Yummers

Holly just entered the super drooly phase of being a baby.  She found her hands and wants to EAT THEM.  Trent made a very sweet little wooden bird teething ring for her and we’re trying to get her to chew on that at least sometimes. Not that she’s teething just yet- just very, very chewy.

We pry open her little fingers, wrap them around the ring, then direct it to her mouth.

Within seconds, the ring falls onto her wrist like a bracelet.

Then we help her prop it back into her mouth.

Holly is modeling a dress that I made for her that is so short, it was actually more of a shirt.  Luckily the line between skirt and shirt is blurred for babies.  She was pulling the bottom up to chew on it, but alas we couldn’t get her to recreate that moment to capture on film. 

Ultimately, her favorite things to chew on are her fingers.

The New Phonebooks Are Here!!!

Surprisingly, we weren’t the only ones outside cheering when our new, *big* recycling bin was delivered.  It feels so fancy.

It’s Not Like Picking Pumpkins

Strawberry picking is a great yearly event for us, excluding that moment when I realize I’ve voluntarily put myself in a field with buckets to pick berries with 2 children and a baby strapped to my chest. 

Then I feel the breeze, look up at the sky, and think, this is my job.  Holy cow, life is good.

Realization:  Based on Holly’s strawberry picking outfit, it could be the case that I’ve trained my children to want to wear costumes every day.  We’re participators.

Later that afternoon, when we were all stuffed with strawberries, I noticed the box of vegetables that we picked up at Froberg’s and executed an overly dramatic hair flip while saying, “oh I have to get a picture of this for our blog.” 

I felt so hip (insert high schooler rolling her eyes- “if you have to say it’s hip, it’s not hip”) with a box of locally grown veggies in the kitchen, yet much less so while eating turnips for dinner.

Black Cat BBQ Debut

The second annual Pearl Beach BBQ Cook-Off was a success!  Not necessarily a won-first-place kind of success, but a good-time-had-by-all-rain-held-out success.

There were briskets, ribs, and lots of catching up with family.

Cousin time included the backbreaking entertainment of digging a giant hole in the yard.  What began in the morning with digging up a treasure that was buried last summer turned into an all day quest to dig a hole deep enough to bury a wagon.  My sincere apologies to my parents for destroying an 8’x10’ patch of lawn.

The true measure of fantastic barbecue is not winning a barbecue cook-off or getting featured in Texas Monthly or having a line outside your restaurant every Saturday.  Fantastic barbecue is your family and friends enjoying it and everyone smelling like smoke.

Check and check!

Mr. Good Time

Trent is deep in preparation for his upcoming second ever barbecue cook-off.  Here he is last year at his first ever barbecue cook-off:

Maybe right now you’re thinking, “I didn’t know Trent wore glasses!” 

Trent has better than perfect eyesight, but can be kind of a major pill if he’s losing at dominos or a board game.  The trick to keeping Fun Trent around is for him to wear his Good Time Glasses, a pair of 3D glasses with the lenses punched out.  With the Good Time Glasses, his mood stays elevated.  He’ll be wearing the glasses for the barbecue cook-off as well.