Babies, Cousins, Sisters and More . . .

The past four days or so my sister DeAnna and her girls, Caroline and Sophie, were visiting with us from New Braunfels. We spent our time back and forth and in between our house and my other sister, Angie's house with her girls. We had a serious girl party all week! The girls enjoyed playing with their cousins and my sisters and I enjoyed just hanging out and not having a schedule! It was a great visit and we had tons of fun! We had lunch, shopping, movie watching, baby chasing, grandma visiting and overall just a super time with all our sisters, cousins, mommas and babies!

Girls, Girls! Natalie, Samantha, Susanna, Caroline, Sophie and Bethany

We had a quick visit to see Mama Judy (great-grandma) and Mama Leslie (grandma) out in east Texas on Friday. We sure love you!

These are some great action shots of the babies together. It was sure busy around this house with two babies! Sophie and Bethany are just two weeks apart. A 9 month old and a 10 month old - Whew! Sophie can crawl, pull-up and climb the stairs. She's a super-baby. We were constantly on watch. Bethany didn't quite know what to think about it all! Hopefully she was taking notes and getting some lessons from her cousin. They really did have fun and so did we! The babies did well together and we hope for more fun times together in future years with our cousins!

A Perfect 10

A perfect 10 months that is!

Miss B is closing the gap on her one year birthday here pretty soon. She is a fun, cute, silly, curious, happy and in-to-everything baby these days! We are so blessed and are grateful each day for this wonderful little sweetie in our lives. She is the best - no doubt about it!

This past week we were able to spend time with my sister DeAnna and her kiddos (see other post). October is fast approaching and we can't wait for more adventures. And of course, the smiles just keep coming.

These pictures were all taken this past week . . .

Cooney Raccoon - A Tale at Tall Timbers

My sister requested that I post this on my blog. This event happened to my dear friend Jennifer and I a few summers back out at our family lake cabin. My parents and family spend a lot of time at the cabin so this is just one of the funny stories of many great times there! Oh the memories!



This is a true and actual narrative. All parts of this story did happen as written. As you read you can try to picture the events as they unfolded. It makes for lots of laughs and smiles! Enjoy and feel free to pass this along to any other raccoon lovers out there.

Jennifer and I were getting ready to leave the cabin on Sunday morning. Jen was in the back room and I had gathered a few items in hand and headed for the door. To my surprise, I opened the door and a little grey nose began to push its way through the threshold. Our cabin was being invaded by a raccoon. I only had my CD case as a weapon of defense so I threw down the rest of my gear and began screaming (as if the silly raccoon could understand me) to “GET OUT!” .It was a successful move on my part, for the moment. At this point Jen had come into the kitchen to see what I was screaming and yelling about. I got the raccoon out and was happy to slam the door. My first thoughts were along the lines of ‘what would we do if that thing got into the house? We don’t have anyone out here in the backwoods of east Texas to come and rescue us from it.’ . . . not something I was up for wrangling with that morning. The second thoughts were about how we were going to load our gear in the car. This became the tricky part.

The two of us began a plan of attack while we watched the raccoon pacing up and down the deck of the cabin. It was watching us through the slats in the blinds, still pacing. We waited and in a few minutes it started to climb a tree. This was my chance to rush outside and get the ice chest into the house for packing. Sure enough as soon as I opened the door and came back in the house with the ice chest the furry masked bandit was once again on the porch now scratching on the door and making raccoon whistling noises.

This is when the broom became part of the triad of ‘defense against the dark coon’ with me and Jennifer. That broom proved to be a tremendous help for the rest of morning. What should have been about a 10 minute chore turned into a 45 minute standoff with a determined, wild animal I’d now like to call “Cooney”. The scene was much like that from the movie ‘Kujo’ . . . and I do mean it. Same idea here on a much smaller scale of course.

Jen and I took turns loading gear in the car as the other would hold back our new friend with the broom. Cooney was very sneaky and would quickly get away from us as it ran from under one side of the car to the other and then under the deck and back to the car and almost in my car. I think at one point I temporally lost my mind and actually chunked a rather large stick at it not taking into consideration that this might tick it off to the point of attack if in fact it had not already reached that point. Just to clarify, Jen and I had both reached that point as well as fatigue, frustration, anger and a small amount of fear for the all the yucky germs and disease it might have been carrying. It never even flinched. Cooney only sat back on its bottom with front hands/paws extended and began licking its’ fur giving us a disapproving look as if to say “That’s all you got crazy woman?”

