The birthday party

My good friend, Hope, took pictures at Lola's birthday party. She's a wonderful photographer (she did our maternity shoot). I was so glad she did this because I didn't have time to take a single picture! If you have a first birthday party coming up, I highly recommend asking someone to take pictures for you. This is just a sample - I'll post more when I get the rest from Hope.

Six-layer rainbow cake made by me (with the help of my sister-in-law, Lindsey, via several phone calls!) and Lola's mini rainbow swirl cake

Lola's cake was topped with homemade whipped cream - yum

She thought it was hilarious to feed me cake

Fruit kabobs and rainbow cakes in jars

A new Mizzou sippy just in time for football season

The birthday girl

The biggest walking stick I have ever seen

These things give me the heebie jeebies

Fun with the Werners

The Werners came down for a visit a couple of weeks ago. Lola had big fun playing with her cousins, Chaney and Keaton, and splashing in the lake and the "pool" on our deck. Here are a couple of my faves. View all the pics in the slideshow at the bottom. Enjoy!

Playing in the yard

We had Lola's first birthday party on Saturday, and boy, was it fun. I'll post pictures soon. Until then, enjoy these few taken the day after...

Enjoying her birthday present from Uncle Caldwell, Aunt Kate and Aunt Betsy (while wearing the pink tutu skirt from the Lauries)

She loves the mist in her face

Taking a walk with daddy

Let's play a little game...

Can you guess who these two cute kiddos are? AND, which one do you think looks more like Lola?

#1

#2

Beach ready

Outgrown

I cleaned out Lola's shoes and socks drawer the other day (by far her messiest drawer) and discovered a dozen pairs of shoes she has outgrown. One pair I bought (top left corner), the rest were either gifts or hand-me-downs. Sadly, most of them she never wore! Or, she only wore a time or two. So, I put them away with all the other outgrown things. Now that she's walking (a little) she actually needs shoes... and she only has one pair that fits! They're sandals, and in a few weeks she'll need something for cooler weather. Anyone have any tips on the best shoes for a new walker? 

My view this morning

I decided to let Lola nap in the stroller this morning instead of in her crib. This way I could get a walk in, too. I told myself I'd walk until she woke up... an hour later she was still snoozin', and I was sweatin' buckets. Holy cow it's hot and humid out this morning. Bring on the cool mornings!

"That kid is freakin' cute"

I kid you not - I heard a woman say this at the dock today... about Lola. :) What can I say - she IS pretty darn cute. (I might be a lil bit biased.) Matt and I shared the shift this evening - I went in first and worked for a few hours, and then he brought Lola down, and he stayed to close (he's still there), and I brought her home to do dinner, bath and bedtime. A pretty good storm blew threw about an hour ago. The thunder was SO loud. I was getting Lola ready for bed. She didn't seem to notice, but Oscar was trying to find someplace to hide. It's still rumbling, but the storm has passed (I think), and it cooled off a little. It's actually really nice outside now.

She'll be one year old in two weeks. It's really sneaking up on me, and fast! So many memories are rushing back. A few people have asked me if I'm "sad" about her turning one. I'm really not. She has such a personality now, I can't wait to see what's she's going to say/do/learn next. I don't mind that she's one. I just want her to stay this age/size forever...

Hope you're having a lovely weekend, too, where ever you are.

Lola Ingalls Wilder

We played dress-up the other day with one of my old bonnets, a shell necklace, and the pillow case dress Aunt Lindsey made for Lola. Anna and I couldn't stop laughing at the bonnet... ya had to be there.

The many faces of Lola

Crispety, crunchety, garlicky goodness

I snack on cheese and crackers all the time. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing... better than candy bars and potato chips, right? Right!? Anyway, I usually just cut up a block of reduced fat cheddar cheese and eat it with wheat thins. But, I had a bag of these in the pantry that I was saving for a party - and we haven't had one of those in a while - so, I finally broke down and opened the bag. They are DELICIOUS. Not terribly good for you, as they do have lots of seasoning on them (sodium!)... but, oh well. Just don't eat the whole bag in one sitting. (If you can keep from it!) The bad thing is... I can't remember where I got them!

Lola's library

If I've picked these books up and put them back on the shelf once, I've done it a hundred times... :)

21 days

In 21 days I turn ONE. This time last year I was nestled in my mama's belly, settling down, kicking a little less, sleeping a lot, hiccuping a lot... getting ready for my early arrival (26 days early - surprise!) Now I'm learning to walk, I'm learning all kinds of new words (mama, elmo, fish... and many more my mom and dad cannot understand), trying new foods (they call me the 'blueberry pancake monster'), and quite frankly, I'm a lil bit ornery. Tee hee. ~Lola

Fall fashion

Every girl needs a good pair of leggings for fall... or, in this case, jeggings. Denim-colored leggings from Old Navy: $8. Worth every penny.

"We go out walkin'... long before midnight"

Katelyn is back home in Illinois, and Anna is back in Bentonville getting ready to start her second year of teaching, which means we are nannyless. It has been soooo nice having an extra set of hands around here during our busy season. But, now that it's just the three of us again (four, counting the fluffy white one) I'll be staying home with Lola a little more during the week. And, now that the temps are cooling down I hope to start walking regularly again. We went for a walk one morning earlier this week, and I discovered that pushing the stroller uphill with an almost one-year-old was quite the workout. This needs to become a habit.

Also, I got my hair cut even shorter last week, and I love it! Thank you, Kristy Laurie, owner of The Cutting Edge Salon in Springfield. You rock!

