The perpetual smile.

That's Ryder, the boy with the constant smile.  I love it.  He can make me smile....even when I don't feel like it.  It's so bright, so inviting, so cheerful, so blissful.  How can it not make your day?

My silly little girl.

The kids were playing out back the other day and Addie decided to ham it up for the camera. How do you like her "throwback" pink jammies and snow boots?

Such a bundle of energy......maybe I could borrow some......

The first harvest!

Yesterday I noticed the radishes were poking their little red bodies from the dirt. The kids came running to see and proceeded to pick our "first harvest" from the garden!

Here they are:

These guys went a bit rogue:

Our lettuces are coming along well too!

Here is the red chard:

I must admit....I have no idea what this is....:

The romaine, my favorite lettuce:

The broken bits you see with the lettuce are egg shells. I read a tip that they can stop certain creepy crawlies from eating/getting to your tender greens. It supposedly slices them right up......let's hope it works!

@ the Dinosaur: and how does that make you feel?

The kids were happily digging in the sandbox for hours the other day. The weather was perfect, a light breeze with beautiful sunshine and they dug away.

Finally, they came inside to show the me the dinosaur bones and teeth they had found. "Look mom! We are being psychologists out there. Look what we discovered!"

Trying to hide my grin, I said, "Oh, you're being archeologists, how fun!"

"Yeah mom, archeologists. It's so fun, we want to do this forever!"

Here are some of the psychologists, I mean, archeologists finds:

I found myself imagining them out there talking to the old bones; asking about their childhood, what their friends were like and how all of that made them feel.....



*Check out mom's bag HERE!

From sick to sunshine.

From this on Valentine's day:

To this (this morning with our 70+ degree forecast today!):

Our little girl still has the sniffles and coughs, but it was good to see her swinging with brother this morning on the "star cruiser". With the black boots, she looked like an old man out of the 1800's with long underwear on. I love the expression on Gage's face in these shots, the kids loves to swing while making it look death-defying!

Now please, sickies go away and sunshine come to stay!

My Mountains.

There are few things on earth more beautiful than the mountains. When you are away from them for a while, you forget there magnitude, their glory, their call to come explore. My brother-in-law, Aaron, has said he doesn't know what he would do if he didn't live near some mountains. "How would I know which way I was going if the mountains weren't there to guide me?"

I woke early the morning before we left and watched the sun rise above the mountains behind the home I was raised in. All of those years as a child, I don't think I ever noticed a sunrise. Of course, I was still sleeping. But us kids would get up as soon as the sun's rays pierced our bedroom windows.



We always headed to the mountains. In part to procrastinate the impending school work mom had for us, but mostly to explore and create. We carved trails hiking up that mountain, made gum trees and forged a lifelong bond with one another. We laughed, rarely argued (we saved that for inside), and let that fresh mountain air fill our lungs for as long as we could hold mom off.

The sunsets I remember. When their beauty was breathtaking (which was often), you could look out the front window and see dad just standing there. Taking it all in. Enjoying the amazing moment that was created for, what seemed like, just us.




In my heart, though, are those treasured, early morning moments spent playing outside. Digging massive caverns in the mountainside for our fortress. Fully equipped with bathroom and all. Dad may never know where all of his tools are, but one day, some great archeologist may find them and rejoice with his link to the past. History. That's what we made on those mornings.




I often tell people, I never lived in the city until I was married and moved away. The city is convenient in ways, with grocery stores and shopping centers only moments away. But mountain living runs through my veins and deep in my roots. I will forever treasure my time with them.



My precious memories are a mere glimpse at the beauty of what is to come beyond this life. Thank you, Lord, for the sneak peek.

Look no further.

Than outside, that is. Oh, the inspiration these kids provide!

I'll give them creative.

My sweet neighbor has lots of ivy that loves my fence. Since I love my neighbor, I trim it back on my side just enough to get the mower through without walking into spider webs (they love the ivy). It's quite a big job and I didn't have enough time to finish trimming the length of the fence, so I left the pile cut of vines to bag when I finished the next day.

Here, let me show you what it looked like:




Then, I cut it:



And put it in a pile to bag the next day:



Now, you would think with four kids, I might think twice before leaving large bunches of cut greenery just lying around. Especially the type that could, um, I don't know, take root and spread easily and aggressively.

But really, who am I to stand in the way of creative minds. Ashlynn does love plants and making things pretty. And then there's Ryder. A boy needs to be able to tie knots and attach things to other things....right?

Homey, isn't it?

Really not sure what this was. He did have his spiderman costume on, so, I have no idea...


Must give props to the detail:



Some sort of weaving going on here. Maybe we're headed for a thatched roof. For that matter, maybe my children were born in the wrong century...



Gage and Addie spent their time dragging vines back and forth across the lawn. Maybe next year I'll be mowing ivy too.

MIA

Sorry for my absence of late....but, it's been seventy degrees and gorgeous here! Somehow, I just can't seem to drag myself to the basement and blog, check my email, facebook or really do anything that would require me to be indoors. The kids and I have been basking in the sunshine, planting, weeding, watering, biking, walking, playing on the swingset, going for ice cream and fishing (well, the kids and daddy anyway).

Did I mention we have a new roof? This has been a total answer to prayer and something that we have needed for quite a while. Two days of more noise than you can imagine and voila, a beautiful composite shingle roof. Goodbye wood shingles, you will not be missed, nor will the silver fish and spiders that love you.

Hope you all are enjoying these glorious days of spring, catch you soon!

Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Moe......

What I should be doing:

What I want to do:

We'll see how good my self control is today.....

Outisde!

We have experienced some unusually warm weather for the last couple of days and have enjoyed every ray of sunshine and warmth! Today we are back in the thirties, but yesterday's seventy is still very close to my heart :-).....

Ryder, according to his words, as a "sloth".

The only way to get a shot of Gage-in ACTION!

Her second time in the toddler swing outside!

I see you!

We've had a couple of really nice days around here and have been spending every minute outside. The kids are so happy to be swinging and sliding and just plain running around the yard. I've been trying to sneak in some yard work (pics of that later) while they play, so let's just say we are all tired at the end of the day!

Outside!

Ashlynn & Toad


Gage Enjoying the lawn


Ryder and his toad

With the nice weather, we've been outdoors just about every waking moment of the day. Ryder and Ashlynn caught their very first toads (yes, they are two different ones!) out front this evening. Ashlynn stated, "maybe they are husband and wife", it was very cute. Ryder had the bigger toad and was getting a little panicked as it tried to jump out of the net. Thanks to Auntie Paula for the nets, they finally were used for their actual purpose instead of as a toy carrier :-)!!

I set Gage on the lawn and he LOVED it! He just kept running his chubby little fingers through it like "what's this mama? I like it!".