Trader Joe's Art

A beautiful picture in my eyes.

I just love the way the back of the van looks after our TJ's run. It's so colorful, wholesome & inspiring to me. I'm off to go cook. I will be making potato rolls, salmon quiche & baby food this afternoon.

It's All About Whose Team You're On

Ayla started this whole team mentality at our place. She quickly decides whose team she wants to be on whenever we have company & calls dibs. Only the "cool" people get to be on Ayla's team. Yeah that's right, my five year old is forming cliques already!

Improvements

It was hard to get one good photo in such a small space, but here is the new improved kids' bathroom. I was happy with the results of a few coats of paint. A face lift on the cheap.

I was debating on what to do to our patio so that it gets more use. Then Craig came home with a hot tub that he got for FREE! Can't beat that. Hopefully it will be operational soon......

Time Keeps On Ticking...........

and I just can't seem to get my blog updated. I guess that's good. That means we've been really busy actually living & enjoying our lives. Without further ado, here are some recent photos that try to encapsulate what we've been doing the past two weeks.

Craig spent a long weekend in North Carolina visiting his ailing dad. The day he got back Todd, Ina & Zhenya arrived at our place as well. Here are the kids enjoying Zhenya once again. We hadn't seen him since Todd & Ina left.

These first few photos are from Ina's phone. I thought this photo was just hilarious.....

This one is pretty funny too. Ayla rode almost the whole way to the cities like this.

I have a very similar photo from a year and a half ago. I guess we gotta add some silliness to goodbye or it'd just be too sad!

All together again.

Kaia had fun pulling Micah's hair while Todd was sharing some photos with us all.

Tooling around town.

So bored & unhappy when daddy was gone. This is a total daddy's girl. It's a good thing he doesn't leave us too often.

Anyway, these are just a few of the photos I have & there are many photo opportunities that I missed. For instance, I took no photos the weekend that Craig left & my mom & brother were here. I also have none from the following weekend when Todd & Ina were gone & our ministers were here. I just want to say that we enjoyed every minute of our week and a half of almost constant company.

And now, I've wasted far too much time posting this. We have more company coming tomorrow. I must get the house together a bit before then. I'm signing off now pledging to take lots of photos this weekend.

Forever In PJ'S

The kids do things like hold baby chickens & ride bikes in their pajamas. Then they can't understand why I make them put on a clean pair before bed. They also say their hands are clean before meals. When I ask them if they have been holding chickens recently the answer is always yes. "But, my hands don't look dirty mom!"

I'm glad my kids aren't the only ones that do odd things in their jammies. Yesterday we also worked in the garden, painted in the bathroom, worked on various art projects & many other things all in our jammies. It was the only day this week that we had no where to go, so why not?

I really wish today could be the same. Especially since we got nigh unto no sleep last night thanks to the youngest member of the family. The poor baby is so stuffed up. She is so sweet that we can't stay annoyed for long. And believe me it's pretty annoying to have a baby W I D E awake & happy most of the night. Yes, I know. Wide awake & crabby would probably be worse. However when you're trying to sleep & a cute little baby is laughing, smiling, pulling your hair, pulling your nose etc. it does get a bit trying. Oh well, bring on the coffee!

Photo Overload

Presented in a totally random order, some favorite photos from the last while.

Big brother trying hard to teach little sister to ride without training wheels.

Sleepy with Todd & Ina. I think Todd & Ina had been awake 22 hours by this point.

Aside from the sunspots I like this photo my mom took of us in her backyard.

Mmmmm, look at this juicy yellow lemon. I must taste it.

Oooooh, that was sour!

At the park with grandma.

At Chuck E. Cheese with grandpa.

Loving on Uncle Seth.

Enjoying extreme heat with Ethan & Dillon.

Our garden before we left. Also before a naughty rabbit snuck in & managed to eat some of our Brussels Sprouts. Luckily dear hubby knows how to take care of such things & the rabbit is now history!