Bikes, Blues and BBQ

Saturday we went to Bikes, Blues and BBQ! I wanted to go to get out of the house. Mikel had been in Mexico since Sunday, so I was really needing some fresh air and some time where I was not the only parent in the house! The last time I went to BBBBQ, it was in college and people weren't getting stabbed at ZZ Top concerts. For those of you who aren't local, Bikes, Blues and BBQ is a motorcycle rally held in Fayetteville on Dickson Street. It has grown to the 2nd largest bike rally (after Sturgis) and 1st largest charitable bike rally (not sure which charity - bikers who need to shower maybe? We saw plenty of those!) Last year, ZZ Top performed at one of the clubs and some guy got stabbed outside of the club. Kinda scary. But this year went off without incident. The year that I went, we went at night and it was much colder, so we didn't stay long. That and there is just SO many people there, it's not really much fun to me. I'm not a big crowd type of girl. I get nervous about losing who I am with and all I can concentrate on is getting from point A to point B without getting trampled. So back to this year. We went and manuevered D's jogging stroller down Dickson, not an easy feat, and ended up in the Walton Arts Center parking lot, where most of the BBQ vendors were stationed. It was lunch and we were hungry. It was also hot that day. It had been warm most of that week, but that day it was almost 90 degrees. As we pulled in to the parking lot, a girl I went to Shiloh with, Jaime, spotted us and snapped a "party pic" for her dad's Web site - http://www.razorbraces.com/. She does Smile Pix through the site and they were doing promotional pictures. So that is where this pic comes from! She kept telling us to "crouch down" so she could get D in the pic too. So after that, we found a line for BBQ and stood in it. But we looked around and there was no place to sit and actually eat - except for the street curb and I wasn't down with that. So after about 15 minutes of sweating and poor D's face turning red, we left. We ended up at Buffalo Wild Wings with Gracie and Mike for the start of the Razorbacks game. When we got home though, D wouldn't take his afternoon nap and slept horrible that night. Despite that, it was nice to get out of the house and I was just so glad to have my husband home!

9 months!

Happy 9 months to my little babe who has now been out of the womb for as long as he was in the womb!
Stats:
21 lbs 2 oz
29 inches long
Doc said he looked perfect! :)

And Happy 15 months to Stella Wella who we saw at the doctor too!

What we've been doing lately

Singing Elmo table. Chloe in the background.

Bazoople Diaper Creation!

Am cloth diaper genius!!

Fits nice and keeps bottom dry!

Cutsie jungle animals and fat baby thighs!

Well, we've been sleeping a little bit better. Dunning now has two teeth and it seems like the bad nights are behind us for right now. I'm sure they will be back, because that's just how it goes. :)


This week we had Infant Social Hour, but we only had one baby other than Dunning. It was at her house - Emilie and Chloe. They had a lot of fun fighting over the same toy - the Elmo Seaseme Street singing table.


So my friends call me "Crazy Hippie Lady" because of the cloth diapers and the breastfeeding and the garden and the homemade baby food and the recycling...ok, so maybe they are on to something. Lately I have been sewing like crazy. I got a crazy idea that it's just ridiculous to pay $16 for a cloth diaper when I can sew one. So I bought some fabric, fleece, velcro, thread and elastic and after one practice diaper and one that was too small, the result is three fabulous "Bazoople" diapers - they are the characters on the diapers. I'm not sure what Bazooples are, but it consists of jungle animals, so I used it. :) I am really happy with how they turned out. All the fabric and velcro etc. cost me $31 and I bought 4 re-usable diaper covers for $40! I'll be able to get 6-8 more diapers but will have to get more velcro and elastic. So I figure if I can get 12 diapers for $80, I'll be saving over $100. It costs $208 for 12 of the expensive ones online. :)) And I like being crafty, crazy, hippie lady.
More Cloth Diaper photos

The weekend

This weekend was kind of crappy. I had Girls Night Out at my house on Friday night, and that was super fun. We scrapbooked a little bit and then talked the rest of the time. :) But it was downhill from there. Friday night, Dunning screamed for about two hours while Mikel and I alternated getting up with him. Then Saturday night, he slept somewhat better, but the storm knocked out the power at 4:00 a.m. and then the smoke detector started it's beep beep beeping. Mikel can sleep through that and a freight train, but I cannot. Nor am I tall enough to take it down and take the batteries out. So, after a few "gentle" kicks, he was up and took care of it. Then he decides it was the right time to have a chat. I disagreed. So needless to say, Sunday was a bit rough. Especially since the power was still out when we got up and I had to lead worship for the 4 year olds with dirty hair, good thing they don't really care. Dunning and I got to nap Sunday afternoon and we all felt much better.
I am hoping Dunning is just teething, but I am worried it's his ear. He mainly just chews on his fists, as if it is a tooth, but the poor sleep, even with Tylenol has been going on for some time and I don't know what to do about it. He doesn't have a fever, but if we have another bad night (he was up at 3 a.m. and then 5:30 a.m. this morning), we're off to the doctor to make sure. He's also not nursing as much and went 6 hours yesterday off just breakfast of yogurt and rice cereal. I tried nursing him twice and he refused. Oh the joys of babies! It's too early for him to self wean, since he is not taking a bottle or sippy cup. Babies are supposed to take formula or breastmilk until they are at least 1. Then they can have whole milk or continued breastmilk. So until then, it is their main source of nutrition, hence my concern he is not getting enough. Hopefully, I am making enough for him since I have lost a lot of weight with running (down a size from pre-pregnancy!) but still try to eat enough calories and I would think he would want to nurse non-stop vs. not wanting to nurse.
Anyways, that is the weekend in a nutshell. No new pics today. Sorry!

