Elf hunting

Please excuse the laundry everywhere. It's laundry day. Notice her disappearing act at 32 seconds.

Toys

 Meet Bryant. He is a bear. Amy received Bryant as a present when she was only a few weeks old. She loves him so much. We're pretty fond of him too and have been encouraging him on his quest for "favorite toy" status. We know we can't push such things, but we can make sure that Bryant is there when the going gets tough, and that dumb pink bear is somewhere under the bed. We're rooting for this guy. Well, we were until yesterday at game time. Amy was dragging him around by his leg as usual, but he just kept trying to look at the TV. He was watching football! That great, right? Maybe. Look at this bear more closely:

He is a bear...he wears houndstooth....He is an Alabama fan! 

I don't know, buddy. It's still the SEC n' all, but you're on probation. At least during football season. 

In other toy news, we bought the cutest cabbage patch kid ever:

Thanks Aunt Ashley for the idea. I'll keep trying for a better picture, but she's not so into her "hairpiece". Bald and proud, mama. Bald and proud.

Occupy Toybox

Guys. I am not leaving this toybox. You can bring my meals to me in here. I have everything I need.

Welllll, maybe I could use some rocks and dirt. Or some goldfish. Got any of those?

Ugh. Service in that toybox is lousy. I'm goin' outside.

Tilt Shift Photography

My Dad shared a link to a slideshow of real pictures that were edited to look like photos of miniatures. It's called tilt/shift photography and it's fun! They sell filters that will make your pictures turn out like this, or you can tweak them in photoshop to get the same effect without spending the money on a filter.
I did these two pictures on a site called www.tiltshiftmaker.com. It was really simple and you can adjust the settings a little bit to make your picture look really funny.
I'm not sure why you would really want this in real life, but it was fun to play around with. Thanks Dad!

Chaco Canyon, taken from the cliff edge on the trail to Pueblo Alto

Pima County fair, taken from on top of the Ferris wheel. 

p.s. It looks like the great search for cinnamon chips is over! A super sneaky shopper seems to have found some!!!!!!

Photos taken while in the car.

Everyone knows the best time to take a picture is in a moving vehicle. 

 So hold on to your toes! Here's some shots from along Highway 10. Arizona Highways here we come!

Pacific Coast Party

California Dreamin'

We were in California this weekend to celebrate the 95th birthday of Rob's beautiful Grandma. All the Burnhams from Florida to Washington came to join her for a backyard picnic. 

The weather was California perfect. 70 degrees and sunny. The garden looked gorgeous (those Burnhams are natural gardeners. They just breathe on plants and they grow into prize winners).
Jeanne set the table in the backyard with flowers and funny hats.
Which we wore.

 
Lots of funny hats.

I have a fish!

There was plenty of time for everyone to catch up and talk and enjoy one another.

Grandma, Charlie, Richard, cousin Pat, and Rob eagerly await the cake.

 Amy was baracaded in the backyard with a stack of coolers. She was also tackled by her Grandma Jeanne repeatedly.

Squeeeeeeeze!

 We all had such a good time. I only wish we could have stayed longer. It's so good to see Grandma and hang out with the family. The Burnhams are so nice. It was a happy relaxing weekend. Happy birthday Grandma! We love you.

95?! More like 25. 

Broken wing

My right wrist has been numb and painful for a few months. The last few weeks I've had a hard time picking up the baby or even tying my shoes. I finally got it checked out today. Ouch. They gave me a steroid shot in my tendon. I'm expecting to hulk out at any moment. Oh! Maybe it's systemic and Amy will beef up too! We can be a crime fighting duo! She's the sidekick. I am NOT riding in any sidecars.

Family ties

I recently got this fabric panel for Amy and cousin Mary Margaret. I'm thinking of embroidering the names in the squares although I might do better with a fabric pen. It's a little confusing though. I feel like Amy belongs up in the branches, but the tree is set up so that she would fit better on the trunk and her parents and grandparents would go up in the branches. Rob's family on one side and my family on the other. How would you fit in the names? You would have to pick just one side of the family or have ten children to make a trunk-up approach work.

Family trees and genealogies have been a kind of theme lately. The family listserv has been buzzing with details about my Mom's Dad's side of the family and their early days in this country. It has been so fun to learn the little stories that people remember. I couldn't help but think that these were stories about Amy's family. It made me want to learn all the details and write them down so that she would know them, because I know I'll forget by the time she asks me. What a lot of responsibility. She can always look up their names, but will she know the story about her great great great grandfather sleeping on the doorstep of his future father in law's shop in New York? Or about his steam-powered car? 

