Little yellow flowers

I have written who knows how many blog post in my head over the past year... and none of them have made it into a post.
Just over the past week I have really felt the pull to get back to blogging.
So here I am putting my thoughts into words.

Here is the story of The Little Fists Full of Flowers.
Yesterday my Littles came running inside, each holding a fist full of flowers.
'Here mom. We picked these for you.'
My heart just melted, like it does so often.
Their choice of flowers were what many chose to call weeds but to them they were the best gift that they could think of to give to... ME.

What my two Littles did not know... I had been watching them over the past few minutes, running around the yard picking every flower they could find.
As I watched them I had the biggest smile on my face.
They are just so amazing.
When the came running inside to show me their gift, I think my smile got even bigger.
I filled a jar with water and placed each hand picked flower into it.
Each flower was very unique and picked with love.

As we drove by a large empty field that evening The Little Man stared out the window in AW.
'LOOK mom. Look at all those flowers we could pick.'
Yes son life is full of flowers you can pick. You just have to have eyes to look for them.
And not only do you need eyes to see them but you need to reach out and grab them.
And when you have them its best to give them away with love.

Childhood play

I might be strange but I just love to watch my kids play.

I never know what kind of adventures they will go on.
It was so cute to watch them play playmobile together today. They packed up the motorhome and truck and went camping. They even took the little plastic people where they had never gone before... into the backyard.
I just love to over hear them talking through these people. Changing their voices for each person and using sayings that I find myself saying often.

Who knew that I would find such joy just watching and listening to them play?!
Being a mom is a true blessing.

Five

Yesterday The Little Man turned five.
My baby boy is five. One whole hand.
The Hubby spent the day with him and even went to school with him. The Little man was super excited and enjoyed every minute of it.
When he got home I surprised him with five balloons and card.
We had already talked with him telling him that we were going to do cake and gifts on Saturday.
We even let The Little man pick out what he wanted for dinner. Thanks to advertising he decided to we should have a big box from Pizza Hut.

Tonight both of The Littles are spending the night at The Inlaws.
This is my first night I have ever spent away from The Little lady.
I know she will be just fine but it just feels a little strange.
Tomorrow The Hubby and I are headed out to one of the local neighborhoods since they are having a huge garage sale.
We have gone out to the sales a few years now but this will be our first time venturing out with out kids.
It should be fun.

So I better take advantage of my night to myself and get off the computer.
I will leave with five pictures of The Little Man.

Sunshine

Spring in the Pacific Northwest can be all over the place.

Today there were sun breaks, showers, down pours and even hail.

We met some friends at the park this morning. The weather was looking good.

The Little Lady spent most of the time on the swing but came off long enough to stand under the tree while the rain came down. The Little Man and his friend were not really fazed much by the rain. It just added to their fun by creating mud.

It was so nice to get together with a friend that I have not seen for way too long. She even greeted me with a great big hug that lasted 2 minutes.

Soon the rain was coming down in buckets and we had to part ways.

Then it seemed like we spent the next few hours in the car.

We seem to be spending more time in the car but hopefully soon the car will be able to stay parked and we will be able to get out and walk where we need to go.

Until then cars are a great place to take pictures.

These pictures we taken on Saturday when the sun was shining and sunglasses were needed.
Oh sun I know you are still there but its so hard to see you through all of these gray clouds.
Maybe the rain will hold off long enough tomorrow so we can get some seeds into the ground in the garden.
I am glad that my two Littles can me my sunshine's.

Getting our hands dirty

It was so nice this weekend. We finally got out and took care of weeding the garden.
I did not do anything with the garden after the fall harvest so it was a little over grown.
Before pictures-

Good thing I had two eager helpers.
The Littles had so much fun exploring the dirt. The worms and slugs were their favorite. The Little Man also had fun filling his dump truck full of weeds.
After pictures-

Now I just need to fluff up all the dirt and add in some compost and it will be ready for some plants.
I am thinking of doing mostly a salad garden with carrots, radishes, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, broccoli, peas and green beans.
My oldest brother is is doing an amazing job on the garden over at the lake house. We were over there today planting broccoli, carrots, spinach, corn and zucchini.
I am looking forward to spring and summer. Today does not really feel like spring since it is so cold and overcast. I guess I packed away The Littles winter clothes too soon.

Paint me a picture

I asked The Littles to paint me a picture while I did the dishes and started dinner.
Most days I will let them help me with the dishes but today I just wanted to get them done without a gallon of water on the floor.
I moved the easel into the kitchen and I let them go to town.
I did have to lay down a few ground rules before they started.
1) Both children had to share the painting space (no fighting).
2) The paint is to stay on the paper (no painting your sibling).
Then they were off to paint me a picture.

I did not realize until I took this picture that The Littles were both picked out striped shirts today. I had nothing to do with the matching stripes. Both kids insist on picking out their own cloths and putting them on by themselves. Even though one little two year old needs help to get the clothes on the correct way most of the time but when it does not really matter I just leave it. Tonights pajama shirt is on backwards but its all good.
If there is an outfit or shirt that I want either one of The Littles to wear on a given day I have to do a little prep talk a few days before or otherwise I am in for a huge battle.
Back to painting.

