Art By Delia & the Imagination of a Toddler

Delia has always amazed Jake and I, but that may very well be because she is our daughter and we are a little biased. However, there are some things that she does that I think other people might find a little advanced for her age. For example her new found ability to draw. Let me just remind you all now that she is only 2.5 years old. At what point do children start drawing like this? I think it's early, but I could be wrong.

She'll be sitting there doodling, see something amongst her scribbles and then say (for example)

"Look Mommy, I draw a whale!"

Then she became a little more controlled with her movements and started to actually produce images that she wanted. For example:

A Person
A Smiling Person

A Happy Face

And most recently:

A Car (it's upside down)

Now, I don't know about you but this is pretty darn good for a 2.5 year old. She has yet to decide on which hand she will use and mostly sticks with her left. It is so interested seeing how they change and become more of themselves. It really makes me wonder what she will do when she grows up. What gifts God has blessed her with and where He will take her.

Her imagination has really taken off in the past few months. Lately she has been running from imaginary monsters and the other day in the grocery store she said, "There's a bunny in that lady's cart." To which I responded, "What?" She repeated herself and I asked, "There's a bunny in that lady's cart?" She happily said, "Yes!" I looked around a little and didn't see a bunny anywhere (much to my disappointment). Plenty of ladies and carts, but no bunnies. I love her imagination! It's quite amusing to say the least.

Stay tuned, as I'm sure there will be plenty of funny stories to share with an imagination like hers.

Happy (late) Easter!

We celebrated Easter with family over the weekend. On Saturday we (the three of us and all of my family) had Easter dinner at Jake's parents house. We all had a great time enjoying each other's company. Then on Easter Sunday my mom, I mean the Easter Bunny hid some eggs for Delia to find. She was super excited.

Here are a few pictures from our Easter weekend...taken with my new camera!!! I've been dreaming about getting a digital SLR for quite some time and my dream has finally come true. (thanks jake!!)

Justus and Delia hanging out on the

porch at Grampa and Grammy Talley's

(he really likes her!)

I think she feels the same way about him.

One of my handsome nephews (i have 5 others!)

The only way to hunt for eggs...

basket, purse and doll!

The proper way to hunt for eggs.

10 Weeks To Go!!

I have hit the 30 week mark and am very excited to say that I only have 10 weeks to go. 10 weeks does not sound like a long time at all. So I am happy that we've gotten to this point and I look forward to every Monday when I can say an even smaller number. I just hope we are all ready for this little one to arrive. In some ways I'm scared and in other ways I can't wait. I'll probably post more about this later.

In other fun news....
A good friend of mine just moved to the Sacramento area from San Luis Obispo. She has an adorable little girl who is 18 months old and she is also a photographer!! Jake and I have only had pictures taken "professionally" a total of three times since we've been married. The first time was our wedding, the second time was a few months ago for Christmas and the third was just this past Friday when Kelli came over to our house. It was a lot of fun and I'm really glad to have these pictures of my pregnant belly and our little family of three soon to be four. I sadly didn't get any professional picture taken when I was pregnant with Delia. I actually hardly have any. I encourage any of you who are pregnant to at least take your own pictures. Oh and of course there are some extremely cute ones of Delia...but I'm a little biased.

Click here to view some of the pictures on her blog:
KelliJanePhotographyBlog
and here is a link to her website:
http://www.kellijanephoto.com/

Thanks Kelli for the beautiful pictures. I can't wait to see the other ones!

Happy 90th Birthday Great-Grandpa Talley

A few weeks ago we went to Jake's parents house in Willows to celebrate Great Grandpa Talley's 90th birthday. It was really great to see them as it had been about two years since we had seen them last. We had four generations present and we all had a lot of fun visiting and talking about the good ol' days. Jake's brother Chris, his wife Trisha and their son Seth were able to come. As well as Jake's other brother Jon. Jake's uncle Don was there and obviously Jake's parents, Lee and Sheryl. And of course Great Grandpa and Grandma Talley. All we were missing was Aunt Marge and Jake's sister Cori and her clan in Michigan. (We missed you guys and look forward to next year!)

Here are some pictures of our time together:

Chris, Seth and Grandpa reading a book

Chris, Jon and Seth

Birthday Dinner

4 Generations

Lee, Chris, Great Grandpa, and Seth 4 Generations

Lee, Jake, Great Grandpa and Delia

It Has Begun!

Delia asked me, "Why?" today. It's not that I dreaded this day or anything. It actually seems like it will be fun as Delia gets older and the why questions become more and more frequent. It is just neat lately watching her change and grow into this little girl rather than this little toddler that I've been spending my days with. She's even losing her baby fat, however her cheeks are still chubby and don't seem to be losing any mass. It will be a sad day when that happens.

Look at that chicken!

When we first moved to Folsom we stumbled upon a park. This isn't your usual park, at least not to me. I knew there was something different about it when I read this sign posted near the front of the park.

The sign reads:

WILDLIFE NOTICE: FOLSOM IS HOME TO MANY FREE ROAMING WILDLIFE SPECIES, INCLUDING COYOTES AND RATTLESNAKES. THESE MEMBERS OF OUR NATURAL COMMUNITY SHOULD BE RESPECTED AND AVOIDED. PLEASE KEEP YOUR ANIMALS ON LEASH.

Great I thought. This is just the place I want my daughter playing. "Go ahead and play honey. Just keep an eye out for coyotes (no that's not a dog) and rattlesnakes (no that's not a baby rattle). The sign fails to mention the dozen or so "free roaming" chickens and roosters cock-a-dooing around the park. "What Delia? What white spots? Oh those white spots. Let 's not touch that, it's chicken poo."

Yes, the park has chickens and lots of them. Did I mention there are 2 or 3 peacocks too. They get really close and if you have food they're on you like a pack of...well coyotes. I think some would even eat out of your hand. There are trails that can be taken through trees, bushes, etc. This is most likely the reason why they posted about the "wildlife".

We've ventured to this park many times since that first visit. A feat you may think is crazy considering the warnings mentioned above. Hey, if the chickens can survive in a place where coyotes may lurk, then I think a little visit from us can't hurt.

The last time was especially fun because we brought along some bread to feed the many chickens (and roosters) with. Here is a short video of Delia feeding the chickens. She really did enjoy herself. And from the way she talks to chickens I think she'll be a pretty sweet big sister.

Contractions, the Hospital and Water

Tuesday afternoon I started getting contractions. In three hours I had about 30. They weren't painful just stronger than they had been and obviously much more often. After I went to bed they subsided. Wednesday around 11am they started up again. I had 13 in an hour. So I called me doctors office and they said to go to labor and delivery. Since I had had them the day before and was getting them again they felt it was better to get checked and make sure nothing was happening. So Jake came home from work and we drove the 30 minutes to the hospital. We got there at 1:30 and didn't leave until after 6! They monitored my contractions and the babies heartbeat for over an hour. Then they did some tests and made sure I wasn't dilating. Which I wasn't. So after that they moved me to another room so that they could monitor me some more and had me drink two pitchers full of water! I felt like I could pee forever after that. They checked me again and since I still wasn't dilating they sent me home and told me to take it easy and drink lots of water. With Delia I had a lot of braxton hicks contractions but nothing that lasted as long as this little "episode". As of this morning I am still getting them. So I am trying to take it as easy as I can with a 2 year old demanding my complete and full attention. 14 more weeks and then I'll be ready for contractions...but not yet!

Video of Delia coming soon.....it involves wild chickens, a peacock and bread.