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.

They Grow Up So Fast (sigh)

Rayna got a potty seat from a family at church. I don't think we're quite ready for potty training but she sure likes the potty. She carries it around and sits her babies on it. It's also a good place to hang out and drink juice.

Rayna likes to be outside while John is working on the house. She also likes to "help" him. The other day she picked up the screwdriver and kept saying "fix, fix." Here she's "fixing" the ladder and then the trashcan.

Rayna really likes books. The other day she was really quiet which made me worry she was into something. But when I found her this is what I saw--quietly reading books.

I put this picture in because she just looks so old.

Easter

Yesterday after church, we went over to my Aunt Darlene and Uncle Jim's house for Easter lunch. It was a really nice afternoon with perfect weather.

I tried to get a good picture of Rayna before she got dirty or messed up but she was a little wiggly. She stayed clean for all of 10 minutes, then when we walked outside she sat down on the wet, leafy sidewalk.

Rayna really enjoyed collecting eggs. The egg hunting lasted quite awhile because the eggs kept falling out of her basket so when she turned around there were more eggs!

I tried to get a picture of all the girls gathering eggs but that didn't work out. This is the best I could get.

Here's Rayna showing off her loot.

Backyard Fun

It got up into the 90's the other day so I let Rayna play in the water. I was going to get out her pool but got impatient trying to air it up. So I set the sprinkler up instead. I had to turn it down really low because Rayna kept getting upset when it would spray her face.

Here's a good action shot.
Here she is relaxing afterwords. Playing in the sprinkler is hard work you know.

Last night John was grilling for dinner and Rayna followed him outside. I looked out the back door and this is what I saw. (John is replacing the siding and building a cover for the patio. That's where all the wood came from)

Ducks and a Museum

Well, here's some recent events from around our house. Our neighbor told me about a duck pond so we took Rayna to check it out. She really liked it. The ducks were really friendly. You could probably touch them if you wanted-- and Rayna did. I was a liitle concerned about that. I'm not sure how clean wild ducks are.

Two weeks ago Bret, Amber and the kids visited. Bret had conferences or something during the day so Amber and the kids hung out at our house. Amber was reading a book to Rayna and Samuel. I tried to get a picture but when Rayna saw I had a camera she started acting silly.

The rest of these pictures are from a children's museum that Rayna and I went to with a friend from church and her kids. I didn't know how much Rayna would enjoy it since she's still young (19 months now), but she LOVED it.


She got to milk a cow (which was a little weird) but she thought it was great. I had to get a picture of her with this little couch. I thought it was really cute.

Here is Nicole and Rayna at the airline ticket counter. Here she is shopping.

She loaded up on all the lobsters they had. She's got good taste.

And lots of bread.
I think I had as much fun watching her as she did. There were a lot of things I wanted to play with too. Maybe next time there won't be so many adults around and I can play in the miniature house with her.

John Makes the News.

John was on the news tonight. He went to the gun range today and they were there interviewing people. I tried to put the video clip right on here but couldn't do it. So here is the link to it: http://www.kens5.com/video/index.html?nvid=343688&shu=1

Can't I Leave You Alone For One Minute?

Before I finished up that last post I gave Rayna a graham cracker. When I came back this is what I found. At least it wasn't pudding or something.

The River Walk

This weekend John's mom, brother David and cousin Joseph came down to visit. Unfortunately John was working and didn't get to do much with us (but they didn't come to see him anyway). On Saturday we went to the River Walk. Joseph took all of these pictures for us which is why they look better than all the other pictures on this blog and why he isn't in any of them.



Here is David helping Rayna drop pennies in the water Michael Jackson style.

This is when we sat down for lunch. Rayna makes sure that we don't forget to pray.

We found out that Rayna likes queso dip--alot.

Here Joesph was up on a bridge taking pictures. Rayna spotted him, thus the cheesy grin.

I think Rayna may be spending too much time with the dog.

The other night I gave her a box of raisins. She dumped them all on the floor then layed on her belly and ate them-- not picking them up but just eating them off the floor.

New Swing

Grandma and Grandpa got Rayna this swing when we moved into the house but John just recently put it up. It's funny because she likes being in it but she doesn't like to swing very much, just kind of hang there and look around.