April, from Healthy Families came for a visit this afternoon.

Apparently we have a healthy family!

Thanks, April!

Early this morning (before an amazing thunderstorm) I got up and mowed the yard and began to plant our garden!

I got everything done except for the okra when the thunderstorm began to rain hail down upon my poor little rain-soaked head. Ouch.

When the hail let up I quickly planted the final row of okra.

The garden has 4 rows of corn, a row of cucumbers, 2 rows of green beans, a carrot patch, and a row of okra.

We’ll see what happens!

Congrats to “BJ & Tyler” on winning this season of The Amazing Race!

Jess and I nearly cheered out loud from our living room as we watched our DVR’d 2-hour season finale of one of our favorite shows!

We’ve been cheering for the Hippies since the first episode aired way back in February!

We also realized tonight that this is probably the FIRST time we’ve ever cheered for ANY winning team/person on ANY reality show!

Sometime before I die I want someone to take a 50-gallon drum of those Maple tree “helicopter” seeds and take them up in an airplane and dump the whole 50-gallons out of the plane and let me watch them fall to the ground.

Can anyone make this happen for me?

Isn’t this the face of “satisfaction”?
Tonight we put Ella in her new “snuggly” – a gift from her 2nd Cousins in L.A., Brock & Esther Sheets (thank you guys).

Until this gift arrived, we have been “swaddling” Ella with her two arms OUT – they are not included in the burrito-style folding of two “receiving blankets” because they would somehow find their way OUT of our intricately folded origami swaddling and up to Ella’s face and into her mouth.

So, we receive this gift from Brock & Esther (and baby Reagan) and decide to give it a shot – keeping Ella’s hands down by her side to encourage her to be MORE swaddled.

What commenced seemed more like a straight-jacket than a cuddly, swaddled situation –

With merely her tiny little head protruding from this “swaddle-me blanket”, Ella looked hilarious – so of course I snapped photos of our little one.

For about 5-minutes we were literally SHOCKED at how calm she was at having her hands down by her side, wrapped snuggly by this new invention we received from L.A.

About 5-minutes, I said.

In just that amount of time, while we watched, my Houdini-daughter managed to free both of her arms and get them BOTH within mouth-reach!

Seriously, it was an amazing thing to watch.

So, for your next birthday party, corporate event, bar mitzvah, or other “shindig”, consider hiring “Escaping Ella” to entertain your guests!

Yes folks, our baby girl weighed in at 9-pounds, 3-ounces today at her weight-check at Dr. Pitts’ office!

Jess had to see Dr. Pitts today and was diagnosed with “mastitis” (look it up if you’re curious).

Some antibiotics should take care of the problem.

My wife is a trooper!

I came home this afternoon JUST in time to miss the “projectile poopage” that happened just minutes before I walked through the door.

Sure was sad to miss that photo-op!