3.28.2012

birthday girl

Happy birthday sweet girl!  It's hard to believe it's been an entire year since you entered our lives. You fit perfectly into our family and it's been a blessing to watch you grow and change. You bring such delight to our daily moments.  We celebrated your day with a picnic at the park with friends. 
When daddy got home from work we had fajitas and birthday ice cream.  You loved the flame on the candle and kept trying to grab it.  You licked your bowl clean (liteally!) and smiled and giggled at your brother. 

You've changed so much from that tiny baby I held at the hospital one year ago.  It was hard to envision the little person that you would become, but I can't imagine you any other way.  Precious and wonderfully made.

At one year,
~you are a walker, you haven't really crawled in weeks
~you love to eat and will eat most anything
~you are moody (but we love you for it), you are such an animated opinionated girl already
~you love to chase mason around, and be chased by him
~you have four teeth
~you drink from water bottles and sippy cups, but are still learning how to tip them up by yourself
~you love to move and dance and be tossed around
~you are fearless
~you have the best belly laughs
~you are daddy's girl and reach for him the most often

We love you more than we can express.  We look forward to the ways you will bless us this next year.

xoxo,
mommy

3.27.2012

gratitude

I've been spending a lot of time lately thinking about being grateful. My friend, Mindy, let me borrow this book and I just finished reading it.  It's a good reminder of how we should be living our lives.


A few weeks ago our pastor preached about the same topic: being thankful in all things.   Then, last night in the devotional book that Ryan and I are reading the author spoke about giving thanks and how the opposite of giving thanks is grumbling and complaining.  It's been good to pause and think about all the good gifts I've been given.  And by giving thanks in all things, I hope to begin to train myself to be thankful for even the things that don't seem good at the time.  And to give back in response to all I have been given.  Gratitude. 










Emma's messy face.


 Making our own noodles.

 Small successes with potty training and little undies!

 Small fingers planting seeds. 

Pretty brown eyes.

A new bread recipe, rising in the greenhouse.

We've been enjoying spring break around here!

We're heading in to town in a bit to mail my National Boards portfolio.  All 134 pages of it.  I'm thankful to have finished that up too.  We have a lot more planned for the rest of the week and I'm hoping to just soak it all up. 

3.25.2012

upgrade

Ryan and I cashed in one of our Christmas presents: a night at the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs, complete with a night of babysitting from the grandparents.  We had a wonderful time.  We spent all morning hiking near the Chalk Cliffs.  We had picnic lunch and just kept on going, with no particular path or trail in mind.  It was a beautiful day.  Of course I left the sunscreen in the car and got just a little fried.

After our hike we headed to the hot springs to enjoy the warm weather and soak for a bit.  Our room wasn't ready yet, so we just headed to the spa and sat for a couple hours in one of the cooler pools.  When they finally gave us our room key we were in for a bit of a surprise when we walked in....it was somebody's else's room.   At least that's what we thought from the looks of it. The beds weren't made and there were pillows and blankets all over. Turns out there was a little miscommunication between housekeeping and the front desk which translated to a poolside cabin upgrade for me and the hubby! 
It was pretty funny really, but we weren't  complaining.  It made the trip just that much nicer.  We unloaded all our gear and headed into town for dinner.  We went to one of our favorite pizza places (actually we like the salads there almost more than the pizza!), called Amicas.  Then we picked up some items from a bakery on main street for breakfast the next day.  By then the hot springs were calling our name again.

We found ourselves in the company of a really sweet couple for a majority of the evening.  We talked about kids, parenting, school, and small-town living.  They headed off for dinner and we stayed long enough to watch the stars come out.

After sleeping in until eight (I really don't know the last time that happened!) we hit up the hot springs for one last dip.  Then we went to our favorite coffee shop, Bongo Billy's, and spent the rest of the day at some antique shops.  We found a lot of fun items and actually have a few more things hanging on our walls now.  We are so thankful for that thoughtful gift from Ryan's parents. 

3.21.2012

daddy day

The kiddos hung out with daddy yesterday, and apparently Daisy too!  I was mentioning to Ryan that we hadn't taken very many pictures lately so he snapped a few.  I love that Daisy is so good with the kids  And I love little Emma in the background playing with the lincoln logs. 


It's great to know the kids are having so much fun at home while I'm at school having fun with my second graders.  We're right in the middle of writing bird reports (hello spring!), but it's been a little bit of a challenge to find and research 30 different birds.  We're learning so much.  And I love that they're slowing down and enjoying nature.  Happy spring!

3.08.2012

doing words

                                                        
One of Mason's new favorite things is "doing words."  He loves to type away on the computer. He figured out how to use the backspace too.  So he "clears it all off" when he's done.  He also tells us he has to "check is email".  He usually says this when we ask him to do something like clean up his toys or wash his hands for dinner.  He responds with "I can't, I have to check my email."  When it's time to stop doing words he almost always says "I have to count to ten first."  Then he types all the numbers from one to ten before he will get down.  Silly boy.

This is pretty much what I will be doing today too.  I got an extra day in my weekend since school was canceled today since our high school boys' basketball team made it to state and are playing today (go bobcats!)

The snow is falling. Bread is rising on the counter.  The fire is burning in the wood stove. The kiddos are tucked away at Grandpa and Grammie's house (until Sunday!) and I have a date with the comupter and my National Board assignments.  I'm hoping between the peace and quiet of today and tomorrow to finish it all up! Then I'll reward myself with a date night with Ryan and some time with my best friend over the weekend.