Where did June go?

I know, I know....we have been totally falling down on our postings over the last 2 months. I'll give you the short run down and then get on with the business of posting a few new cute pics from the last 2 months!

In May: we put an offer in on our first house and it was accepted. We'll post before and after pictures soon...we have a little more settling in to do before we are ready to release images of the new house to the PD fans. As well, Ty and me went to a friend's wedding in the Hamptons, helped Tyler's sister and her husband move into their new house, and attended Tyler's other sister's college graduation in Iowa. Intense! Thus...you'll note....there are very few pics from the 2nd half of May/1st half of June.

In June: we closed on our house and Eleanor began working more or less full time hours to try and get it into shape. Ty helped when work allowed. Greta spent the month bouncing around from daycare to family members' care all month. So you'll notice...not alot of pics from June. A June bright spot: cousin Evelyn's baptism in mid-June! Luckily Uncle Dan took some pics of the girls together in Alabama.

And July....really....is it July? We moved in the last weekend in June and 1 week later Eleanor took off for Kentucky to work at an ASP sight with the Lake Harriet Youth. Great fun, but it made for a nutty week for the Preacher back here at home who kept Greta all week (yay daddy!). So here we are. We'll catch up eventually.....

A few Greta firsts over the last few months: her vocabulary has literally exploded. Everything has a name- from watermelon to airplane to her yellow crocs to mommy's lap. She's even venturing into verbs like walk, eat, jump ("bump"...but the context helps us out!). It's totally amazing to watch. She's beginning to count and loves it when you give her a countdown to go down her slide in the backyard. Gboo LOVES Elmo...and will drop everything at the sound of his voice. She's fairly agile now and runs everywhere, loves to spin "round and around", climbs on EVERYTHING...she's generally fearless which is both awesome and scarey for G's mommy! She is very into other kiddos and loves to follow big kids around (daycare is great for this!). Gboo also is making her preferences known...she names the books she wants to read before bedtime, she insists on particular shoes (the crocs are the current favorite), and of course there are some foods that fly and some that don't but now she vocalizes her distaste/enjoyment which is a real hoot. Gboo also is much more prone to give lovies (an extended hug more or less) without being asked and gives kisses too (before they were mostly "blown kisses"). We have ventured into tantrum land, which is less fun. However, the new stuff that 18 months has brought generally outweigh the challenges of this age so we are cool with it.

The Preacher and his wife are tired and ready to feel settled into the new place, but we're making it and excited that the light is at the end of the tunnel. We are already enjoying backyard barbeques (like every night because our kitchen is torn up!) and evenings spent on our back patio...and Jerz is thrilled with his backyard too! So all in all we are doing well and promise to get back to regular blogging soon! Thanks for being patient with us and now enjoy a few photos!

New videos of Gboo

Just thought I'd post 2 quick videos of our girl. The first is a clip from the zoo....she loved it...but we of course missed many of the great moments of excitement! The 2nd is of her reading one of her favorite doggie books. She's really getting into making animal noises (dog, cow, sheep...).
Hope all is well with you!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4et4X1OgG4E
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bQhNqHojqhA

How the Preacher spent his 30th birthday

With his girls at the park! We had a nice picnic lunch at a park by Lake Harriet. After scarfing down some noodles, daddy and Gboo went wild at the park. Enjoy the photos of the birthday boy and his daughter! It's hard to tell who was having the better time...

Spring in Mt Vernon (Iowa, in case you were wondering)

Today we roadtripped down to Aunt Jayne's college campus to see her senior art exhibit entitled "Tonalities." Luckily, Aunt Kebbie decided to go with us so Greta had a constant companion in the backseat, making the trip a bit easier. It's a long way down to Cornell College, but our short visit with Aunt Jayne was really fun. Spring had definitely arrived in Mt Vernon, which made the campus tour a real treat. The highlight of the day was seeing Jayne's artwork (charcoal pieces with a musical theme) and, of course, the artist herself! Greta also enjoyed the dandelions and asked the preacher if we could please plant some in our new yard. Enjoy a few photos from the day...

The Master (mistress?) of Disaster

Ahhh....here's our 15 month old tornado....sportin' her masters shirt from Grandpa Jay and her kickin' pink sunglasses from Aunt Kebbie. Think she's ready for spring?

Just for a quick update: at her 15 month appointment Greta impressed Dr Bush. Her stats: she's almost 23 lbs (51%ile), 31 inches tall (67%ile), and her head is a whopping 19 inches (96%ile!!!!!). Her grandpa (the suspected source of the large noggin') says big heads house big brains...we liked that explanation! Dr Bush said Greta is hittin her milestones in stride and is ahead of schedule linguistically...I know, a real shocker for all those who know our chatty child. Yay growing girl!

We are eager for summer and suspect that our little Gboo will morph into quite the little park-urchin. More photos to come!

Bamagramma brought snow!

That may not be entirely true....but Greta's momma did feel rather silly having promised Bamagramma that snow does not fall in MN in April and having to welcome Granny here in a wet snow storm this last weekend. Sigh. Luckily the snow didn't really stick around and get in our way of having a fun weekend together while the Preacher was following golf balls in Augusta. We spent a morning at the Como Conservatory checkin' out the corpse flower (it was not in full stink sadly, but we saw it) and showing Greta what flowers look like. We snapped some cute shots of Gboo and Bamagramma so enjoy. We did have more fun than the visit to the conservatory....but we forgot to break out our cameras! We miss Bamagramma already!

Sliding into Spring!

Today we took a family outing to the mall next door for lunch and an hour at the INDOOR PLAYGROUND. Yes, a big deal. Now that Greta is pretty steady on her feet and motoring around pretty well we decided it was time to introduce her to the concept of a playground. The number of screaming kiddos and funky play equipment made her pretty tentative at first. But after watching for 5 or 10 minutes she was ready to explore it a bit. The preacher and his wife coaxed (OK coerced) Greta to try out the slide and after a few rounds she actually looked like she enjoyed it. After we were done playing, Greta insisted on helping momma push the stroller back through the mall...what a big girl! Enjoy a few photos from today's big adventure.