forever friends

My boys love sleep overs. Every weekend they beg to sleep together on Bubu's big bed on the bottom bunk. Brothers are great forever friends. :) Often they turn the bunk bed into a fort by hanging sheets all around it. They read books together, giggle and talk. Sometimes they get a little too loud and need a reminder, some times I have to send them packing to their own beds, but for the most part they just have awesome sleep overs. 

The other night after the house had finally settled down and I heard no more whispers and giggles I snuck quietly into their room to turn off their little light... and this is what I saw...

It made me giggle. I'm not sure what sort of game they were playing but it apparently involved hanging their stuffed animals up. They were all zonked out, and there dangled their stuffed animal by an arm, a leg, or a tail. If there had been a breeze they would have been swaying in it.

I took a few pictures and they just slept through the whole thing, wore them selves out I guess. :) I wonder how long they will want to have sleep overs and if it will be a fond memory for them. I often wonder what their relationship will be like when they are older. I hope and pray they will always be this close.

Sigh. They are so stinkin' cute when they are a sleepy like this. 

deliciousness

Our first batch of fresh organic strawberries from the yard...

 And what else to make except fresh berry sauce to top our home made whole wheat muffins with! So good!!!

And totally unrelated to strawberries but still really awesome was this amazing bouquet of flowers from the garden, wow did it smell good! It topped all bouquets to date, never have I smelled better! I was sad when it was gone.

 Now back to strawberries. :) Here's another sink full...

And another, plus fresh eggs from our chickens. I love the feeling of self reliance this gives me, even if I am only scratching the surface of what that means. I wish I could dive head first into it, but at least we make more and more baby steps in that direction every year. 

Oh yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, here is yet another sink full of strawberries. :) 

And here they are in their natural habitat... ;)

All red and shiny and ripe for the picking!

 And this is what I did with most of them. First I washed them and cut off any nasty parts and the greens, then I let them dry on a towel for a bit, then put them on cookie sheets and put them in the deep freeze over night. The next morning I took them off the sheets and put them in freezer bags for storage and plunked them straight back in the deep freeze. Best way to freeze them because then they don't stick together in one big blob and you can just shake out how ever many you want later on. :)

First batch of frozen strawberries ready to go back into the freezer. You want to process them, from the cookie sheets~ to the bags~ and back into the freezer, quickly so they don't begin to thaw. Other wise they will start to stick together and the extra work will be all for nothing. Nobody likes that...

A pile of delicious strawberries drying on the counter top, smells so good!

Totally unrelated to strawberries, but still delicious, I've been juicing my breakfast every morning for over two weeks now. It's fantastic. I love all the different colors and flavors I get. This particular one was beet, plum, carrot and a wee bit of spinach. The picture does not do it justice, it was the most beautiful color {and tasted good too}. I would go on a juice fast if I could afford it, but juicing is proving too expensive for me to do that, for now. So I will stick with the mornings and be thankful. :) I'm trying to do a soup or sometimes a salad for lunch {no grain/refined sugar/starch} and then eat dinner with the family with a few modifications. It feels pretty good. But after losing ten pounds I haven't lost another ounce! So that's a bit frustrating as I want to lose about ten more pounds. Over all I just wanted to reset my stomach and feel healthier though, and I feel like I'm getting there. :)

So there you go, a post about deliciousness. :)

The ones we love

For some reason we somehow seem to end up at this park in Anacortes every year around the same time.  It seems to be on the first really sunny and warm day of the year. And at that time we take the obligatory rock photo. 

 This year the pictures didn't turn out so well, the kids just weren't in the mood for momma's constantly clicking camera. See Spikes grumpy face... that kid gets in some serious moods. 

Oh well, I still like looking back at the other years on this same rock and seeing how they have grown. I should put all those pictures together in a post some day. :)

Cute boys.

 Beautiful views.

 Trees to climb {doesn't get much better then that if you ask these monkeys}.

Pretty girls.

 And critters to find under rocks... or rocks to throw... or sand to lay on and soak up sun.

{Sand not pictured. But I promise it was there somewhere.}

 Atticus loves collecting critters in containers... he's always a bit sad to leave them in their natural habitat when it's time to go, but that is a steadfast rule in our family. I have a feeling he will be one of those kids with aquariums full of snakes, bugs, fish, frogs, lizards and what not in his room some day.

