McKenna turns 3

We are so lucky to have my parents serving a mission just 3 hours from us.  They are working on a camp that the church owns.  The camp site is great but the accomodations have been lacking.  Until now.  My parents are there helping update the place, the lodge, the lake, the grounds, you name it.  It is looking great.  I don't think they could have a better set of missionaries than my parents. 

So are you wondering what this has to do with McKenna turning 3?  My sister, her family and ours, went out to celebrate the birthdays.  McKenna and her cousin, Nate share their special day together.  It was our first time out to see the place.  We sure had a great time.  Although, it will be A LOT nicer when the new cabins get put up with the A/C in them.

Alexa and Grandpa driving the tractor.  (Little did Grandpa know that Alexa would be hitting him up to let her drive it all on her own.)

Don't know what this is about.

It wouldn't be a party without Tim cooking the food.  He was loving the industrial kitchen with it's gazillion burners and the giant old walk in cooler (it was all wood.)  The birthday dinner was, of course, yummy thanks to Tim and mom for supplying the ingredients. 

A few of the party goers - Uncle Andrew and Grandpa.

Livie and the Birthday girl.

McKenna got that b-day hat at nursery and wanted to make sure and where it on her birthday.

She has the best nursery leaders and she absolutely adores them.

The birthday boy and girl

After the dinner and presents we came outside to have cake and ice cream, along with snow cones and fudge bars and whatever else the kids could get away with eating while at Grandma's.  Alexa did admit that she had a bad stomach ache the whole next day. 

On Monday we pulled out the canoes and played all day.

Alexa convinced Grandpa to let her drive the tractor on her own. 

(I knew he'd give in - it's hard to say no to this girl.)

We had to leave first and this is what we saw as we drove away.  You can't get the full effect unless you were sitting in your car backing out and driving away - they stood like this the whole time.

(You know I couldn't pass up this blog opportunity.)

We went back a month later and the place looks even BETTER!  Can't wait to go again.

Thanks for the fun.

Maya LOVES Performing

I'm sure I've mentioned that I have this VERY confident little girl.  She loves life and wants to experience it without any concern of what people think or say.  I can tell that she actually ENJOYS being in front of people.  She DOES NOT get that from her mom.  I do however remember an older brother of mine once say how he loves a captive audience. (And his name isn't Dave.)  Maybe that's where she gets it from.  Here is Maya at her dance recital. 

Maya is the bottom left.  Is she cute or what?

Maya told me after the recital that she didn't want to do it again.  After seeing her up on stage enjoying herself, I was surprised and asked why.  She said that she didn't like waiting around for her turn.  Just like I said, this girl doesn't want to be sitting around, she wants to experience life.

Now, if I can get my computer working correctly (i've been trying for a week now) I'll upload her 1st grade school play that she was in.  Hopefully I can get it to work soon.

A Kodak Moment

One of the blessings in my life is that when my children play, they play WELL together.  We can go for hours without fighting.  I'm not saying fighting never happens I am just recognizing that they do get along more than they don't.  Especially when they can pretend play.  Like right now, for example, McKenna is napping, Alexa is at Girl's Camp, and Olivia and Maya have been playing play dough for the past 45 minutes without a hint of disagreement.  Just lots of planning and pretending.  Love it.  Ok, All that just to show these pictures.  One day I found Maya and McKenna playing photographer.  Notice there is no camera.  They just got out the trip pod and made the "click" sound for the camera.  I thought it was too cute and had to take some real pictures of their pretend play.

Sewing the Seeds of Love

After 2 years of debating where the garden should go we finally have agreed (that's where the love part comes in - compromising.)  Here are a few photos of our experiences and a little of our harvest.

We decided to put it in front of our little "forest".  Here's where the comrpomise comes in - Tim wanted to cut 2 of the trees down and I didn't.  Well, I gave in.  Here he is chopping at the stump trying to remove it.  He spent probably a good 2-3 hours on each one.

I think at this point he was wishing he didn't get his way.

And here's what happens when you spend your day in the garden and not taking care of kids.  They run around like chickens with their heads cut off and hair flying everywhere.

The beginning of our planting.

Can this girl get any cuter?  She was loving running through the dirt.

The beginning of my daily ritual.  I am addicted.  I can't get enough of this garden.  I am out there every day sometimes 3 times a day. 

After a few drops of water and lots of sunshine. . .

Our first zucchini. 

 We have been eating it and giving it away like crazy.  Along with our cucumbers.

Yummy!  Grilled squash and zucchini - straight from the garden (well, after we washed it, of course.)

One day we came out and found this GIANT zucchini.  Thanks to my mom's suggestion and Tim's skills in the kitchen, we had a giant zucchini boat.  It was DELICIOUS.The girls loved it also which is always a plus.

We grew some pickling cucumbers just to try our hand at making some bread and butter pickles.

They turned out so yummy.  I also just learned a tip that if we plant some now they will be ready in the fall and be crispier pickles because they would have the colder nights while growing.  We might try it out.  If we do, don't be surprised if you get some pickles for Christmas.

We have tons of tomatoes growing, we're just waiting for them to turn red.  Bless their hearts, I'm afraid they're not getting enough sun.  (That last line was for you, Mare.)

Tax Day Tea Party 2010

On April 15th (has it been that long since I've blogged?) we went to our local TEA Party.

