So....urine is sterile, right?

Oh My! Have I some things to tell you. So first lets begin with the urine. I am sure you were wondering. You know how I have told you that BellaRose is a water baby? And that anywhere there is water she is playing in it? Do you see where this is going? In our attempt to conserve water we don't always flush when it is yellow, we of course let it mellow. I try to remember to close the toilet lid, and I try to remember to close the door, but some mornings in my haze it does not always happen. Well I hear splashing while I am on the computer (darn internet!) and you guessed Little Bean is playing in the toilet that has not been exactly flushed!! Oh No! Not only is she playing in the toilet bowl but she is also dipping my old toothbrush in the bowl and brushing her teeth!!! Oh don't you just want to die. You gotta give her some credit though, she sure has been paying attention when I brush her teeth. The week only goes down hill from there for her. She got a fat lip which you can almost see in the above picture while she was crawling. She got stung by a bee while out playing in the sandbox. She just snatched a bee out of the air, and apparently bees don't like it when you do that, and stung sweet girl on the thumb, and we all know how much SHE LOVES HER THUMB! But praise the Lord she is not allergic. She has that going for her. And just look at that picture, is she not her mother's daughter! My swiffer and I are tight and I just hope I pass that love on to her. That is one of the things I am just not willing to give up on in my quest to be environmentally conscious. I have tried to give it up, but I just can't! I am addicted to my swiffer. If you had 2 dogs and a baby who is ALWAYS on the floor then you would agree. I do many other things to lesson my carbon footprint, but giving up the swiffer is not one of them. Hey at least I use both sides!

When you see a cornfield do you ever just want to run through it, like in the movies? Do you ever wonder if you would get a paper cut on your eyeball if you did run through a cornfield? I often wonder about that, but boy oh boy what I would do to run through a cornfield. You wouldn't exactly say we have a cornfield, but I do have a couple of rows of silver queen corn and we just may have to have a harvest party when it is time for picking. BellaRose's sunflower house is doing well too and I really can't wait to see this project through to fruition. Worth and I had heaven in our mouth the other day. We shared one red cherry tomato and it was all warm from the sun and just made us so excited for more! I keep begging Worth to let us cut that big green tomato for fried green tomatoes but he is REALLY wanting that for a tomato sandwich when it turns red, so I will grant the boy that one wish! The pumpkins are thriving as well and I am really holding out for a 300 pounder. Keep your fingers crossed!

As I mentioned the other day, it was Margaret's birthday this past week so I made vanilla cupcakes with pink cream cheese frosting and chocolate butterflies. I must give credit where credit is due and tell you that I stole the idea from Cortney, as she made these cupcakes the other day. Also Newell was in town and helped me make the chocolate butterflies. So thank you both, ladies! The butterflies are so much fun to make, it is like you are coloring, but with chocolate. Also the cupcakes actually made the trip down to the lake and sat on the dock ALL day. The butterflies did melt a little, but they actually almost tasted better that way. So cute, right?!

Here is a cell phone picture of a shark that Worth caught while were at the beach. He is holding the shark upside down so it would be more docile, but doesn't it look so ominous? And did I tell you I caught a shark too, sort off. Kevin had cast out and asked me to hold the fishing pole while he was getting another one ready. After awhile he told me to real it in and I started to and I thought that I felt a tug, but then thought it was the current pulling the weight, well sure enough it was another shark! Worth's was about 3 1/2 feet and mine was a little smaller. This only made Worth and Kevin more excited, they ended up staying out there until 11 at night. They waded out in the water up to there chest and decided that might not be a good idea since they were catching sharks and all. Good Idea, ya think!

So being one who never backs down from a challenge (could be why I destroyed my precious 4runner in a pond, but that is another story for another time) I am going to make bagels! Niki made bagels the other day, which I am so impressed by, and I have always been a little scared to make bagels, but Niki said it wasn't bad so I am going to try it as well. I guess I am into copying people and the food they make. Let me also mention that I was never actually challenged by Niki, I guess it is just my competitive nature!

See you soon and hopefully I will be serving you some bagels, or something!

Lake Days and Friends!

Here we go again, a big long post. Sorry about that we just can't help it. We like picture, we take so many, so I am doing good just showing you 13 pictures. So all excuses aside, may I present to you Pearson Parker! Look how cute this little boy is. I really could just eat him up! His parents are our good friends Greg and Dru from college. They came up and spent the night with us on Friday and Pearson and BellaRose had a blast playing in the sandbox and the pool. They almost look alike with their blonde hair and brown eyes. Such sweet babies!

Thanks for coming to stay with us Greg, Dru and Pearson! Our door is always open so please come on down (said just like in The Price is Right).

One of my best friends, Margaret, had a birthday last week and to celebrate we went to Lake James over the weekend to camp! This lake is gorgeous. Mountains surrounding the whole thing. I seriously could live here. Worth's sister babysat BellaRose all day Saturday and she spent the night with them too so Worth and I got to camp. I love my baby and I missed her the second I dropped her off, but I gotta tell you, I needed that. We have not camped in so long, and the camping we did this weekend was on a dock, but hey it was in a tent and our backs were sore in the morning. If that is not camping I am not sure what is. We aren't one of those brave parents that are willing to take the baby camping yet. We thought about starting off in the backyard to see if it is even worth the effort. Here are a couple of pictures, lots of jumping off the dock, and only one back (Matt) that smacked the water so loud I think it was heard in Black Mountain!

