Emily's first trip to the beach

We took an impromptu trip to the coast today, and Emily had the time of her life.  It's great to see my two girls have so much fun in the water.  They are both naturals.

See the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Laleblog

Life's a beach

More pictures to come

See the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Laleblog

Sleeping Beauties

Posted via email from Laleblog

Losing a tree

We're going to lose a tree.  Maybe more than one, but definitely one.  We have two Arizona Ash trees in our front yard, and both have shown signs of not being healthy this summer

We've had a very wet early summer, which leads to the proliferation of ash borers.  We first noticed something was wrong because there were moths all over the trunk of the tree directly in front of our dining room window.  Upon closer inspection, we noticed that the tree was leaking sap in a couple of spots.

I did some research and found that these were signs of wounds caused by ash borers, and that once those signs showed up externally, the tree usually didn't have long to live.

I bought some insecticide that I poured around the base of that tree, and it seemed to have done the trick for the time being.  The tree on the side of our driveway wasn't showing any of those symptoms, so I didn't put any insecticide around it.  But I should have.

Now, that tree is showing every symptom of dying.  It's leaves are already dying and falling off, it's bleeding sap from several different places, and it doesn't look like it will even make it to fall.

I've been walking around my neighborhood scrutinizing everyone all of the ash trees, and none of the other ones seems to be having these problems.  However, none of them were topped like ours were, either.

When we moved into this house, it was obvious that someone had been chopping the tops off the ash trees to make them more "full."  However, topping the trees like that ever year leads to a weaker tree, and now, we're paying the price.

We may ultimately lose 2/3 of the shade we have in the front yard.  I'm hoping we only lose one, and I'm paying very close attention to the one that looks less sick, lest it make a turn for the worse.

Of course it pains me to think about losing a tree, but if it happens, it will give me an opportunity to do something that my parents have done at all of their houses...something that we haven't been able to do at either of our houses yet.  I'll be able to plant a tree, and leave a legacy for years to come on this house, long after we've moved out.

See the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Laleblog

Rachel's New Do

Rachel has only ever had her bangs cut.  The back of her hair has been growing for the past four years, and we've been talking about cutting it for at least 6 months. Today, she went and got it cut as a "back to school" thing. They took about a year off of her hair, and now it's all the same length. It doesn't have the "snarlies" like it used to, and it's odd to see it so short.

Of course, in 10 years, she'll probably start doing something completely weird with it, as junior high kids are wont to do, and I'll look back on this and laugh at the agony we went through deciding whether to cut her hair or not.

See the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Laleblog

My mom used to yell at me for playing with my food

Obviously, I didn't listen.

See the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Laleblog

Purse hound

This is NOT a good sign. She cried when I took it away from her.

Posted via email from Laleblog

Rachel's Deep Thoughts 8-10-10

"Daddy, when Emily was inside of Mommy, why was her tummy so big?"
"Well, Rachel, because she had a baby inside her. Your tummy would be big, too, if you had a baby inside of you."
"When I get bigger I want a baby inside my tummy"
"You do?"
"Yes. What will you name it?"
"Well, sweetie, if you have a baby when you grow up, it's not my baby to name. It would be your baby. Mommies and Daddies get to name their own little boys or little girls whatever they want to name them.
"I don't want it to be a boy. I want a girl."
(Stifling laughter) "Honey, you don't get to choose."
"But why not? Why can't Mommies and Daddies choose if they want to have a boy or a girl?"
"That's just the way it works. You get what you get."

Posted via email from Laleblog

I don't usually repost stuff like this...

...but with this one, I just had to...

[Via: Medical Billing

]

Posted via email from Laleblog

July 2010

Dear Girls,

Another month goes flying by, and this time we celebrated Emily's first birthday. School will be starting soon, summer is coming to an end, and before you know it, we'll be back in our routine for the school year.

We'll start with the birthday girl again this month. Emily, you turned 1 year old this past month. I can't believe it's been an entire year since the first time I held you in my arms. Watching you grow over the past year (and my, how you've grown!) has been an incredible thing. Everyone always says that no two kids are alike, and you and your sister couldn't be more different.  You have taken your sweet time with everything, from crawling, to getting teeth, and it looks like it's going to be like that for standing and walking, too.

Just today, while you were sitting on my lap, you grabbed my shoulders and pulled yourself up to a standing position.  That's about as close as we've gotten to you standing on your own in the past month.  You will crawl up to things, like the window sill, and pull yourself onto your knees and just sit there, on your knees.  You look like you really want to stand, but we just haven't been able to teach you how to do it yet, and you're perfectly happy on your knees.

One more thing that sets you apart from your sister (and I'm just thinking of this now because I'm looking at pictures of Rachel when she was 1) is that you voluntarily gave up your pacifier months ago!  It seemed like one night you went to sleep with it, and the next night, you were pushing it away when we tried to give it to you.  We had to take it away from Rachel, and it was a week of agony when we did it.

We had your birthday party in the middle of the month, and kept it small.  Just a few family and friends came over.  You had your first ever taste of chocolate cake, and the verdict is in: you are a chocolate lover.  In fact, after just one taste, you were all over it.  You even cried when I took your tray away to try to clean up the mess.

You went for your second trip on a plane this past week, and for you it didn't go so well.  You were sort of all over the place, and crabby as could be until I finally got you to fall asleep.  You slept on each flight we were on, but it took you at least half the flight to fall asleep. The worst was when we got stuck on the plane in Dallas for well over 2 hours.  You were not a happy camper.

You have gotten really good about wearing your hearing aide when we put it on you.  I think it's a combination of the new ear mold we got you a couple of months ago, and the fact that you've worn it enough now that you're used to it.  The only times you'll take it off are when it starts to get in the way while you're eating or playing.

Rachel, this has been a really fun month for you. You've been playing soccer and getting better every day. You still have your moments, though, where you don't really want to be out there on the field and will start crying at the little things.  But you're getting much better about having fun, and going after the ball.

You were very excited about going to see Grandma Connie and Grandpa Rick this past week. So excited, that I don't even think you notice that your mother and I were gone the majority of the first two days we were there.

Even when we were there, a lot of the time, you weren't.  It seemed like you were always over at the neighbor's house playing with the girls next door.  You also discovered the other neighbor had a visitor who was the same age as you, so there was an entire morning that you were over at the other neighbor's house, too.

By the time the end of next month rolls around, you'll be back at school with a bunch of new classmates and new teachers. There are some of your classmates from last year that are coming back, so you won't be starting completely over, but it's going to be a big change for you.  You'll also going to be big man on campus, as this will be your last year in preschool before you start Kindergarten.

While the two of you still get along pretty well, there have been times where we're had to separate you, especially now that Emily can crawl and get into things. We're getting a small preview of what the next 14 years or so are going to be like, and I can only hope that the two of you mellow with age.

We love you both very much. We can't wait to see what next month brings for our family.

Love,
Daddy

Posted via email from Laleblog

Sunday funday

Rachel and Emily chillin in the hot summer sun.

See the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Laleblog