Running in the Rain

Thankfully College Station received some much needed rain in the last couple of days. Yesterday the storm hit just as Bailey and I were getting ready to venture up to the Texas A&M campus to visit Aunt Cindy & see if we could catch up with Daddy at his HazMat drill, so we decided to delay our visit a little and play out in the rain. Bailey had a blast running, trying to dodge rain drops & splashing in the puddles on our front walk. She was having so much fun that I had to capture a couple of shots to share.

Bailey running out in the rain in our front yard.

Bailey taking a quick break to sit on the front door step. That's Abby behind her wondering why she can't go play in the rain too.

Bailey wondering just what rain is & why its falling from the sky.

Bailey running back in from the rain.

Bailey jumping in a puddle, I'm not sure how I managed to get her completely in the air.

We had a great time playing in the rain & ultimately enjoyed our trip to campus as well. In the afternoon, after Tony came home and the rain had stopped we ventured out to Grandma & Grandaddy's and spent some time in their neighborhood pool. Earlier this summer Bailey seemed to have an aversion to the pool & didn't want to get in the water, let alone go swimming but today was different and she eagerly swam in both the baby & adult pools and even jumped off of the side of the pool to Tony and I. I guess she needed to do it in her own time, kinda like the whole potty training thing!

On a side note, if you happened to hear about the fire at the chemical plant in Bryan yesterday please don't worry about us. Tony was not on duty so he did not respond and the smoke did not come anywhere near our home.

Washing Dishes

Today after lunch Bailey surprised both Tony & I by attempting to do the dishes. I had taken the plates off of the table and put them in the sink but when I turned around Bailey had climbed up her "ladder", turned on the water and proceeded to rinse both sides of each of the plates.

Bailey washing her hands.

Bailey washing the plate she used for lunch.

Making sure to wash the back of the plate too.

It never ceases to amaze me how much she picks up just by watching Tony & I do routine tasks around the house. I wonder what chore she'll pick up next??

Pigtails

Today was our first attempt at pigtails & since Daddy was at the fire station and didn't get the chance to see them I thought I'd post a couple of pictures.

Bailey & her pigtails with the pose she selected & her socks pulled up to her knees because that's how she wanted to wear them! She cracked me up when she struck this pose, I felt like it was picture day at an elementary school.

Here is a view from the back of Bailey's slightly lopsided pigtails, not bad for a first try!

I'm sure that their will be tons of pigtails in the future but I couldn't resist capturing our first set on camera. Oddly enough, Bailey seemed to like the pigtails better than a ponytail and way better than barrettes.

Book Recommendation & Some Fishing

I know that normally JuJu is the one to recommend & review books but I have to take a quick second to tell y'all about the book I just finished, Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Recently, I've gotten into reading for fun, a practice that pretty much ended when I embarked on my Master's & PhD programs. It's sad but I'd honestly forgotten how great it was to "devour" a book. This book is historical fiction unlike any I had ever read before and although it came highly recommended, I was slightly hesitant about its 975 pages. But as soon as I read the authors forward I was hooked, worse than that I was addicted! The plot lines were always running through my head & any spare moment found me deep within its pages. There are a couple of parts that are pretty intense, graphic &/or bloody but the characters had depth & breadth and the storyline was enchanting. For a work of fiction, it honestly seemed plausible. Anyways, I wanted to let y'all know that if you're interested in what it took to build a cathedral back in the 1100's or even if your not... you should definitely read this book! My only hope is that y'all enjoy it as much as I did!

Now that I've got out of the way here are some pics from our trip to the park out by my parents house this morning. Its a great park because it has a play set for Bailey to play on plus a pond that Tony can fish in. The water in the pond has receeded quite a lot since the beginning of the summer so Tony, Bailey & I took the fish we caught and released them in the bigger lake across the street in the hopes that it might save some of them.

Just to show off what a big girl she is Bailey decided to climb up the curly pole to get up onto the play set today. She did all of the climbing herself but needed a little help figuring out how to move around to get off onto the play set.

Tony managed to catch another fish today! He may be tiny but its a pretty big fish for the small pond he was caught in. Sorry about Tony's funny face but we were discussing whether or not this fish was bigger than the one he caught a couple weeks ago when I snapped the picture. Silly me!

We've been wicked busy lately between play groups, Kindermusik & the library for Bailey, work at the fire department & the Brayton Fire Field for Tony and cleaning house, dr's appointments & trying to get ready for a garage sale for me. The days are definitely flying by and it was nice to spend some time as a family relaxing at the park, playing & doing a little fishing!

Hail in July?!?

We've had a realitivly odd start to the week as far as weather including hail, high winds & heavy drenching rain. Although we can't complain about the rain since we haven't had any in almost two months, Tony & I were surprised when it started hailing on us on our way to church on Sunday. As if the marble size hail at our house wasn't strange enough, on Monday we had more storms with thunder & lightening galore along with showers & high winds that were mistaken for funnel clouds in several areas around our home. Thankfully there is no notable damage to our home or either of our vehicles and the momentary reduction in temperatures was enjoyable to say the least. Here are a couple pics from this past weekend.

7-18-09 : Bailey after her bath sporting a fancy updo courtesy of Tony, he said it made him think of a palm tree.

7-18-09 : A better pic of Bailey's updo.

7-18-09 : I really like this picture of Bailey so I had to include it!

7-19-09 : A couple of the pieces of hail from our backyard & Tony's size 13 Aggie Ring.