We were almost ready for the last load from inside the cabin. It still hadn’t given in after receiving multiple blows to the head with the broom. It actually acted as if it liked the bristles in the broom when we would poke at it. This raccoon was not going to break under the pressure. Jen stayed outside on guard keeping it under the steps as I went to retrieve the ice chest. Now I’ve never really been convinced that any animal can change their facial expressions in any way, but when I came outside with the ice chest in hand I promise that I could literally see the little guy’s face light up, his eyes shining much like those of children on Christmas morning. This raccoon was no stranger to the idea of a cooler. Cooney knew that this may be his Christmas in July!!

Then something else happened I wasn’t expecting. It actually began to chase me to get to the ice chest. So imagine if you can ~ me, Lori Ann, running around the car and cabin deck with flip flops and skirt on, both hands on the cooler with “Cooney” trailing at my heels. That raccoon was very adamant about getting whatever it was in the cooler. I finally got the around to the other side of the car and successful deposited the ice chest. I firmly believe that there are other residents of Tall Timbers who’ve lost a fish or other snacks unexpectedly due to the tactics of one small raccoon. In the middle of this all Jen had even suggested that we throw it some food for a possible distraction but my pride got the better of me and I would NOT cave to the raccoon. Playing ring-around-the-rosy with Cooney now was just for the principle of it. I had to beat the raccoon. It had been elevated to that point for me. It was a moment of weakness.

Now on to the final round of this coon match. All was packed and we finally made it to the car without a third passenger. THANKFULLY! There was one final item of cabin business and that was to turn the water pump off at the end of the driveway near the road. We drove out a little way and stopped for me to get out and complete the task but before I could even get my fingers on the handle, once again we heard the scratching of this crazy, psycho raccoon on the driver’s side door. It had actually grabbed onto the side of the car somehow and would not let go. It took about 5 seconds of deliberation for us to decide that we would trick the raccoon into thinking we had left and we would come back in about 10 minutes to do the water pump. So I hit the gas and glancing in my rear view mirror I saw a furry grey flash fly through the air and hit the road behind us.



It was now over. Cooney watched us as we drove away with his coveted items in our car. We did drive back a few minutes later and the raccoon was nowhere in sight. Surely it had other plans for our neighbors.

If You're Happy & You Know It . . .

. . . Clap Your Hands!

And this baby is one happy little sweetie!! Bethany learned to clap this week. It is so fun to watch her. She claps off and on all day . . . while she's playing, in the bath, when she gets her diaper changed - even when she eats! It is so darling! This video doesn't do it justice but every time I get the camera out all she wants to do is try to grab it and I can't capture her clapping in all its' glory. The little girl gives us the biggest smiles and warms our hearts!

Making The Rounds

Now that Bethany is semi-mobile, she gets around!! She will crawl into the kitchen, into the play room, to the front door - All over! She follows me around and will make circles around the coffee table and kitchen island. These pictures are from when she was all over the kitchen the other day! What is really funny is when she goes on a "dog hunt" for Dulce. She will crawl in the dog's direction and Dulce will get up and move to another part of the house and the baby will follow her. I haven't finished baby proofing our house yet and that needs to get done ASAP this week!

The Last Days of Summer . . .

This afternoon we spent our last day of summer out at a local park. Bethany's first summer has been a great one we'll always remember! You can browse back through of May - Sept. posts to see how much she has changed and grown! We are looking forward to fall with all it brings . . . The State Fair, Halloween, Bethany's first Birthday, & Thanksgiving! There is much more fun and excitement coming our way!!





At home Bethany is trying to pull up as often as she can. She gets about half way up on her own before getting stuck. She loves to just stand at the furniture and bang on it.

We Have Lift Off . . . Almost!

See for yourself . . . Bethany is almost crawling. She definitely has the "army" crawl down. Just in the past few days she is getting faster and more coordinated. Now days when I leave the room she will come find me! Pretty funny . . . Oh this cutie is so much fun!