Beautiful day spent in the new found sun with the ones we love. :)

Atty's bird collection

Before I blog about all the other things I want to post in order to get caught up... I just have to show you what Atty did. He put his bird collection in the display case at our local library! It was all very cute. :) He was so excited that other people were going to see his birdies.

 This is in fact only a portion of his bird collection, we had to pair it down so that it would fit.

 He didn't really want to leave his birds there though, he was a bit worried about that part. But he managed to make it through the two weeks {while driving me  crazy with his constant questions about when we were getting them back}. It helped that he had a few of his favorites here. I was very thankful that some how those ones didn't get packed. ;)

Birthday boy {Spike} turns 5!

My littlest boy's birthday is right around the corner... I know I say this every year, but seriously where does the time go? How can be possibly be almost five already? Seems like yesterday he was a rolly-polly juicy little baby with big blue eyes. He still has those big blue eyes, but the rolls, sadly those are gone. ;)

I spent the morning watching baby videos of him. Well all of the baby videos of the boys actually. In a way it makes me sad thinking about how that time went by so fast. There was so much going on in our lives then that I feel like I didn't really absorb the moments as they should have been, it's all a blur really. When I think of Spike as a baby I get bits and pieces. Good thing I wrote stuff down and took pictures/videos, because I seriously wouldn't have remembered other wise. Most nights when Atty and Spike were little, being only four months apart, I got a few hours of broken up sleep tops. Then there was Bubu being little himself, and a teenage J going through a rough patch. And speaking of rough patches, my husband and I were going through one of the biggest ones of all. There were moments were I questioned if I was going to come out on the other side sane or not, or if there even was a light at the end of the tunnel. And that is exactly what I mean, I just didn't take my time and enjoy the little moments enough, I was simply focused desperately on keeping my sanity. And now I wish so much that things had been different, that I had figured out a way to be less overwhelmed some how. I know that there is no point in regret, but with Spike every year he gets a little older I regret not enjoying his being a baby more. He really was such an adorable baby. And he is growing into an adorable young man.

Really though all I have is this moment in time, and so I make an effort to remember the moments. The funny things he says, the way he can so easily make us all laugh with his witty sense of humor. His amazing ability to be good at everything he puts his mind too, just like his dad. The brilliant way he seems to stay one step ahead of me on a regular basis {which also drives me crazy, but you just have to admire it}. His quick thinking, the boy can shift gears in the blink of an eye and somehow get people to agree with him before they even realize what they are doing. He just keeps problem solving until he figures it out. He lives and breathes this song, which I'll admit even though it drives me crazy I love that he's got that kind of spunk {this song also happens to be my theme song, it's gotten me through some big stuff in my life}. He's a lot like me, and a lot like his dad and I secretly think he got the best of us both, even though it can make him very challenging at times. And the boys got moves, seriously I have no idea how he can dance so well, that he definitely didn't get from us. :) He seems so tough but he's actually extremely sensitive, he still gets all snuggly with me, he'll be the first to insist I give him a kiss and hug before leaving, and he still likes to try and curl up in my lap. He loves to brush my hair. He tells me I look beautiful every time I wear a dress or do my hair. When he gets his feelings hurt he makes the bravest little face and makes a little sniffing sound, but rarely cries about it. At least not in front of his friends. It breaks my heart when I see him do this. When he falls and gets hurt now he will say "mom I didn't cry" and acts all tough guy on me. We've never expected our boys to act like that, so I have no idea why this is so important to him now, but I've seen his get hurt pretty bad a few times lately and seriously swallow back his tears and put a tough guy face on. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I don't want him to hold stuff in too much because he already tends to do that and it's just not healthy in the long run. But it seems to be his personality, instead of sharing how he feels he just looks at me with those big blue eyes shining with tears he's trying to hold back and it really does break my heart. Sometimes he seems so sad that I worry about him, and other times he has such a bubbly personality, I guess he truly is a Gemini. :)

I am proud of what an amazing human he is turning out to be. As the years go buy I hope to focus more on the little moments so that I don't miss out on all the wonderful ways he changes and grows as he matures. He's made a big impact in the five years he's been on earth, can't wait to see what else he has in store for us!

