Family photos

No, not of me THANK HEAVEN, but of Rosalee and her cousins from Ohio. We got back from Washington and Beth, Jacob, Tyler, and Lindy were here in Idaho visiting the family. Before they flew back to Ohio I took some pictures of them in matching sailor outfits. (Yes, I really can be that dorky!) I took several and then played with my photo editing program to see what all I could do with them. I have a few more, but these ones are my favorites. So here they are for your viewing pleasure!

The rest of our WA vacation

While in Washington my parent's cow had a baby. It is a girl and they named her Tina. (It was going to be Ike if it were a boy.) Randomly Rosalee would grab her shoes and say, "see baby cow" so we spent a lot of time outside. Several peacock babies were born too so Rosalee had fun chasing them around the yard, much to my mother's dismay. We also kept busy by going swimming at my mom's friend Donna's place. Donna watched me when I was Rosalee's age so it was fun for her to see me with a daughter at that age.

The bull is the all black one and the cow on the far right is the mother. The baby is mostly black with a white face and a little white on the tip of her tail.

The peacock kept bothering me while I was trying to take pictures of the calf so I decided to take a picture of him. This is the peacock that Rosalee hand feeds cheese and bread to.

I bribe Rosalee to take naps by letting her sleep on the kitty bed, aka my parent's bed. I tell her if she will lie down and be very quiet that the cat will sleep with her. My mom went upstairs to check on her and this is what she found.

Rosalee had A LOT of fun swimming in the pool. This pool has a gradual incline into the water so Rosalee could walk right into the water. The fountain is in the 1-2 feet area so Rosalee could run around it and go as crazy as she wanted. She is a water baby for sure!
Jesse flew into Seattle on Monday the 20th at 4:30 in the morning. Normally I am NOT a morning person but getting to see Jesse again seemed to help me wake up and function. He brought my parents a 50 pound box of salmon fillets that I'm sure they were very happy to receive. When we got back to my parent's house Rosalee was still asleep but I woke her up to see Jesse. At first she looked confused but then she got really excited. She ended up going back to sleep, with Jesse, and when she woke up I heard her scream, "DADDY!!!!!" The next day when she woke up I took her to Jesse and she got a huge smile on her face and screamed, "DADDY!!!!" For a day or two I was chopped liver to her, but it was kind of nice to have a momentary break from being mom. Once she said she needed to go potty so I walked her to the bathroom and she started crying. I asked her what was wrong and she told me, "no mommy, want me daddy!" Again, I can't complain that I was off potty training duty for a few days. :)
No they weren't in the jungle, just the front yard at my parent's house. My brother is protesting mowing the lawn for whatever reason so there were a few times I'd lose Rosalee in grass taller than her head! But I took this picture from the living room window because I wanted to capture them just being together. Jesse was singing to Rosalee and she would just smile and stare at him the whole time. It was very obvious that she was beyond happy to have her dad home again.
Before heading back to Idaho we went to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner one night. Jesse brought in several fillets of salmon and grilled some, pan fried some, and baked the rest. Once Rosalee had some salmon she refused to eat anything else. All she wanted was, "salmon fishy meat" and surprisingly even turned down ice cream for salmon. She is her father's child! The weather was very nice in Washington so Rosalee was able to play outside with my cousin's daughter Alyssa. I love looking at the pictures of them together because both girls look like their mothers and they are the same age difference that I am with my cousin. It was fun to look at pictures of Noel (my cousin) and I playing in my grandma's yard, in a kid pool and then to look outside at our daughters playing.

Rosalee LOVES being in the water!

Rosalee was pleasantly surprised when Bella (the dog) jumped in the pool with her.

As you can see sometimes little girls get sick of always having their pictures taken...

July (so far)

I am VERY behind on updating the blog but I've been busy being pregnant, chasing a toddler, and driving all over the western United States to visit family and friends. Now that Rosalee is occupied by various things here on the farm, and takes 3 hour naps, I can actually take the time to post all of my pictures from up to now.

4th of July reunion

Jesse's grandparents (on the James side) arranged for us to have a family reunion in Island Park, Idaho. It is about an hour southwest from Yellowstone, up in the Teton Mountains. It was great getting to spend time with family that I don't get to see that often. On Friday we had a Hawaiian theme so my mother in law Linda and I made some tropical shirts for the nephews to wear. I was really happy with how they turned out so now I'm going to make some clothes for Rosalee and Zeke. Hopefully I'll be able to get them done before Zeke is born because I know after that not a whole lot will get done!
On Friday night we played games, ate Hawaiian haystacks for dinner, a dessert contest, and had fun being with everyone. Rosalee was nervous at first to play with her cousins but she quickly warmed up to them.

My nephew Hudson in the tropical shirt we made him. (Note to self/pregnant women- DO NOT allow people to take your picture from an angle that makes you look larger than you already feel!)

This is the animal game. I've never played it before and I found it HILARIOUS to watch. My favorite animal sign was Grandma's beaver. She's sitting on the couch straight ahead of me and if you look closely you can see her jaw moving in a funny manner.
On the 4th we woke up and went to an area where the Snake River begins. It was nice to get out and enjoy the scenery, even if there were a lot of mosquitoes. We returned to the lodge to eat steak and hamburgers for lunch. Then we had a tie contest, a family auction, and a hat contest.

