Fall Crafts

This one is for Grandpa Jim!

Play silks in the sun!

Jazzing up some T's

Rice bin fun

digging her toes in!

I'm preparing for the annual holiday bazaar in November. I've been dying play silks, making felt balls, and experimenting with stenciling among other things. It has been really fun and I am so glad to be back to crafting! I'm so excited that Emily will be coming up in November to do the bazaar with me! Between us, we should have a ton of cool things! I think I'm going to finally set up an etsy shop too. I'll let you all know when!

Fiona has been busy too! She's been enjoying her own crafts of painting and coloring. I've given her homemade play dough a couple of times too. She likes it for a while and then gets interested in tasting it! I plan to whip up a batch of gluten free play dough this week! It is fun to see her exploring the colors and textures. Today I filled a big storage bin with rice. She loves it! She has been pouring the rice from container to container and feeling it with her fingers and toes!

Things she's saying these days:
~Hold you, which means hold me. This melts my heart every time!
~Thank you, you're welcome. She always says it together!
~Pants OFF, shirt OFF, diaper OFF... now bath! She would love to be in that tub all day if I would let her! She'd also like to be naked all day if I would let her!
~Mmm, weally weally goob Mama! She likes to say this at meals and makes me feel so good!
~The other night we had a late dinner and I just whipped up some quesadillas. Just cheese, nothing fancy. She pulled apart her tortillas and said, "Beans, are you? Are you beans?" Nothing like your one year old calling you out on your simple dinner!

What A Month!

Swinging with cousins in Ohio

Feeding Carlos an apple! Carlos was Ben's 4-H project. Fiona loved him!

The Livestock Auction! I was so nervous about it but it was really fun!

A trip out the road with Papa when we got back to Kodiak

What a month it has been! We had such a great trip. We've been home a week and I realized I really need to get some pictures up and update the blog! I also realized that I'm horrible at taking pictures while on vacation! Oops.

We started out with a week in Ohio. Fiona took to her cousins right away! Rachel was able to come to Grandma and Grandpa's house early which was a nice treat. Fiona played with her while Brian and I enjoyed catching up with the rest of the family. Fiona was pretty shy of everyone else. Grandpa's party was pretty amazing. Ton's of people came to wish him a Happy Birthday. That was probably the most overwhelming part of the trip for Fiona but we were so happy to be there for the big event!

Then we were off to Whidbey for 3 weeks. It was so nice to settle in on the farm. Fiona LOVED the animals and LOVED LOVED LOVED all the activity and fun her cousins provide. We were there for the Island County Fair and even got in on bidding for a pig! It's coming home on the barge for our freezer! I loved being a part of the fair and watching the kids show their animals. I can't wait until Fiona can be a 4-H kid!

Mostly it was just nice to get a huge dose of family and sunshine. Fiona spent the first couple of days home looking for her cousins but has pretty much settled into fall in Kodiak. It was a great month!

Talking Blurry

I don't want to ever forget the way Fiona talks but I find its changing so much already. Gucka still comes out more often then not but sometimes she carefully pronounces cracker or cereal instead. Brian and I still say gucka. We like it better! We've lost track of the number of words she says because really she can say just about anything. The words aren't always clear and distinct but we know what she means. She was talking to her cousin Gabe on the phone the other day. He pointed out that she can sure say a lot now, its just blurry. I love it. Since its not clear of course its blurry!

Some favorite Fiona speak:

Nona: Fiona
Are you?: when looking for someone or even a lost cracker or block.
ereitis: here it is. When lost items or people are found!
uver one: when she wants to nurse on the other side
s'one: this one
peas: please
Hi Ladies!: when addressing her chickens. I love this!
sat: what's that? we here this all day long
funny: accompanied by a fake laugh. This is often used when she's been told not to do something like climb on the kitchen table or dump the bowl of food. Yeah, funny.
eers: Cheers! She loves to clank our glass before taking a sip!

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!

Summer!

Fiona and I are making the most of our summer days. We've been enjoying walks, playing at the beach and spending a lot of time in the yard. She always wants to be "side". She often brings me her shoes or coat and tells me "side, side" in the morning. We're loving it!

She is talking up a storm these days too. I think Brian is going to notice some real changes in her vocabulary when he gets home (9 more days!!). She's not only adding words and signs but words she already used are getting clearer. She says again instead of gee and waters (always with the s!) instead of wawa. She is forever pointing at things and asking whats that, or in her words, "sat?". Her go to word when she wants something that is out of reach, can't get down from the precarious place she has climbed up to, or can't quite get to where she wants to go is "stuck." I hear it all day long! "Stuck, stuck!" But my favorite word is octopus! Opata is sort of how it sounds. I think its fantastic!

We're missing Papa on Fathers Day especially but we'll celebrate with him when he gets home next week. Can't wait!