Water bug

  

Cousins

A couple weeks ago we went to brunch at Paul and Beth's house (Matt's uncle and aunt on the Wade side), where Lola got to play with some of her Wade cousins. It really opened my eyes to how much she might be missing by not being around babies and kids very often. She had so much fun! At first she was super shy and burst into tears when cousin Miles (pictured on the far left) looked at her. (She's a lil bit sensitive.) But, she warmed quickly. Pictured above is 20-month-old Miles (Emily and Hunter's), Maddox, 4, and Madison, 7, (Chris and Lindsey's kiddos), and of course, the Bean. (Other cousins at the brunch but not pictured were Chris and Lindsey's youngest, 7-month-old Jackson, and Spencer and Sandra's little boy, Howard, 15 months.)

Well, this is new...

1. Lola has started throwing her food in the floor if she doesn't want to eat it. Makes for not-so-easy cleanup for Mom and Dad.

2. It's thundering and raining here as I type. Yes, rain, glorious rain!

3. I got a new phone today, and I love it! Beats that hunkajunk Blackberry Curve I got for free six months ago. (I loved my Blackberry Pearl, but the Curve didn't work for me.) We're also finally getting 'local' numbers. They'll be activated in a couple of weeks. We'll let you know before the switch happens (if you're lucky).

Guest blog

by Matt Wade

I don't normally share info like this. I was going to email it, but Jabet thought I should relay it via her blog...

Interesting story. In 6 years of working at the marina we've never had a rental boat run out of gas. Until today. Normally when people ask about the gas tanks on our boats we tell them it's pretty much impossible to run out of gas unless they run wide open all day long and don't pay attention to their gas gauge. These guys rented our 35-foot pontoon, which has a 30-gallon tank. They weren't skiing or tubing, which typically uses more gas. When I found them at point 16 (about 7 or 8 miles from PCM), they had no idea where they were, where they'd come from, or how to get back to Pontiac.

I wondered how in the world someone could get themselves in a predicament like this, but as soon as I saw the guy's shirt I knew. He's a KU grad.

Changin' it up!

I've been blogging since 2006, and I just now figured out how to make my posts a little more fun and colorful. I don't think blogger actually had this capability when I started the PCM blog. I think there was a fairly recent upgrade to the design features on blogger, and I just never switched over to the new template (or whatever) until now.

Anyway, now I can do fun stuff, like change the colors of words. Or keep the words black and shade the background. I can center the text like it is in this paragraph if I feel like it or keep it left-aligned like the paragraph above. I can make the font really big if I want to, or make it really small like this. I can even change the font if I so desire.

This may seem like pretty simple stuff to someone who knows a lot (or even just a little) more about computers and design than I do. But, to me it's an exciting discovery! I recently tweaked the design of my blog (you may have noticed a different post title font and body font). How do you like it? Lori told me the body copy is hard to read. Is anyone else having this problem?

If I could blog for a living I would. It's so much fun. And now it just got a whole lot funner.

(Yes, I know 'funner' isn't a word. It just sort of slipped out. Sorry, Mrs. Eubank.)

First steps!

Lola is 11 months old today. She has been dabbling in the art of walking over the past few days. (OMG!) She's still pretty wobbly, but she's getting braver by the minute. I shot this video yesterday - she had already taken a couple of steps before I grabbed the camera, so I just caught the tail end of it. Look out, world!

Pizzzzzones = easy and delicious new recipe!

For those of you who don't know, Matt's cousin, Anna, has been staying with us off and on this summer while she's on summer break. She's a food and nutrition teacher in Bentonville, Arkansas, which is a little less than three hours southwest of here. We have enjoyed having her here so much - she's great with Lola, and has been a big help to us during our busy season. This is her last week, and we're going to miss her dearly when she goes back to school!

Having Anna here has allowed me to spend a little more time cooking dinner. We still do quick and easy stuff as much as possible - our evenings are crazy enough trying to feed ourselves, feed and bathe Lola, play with her and get her to bed at 7 o'clock. But, we've been in a rut lately, cooking and eating the same meals over and over. So, Matt started quizzing Anna about what sort of things she teaches her students to cook, and she mentioned calzones (yes, they are technically calzones, but I like to call them 'pizzzzzones' and add a few extra Z's). These are so easy to make, and they are delicious!

We used frozen Rhodes rolls - the cracked wheat kind. Just set them out about an hour or so ahead of time. Once they're thawed, take two rolls, smash them together and flatten it out to about a 6-inch diameter circle. (The dough should be about 1/4-inch thick.) Spoon your sauce (we used Trader Joe's pizza sauce) and any ingredients you like (we used pepperoni and shredded mozzarella) on one side of the circle. Fold the other side over to make a pouch, and use a fork to pinch the edges closed. Drizzle olive oil over the top of each pizzzzzone and bake for about 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees. We dipped them in leftover pizza sauce and HOMEMADE ranch dressing a la Matt Wade. (It was not low-cal, but it was delicious.) I told Matt I want to try chicken, spinach and artichokes next time, and he practically gagged. The great thing about these is you can put whatever you want in them - they don't all have to be the same. Genius!

Around the house

Just hangin' out in my undies, reading a magazine.


She got really excited when she saw the dog on the cover...


Anna and I decided we LOVE this little tunic. So sweet.


Waiting for Granny and Grandpa - I think Oscar was the most excited.


She opens ALL the cabinets and drawers these days. We have child-proof thingies on some of the cabinets, but, apparently not this one...


New jammies! Thank you, cousin (aka 'nanny') Anna!


Just chillin' in my room before bedtime.

Weeeeeeeee!

We took Lola to the park on Sunday afternoon for a little outdoor play time. It was really hot and muggy, so we didn't stay for very long. Like 10 minutes, actually. Ha ha. But, it was long enough to go down the slide a couple of times (do you think Matt might be a little big for this?) and play a few ditties on the keyboard.