The Fields: {The Kids}

***Ok I pretty much hate autosave on this stupid blog because I had an entire post typed and was editing it and it somehow deleted the entire first half!!! GGRRRR!!! And now the fonts are all screwy!!!

ELLIE

She wanted her picture taken while she was blowing bubbles.

Ellie is starting to read. She lacks some confidence and she doesn't always want to put forth the effort to sound things out, but she is doing really well.

One of her favorite ways to entertain herself while we are spending our hour and a half in the car every day is to text.

It started out with me spelling out every single word for her: "Hi Nana. What are you doing? I love you." "Hi Biz. Where is Lola?" "Hi Daddy. What are you doing?"

Then she transitioned to garble: "eoihwetineiedfihwerbiubelliemasonnanabiz"

Over the past couple of weeks she has transitioned into sending her own messages with the only phrase she can come up with: "I love you." So she sends "I love you Nana Ellie" "I love Biz and Tim and Lola" (and she added that she wished she had remembered to say she loves the baby too).

But my favorite text thus far was sent to Mason via Brandon's phone this afternoon: "I love Lola the cow and Mason."

And oh how she loves Lola the cow. Lola is Ellie's pet. It surprises even Brandon. Lola will come up to Ellie in the middle of the field and let Ellie pet her and sometimes lick Ellie's hand. Ellie also goes to the gate and calls Lola and Lola will come running to eat whatever weed Ellie picks and feeds her through the gate. Here is a picture from my phone:

The cow whisperer

And I will add: This surprises Brandon, but I had pet cows at my Aunt Lois' who would come to the fence and lick mine and my cousin's hands. I feel pretty certain that while we were outside getting our hands licked, my mom was inside being revived with smelling salts.

Ellie is also learning to snap. In the car this afternoon, she started snap snap snapping for me. I asked if she could snap with the other hand. She said "Well, no, the other hand is still trying to learn."
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MASON
I know I have said it before, but Mason cracks me up. He is funny without even trying. I love to watch him putter around in the yard. This afternoon he found two sticks and started "playing the drums" on the sidewalk.

He really likes to play the drums. While we were watching the ACM's tonight, he told me "I'm a drum player too!"

I didn't have the heart to tell him that beating up your sister with drumsticks doesn't qualify you and a "drum player".

We are growing grass.

We (and by we I mean Brandon and Tim) laid sod all around the house and my cousin, who owns a lawn service, seeded the remainder. The sod is doing well and the seeded grass is starting to come up. This is far more yard work than Brandon ever would have wanted in his entire life.