Tinker bell magic

My little girl is finally completely potty trained... no more diapers at night time. She ended being an unexpected challenge on this one. Bubu and Spike were completely potty trained day and night by two years old, so I sort of expected the same of Lala. She was using the toilet during the day by about the same age as them so I just assumed. Right around when she turned two I took the night time diapers away, put a mattress protecter under her and thought easy-peasy. At first it seemed as things would go the way I planned, but then she just started peeing her bed almost every single night and getting it on her pillows and blankets and I was doing an {even more} insane amount of laundry. So for my sanity I gave up and put her back in diapers. I'll admit I felt really frustrated about it, but after weeks of trying to hang in there I was getting nasty about the accidents, and that is never productive. We stopped talking about it for the most part, every once and a while I would tell her that when she started keeping her diapers dry at night she could go with out diapers again. She just smiled at me and didn't seem to have a care in the world, the night time diapers didn't bother her a bit it seemed. I did notice thought that they started staying dry a tad more often, but it was so random. One night she started talking about some Tinker bell panties that a friend of hers had and all the sudden I had an inspiration. I told her that if she kept her diapers dry every night for a little while I would buy her Tinker bell underwear and she could wear those instead of diapers. She was over the moon excited. I never had to bribe my boys like that, and I hate to bribe, but the girl desperately need of a goal. :) Do you know that she completely stopped wetting her diaper. Completely. Done just like that. So after a few days of dry diapers I went and bought her a big pack of Tinker bell panties. 

She was still awake when I got home from shopping so I went in and laid down on her bed and showed her what I got. I pulled out every single one and she ohhh and ahhh over them. I told her to keep her diaper dry again and the next night she would be able to wear them. She was so excited that she slept with them wrapped up in her arms. The next morning she still had them clutched in her hands  when she woke up... she actually walked out in to the playroom and dumped them in my lap. And proudly let me know that she was indeed dry. :) So cute. As promise that night she picked out her favorite pair of Tinker bell undies and wore them to bed. I'll admit I half expected her to have an accident. But she didn't and hasn't ever since, it's been over a week now and not a single accident.

All it took was some magical Tinker bell underwear. 

Mommies day

Happy Mother's day! I had a wonderful Mother's day weekend and I just had to share. :) We went camping, and it ended up being a gorgeous weekend, and so much fun. I feel like one very blessed mommy, four times over. :)

They've all turned goofy, ha ha! As much as I begged and pleaded for the "perfect everybody smiling" picture it just wasn't happening. Rarely does these days.  Who needs those anyways right, these sorts of picture are a whole lot more fun. :)

Perfect picture for a Mother's day weekend, a mommy and her four sweet little babies.

We borrowed a pop up trailer, snuggly!

So cozy, I got to snuggle with this cute little ladybug. :)

This little guy got to roast {GAPS approved} marshmallows for the first time in over two years! Well worth the hassle of making them to see the sweet smile on his face.

Although I think he was more excited about roasting them then eating them. :)

We spotted a lot of these red headed woodpeckers, Atty and I were pretty excited about that!

A beautiful lake to play in on a sunny day.

Sun kissed beauty. :)

My mom set up the table for a Mothers day tea/breakfast. Nothing better then drinking tea from fancy tea cups in the woods. 

Happy Mother's day to my mommy.

This boy played with this bow and arrow set the whole time. Rubber tipped arrows, so don't be alarmed. ;) I'm thinking there is one of these in the future for this kid. There is a birthday around the corner after all. :)

And of course you have to bring a costume when camping... Lady Bug Girl to the rescue!!! If you have a little girl you must read to her the Lady Bug Girl books, they are so sweet, it's a favorite of Lala's. She ran around the forest saving bugs. :)

Love my little monkeys.

Pouty face cuteness. I pretty much think everything this girl does is cute, it might be a problem...

So there you have it, a perfect for me Mother's day weekend spent with family. I even got surprise red roses in the morning with a special card. I'm a lucky mommy. :) And the best part, the kids were sweet perfect little dolls all day long. Doesn't get much better then that.