Croquet anyone?

What an adorable little creature she is.

Just thought I'd share how cute she is.

She loves to play outside.

2012 Garden

After our neighbor used his big tractor to till up our garden plot, Kevin planted the seeds. Last year, we did it as a family. This year he did it by himself. The kids helped with a few things, but I didn't plant one single seed. I guess I'll have to make up for it in pulling weeds.

Kevin worked with the kids to make these great marker cards. They picked out pictures from the internet, cut them out, laminated them, and stapled them to sticks. It really looks awesome. It will now be easier to say, "Go weed the peas," and the kids will be able to find the right row.

See what he did?!?!

Even though he hasn't been working at his new profession, he has kept himself very busy.

I already posted about the wood fortress he's building - 8 feet high in front of our house.

This past week he spent two days cleaning and organizing the garage.

He pulled everything out, cleaned, organzied and tossed some stuff.

It looks amazing!

He even hung stuff on the outside of the garage.

Talk about maximizing space!

Those two big brown spots are tables that were in the garage when we bought the place.

Now let's just hope we don't have a really strong wind blow through that pulls everything off the sides of the garage. Thanks for all the hard work!

Look what we got in the mail today...

I guess it's really official now... He has the paper to prove it. Congratulations to my husband for all the hard work! I don't think you can read it so I'll tell you that above the circle emblem at the bottom it says High Honors. Way to go man!

I live with scoundrels!

This is the conversation I heard between Marissa, Xiomara, and Kemiah...
M - Kemiah, are you going to paint after lunch?
K - Yes.
X - That's so cool! What are you going to paint?
K - In my painting book.
M - That will be so fun!

You think they are really talking it up and excited for Kemiah, especially since Kemiah asked to do it Saturday (but it was too late) and Sunday (she was able to paint for a little while). The rest of the story is that our friends came back yesterday and left their dog with us for the next week. So, in reality, they were not interested in her activities at all, but they were trying to make sure she stayed inside so they would have less competition for "walking" the dog - they hold the leash while they wander around the backyard with the dog. Eventually Xiomara did invite Kemiah to come outside and play with the dog, but there is a schedule and time slots so they won't fight.

Love this age!

She is so fun!
She is talking - real words!
She loves life!
We love her!

 Time to fly!

She just figured out how to do this.
Copying the other kids.


Kisses.

When she wants to give them.

It's time for prayer.

Fold your arms.
Bow your head.
Close your eyes.
Then she peeks with one eye. 

What a sweet thing.
Remember, they were all like this.
I love them all!

Garden labels

Kevin decided to make labels for the rows in the garden. We talked about doing it last year but it never got done. This year he showed the kids how to get pictures of the vegetables off the internet and then he helped add the names. Then we printed them, cut them out, laminated them and cut them out again. It was a learning expereince and they all enjoyed it. I'm sure they'll enjoy going out to the garden to weed, too, because it will be easy to know which row is what! He ended up planting the garden all by himself this year. The kids helped some, at first, but yesterday he was all by himself. The rain we had today will help the seeds germinate and then we'll see what pops up.Way to go Farmer Roy, M.D.

Yarn balls

I tried something new with the balls I make for baby gifts. I usually do the stripes in varying fashion but I tried putting a pattern in this time. I repeated the heart three times around the ball and it turned out really cute, if I do say so myself. Just thought I'd share.