some art

I painted this a while ago and only just got ok with sharing it.

the scan is a bit off on the colors but o-well.

Happy Valentine's Day

photo by me

I'm a cute little muffin face

 and another because I can:

Family Photo Winter

have I told you we set a goal this year to take four family pictures? We did. So far we've done Summer:

thank you ben for taking this one for us!

Fall:

and sweet rachel took this one for us on Gray's blessing day.

and today we did our Winter:

photo by Kolt. location decided by me. oh yeah.

We went up a few weeks ago and there was waaaay more snow. Good thing we decided to go today. might not have snow for much longer. And we even saw some mountain goats! No joke. it was nuts.

So yeah. I totally suggest taking on four family photos this next year. We started with summer but only because that's when I got the crazy idea.  We're displaying them in a big grouping on our wall. Perhaps if we keep up with it we'll just rotate the new ones in. I dunno. haven't got there yet...

Preschool week 5

preschool sorta took a hiatus last week. but we had some good weather and a few trips out of the house so it wasn't really needed either.

This week we're playing catch-up.

E is for Egg




I've been saving my eggshells for about a week now, washed them out and let them dry. Today I gave them to Des and told him to go for it. And he did. And he loved it. I really hope he doesn't translate this activity into breaking the whole eggs we have in the fridge (and counter. Our chickens are egg-laying machines with this nice weather. Eggs anyone? Farm fresh so you don't have to refrigerate.)
After he was all done crushing them, I had him wash his hands well, which turned into "I wanna wash my hands all by myself and you leave, mommy." Which is Des for, "I wanna play in the kitchen sink unobserved." But luckily, we're cool with that so he was happy.
We also played a game of "find the letter E" where I cut out some letter E's and hid them around the living room. 
And now I've shoved him outside for some quality time with nature. So far he's stolen his neighbor buddy's bike and come back to yell, "MOMMA! MOMMA! MOMMA!" through the front door.  Good times.

an impromptu birthday cake

sometimes things get a little silly around here. like when des decides he wants a birthday cake with candles (his uncle Todd is having a birthday cake tomorrow) today and I say OK. So we make a cake. and put on candles. and sing happy birthday. and the two year old is the happiest little guy ever.

Tell you what, it sure does take the pressure off baking a cake for a birthday when its only a pretend birthday. uneven layers? meh. cake not entirely cooled before frosting? we like it gloopy anyway.  :D

and those specks are strawberry chunks, not cake bits. not that the cake was professional by any means but you know. I have my limits. also note the fingerprints in the heart design on top. At one point he even put his mouth on the cake when it was cooling. shhh don't tell. I mostly just giggled (then kindly reminded him to NOT put his mouth on the cake. others were going to eat this too. to which he ran away crying. *sigh* it was nap time.)

Happy groundhog's day.