Not long into their painting The Little lady was off to the bathroom to get a stool to sit on. The stool brought up rule number 3) Share the stool (dont push).
Before I knew it I was done with the dishes and The Littles were done with the painting.
There was no fighting, no pushing and no water on the floor. Win, win, win!!

They were so excited to show The Hubby the painting when he go home from work.
I think that they did an amazing job working together to create this work of art. Now to find just the right spot to hang it since The Little Man checks the recycling daily to make sure his artwork is not in there.
But this is much to beautiful for the recycling.

Birthday fun on the farm

Our family went to a birthday not long ago where everyone had a great time on the 'farm'.
First of all you cant go to the party with out bringing a little something for the birthday boy. I found this pattern a number of years back but I just never got around to making the pattern until I got the invitation to this party. Now I think I might just be hooked. The pattern was easy to follow and the end result was amazing.

I see myself making more of these in the future.

My favorite thing about the apron is the Velcro for the back strap. It makes it easy for the kids to take it on and off without having to ask for help with the strings.
I think that the birthday boy liked his gift and I have a feeling he will he wearing it often in the kitchen helping his mama.
While at the part The Hubby got some ink.

He may of been a little chicken to get the chicken. HAHAHA I know thats a corny joke but I just had to post the picture of him
The Little Lady found a chicken of her own.

She saw this blowup chicken when we first walked into the party and it was love at first sight. She kept asking to see it. I finally gave in and she played with it until we left to go home.
She even took it for tractor rides around the room.

Both of The Littles had a great time at the party and even came home with cowboy hats.

Now The Little Man has a new hat to wear when he plays Sheriff.
Watch out there is a new Sheriff in town and he mean business!!

Thawing out

The snow came this week and now it is almost gone.
We ended up with about 6 inches or so at our house.
The Little Man enjoyed playing in it but The Little Lady did not like it very much when it got deep.
The Little Man liked sledding but The Little Lady cried and just wanted to be held when we were at the hills.
When we we not out enjoying the snow we were inside staying warm and thawing out.
The cloths rack set up by the fire worked well to keep all of our snow gear in one spot. Everything was all nice and toasty by the time we were ready to bundle up again and head back out into the snow.

We also drank too many cups of cocoa to count to help stay thawed.

I have been using this recipe to make homemade hot cocoa powder that The Littles just love.
2 cups non fat dry milk powder
3/4 cup sugar (powder, regular or cane sugar)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 powdered non dairy creamer (try Ripped Cream Coffee Creamer to avoid the hydrogenated oils)
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
Mix all ingredients in a quart size mason jar and shake or stir. Mix two or three scoops in with a mug full of hot water and enjoy. Add a little whole milk to make it extra creamy or cool it off for little hands.

Nature has been doing a great job the past few days thawing everything out and creating amazing ice cycles that The Littles enjoyed collecting off of the truck.

This afternoon most of the snow has melted and out outside temp. reads 44*.
Goodbye snow. You were fun while you were here but I am not really sad to see you go.

Enjoying the winter weather

Sunday morning we woke up to a light dusting of snow. Not much but both kids were excited.
It snowed off and on most of Sunday and Monday and we got a little bit more today.
The Littles enjoyed getting and playing in the white fluffy stuff.

They worked together today to make a snow castle. As they kept adding more and more snow to the castle it changed into a snow person, says The Little Man.

The Littles were able to go out in the front and ride their power wheel quads in the snow.

The Little Man did a great job of driving his quad all around. He told me today that he will be ready to get his drivers licence soon. We will see buddy.

Once The Little Man got off of his quad The Little Lady was right there to climb on. She thinks that she can do anything that her big brother can do. Not so fast little girl, you dont need to grow up any faster.

I even remembered to take the camera off of The Littles long enough to get a picture of The Hubby and me.

The weather men and women are saying that there is lots more snow to come. Its supposed to start snowing tonight at 10 and not stop until tomorrow afternoon. They are thinking 10 or so inches in the next 24 hours and 3 feet in the mountains.
Winter weather is finally here and we are going to enjoy it.

First day of the new year

I have been neglecting my blog lately but I am guessing that you have noticed that,
I kept telling myself that I will post tomorrow or next week. Then as the new year got closer and closer I just said that I would post on day one of the new year.
Well day one of the new year has come and gone. Here I am fourth day into January posting. Better late than never, right!?
Sunday was a new day and a new year and the weather was beautiful.
We got dressed and ready for church.
The Little Man saw how beautiful the weather was and wanted to ride his bike to church.

He is always full of great ideas.
The Little Lady is working on her two year molars and not feeling so hot these days so she just stayed close to mama in the Ergo on the walk.

On one of the blogs that I read she does a photo on the first of the month of her kids. So I decided I was going to do that also and maybe it will help me to get a few 'good' pictures of the kids together. So maybe when Christmas comes around again I have a few 'good' ones to chose from. So here is my first one...

Not bad and not great but it captures The Littles on the first day of the new year.
Loving it.

Picture outtakes

Taking pictures of kids takes the right kind of person, and I dont think that I am 'that' kind of person.
Christmas is creeping up and I still have not put together cards. If I cant get a good picture of them both here soon I might just have to use one of these.
Here are the best of the worse pictures over the past week.

 Brotherly love= head lock.

 I just love it that I now have two kids that like to 'cheese it up' for the camera.

Those are my Littles and I love every moment of them!!!