it's a love hate relationship

Our backyard has become a cool hangout area for some of the neighbor kids.
There are no fences and kids living in several houses in a row. It's more like one big backyard really. The swing set in my yard is actually my nieghbor's on the right and there is a stepping stone path to the sand pit in the yard of my neighbor to the left.

Most often we see the girls to the right. The youngest is Annika and she is Dakota's age.
They are a feisty pair to say the least and usual some sort of wound inflicting row arrises between them. He used to scream at the meer sight of here coming our way. Here he is in a typical territorial strike.

Then somehow it all magically changed one day when I suggested to him to try hugging her instead of hitting. He happily (and surprisingly) said "okay" and proceeded to chase after her for a little affection. She resisted at first but now they are pretty good buddies.

At home he used to spontaneously tell me "I don't like Annika"
This time he actually said, "I love Annika"

All I can say now is Pace yourself sweetie...

Strawberry Pickin'

This week we went to a local strawberry farm.

Here is Dakota's first fruit picking experience...

(Disclaimer: I had a hard time figuring out my movie maker and had lots of loud distractions. Also, it's not really 6 minutes, I just couldn't cut the end off for some reason....)

J4BBQ

Yesterday was a great Independence Day. We had a nice potluck bbq at our friend's the Steed's house. 'KotaJack had tons of fun running around with all the other kids and though there are no pictures of me, I was probably more excited about the in-ground trampoline than anyone. (hint hint Santa, nothin's better than a trampoline to mommy & kids alike;)

And there are no pictures of the night life either unfortunately, but while Keith was busy putting Lilly down and going to bed himself (as he had an early morning and a busy 30hour shift ahead of him) Kota and I had an exciting adventure of searching the neighborhood for fireworks. We ended up in a neighbor's back porch looking at big one's in the sky then in a front yard parked on lawn chairs until 11:00pm! (way passed bedtime for a special day). He kept alternating from "I scared mommy" to "wow I like it!". Around Three AM he woke up crying and got into bed with us. Ever since he's asking if I remember the big fire works and making loud exploding sounds with the happy face of an excited boy.

My Little Angels

As promised, here is my latest project
Isn't she the cutest!
(I know Im her mother so I naturally feel this way but sometimes my heart leaps with joy at all her cuteness)

Just for fun I thought I would show a little comparison of my two babies. Of course Lilly is about two months older than KotaJack in these pictures.

Here he is in Feb 2007

And Lilly in 2009




And as usual,
Kota was feeling a bit jealous of all the attention Lil was getting so he begged to get his picture taken too. Hee hee, I can't wait til he's a teenager for this one to come out!

My little angel girl

My little devil-er um I mean angel boy

Lucky shots

Every once in a while when I'm not even trying I catch something golden.
I think these are my favorite shots yet.

It's funny because I'll spend hours trying to get them to cooperate with some elaborate setup which produces questionable results.
One of which we had today and you will see soon!