The Tomatoes are Ready!

So after patiently for the tomato plants in the garden to grow, then waiting some more for the green fruits to actually ripen, it finally happened - we have red tomatoes! I thought it would be great to make BLTs for dinner yesterday. I went to pick one tomato thinking that should be enough for dinner and handed it to Lydia to bring in the house. Grace wanted to carry one in too, so I found another. It was perfect! I was going to start dinner and maybe even have it ready when Paul got home from work. Apparently, I wasn't clear about my plan, because before we made it back into the house both girls were eating their tomatoes. Then my planned cycled further out of control, as they got dirty. She needed to clean up so she took her clothes off and had to wash off in the pool. So Lydia followed. By the time Paul got home from work, their tomatoes were eaten, the clothes were off, the girls had both cleaned the tomato juice and seeds off themselves and out of their hair, and they were on to playing on the playset. I'm certain Paul thinks I have no control of our household during the day!

Daddy's Helpers

The girls have both been sleeping in the same bedroom for almost two months. Initially we didn't put the legs on Lydia's bed, partially because I wasn't expecting to move her to a big bed at the time and partially because I wanted it to be a shorter fall if she fell out of bed. Well, Paul just got around to putting the legs on Lydia's bed. The girls insisted on "helping". Here are some pictures of the three of them hard at work. (It appears that Lydia may have done the most work based on the pictures, but I am sure that Paul would disagree).

Still Employed and other updates

It was another busy week at our house! I can't believe summer is almost over.

Our road is under construction. Last week they tore the entire road out. There has been construction workers and equipment galore all week! Once the road was all ripped out, they started bringing in loads and loads of rock. They are now bringing in smaller gravel and starting to level it out a bit. It should be done in the next week or two. I am looking forward to having a new smooth road. I'm also looking forward to the girls not being woken up early in the morning, taking shorter naps, or skipping naps altogether.

Layoffs are complete in Paul's department at work. He still has a job! I think it is a little unknown what will happen to his department in general or how much his job will change.

I have been having lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions. Hopefully that means that this baby will come sooner rather than later! Paul better get choosing a name.

Now onto the pictures...

Lydia at Haupt Strauss Park
Lydia and Grace at the park

Last Monday we went to the zoo with some friends. Here are some pictures of the kids!

I don't think Grace cared if she saw any animals. She loved hanging out with Kaylin! She was NEVER looking at the camera in any pictures. (For anyone who has seen Grace in the past week, here is the chair she fell off and got all the scrapes).

Grace and Owen happily posing by the butterfly garden.

Add a few more kids!

Don't forget Sophia!

Friday morning we went to visit my Great-Grandma Kamps at the nursing home. Here she is with my mom, Haley, Grace and Lydia.

Friday night we went to Laurie & Todd's wedding. Grace quickly learned how to clink her glass with her knife.

Deena and Grace

Lydia eating cake with Grandpa

Finally the dancing! Both girls loved dancing!

August Updates

It seems like I can't keep up with the blog lately. I seem to go a few weeks between every post. Hopefully, I'll be able to get all caught up on the family and maybe keep up to date for a few weeks.

Lydia has become quite the little ham lately as she grows more and more each day. She understands simple commands (she sometimes chooses to ignore them). She has been saying a few words for a while, but now is getting more and more chatty. She says baby, dog, mom, dad, Grace, Diesel, Cheese, Please, Thank you, Let's go guys, and Come On regularly. Grace has also been teaching her what different animals say. Lydia knows that dogs say "Woof", Cow say "Moo" and motorcycles say "Vroom" (or some patented exact sound that I can't type). -Editor's Note: The Harley-Davidson motorcycle sound was never patented; however, there was a serious effort to trademark the sound in the late 1990's. It nearly became trademarked but was stonewalled by competitors at the 11th hour. That said, the sound is often described as 'potato-potato-potato' with an emphasis on that 'ta'. Note on the note: my old supervisor held a fireproof safe with the nearly trademark recordings. He recently opened the safe but never escaped ridicule for forgetting the combination for nearly 10 years.

