Happy Birthday to Daddy.

So, it's not actually Brady's birthday, but Lilah kept getting confused when we'd mention that it was Father's Day. So she sang Happy Birthday to him instead. In honor of the holiday, I'm sharing a few recent shots of Brady with our kids.






We spent the weekend in Clay Center with Brady's family. Saturday afternoon was rainy, but that didn't stop us from boating, tubing, grilling and playing at Milford Lake.

All these activities left my kids like this:



This shot was taken about thirty seconds before Lilah accidentally dropped her sippy cup on Graham's forehead. Very tragic - left both of them crying for quite a while. A big dilemma I now have - which child do you comfort when they both need you??

And, yes, that is my oh-so-graceful daughter :)

I can't even count how many times I've found Lilah sitting in her crib like this. Just waiting to get out after her nap. Usually, I am greeted with a "Hi, Mom. Whatcha doin'?"


Graham has become the king of sucking his thumb. He is such a self-soother. If he wants something to suck on, he pops his thumb in his mouth. He has started teething, so now he just chews his own lip. If the kid didn't need to eat, I'm not sure he'd have much of a use for me!

First time in the big high chair! We also sampled some rice cereal, but that went nowhere. Exercise in frustration.


And for my final kid story of the day:
Lilah loves to wear sunglasses. She has several pairs and loves to accessorize with them. (I just hope that she doesn't end up with the raccoon eyes that her Mommy gets every summer.) Anyways, whenever she really is looking at something, she always has to lift the glasses. Like, if she wants to look at me while I'm talking to her. Very hard to discipline a little girl when she's doing that.

Passionate.

My husband, Brady, loves to fish. So much so that I've caught him sneaking to the pond in our back yard at sunrise on his day off just to throw a line in. So much so that he hauled the boat out to Cheney lake three times this weekend. So much so that when he fishes, he holds multiple poles at once to increase his chances of success.

Now that's passion. And I love him for it. Do I love it when he comes home smelling of lake and beer and slimy fish? No, but I love that he's truly exciting about this. Life is too short to not have that feeling.

I tagged along to Cheney lake once on Friday afternoon. It was the kind of weather that you only dream of. The kind that you wish you could bottle up and pour out during the cold winter months. Or during the steamy summer months. Or anytime really. Weather like that is NEVER inappropriate. We went minus kids and plus a cooler full of Lynchberg Lemonades. A big bag of sunflower seeds and a good book is what I brought along to keep me entertained while he was "passionate". It was a great day, despite the lack of fish we brought home.

Wishin.

A weekend of fishing. Not my favorite hobby, but combined with beautiful weather and an awesome lake, I can tolerate it. My dad always refers to it as "wishing" - and I'm guessing that's symbolic of his fishing skills. We did some wishing AND a little fishing at Milford Lake this weekend with Brady's family. Most of them are pretty hardcore fisherman (especially compared to me), so I mostly hung with the kids, soaked in a little Vitamin D and took some pictures.


This is Brady and his dad, Chuck tormenting our nephew Jonas with slimy fish. He takes it pretty well.


Our neice, Corinne, was also more interested in other activities like me (i.e. eating graham crackers)


Graham did decent on the boat, considering how bad it must suck to wear a life jacket when your body is proportioned as his is. All that foam up in your grill cannot be comfortable. And, to add salt to the wound, we forgot the poor kid's pacifier back at shore, so in a moment of desperation, we let him suck on the nipple from his bottle. He didn't seem to mind, but from then on we got to listen to a high-pitched squeaking/sucking sound. Cute and irritating at the same time.

Towards the second half of the day, the kids started dropping like flies:

Silas slept on the floor.


Jonas in a chair.



And Graham and Lilah got the two best napping spots on the boat.

My favorite part of this trip is a bowl of fresh fish in my fridge right now just waiting to be cooked and eaten. Not that I had any hand in that. But I guess my wishin' paid off.

Now for a couple recent shots of my cuties. Pretty crazy that the picture of Lilah in a stocking hat and sweatshirt was only taken a week ago, and this weekend she had her swimming suit on. Gotta love Kansas weather.

A Mousey Birthday.

Yesterday was my Lilah's second birthday and we have spent the weekend celebrating. We started her day with pancakes at iHop, a gigantic Minnie Mouse balloon at Party City, and many hours of playing on her new swingset/playgym that Brady built for her. He just finished it yesterday, so the timing was perfect. She happily went up the ladder and down the slide a million times, each time saying "one more time!" Today we had some family over to celebrate the occasion. In honor of her favorite person in the entire world, Mickey Mouse, I attempted a Mickey-themed cake.

I am by no means an experience cake-decorator, so be warned. I'm sure could have been improved in the technique category, but I had fun making it! (Kinda sounds like an American Idol contestant after Ryan Secrest asks how they think they did.)

Anyways, here are some pictures from the party.



The below three photos show three separate times that Lilah was caught attempting to get into the cake/candy.







Graham was a trooper throughout the party. Such a good baby these days. (And how cute are his little plaid shorts? Not many people can pull of stripes and plaids, but he does!)


Brady's labor of love:

One month. One year.

Baby Graham turned one month old yesterday. Pretty crazy how time flies when you're having fun (or when you're sleep-deprived). He couldn't say so himself, but I know he's pretty pumped to be one month old. Life is pretty great for him. Not a care in the world.

Here's some recent shots of him. I think he looks more and more like his handsome daddy every day :)



And here's Lilah doing what she does most lately: reading.


And the other exciting birthday in our family is my niece, Eva Mae. She turned one on Monday and we celebrated by eating lots of yummy, girly cake!





The Abbey-Kadabby Cake was made my Eva's aunt Kathleen - way to go, girl!

The sweetest Valentine ever.

Valentines was very special for us this year - romantic in a very different way! We spent the day together as a family (except for the second half of the KSU/KU game - Brady had to get out of the house for that). Like I've done for the past few years, I made heart-shaped pancakes (and eggs) for Brady and Lilah.

Baby Graham

Our little guy is here!

Graham Patrick Rott
Born February 11 (my Grandma's birthday)
8lbs. 7 oz., 21" long