Our little Tess...

Tessa loves looking at herself in the pot lids...this is her most recent discovery. (Please excuse the hideous toe holding the lid still).


We love this little girl. It's wierd to imagine this time last year we didn't even know her!

A Strong Gene

Sometimes you have to find creative ways to boost your self esteem. Some families might take pride in their beautiful shiny hair, or fabulous lawns, or terrific singing voices. But in the Blake family we take pride in our long tongues. Gus has had the good fortune of inheriting this attractive trait that will be a great party trick for years to come. He may not place in the talent race, but...

California Dreamin' ...

The Davis County Batemans thoroughly enjoyed their trip to California this week. Here are some highlights...

We had high hopes that the beach would be so fun as to take up an entire day. Malia did enjoy it for about 15 minutes as she played with her mom and dad in the waves. The tears started when she came back to the towel and realized she was sandy and dirty and the more she moved or tried to clean herself off the dirtier and sandier she got. If anyone remembers her 1st birthday cake, it was like this. The girl does not like to be dirty! Her hair's covering her face in the picture, but there are some pretty big alligator tears...while Tessa is happy just being alive...so very typical! :)

Disneyland was by far the highlight! Malia loved Mickey and Minnie's houses. This was a chair in Mickey's house that Malia had a hard time leaving because she just wanted to sit and "watch a show with Tessa." (They had old Mickey movies playing on his little T.V.).

She may not like being dirty, but she does like making friends. This was a jumping "ride" at Knotts Berry Farm. She immediately found a friend to share in her glee.
Here's Darrin and the girls on the Safari ride at Disneyland...we were surprised how many rides we could actually take Tessa and Malia on. We had a great time!

Rub-A-Dub

Mount Ensign

A week or so ago we went up to Girls Camp at Mount Ensign (a beautiful area entering the Uintahs east of Oakley). Gus had the time of his life and was treated as a celebrity, since there were a lack of babies up there. We hope it didn't go to his head. One of the highlights was watching him play in the lake. We let him splash until his lips turned blue then forced him out.



He also demolished his first sucker ever. It was a berry flavored Dum Dum. How many licks does it take? Licks? Yeah right.



Dashing young man.

Bombay at the Blakes

Christy has been on an absolute tear of new recipes lately. This is fine with me, since she has developed a tasty homemade cheesecake, garlic lime chicken, and this firey little number from India: Chicken Tikka Masala. She backed off the spices by about 70% and it still got my attention!

Family Hike to Cecret Lake