live update

Something I never thought I would have to say: Timothy, penis' don't belong on the table

mother's day weekend

We had fun Mother's Day weekend. Our friends Lauryn, Jordy, and Baby Whit came over to visit from Victor, Idaho. It was Lauryn's first Mother's Day. It was fun to celebrate with another mom. You can see their account of the weekend here.
Charlotte remembered as soon as she woke up Sunday morning that it was a special day, and she wished me a "Happy Mama's Day". The mom's were served a delicious breakfast of waffles, strawberries, link sausage, and orange juice.
Over the weekend, Charlotte went fishing with real worms, that she loved holding and once again this year tried to eat :) She bit the worm twice and then decided against eating it.
We also had some fun with the camera, Timothy and I took pictures of ourselves cuddling. He insisted that after he lay on me for pictures, that I lay on him for pictures. He also pointed out the boogers in my nose-fuuuunnny!! He is talking so much. In the bathtub, Charlotte asked Timothy if he could say "Happy Mother's Day" and he did!!!!
Kuddos to all the Mother's out there-it is one hard job!!!!!

spring recital

Warning: Seriously cute little kids. Charlotte had her spring recital last night, and although she is usually one to follow along with the class something took over once she got onto that stage. Several times she boogied to her own drum-maybe it was the loud music, the decorations, or the curled hair, but she had a blast. And I had fun helping her class too.
Beautiful photos complements of Blair and Phil :)

oink, oink

 

 

 

We had a fun afternoon visiting some friends piglets recently.

 

I consider myself fortunate lately because C and T are still getting along really well and playing together great. I attribute it mostly to some maturity and patience on Charlotte's part. We also tried to emphazise with her how special it was to have a brother, and point out perks and benefits. Timothy has always loved and wanted to do whatever Charlotte is doing. And finally, she allows it! She gets into a mothering role and has fun helping him, directing him, and then playing alongside him. Of course after about 45 minutes someone is usually crying and mom has to intervine, but I consider that normal :) Ahhh-here's to a bit more sanity.

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?