Rainy Day Blog

Today was a rainy day so I figured I would use my time constructively. I can't take Jess to the pool or splash park, due to the rain, and I took her to visit her cousins yesterday. I am sick of going to the Naval Air Museum and the Mall seems too far away. So I am cleaning the house and playing with my daughter indoors today. There will be a Walmart/Target trip scheduled later this afternoon when the rain stops.

In this first picture she appears to be reading Joe's "Civil War" book. Hmmm, is she going to be a fan of history like her daddy? She's probably just trying to figure out how to tear the pages out. We played dress up with her fancy shoes, she kept pointing her toes and admiring her feet.

She really thinks she is good looking, you can tell by the way she stares at herself in the mirror in this video.

As I mentioned earlier, we spent our Tuesday afternoon at Aunt Megan's house. We both really enjoyed our visit. Jess made herself right at home, exploring and making messes in every corner. Here she is crawling around with one of Kathryn's clean diapers in her mouth. My crazy little animal baby.

Kathryn knew she had to step up her defenses as soon as she saw us pull in the driveway. But, mostly the girls made each other laugh, it was cute. Here's a video of the girls.

Sorry there aren't more pictures from our visit with Nate and Kate but I was taking advantage of Jessica being entertained and I was relaxing.

Here are a couple cute shots of Jessica enjoying daddy time this past week.

In this video I capture one of Jessica's favorite past times: pulling all of the DVDs out of the bookshelf.

Here is another favorite thing to do: empty the diaper bag. (Do you see a common theme?)

Jessica is creating beautiful pieces of artwork for her grand parents in these next videos.

And here's a picture of her fully satisfied with her paintings and the paint on her chin.

I should be mailing her masterpieces tomorrow. And that pretty much sums up our boring rainy day.

Bunker in the Box

Here's a fun video blog for you. I have been saving this for a special occasion. Today I had to take Pinkerton to the Animal Shelter because she has been peeing in the living room again. I am broken hearted to say the least, I loved that kitty. Luckily, Bunker hasn't destroyed thousands of dollars worth of furniture and we are keeping him. He is Joe's special little guy and great with Jessica. We caught one of Jessi and Bunker's play times in a series of cute little videos and that is what you are about to watch. Bunker is a kid at heart, he loves it when we get packages in the mail. Jessica is trying to take his box like she took the pink chair from her cousins. Bunker was able to hold his ground for a remarkably long time.

Nate and Kate do Pensacola

Lately we've been fortunate to get lots of visits and time with Nathan, Kathryn and Aunt Megan. I told Megan, before she moved here, that I was afraid I would wear out my welcome because I planned to visit her in Niceville as often as possible so Jessica could visit with Nathan and Kathryn. Megan pointed out that she's been to our house three times in the past couple weeks. I am very grateful that we got to spend time with them and we didn't have to drive at all.
I bought a cat bed for Pinkerton that she doesn't use. I am glad that I kept it though because I know of at least one Kat that likes it! Jessica is a lot easier to take care of when she's around Nate and Kate. I can just watch them interact and take care of the necessities like diapers and food, etc. Nate and Kate tell on Jess if she's being bad. And there are definitely times when she's bad. Jessica won't let anyone in her plush pink zebra print chair, not even Nathan. Here is a video of Jessi bullying Kat out of the chair.





I got some pictures of them all playing together. Usually Jessica gets into something and makes a huge mess while Kathryn watches her in disbelief and Nathan comes over and tells me what she is doing. Oh, and Bunker is never far away, it would kill him to miss out on any of the action.There was an Aunt Megan dog pile that occured here. Jessica's new thing is putting spherical objects in her mouth, it is quite ridiculous looking.

It's cute to watch Jess and Kat together. They talk baby talk and mimic each other. Occasionally, though, Jessi forgets who older and takes things from Kathryn and that causes screaming and yelling.

