Canal Walk Pictures (Pt. 2)

Canal Walk Pictures (Pt. 1)

Yesterday was a beautiful day in our city. We rested after church and then took the family downtown to play at the Canal Walk. This part of our city is such an interesting area of art, open green spaces, water, museums and people. The big kids climbed rocks, looked at flowers, played chase inside and around 2 amazing sculptures, collected roly-polies, watched kites and had an all-around great time. Mae just sat in the grass and took it all in.

I see a baby in a field of flowers......

Over Memorial Day weekend, Meemaw and Papa Carl took us to a beautiful patch of flowers growing wild in Nappanee. We took the opportunity to grab some sweet pictures of our kiddos.....

This is what happens when you don't share the brownies.....

My mom has been blessing us at least once a month with her out-of-this world brownies. I mean OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD. There are some things in life you can count on........the changing of the seasons, tantrums in 3-year-olds, and my mom's brownies. I have a major problem with these brownies........when they're around, I can't stay out of them. So Lenn has been complaining that the brownies are not being shared appropriately. In fact, when my mom dropped the brownies off today, she said that I needed to share them "equally" with Lenn. Define "equally."

So, tonight, Lenn had a brownie after dinner and then took the brownie container to the garage and when I couldn't find the brownies later (not that I was going to eat another one.......), this is what I found. Actually, Nicholas took me to the site of the brownies. What is going on around here? Had Lenn not married me, he would never have eaten the first brownie.....now he's holding them hostage from his dear wife???

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.