Our Saturday

Although it's occasionally nice to stay home and do nothing, after a winter of not being able to do anything, we work to find activities on Saturdays that get us out of the house and doing unique family fun things. This Saturday we started with the Lowe's building project. If you are not doing this - start! It's free, monthly (sometimes more often), and the kids love it. We go to both Home Depot and Lowe's (sometime there's paint and it's permanent - just a friendly warning when getting dressed :) The only down side is what to do with all these wooden projects that just clutter the house, but still worth it. After our baseball toys were completed we headed to a nearby farm to watch their spring sheep shearing. We paused under a tree for a picnic lunch. It was such a relaxing day! It was interesting to not only watch the sheep get sheared but to touch the wool coats (they were soft and thick and coated in good-for-your-skin lanolin). They also had people spinning the wool into yarn. And here's our buddy Zeke getting a lesson on combing the wool before you spin it. Check out this hat made from the yarn. And my favorite part of the day - watching this lady spin angora directly from the rabbit! I should have taken video so you could see how she just grabs tufts of fur and spins it into yarn. Now isn't that an interesting and useful pet! All in all, a very fun (and even educational) family outing. Now what to do this Saturday?

She's a year and a half today!

I could talk about how fast time flies, and how sad I am that she's growing up. She's doing all kinds of big kid things like running, coloring, and comprehending everything! But my Jill is still a baby in every other way. She's bald. She doesn't talk much. She loves to snuggle. She's small. She still nurses. I feel very much like I still have a baby, and that's a good thing!

Happy half birthday baby girl!

Happy Spring...Happy Birthday!

For the first day of spring, we spent the day with our Georgia cousins. What makes this day even better is that it's my sister, Tara's birthday (we also celebrated Isaac whose birthday was the week before.)Georgia did not disappoint with a beautiful, warm and sunny day. A perfect day for playing outside...all day! (Nice catch, Andrew!)

Happy Birthday to my Andrew!

Happy 6 squared Birthday Andrew!

Last year at this time I was in California with the kids. Andrew was back home in Georgia...celebrating his birthday alone. Okay, he has friends and they took him out but still, I felt bad that we were not with him that week. So this year not only are we together but we traveled to North Carolina to be with lots of family! We spent day one with the Longs where we had homemade cake and a German chocolate cake.Then we enjoyed dinner out - adults only - at a yummy Greek restaurant complete with baklava cheesecake for dessert.

And then today, on his actual birthday Andrew got to enjoy Palm Sunday at church. (Aren't these some handsome men...just don't look at Adam's shoes :)

And his big sister Janice made him his fourth cake!Happy Birthday (and happy cake eating!) Love you, Andrew!

Jill wants to BE Cocoa

Jill loves our dog, Cocoa. Somehow these two have developed quite the relationship. This is a good thing because Cocoa is much larger than our petite little Jill. Throughout the day you can catch Jill rolling over Cocoa, grabbing her face, or resting against her back. Cocoa is super patient, and it's very sweet to watch them.

Jill also enjoys feeding Cocoa (we try to prevent this because Jill eats the food, as well, and makes a big mess in the process but when it happens it's so cute that I just had to catch it on video).

What I still need to catch on video is Jill drinking out of Cocoa's bowl. She gets on all fours and laps up the water just like Cocoa. And her latest trick - Jill and Cocoa like to play with ice cubes. Whenever I open the freezer they both come running. Jill grabs 2 cubes and gives one to Cocoa. The other one she puts on the floor, and then getting on all fours, proceeds to push the ice cube around on the floor licking it and laughing. This game truly grosses me out but again, really cute :)

one week

Last Tuesday school was cancelled because of snow. Thrilled, the kids built a snowman and threw snowballs into the street. Today, seven days later, this was our family out in the sun basking in this gift of spring to come. We opened our windows. I even started unpacking shorts and t-shirts from the kid's closets as today showed me how close those days truly are! Rain is forecasted for the rest of the week but we enjoyed enough sun and warmth today to carry us through. Even took a rest in the shade.The kids lovingly picked flowers for me (Beth says I look like Minnie Mouse :) Praise God for spring!!!

She did it...all by herself!

I started this post the day it happened (Dec 23); yet, here it is months later and I haven't posted it! Sorry, Beth!

I said as soon as Jason learned to ride a bike back in September, that Beth wouldn't be far behind. I blame lots of travel and rainy weather for the fact that it took her 3 months. But today she just decided after our walk to put her helmet on and try - all by herself. I didn't even notice she got her bike out as I was getting Jill out of the stroller (they often ride scooters or play outside after walks). I eventually glanced out of the garage into the cul-de-sac to witness Beth riding round and round. I screamed! I was so shocked, not that she did it but that she just up and decided to do it all on her own and did it! So now we have two bike riders (who both learned without us running behind them:) Now if Andrew could just get a bike and a double trailer we could have some family biking fun!