Trip to VA

In August Alexa and I went to visit my family in VA. Sadly, I didn't do a very good job of taking pictures, so maybe more will come if I can get copies of the ones my parents took. Alexa had a great time helping Grandma make dinner.
She also liked watching Grandpa cook on the grill.

She did not like the baby gates banning her from going upstairs by herself. Luckily, they were only needed the last day or so when she figured out that she didn't need to wait for anyone to come up with her.

She looooved playing with the cars and trucks. Apparently we need to get her some of those!

She also loved having a chair that was her size, although she still hasn't figured out that she can just turn and sit rather than climbing up onto it and turning while on it to sit. We're working on that.

Last, she discovered her love of jelly beans. She'd go pick up the container and bring it to someone, then follow them around pushing it until they gave her some.

We got her some here, and they are certainly her treat of choice, although she calls them stars for some reason. Her talking has gotten so much better lately, and it is so awesome when she suddenly says something that I've been trying to teach her for days. The latest example of this is "thank you". I've been trying to teach her please and thank you for a couple of weeks now, and we're still working on please, but she's a champ at saying thank you. Babies are so amazing at this age!

County Fair

So, I'm a bit behind on the happenings around here, so I'm going to be trying to catch up in the next few days. First up, the County Fair that we went to, like, 2 months ago. Whoops!

Alexa loved looking at all the animals, although she was terrified to touch any of them.

Of course, who would want to pet the demon horse?

She did love the "elephant ear" which, thankyouverymuch, is NOT the real deal. I was disappointed. I haven't had a real one in a looong time, and by a real elephant ear, clearly I do not mean like, off the animal. Growing up in Massachusetts we had the REAL elephant ears. Basically flaky layered pastries that were delicious. This thing was pretty good too, though.

The Harvest of Grace: Review

The Harvest of Grace is another Cindy Woodsmall book, and is the conclusion of the Ada's House series. It mainly follows the story of Sylvia, a young woman who is betrayed by both a sister and a man that was to be her fiancee. She leaves home to go work on an older couple's dairy farm, to help them save their livelihood after their son abandoned them. Aaron, the wayward son, returns home in hops of convincing his parents to sell the dairy farm and run an appliance store with him. His father has a hard time forgiving Aaron for the pain that he put them through, and does not trust Aaron to not leave again. Sylvia, also, does not trust Aaron and wants nothing more than to save the farm. Their story is intermingled with the stories previously introduced in the earlier novels of the series, all of which come to terms in this last book.

This book is very well written, and it's nice to see how the other stories end and how they are all connected in this small Amish community. I also found this book easier to relate to than Woodsmall's other books, because of the type of problems that these characters must overcome. Failing farms relates to bad economy now, familial drama, and boy troubles are all things that most people (girls) have experienced. I would recommend this book to anyone really, but more to females because of the more romantic tendencies of these books.

*I received this book for free from the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.