Ladybugs

Did you know you can buy ladybugs online and get them shipped through the USPS? I got mine in the mail today. I've noticed aphids on my lettuce and tomatoes in our garden lately and looked online to find out how to attract ladybugs since they eat aphids. I found that you can buy 1500 ladybugs for something like $6. I definitely didn't need that much, but that was the smallest amount available. I guess they figure 10% die in tranist, then most fly away, so with that many, at least a few will stick around to eat your bugs.

So here's how they showed up today. Notice the holes in each side of the box.

They suggest letting them go when it's dark so they'll stick around a little longer.

They were accompanied with sawdust.

I scattered them around a bit. We'll see how many stick around for the aphid feast.

PJ's

We got Rachel new pajamas a few months ago and she LOVES them. I think it's the bright and contrasting colors. But she doesn't just love them when it's time to get ready for bed; if she sees them out during the day, she'll try to put them on. She's also recently developed an affinity for things on her head (unless it's a hat or barette). So combine the two and this is what you get:

She does this quite a bit. She'll just walk around the house so pleased with herself, thinking she looks so cool. It's pretty funny. Half the time she gets it so the pj's are impairing her vision, but she doesn't even seem to notice, just bumping into stuff as she goes.

Cereal

I like cereal. A lot. Especially when it's on sale for $1 a box, or sometimes a little more than that. So I stock up. I sometimes think I go a little overboard. Does everyone use a whole cupboard, and on top of their fridge, and on top of the cupboards above the fridge for cereal storage? Maybe I just need a bigger pantry.I think I counted 29 boxes here, plus the oatmeal and pancake mix. Then I got 3 more boxes at the store yesterday. :)

Halloween Safari

We had our ward Halloween party tonight and Jake and I decided to go on a safari for it, and bring along our little tiger. I actually made Rachel's tiger outfit and it turned out better than I had anticipated. I tried a few different things for her ears, and ended up going with Scotch tape on her pigtails. I was going to draw little whiskers on her face, but totally forgot until we were in the car on the way there. Oh well.

While we were outside getting ready for our family picture a helicoptor passed overhead--the child is like her father and loves any machine that can fly.

Here's the fam.

And Rachel in her tiger crouch, ready to pounce on her prey (bubbles, I think). I think you can kind of see her tail in this picture.

So that's Rachel's fun first Halloween. (A week early, I know, but that's all she gets this time around.)

real walking

Today Rachel decided all of a sudden that she can walk wherever she wants to go. So now she does.

Yes, she occasionally looks a bit drunk, but no, we did not give her any alcohol. :)

playing

Today we got to go to the park for a fun family outing. Rachel LOVES the slides and all the little stairs she can climb to get up to the slides. She had a blast.

"Ba!" Yes, she needs to work on enunciating her L's, but at least she's got half the word down. And she loves playing with any ball she can find.

Rachel's new favorite thing is this scrunch face. When she's really happy she scrunches it even more and it almost looks like she's mad.

Goatee

Rachel's favorite food is possibly cottage cheese. This is what she looks like eating it.
Nice goatee, huh?

Yesterday we had another mountain adventure, this time with my brother, sis-in-law, and mom, too. It was a bit windy and a lot cooler than we're used to, but very nice. We enjoyed a picnic and a little geocaching. Good times.
Here's our picnic.

From mtlemmon

Hiking.

From mtlemmon

From mtlemmon

And the cache that we found. Geocaching is basically a treasure hunt using a GPS with coordinates for the treasure at geocaching.com. It's pretty fun.

From mtlemmon

Climber?

Last week I came into the living room to find Rachel sitting backwards on the futon with her butt just a couple of inches from the edge. The lucky girl didn't get injured on her first climbing achievement, thankfully. So now she's a climber. She tries climbing on anything, but only succeeds at a select few pieces of furniture so far, thankfully.




And here's a recent video of her walking. She hasn't figured out how to stand up on her own in the middle of the floor-she has to go to the couch or something to pull up on-but she's getting better at walking. I figure once she figures out how to stand up on her own, it's all downhill from there--runaway baby.