What a beautiful baby!

I know every mom thinks their kid is the cutest in the world, but well, I have the pictures to prove that MY daughter is the most beautiful!!! We got to see the pictures that Uncle Bob took today and after two sessions and lots of screaming, you can see for yourself just how cute Pearl really is (and these are only a few of the highlights). Isn't she just gorgeous? And not only is she the most beautiful baby ever, but she is also has the most funny personality you've ever see in a pint size pip-squeak!

Oh and I guess now is a good time to answer some of your questions about how we picked Pearl's name. First off, we wanted to name her something that we would actually call her (you'll see later with my name why) and we wanted her name to have some sort of family significance. The reason for the family name is because Jeff's sister named him after a boy she liked and a neighbor. Anyway, back to Pearl Jenette's name. Jeff's great-great grandma's name was Juliet Pearl and when I first heard this name I thought wow, Pearl is really pretty. But I was thinking for a middle name. Jenette is actually my middle name (Kay Jenette - don't ask where Jenny came from). We called her Pearl from the moment we found out she was a girl, well Jeff preferred PJJ's until she was born. She is a true gem in our lives!

This last picture is a classic Pearl face. If anyone is in need of the BEST photographer in the world, give Robert Dyer Photography a call!

Pearl's latest trick

My sister told me today I was slacking on the blog. Apparently she checks it out everyday hoping to see something fun about Pearl, so here you go Kimmy! Pearl can hardly wait until she can walk. It's not enough to be a speed crawler when everyone else walks on two legs. I personally get tired of walking around the house with her holding onto my fingers, not that I don't love doing it but my back can only take so much of it. So Jeff helped Pearl learn a new trick with walking - pushing the foot stool. We thought it was pretty cute so we whipped out the video camera and whalla!

Before figuring out how much she would like pushing the stool around, we tried to keep her entertained in a box. Yup a box. She likes to pound on the diaper boxes so why not stand in them? If my mom is reading this, it may remind her of when I was a baby. Apparently the lady who watched my brother and I didn't have two cribs and well, Jesse is a pansy so he got the crib and I slept in a box. I don't think Pearl would cooperate that much and sleep in the box, she's way to wiggly for that!

Nothing new

Okay so I'm totally addicted to blogging and just wanted to post something, anything. I'm bored and cold and well, like I said addicted to this thing. So what's new you ask? Well, nothing! I have this great blog entry coming up of a friend's wedding (she's from Pakistan so it was very interesting to see a Muslim wedding) as soon as I get pictures from my friends so alas these random ramblings will have to do until I get them.


First, let's make the grandmas happy by posting a picture or two of Pearl. We went to a wedding luncheon on Saturday for one of "the girls" Jeff works with. Jeff bought a salad bowl and with the help of co-workers, filled it with "greens" ($$$$). He left it on the couch and Pearl found it. I walked into the living room to find Pearl playing with a wad of ones. It was pretty funny how much she liked all the cash, and if you can read her onesie, pretty ironic that it says "I love daddy" as she's throwing dollar bills around like they grow on trees. Speaking of trees, our flowering plum in the front yard is nearly ready to burst with beautiful pink buds!

I guess all that money counting is exhausting! I wouldn't know because I never have any!

What else is new? Well I had a job interview today with the Violence and Injury Prevention Program. It was for a part-time media coordinator. It would actually pay more than what I work right now, working more hours. I just don't know what to do. For any of you out there who work on grants, you know how funding goes. If you have a grant, you have a job, no grant no job. Pretty simple right? Wrong! I love my job with the Genomics Program but our funding has been so unstable the past few months and it's been stressing me out a lot more than I thought it would. I actually turned down a really nice job a few months ago because for some reason I just didn't feel like it was time to move on. But it's nearly killed me since! Our funding runs out as of June 30 but we've managed to squeeze enough money out of our budget to carry us to September. That's when our new grant would start, if we are awarded. It wouldn't be such a dilemma except our funders (do I dare say who on the World Wide Web?) have decided to completely change direction with our program. It's really thrown me for a loop and I'm not sure if it's a direction I'm excited to take. But then again, there's a few things that if I leave I'm afraid will never happen and that would be so hard on me personally and professionally. Alright I'll stop rambling about our funding now - Mindy Williams I'm really hoping you read this and send me an email since you understand how I feel and I could use your advice on what to do!

Hmmm...I guess that will have to do for now!

Thank you Facebook!

