Grape Juice

Yesterday I took my niece, Nickell, and met my sister, Jeny at our Aunt Julie's house to harvest her grapes. She has a fence with probably a good 50 yards of grape vines (mostly Concord), and this year's crop was one of the best I have seen! Here we are busy picking.

Nickell was pretty funny because the spider webs were creeping her out and she doesn't like to get her hands very dirty. It took us about 2 hours to pick them all, but I think we cleaned those vines pretty well.

I picked one and popped it into Shannon's mouth to see what she thought, and of course she loved them. She had her own little bucket and put a little bunch in it and carried it around, then went to pick flowers and look at the horses. She had a great time!

Here is our haul. I wish I could post a link to the wonderful smell. We juiced all day long at Jeny's house and got 21 quarts from 4 of the buckets. Not bad at all! While we steamed them we played Wii Fit. It was so fun and I am really sore today! Shannon and I were so exhausted by the time we got home last night that we both went right to bed and slept until 10:30 this morning.

Kisses?

I hope you aren't all tired of posts about Shannon, but that is my life right now, and she keeps doing funny things! You may think that she is kissing her baby in this picture, but she isn't. When I first saw her she had the baby on the floor and was bent over it doing this. I thought for a moment that she was doing mouth-to-mouth! Then I figured it all out. Shannon found a chocolate chip on the floor and decided to share it with her baby. Then she wanted it back, but it wouldn't come out of the baby's mouth, so she improvised! I had a hard time getting the picture because I was laughing so hard.

Warning: Viewer Discretion Advised!

Shannon was supposed to be taking a nap yesterday, but was instead singing and playing. After a while of this I heard her start crying. She does that sometimes because she can't get her shirt off or whatever, so I just ignored her. Then she got hysterical and started screaming, "Are you stuck!" (which, in her language meant that she was stuck). I decided to go see what the problem was, and when I found her I couldn't stop laughing. Maybe I'm a bad mom because instead of helping my crying child I ran and got the camera. Don't worry, it didn't take me very long to take the picture then rescue her, and she wasn't in any immediate danger. You can't see her face because she wouldn't dare move to look at me, but she was screaming, I promise. Anyway, sorry about the nudity, but again, she hates to wear clothes.

More Funny Girl

I don't really have anything to post, but for the benefit of my sister who gets bored at work, I have some cute pictures for her to look at. This is our neighbor across the hall, River. As you can probably tell, Shannon absolutely adores him. She calls him "Ribber." They were watching "Annie" together.

Ahh, the phases our children go through! Shannon now loves to dress herself. I had already gotten her dressed, but she went through her drawers (pulling out everything and spreading it around the room, of course) and found this lovely outfit. She likes to put a shirt on over the shirt she is wearing, but never puts her arms in the sleeves. I purposely positioned the camera so that nobody would be offended, because another of her favorite fashion statements is taking off her diaper. That's right, she has nothing on except for the shirts. My favorite is when she comes out of her bedroom without a stitch of clothing on, with the exception on an unmatched pair of shoes.

Happy Birthday Shannon!!

Last night we had a few friends over for cake and ice cream for Shannon's birthday. She turned 2, so it was actually really fun this year. Since her favorite thing right now is "mukis," I made her a music cake. She blew out one of the candles herself! She isn't wearing any clothes because she was eating cake and ice cream.

The little thing made out like a bandit. We especially loved the Victoria's Secret bag that Paula brought her presents in. She got a doll stroller (which she is pushing her teddy bear around the house in as I type), fridge phonics, some music and movies (musicals, of course), dress-up shoes, a Disney Princess toy CD player, a Play-doh kit, toy drums, a tiara, and a really cute dress.

She really loves her fridge phonics. It sings a song for every letter, but her favorite is the button that sings the alphabet song. She sings along very enthusiastically!

There is no sound for the video, so don't bother with your volume. She opened all of her presents this year, mostly by herself. It was very cute.

Funny Girl

Shannon has been in the habit lately of taking all of her clothes off when I put her down for a nap. This means that I have to check on her regularly, because she is known to fingerpaint her entire crib if she messes her pants. I have tried potty training, briefly, but she didn't have a clue what she was supposed to do, so I'm putting it off for a few more weeks and we'll try again. Anyway, today I went to check on her and she had taken off her shorts and put them on her head. I thought it was hilarious! She was just sitting there reading to her stuffed animals, looking like a chef!

My New Purse

Last time I saw my sister, Heidi, she had this cute purse that she had crocheted. I am not as good as she is, so I asked her to make me a pattern so that I could try to figure it out. It was very fun to make, and I think it's really cute. I may have to make a green one now! I even made a cell phone pocket.