Last week Lydia went potty on the toilet twice and pooped once. I was definitely not going to start about potty training until after the baby came in September (after all she's only 17 months). We'll see if she is self motivated or if she gets bored with the concept. I'm actually a little torn about whether I should encourage her a lot now and hope she potty trains before the baby comes (and hope she stays potty trained post baby) or just wait until things settle down around here post baby. I am not necessarily in the mood or the condition to spend any more time than I already need to in the bathroom.

Lydia started giving herself timeouts on the "naughty rug" this week. We haven't actually given or even threatened timeouts for Lydia yet. Although she is aware that both Grace and Diesel have been know to spend a few minutes there from time to time. She usually goes after her and Grace are fighting over a toy or some other insignificant spat of the moment.

Other than that Lydia is growing just fine. She is running, jumping, and climbing. She definitely keeps me busier than Grace did at her age since Grace was always more cautious of anything that could be deemed dangerous. Lydia goes to the doctor at the end of August for her 18 month checkup so hopefully some of her many bumps and bruises have an opportunity to heal so she doesn't look too battered!

Grace is also talking up a storm too. She is quite the happy-go-lucky girl! She has taken to the role of big sister quite well and insists on telling Lydia what to do all the time. She also bosses Diesel around. I have to remind her daily that she is not the mommy or the daddy.


She is enjoying her dance class more and more each week. She loves her teacher Miss Laura. She dances at home, does somersaults and has recently learned about cartwheels (although she can't do them yet). In her class they do stretching, some ballet and tumbling.


Grace also likes to play pretend and dress up. She is quite the waitress at our house. She'll make you cookies, spaghetti, pizza, or anything else she comes up with that day. She'll even offer guests coffee when they visit. (If you accept the coffee, you'll likely get a stern warning that the invisible liquid is very, very hot!)


She loves to read and insists that we go to the library many times a week. It doesn't help that we drive by the library almost every day. If we get new books in the morning, she'll likely have them all memorized by the time Paul gets home from work. She likes to read to her many babies and bears too. Sometimes we play "Storytime" - she likes it when Paul or I sit in a chair and she sits on the floor about 5 feet back and listens. (She is so much quieter and better behaved at the home storytime!)


Grace got stung by her first bee Friday morning. I think she was at the park with Judy and Brenden while I went to a doctor appointment. They walked to the park and left early because of all the bees. I noticed Grace has a big red spot on the ankle in the morning, but I just figured it was a mosquito bite that she kept scratching. Before Grace would go to sleep she was complaining about her itch. I got some calamine lotion out to put on it when I noticed the stinger. I left Grace with the lotion while, I went to get Paul to help (and chocolate - as a diversion since it was likely going to hurt). When we got back upstairs, she had the lotion all over her itch, and the stinger came out quickly.

Grace still loves to play dress up!




Lydia just likes getting her picture taken...

This morning we went to the Fairy Festival at a local farmette and garden. We saw chickens, a unicorn (a horse with a fairy horn), and all things fairy. Here we are walking in. We didn't get very far before Grace had her wings and head wreath off.

The girls LOVE dogs! This little dog was no exception. Both Grace and Lydia chatted away to this nice dog.

The harpist

Water... what fun!

It looks like Grace might be having fun, so Lydia joins in!

In the gardens

Lots of flowers

More flowers

Both Grace and Lydia loved the gardens of day lillies. Poor Lydia was pretty short compared to the tall flowers. She must have felt like she was in a jungle.

Paul will find out if he will be laid off by Aug 12. H-D will be laying off about 1/3 of their engineering department. They've had 2 prior rounds of layoff since April 2008. An early retirement package was offered to qualified employees, so maybe lots of people accepted the offers and less layoffs will be necessary. Fingers crossed!

I only have 8 more weeks until the due date. I have convinced my doctor that I should be induced at least a week early. At this point, he says he'll do it 7 days early. At my last appointment on Friday , he did seem to suggest that I'll likely go into labor before my due date anyway. It seems to be taking forever yet going so fast. We already have everything we need for another girl, so it seems like there's not so much to do. Yet, it seems like I have to do so much before the baby comes. Either way this pregnancy has seemed so much more uncomfortable than the past two.

We have a busy week next week. Zoo, parks, dance and then up to Freedom! We are going to a wedding on Friday - she is convinced that the bride is going to be someone else, and that all the guests will wear dresses (men included) and dance shoes (ballet shoes). We'll see if her attire intuition comes true.