I just wanted to say, thank goodness we have the Internet! Well, and I needed something to do to keep me awake while I finish the laundry. Jeff said he didn't have any pants to wear tomorrow and Pearl is supposed to get her pictures taken (again - let's just hope this time she is happier), so here I am at 10:30 pm doing laundry. Anyway, one of the girls I went to college with sent me an email a few months back encouraging me to join Facebook (a web-based social networking site). I being the uneducated, non-tech savvy person that I am had no idea what Facebook was at the time but figured I might as well humor her and join. So...I joined not knowing what luck it would bring me - many long lost friends that I've been wondering about over the years. Just the other day I had "poke" on my Facebook account (I still don't know what a "poke" is) and thought hmmm I wonder if there's anyone on this that I would know from high school. Well I found Sandy, Brooke, Liberty, Kelly, Carrie and more! I am sooooooo excited to find them! And the best part? They have blogs too! Not only will I look less like a loser by adding some blogging friends, but more importantly I can start to catch up on their lives. I was shocked to see that they have lots of babies, or are pregnant or moving all over the country. I can't wait to share my life with them again. Lately I've felt really bummed about not keeping better track of my friends but I'm hoping I can start to rebuild these friendships that have meant so much to me in my life. Thank you Facebook!

What a great weekend!

We had a fun weekend filled with plenty of sunshine. It finally felt like spring, warm and sunny and perfect for going outside. Pearl was thrilled to be out and about instead of being couped up any longer in the house. The past few weeks she has crawled from the front door to the back door hitting them and waiting for either mama or daddy to pick her up and take her outside. She's been so excited to spend an entire day outside and with such a beautiful weekend, we just couldn't disappoint her. Thursday night we went outside and helped supervise Jeff as he did some yard work. It was a bit chilly but with a jacket we made it a good hour outside. Pearl had fun and she even found two Easter eggs that Kurtis left behind. They were camo eggs so a bit hard to find but honestly, if a 10 month old (okay so she had help from dad) can find them, you would think a 13 year old could!

Look what I found Uncle Kurtis!

Then on Saturday morning, Pearl woke up at the crack of dawn and spent a few hours playing with dad while I slept in. Once Jeff got Pearl back to sleep (not for long though), he went outside to tackle a yard project that he's been working on for several years. You see, we had this huge cherry tree next to our driveway that was half dead when we bought our house. Jeff and his buddy Palmer decided to chop it down one weekend and well, we've never finished digging out the stump until this weekend. It was a pretty big stump and hard to cut out but after a few years and a lot of sweat Jeff had it rockin' enough to pull out with "Big Red" (his 1964 Dodge pickup with just happens to be for sell - any takers?). Pearl and I helped supervise the whole project. Now we can plant some flowers there and turn it into a beautiful flower garden.

Here's what the tree looked like when we moved in. Funny but we have the old blue car back in the driveway too - only my sister drives it now.

No tree is safe with Jeff! Actually there is a lot of truth to this. He's dug up by hand, stump and all, at least 6 trees in our yard and we're not talking small trees either.

Even Pearl helped, well not much but she did sit on the stump for a picture.

After the stump, Jeff decided to go on a bike ride. For those of you who aren't aware, Jeff is going to ride in the Tour de Cure bike race for diabetes prevention in June. It's 60 miles and he has a training schedule all calendered out. He bought a new rode bike and joined a team at his work. He said he was feeling left out because all of our blog posts are about Pearl, so here are a few pictures of Jeff all dressed up in his biking gear. Oh and while Jeff was out riding, Pearl threw a fit in the house until I took her on a walk.

Go Aggies! I thought Jeff would love to see this picture on the blog.

Here's Jeff in all his bike gear.

Jeff and Pearl then proceeded to pull weeds in the flower beds for a good two hours later that afternoon while I finished mopping the floor and doing the laundry (wahooo). Jeff said Pearl was hilarious following him around the yard copying everything he did. When he would pull the weeds and dig up the mulch, Pearl proceeded to climb into the flower beds and eat the mulch. Even our neighbor said it was pretty cute to watch two butts in the air playing in the dirt.

After a massage for me, grocery shopping for Jeff and Pearl, and dinner at Marcello's (this great Italian joint up the street) for an early birthday meal, we were ready for bed. Too bad Pearl decided to get up this morning at 4:45! You would think after spending hours playing she would have slept in until at least 8 o'clock. Oh well. Today - Sunday - we spent visiting family. We hadn't seen the newest arrival to the Kohler clan so we ventured over to Aunt Denise and Uncle Dan's house to visit my cousin Tracy (Jason was golfing) and their new baby Carver Daniel Kohler. He was born on St. Patricks Day but Pearl had been sick so we hadn't been able to see him until today.

Welcome Carver!

Pearl loved having a whole bunch of little boys to watch and run around with but she wasn't too sure of Cozmo the dog. She wasn't sure if she should be scared or excited and so she just sort of screamed until the dog went past her and then babbled at it until Cozmo came back. It was really quite funny! She had a great time watching everyone and being outside all evening. So as you can see, we've had a very long and fun weekend and well, I'm super tired myself so I better stop blogging until our next adventure!

Aunt Denise has way more toys to play with than we do. Pearl had a great time riding her bike over there and Jaxon was very eager to share his compass and other army fighting, adventure seeking equipment.

Isn't Pearl cute?

Here's Cozmo giving Pearl lots of kisses! By this time, she was past the terror screams and seemed to actually enough the dog.