7-19-09 : The rainbow after the storm (from our front door). It actually made a complete semi-circle which was really neat.

So far our week is off to a great start, Bailey went to the park with Grandaddy Monday morning while I went to Houston for a dr.'s appointment and then this morning we had Kindermusik & a visit to the Children's Museum with the MOMS group. We ran into some friends from the fire department at the Children's Museum and were even treated to a story reading by a local celebrity, Bob French, he's our weatherman. Don't really have anything exciting planned for the rest of the week but with the way things have been going you never know what kind of adventures we might get ourselves into.

Play time with Nicholas

Today we had the treat of having Nicholas (22 months) join us for the morning since Jaime had to work & John had a meeting at Teex. To top it off Tony had to go to Blinn for his EMS instructor class and that left Bailey, Nicholas & I to entertain ourselves. I'm not sure that either of them slowed down the entire time Nicholas was here, except of course at snack time. Oddly enough, I was more productive today than I am most days when its just Bailey & I, why is that? In anycase, the three of us had blast & I actually took a couple minutes to capture a couple pictures of our morning.

Bailey & Nicholas playing house in the backyard, Nicholas loved ringing the doorbell. The fire truck in his arms is one of Baileys and he carried it around for most of his visit. Its strange but even at this young age I think that somehow they both inately understand that their daddies are firefighters & what exactly that means.

Bailey sliding & Nicholas waiting his turn.

Bailey giving Nicholas some help, y'all should have seen when they both tried to sit inside!

Bailey & Nicholas playing with Bailey's animal figures while I did some embroidery.

We had a great time playing with Nicholas this morning & hope that he can come over again soon.

Anybody seen the month of June???

In honor of Bailey's 2nd birthday, which was June 11th, we decided that we would change up the format of our blog entries just a little bit. The hope is that the change will help us to keep the blog more up to date, thus keeping you more up to date about all the new developments in our lives. Now that that's out of the way, on with the pictures!

6-11-09 : Bailey & Tony take a walk along the nature trail next to the Guadalupe River right below Canyon Lake.

6-11-09 : Tony in the conductor's seat at the train museum in New Braunfels.

6-11-09 : Me & Bailey relaxing in our room at the lodge.

6-11-09 : Bailey in her New Braunfels Fire Department helmet & a super silly face.

6-11-09 : Tony & the only thing he caught on vacation!

6-12-09 : Bailey taking a turn at the wheel.

6-12-09 : A billboard outside Startsville... made us giggle!

6-13-09 : The spread for Baily's birthday party.

6-13-09 : Bailey in the jumper at her party.

6-13-09 : Bailey, Nicolas, Mason & Jolie playing in the sprinkler hose at the party.

6-13-09 : Bailey enjoying the first bite of her birthday fishy cupcake.

6-14-09 : Bailey playing peek-a-boo in a bag from one of her presents.

6-15-09 : Family night at recruit academy at Brayton Fire Field where Tony is an instructor. Tony is in the yellow helmet. The recruits were practicing their attack pattern & making sure that their nozzles were working properly before the propane tank was set on fire.

6-15-09 : Recruits in their attack pattern as the propane tank was lit (Tony is on the left in the yellow helmet).

6-15-09 : Bailey & Grandma watching the recruits put out the fire.

6-18-09 : Bailey riding her stuffed goat through the house.

6-21-09 : Bailey & Tony on father's day.

6-22-09 : Bailey coming up with another use for her basketball hoop.

6-24-09 : Bailey running through the sprinkler in the backyard.

6-24-09 : Tony & Bailey in the sprinkler.

6-24-09 : Bailey & Tony all wet!

6-24-09 : Tony & Bailey making guacamole for dinner.

6-29-09 : Bailey helping GiGi to rock. GiGi & Bailey had tons of fun during the three weeks GiGi spent in College Station, hopefully she'll come visit again soon, maybe when its cooler!

7-3-09 : Bailey finding a way to play at her table even when I'm vaccuming.

7-3-09 : Bailey using the kitchen chairs as a jungle gym while I vaccum.

7-5-09 : Bailey & Uncle Brett and the matching pajama pants that Grandma made for them.

7-6-09 : Bailey & Grandma entertaining each other at the airport while waiting for Uncle Brett plane to board (Bailey pushed Grandma on the baggage cart too).

7-6-09 : Bailey & Tony's water fight.

7-6-09 : Where'd Bailey go?

7-7-09 : Tony & the fish he caught with watermelon at Clovis Point Park.

7-7-09 : Bailey sitting on the dock at the boat ramp on the lake in Indian Lakes where Tony set his little fish free.

7-10-09 : Bailey being Bailey.

7-12-09 : Bailey & her ponytail, not only did she let me put it up but she even kept it in for while!

7-12-09 : Tony giving Bailey a ride in the wheelbarrow.

We hope that you enjoyed the photo safari through our last month. Things have slowed down a little since GiGi & Uncle Brett returned to their respective homes and we are finally getting back into a routine of sorts. Hopefully this means that we will have some free time and can regularly update the blog.

Almost forgot, we went to the doctor for Bailey's 2 year check up on June 15th and Dr. Suarez said she is growing & developing just perfectly aside from some mild anemia. Here are her stats: 31 pounds (90%) & 36 inches tall (95%) with a head circumference of 19 inches. We also had our first dental cleaning at the pediatric dentist on July 7th. Bailey held her mouth open the whole time without any complaint which really Tony & I. To top of our month she began cutting her 19th tooth, the 2nd molar on the top right, this past Monday, July 13th.