Turning 26, Getting Drafted, and Other Adventures

The last few days...

Cody, stud baseball player, already has a full-ride offer to UCLA but was being scouted by several major league baseball teams. We gathered at the Keefers' house on Tuesday to watch the draft and I learned a lot (too much) about signability, slot money, and other MLB draft regulations. Cody got drafted by Detroit in the 33rd round (though he got calls with potential offers in the 2nd round, but the "skrill" wasn't high enough to replace the value of a college experience). We'll see at the end of the summer whether he decides to sign.



Melissa and Siena.



Kindall is home! And she's a SERIOUS baby-lover. I even got to go for a few runs sans stroller because Siena was perfectly entertained at the Keefers' house. Here Siena is meeting Kindall's baby-substitute, Chili.



Only the first round of the draft was on TV. Then the men congregated around the computer for the next 20 jillion hours.



Jeremy insisted on taking a series of pictures with Siena until he got it just right with only his eyes creeping over the crest of her head.



Granny and Papa Keefer, along with Tony Bloomfield and his son Brett, joined the drafting party. Kevin grilled up some tri-tip and made his famous garlic bread. Melissa whipped up a tasty lasagna-ish dish and caesar salad.



Day 2 of the draft was booooring. Shiloh watched rounds 4 through 30 online, so I escaped to Impossible Acres for some berry-picking fun with Bethany, Luke and Zeke. It might turn into a regular outing until the season is over. So much fun!



Thursday morning Jen and I walked over to Orchard Park to "play" with Bethany and her boys. Emma is a good little jarvae and will sleep anywhere - even right on mama's belly.



Happy mama.

Sarah joined in the morning fray before heading off to work at the public library. Red is the generally preferred work garment color.

Lukey Duke.

Luke shared his toys with Siena and showed her what it's like to be a "workman."

On our walk back home Siena was fussing so I gave her bits of her favorite things. Food (cheerios in left hand) and technology (running watch in right hand). This is what she looked like when we got home. Pure bliss.

Last night I got to celebrate turning 26 a few days early with the Sorbello and Armstrong families. They prepared a tasty dinner, but the best part was the home-made Cherry Garcia ice cream, complete with 26 cherries mixed in!

Luke brought me a beautiful flower (from Grammy's garden) for my birthday present. Siena wanted to eat it.

After dinner we had an intermission to work on the "drop kick," and art that Luke has now mastered. He's a coordinated little fellow.

Siena is obsessed with glasses as well. Sunglasses or bifocals - she doesn't discriminate. If they're on your face, she wants to grab them off. Here she got a hold of Sarah's and tried them on for size. (I'm guessing someone helped her get them on.)

The cuz, Zeke, and his beautiful mama had a short photo shoot out front.

And then it was time for dessert.

But as soon as we began singing, Luke burst in to tears, frightened by the sudden cacaphony.

Poppy comforted him and Luke was assuaged by a finger in the nose and a candle all his own.

Then it was my turn to steal back the show. So I huffed, and I puffed, and I blew out the candles.

And if you remember from the last post that a certain somebody had been feeding Siena all sorts of new foods - well, the proof is in the pudding! (Er, cobbler.)

Something...Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue...

This might be a fairly long post since we're trying to catch up since May 22 and we take looooots of pictures. The best of the best are here, categorized for your viewing pleasure according to the old wedding adage: something old, something blue, something borrowed, something blue. No one got married, but it was fun anyhow. :)

SOMETHING(s) OLD

Jeremy McChesney. That's why a large crowd gathered to watch his last outing as a UCD pitcher. He went 7+ innings and did a grrrrreat job! A good end to his career. Now on to a new one.

Winning championships. We're trying to train Siena in the way she should go by setting good examples. This quarter (despite some shenanigans) we brought home titles in W Football, CoRec Softball, M Softball, W Whiffleball, and M Whiffleball. When playoffs finally ended we sat at home on a weeknight with nothing to do. Shiloh commented, "Wow, this is nice." We'll see if we remember that feeling when sign-ups come around again.

