4th of july.

yeah its august, so what. it's been so long that i no longer remember the 4th of july vividly, but with the aide of some pictures ive come up with the following...

it looks as though we did a little back yard swimming at some point.

im guessing it was pretty warm. nothing a little ice cream sandwiches cant handle.

jove even managed to go down the slide...one time.

looks like we made a trip to the lake courtesy of the holmes/thompsons. jove however preferred to be beside the lake. her reason for not getting in, its too big. maybe next time.

for now she will just sulk in the middle of the boat as far away from the water as possible.

moving on to fireworks at my parents house...during the day of course. patience has always been a problem for us.

jove refrained from holding or being near anything resembling fire, just like i taught her. what a good girl. she was content to sit and watch.

and here she is just being the cutest girl in the world. i managed to photoshop most of the spaghetti off of her face.

then came the clean up crew.

and finally, we made it to a real life night time fireworks display. i cant take credit for this picture, chris was in charge of the camera here as i was too busy being 7 years old and enjoying the fireworks accordingly.

that is all. perhaps in another month or so we can discuss august. ill let you know.

-cayla

fathers day

more cute pics of the jove. they are cute for the most part but take into account that, the day before, she spent the evening on a slip n slide that was doused with four bottles of baby oil. this is actually two hair washings later.

little drumming pre slip n slide.

during slip n slide

after

cayla

not too shabby

better than one year. mostly i got a new camera and am no longer embarassed of my pics. i think they are quite cute and worthy of sharing. it could have something to do with the subject, but regardless, here is the recent happenings in pics...

ok fine so just more of the same. but at least she looks happy this time. my next task should i choose to accept is to take pictures in places other than the park. until next time. here is my cute dog.

-cayla

we're back. after almost a year ive become inspired yet again to post another blog. it might be another year before the next one so you should probably really enjoy this one. it will contain pictures of a very cute girl so that should suffice.
so i now have a two year old. i think that sounds ridiculous. im still not old enough for that to be true. she has just recently become a big girl too. now i really dont know what to do with myself. i took off on her birthday 5/5 and decided that was the day she would become a big girl. we ditched the paci cold turkey and never looked back, she has since been sad about this approximately two times for only a moment and moved on with her life. more importantly we ditched the diapers. we woke up on our birthday put on some pullups and off we went. we were in big girl panties by saturday 5/8. we arent 100% but we are getting there.
so what else have we been up to you might ask, well im currently watching nemo for the second time today. this after watching Up once and mickey mouse christmas twice. so that about sums the last year up. these are the only jovie movies we own, she doesnt seem to mind, obviously.
moving on to the picture portion of the post....

drinking and swinging.


deep thought.


sandbox.


i like this one because for some reason it reminds me of the pic that she took on "where the heart is" minus the destruction. and yes i do love that movie.


on the slide. i swear she is actually having fun. she loves the "weee"


the birthday girl.


that should do for now. naptime is almost over. enjoy.

cayla

bi monthly

we did have a birthday. it was a long time ago, but it did happen as documented in the following photos:

not entirely sure why it turned sideways, but what can you do. this was the cake combo. cuter than cute if you ask me. and to top it off the actual cake is funfetti. my favorite. and i plan on imposing my values on my child. next stop, the birthday girl.

she is strutting her stuff getting ready for the big day.

and since im a terrible mother i took very few pictures of the party. here she is not caring a thing about her cake and taking a break to give mason a kiss. isnt she sweet. and there you have it. i was a 1 year old and she has lots of toys and swim suits and clothes and books. she loved all her presents. she a little too good at opening them. and on to present day.

nothing excitng to report really. we threw in an anniversary on sunday. the big 4 years. we celebrated with a quiet lunch out. and by quiet i mean jove went to the babysitters. it was delicious. and ended the day by decorating the guest bedroom, my big anniversary present. pretty exciting. that pretty much brings us up to speed. its currently my favorite time of year: so you think you can dance season. my favorite show ever. im a little sad this year though because i work on wednesdays and dont get home until 8 so i miss the first half. last year i enjoyed maternity leave for the whole season, i need to work that out again for next time. you really need that time off to count.

and here we are at present day:

i love mama's head band.

and here we are rocking, reading a book, in good ol fashion arkansas baby attire.

favorite past time. kissing any and every dog.

and finally my little beach babe! and by beach i of course mean lake.

enjoy.

the return

turns out im not very good at this. or timely i guess you could say. so this post will be dedicated to our st louis weekend getaway. we abandoned poor jove at the grandparents house and off we went. so sad. we had a good time though. little ball game. little zoo. little museum. little mall. the usual. so fun. especially since michael and melanie went with us.

thats anthony. or at least thats what we named him. i think it fits.

and of course a pic of the jove. how could i resist. she is almost 1. thats a whole year old. feels impossible. she is doing all kinds of fun things these days. and at least one new thing per day. always an adventure. she is walking and climbing. she says what the puppy dog says. but since our puppy dog doesnt bark she thinks they just pant. so that is how she communicates with dogs. she will talk on the telephone. dance to any and all music. even if its just me singing a narrative about what im doing ex: "mixing up yummy squash a doo wop" she claps and waves. she plays peek a boo and keep away with the dog. she loves swinging. she gives kisses. thats probably my favorite thing she does. ive been giving kisses for almost a whole year, its about time i got a little return on the deal.

so maybe this is a jovie post and not a vacation post. it happens.

anyway her bday party is saturday though i have not sent a single invitation. im pretty excited. maybe that can be my next post.

to be continued...

here goes nothin...

so from the top:

we are the harrells established june 28, 2005. wed in a courthouse in union missouri on chris's lunch break with two strangers as witnesses. my dream wedding you might say as i like to avoid big crowds and attention. shortly after came the love of our lives...

this is buttons, the best dog on earth.

anyway so that lasted a good while, nothing to report. christmases, vacations, and ballgames etc.

then may 5 2008 this close to 10 lb bundle of joy came along.

we have since learned to crawl forward as well, though not as entertaining, it does seem to be more practical transportation.

so there you have it 3 and a half years in a nutshell. to be continued... one more for good measure because she is so darn cute.