our eggs

 

 

 

 

Well, here is our final product. Some beautiful Easter Eggs if I do say so. I decided with help from a wise friend to wait until the kids could appreciate that we are coloring eggs with food ---- so maybe next year. This year for sanity, I used brown eggs and regular-old store bought dye. We got some beautiful colors that way.

I had visions of egg salad sandwiches-however the kids had other ideas. As you can see they were eager to eat their colored eggs, and they each polished off 3-5 a day. It only took a couple days and the eggs were gone-not enough time for me to make my egg salad.

Charlotte kept asking "Why are we going to die eggs? Why would we do that to them?" So,we had to be careful to say that we were coloring eggs. She is beginning to learn more about death, but I don't think she yet realizes that it is an irreversible change (at least for the physical body).

Timothy is full of words! It is amazing. He can count to three and he knows a couple colors well. He certainly is developing into a little boy. I admit I still want him to be a baby-I love our cuddle time together before he goes to bed. I don't ever want that to end. He and Charlotte are playing together so well lately-it has been fun to watch.

If any of you out there dyed eggs with natural dyes, I would love to hear how it went.

sibling smiles

 

There are more of these times lately.

natural dyed easter eggs

Here is what we will be doing tomorrow morning.......

Circus

We had a blast at the Children's Museum Circus celebration :)

fun with food

 

 

 

The kids and I had fun creating and eating these bizzy beaver snacks!!

divide and conquer

Divide and conquer seems to be the best way to deal with sibling rivalry around here. One kid with one parent --it has been nice to get time alone with both kids. Timothy and I have had some great walks in our warm weather lately. One of our favorite things to do is walk 2 blocks and see the neighbor's horses. They are super friendly, sometimes a little too friendly for Timothy.

ballerinas

Here is Charlotte in her ballet class. She loves it. Next week I am teaching her class-so we will see how that goes. Thanks to Blair for all the great pictures :)

the littlest cowgirl

 

 

 

 

Right now Wyoming is having its Winter Fair and last weekend we headed up to the indoor arena at the rodeo grounds in Lander to watch the horses compete. The kids had lots of fun. They see lots of horses, cowboys, and cowgirls. They got to pet a few horses. And Charlotte made a couple new friends: a little cowgirl, Cassidy, and 3 Winter Fair "princeses". These 3 girls were the royal court at the Fair, complete with hats, boots, buckles, those ribbon banner things stating their title, and lots of sparkle. Charlotte insisted on sitting next to them and had a big time. She was the littlest cowgirl there. She even made the front page of The Lander Journal!

papa gets a trim

 

 

At our house, Mama cuts everybodys hair (except her own). And this day, Papa sure was feeling daring to let some little hands help out.

girls day

 

 

 

 

Last weekend Charlotte and headed to Dubois with friends for a girls weekend. What fun we had. We hit the road Saturday morning while the snow was flying. We made it to Dubois with constant commentary and questions from little Miss. We ate a relaxing lunch and headed to Deception Creek for some Cross-country skiing.

With all the new snow on the ground the going was laborious. Luckily, I had several friends helping me pull Charlotte in little red sled. It was peaceful, quiet, and just what I needed. After 2 loops we headed back to our cabin, for some yummy dinner and birthday celebrations with friends.

Charlotte has asked me every day since if today is a girls day too :)

three year old in the house

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLOTTE!!! She is 3 (or was on the 16th). We had a fun day and a fun week. MiMi and PawPaw have been here spoiling grandkids. Charlotte had so many presents to open it was a whirlwind. She has finally now had time to really sit and play with all of them,and it is nice to have some new toys around the house to occupy her time.

Charlotte at three is a creative and sometimes defiant little girl. She is extremely loving and cuddly, when she is in the mood. She has strong opinions about what she wants, color of clothing, cups, bowls (all pink), how her toast should be cut, what size utensil she should use, and how quickly someone should respond to her demands. Oh boy-we are working on manners and calm voices.

She is still into tigers and now sharks too, they are like her imaginary friends chasing her, being bad and needing to be scolded. She has gained quite a motherly instinct and loves to be the Mama. She often tells me that she lives in another house far, far away and that she is the Mama there. She has also developed more patience for sharing things with her brother. Which means we have had a little less sibling rivalry around here lately and more cooperative playing.

She loves art projects, playdough, and coloring on the windows. She draws people complete with eyes, mouth,arms,legs, and hair. She loves reading and would be content having someone read to her all day. She is inquisitive and I love watching her mind grow. I cannot wait to see how she grows over the next year.

Happy Birthday my sweet girl :)

 

I was just browsing through some recent photos and found this sweet one of Timothy at Christmas. I love when he cares for his baby, it makes me smile and realize that he is already practicing to be a great father some day. He has not been doing as much baby care recently, and so it makes the moment in this picture even more precious. His favorite thing to push in the stroller now are his trucks.

oddity

 

What is wrong with this picture? Snow and ice cream-bbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

priceless

Conversation at my house yesterday between Charlotte and Mama:

C: (sitting at the breakfast table) where are we going today?
M: We are going to story-time at the library and then to ALCO to get some things.
C: What are we getting at ALCO?
M: We need to get some more soap for the dishwasher.
C: Oh, for Papa’s dishwasher?
M: (smiling inside) yep, for Papa’s dishwasher.
C: Where is your dishwasher?
M: (now laughing inside) Papa is my dishwasher.
C: Huh?
M: Papa washes my dishes.
C: Oh, we need to get him some soap!