Worth's sister and her family just happened to be getting a boat Sunday morning at Lake James as well so they brought us BellaRose and we got to go on the boat with them for a little bit. I can tell you with full confidence that BellaRose DID NOT like the life jacket, at least she could still get to that thumb!

The pontoon went all of about 10 mph, but the kids (read-Worth) had fun none the less. Ethan saw Noah out on the tube and wanted to go out there and show his older brother up. He popped up on that tube as soon as he could. We were all amazed and it sort of looks like he was as well.

Just look at that view with Shortoff Mountain in the background.

Next post we will be talking garden, fishing at the beach, and some cupcakes that I made for Margaret. See this post is not as long as it could have been!

2 post in one

Get ready, this could be a long one!
Let's start our journey off at Folly Beach where we joined my sister, Angela, and her family at the beach house they rented. My dad and Charlotte also joined us. We were there for the first part of the week until Wednesday. Now as much as Worth and I love to take pictures, we did not take a ton while there. I guess it is just too much to lug our big ole camera down to the beach and have to worry about sand getting in it, while trying to make sure our 1 year old does not drown. I guess you could say we have our priorities in line. Pat on the back for us. Bean loved the beach! She would crawl like a crab everywhere, not sure if she just likes how crabs crawl or if the sand hurt her knees. I imagine it was a combination of the two. Taylor, our niece, just adores BellaRose and was such a huge help. She would hold her and help feed her and most importantly entertain her! Rocco loves her too, but maybe not in the same way as Taylor, although I did see him showing her off to his friend. Here are just a few pictures from Folly.
Now we will move our adventure up the coast an hour to Litchfield Beach, where we took NOT ONE picture, but had fun none the less. Here we met up with Worth's parents and his sister and her family. We actually spent most of our time at the pool and the "lazy river" that they had at the condo. BellaRose sat in her cool raft leaning back sucking her thumb. She already knows all about the good life. We just went round and round in that river for what seemed like hours soaking in the sun. What more could you ask for on a vacation. Thank you to all participating parties. You sure do know how to make a vacation real nice!


I kept asking Rocco if I could have his eye lashes and he told me no. He said if he gave them to me then he would look like a girl. Where is the justice in this!

2ND post~FATHER'S DAY!

Worth, Uncle Ben, Neighbor Bill, Little Bean, and myself headed to The Land of Our Youth (or just where we went to college), or as some call it The High Country, to one of Worth's favorite rope swings, Upper Creek Falls , for Father's day. This was My Man's day and we wanted to do just what he wanted, although it lacked fried chicken, which was indeed a request, it did not lack in fun or sun! This was BellaRose's 2ND trip to Upper Creek Falls, though I don't think that she remembers the 1st being she was about 6 weeks old and slept the whole time. We were concerned that she would not like the cold water, but she did not seem to care. What is it about little kids and cold water? It's like they don't know it is cold. All they see is water and want to play! She sure did love seeing her daddy do gainers and Uncle Ben do cannon balls off the rope swing.

And speaking of Daddy's, BellaRose and I would like to publicly tell everyone just how important and wonderful Worth is. He goes to work everyday, and does manual back breaking labor, just so I have the honor of staying home with BellaRose. He has to miss out on trips to the pool and only hear stories and see pictures of the amazing things that BellaRose does everyday. We could not be more thankful for this man who fills us with so much love and wisdom on a daily basis. This is no easy job being a parent and I could never in any of my wildest dreams picked a man more suitable for me to help do this job!

I would also like to thank my dad and Worth's dad for all the love and support that they provide us. We are so thankful for you as well and are so happy that we got to hang out with both of you the week before Father's day. What a special treat!

Now back to the adventure, well really the end of the adventure, b/c as you can see all these adventure makes one very tired. Thanks for sticking this one out, if you did. It is good to be back.

Gone to the beach....

well not quite yet, but we will be there this time tomorrow. There is still much to be done like trying to get air conditioning in my car. Seeing as the temperature is pretty close to 100 today it would be very nice to have air conditioning and I only say this with slight sarcasim! I also am finishing up the chocolate chip cookies, made the cheese straws this morning, and I have not even thought about one item of clothing I am going to pack besides a bathing suit! I am procrastinating like crazy and I could not leave for the beach for a week without giving you one final post. I hope to come back tanned, and to show loads of pictures of BellaRose. Hope it is a good week for ya, and that the temperature comes down a little bit. I think it is supposed to be cooler at the beach then in the mountains. Don't have too much fun without us!

Went to the Doctor last week and the stats are in, BellaRose is weighing at a whopping 17.8 lbs and is 28.75 inches tall! She is just so darn cute. The Doctor told me that she was now officially a toddler, but I have decided that I am not going to call her a toddler until I am ready, maybe when she is 2. She is my baby and I can do as I please!
Oh you guys, I got a little sad last week when I was looking at all her 1st year books, like "What to Expect the First Year" and ones along those lines, we are DONE with the 1st year!! We are DONE with those books!! How did that happen so fast? I know that there are so many more unknowns as we look down the road of her 2nd year, but our confidence as parents has sky rocketed. I don't find myself second guessing any longer, and if I do second guess then I know I was wrong, and need to go back to what my gut told me to do.

It appears that BellaRose LOVES water. She sees it and she can't help but get excited and go play, whether it be dog bowl, baby pool, or toilet bowl. She does not discriminate on bodies of water. What an equal opportunity baby! Just her luck because we are heading to the beach next week! We could not be more excited. I know that this year will be such a different experience then taking a newborn like last summer. Hopefully I will have some more exciting things to report to you at the end of the week. Have some fun in the sun.