above, to get the crawdad out, and the crawdad fell down into Daniel's shorts! Brian said, "We just went from bad to worse, Daniel!"

Summer Fun

The weather these past few weeks has been so, very hot. Frequent triple digit days have kept our family indoors for all but the early morning and late evening hours. Despite the hot weather, we have found some outdoor activities to enjoy. Daniel had his first round of swimming lessons this summer! He and I enrolled in a Parent and Child class together. Daniel learned many new things and enjoyed all of it except "being dipped." The instructor wanted the children to learn how to go under water without being scared. Daniel did not enjoy this part, and every time he felt that going under was likely, he would say, "No thank you, Mommy! No thank you!" So, we kept our heads above the water for the most part. Here are some photos of our lessons:


Brian and Daniel have also been enjoying snow cones this summer! We have a little snow cone machine that Brian fires up most evenings. Those two enjoy their snow cones while I have a little chocolate. In my opinion, ice chips with sugar syrup can't hold a candle to chocolate! Here they are enjoying their snow cones. Notice how we eat these outside. They are a little too messy for indoor consumption!

Meet Bob

Brian and I never expected to own a cat. Not that we dislike cats. It's just that we both love dogs, we grew up in families that had dogs, and here is the kicker...we are both (mildly) allergic to cats. We had happily owned a dog until a few weeks ago. Annie, our sweet golden retriever mix, was a wonderful dog for us. However, when Daniel was about nine months old he tested positive for a dog allergy. No problem. We built a fence around the back yard, and Annie became an outdoor dog. Then, Daniel grew older and came to love Annie too, and it was virtually impossible to keep him from petting, cuddling, laying on, and even riding Annie. At first Daniel's reactions were fairly mild...a little itching, a few hives. We always washed him thoroughly after he had been around Annie and figured no harm was being done. But, then his reactions got worse...lots and lots of hives, swollen eyes, continual itchy nose. So, Brian and I made the very difficult decision to give Annie to my parents. We still see her, and Annie is very happy living in the country. We adjusted to being a petless (except for the fish) family. After the initial sadness, it was kind of a relief.

Then along came Bob.

One morning, we found this pretty black and white cat peering in the window. He lived under our deck for days. He was such a sweet, gentle cat, and we quickly began petting him and eventually, feeding him. And then one evening Brian and Daniel came inside, and I found out they had named the cat. Bob. Very fitting since this guy has a short tail, like a bobcat. So, he has pretty much become part of the family. He lives under the deck. We feed him twice a day. And he endures such things as this...


And this....

And even this...

He has never clawed Daniel, never hissed at Daniel, nothing. He even follows Daniel around the yard. Daniel calls him, "Come, Bob! Come!" And by golly, Bob comes. We would consider this a happily ever after story, but yesterday Daniel got hives after holding Bob. Ugh. Can he seriously be allergic to cats too? Stay tuned for more updates on Bob!

How our garden grows

This year we almost did not plant a garden since Brian had some health problems in April/May and since we had some summer remodeling projects planned. But, alas, we just couldn't give it up, so here are some pictures of our garden's progress. We planted three rows of okra, which you can see in the forefront of the photo below. Behind that are about a dozen tomato plants.

Our tomatoes are doing well, and though we have had several ripe cherry tomatoes, the regular sized ones are still green.

Here is our lone pepper plant.

Daniel desperately wants to pick the green tomatoes. Here he is eyeballinging them.

And here he is just plain cute!
We are hoping for enough produce to can salsa again this year, and perhaps some pickled okra. Yum!

Sara's birthday

Last Saturday we had such fun celebrating a very special birthday with Brian's sister, Sara. We swam, we ate, we opened present, and then we ate some more! Here are some photos of the day.

In the photo below, we are at Fritz's, a really neat burger joint where your food is delivered by train. See the train at the top of the photo. Daniel LOVED it!

Below is the clue cake that Brian's mom made for Sara. There were 30 clues to help Sara find 30 presents that were hidden around their apartment. What fun! Melissia, you are so creative!


We hope you had a wonderful birthday, dear Sara. You are an awesome sister, sister-in-law, friend, and aunt to us! We love you.

Father's Day Weekend

We celebrated Father's Day on the hill by my parent's house. There was fishing and picnicking and fun! Below is one of my favorite Father's Day photos. Aren't they a cute pair? Daniel's shirt says it all--he loves his daddy very, very much. (In case you are wondering, that is a worm in Daniel's hand. A big one. In their search for wildlife under logs, Brian and Daniel ran across a whole slew of them. I'm not usually squeamish about worms, but these didn't thrill me too much.)

Here are some other photos from Father's Day.

Daniel helping Daddy pick a lure.

Daniel reeling in a fish for Uncle Jonathan

Daniel with his grammy

My grandpa trying out his new bee suit

Three generations of Born men.
My dad was trying out his new weed eater!

My dad with his two kids!

My grandpa Johnnie and Brian are like two peas in a pod. They have so many common interests!

Happy Father's Day to all our men!

June update

I blinked my eyes, and June almost disappeared! Here are some photos from the past few weeks.

Daniel has developed a great fondness for June bugs. He laughs uproariously as they crawl all over his hands and arms. If he finds one, he insists on taking it with him wherever we go. One morning, we pulled up to the library, and as we walked in I noticed Daniel clutching something in his hand. Yep, it was a poor little June bug. Daniel literally loves them to death sometimes.

The photo below shows Daniel playing on the neighbor's huge blow-up water slide thing. Anything water related is right up Daniel's alley. I'm not sure what he liked best though...playing in the water or playing with the "big" boys.

Here is a photo of our last meeting with our Parents as Teacher leader, Mrs. Ramirez. This program has been so wonderful for Daniel, but due to budget cuts in our district, it will no longer be available. We will miss it greatly. Luckily, Daniel will get to see Mrs. Ramirez again when he starts school. She is the kindergarten teacher!

I bought Daniel his first set of paints. He loves painting, and I love that these paints are washable. As you can see, Daniel enjoys body art.

We have been enjoying the summer reading program offered at our local library. Below Daniel and I are making a fish out of a pop bottle and tissue paper. For the reading program, we have story time, do art projects, and play with friends. I get to talk to all the other moms too, so it is a win-win situation!

We celebrated an early Father's Day with Brian's dad. Here we are at the zoo. We enjoyed the baby goats and the tigers most.


More Father's Day photos are coming in the next post!