He he he he he he he he

i spy

 

 

What fun we have been having with the deer in our yard lately. We came home a couple days ago to find this doe staring right into our breakfast nook. She stayed for quite a while, staring back at the kids and then eating under the trees. The next night she brought back 5 of her friends while we were finishing up dinner. The kids had a blast and Timothy was not pleased unless everyone had there noses glued to the window. If we left the window, he would come get us insisting "'mon, 'mon, dee" (or c'mon, c'mon, deer). We even got to watch 2 bucks sparing, and a coupleof the deer bedded down in the snow and were still there when I went to bed that night.

I still haven't quite figured out who is on display, them or us?

IPSSSDR

 

 

 

What an envigorating morning we have had. We drove up to South Pass (check out the web cam-that place is wintry) this morning to watch the beginning of the second stage in the International Pedigree Stage Stop Sled Dog Race (IPSSSDR). Inspiring it was. So much excitement, beginning with Charlotte the entire 30 minute ride there asking all about it and mostly "are we there yet??". Really she talked the entire way. She also looked at one of our favorite books on the way there: Togo. The book is based on a true story from 1925 and is about the famous sled dog Togo who led his team 300 miles across Alasksa in January to bring much needed Diptheria serum to the town of Nome. She was sure we were going to see him at race and insisted that we were goint to his house. She even got Timothy mumbling about it.
As we neared the start line for the race the wind picked up and the snow was blowing across the road. Reid and I were getting nervous that we would drive all this way and not even be able to get out of the car. We were skeptical and even Timothy was saying brrr, brrr.
We arrived and luckily found a very close parking space, we bundled up, stepped out of the van, and were greeted by a chorus of barking dogs. It was windy and snowy, but everybody was happy and excited. Charlotte eyes were darting back and forth between the teams looking for Togo.

-We watched people running here and there with the dogs.
-We watched the mushers hop on the back of the sleds.
-We watched the dogs getting harnessed up and led up to the start line.
-We watched our friends Sandy and Jerry take off with their dogs.
-And we visited with the dogs that were staying behind for the day.

As cold as it was, 45 minutes was about all we could take of the cold blowing snow. We thought we were heading off a kiddo melt down by leaving before anybody got too cold. But as soon as I made tracks towards the van, Charlotte began crying. She wanted to stay, she wanted to go with them, and she wanted to see Togo. She was definitley not satisfied by our brief visit and was not convinced that we really saw Togo. Truth be told, I wish this event were more than once a year, I would have liked to have stayed longer, I wanted to go with them, and I wanted to meet Togo too. Maybe Charlotte and I will sneak back there this afternoon to wacth them cross the finish line for this stage of the race.

blogspired

I admit I have not been very blogspired lately. Here is why:
-dealing off and on-mostly on with sick kids.
-dealing with the stomach flu myself for the 2nd time in 3 months (finally better today), but now I have pinkeye for the 2nd time in 1 month!!!
-dealing with a spacebar on my keyboard that barely works.
-dealing with 2 jobs.
-and then-
-loving my family time
-loving my alone time
-loving dreaming of house projects, wall colors, organization, etc...
-loving being more distant from my computer

so hang in there everyone, I will be blogging, I am just looking for some more good inspiration , oh I mean blogspiration.

Mr. Timothy

 

Still a goof. He loves to do whatever his sister is doing, and loves to antagonize her at the same time. His is saying more and more all the time. He is still on one syllable words, and he can just about make any word you say one syllable. He tries to say everything you do, studies your lips, repeats, and will ask you to say the word over and over while he keeps trying to master it.
Some of his favorite words lately are: trash-he will find a piece on the floor-easy to do around here-and take it to the trashcan. I love the eagerness!
deer-while looking out the back window for them.
bus-we see lots of school buses on the mornings that they go to daycare
truck-any large vehicle is pretty darn exciting
plane-he has a serious ear for them flying over
wa-that would be Ava
hhhaathat would be Charlotte
ju-juice, hi, bye, nigh-nigh
the list goes on and on....
He was also having some difficulty with hitting-well we were all having difficulty with it-kids fighting, parents dealing-it was hard. He was really taking pleasure in hitting his sister in the head, banging his cart into cabinets and people, and well just hitting and banging everything he could. After a few weeks of time-outs for uneccessary roughness, the aggression has lessened much to everyone's pleasure.
Lately he is extra cuddly, and I am soaking up all I can.

Miss Charlotte

 

 

Charlotte sure is full of spunk lately. She is just talk, talk, talk. She will talk your ear off at the dinner table or anytime she has your undivided attention. She still loves playing the little mama to all her babies, animals, friends and parents-really anyone who will sit still for a minute and induldge.
Oh boy and this girl loves pink. I tried hard to push any color but pink for the first years of her life, like purple-what is so bad about purple??? Nope, all she wants is pink (don't get me wrong-I like pink-just not everyday head to toe). I am swallowing my own opinions and preferences and letting her choose her own clothing each day, as long as it is weather appropriate. Now I think I am left to find the cutest pink things I can and hope that it doesn't last too long.
Today she had her first ballet class. From the moment she woke up she asked every 20 minutes "is it time to go to my dance performance now?" She loved every minute of it!

enjoying

Here are some of my favorite things that I haven’t had time to write a post on lately-so I am grouping them into one big post and I hope you will enjoy them as well.
Making new socks anti-skid by applying puff-paint. We have plenty of hardwood and linoleum floors that are super slippery, and poor Tim-O is still getting the hang of running around in socks.
Charlotte’s new people that she loves to draw. A big face with eyes, mouth, nose legs, arms and hair-precious.
Making my children’s clothes-here are some pants I made yesterday, sock monkey’s for Tim-O and cashmere pants from an old sweater for Charlotte.
Handmade Christmas presents-teepee, toolbelt, and felt flowers (sewed onto the vest I knit Charlotte). Flowers pictured here, the rest pictured on the Christmas post.
Kids playing together happily.
And last, but certainly not least-really cute baby bums!!