it's all so familiar.

we've been loving our time here in North Carolina. 

It is easy to pass a whole day in the backyard looking for critters (as L likes to say). I mowed the lawn last week for the second time and was drenched in sweat. The humidity is out of this world. It is a good feeling watching little L pick as many blueberries as she likes (she calls them blue bears) and pop them in her mouth like little Sal (I so love Robert McCloskey  books and illustrations. . . and Marla Frazee while we're on the subject). And Hannah loves finding big sticks and leaves and scratching them with her fingers and putting them in her mouth. 

The turtles in the pond are aggressive eaters. It's almost impossible not to catch one when you're trying to fish!

 Fishing with grandpa.

Our first of three. We actually caught a huge carp (gross.)-- like 16 in' -- but it broke the line as we were trying to get it on the shore. 

We went to Charleston for a week to visit my sister Emily. The girls loved it! I'm still hearing about Allyson, Spencer and Meggie every day. No joke. Luckily she'll see them again in a few weeks at the reunion! I had SO much fun visiting Emily. We did so many fun things. I'll have to devote a post to our good times when I return home. Unfortunately I looked bad in every photo we took, so my vanity won't let me post them. We'll have to rectify that at the beach. 

Allyson got more smiles out of Hannah than anyone. And that's saying something for my tight-lipped 8 month old!

Liesel was baptized in the beauty of choose-your-own-yoggie-and-toppings. She converted. 

It's been fun wandering around my old digs with the gals and my mom. I have repeatedly thanked heaven that I'm no longer a teenager. Nothing like wandering around those old digs to drum up all those great adolescent memories. 

 Snake. What won't this girl touch? She brought me a daddy-long leg yesterday at the ward party. I cringe when I see her pick up spiders, slugs and snakes but try to smile and be tough when she puts them on my lap. When did they start giving me the eebie-jeebies? I do draw the line with cock-roaches.

Safe to say she was not a fan of the flower wreath photo shoot. Can't say I blame her. . . so dorky mom! Speaking of miss Hannah, she has reached some serious milestones lately. Rolling over every time I change her diaper, crawling (still gaining coordination and confidence), Going from belly to sitting position, sleeping on her stomach, getting a front tooth and mastering the pincer grasp. We made blueberry pancakes this morning and she ate 1.5 all on her own. 

We are missing Brian so much! He sounds like he's stay super busy and managing okay without us. Thank goodness for face time and our CD of him singing Tom Petty. :) 

southern snapshots (so far . . .)

My parents live a very organic life. 

she's two and a half.

Liesel is growing. 

Everyday she's learning something new or advancing in some small (or big) way.

Recent advancements include: 

Potty trained! She has the occasional accident, but if I stay on top of it she's usually great. The only problem is that she talks about it constantly and in very public settings. Today in church she said (very loudly): I need to go poopy! Her stuffed animals are frequently using the potty and I often overhear her saying: If you need to go potty just tell me. You do such a good job going potty! 

She is quite the naturalist. She loves spending time outdoors and seems to have little/no fear of "critters" (as she calls them) and will pick up anything from beetles, to worms to snails to slugs. She has loved her bucket of tadpoles, chasing lizards and still talks about the chicks almost daily. The other day she saw a hoppy-bug outside (cave cricket) and went out to catch it. She carried it around the house and played with it for hours. She ended up loving it to death. Today she was swinging a slug on a swing. She also loves her garden (basil, cilantro and flowers in milk jugs outside) and hearing her say "cilantro" is about the cutest thing on the planet. She also loves picking flowers and watching ants. 

She is pretty bossy these days. She tells Hannah what not to do or what to do all the time. She kept trying to boss around Owen on the river (Owen, get in the water! Owen, play in the mud!) I think her intentions are good, she just needs to work on the execution of a request instead of demand. Overall, I think she is very sweet. She hasn't entered a violent phase yet, but she will sometimes hit the air in front of me like she wants to hit me but knows she shouldn't. She always tells me she's sorry and she is very empathetic when she sees one of us is sad. 

Liesel is a great eater and will even eat salad. She will not eat potatoes, beets, cucumbers (unless they're pickles) or cauliflower. I bought her a small ice cream cone from McDonalds one day when we were in Moab and now she requests one just about every time we go to town "you can eat an ice cream from Old McDonald's right?" We were at the grocery store and gave her the option of a cookie right then or an ice cream cone later. She chose the ice cream cone later. I was surprised with her mature choice! Unfortunately she fell asleep before we got her cone and when we got home, she was pretty sad that she had missed it.

The funniest thing to me is when she's really trying to throw a fit, but I keep making her laugh. She'll be trying really hard to throw a tantrum, but can stop cracking up. I absolutely love it. 

We love Liesel so much! She has discovered so many new things in just these few short months and her personality has blossomed so much. I wonder what we'll see and hear from her in these next six months! 

Recent Liesel funnies:

Brian while cutting tomatoes:

L: that knife is very very very dangerous. You have to be careful. You could cut your finger and be sick for three days.

B: that's right . . . who told you that?

L: Jesus told me that. 

I asked her to clean up her toys outside and I heard her yelling, "Help me Cinderella! Help me!"

Immitating my mom voice: "Hannah booboo you are just a (pause) . . . hickory dickory dock!"

Me: Where's Hannah?

Liesel: Hannah is just chillin' out playing with da dishes.

After a long stretch at the Needles:

L: Mommy! put me in the car and let's go! 

Me: I'm the mom and you're the child.

L: no I'm NOT the child! No I'm NOT!