Favorite Past Times...

Roo's favorite past-time would probably be:

Jumping off the couch

Friendly's... Making messes and
cleaning them up
It was really cute. She was having so much fun ripping apart a foam egg carton. When she was finished I asked her if she could pick up all the pieces and throw them away...And she did! She loves to be a helper. She revels in being busy and having special tasks to do.I asked "Are you tired Friendly?" She said, "NOPE!" But she laid there for a good 5 minutes (an eternity for 19mos!) She went to bed about 15minutes later.
"Sensory Play" Beans and Rice, on a tarp in the dining room.
A favorite activity

Roo playing with blocks, another favorite activity. She has such an engineering little mind.
The girls "watering" the baby seeds. Friendly calls them "babies" and I'm hoping I can keep her interest and love at bay from my poor plants.

Friendly got a new big girl bed! Some one from church gave us a new full sized bed. Don't let the expression (above) confuse you...
She really was excited!! :)

Around the Home

Ryan's characters of our family...Why he made Friendly's head so big I'll never understand. Oh and it's with the "bath markers" on the shower wall. The girls like his drawings during their bath the best.

Okay so it feels like all these are pics of Friendly. But that's mostly because Roo hasn't wanted her picture taken... Or she makes grotesque faces. Gotta love being 3. :)
Coming in the house, the patio is a favorite place on nice days.
So Friendly dressed herself...a turtle neck and sundress (that had leggings but she took them off) I put on her... She added the pink shirt and towel bib.
See what I mean? Roo in the tent I made them.
Friendly playing in the tent...
We have a play tent (ladybug tent) but I guess home made ones are just better... They found this tarp in the laundry room and asked me to make some thing with it...Here it is! :)
Friendly eating a banana "with the handle" as Roo says.
Friendly wearing her big sisters underwear...On top of the clothes!
Roo's drawing of "Max" (the bunny) he's holding a balloon. SHE LOVES the magnadoodle best thing we've ever gotten and saves us on paper.

Puddles, Fish, Duckies, and Walks- Oh My!

Trying to catch up on life! This was from a walk we took the other week on a WONDERFUL spring day. We had so much fun being OUTSIDE!
Friendly got filthy playing in this puddle, this was actually at the end of the walk: she didn't mind!
I love this time of year, it isn't really pretty but you can feel winter ending and it is such a relief!
The view from "the statue". This is my favorite place in the world (not the statue but the park ;) )
Back at the duck pond (these pics are a little out of order) The girls were so happy to see their friends, the ducks! I think the ducks were happy to see us too.
Two little girls, very much impressed with "the big puddle". They were so sweet carefully following my instructions to be "very careful and not go in it, we're not wearing rainboots!"
"painting" with pine tree branches.Sitting on the bridge looking at the creek... This would have been a much cuter picture if I was a little further away, but I wasn't going to leave them sitting alone!

Friendly preferred to ride in the stroller. So funny how quickly they change, a few months ago she HATED riding.
Roo pretending to "lead the donkey" she pretends she's Joseph from her "baby Jesus" (nativity) movie. She replayed the whole trip to Bethlehem for me. :)
At the Fish Hatchery on a Chilly morning in late February
We haven't been back since last year when Friendly was just a baby. This year she was SO all over feeding those fishies. They had a blast, despite the chilly morning!
A family walk in late February. Friendly and Mommie sharing a little joke.
And this, we were all grinning at the camera...And then they noticed a stone on the ground. Story of my life. :)

And I think that's all.

SPRING!

I have a lot of catching up to do. I'll start with today:

This is what Saturday afternoon on a cool March afternoon looks like.

A little crazy! The girls have been very busy today.

And a Saturday afternoons work:
Diapers drying on "the line"..And my new pots ready for some veggies!
Roo lives in her "elephant" pajamas...Literally.
The "container garden" is *my* project this year. And of course the girls are going to help me. We're learning as we go but the hope is that this summer we'll be harvesting tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, and spinach- all from our front porch! I would also like to do a long skinny planter with some herbs (basal, dill and some mint: we'll see). We'll have to see.

We'll also be doing a BIG garden at my Mom's (as usual) with some squash, zucchini, brussel sprouts, peas, broccoli (i hope) and perhaps some carrots.

I love spring. Can't wait for our organic heirloom seeds to arrive so I can start my tomatoes and peppers!

Going to try to catch up from the last several weeks...We've been busy! And the girls don't leave me much time to blog these days, at all. :)

Hope Deferred

We lost our baby this week. We are very sad and disappointed. We were really looking forward to adding to our family. So excited to welcome an Autumn baby (I was due late October/Early November which has always been a dream of mine: it's my favorite time of year!). We still hope to add another little person to our family, we know it's not yet complete. But for now, our hope has been deferred. And we will wait on the Lord. He obviously had His reasons that an Autumn baby not be in our family at this time.

We are really looking forward to a busy spring and summer. We hope to get a pool pass to a local pool down the street from us... And spend as many hot afternoons at the pool as possible! We're really excited about that! I will also be keeping a friends newborn for about a month in late spring. My friend only has 6 weeks maternity and has to go to work back before her summer break arrives (she's a teacher). I feel so blessed that she would trust me with her newborn. And excited to get to snuggle a new baby all day- and send it home to a loving Mama at night! Best of both worlds. Newborn and SLEEP! This has been in the works for some time, and the thought of doing it while pregnant was daunting. I am relieved in that sense.

We will miss our baby always, but the peace we feel about the timing has been a great comfort.

Today we are going to enjoy the outside as it's acting like it's spring! I have quite a few "field trips" we've taken in the past several weeks and I really need to get them posted... More to come soon!

It's Magic!

We're not sure where Roo learned this trick, but one morning she was walking around in her PJ's and her hands were GONE! Where'd they GO? And then suddenly they'd reappear! She thought her magic trick quite tricky. And then Friendly picked it up.

Here's the video!

Baby...

"I'm having a baby....My baby and me....We're adding a branch to our family tree!"

-Ricky Ricardo

I'm a big I Love Lucy fan and that has always been a favorite episode. The client I used to take care of (before and after Roo was born) had it on VHS and we watched it quite often. It really is a sweet one. Lucy is trying to find the perfect way to tell Ricky about their new baby...But he's so busy opening the new club he doesn't give her the chance. In the end, the only way she gets the chance is to have him sing that song to some one in the audience...Her.

Our discovery wasn't so sitcomy... It was more like, "Why are you falling asleep by 8 every night? Hmmm."

Roo and The Test...In case you can't see: it says "pregnant"!

We are so excited about this 5th member to our family! Whose expected to arrive, if all goes well, some time late in the Autumn.

We'll keep you posted!