This Boy...

 - is growing fast.

(Please understand it's little Sour Cream I'm referring to, and not his daddy.**)

- is a happy baby.

- has been on formula for a month and a half now, and is doing great with it.

- still has stick up hair.

- rolls over.
- is near the top of all the growth charts. "He's proportional," is what the doc said - 85% or more
for head, length, and weight.

- scoots backwards, but not on purpose.

- is loved.

**Many of these do, in fact, apply to Kidney Bean.  But not all.  That's all I'm

going to say about that before I get cooked.

Pierce County Fair & Reading Prize

Last Thursday, we took advantage of the Pierce County Fair's military discount

and went to the fair.

Kidney Bean was free, since he has a valid military ID,

it was $5 for me, $5 for parking in their lot,

and kids 5 and under are free.

So we paid $10 for our family of 5 to see the sights.

It was great!

The theme this year was "Psychedelic Summer" - one I've never seen

used before.  The theme was found all over, in decorations,

exhibits, and a whole lotta tie dye.

Out by the horses, we happened upon a groovy photo booth, so we stopped

and snapped a few pictures.

Kidney Bean wasn't interested in sticking his hole in the board, but now we all know

what the girls and I would look like as hippies...or not.

 Noodle & Olive

 Noodle & Tomato

We also allowed Tomato to go on one ride.

I thought about taking a picture of the fairway here, but didn't.

But I will say that it was the nicest one I've seen in quite some time.

The grass was well-kept, booths were very organized, and 

ALL of the Carnies were neat and tidy.

Seriously, no long hair, visible tattoos, matching white uniform shirts and black pants - 

can you really call them Carnies??

Old and young, male and female - they were all pleasant.

It was great.

 

 Tomato checking the view from her helicopter.

 While she was waiting in line, a little boy came up and asked if

she wanted to ride together.  She agreed.

I thought it was great, since Olive is too short for any of the rides.

It always helps to have a buddy for a new experience.

On the way back to the car, we found another photo stand,

this time near the Fire & Rescue booth.

 Officer Tomato & Firefighter Olive

 Officer Tomato

 Officer Olive

AND we finished our summer reading program from the library!!

In late June or early July, we signed up for the

reading program.  I was a little intimidated at first, since to complete it

required FIFTEEN HOURS of reading for 4-year-old Tomato,

with prized at 5 hours, 10 hours, and then the final one.

Olive's chart had between 20-30 lines,

and you could mark one off for every day that she read a book,

or one mark for a library visit.

When we had reached the 5 hour mark, we were really excited.

We headed off to the library to claim the first prize,

and I was pretty disappointed.

It was a temporary tattoo.

For 5 whole hours of work, that was it.

And since we don't do tattoos around here, it was even worse.

But I asked Tomato what she wanted to do with it, and she suggested taping it up

on her chart like a sticker.  So we did.

And when we reached the 10 hour mark, we tried to remember

the paper to claim the prize, but I kept forgetting it.

So we took the 10 hour sheet and the 15 hour sheet in together last week.

And the final prize makes up for the tattoo - 

she earned a sticky hand & $5 off library fines (for 10 hours),

and a zoo pass, free food at Applebee's, free pizza from Round Table Pizza!  

Woohoo! 

Talk about great rewards for

hours and hours of work!

We are excited to use the zoo pass especially, and the food will be great, too.

Thank you library!

A Couple Firsts

The girls enjoy the stairs in our house.

They have invented a way of going down that I have never seen before,

and it's pretty entertaining to watch from the bottom or the top.

So here you go.
Tomato is a little faster, so if you just want to watch one video, I suggest the 2nd.

 Also, I am the only one in our family who has seen the ocean in real life.

So we thought we'd head to a beach on the sound,

since it's close.

I know it's not really like being at the ocean, but we're planning

a trip to the coast after we get the backyard done.

 Kidney Bean's having a great time.

 We found a teeny, tiny green crab under a rock.

Can you spot him?

Don't feel bad if you can't - he was pretty small.

Backyard

A couple weeks ago, we asked a couple companies to come out and

give us an estimate of how much it would

cost to landscape the backyard.