She is forever trying to steal Kathryn's sippy cup. Kathryn doesn't think it's as funny as we do. I am finally able to style Jessi's hair. This is the only style she has, for now, but it gets a lot of comments when we're out and about.

Nathan gets upset if he doesn't see Uncle Joe on his visits to Pensacola. Joe does seem to be quite interested in everything Nathan has to say and he genuinely enjoys playing with Nathan.

Yep, Nathan and Kathryn make Pensacola a whole lot more fun!

A Florida Style 4th of July

This year we went spent our 4th of July weekend at the Meissner's new home in Niceville, FL. It is a gorgeous two story home near the bay in a golf course community.

Megan's birthday is July 1st, and it was celebrated with more delicious food made by Lady. Jessica and I really enjoyed the red potatoes.Joe got some practice in taking care of two little girls. They were eating cheerios out of his hands. Joe's favorite part of this holiday is the fireworks, he's a bit of a pyro. The only fireworks that Megan and I would let him get and set off at the house were the snakes. He really wanted to impress Nathan with something bigger but the snakes seemed to do the job.

Here's a cute picture of the Paw Paw pile up.

Nathan still likes Jessi.

Even Kathryn forgave Jessi for taking all her toys.

Jess and Kat got better acquainted over the weekend.

It's more fun to be friends than rivals.Especially when daddy/Uncle Joe pulls them around in a plastic bin like a sleigh ride.Sadly, they waited for me to leave before playing with plastic bins and boxes. So I didn't get to see all the cuteness. I heard it was great fun though.Kathryn likes jewelry like her momma. She even finds things that aren't jewelry, like napkin rings, and makes them into bracelets.Nathan often finds himself playing referee with the girls. But there is clearly a bias when it comes to Jess. Joe, Nate and Paw Paw checked out the beach while we were there. It was overcast, but that didn't seem to dampen their spirits one bit.

We thought we would cheat a little and give the girls a bath together.

Here's a video:

Then Nathan joined and the BBQ chips came out and it was by far the best bath of Jessica's life. An amusing event to watch from the sidelines. We were pretty sure that none of the kids got really clean but they were just going to get dirty again anyway. And that concludes our Florida Style 4th of July!

Happy Birthday Joe!

Joe turned 35 on June 24th. We decided that the best way to celebrate was a weekend of spoiling in Atlanta with Lady and Paw Paw. Joe got two special request meals, first on Friday and then again on Saturday. Jessica has inherited the "spoiled" gene. Joe had a wonderful birthday doing exactly what he wanted to do: hanging out with family and eating special butterfly pork chops prepared by Lady.I don't know who enjoyed Joe's birthday more, him or Jessica. A good time was had by all. Jessica even gave out a few kisses. First to Great Grandma Gerken...


and then to a bobble head.
After an awesome lunch on Saturday, we decided to go to Stone Mountain and leave Jessica with Lady and Paw Paw. Stone Mountain is the largest piece of granite in the world. There are some historical guys carved into the face of it, just like Mt. Rushmore.


At night there is a laser show that is kinda 80's but the fireworks are spectacular and there are some other cool special effects. Here's what our view of the laser show looked like, only it was dark.Here's what it looks like on top of that big rock.We had fun at the mountain but Jessica probably had even more fun with Lady and Paw Paw's attention all to herself.Jessica didn't like the feel of grass on her feet this time. She is cautious with dipping her feet in the ocean too.Lady even let her try to feed herself with a spoon. It was messy but fun.


Jessica took a soothing bubble bath. It wasn't so soothing for Lady though... Jessica likes to dunk her face in the water and then laugh about it which scared Lady. Crazy kid. Here's a video of that.







Jessica was so exhausted from all the excitement over the weekend that she fell asleep in Paw Paw's arms and slept through the first half of the drive home. Thanks for all the spoiling Lady and Paw Paw! This blog is out of order because we've been so busy having fun with you and the Meissners that live so close now, yay!