My Best Helper

Savannah Grace is my very best helper. I had no idea someone could enjoy doing chores so much. If she hears me open the broom closet, she races over and insists on sweeping. This usually means that the dirt on the floor gets moved from one end of the floor to the other.

She's also seen a commercial on tv where a mom makes a mess on her bathroom mirror, which she quickly resolves by reaching for nearby disposable disinfecting wipe to clean it with. Savannah doesn't have access to these magic wipes, so whenever she feels that the mirror in the hall needs cleaning, she gets some of Vivian's baby wipes and smears them around on the mirror.


Her current favorite is washing dishes. But in order for a dish to qualify as something she is willing to wash, it already has to be clean. My clean dishes are usually coated with a thick layer of crusty bubbles after being hand "washed".



After so much exhausting work, my happy helper takes a well-deserved nap, and it's my turn to secretly clean up after her helping :)

Blackberries

I love living here in Western Washington where blackberries grow wild everywhere. They don't seem to require a lot of maintenance. Take, for instance, these huge bushes that grow behind our apartments. Our backyard neighbors ignore them 365 days per year, and they still produce what looks like thousands of gorgeous berries every summer. It drives me crazy to look out my window and watch them go to waste, since no one harvests them.


Well, it bothered my dad, too. So, while he was here visiting last week, he slipped out of the house with a grocery bag, climbed up on the retaining wall behind our apartment and started picking any berries that he could reach. Unfortunately, the sprinklers started while he was there and he got drenched!

Here he is all wet and upset that I am taking his picture.

The good news is that we made a delicious blackberry poppy seed cake with what he was able to pick. I did have to supplement it with a few blueberries, because Savannah was eating them so fast that there weren't many left over for the cake :)

Vivian's Blessing Day

My mom and dad were here from Utah this weekend to be here for Vivian's blessing day. It was so fun to have them here! It was the first time they had seen Vivian, so it was really exciting. They had come up a couple weeks before she was born, hoping to be here for the birth, but she had other plans...like coming 3 days late!

Savannah was ecstatic to see Grandma and Grandpa again - and not just because they bring treats and lots (and lots and lots) of presents. I think I may need a yard sale now.

The blessing was very sweet. I was terrified that she was going to cry through the whole thing, because she was very fussy up until it began, then she calmed down and was quiet. What a miracle!