Self- Feeding

Joseph is 13 months old, and entering the world of self-feeding with spoons.

Tonight was chicken, broccoli and mashed potatoes.





Notice that he has not decided yet whether he wants to be right or left handed.
There's still hope Grandpa Steve!

Bigger than we planned

Step 13 out of 10 :) My husband is the champion of re-doing lawns. And his trusty side-kick Ruth is pretty handy with a shovel! (notice the "I'm just like Daddy" work gloves!)

Today's project was digging out the underground root system of weeds that had taken over our yard post bug infestation. In preparation for laying sod, we had used Round-Up on the little remaining grass and above ground weeds, but it did no good on the underground roots!

And to think this all started with a tiny bug infestation that got way out of control! Lord willing, next weekend will be sod laying for the 2/3 of the yard that is prepared.

Camping Out

...well, sort of!

This weekend we had Eli, the son of some friends, stay with us while his parents were out of town. Eli is in third grade, but is great at entertaining Ruth. Friday night, with Joseph sound asleep and Mommy out for a "mommies only" night, Cameron took Eli and Ruth on the lanai and had a "camp out" experience. They built a fire in the fire pit, roasted marshmallows from their fold up camping chairs, put up Ruth's Dora tent, got out sleeping bags (albeit on top of a blow up mattress!) and called it a night.

I came home late on the brink of a full-blown thunderstorm, and found them all huddled under the covered part of our lanai trying to sleep. Eventually, better judgment prevailed, and the campsite was moved to the living room to avoid lighting strikes and a sleepless night! Oh well, they had fun in spite of the weather!

Labor Day = child labor

When it comes to remodeling the landscaping in our front and back yard, we are on phase six out of ten...or some thing like that. In any case, today Cameron was tearing out the shrubs around the two trees in the front yard, in order to prepare for the next phase: re-sodding the entire front yard after we had a cinch bug infestation a couple months ago, which destroyed close to 60% of our grass.

Tearing things out is a task that both Joseph and Ruth can do very well. They each helped in their own way, though Ruth was actually pretty handy with a mini-gardening shovel. (click on photos to see them larger)