We had a nice time.  It was located on a large lawn area that was so nice.  We enjoyed the speakers and looking at all the signs that people brought.  The only problem I found (besides all the hateful rhetoric that Nancy Pelosi says happens at the tea parties) was that it was on a campus.  Last year it was in downtown Winston Salem where there was a lot of traffic of people driving by and walking around which caused for a lot more conversation.  With it being on the campus it was more secluded.

Here are some pics of our evening.

Two of our young patriots.

Eating our picnic dinner!

Livie decided to take a little nap in the chairs but not without doing her part with holding her sign up.

I loved these people.  If you look close they are wearing Founding Father's masks.  It was a mom and her two children.

I couldn't pass up taking a picture of these guys.  So many thoughts ran through my mind:

"We are definitely in the south."

"These guys are here to keep hold of their guns and religion."

"These guys must be the bouncers since these Tea parties get sooo CRAZY!"

I am sure that my dear friend, Jean can come up with a few more!

Raising Children

I was out in the garden earlier today and thinking about my little darlings and being a mom.  I'm so not one to come up with analogy's but this is what I've come up with.  When we planted our garden (and I am definitely NO expert) we tilled the ground, sewed the seeds and watered.  Everyday I go out to see what's happening.  To make sure that they are protected - that nothing has disturbed my precious plants.  We water and weed constantly hoping that our hard work will pay off with beautiful fruit and vegetables.  We don't know what the outcome will be - we may be successful and get produce or we may not get anything but we still work at it.  We get little hints of our success by seeing the blossoms develop or the vines grow larger or even see little tiny 1" cucumbers pop up.  Well, as I was tending the garden today I realized that it's just like raising my children.  I try hard to protect them, to keep the "weeds" away, to nurture them but don't really know what will come of it until they are grown.  But I am lucky to see some of the fruits of my labor every now and then.  With all that said, I have 2 little stories that make me see some of those fruits. 

1.  Olivia has always been our child that we have to try and keep motivated while doing chores around the house.  She really dislikes it and will hide in her room to try and get out of it.  Or she will take as long as possible to do the job all the while trying my patience.  A while back she had to clean her room (it was a Saturday so that meant she had to dust and vaccuum also) and GOOD clean the bathroom along with a few other chores.  She came bouncing down the stairs after doing those 2 chores (in a timely manner, I might add) and said,  "I worked really hard to get my jobs done, and I tried to do a really good job and I don't know why, but I just feel so good."

I loved hearing that.  I told her she was feeling pride in her work for a job well done.  I was so glad she could experience that and after all those hours, weeks, years of getting her to do her chores, she finally got out of it what I wanted her to.  Now, It's not like that EVERY time but I'm sure it will happen again. 

2.  We try to make sure and eat healthy meals around here.  We always have whole grain everything - pasta, bread, bagels, muffins, pancakes, rice.  If it can be whole grain, that's how we eat it.  We don't eat processed foods and Tim, of course, thinks it's a sin to buy sauce or anything like that bottled - it's got to be from scratch.  (Healthy eating does go out the window usually when there's company, then it's pretty much whatever tastes the best that Tim wants to make.)  So, all this background to tell you this little funny.  The other day, I went to my favorite grocery store, Aldi.  They always seem to have a screaming deal on just about anything.  A few weeks ago when I went shopping they had white bread for 25 cents a loaf.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  I battled with myself whether I should buy it or not.   "It's not healthy, but it's only 25 cents."  What to do, what to do.  So, I decided I would by a few loaves (10 to be exact) and put them in the freezer.  The girls could occasionally open a loaf or have them for french toast or something.  So  that night at dinner I told the girls I bought a little surprise for them.  They were pretty anxious to find out so I had to tell them it wasn't that big of a deal - I told them the good news.  Alexa and Olivia immediately started showing their enthusiasm.  Then after a minute or so, Maya pipes up and says, "What's white bread?"  After we picked ourselves up off the floor from laughing so hard I realized that she probably hasn't had white bread in YEARS and made me feel good that we have been trying to eat healthy for a long time now. 

It sure is fun being a mom with little experiences like this.

Busy Girl!

This little Girl is quite busy these days.  We can hardly keep up with her. 

Here are some pics of what she enjoys doing.

1.  Getting into the 5 gallon bucket of flour

2.  Putting on mommy's lipstick

3.  She's so busy that she can't even get all the way in bed when she falls asleep.

Easter Part 3 - Are you sick of it yet?

If you decided to still open this blog after seeing the title of yet another Easter post, I just want you to know this is the last one.  It was a marathon of a week but sure fun.  Lot's of memories for our family.

On our way back from the Outer Banks we stopped at my sister, Maren's house to have the annual Easter Egg hunt and a bar b que.  The kids really enjoyed the hunt and we enjoyed the visiting.  My mom enjoyed the fact that she is past the stage of her life where she has to fill Easter eggs, hide them, and prepare all the food. 

Here are the kiddos all waiting patiently for the hunt to start.

This little guy is my nephew Nate.  Don't you love that smile?

Here are the 2 sassy cousins.

Will and Livie

(Their Dad's sure did a great job hiding those eggs.)

Is he focused or what?

All that fun and the next day on Easter, itself, I didn't take one picture. 

Thanks for all the fun, family.  We are sure lucky.