Rosalee looking at the spring where the Snake River begins and feeding the birds/ducks with Grandpa.

For the tie contest Grandma had everyone strut down the catwalk. If I knew how comical it was going to be I would have filmed it instead of just taking photos.

Jenny won the ugliest tie contest and this was her prize. The tie is made out of a flannel type material and then my mother in law wrote on it with a fabric marker. Jenny was kind enough to donate this special tie to Jesse. Oh won't he be SO excited to see it when he gets home!
For the family auction we raised almost $700 to help support Jesse's cousin on his mission. Uncle Russ was hilarious as an auctioneer and there were great things up for bidding. I bought Rosalee a giant chicken and a hooded orange towel that looks like a lion.

Jenny had me make a banana cream pie for the auction that she bought. As soon as she got the pie she jumped over the counter at her uncle! Most of it got on the floor, but it was entertaining to watch.

My niece Allie

Linda, my mother in law

Jesse's cousins Dylan and Dustin

Uncle Russ and his wife, daughter Annie, and daughter Casie

Jesse's Aunt Maria and her son Maxwell. (Yes, his cousin is younger than 2 of our nephews and one niece.)

Jenny

Rosalee had more fun taking the hat off than she did wearing it for a picture.

Kristi and her daughter Kaylee

Cowboy John

Tia

Farmer Dennis

Grandma James was Elmer Fudd and I wore my father in law's biker hat.

Visit to Utah
After getting back from Island Park I decided to go to Utah with my brother and sister in law. It is a lot easier to have Jesse gone if I keep myself very busy. Rosalee had a great time playing with her cousins at their house. Thank you John and Linz for letting us visit!

Rosalee liked being with her cousins. It made me happy to see her enjoying being around other children. Gavin is 1 year older than her and Hudson and Maddie are about 4 or 5 months younger than her so she fits right in with them.

Hudson and Rosalee hanging out in the tire swing. Apparently it is easier to relax with your finger in your nose.

Lindsey played kickball with Gavin and Rosalee while I sat with Maddie. She kept giving me this evil baby smile that I thought was pretty funny.

Gavin and Rosalee had a great time playing in the dirt together.

Charlene and me after going to the movie

Washington (at least up to yesterday... more to come!)
My dad flew to Idaho on Saturday the 11th and then we drove my car to Washington so I could spend some time with my family. Jesse is going to fly into Seattle when he's done fishing so I thought I'd hang out here for awhile and then him and I can drive back to Idaho together. Rosalee (like always) LOVES being at the farm! She loves all the animals and getting to be outside for the majority of the day. One day we went to Bellevue to have lunch with my cousin and I asked Rosalee what she wanted to eat. She said, "peanut butter" and then after a few minutes said, "want rice". Right before we picked up my cousin she said, "mommy want meat". So I asked my cousin where we could eat peanut butter, rice, and meat and she suggested going to a Thai restaurant. Rosalee was in HEAVEN! She got to eat chicken covered in chunky peanut butter and as much rice as she could stomach. I think I'm going to have to find an easy peanut sauce recipe so I can make this for our family one night.

After several goofy faces we FINALLY got Rosalee to smile!

Trouble liked having another dog to play with at my aunt's house. Rosalee just thought the whole ordeal with hilarious and spent most of the time laughing hysterically.

Rosalee's toddler bed is perpendicular to the end of my bed and she'll crawl over the metal frame and into my bed with me every morning. My mom found us sleeping like this and claims that she "just had to take a picture!"

Rosalee decided that her boot makes a good cup holder and happily carried it like this for a few hours around the house.

One thing you must know about me- I LOVE RASPBERRIES!!! When they talk about the food of the gods in mythology I know what they mean are raspberries. Once, as a child, I ate a while gallon by myself at night and then spent the night being VERY sick. My dad had to clean (hose down really) my room while my mom bathed me and my poor dog. It was nasty, horrible, and NOT fun! The next morning when my mom went to look for me in bed I was missing. She looked out the window at the top of our stairs to find me back in the garden gorging myself on more raspberries. Yes, yes, I am that weird. Anyway, it makes me very happy to see that my daughter takes after me in regards to raspberry consumption. I took her to pick berries thinking she'd stay close and just pull some out of my bucket. As soon as she saw the berries she squealed with delight and jumped into the plants! She got to a point where she would use one hand to eat while the other was picking so she had a constant supply of raspberries going into her mouth.

Worlds cutest naked cowgirl!! All day Rosalee had fought me on wearing clothing. By the time we were going to go berry picking at my mom's work (her boss's house is right next to the vet office) I had given up trying to snap the leg snaps on Rosalee's outfit. Then while picking the berries she got some on her outfit and said, "oh no messy Rosie! Naked Rosie". When I told her that she was okay she took matters into her own hands and messed her diaper to the point where she got to be a naked baby for the rest of the afternoon. The only bad thing about being naked is it makes berry picking slightly painful... the poor kid has one shoulder that has seen better days.