I feel that I need to explain our outfits because they don't look like ordinary sporting attire. Most of us who played have done many an intramural palooza which are 24 hour tournaments coupled with costume contests. We think this may have been our last go, so we all wore a costume from one of our themes over the years: pirates, nerds, 80s, bugs, ninjas, punk rockers, cave people, etc.

Friends. Julie, a friend from high school, came to visit and we spent the whole day traipsing around Davis on bikes: Starbucks, Arboretum, Burgers&Brew, Orchard Park, and Cherry picking. I'm trying to convince her to move to Davis. Anyone want to hire a speech pathologist? We took a lot of pictures because Julie just got a fancy new camera. Another old friend from college, Kelly, came to visit too!

Snazzy Canon.

Trailer bug. Modified with car seat because she's not yet 1.

Siena stayed occupied at B&B with a pickle. Sour?

Sarah entertained Siena while Julie and I picked many, many cherries.

Cherry-picker. In a good way, not like when you stand right in front of the opponents goal in soccer and don't help out on defense.

Smooches from Kelly after we ate a tasty meal at Plutos.

SOMETHING(s) NEW

Crustless Quiche! Made with veggies from our very own vegetable garden. All it takes is 4 Eggs, 2.5 C cheese, 1 C milk and lots of lightly sauteed veggies! (Mine had onions, squash, tomatoes, and swiss chard.)

(This quiche was the inaugural one made by Julie. Notice that it does have a crust.)

Teeth! Siena has popped one through and is working on the second. Being the perfect baby that she is, the process has been unaccompanied by any sort of crankiness thus far. One night last week she had a fever of 101.5 F, but you couldn't have guessed it from her attitude. Since then she's learned to take good bites (sometimes too big) of things like chocolate chip cookies, berry cobbler, cherries, and diet coke (sans les dents). Can you guess who let her have all those things? DAD.

Small white bump forming on her lower left gum. This was the first day sharpness could be felt and Siena spent all day running her tongue over the funny foreign object in her mouth.

Profession? I'm trying to start a small business all on my own...but it's slow going. Check out the beginnings.

Skill. Leaning in the same direction as cousin Zeke. They both started upright and eventually ended up in this slump.

(I love when Zeke points his toes like this!)

SOMETHING BORROWED

R&B's Towel. Shiloh and I forgot ours when we went to the pool on Sunday. It was a little breezy so we were verrrry thankful.

The whole pool crew, minus photographer. Luke is really into tickling these days, evidenced by the sniper hand going towards Siena and the mischievous "smile" on his face.

Daddy's first trip to the pool with his baby fry.

THE CLAW! (I was trying to get Siena to look at the camera. It worked!)

Psst. Nudie under the towel, don't tell!

Pool fro.

Pruney toes at their best.

SOMETHING(s) BLUE

Georgia's gum wad. She had her bridal shower last weekend at Alana's Cafe in Redwood City and had to pop a new piece of gum for every trivia question about Mike that she missed.

Mmm.

Cool recipe book from Mrs. Galliano.

Georgia opening gifts and sister Lexy (prego!) smiling on.

The instructions on the invitation were to bring a gift that Georgia should have because you can't live without it. Apparently this was a clever one.

Color of the day. After church on Sunday we rode our bikes down to Chipotle for lunch. We had a fun surprise encounter with Chris Sullivan (who happened to give Siena a BLUE shirt), which was fun. We made a stop in Central Park on the way home to feed Siena, and then it turned it into a photo shoot.

Glowing. Not from sweat or pregnancy (thank goodness!) but because I have some tricky little lightroom presets that make us look all shimmery. :)

These are my two favorite people in the whole wide world.

I love this picture because I look like I have a big bicep. Shiloh is always telling me I need to lift weights, but if I can keep finagling pictures like this, I won't have to!

And that's all for now. Thanks for reading! Check out the photography blog, and let me know if you'll be a guinea pig for my budding profession. :)