I have this picture of my grandfather. He's about Amy's age, I guess, and I was surprised at how much Amy looks like him in this photo. I think she mostly looks like her daddy, but now I think she might look a little like her great grandfather...

I tinted this picture of her. She's not making the same face or anything, but I can still see it. I can mostly see it because I know her and I've seen her make the little smile smirk from the above picture.

Here's a modern style picture so she can show off her beautiful blue eyes. Are those May eyes? Jones? Robleto? Burnham? 

Sneaky Meatballs

I made these meatballs with Amy in mind, but Rob and I just polished off all of them tonight. The baby is learning to feed herself, so I've been trying to think of proteins I can give her that are easy to chew and pick up. Meatballs seemed like the perfect answer. Because I am crunchier than thou, I couldn't just give her meatballs, I had to throw some healthy up in there to make myself feel like a good mama. I hid whole wheat bread crumbs (from our own bread) and spinach in them. Ha ha! Spinach! Take that tiny toddler! 

Well, she ate a few here and there. Mostly she just chewed on them for a long long time and hid them in her cheek pouches, hamster-style.
She had her chance. Rob and I redeemed them with plenty of salt and garlic, and put them in our spaghetti. Then she wanted them. Mo? Mo? momomomomo?

Wha? Did you say those had spinach in them? What. the. hell. mom.

Nearly made it

This is it. 

This is the end. The very last of the cinnamon chips I've been carefully doling out since last winter. These glorious little flavor nuggets are only available during November and December in my grocery store, and even then, they're often sold out. I bought all that I could reasonably store and hoarded them like a dragon hoards gold coins. I baked a few bags into cookies. I put some in muffins. Yum. Once, in July, I allowed myself to open up a bag and nibble a few chips raw.
Last week, I baked the very last of them. I made the Toll House recipe and added cinnamon chips instead of chocolate chips. They were as good as ever.
So here's the hitch. It's mid-October. The weather is still hot, but the stores know that fall is coming. Halloween candy is everywhere. I've seen candy canes (candy canes?! ugh) on the shelves.
Where are my cinnamon chips? I took a gamble and used up my stash knowing, nay, depending on Fry's to restock them in their festive center aisle of baking bliss.
I may or may not have spoken with the store manager recently.
Am I embarrassed? Ok, yes, a little. But dude, those things are good!
What Autumnal foods are you looking forward to? Is there anything that you're willing to stalk the grocery store for? Any hoards of mint m&m's under your bed?

Pumpkin Patch party

On Sunday morning we joined Barney, Mitch, Norma, Dan, Qing, and their munchkins at the pumpkin patch in Ajo for some wagon riding, pumpkin picking, animal petting, corn dog eating fun.

The babies are all almost the same age, so it's fun to get them all together. Jing-Yi and Amy were born on exactly the same day at the very same hospital. They are kind of like twins. 

Pumpkin picking was fun. You ride a giant wagon train out into the fields and then roam around picking out the perfect pumpkin and then hitch a ride back on the wagons. We chose a huge perfect pumpkin, this sort of awesome squat pumpkin that all the girls took turns sitting on, and then one tiny pumpkin for Amy.
When we were done, we came back to the little pumpkin festival area where there was a corn maze (maize?) and lots of fair-style booths of food and souvenirs.
The following photo was not as carefree and easy as it looks

The 4-H set up a small petting zoo with chickens, goats, a llama, bunnies, cows, and turkeys. Amy is familiar with all of these animals, of course, having met them at Mule Creek, but she was just a leeeetle aprehensive about the goat this morning. Maybe it was those freak-show pupils that goats have.

Stop looking at me, goat.

Check out this pumpkin that we saw just as we were leaving. See the shadow? I think it looks exactly like a halloween-y cat with a long tail standing on a post. It was just the curly stem of the next door pumpkin, but I couldn't stop looking at it.

Here's our haul. It was a very fun way to buy our pumpkins, and it was sure fun to get all those little girls together.

Happy Birthday, Pop Pop!!!! We love you!

Afternoon at the park: a photo essay

This purple monster ate me, but I'm escaping!

Whoa, a plane!

Wuf!

Stole a kid's ball and ran away with it.