Hot Summer Fashions

Rayna is getting more independent lately and is starting to want to dress herself. She always has to pick out which shoes she's going to wear and likes socks for some reason. Her are two of her fashion statements.

In the top picture she's wearing all our nintendo controllers as necklaces. They definitely complete the ensemble of t-shirt and diaper (she's not wearing pants because we're potty training).

In the bottom one she has chosen to pair her t-shirt and diaper with 2 pairs of ruffled socks and pink sparkley shoes which are, of course, on the wrong feet. Very fashionable.

Girl's Week

The first week in June, John's mom, sister Michaela, and a family friend and her daughter came down for a girl's week (although we did include John a few days). We went to Sea World twice, Schlitterbahn, the HUGE outlet mall in San Marcos and Paradise Canyon. It was a lot of fun. The top picture is Rayna modeling one of the new outfits Grandma bought her from the outlet mall. Of course Rayna got more things than anyone.

Rayna loves Sea World. I'm so glad we got season passes. She got to feed the dolphins and some ducks. Although you wouldn't know it from the look on her face, she really was interested in the macaw. She really loves animals and seems to enjoy the shows.

These pictures are from Paradise Canyon. I wasn't sure if Rayna would like that because it's just water-- no slides or anything but she did. She threw rocks and had fun floating around. We got her a floatie and took her out in the deep water and she enjoyed that too.

John's Current Project

Now that we own our own house, we get to/have to do our own work on it. This is John's current project (I help some, but really John does most of the work). He's replacing all the siding and building a cover for the patio. It's not done yet, but this is what we've got so far. Now our patio will at least be tolerable in the 100+ heat. Unfortunately we didn't take a "before" picture.

Animal Lover

Rayna and Riley have a shared interest in bugs. Rayna likes to pick them up and Riley likes to eat them. Here they are both watching a fly.

Rayna and Riley have a funny relationship. They're alot like siblings. Sometimes they play together really well, but they also get jealous of each other and "fight." Sadly, Riley takes a lot of abuse but he's usually pretty tolerant. In these two pictures, Rayna is putting dust masks on his head like a hat. For whatever reason, Riley has decided to sit up and let her do it.

I like the look on his face in the second picture, like he's embarassed I'm taking a picture of him.

This last picture is of the neighbors' cat, Dante. Rayna LOVES this cat and the cat likes her too. The cat usually comes right up to her and lays down. The neighbor said that the cat doesn't normally come to people, so it's odd that she would come up to a toddler. Rayna likes to pile dirt, grass and even rocks on the cat and Dante doesn't mind. I guess they've got some kind of connection.