The verdict?

WAY too much.

We thought if it was $3k or less, we might

be able to swing that.

But it wasn't even close - double that figure and then add some more.

So we're going to do it ourselves.

 You can't really tell in these pictures, but all that dirt is higher up than the weeds.

The back fence is about 28 inches or so higher

than the ground level where the weeds are growing.

 And here's the base of the one lonely tree back there.

It's not my favorite, but it's staying.

 Pavers that prove that someone at some point thought about

landscaping back here.

I would've thought it might have gotten a little farther along in the process, since

it's apparently in the CC&Rs that the

backyard must be landscaped within one year of purchase.

But, I guess it's true that when it's out of sight, it's out of mind - 

our house was built 6 years ago.

Here are the before shots, when Kidney Bean grabbed a hoe and 

started hacking away at some of the weeds. 

It's not a big backyard, but it sure is (was) full of weeds.

Wish us luck!

We have been enjoying it so far, and you'd better

believe that we will not be spending $8k back here to get what we want!

Revamp

When we had to switch over to the new blog, I had intended to change the look and the names of family members.  BUT it took a while, as you can see.  But I did get it done, and here is the big reveal.

First thing's first - the name Stanley Pie.

What is it?

No one has asked me, which was a little surprising, but it's what I

named a food dish that didn't have a name.

My mom tried it out years ago, and it was delicious, and when we would

eat it, it was 'That noodle thing' - you know, with the sour cream and cheese.

I first made it for my husband when we were dating.

As I pulled out the ingredients, he was

trying to figure out what we were having for dinner.

It sounds really strange, but is actually DELICIOUS!

 So one day I decided to name it, and that's 

when it became 'Stanley Pie'.

Next, since we use pretend names on here, I thought we could change those nicknames to

match the different ingredients in Stanley Pie.

You can find the names and pictures on the left of the blog.

And in case you want to try eating some Stanley Pie,

this is what you do:

Cook some macaroni noodles.

Drain.

Add a can of kidney beans, drained.

Add a can of stewed tomatoes.

Add a can of olives, drained.

Stir together and cook on low until heated through.

Serve in bowls, topping with

dollops of sour cream and shredded cheddar.

Diaper Rash?

Back in January, when we were living in our free temporary housing as part of the moving package, the girls were sharing a room.  I wasn't ready for it, they were certainly not ready for it, but the options were slim, and we weren't about to refuse the free housing simply because of this inconvenience. 

Bedtime took a long time those days.  We didn't have them sharing a bed (luckily), but Cupcake learned how to climb out of the playard we were using, and the door handles were the kid friendly kind, so both girls had the ability to get out of bed and try to stay up late.  

But, it didn't work out to their advantage. They were (sometimes) repeatedly put back in bed, and on occasion lost the nightlight in their room.  Which I think was a good thing, since it was so bright in their with it - they definitely went to bed easier when it was just outside the door.

One night, the girls were playing and being loud, so Daddy went in to put them in bed again.  I heard a reprimand and the words, "Go show your mother."  I didn't know what to expect, but this is the girl that greeted me as her dad followed her out, trying not to laugh: 

Poor thing!  Her sister had grabbed the Caldesene (seriously the BEST diaper rash prevention) and dumped it all over her and the playard.  So I grabbed the camera and stuck this girl in the tub.  

And tried to keep a stern look on my face when I was near Tooty.  That was the toughest part of the whole thing.

Sweet Baby

This little boy has us all enthralled.

Such a darling, sweet boy.

He is a good eating, the best sleeping baby we've had - has often gone

more than 8 hours at night, and even went

12 a few nights ago...before the latest growth spurt hit and now he's eating around the clock.

 The sticky-up-hair is all natural.

Some of the people at church have commented on how much their older sons

wish their hair would stick up like this cute stuff.

And of course he's all smiles until I pull out the camera, then 

he is all serious.  This boy has a great smile and laugh.

He always has one for this older sisters.

On the way back from Idaho, we were able to stop and see Daddy's grandpa.

It was great to relax and be comfortable while

I fed the baby.  And of course, we all enjoy

seeing Grandpa.