All Turned Around

We have been sitting out on our back patio a lot lately. Bethany loves to be outside and there is a lot going on for her to listen to with all the construction in our neighborhood. Anyway, this evening she turned herself all the way around in her tot chair. She used the bar on the back as a foot rest and just bopped up and down, smiling and laughing to herself as if she had done something fantastic. She is a mess. She has started to army crawl and pull herself up a little bit. Pretty soon she will be completely mobile and I will have my hands full!

Our Little Ladybug

This was our happy baby before church this morning. They switched our church time from 1:00 pm to 9:00 am so we had an early morning. I had bought Bethany this adorable lady bug dress at BabiesRUs . . . the "shoes" are actually socks that her Grandma Sue got for her ~ Yay! They are called Pixie socks and come in all kinds of colors and the best part is they look like shoes! I love the bow on them . . . all in all the end product was a very cute Lady Bug girl!

Attending church is a whole other story. The bulk of our church time is right smack in the middle of Bethany's naptime. She was very cranky today and her schedule was all out of whack. Hopefully it will get better and we will all get used to this early morning Sunday time. Until then, at least we have a happy baby BEFORE church!

Wish List . . .

So if you are ever wondering what you could get me for my birthday (just one month away) or anytime for that matter . . . I would have to say that tickets to see Michael Buble' in concert would be at the top of my wish list . . . Just in case you are wondering! J/K - but I do so love to hear him sing. This is why I have two of his songs on my playlist. There is just never enough Michael Buble' !!!

:-)

Go have a listen . . . it will make you happy!

http://michaelbuble.com/node

Smarty Pants Preschool Now Enrolling!

I am in the mind set of "If you build it, they will come . . . "

My preschool room is ready . . . now all I need are students to fill it up. It was a lot of hard work and effort and I am still making some adjustments and organizing, but it is pretty much ready. We have been spreading the word around and hopefully soon, very soon I will get some kiddos registered in my preschool.

I am very excited and looking forward to teaching preschool again. Only this time from home! Yay . . . and part-time . . . double yay!

Here are some pictures of the almost finished product of my preschool classroom. I have ordered a classroom carpet from Lakeshore and it will be in next week ... it will make the room look finished and pull it all together. The carpet is super-duper cute. Ooohh! I have to give a shout out to IKEA for all the fun furniture. Love it!

Let me know what you think!

If you are in the Plano, Frisco, McKinney area and know anyone who may be interested in this kind of thing send them my way!

:-)

We are all Smarty Pants at heart!

Splish, Splash Duckie Bath

We bought Bethany this duck bath just before we moved and she LOVES it! She especially likes to splash most of the water out of the duck and onto mommy. It is funny because there is a drain in the bottom of the duckie and when I let the water out she looks down, still splashing and seems as if she is wondering where all her water is going . . . it is really cute! The duck quacks if you press its beak. We always have fun at bath time!

The Many Faces of Bethany

So here is the much anticipated blog update on Bethany . . . I have some recent requests to get back to blogging. Apparently my avid readers and faithful fans (just kidding) were missing seeing this cute face so we decided to give you a look at the many faces of Miss B. These pictures were all taken in about a 10 minute time frame . . . she was hamming it up for the camera!

Bethany is 9 months old! Can you believe it? Where does all the time go? We have been so busy with our move, new job and getting settled that it doesn't seem right that I have a 9 month old! She is growing taller. The P.J.'s I bought her last month are looking more like capri's these days . . . they hit her mid-calf. Too funny. Bethany is a chunk . . . she weighs 20 lbs! I am hopefully developing some arm muscles from carrying her around all the time. Oh, about that . . . she has also become Attached.To.My.Hip! I can't get anything done anymore . . . she wants to be with me all the time. I must be in view at all times or major trauma erupts. It is that stage of babyhood that I hope will pass quickly. We've also moved into the " I don't like getting my finger nails filed, or my clothes changed or my nose cleaned out or any of the like!!!" Bethany screams when these things are attempted by her mom. Ahhh . . . not so fun.

Bethany is miss social butterfly always flirting with everyone while we are out and about . . . she still has that happy baby attitude. At least strangers don't think she ever cries. Little do they know . . . She still keeps everyone entertained at church with her baby squeals, screeches and talk.

We're having a blast and enjoying every minute of this cutie patootie! Who could resist this face? Or all of these faces?

HAPPY LABOR DAY!