Precious Moments: Cuteness

This blog is just full of cuteness!

One day last week we finally had a chance to go to Aunt Margaret's family's dairy to see the calves mainly, but we saw the "big" cows to.  Aunt Gert came as well because she just loves being part of the party--we sure had fun!

Brandon was the most tentative with touching the calves.

Yes, my focus is all off, but this picture is so typical of Micah.  Before he could
do anything with the calves he had to rub their feed on his little arm to feel the texture.
Then he was all about feeding the calves just like he had the horses at Uncle Aaron's house.

Brandon warmed up pretty easily once he realized they wouldn't bite him.

Emma is a little girl who has been coming to play at our house every day for the last
couple of weeks.  She wasn't tentative at all.  She had all kinds of questions and jumped right
in with feeding and touching the calves.

Love this picture with the boys and Aunt Gert and Aunt Margaret.

Exploring.

Oh look!  A hay bale!

Well of course we have to jump off of it!

Brandon was far more interested in the "big" cows then in the calves.

Did you know Jersy cows have terribly LONG tongues?  I just made your day complete, I know.

We didn't have much sun last week, but one day was quite sunny.  P52 theme last week was "Sun Light".  Micah decided that my plants needed MORE water (after all that rain) and took it upon himself to water my plant starts.

This is my P52 picture for the week.

A few plant starts did get crushed in the process, but what's a boy's discovery compared to that?

Such a little farmer with his boots and dirty butt!

Finally, here are a couple pictures from yesterday, Father's Day.  The boys helped me make lego airplanes for Daddy and Bumpa.  They thought they were pretty neat.

Micah was quite intent for a little while on doing this puzzle.

And that's a recap of last week for us.  We were rather busy and I didn't get my camera out as much as I would have liked--such is life.

Blessings on your week.

Projects

I've always got some kind of project going on, just not generally this big.  For a long time there was a stink in the house and we couldn't figure out the source until one day I smelled the carpet.  Coupled with Brandon's allergies to dogs and cats (two previous owners had both in the house we confirmed with the neighbors), it was time to replace the living room carpet.

The boys loved having two days to play in the living room with nothing in it.

Avid watchers--learning so Bob the Builder could do it too.

The painted floor to seal out the smells from all the pee stains on the boards.

New padding going in.

Piecing together

"Mom, they have LOTS of tools!!"

Life back in place--phew!  We absolutely love the new carpet.  We went with a slightly darker shade with a few more shades of brown in it so it blends well with all the different browns in our furniture/fire place.  I have a plan for that blank wall to the left, but just haven't had time to get it finished.

Another project:
I've been a "couponer" for about a year now and every Monday came home with a major headache and terribly grumpy from having to carry my binder, list, wallet, keys, boys, phone, etc...  I had been using my brief case from teaching to carry everything, but that was so heavy it pulled my neck all out of wack which made my headaches even worse.

A couple months ago I saw a coupon bag that hung on the end of the shopping cart and I knew that would be a good solution for me.  However, it wasn't big enough to carry everything so I designed and sewed my own.  After about two months of working on it on and off (more off then on really) I finally have it finished.  Yesterday I went grocery shopping and came home with NO HEADACHE and we were all happier because of it!!  I was thrilled.  I'll never go back to a binder.

The velcro on the front connects with velcro on the back to hang it on the shopping cart.

There are two sections.  The back section is for my folders of coupons.

The front zipper part holds all the other stuff--wallet, store cards, calculator, diapers, pen, keys, phone, etc...

Well, I've got kids digging in my cupboards for a snack so I guess my picture time if finished.  Good thing I'm caught up!

Blessings on the rest of your week.

Precious Moments: Muddy

Friday we had thunderstorms, down pours and blue, sunny skies.  During one of the sunny periods, before I could remind him to put play clothes on, Brandon was outside playing in the big puddle on the swing set.  "Oh well, washing machines are wonderful inventions!" I thought, and let him play.

Happy boy = happy Mama!

Catch Up

This is going to be a quick catch up blog post with a picture dump...

P52 has been happening, just haven't taken the time to post my pictures.  We've been rather busy and blogging/pictures have taken a back burner.  I'm hoping to get completely caught up today, though.

May 25 "Favorites"  This is my favorite picture of the boys kite flying.  I love pictures of little boys helping their daddys.

June 1 "Play Time"  Grandpa and Grandma got some good play time in with the boys the week they were here--indoors and out.

June 8 "Water"  This was a great theme for that week since it rained and rained and rained and rained.  However, it rained too hard for me to feel comfortable going outside and getting the pictures I really wanted.  One day it stopped for a couple hours, though it stayed pretty cloudy, so we quick biked to the park for a while and I played with shutter speeds with the creek.  I got to thinking about that log, though, with the chain on it.  Ever wonder what stories something could tell that's been there for a long time?  I kept wondering what stories that chain would tell. 

One night the moon was beautiful and the sky clear.  I loved the way it made my flowers really stand out.

It's June, so when it's not raining we are heading to a park.

Look who is strong enough to swing on a "big people's" swing!

Yesterday was wonderfully sunny so after grocery shopping we went to Elizabeth Park for a picnic and some play time.  That little boy behind Brandon also is Brandon.  It was pretty fun to watch them come to the realization that there were other people in the world with the same name.  They became good friends in a very short time.

Blessings on your Tuesday.

Grandparents

Living near grandparents has been such a blessing for us and the boys love being able to see them often.  Having grandparents that live far away also has an amount of excitement to it, though, and when they come and stay with us it is attention 24/7 and play, play, play--which the boys find extremely exciting and fun!

They were here for four short days, but we packed those days full of fun. 

Grandma's favorite place--surrounded by grandkids and books!

Building "together".  Brandon would put the legos on his taaaaaall crane and give them to grandpa for building.

Talking to his friend in Nigeria.

Grandma tells the "Candle Story" the BEST!

One day we went to the Children's Museum in Seattle.  It was extremely noisy from all the end of the year school groups that were there.  The kids had fun, though the adults walked away with headaches.

Micah wasn't too sure of the whole thing until he found the water.  Then he played with everything.

The boys' favorite room was the construction room!!

Brandon was ALL about dressing up with the right equipment and telling everyone
what they needed to do.

Micah allowed himself to be dressed up by his big brother, but wasn't sure what the
purpose of all that was.

Micah was far more into the actual building and helping to build.

I put two blocks on top of each other and he took over from there.

Brandon in the house he was insistent we build.  Mommy tried, but Daddy and Grandpa
had to take over cause it wasn't working very well.

Micah figured out how to put the screws in the holes.

This was fun to watch.  The boys put light golf balls in the tubes, pushed the button
and the air blew them all the way through the piping to the other side.

LOVE this picture!  They were all building a bridge together from two different ends to make it meet.



Brandon has really been in to maps lately, wanting to know where Nigeria is, where Grandpa and Grandma are traveling, where he lives, etc.  Here he and daddy are trying to find where Auntie Rachel and Uncle Al are right now.

Brandon also connected with the African area and went back there several times to
play the intruments especially.  It was fun to watch and warmed my Nigerian heart.

Grandpa and Grandma Nigeria left Friday morning.  We are looking forward to them being in and out of our house for the next couple of months.

Blessings