little orchard

It's been a long week.  Two funerals in one week is pretty overwhelming.  One for a good friend and school employee and another for a student.  It felt really good to get outside in the sunshine on Friday and hang with the kids.  I mostly just want to hug them and never let go.  Here are a couple pictures of them waiting to plant our 8 apple trees.  While daddy was augering the holes they "planted" some wood trees and measured the logs.  

These are the only pictures I took before the battery died.  They loved helping to water the trees, play in the mud and shovel dirt into the holes.  We're learning the ins and outs of trying to maintain fruit trees in our zone 3 climate.  Sort of a learn-as-you-go kind of thing. 

Now it's snowing.  Gotta love Colorado.  

spring break

We're enjoying the tail end of spring break over here.  Our week has been filled with all sorts of good things.  Like having time to make doughnuts for breakfast. 

 

A little spring cleaning has been done...checking things off the list.  But mostly reading books, building tents, playing cars, dressing up dolls, and taping papers up in our "offices." 

I've bitten off quite a few knitting and sewing projects and am probably staying up too late. But, that's what spring break is for I suppose. 

meet Indie

Somehow the last month just sort of went by in a blink and here we are in the middle of May.  I've been missing documenting the little day to day happenings here on the blog, but my days have been filled with lots of things besides the computer (unless you count the many pages I've been typing and scanning to finish up my National Boards). 

 

 

Plus...we've added a little puppy into the craziness.  Here's Indie.  She's such a sweet dog and we've been having so much fun (mostly) playing with her, training her, and waiting for her to start sleeping through the night.   

 

 The kids love her, especially Mason.  Emma has finally stopped screaming every time she so much as enters the room.  Indie follows Mason everywhere.  It's pretty cute actually. 

Daisy's loving having some company.  She even makes her way into the kennel some nights and sleeps with Indie. 

Only one more week of school!  We are so excited for summer.  Hopefully it will be easier to keep up around here too. 

her umbrella

 

A girl and her umbrella. 

Now we're just waiting for some rain!

butterfly birthday & easter

We spent the weekend celebrating Emma's birthday and Easter.  Emma's party was sweet and fun.  Emma was a little overwhelmed by all the people and was pretty quiet through the whole thing which was so unlike her.  She had fun opening her presents and Mason tried his best not to help unless she asked.  

 

 After the party cousin Karly stayed and helped all the little cousins dye Easter eggs. 

 Jackson couldn't quite get enough of the dirt! 

It was so fun celebrating together with my sweet family. What a gift Christ has given us through His death and resurrection. 

baby chicks

Look what arrived in the mail yesterday.  Twenty-seven little chicks.  Mason just couldn't believe that we got a box of chicks in the mail.  Emma won't leave them.  We have to start saying goodbye a good five minutes before we actually have to leave because she has to tell each one goodbye.  

Mason wasn't so sure about holding them at first, but after seeing Emma's excitement he decided to join in.  

We got six different kinds (red ranger broilers, buff orpingtons, brown leghorns, barred rock, partridge rock, and araucanas) but it's a little hard to tell them apart right now, excpet that some are yellow, some are brown with stripes and some are almost all black.  There's lots of peeping coming from the garage and we're staying busy checking on them.  It's a good thing we have such good helpers!

cousin week

Ryan's brother and his family spent this past week with us while they were on spring break.  Mason and Emma had so much fun playing with their cousins. And Ryan and I loved some adult conversation with some of our favorite people. 

 

There was never a dull moment. We crammed in as much playing as possible. 

 

We cooked. 

 

 We played the piano.

We filled our arms.

 We built and flew wooden airplanes with Uncle Luke.

 We planted seeds in the greenhouse.

We read books.

We celebrated birthdays and satisified our sweet tooth with these. 

 We blew bubbles. 

We made Easter cards with Grammie.

We did play-doh. 

 We watched movies. 

What a blessing to get to spend time together.  We can't wait until we can see them again.

weekend

A little weekend picnic with some of our favorite people. 

of fishing

 On Friday we decided at the last minute to pack up the car and meet some friends for a couple hours of fishing.  It was a little chilly and windy when we left our house, but it was lovely at the lake. 

Emma enjoying the sunshine!

Mason fishing with Uncle Tim

In big news....Mason caught his first fish!  He wasn't quite sure what to do with it, but after we let it go he couldn't stop talking about it.  Nikki had been catching all the fish up to that point and Mason kept exclaiming, "I caught a whole fish!  Nikki shared one with me!"  Way to go, little guy!

weekend work

We're busy enjoying the weekend!  We've spent as much time outside and in the greenhouse as possible.  We've gotten a lot done, yet it seems like we've had lots of time relaxing together.  I've cleaned out and rearranged kitchen drawers and cupboards (much to Mason's dismay), made bread and granola, studied for my National Boards test, done lots of laundry and tried a few new recipes.  I love time at home, with no plans inparticular.  Time for impromtu picnics with Grandpa and Grammie. Time for movie night and chocolate with Ryan.  Oh, sweet weekends!