Happy Birthday Dear Cupcake!

Happy Birthday my dear sweet and sassy baby girl!  I can hardly believe how quickly one year has passed. Aunt C (I say that, but you have 3 aunt C's?) took these darling pictures of you.   I haven't seen all the pictures yet,  but they are too adorable not to share,  you are adorable!    

Traditionally I guess I should recount the year and all you've acomplished, but what really is most important is that our family is just so blessed and happy to have you and you help us stop and smile and laugh everyday by the simple things that make your life full. 

I could watch this a hundred times,  I watched it at least a dozen while I was waiting for it to upload.  I was inspired by, mimiced this after, a video my cousin did - I'm not even a fraction as talented, but I put this together last year so that family far away could be introduced I don't know that I ever actually posted it.

 Happy Birthday!

Nuts About Pecans

Yesterday was rainy,  like all day and sometimes you get really couped up,  but this time we had a little friend to entertain us.  This friend - we go way back.  Like we have seen this same squirrelly friend for at least 5 years run along our back fence almost daily.  We were shelling pecans the other day and left the bag on the patio table.  Well, we forgot about it,  but to this little squirrel friend of ours it was a treat.  For at least an hour we watched this little guy, come back and forth taking pecans.  We were in stitches laughing so hard about his sneaky tactics.  Poor thing was terrified when my kids would squeal that he even slipped and fell off the table once.  Anyway,  if its ever raining, and you're bored,  just watch for some little critter friends.

Before&After

Most of our project is finished.  I'm so grateful that Officer was willing to help with my honey do's - look how awesome that stand turned out!  I still need to actually decorate the room with s few detail-ish things,  I need to hit a couple new flee market places I've seen, but for now I'm just feeling a little spoiled - okay maybe a lot spoiled.  After having a washer not working for a week you can imagine the mountain of laundry I have and these babies,  I think I may name them considering all they do to help me out,  took care of the mountain in just 4 loads. Thats right you heard me,  4 loads - it's a beautiful thing.   

Sunday Afternoon

The picture in the middle was my view when I laid down on the grass to hang out with the kids this afternoon.  It was a beautiful day and my kids love to play in the back yard.  Miss Peanut was investigating all the ants and leaves today and experimenting with tricks on the swings.  I'm not sure how I feel about that -  I did too many things like that and fell off way too many times -  I really don't want her to get hurt.  Such a fun beautiful girl! 

 Check.  Him.  Out!  He is so, so handsome!  I just love him, at church today not so much - it was a wrestling match for most of the day.  He is just a little curious george and into everything!

 And this little princess is 51 weeks old.  Remember how when they are little you keep track by the weeks.  She turns 1 on Saturday!  I love that I can set her down on the grass and she doesn't go far because she doesn't like the feel of the grass on her feet.  Check out how she lifts up her feet to keep it off the grass.  So cute!

Laundry is piling up.

So,  we've been having a few issues with our washer and dryer and decided it was time for an upgrade. It's almost been 1 week without a working washer and the laundry is piling up  We bought a new fancy frontloading set and I decided that before they deliver them we ought to update the room.  We decided instead of spending oodles of moo-la on the pedestals we would make them and paint the room etc.  I got brave and decided I was going to paint the cabinets about the washer,  they are primed, but I'm still a little nervous about the paint part.    Check out the pedestal that my hubby made on the right side of the picture- he's got skills. It will look awesome when I'm all finished painting it!  Its going to take a little while to get everything back together. but here is the before and in the middle.

Isn't he Handy!

I love my phone,  it takes pretty good video and its so much faster to upload.  We break into song quite regularly at our house.  This next little number has been repeated many times in recent weeks.  Everytime I hear this cute little voice I melt just a little bit.  He's just so darling!

If you didn't quite get that or aren't familiar with the shows.  He is suddenly very entertained by Handy Manny and Bob the Builder.  We go to the library each week for story time with the kids and pick out some books (and a few shows to get mom through dad's work week).  Anywho - Handy Manny and Bob are his latest request,  every week. 

Spring is finally in the air

I really hope spring is here to stay,  we've had some crazy up and down temperatures lately dropping like 40 degrees in 48-ish hours.  The other day I left to run some errands and it was sunny and snowing at the same time.    The kids are loving being outside for hours!  We've gotten the start of our garden planted and we're excited to watch it grow. 

Backyard chalk art,  transfered to bootey,  love this  lovey girl! 

Daddy is a little disappointed that this isn't some Police hat,  but they only give out sticker badges,  what do you expect?  He really is dressed most of the time, I promise.

And this darling baby, is just not a baby anymore. She will turn 1 in just a couple weeks.  This is her enjoying yummy blueberry bran muffins, with honey butter.  You know you want some. 

We had a fun Easter weekend with the traditional Easter eggs hunt.  This is the best propped up camera shot of my cute family that we got after Church. Yep it was propped up in our shrubs.  :) 

 I debated whether or not to do the Easter bunny thing, we did that growing up for a lot of years.  In the end - Pinterest of course has so many simple activites and ideas to help teach the true meaning of Easter thats what I turned to.  So we woke up and Officer made scrambled eggs (His are truly the best - my kids will not eat eggs if I scramble them.  Handsome will eat 4 eggs when Officers makes them.)  Then we had a devotional/"studied" the scriptures as much as you can with a 4, 2, and nearly 1 year old before we went to church.  I used the 12 eggs with something to remind them of the Easter story and hid the eggs for them to find. They found them and mostly Miss Peanut recounted what each item represented.  I'm always so impressed by how much they remember. 

Trying to teach my kids,  obviously led me to reflect on my own feelings about Jesus Christ,  and his attonement for us.  This is one of my favorite Easter messages from  Jeffery R Holland,  I  love his words and always find it so difficult to vocalize my own love and gratitude for, and faith in my Savior. My words will fall short, but I have faith that through his Attonement we will have the priviledge of being surrounded by those we love eternally, and along the road that leads there, he will carry us forward in difficult times and testify to us of his love for us through the Holy Ghost.  We are precious to him, and that loving assurance brings me hope and joy.     

Keeping it simple

Listening to General Conference was just what we needed around here. How about you? It is has been a really great week in our house,  no real special reason.  We've just been getting out in the yard,  getting things ready for our garden,  spring cleaning, going on walks with the kids, kids playing until they are so tired they just fall into bed at night. There are plenty of exhausting days any other week,  but this week  it  has made me grateful for our simple life together.  I love my little family. 

She's walking.

And not just walking,  I mean really it was just a couple weeks ago that she started taking her first solo steps and here she is today.  She is on the move, she wants to keep up with big brother and sister and she gets her boogie on to any music, even my singing ;)