enJOYing the little things . . .

Outside

is where the kids want to be. Can't blame them. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous. The sandbox, slide, teeter totter, dandelions and the "sticks" along the edge of our property keep them busy while they're in the backyard.

Here's a picture I took last week of the little guy hanging out underneath our kitchen table. Rocket finally took his very first step without any help yesterday. Shortly after, he stood up from the kneeling position and then took two steps. Go Rocket!

Yesterday we drove to Ronald's sister's house so the kids could hang out with their cousins, including the ones who are visiting from out of town. On the drive there we saw more than thirty cows and about a dozen horses! Ronald's sister only lives 15 minutes away from us. I guess we kinda sorta do live out in the country! No worries though. A Super Target is opening up out here very soon and it is only 4.8 miles away from my driveway. So really, we aren't THAT far out.

This past Saturday was National Scrapbooking Day. Here is one of the layouts I made for NSD, inspired by a fellow "Pea" (member) of twopeasinabucket.com. Layout created using elements from various digital kits available for purchase at Two Peas.

Finally!

The weather was perfect yesterday. Sunny and warm. I finally had a chance to get some photos of the kids outdoors. Since Rocket's not as mobile as the other kids, he was pretty much the only one who didn't mind being in front of my camera. You can see why he's our Mr. Smiley. :o)

I am still alive

Got caught up in a whirlwind of activities over the last month . . .

February 19, our baby turned ONE. Can you believe it? I'm still in denial, haha. Rocket's not walking yet, but that's totally fine by me. Still quite the happy baby unless he's hungry and boy oh boy does he scream when he wants food or his bottle. Definitely the loudest set of lungs in this house. And he has moved on to table food. Rice is his favorite. No surprise there. Right now he's got eight teeth coming in (canines and molars) and it's been a tough month. Our worst teether, poor baby.

Guess who else has a birthday. Our mischievous Clarkie boy celebrates birthday number three today! We'll be celebrating with deep-dish pizza at Giordano's, his birthday tradtion. We asked Clarkie what he wanted to do for his birthday and he said he wanted to go to the choo-choo mall (local mall with a kiddie train that he is too scared to ride, haha) and Target so he can look at the toys. Silly boy!

A few weeks ago we had a joint birthday party for the boys. Buzz Lightyear theme for Clark and Little Einsteins theme for Rocket. Just wanted to point out the shirt my sister gave to Rocket that he's wearing - it has a little rocket ship on it and says Rocket Scientist. How cute is that?!!

Happy Monday! Have a great week.

Boy Number 3

Congratulations to one of my closest friends who gave birth to her third baby last week. His momma brought him into the world with one mighty push. Lucky girl.

Happy Valentines Day!

Fourteen years ago, Ronald and went on our first date. He asked me to be his date to the Valentines banquet at the small private boarding school we attended for our last two years of high school. I can't believe we've been together for that long! That's almost half the amount of time I've been alive . . . but I don't feel that old! Funny how time plays tricks on you like that. Ha. Thirties - that's still young, right???

We had a really nice Valentines day! After being holed up in the house after what seems like forever (darn the sub-zero temps and all the snow we've had this winter), the kids and I finally ventured out of the house and met Ronald for lunch. Afterwards, Ronald went back to work and I took the kids to a local outdoor mall so that I could check out the goods at PB Kids. We needed the fresh air and it was 30 degrees out, considerably warm compared to the -3 degrees that it was several days ago. With Cadence and Clark, no mall visit is complete without a stop to the Disney Store and Build-A-Bear. Disney's having a fantastic sale - an extra 60% off clearance sale prices. I got a plush Cinderella doll and the matching fairy godmother for under four bucks! They'll be hiding out in the back of my closet until Miss Cadence's 5th birthday.

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On a more somber note - just wanted to say that my thoughts and prayers go out to the students, faculty and families affected by the tragedy that took place today at NIU. The campus is not too far from where we live and we know people that have graduated from there. So scary and so sad.