Spring 2012

Spring has been filled with many happy times and parties and gardening and flowers... needless to say, I love spring.  I have been absent from blogging for a while... but my adoring fans have inspired me to continue.  How could I not want to share some photos and memories with you all?  

This is Zeke having a smoothie.  This day his hair was sticking up all over, he had on a crazy outfit, and I thought his purple mustache just was ADORABLE.  Lately he is obsessed with spiders and how they are creepy and dragons are also creepy and he is always on the lookout for them.  He also enjoys acting like a kitty cat and will meow appropriately when asked any question.

This is my little buddy from down the street, Luke.  He has the blondest hair you ever did see and is always on the move.  I can't hardly catch him in order to give him a kiss.  I thought he was cute trying on a pair of high heels at the garage sale I had recently.

and best of all... we were able to see Beki get married yesterday.  She was lovely and happy and the couple looked at each other so tenderly that it about made everyone cry.  (it DID make me cry)  God was honored and they are happy.  Here are the Barreth brothers.  They haven't all been together in some time. :)

Beki and Jeff.

My girl.  Gwen was supposed to be the flower girl, but alas, she was in a mood and wouldn't do it.  Ah well...

My paper bouquet as a table decoration. :)

Kids

Taco Pinata

I am hosting a pampered chef party next Friday and the theme is "fiesta". I thought it would be funny to have a pinata the shape of a taco. I know... I need to get out more. Here it is. I thought I'd fill it with hot tamale candy and maybe a gift card to a local grocery store as the grand prize.

My wonderful husband knocked down the popcorn ceiling in the kid's bathroom... so the project is started. I feel like there are always multiple things I could be doing at any given moment. Most of it revolves around dishes, laundry or discipline these days!

Easter Pictures

Here's some pictures I took this afternoon. These are some new additions on our homestead. They are raspberry bushes and I'm sorry for the huge shadow... but they look like sticks anyway right now. Maybe we'll have raspberries!


Ben built a new planter for me. This time he made it taller so that the rabbits can't get in there and eat. I think it would have to be a jack rabbit to get in there this time. So, that makes 3 planters we have to plant veggies in.

Some Easter pictures I took of the kids... the day after Easter.


Real smile...

Posed smile...

I love this photo of Gwen. She has that same look of "knowing" on her face a lot... even when she was a baby. I call it the look of intelligence.

This first one is the dress Gwen chose to wear as her Easter dress this year, but we have so many lovely choices of dresses thanks to my nieces' hand me downs that I couldn't resist having wardrobe changes for our photo shoot.

But I Like It

This morning we were getting ready to go to MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group and I got Gwen dressed in this cute sundress and I told her to put on some shoes. She came in with one blue sock, one pink sock and black shoes. I told her that her shoes didn't really go with what she was wearing and she said, "but I like it mom." After I took a few seconds to look her over and giggle a little bit I decided to let her wear it. Aren't I a nice mom? :)

My two cuties. This afternoon it's the Easter photo shoot. We'll see how that goes.

Easter

Thanks to my fabulous Mother-in-law, Ben and I got to go on a date Friday night. We got these plastic spoons from a frozen yogurt place. We thought they looked like little shovels so we kept them for the kids. I know, you really needed to see these right? What can I say? Enjoy the small things.

No Easter would be complete without the rabbit jello mold. Here's ours this Easter.

I sang at church today and I made these hot cross buns to bring. I thought I overbaked them, but there were only two left, so I guess they weren't that horrible. :)


Look at this cutie that helped me with the jello rabbit.

I have no Easter pictures of the kids in their outfits... but will get some soon. I had to be at church at 5:30 this morning! After 7 services at our church, 150 got saved. That's what Easter is all about after all.

Paper Flower Bouquet

I know I've shown you guys this already... but I thought you needed a closer look. I spent so long on this thing that when I finished it today I said out loud, "it is finished." I have no idea how this will be used in Beki's wedding, but I am happy to say that my first paper bouquet is accomplished. I tried to keep the "something borrowed, something blue, something old and something new" theme in it. The something borrowed is a piece of my veil I wore on my wedding day. The something blue is the paper I chose with blue roses. The something old are buttons I got from Ben's Grandma when she was getting rid of some old craft things. Something new is the holder I got from Oriental Trading. :)



I like the buttons.

Completed

and almost completed... the paper flower bouquet.

Spring Flings

I don't know about you, but I get excited when I find an unusually large fruit.

We went to Ernie Miller Nature Center yesterday with our small group friends. It was a lovely day and the kids had a nice time walking the trails. Here is our beloved Andy sitting on a bench.

The kids were excited to check out this frog.



I love spring!

What's Up

I recently did a freezer meal exchange and made my mom's recipe for apple pie for part of my dinner. I felt like a true Amish person... except for I have electricity and an electric stove... but still.


This is one thing I've been working on. I'm beginning to redo Zeke and Gwen's bathroom upstairs and I found two frames at a garage sale that I bought. I spray painted them and put burlap in the background to hang as decorations above hooks for their towels. Right now there is a towel bar, but they can't really hang up their own towels on that. So I'm installing hooks so they can be responsible for their own towels. I plan on painting a wooden "Z" and "G" and gluing to the burlap so they know which hook is theirs.

My herb pots are all ready to go. Now I just have to decide what I'd like....

It has been such a warm winter and early spring that I thought I'd take a little chance with this crazy Kansas weather and put some things in the ground early. I'm going to wait a few weeks on tomatoes... but I really hope this year is a better year than last. I want my tomato sandwiches! Last year we had a problem of rabbits getting into our garden and having snacks. Well... Ben took care of that with this little fence. I hope it helps. I put in romaine lettuce, brussels sprouts (my new vegetable obsession), and broccoli. My kids LOVE broccoli and Gwen really likes brussels sprouts. I think Zeke will learn to like them.

I will try to be better about letting you know what is going on. I'm getting lazy when it comes to blogging... but I do enjoy looking back and seeing how blessed we are.

I think everyone should have their babies feet prints to remember how little they are. These are Naomi's. Love baby feet!


We tried shaving foam painting today. It consists of putting shaving foam on a pan and putting paint drizzled through there and letting the kids swirl it and play with it and then putting paper on top and lightly patting it and pulling it off. After it dries a few minutes you scrape it and the paint stays and the foam doesn't. We cut these pieces of paper into egg shapes to give to our friends.

Ben reading to "the gang".

Around Town Continued

First off, let me show you something interesting. This quilt was made by my Great Grandmother and is going on display in Nebraska soon. It actually has my Grandfather's name "Leland" and his birthday sewn onto it. My Great Grandmother had 12 kids and wasn't very educated hence the misspellings and backward "N"s. I must say my relatives had some interesting names. Riller? Codle? If you'll notice that Preston is on there. That's my mom's Uncle and who my brother Preston is named after. Let's just say my ancestors aren't exactly gifted in the quilting department. :)

Saturday mom and I ventured out alone and found ourselves at this little coffee shop. I've seen it before and said outloud, "I'm going to stop there one day" and I finally did. It used to be a gas station back in the early 1900's. I had a chai latte and it was like drinking a gingerbread man.


We also went to Pryde's Old Westport. They specialize in hard to find kitchen gadgets and items. Let's just say I LOVE IT and it is not for the claustrophobic.

I also love these whisk chandeliers in there!

In the back they have a pie shop where it is always "pie o'clock" they say and this stove is back there. We didn't get a piece of pie, but I had to snap a picture of this stove.