We look forward to this season every year. Fresh corn on the cob from the farmstand. There is nothing like it. Don't even get me started on grocery store corn on the cob. It's a totally different breed. However, corn on the cob season also makes me a tad sad because it means the summer is coming to an end. But then I look at these faces and forget about it :)

Papa was helping Rori with hers because she had a beautiful white dress on, and she is, of course, a lady--see below...
Liam ate 3 ears! He takes after his papa. And don't ask why the males in my house apparently have given up wearing their shirts...but this one is pretty cute :)

Gender differences

We celebrated Liam and Rori's birthdays together with Bill's family due to scheduling conflicts, so I made them each a cake. Liam got another McQueen cake and Rori wanted an Ariel cake. I noticed a few differences between boys and girls...

Speaking of Chiropractors...

Bill has found a much cheaper chiropractor that the one I've been going to. Maybe I should give this one a try...

The voodoo lady

My back has been absolutely killing me for about 2 weeks now. I think I have sciatica, which I have never experienced with my previous pregnancies. It has turned my walk into a complete limp, which just completes the pregnancy glow that I already do not have. I am something else to look at--poor Bill, but frankly, he did this to me, so I guess looking at me is fair play :)

Anyway, my sister, Jenna, and my mom have been proponents of chiropractic medicine forever. Jenna even went to the Chiropractic college at one point, but then changed her mind and became a teacher. She goes to one regularly as do her kids. I, on the other hand, have never gone. However, the fact that I need a push in order to get moving from a standing position has sent me on a search. Chiropractors scare me because they can get really bizarre and into some strange holistic things. So, I looked in our PPO network and picked one that had a website so that I could see he wasn't too weird. I've been twice and haven't noticed any improvement, which I am completely discouraged about. I did find one with a website that I have been calling the voodoo lady, because she looks a little too holistic, weird spirituality, to me...but she specializes in prenatal chiropractic. I decided to make an appointment. I have been joking about my fear of her doing weird voodoo and putting curses on me. (I'm mostly kidding). I talked about her to Jenna and she had a great suggestion. The whole time she is touching me, I'll just say, "In the name of Jesus, I rebuke you." and that should solve that problem. I think I'll give it a try :) Hopefully I won't offend her :)

Happy Birthday Rori Rose

My little girl is four years old today. I don't know where the time has gone.

I remember when we found out we were having you. Your papa and I were so very excited. Then, when we found out you were a girl, we were so happy. We knew we were naming you Victoria Rose. We named you after your Baba Hoo Hoo because of how she took care of me after we lost your big sister. The very first second that I saw you, I understood what it meant to have my heart walking around outside my body. When you were a newborn, I would wake up just to check on you and make sure you were ok. Papa and I didn't watch tv or read the paper, or hear any news for weeks after you were born. We just wanted to hold you and stare at you--we called it Rori TV.

You are everything I imagined you would be. I love that you are a girly girl. You have loved barbie's since you were two years old and found my old barbies. You share my love for all things princess--especially Disney Princesses. You would rather wear a dress everyday than anything else. You love to twirl and swish in your dresses.

Your spirit is so sweet and loving. When I look at your sweet face, my heart just swells with love for you and feels like it might burst. You love to play Barbie's and princesses with mama and you love to play tickle and wrestle and hide and seek with papa. You are so excited about your new baby brother; you lift up my shirt and kiss my tummy, and talk to and tickle him. You are planning to help take care of him. You told me that I can change the poopy diapers and you will do the pee pee ones. You're just too smart.

I can't wait to see the woman that you are going to become, but I also wish that you could stay my little girl forever. Time is going by much too fast for my liking. I love you so much, my baby girl. Don't ever forget that.

Love,

Mama

Too Cute!

I'm sorry, but this boy is just too cute, while eating powdered sugar donuts, that I just had to share! That's all for now :)

Four year old logic

We are celebrating Rori and Liam's birthday's with Bill's family this weekend and so we decided that they each needed a birthday cake. Each kid helped me make their cake--the funfetti kind :) I had to level them before taking them out of the pans so I gave the pieces to the kids. Rori asked multiple times for more cake, so I don't know why I was surprised when I saw this:

After an initial denial, Rori admitted to taking the piece. When I asked her why she took a piece of Liam's cake, she said, "Well, I didn't want to ruin mine!" Can't argue with that logic.

You did what to your garden?

I forked it, yep, that's right, I forked my own garden. I know that kids often fork yards to prank people, and I never really expected to do it myself. However, the "cat man" left us no choice. Some of you know that we have the privilege of living 2 doors down from our very own cat man. He is a 50ish single man that has taken it upon himself to feed and house the wild cats in the area. And it's a complete nuisance. Everyone knows that I like cats--we have two, but they are indoor cats and they don't do their business on other people's lawns. Unfortunately the same can't be said for the cat man's cats.

We have been battling these animals for about three years now. I was really sent over the edge when I found cat feces in my vegetable garden on three different occasions. We have tried "critter ridder" sprinkles, orange peels, pepper, cedar mulch, and nothing has kept them from coming in our yard and garden area--except moth balls, but I think we may have lost a few brain cells ourselves from breathing the smell, so I won't be trying that again. Anyway, I had the brilliant idea of forking the vegetable garden so the cats will get a fork up their behind if they try and squat in there. So far so good.... Do you think it would be incredibly tacky if we forked our entire yard????

It's in our blood

One of my grandma's grew up on a farm in Wisconsin, and I think farming may be in our blood. We went strawberry picking at the farm by my parent's house and the kids had a blast. We put Rori to work picking in the fields. And I'm sure this is how all farmers dress when they harvest their berries, right?

Look at those gorgeous berries--and the shoes are pretty cute too :)

Liam never made it to the strawberry patch. He was obsessed with the "toots" (that's what he calls tractors--it's from the movie Cars) and Mack, the truck. He dragged grandpa and papa back and forth from toots, to Mack, and back again. He was in his glory.

I'm so thankful that we are able to make these kinds of memories with the kids. They have such a blast and talk about it for days afterwards and minus the cost of the strawberries--it's free!

Harvest

It is a tough time for everyone, economically speaking. The company I work for just recently laid off a third of the workforce. I only work two days a week, but I worry that I may be next. I have been thinking of different ways to help feed my family. Fortunately, as you may remember, Bill built me a vegetable garden for my birthday, in which I planted several different varieties of vegetables and fruits. So, I'm thinking that if I lose my job, we can survive off the fruits of my labor :)

The farm by my parents house lost their whole crop of green beans from the rain and cold, but I grew 5 beans! Obviously, I'm a natural ;)
I know I said I grew 5 green beans, but Rori dropped one somewhere in the yard--but I did also grow a strawberry. I should be able to feed my family off of this for a while, don't you think? Fortunately we only have to split the strawberry 3 ways since Bill doesn't eat them :)