A Day At The Aquarium

Where has this week gone?   :)  Well even though it's already Thursday I'm going to post about the family fun we had last Sunday.  All 6 of us went to the Dallas World Aquarium and had a wonderful time.  I will admit that I was afraid that Miss B would be too young to really enjoy it, but I'm here to tell you I was WRONG!  This little exhibit had two ducks swimming around and they were moving fast enough that it was almost like one of those little wind up toys.  It still seems funny to me to see pictures of her standing up or walking.  :)

But she wasn't always walking!  I have pictures of each and every one of us holding Brooklyn at one time or the other.  Here she is with her Aunt Lynne' and they are looking at some turtles swim.  She has just recently learned to point at things and it is so darling.

Her Grandpa had her when we went through the shark tunnel.  I'm sure he's telling her that if a shark appears while we're at the lake that he'll punch it in the nose for her.  ;)

And I love it that her hair is long enough to put in a little hairbow.  She looks like a little kewpie doll here.

Watching her at the aquarium was another example of how adults could learn a lot from children and babies.  Brooklyn was wide-eyed throughout the place, just looking slowly at everything.  Where we were impressed with amazing rare animals she was equally entranced by water sounds and splashes or big leaves.  Equally impressive to her was a bamboo edging and she wanted to put one little hand in each one of them.  So darling!

Good times.......

Feather and Fan Baby Blanket

I finished this blanket on Tuesday last week and couldn't be happier with it.  The pattern is the Feather and Fan Blanket and I've always loved the delicate lacey look, but was afraid to try it.  Now I'm so glad I did because it really wasn't hard at all.  It's only a four row repeat and only one of the rows is a pattern row.

This was made for one of my dear friend's daughters who is due very soon.  I started the blanket in March but just sort of did a few rows every now and then because I knew I had 9 months to finish.  Guess what - those 9 months pass more quickly than you think - LOL!  The last two weeks have seen quite a bit of dedicated knitting time on this blanket.

I chose white because I've always thought that white blankets look very heirloom.  And the white yarn with this lacey pattern just made it so beautiful. 

The yarn is simply the Pound of Love by Lion Brand.  I am a firm believer in using yarn that a new mother is able to wash and dry.  And this drapes so lovely.

Keith and I were looking at it yesterday morning and he asked me how long it took to knit.  I was able to figure a rough estimate because each pattern repeat took about an hour, so approximately 44 hours went into this blanket.  That sounds like a tremendous amount of time, but really it was all knit either watching tv/movies with Keith or knitting with friends.

One of my favorite parts about knitting blankets for new babies is the amount of prayer that goes into them.  During those hours much time was spent thinking abouto and praying for baby Paige.

This blanket truly was a labor of love and I hope she loves it too.  :)

Behold, children are a gift from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them! ~ Psalm 127:3-5

Wii Are Becoming More Fit

I thought I'd share a picture of what has been occupying our time every.single.night this week.

We bought a WiiFit last weekend and have been having so much fun with it! What are the odds that I would ever say any kind of exercise was actually FUN???

For those that have never seen it I'll explain the screen. In the foreground is the back of Keith's head (his Mii) and he's doing the hula hoop game. During this event there are two other Mii's that are facing you and will periodically toss another hula hoop your way. The idea is to lean over and catch the hula hoop on your head, then try and spin all the hula hoops at one time.

One of my favorite parts of the Wii is that once people play on it their Mii becomes part of our machine. So in this particular screen shot you see the Mii on the left with the pink shirt - that is my Mii. The other Mii, the one with the blonde ponytails and white shirt is BROOKLYN!!! This really makes Keith and I laugh when we're doing any of the WiiFit games and we see Brooklyn. The machine just tosses in random Mii's, so we never know who we'll see and that's part of the fun of it.

My favorite is a step aerobic type game, especially now that I've unlocked the advanced mode. I have confirmed that I have no rhythm at all, but it is fun to do and makes me laugh.

One more thing - the first time you set up the WiiFit it weighs you and figures your BMI. And at that point it makes your little Mii on the screen become larger. Strangely enough it was funny to watch my little Mii look down at her body growing exponentially and her little eyes got quite large at the phenomena! And the little board that you step on? Each time you hear a little voice say "Oh!" like it can't believe how large you are. Thankfully I do find this hilarious.... ;)

Good times......

It's For Brooklyn Honey....

Oh such beauty. This little cove is where Keith and I stopped to swim at one point this weekend. When it gets to the hot part of the summer we have always loved to just stop the boat somewhere on the lake and jump in - with lifejackets on of course - and kind of bob around. The water was 28 feet deep in this little cove and so wonderfully cool in the midst of our 106 degree weather.

Now the background to the next part of the story is that Keith and I watch a LOT of Discovery Channel and it's been Shark Week....

As we were bobbing along and talking and laughing I turned to Keith and asked him - in all seriousness mind you - if a shark would suddenly appear and bite me would he swim over and punch it in the nose? He gave me The Look and told me that sharks are not in lakes. OK, I get that, but let's pretend for a minute that somehow a shark got in the wrong place, showed up at our lake and bit me, would he punch out the shark? Keith was silent for a minute and then said no. I feigned being insulted, then asked why not. He said "Well, really there is no sense in both of us getting bitten, so I should stay over here. You know...for Brooklyn." OK, I burst out laughing at that. I love it that he's not going to save me so that he would be alive for our granddaughter. :)

Good times.......

Well...,,mom warned me. Anytime you try to knit under pressure with a
looming deadline that's when mistakes happen. What you're seeing here
is three dropped stitches. And unfortunately I didn't bring a crochet
hook along on this trip to take care of this problem. Fortunately I
have a Macyver husband who fashioned a crochet hook out if a clothes
hanger and I was on my merry way. He told me to get him a hanger, some
duck tape and a coconut and he'd get me fixed up.

I love that man. :)

Coffee and Mud Dobbers, Though Not Together

Sometimes a day just starts out so good that you want to celebrate with your favorite Cheery Cherry Mug. This morning it's filled with coffee and my new favorite Coffeemate flavor - Italian Sweet Creme.

I got the mug at a Harry and David store at the outlet mall when the family females went shopping a few weeks back. When I saw it on the shelf I was just so tickled and sashayed my fine self up to the register only to find that it was ON SALE even! Really, does it get any better than that???

--<>--

And now for something really gross, look what we found on the side of our house last night - a mud dobber village! Honestly it was really kind of cool to see from afar, then I was a chicken and went in the house while my mighty warrior husband took care of it. Almost a shame to tear it down after they did so much work, but then they didn't ask me before they started building. ;)