It's the most wonderful time of the year...

In my opinion, anyway!

I know, I know, the rains are coming, but just for today, I want to enjoy the SUN, dream about my garden, and watch my kids find caterpillars.

Wyatt was giving this little guy some shade with a parsley leaf.
My friend's little boys often spend Friday's during tax season at our house while their mommy is working. They are great buddies for Wyatt and Anna, and had fun in the sunshine, as well.

Aren't they cute??

Putting the finishing touches on a "pumpkin" pie....

My guilty pleasure.

I wish for more days like this.

Hurry, hurry, Spring!!

I love Kindergarteners

Wyatt is a little sponge, soaking up information like crazy and making so many observation about the world around him. I love his age and everything about him. Here are some things that made me laugh recently:

1. "Mom, you should never think that Eskimo's are chubby, they just look chubby cause they have to wear lots of layers."

2. Me: Wyatt, do you want to play t-ball?

Wy: No!! Why would I want to hit a ball with a little skinny bat? That's hard!! I want to play tennis, because the racket is bigger and it would be much easier to hit the ball.

3. "Mom, why do girls have to wear that thing all the way around their privates? (referring to a bra)......is it because they want to look cool or something?"

OH, MY!!

V-day

I have a confession to make (in case you didn't already know). I married a man who doesn't cook. Thankfully, I love that chore, and would much rather be cooking dinner after a long day while he entertains the kids. Cooking is therapeutic for me and I'm so glad God thought to pair me up with this guy who will wrestle with the kids while I'm in the kitchen.

I shouldn't go without saying that Craig is an awesome BBQer and he can make a mean bowl of cereal (according to Wyatt). However the last time he cooked me dinner was approximately 12 years ago when we were dating in college, and he attempted a recipe for Spare Ribs. The recipe called for red wine and being he was about 19 at the time and didn't have access to red wine, he substituted the red wine for, get this ladies.......RED WINE VINEGAR. Lets just say ribs simmered in a cup of red wine vinegar end up tasting, well, very vinegary.

So, when he suggested that we cook together for our Valentines dinner, I was shocked, but also thought it sounded like a fun idea. I can't remember when or if we have ever cooked together....perhaps in our early marriage years when we didn't have little ones to entertain. We talked about making something fun, something we'd really like, but something the kids probably wouldn't eat since they'd be in bed anyway. We realized several years ago that we both love Thai food and we were given this humongous Thai cookbook (seriously 4 inches wide) which we have never made anything from. We decided on a pretty simple recipe for Cashew Chicken. After the kids went to bed we started cooking. I started coconut rice and Craig cut up the chicken. I chopped veggies and Craig stir fried. The end result was pretty tasty....I think we may be on to something here. I'm already pouring over this baby deciding which recipe we'll try next. I just had to take a picture to prove how ginormous this thing is!

Hope your V-day was lovely. I also got another personalized CD from my sweetie with a note explaining why he chose each song. I 'm sure I have already listened to it a dozen times. I love that guy, and his red wine vinegar. :)

my sweetheart...

Yesterday afternoon the sun was shining and we were in need of some fresh air. I was also overdue to take some 3 year old pictures of Anna so I snapped a few of her while we were outside playing in the yard. Here are a few of my favorites...

Annie is hard to photograph because she is contantly moving and doing fake smiles. The only way I could get her to act natural was to have her sing "Jesus Loves Me" and "Frosty the Snowman". It distracted her enough from the camera....here are a few silly ones that capture her personality.

I wanna cook with you mom...

(nice "smile" Anna!)

Cooking with mom can be anything from stirring pudding, putting dollops of whipped cream on the top of the pudding (and sneaking licks off the spoon), to dividing out fruits and veggies onto lunch plates. It can mean topping sandwiches with bread, adding forks and spoons to plates and carrying things over to the table. See, "cook" has a very different definition to a 3 year old. It can be anything you want it to be! Anna is my little cook in training everyday and it makes me happy to hear her say, "I wanna cook with you mom"



Thank you Ama for the apron you made. She wears it everyday!

Anna's first haircut

Saturday evening Wyatt and Anna were playing in her room together. He had a brush and wanted me to take her braid out of her hair so that she could be a princess. I said sure and though nothing of it. A while later I walked back down the hall to find Wyatt with a pair of scissors in his hand and a chunk of Anna's hair in his fist. I am very embarrassed to say how I reacted, but lets just say there was yelling, tears, and a worried husband rushing back to find out what in the world had happened. Wyatt claims he was trying to make Anna "beautiful princess" by cutting her hair, and Anna was crying saying that she didn't want her hair cut and to put it back. I was on my way out the door to pick up Will so I left Craig to deal with the situation, and it was probably a good thing because I was able to calm down a bit.

When I got back home and surveyed the damage I realized it was not all that bad. The section of hair he cut is underneath her top layer so it hides pretty well. However I was still kinda shaken up so Craig offered to call my friend who does my hair and see if she could come by and give her opinion. She was so sweet and stopped by, and agreed with us that not much could be done. But while she was here I decided to have her give Anna a little trim anyway since she has never had her hair officially cut (by anyone other than me). Anna loved it and I'm so glad I thought to pull my camera out and take pictures. She was giddy with excitement and it turned everything around into a fun experience!

And yes, these pictures posted in reverse order. And yes, Anna is really into the fake smile with squinty eyes right now. And yes, I knew I would be getting off lucky if nothing like this ever happened! And yes, I know I am really anal about my daughters hair.