Just a thought

Oh how I love this little man.

He is a bundle of energy. A basket of kisses and hugs. A bushel of giggles and squeals. And an armful of cuddles and sleepy-time snuggles.

 

One day he will be too grown up to cuddle in my lap or to piggy back up the stairs and I want to make sure I remember just how much fun little kids are, so that when I no longer have littles in the house I don't regret not paying attention to all the fun we had together.

I am so glad Teagan saw the beauty in these feet prints of Garrett and Owen and captured them in a picture before cleaning them up. Muddy little boy feet print running down the hall will soon just be memories; so for now, they are my happy thought and not a frustration.

Really?

I know Washington is a wet state and all, but come on, does it ever REALLY get this wet that the fish need their own crosswalks? Signs like this are all over the place around here! 

Our new Mother's Day tradition

This year was by far the best Mother's Day that I can remember having! The kids all worked hard on getting along the whole day, so it was a day free from bickering, snapping, and teasing.

After church, and after a nice nap, we took a family drive up the mountain loop road and had a family hike and dinner picnic. 

It was a beautiful area, everything green and lush and alive. Moss was growing everywhere. Literally. I thought eating off a table covered in moss was a little gross and was sure Scott would agree with me, but my germ-a-phobe hubby was surprisingly amiable about it. (I still stood while I ate my sandwich!)

Garrett thought it might be fun to roast his PB and J sandwich over the campfire, and Emme followed right along. They both said it was delicious.

Everything was so much fun, but one thing stood out among the others and I told the kids that I wanted to make it a yearly Mother's Day tradition. After our picnic, we roasted mini marshmallows over the fire. You had to put 7-8 on a stick to get a mouthful, but it was so much fun! We were all giggling and laughing and having a great time roasting the teeny tiny mallows. And then the smell of the campfire was great, too. A definite family tradition! Garrett was so excited that one of his ideas was such a big hit and was immediately immortalized!

Tig says this is a bad video to post because it makes her feel "utterly lost" when watching it...sorry if I made anyone else feel utterly lost. So here is the explination of it: Scott was mocking me for how I like my marshmallows burnt instead of 'browned' and he decided to tape his mockery and my magical mallow wand. I hope that clears up an confusion or lost feelings!

Say Hullo to my Leetle Friend

 This is a Violet-Green Swallow perched on the edge of our roof outside of the schoolroom window. Isn't he pretty? There are tons of them around our neighborhood and they love to come out in the early morning and then again just before dusk - when the weather is soft and calm and all the little flying insects are buzzing around. The swallows dance through the air gobbling up all the pesky flying critters. They remind me of my favorite time of day back in Utah when the dragonflies and the house swallows would come out and dance as they ate mosquitoes and other buggies. I've spent hours watching the dragonflies and swallows, so finding a similar scene here in Washington was a tiny blessing for me. There aren't any dragonflies here that I have seen so far, but when the violet-green swallows dance, they also sing. So lately we have had the windows opened so we can hear them sweetly chirping as they fly by us.

The bigger kids and I will sit at the large schoolroom window and watch them dance through the neighborhood every morning. It was becoming a distraction during the kids' studying, so we changed our frame of mind and made it the main attraction instead. The two little boys are still too little to sit still and just appreciate our dancers, so they usually hang back and keep playing while we watch and listen. Dunks gets curious sometimes when the swallows chirp loudly near the opened windows and he will watch them intently for a few seconds before losing interest once more. That's what happens when you have the attention span of a goldfish.

I love the smell of sawdust in the morning

I also love working with wood. Making something out of lots of pieces. Feeling the buzz of the power tools. Can I  get an "Arrr, arr, arr" like Tim the Tool Man Taylor?

This weekend Scott and I made a 'minitainment center' for the school room. It's a term Scott just coined, so no stealing it! He made the box and I did the etching and sanding and then we both did the staining.

 He made it so we could hide the Wii and the PS2 in the bottom area and then there is also a little shelf under the tv for remotes with extra plugs for charging phones and cameras and such.

He did a great job on it and it so sleek against the wall. I love it! It was just a funny coincidence that there were exactly the right number of sheep on the screen when I took the picture. It's our whole family in Shawn the Sheep characters!