Family and Floating...

Blogger drives me nuts. I hate it when I load the pictures backwards. AHHH!!! Oh well. I'm not spending the time to try and fix them.

We spent one evening at Micah's grandma's house. The whole extended family showed up to visit and have dinner. It was lots of fun to see all the cousins and family. We also had lots of good food. Crazy wierd southern food, but still tasty after you get accustomed to the idea. A new one this time was swamp cabbage. Pretty tasty actually...nothing like okra. Okra I do not like.

The next day we went floating down the Ichnetucknee River with Micah's cousins and family. It was fun, the most entertaining part watching several of us (not me, thankfully!!) fall out of their tubes and then try to get back in. It was a busy day on the river and we decided that next time we should do it on a weekday instead of a weekend. Lots of fun!!
Porter and Harmon on their rafts. They were each tied to a parent. Porter was terrified to try and get into his tube, but we threw him in and he stopped screaming pretty soon after he figured out he wasn't actually touching the water. His tube had a bottom to it. He eventually had a really good time and even let us dip him into the water a few times while holding onto us.

Harmon loves the water and wanted his tube untied from Micah's. He was pretty confident he could do it himself. He flipped and flopped all over his tube and took a few dips into the water too. He even wanted to get in and float himself, but that wasn't happening!

Who puts a picture of themselves pregnant, plump and in a bathing suit on their blog? Apparently I do. Nuts, but thankfully I am mostly hidden. Here is a fun picture of Porter and I enjoying the float. The water is very cool and refreshing.

Harmon loving the ride.

Micah tried to dive right into the water....CHILLY!! I think the water is about 70 degrees.

This is the whole crew.

This is a picture of Ella exploring Granny Pansy''s yard. Ella's hair really curled up in all the heat and humidity. It was amazing.

The rusty looking contraption in the middle is a cane grinder...that they use to grind sugar cane and then boil the liquid into cane syrup. A pretty fascinating procedure.

Great Aunt Dessie and Granny Pansy.

Sea World

We arrived in Orlando Wednesday night....about 9 hours later than we had planned on. Our original flight was canceled and we had to wait for another one late that night. Not a lot of fun. We ran out of diapers...Ella seemed to completely empty her bowels that day, we ran out of milk and we all ran out of patience. We were happy to get here. It was a warm muggy night. As Harmon climbed into his aunt's truck he said, "Why am I sweating?" Welcome to Florida.

Thursday we went to SeaWorld. I have taken command of Serena's computer and her pictures, as I have not downloaded mine yet. But here we are some pictures of us at Seaworld. We had a lot of fun, although while in the ticket line both boys were whining about the heat and wanted to go back to North Dakota. Go figure! For Shamu's show we were in the splash zone and just about everyone around us got drenched, except us. Not a drop. By the end of the day they were both going crazy about how much fun SeaWorld was. Ella stayed at home with Grandma and enjoyed a nice long nap.

Another West Baby??!!?!?!?!

Yep, it's that time again. We are expecting another baby! We were quite surprised but are excited to have another baby coming to our family. Today is the day that we are going to tell Micah's family. We are in Florida visting them and have never been able to tell them in person that we were having a baby, so we saved this bit of news to share with them. The fun part?? I am almost 5 months along!! Keeping a secret that long is pretty stinking good! Unfortunately we weren't able to schedule the ultrasound before we left, so we will have to do that when we get back.

T-Ball!

These are picturs from Harmon's first T-ball game a week or two ago. He thinks he is a real hot shot. Last night his game got rained out. It is pretty funny to watch these little 5 and 6 year olds try to play. They are pretty clueless.

Harmon was running for home plate here. When I showed him this picture he was astounded at just how cool he looked when he was running...what can I say...I think there might just be some lucky photography there.

Little Miss Princess herself. She loves to have her own chair. Her budding personality is a constant delight these days.

Porter doing who knows what.

Harmon waiting to bat....with his glove on. Got to be prepared, right?

Road Side Service

I decided to take the boys to lunch (i.e. didn't want to make pb&j again). As I was rounding up Ella the boys ran outside to get in the van. It took me a few minutes. I went outside and found this:



Apparently the front tire looked a little low so they had gotten the bicycle pump out to air it up. They even had it attached to the car. Good little mechanics! Hopefully they didn't let too much air out.

Do you like Porter's ensemble? Very ND wear. Not quite warm enough for a short sleeve shirt and shorts!

Holy PettiSkirt!!

This is Annelise, my good friend Amelia's daughter. Amelia asked me if she thought I could make one of these pettiskirts. I had looked at them in a couple of catalogs and thought they were pretty cute. So sure...how hard could it be, right??? Holy cow. It took me a few months of some serious thinking (who needs a pattern, right?), a few new gadgets for my machine and lots of patience. My serger broke in the middle of it. My sewing machine gave me fits as well. It actually went together quite well after I had done all that serious thinking and finally figured out what I should be doing. The first set of instructions I read were crap. The second set were much better.
What a lot of work for such a pretty skirt. But these pictures make it ALL worth it.

Corn on the Cob

We had a pretty yummy dinner the other night. Corn on the cob, watermelon, and BLT's on homemade wheat bread. Delicious!! Ella really liked the watermelon and corn. Harmon loved it all but especially the corn and the tomatoes on his BLT. That kid just cracks me up because he likes tomatoes so much.



Ella liked it all but sure made a huge mess when she ate. I stripped her down before we even began, anticipating the massive mess she would make.

And yes, that is watermelon gel running thru her hair. She was getting impatient while I cooked, so I gave her watermelon to chew on. She would get mad when her piece was done and well, you can see what happened. No more cute ponytail for her.

Goofy Hman.

Porter, sitting next to the filthy door, and with a couple of toys next to him on the table. That is a big rule at our house...no toys on the table. You see how well he listens, or it could have been the fact that we were so excited about our BLT's that we didn't even notice.

Clown Litmus Test

Ever wondered how to tell if a clown is really a clown?

Here's how you tell...compliments of Porter. And I should mentioned that he has tested this in the field and it is a proven method.

Get the clown to bend over and give you a high five, then quickly reach in and give his nose a test honk. If said nose does not honk proceed to pull as hard as you can and try to remove nose thereby proving that the clown is indeed just a man dressed up to look like a clown.