Good Morning God.

This morning I cut open watermelon for breakfast.

Good morning God. I'm so glad you are in my life too.

June 2009 Family Vacation Mini-Movie

Thanks to Pam's help I have this slideshow mini-movie up on the blog. Next I'll have to learn how to add some fun music. The second slide has a little storyline, so you'll have to pause it to read.

Alizah

Alizah is 19 months now.

In this photo she is saying "Train," "Choo-Choo." Levi and Rayna were rounding the bend back on the Carson Park train.

There is nothing Alizah loves more than having her sister's attention. Well, sometimes maybe mama's attention is better. She gives great hugs, saying "monkey", and squeezing tight. And she still loves her baby dolls, although she does not like other kids her age and younger very much, she's really aggressive (mostly it is just that they might have an interest in the same toy. "hey, you looking at that? IT'S MINE!")

The other day Levi and I were laughing at some of Alizah's favorite words- buckle, broken, (i made a list of these, lost that for now too. I'll come back to it when I find it).
2 1/2 weeks ago Alizah distinctly began saying MINE! MINE, MINE, MINE! We are taking lots of opportunities to practice sharing (especially sharing me).

Alizah loves it in our backyard (and she's decided she likes to sit next to our Maple tree in the boulevard...not too safe...Rayna's very protective of her and brings her back away from the road). Alizah loved picking and eating green beans. Loved picking green tomatoes and biting them and throwing them and then again. But red ones, yuck. One of her favorite games is hiding and chasing in the sheets on the line. She learned to "twisty turvy" swing from Rayna (laying on the swing on her belly and twisting it up). Alizah is not as brave as Rayna about bugs (sometimes they make her shudder).

Peek-a-boo. (This photo was taken at Uncle Zach's. He grew a bunch of zinnias we were posing in front of. This day Grandpa Joe, Grandma Sally and Uncle Zach went to Aiken's orchard and pressed 10 gallons of cider).

Rayna. She's now "3 and 3/4 year old"!

She's a little big girl learning to navigate the challenges of having a little sister.

I love the horse photo, this day she dressed up horse with lots of pretty bows and asked me to take a photo of him. Of course he was too wild to photograph well. This is Rayna's very special horse (Aunt Laura sent it for her 3rd birthday, but that's not why it is special). Rayna has several VERY SPECIAL animals. A dog, 2 cats, a horse, a penguin and whichever one she borrowed from Grandma Mike's house ("for 5 days").

update Oct 2009

Okay, so I finally enabled cookies so I can blog again!

We've been busy around here with lots of gardening and food preservation. I also took over leadership of the Eau Claire Holistic Moms Network when my good friend Stacey moved to Florida. (Her son says they have to move back to EC because he's going to marry Rayna. I don't think she's quite ready to get married- she's still a little self-centered.) I've been loving HMN! I have met wonderful friends and have learned so much from the national loop about nutrition, herbs and discipline. I'm sure I will learn lots more in the years to come. Levi has been playing with both his bands and this weekend he will be playing at the Mabel Tainter with a Connecting Generations event which he says is like a talent show for the older gen and middle/high schoolers. He says its really great and I am going to try to take Rayna (although it does start at bedtime).

Last weekend I toured MCAOM. So I am in the process of completing my acupuncture school application and I'm planning on starting in January, 1 day a week. I'm nervous and excited!

Today we woke up to snow (actually there was a dusting and cold blowing wind on Saturday too). But this snow stuck around and came down lightly all day. Rayna was so excited to go out for the first snow. Of course she said, "soon its going to be Christmas and then my birthday." I had to tell her there are a lot of holidays to go! I don't remember it snowing before Halloween (many times on Halloween), but I suppose I don't have a context to form a memory for it when I was young.

This was the 2nd Monday morning we had Spanish Music and Movement class (at the Heyde Arts Center in CF). The girls really like it, and I am learning Spanish with them. We are bringing our friend Henry (he's 20 months) to class with us, he's expecting a sister any day now.

Tomorrow is my mom's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARY! Here's some awesome photos of the girls.

Visit from a Pigeon

I have this story written in Rayna's composition book, but I can't seem to find that tonight. I will edit this soon and tell you her story.

I hear Levi from the back yard saying, "Sarah, come to the back door." He actually was hollering, "close the back dooor, close the back door."

I walked to the door, which was propped wide open. I was startled as I nearly walked right into a pigeon. It had a band around its leg, so we knew it was our neighbor's who lives about 3 blocks away and keeps a flock of pigeons.


There's the pigeon....Look at the pigeon.....
Me "he was going to come in our back door!"
Rayna "oh no, he's going in the street."
Me "its okay, he's walking home, he just lives 2 blocks up"
Rayna "I think we're gonna have to bring him home." "The pigeon came to visit us. How come he came to visit us?"
Me "I don't know its a mystery."

Rayna "He looked at me! Mama, the pigeon looked at me!"
Me "did he give you a wink?"
Rayna "no, he just saw me."

We started to follow the pigeon, and "walk him home."


Rayna "he flew up on the roof. I think he's going to fly from there. Are you lost?"
Alizah "bye"
Rayna "he's walking to the very top. Look, he's walking to the very top." "He's on the house."
Me "do you think he can see his home?"
Rayna "no he can't, we're about 2 blocks."
Me "do you think he can hear his friends?"
Rayna "how is he going to get home? I think we need to take him home."
Me "he's looking, stretching his neck."
Rayna "he flew!"
Me "ut oh, he's flying the other way."
Rayna "what ut oh?"
Me "he's going in the wrong direction, home is the other way."

About 3 minutes later, the pigeon flew overhead straight to its home and the flock circled the neighborhood moments later.