Infant Social Hour

Dunning, Chloe, Neilie and Ava

All these girls!


Mom!! She's HITTING ME!

We had infant social hour with my mom's club at my house on Wednesday. D was surrounded by little girls. I told him he could have his pick of the litter! It was fun!

Garden Update

All I need is the other foot propped up and I'm good.

Blurry green beans

Sage, an herb I grow, and the never ending green bean crop




Chillin' like a villain, watching Charlie run around like the pscyho he is



Snap peas in foreground



See that little bunch of green things in the middle there? That's my patch o' spinach.


Peas and bamboo trellis

Wilted beets :((



So D and I ventured outside yesterday to work in the garden. I have been meaning to do it since the weekend and figured I better get to it before monsoon like weather hits, courtesy of Ike. I have planted more snap peas, beets, spinach, regular peas and lettuce. The beets were growing like gang busters (is that PC??), but I think it has rained too much these past weeks and they all kind of wilted. The lettuce and spinach only had a few that came up from the seeds I planted, but the peas are all coming up. And of course, the bell peppers and green beans are still around. I could feed the free world on friggin' green beans. I am going to plant more lettuce and spinach once we dry out.

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Genealogy software - Family tree search

Living in the Sticks, Part 2

One of my favorite times of the year is County Fair time. This year, the fair moved out to a big piece of land by the airport. It was much more spacious than the little plot o' land next to the office, where it used to be. It was always strange to me that the fair, with all of its livestock, was held in the middle of the city. Guess it wasn't always the middle of the city when they started having it there! Now it's out in the middle of a cow pasture, where it belongs.
We took Dunning and went with some people from Mikel's office as a family fun day. I thought he would be more excited to see the animals, but I think I was more excited than he was. I was snapping pictures like I was a Yankee in the South for the first time. It's just been a while since I've been to the fair!
Since I took so many pictures, I am not uploading any here, as Blogger takes FOREVER to down load pictures. I have posted them on my Facebook and have inserted the link below. So go look at the cows, pigs, monkeys, veggies and a moonshine still (yep, we ARE in Arkansas). Plus lots of goat pictures taken just for Aunt Patti!

Fair Pictures

Living in the Sticks, Part 1

I'm just glad I discovered this guy in the day time. I'm sure I would have woken the neighborhood had it been night.


One of the draw backs of living in the middle of the woods is critters. Not cute bambi-like-critters that frolic in the woods behind our fence, but huge, scary, arachniphobia type creatures. I found this "little" fella on our deck stairs. This spider bounces. Literally. Like it bounces up and down on its web as if it is going to jump on you. Major props to my dad for disposing of it for me.

RACE DAY!

Run Mama Run!

Pre-Race - I was trying to pump Mikel up and he just wanted me to leave him alone - it was 6:30 a.m.

I was feelin' good - handing out high fives to my parents!

Mikel crossing the finish line.

Me and Mikel post race! Go Team Hancock!

So many of you know that Mikel and I have been trainig for our very first 5k. I know it's not hardcore, but it's a big accomplishment for two people that have never run a race before. So, I started running in April after it started to get warmer. I increased my distance little by little and for the last month I have been running 3 miles while pushing Dunning in the jogging stroller. It's a nice way to start your day with a little endorphine rush! And the same nice people are out every day and wave at me and Dunning. Mikel has been training up and down the hills in our neighborhood!


Anyways, we did Run for a Child at the Promenade. We started off good and I told Mikel he could go on as we went up a hill, since he has been training on them and is much faster given his long stride. I think I did really good. I didn't pass as many people as I would have liked - but I did pass that 65 year old man before the finish line that passed me early on and I passed some kid that was easily 10 years younger than me and in good shape, so all in all I feel pretty good about it. The official times weren't posted by the time we had to leave - something wrong with their computers - but Mikel timed his and was at 27:40 and I was about a minute and half behind him so I think I came in at 29 minutes. I was really impressed with that time because I normally do 30 minutes for 3 miles pushing the boy, and a 5k is a little over 3 miles. I am pretty tired, kinda sore and just ready to go to bed!

Roaring River

Dunning and Kelsey (Greg Jr. in the background)

Dunning wants Kelsey's ball!


Sunday we went to Roaring River for the annual Seely reunion. It was nice weather in the shade and the babies had fun playing together. It's fun watching the cousins grow up together and how much they've all changed since they were born last year. It's also great to see other relatives that we don't get to see often and their babies and how big they've gotten. We had great food and a nice time with everyone.

Gracie

Gracie and her cake

Jason and Lindsey

Dan and Michelle

Mikel (being goofy, he wouldn't cooperate and lean forward) and me

The Girls

Paula and Floyd (Mikel's parents) kept Dunning while Mikel and I went to Bonefish Restaurant for Gracie's birthday. It was gooood. Every year we get together for birthdays and have a good time. It's been great knowing these gals for 10 years now. We've been through a whole heck of a lot and we're still standing! We've all changed a lot, but we know how much a good friend can get you through it all.