Cookout

Katie and Kyle had us over for a family cookout a couple weeks ago. Here is the photo documentation of the event.

Melanie found yet another stoop that is just her size. She's hanging out with the newest member of the extended family, Beasley.
This tree stump was just the pedestal Melanie has been searching for all her life!

No dad! Only I can be the center of attention!

Sharing, how sweet!

Spring Creek

We spent a recent Sunday at Matt's parents' ranch, riding the Gator and just appreciating the beauty of Kansas. We finished the day by grilling hamburgers and making s'mores. I must say, from my point of view, s'mores are much better when made with dark chocolate. The bittersweet taste of the dark chocolate contrasts nicely with the overly sweet marshmallows. Try it sometime. I highly recommend it.

Here are some pics of Melanie trying her hand at driving the Gator (minus the keys).

(My personal favorite)

There were some other really cute pictures from that evening, but somehow the files got screwed up on the memory card during the transfer to the computer, so they are lost, which makes me very sad. Guess we'll just have to try again next time!

Botanica

Back at the beginning of May my mom and I took Melanie to Botanica to see all the pretty flowers. It was during RiverFest so admission was free, so why not? Melanie even got to try potting a flower. Just as she was starting to get the whole shovel and dirt thing figured out she succeeded in dumping dirt all over herself, to which she was less than amused. It was an experience none the less, and we got her cleaned up and she seems none the worse for it. Here are a few pictures we snapped while there.


I was really hoping to get a good shot of her on this bench, but she was much too interested in the people walking by and the flowers at the base of the bench.

Notice how serious she gets once I'm in the picture?

My Garden!

So I had an almost ripe strawberry in my garden I was going to take a picture of, but when I went out the next morning to do so (thinking it would be completely ripe by then) it was gone. There must have been a little mouse and a big hungry bear roaming around. Either that or a bird. Take your pick. Anyway, here are a couple things that are still in my garden.

The first bell peppers of the season

A "Fooled You" Pepper. It's supposed to taste like a Jalapeno without the heat, so we'll see how that works out.

I have a total of 9 pepper plants (8 varieties), 4 cucumber bushes (2 varieties), and 12 strawberry plants (2 varieties), as well as some herbs in my garden. I figure I'll try my hand and making some different kinds of pepper jelly and salsas to can. And the cucumbers are obviously going to become pickles. I'm quite excited to watch my little garden grow! And it helps keep me occupied. While Melanie plays in her sandbox in the morning (before it gets too hot) I pull weeds. It won't be too long before I actually get to pick stuff. I'm so excited!

Outdoor Fun

Finally getting to play in the sandbox Aunt Laura and Aunt Amber gave her for her birthday

Tobey says "I remember when you used to take lots of pictures of ME!"
Waving to kids as they ride by on their bikes.

She won't wave goodbye to family when we leave their house, but she's all about waving to strangers that go by on the street. Go figure.

(I think she looks so old in this picture!)

One of her favorite perches. "It's just my size!"

You can't see it very well in this picture, but the plant behind Melanie always gets a special loving pat from her before she climbs down the stairs when we go outside to get the newspaper in the morning.

Another fun outdoor activity: running around in the bed of dad's truck.

A Little Bit of Silliness

Just a few goofy pictures of our little one.

Ah, one of my prouder moments as a parent.

I was making Melanie wear her hat around the house so she'd get used to it before we went to the park for John's graduation picnic that weekend. No big deal, we weren't going anywhere. Well, I had just changed her diaper so she didn't have any shorts on and I had only succeeded in getting one shoe on when the doorbell rang, so I went to get it, disregarding the half dressed baby that followed me, thinking it was just UPS or something of the like. Nope. A friend of ours was dropping off some stuff Matt had taken over to help patch walls with, and there was Melanie, in all her goofy glory. While Melanie is too young to be embarassed, I was just a little. Why I'm not sure, but whatever. Then when Matt came home a few minutes later she pulled this sweater out of the laundry pile and gave it to him like she wanted to wear it. She then proceeded to pose for these pictures for us. What a little ham!

The fashion icon and her mom

I got Melanie a little toothbrush and gum soother, both of which have provided a disproportionate amount of amusement based on their function in life.

Bath time is still fun time, especially when both mom and dad are there!

Lawrence

The day before John's graduation Matt's family had a picnic for John and his friends at one of the local parks. Here are some pictures of the cuteness that took place.

Partying on the blanket

Ta-da!

Melanie was just figuring out the whole climbing thing, so the park benches were the amusement of choice for a good part of the evening.

Cheese!

Trying her hand at horseshoes

Graduation

Matt's brother John graduated from KU with a degree in Psychology in May. Here are a few pictures from the day of the ceremony.

The graduate in front of Memorial Campanile

Melanie playing on "the hill" while the graduation ceremony took place in the stadium.

It was pretty hot that day, so after John walked down the hill we went inside and enjoyed the AC in the student union, then we found some nice shady trees and let Melanie run to her hearts content.

Lounging with dad

Grinning with Auntie K

Blog CPR

Well, I'd apologize to those of you who have been holding your breath all this time waiting for me to make a post (Michelle) but that would be silly seeing as if you had in fact been holding your breath all this time you'd be DEAD. Serves you right for setting your expectations of me so high! (OK, not really. I kinda feel bad for sounding so vindictive, but please make better choices in the future, OK?)

So, for those few readers that made the prudent decision to breathe and thus are still alive, here are some pictures of what I like to call "Melanie the Faker". These are from several weeks ago at my parents house. Melanie was eating Cheerios, and when we wouldn't give her any more she proceeded to go through her repertoire of sad faces, trying to convince us to give her more.

And yes, I am posting this at 7:00am. Melanie got up to nurse at 5:00 and I went back to bed but couldn't sleep, so here I am. Lucky you! Unfortunately this probably means I'll be ready to crash around 3:00, when Melanie is the most wired. Ahh, the joys of motherhood!

So I obviously haven't been very diligent in the area of regular posting recently, and I have no real excuse. Melanie does tend to like to climb onto the "brains" of the computer (I don't know the real name for the box that turns this high-tech machine on) so she can "help" me type and adjust the monitor for more optimal viewing, so I guess that's as close as I get to a reason to avoid blogging.

We've been keeping busy on the weekends, and the weekdays seem to be being spent just keeping up with life in general. Mother's day one weekend, graduation picnic and ceremony in Lawrence the next, planting a garden and spending the day at Spring Creek over Memorial weekend, and a baptism, birthday dinner, baby shower, farewell reception and cookout with the family this past weekend. Needless to say, there are oodles of pictures from these events that I need to sift through and post the highlights of, but alas, I hear Melanie starting to stir from her late nap, so I'd better make use of the little time I have left to clean the kitchen before she wakes up for real. If I don't crash too early maybe I'll get a few pics posted tonight... just don't hold your breath on that one (as I'm sure you all are).