Mae is 8 months old!!

Where has the time gone?? This little peanut is growing like a weed. She had a check-up today and weighed 20 lb 2 oz and was 28 3/4 inches long. Big girl. She's crawling like crazy, pulling up, cruising.......I need her to slow down! She has 4 teeth and is happy to show them off. She dances and laughs and growls........she's such a joy. The kids are still so in love with her. What a doll.

Projects at our new house

Last week, we tackled a BIG project. We, o.k., I decided that I wanted us to move the playscape to the corner of our backyard and tear up sod and put a large mulched area around the playscape where the kids can play. Thankfully, my husband and father-in-law were on board and were more than happy to take on the challenge. That is, until they got about 30 minutes into manually removing sod at which point Lenn asked if I might call around about renting a sod remover. Without the sod remover, I think we'd still be removing sod. So once we rented that beast, things really got going. Unfortunately, Lenn had to work most of day 2 of our project so the majority of the 12 yards of mulch that were dumped in our driveway had to be moved by yours truly. Lenn lent us about an hour of help and Niko about 15 minutes (enough to be caught on camera!) and then Carl and I spent the rest of the day working like dogs. Carl was the crew chief and I was the grunt labor and we got it done. Evelyn took care of our kiddos while Carl and I tackled the project. The yard looks great!! (Oops......I just realized I don't have a picture of the final product.......just use your imagination!)

Happy Mother's Day

Yesterday was a wonderful day as we celebrated Mother's Day. Lenn and the kids took great care of me. Lenn gave me a really nice picture to hang in our new home. Lenn and the kids gave me sweet cards and a rose bush that Niko and Ella picked out. It was such beautiful weather yesterday and my dear husband managed to get the rose bush planted, with a lot of "help" from Nicholas and Ella. Ella would relocate each and every earthworm that Daddy found while Nicholas would help break up the dirt in the flower bed. He also loaded the chunks of sod into the wagon......big kid. Mae just watched it all from the exersaucer.

I am so incredibly blessed to be the mother of these 3 little souls. Thank you, Lord, for these precious children.

Cute Ella Pics

Ella got herself all ready for preschool (April 29). She wanted to leave her Hello Kitty socks on with her preshool dress and she put her little tiara on as we were ready to head out the door.

Ella getting ready for her performance with the 2's class. Miss Paula, her teacher, is getting Ella into position. The kiddos sang,"Stop, Talk and Walk with God."

This was the set for Ella's preschool program

Is there anything cuter than little girls with pigtails?

One pigtail picture just isn't enough!!

Trader's Point Creamery Tour

Nicholas and Caleb Hicks at Trader's Point Farm

Free range cattle

Nicholas and the chickens

On April 29, Nicholas, Mae and I went on a field trip to Trader's Point Creamery and Farm with our homeschooling group. This farm is all organic with free-range cattle and chickens. They make yogurt, cheese, ice cream and there is a restaurant on the property where they serve organic meals made from some of the vegetables and dairy products from the farm. One of the more memorable moments of the tour was meeting Dennis, the bull. He has 40 ladies that are gestating and he is quite protective right now. In fact, while our tour guide, Patrick, was showing us the cattle on the farm, Dennis put on quite a show by moaning and snorting and pawing the grass with his hoof. The only thing separating a testosterone-charged Dennis and my precious children was a thin electric fence line. Thankfully, he stayed put. The other high point of our tour was getting to sample the ice cream made there at the creamery. Yum.

Ella the Baker

Ella and I made cookies in our new kitchen yesterday. We both put on our aprons and got to work. She was so cute and was such a good helper. She's a professional taste-tester!!

Worst dog

We had our friends Sarah, Joshua and Ben over last night for dinner and playtime. Joshua happens to be afraid of most animals so we needed to put Nala in the garage while Joshua was here. We had not "dog-proofed" the garage yet since moving in but we put Nala out anyway and hoped for the best. Well, poor planning on our part led to one blue-faced Nala who had torn into the paint-laden trash in the garage. Thanks, Nala.