The week and a half at home ...

... has been really nice. We've had company, and so of course I've cooked and cleaned a lot, but it's been really fun! Well, the cooking part anyway.

What happened was that I was just really in the cooking mood. When you go out of town, you don't cook at all, and I guess I just missed it. So I decided I'd have a couple of Johnathan's friends and their families over and call it a birthday party. :) I didn't even make a cake for my son. (Mom is making him one for is actual birthday, Wednesday.) It was great!

Menu: Hamburgers, grilled corn on the cob with citrus butter, lettuce wedges with creamy dressing, a veggie tray with crab dip stuffed in red peppers, garlic roasted potato wedges, stuffed jalapeno poppers, strawberry-citrus punch and a blackberry-nectarine crisp. Honestly none of the recipes were worth keeping, but it made for a very impressive meal, and tasted fine. Did I get any pictures of the spread? No. Amazing. Oh, and I also had Cheetos and snow cones for the kids!

Dad got to come spend most of the day with us, so we took him to Mario's that night to celebrate Father's Day. John and I got to sing with the band, too, so that was fun, and Dad snapped a few pictures of us performing! While he was here, Dad helped us put together Johnathan's swing set, but of course it rained during the party, so the kids didn't get to play on it! They still had fun playing with the new toys Johanthan got.

Kalleigh is now crawling and babbling up a storm. She's a real bright spot in our lives! She's into everything and just a couple of days ago began pulling up on things. Great. Onto the next level of baby-proofing! She's really trying to communicate, or at least it sure seems that way. When she sees John, she let's out a whole string of "da-da-da-da-da-da." What else is that supposed to mean? And when she's hungry, she's been putting her fingers in her mouth and crying, but using an "eee" vowel sound. It's the only time she cries with that vowel sound. I've been saying all along, "Do you want to eat?" and signing eat when I say it. She's only 8 1/2 months, for crying out loud! I recognize that these things may all be coincidental, but I'm not ready to rule out the possibility of these being the beginnings of first words.

I've enjoyed watching a pair of barn swallows grow their family in the corner of our porch. They had four baby birds and it's just been fascinating to me. Here's a picture of the birds at about a week old:


They're about 3 weeks old now and just look like they could take off any day now! Their tail feathers have just a little more to grow, and then it'll be an empty nest!

You see out of all that's happened, here's what I chose to take a picture of. My priorities are obviously out of whack.

Well, I do have a couple of new pics of the kids, so I'll put those up, too.


The infamous "cheeeeese!" smile after playing in the sprinklers.


Kalleigh, in a family heirloom dress of sorts, from Grammie. I have already boxed it up and sent it on to Shawn and Brit's baby, Addie.

The kids and I are heading to AR for a week and a half to help mom redo her living room. I love to do that sort of thing, so it will be fun! When we get back from that trip, we'll be home for a while, and that will be nice, too!