Dresses & Flowers

This morning, Autumn only let me sleep in until 7:30.  We got up and had some cereal and then went over to Mom & Dad’s b/c the internet at work still isn’t working and Liz is working today and needed me to look up a few accounts.  Autumn & I watched The Princess & The Frog and then she wanted to go outside.  She said she was hungry, so I put some of that yummy veggie spread on a slice of bread and put some meat on it and she ate the whole thing!  I’m telling you…that dip is divine!  I brought my laptop outside so we could listen to some music.  We danced around the patio to “Say Hey” by Michael Franti & Spearhead.  I dare you to listen to that song and not want to get up and dance.  Then we slow danced to “A Love That Will Last” by Renee Olstead.  It was a picturesque moment that will forever be burned into my memory.

I wanted to try and get some pictures of her wearing the adorable dress that Jennifer made for her.  There was some dew on the grass, so she didn’t want to get the dress wet and kept lifting it up as she walked on the grass.

She’s such a funny little bug and said she didn’t want to wear the dress anymore b/c it was too cold.  So, I took the dress off and told her to put her shirt back on.  I looked up from my laptop to see this…

…she was shirtless and had sat down on the edge of the hot tub and was leaned over playing w/ the water.  It’s a good thing that I’ve got her enrolled in a swim class for this summer, b/c she is just too brave and daring near the pool with not knowing how to swim yet.

After I told her not to get so close to the edge, she sat on the rocks and just splashed her feet on the edge of the hot tub.  I think she’s getting excited for it to be warm enough to swim.  What do you think?

While sitting on the porch just watching Autumn run around and play, I was struck by how much beauty there is just right in my own backyard.  I noticed these huge droplets of dew on the plants mixed in w/ the pretty little purple flowers and the tall stately white flowers.  Nature makes my soul so happy.

I looked up from taking pictures of the flowers to see where Autumn was, and I looked over to see her sitting w/ her legs crossed on the bench just kicked back like she was waiting for a bus or something.  She is such a character!

Papa had the lawn mower out, but it wasn’t being used to mow the lawn…it was being used to give Autumn a ride over to the lot so she could go and throw sticks in the water.  While they were over there, some ducks went flying by so they came back to the house to get some bread to feed to the ducks.  But, the ducks were gone by the time they got back.  That didn’t stop Autumn from having a blast throwing sticks into the water, though.

I was shocked at how many more flowers had bloomed in just a week.  One week ago, there was just one flower that had opened its petals and this week there were a few dozen.  They are so gorgeous.

Pretty flowers & a pretty little girl.

“Look, Papa!  Look at the yellow ones over there!”

One plant had gotten too heavy and had bent over to the ground, so Dad picked that one for Autumn to carry around.  She LOVES smelling flowers and it brings me such joy to see how she loves nature just as much as I do.

I thought this flower was the prettiest of them all, b/c half of the petals were white w/ just a touch of purple on the edges and the other petals were purple.

Dad picked some flowers for Autumn to take home to Mimi.  Autumn was thrilled that she also got to help drive the lawn mower back home.

I wanted to practice metering on my camera, so I took two pictures of these gorgeous flowers growing on the neighbor’s fence.  I love how they have the statues of the kids walking on a bench in their little garden area w/ a bike and a white table and chairs.  So, I focused on that in the picture on the left, keeping the foreground of the picture blurry.  And then in the picture on the right, I focused on the flowers and had the background blurry.  I personally prefer the picture on the right.

Right when I was about to leave, I went to sniff the flowers and noticed this big huge bee right by one of them.  I’m glad I didn’t too close to smell the flowers!

We came home from our little adventure and just hung out and watched movies and then Mom made a super yummy dinner.  We had the honey lime chicken enchiladas and some sautéed yellow squash and zucchini.  I can’t wait until we get to eat fresh veggies right out of the garden!

Right as it was starting to get dark, Autumn wanted to go out and swing for a minute.  She LOVES how the the wind blows her hair.  I got this picture and thought it was funny that her hair is lined up perfectly w/ the slide and if you just glance at this picture really fast it makes her hair look freakishly long!

If you notice in this picture, her pants are all wet.  That’s b/c it had rained earlier and she went down the slide w/ out knowing it was wet.  She almost went flying off of it when she got to the bottom, but Dad reached out and grabbed her hand in a split second right before she landed on her toosh in the grass.  Talk about cat like reflexes!  The fact that Autumn is smiling and likes to swing now is a huge change from just a few months ago, b/c she used to scream bloody murder if we ever tried to push her on a swing.

We ended off the night by watching Man Vs. Wild.  It’s a fascinating show, but I had to get up and leave the room during one show.  Bear gets dropped off on a deserted island off the coast of Peru.  He stays there for a few days but then builds a raft and leaves.  He finds some fresh water on a big rock in the middle of the ocean, but the fresh water has bird poop all over in it.  But, since that’s the only fresh water he can find he goes ahead and puts some in his canteen.  He’s out at sea a few more days and has to drink the water or risk getting dehydrated.  He tries drinking it, but it’s so nasty b/c of the bird poop that he can’t.  So, he gives himself an enema b/c the colon can absorb water!!!  I was so grossed out that I had to get up and leave for a minute.  I guess if giving yourself an enema is your only option, then you’d have to, but I wouldn’t have even known how to construct a raft and would have probably just ended up dying on the deserted island.

Anyways, I was sitting at Mom & Dad’s computer desk and Autumn brought me a piece of paper and a pencil and asked me to draw her a picture of a cow.  My picture is the one on the top and it’s AWFUL!  So, Dad said he would give it a try and his picture is the one on the bottom.  We were all laughing so hard about how bad my picture was.  What can I say?  I have NO talent for drawing.  It was a fun ending to a great day.