Urban Homestead?

Love the hair here! She really can pull off a spectacular bed head! Here she is first thing in the morning with her Hanna PJ's and her backpack. I wasn't quick enough with the camera to get a shot with her sunglasses on. Trust me when I say, it really pulled the look together. :)

Willie loves Baby too!

Basil harvest! I'm making pesto today! Woo Hoo! It hasn't been the best growing season but the basil has done well in the greenhouse. We have lettuce galore, Swiss chard, broccoli, carrots, turnips and potatoes growing in the beds this year. The greenhouse is where we are trying our best to get some tomatoes, peppers, and various herbs. Things have been cold and its a bit slow going in there. I'm sure we'll get a bit but not a lot. I'm also sure that all those tomatoes will be ripe while I'm gone and Brian doesn't eat tomatoes. Hmm...

The little ladies roosting on the garden fence. The other day when I opened the door to head outside Fiona said "Hi Ladies". It cracks me up. She loves these chickens and chases them all around the yard. I catch them for her so she can pet them. She loves to point out the beak and says it over and over. I suspect ole Whitey is a Roo which I'm totally bummed about because she/he is so beautiful. He loves to roost in the tree in our yard and will even fly to the top of the shed. I wish we could keep him. We'll wait it out to know for sure but I expect to hear crowing practice before too long.

It will be a busy week of cleaning the house and packing since we leave a week from today! Who am I kidding, I won't pack till the day before we leave! We are all so excited to be getting off the rock for a bit. We get about 1 week in Ohio with Brian's family and Fiona and I get 3 weeks in Washington with my family just after. Sunshine here we come! I"ll be sure to post pictures of our adventures!

Jumping Skills!

Fiona learning to "jump"! I love how she grunts. She's always very proud of herself. As a bonus you can hear her rooster call which she heard on the TV and ran off to investigate.

Summer???

Tacos! Black beans are a favorite around here!

Broccoli is another favorite! She's helping me make dinner here. She loves to help!

Putting together the new grill! Happy Father's Day Brian!

Chasing her chickens around the garden. We have 4 babies and 2 adults now. She loves them!

Bundled up to play in the yard. It's a lightweight fleece at least! (good grief!)

Glad I posted those pictures in my last post. That was our week of sunshine. Since then it's been rain, rain, oh and more rain. Sometimes it gets to be a bit much. Is it too much to ask for sunshine during the summer months? Apparently. I can't tell you how much we are looking forward to our trip to Ohio and Washington next month! Be prepared with your shades folks because this Alaskan family is going to glow in our shorts!

We've had Brian home for a couple of weeks now. It is so nice to have him here! Fiona is pretty attached to him these days. As soon as he's home from work she's all about Papa. If we visit him at work she cries when we leave him. We've been playing lots of Bocce in the yard these days (between rain showers!) and Brian always plays with her in arms or on his shoulders. Somehow he still wins everytime!

Fiona is talking up a storm! We have hit a language explosion. She repeats anything we say! I feel like I can't keep up with teaching her new signs fast enough too. She remembers them way better then we do! The phone rang yesterday and I said "where's the phone?" and she echoed, "yeah, where's the phone, here it is!" We just hung a framed photo of her in our bedroom the other day. She was crawling into bed and pointed to it and asked "who's dat baby?" What?! Who told her she could grow up so fast?! I'm used to her 2 word sentences of hi papa, stuck mama, help peas, nu-nu yeah yeah, and more peas. But these big sentences are new. Pretty cool!

She's fighting a bit of a stomach bug right now. Hopefully it will go fast and she'll be feeling and sleeping like her old self again soon. We're all a bit tired today.

PS. when uploading photos for this post I clicked on the "last 12 months" button on my iphoto. Pictures from our Montana trip were right on top! Remember how fun that was?! Ma and Pa, hope you have a great trip there this week! Think of us when you are swimming in the hotsprings!