Happy Spring

We have one daffodil blooming and lots of smiles.

I just got caught up on blog posts. Hope all are well!

Abby

Abby is one smart little lady.

She loves (and I really mean loves) to draw. In this picture she drew a whale and a diver. The whale is on the right side of the page and the diver is the green person on the left. She told me we needed to have "class" (ie play school). In class we learned about the diver and the whale. The whale was stuck in some ocean rocks and the diver went to help him. The diver needed to use a little pokey thing and there was a little bit of blood, but he was OK. After the story it was time to sleep and since I was the student, she put me to sleep on the playroom floor complete with a kiss.

Here is a sample of Abby's name writing. She does it very well. In this picture I made the "y" but she did the other letters herself.

Messes

In the blink of an eye, there was cornstarch all over the kitchen. Here are some blurry pictures of some very busy little people. We've been cleaning up all sorts of messes lately (oh, so many) - some easier and more enjoyable than others.

Flutterbyes

Last week we went to the MSU butterfly garden. There were not a ton of butterflies, but the kids loved the flowers, bugs, pathways and streams.

Mike met us at the garden being that we went at the end of the day and we went outside to some of the outdoor gardens as well.

Last year we went to the same butterfly garden (multiple times). Here are some shots to see how the kids have grown.

This year:

Last year:

More last year shots:

Food Storage Room

Mike finished up our food storage room in the basement and I have the shelves stocked! We are not going to tape and paint the outside walls until (if, when) we finish the rest of the basement. I love it!

Paint Job

We finished the paint job in my bedroom and bathroom last week. Here it is:

One wall in the bedroom is this maize color (this picture really distorts the color).

This picture shows the color a bit better. We did the other three walls ivory. It is very light. I like it.

We did the tub and one wall in the bathroom the maize as well and painted the rest of the bathroom the ivory.

Quotes

"Yeah! Does that mean Briton will talk normally to me?"
This is what Abby said when I told her during a conversation that Briton would be able to go to the nursery at church at the end of the summer. She was very, very excited about it! I thought it was cute that she associated nursery with being able to talk.

"It's too much paint of a not pretty color."
This week we have been painting our bedroom and master bath. When I asked Abby what she thought of the paint this was her response. Classic. I texted Mike and my mom her quote and both of them within a couple minutes of each other responded that she was just disappointed it wasn't pink. They were right. I asked her. I'll put up some pictures when we finish and put the rooms back together. I, for one (and hopefully Mike, too), really like it.

"Princesses like their sloppy joes hot, hot, hot!"
Today at lunch Abby was dressed in her princess dress. She was talking in the third person about herself as a princess and we just got a kick out of this one.

Why the lack of posts

I have not been an active blogger lately. I really had great intentions of posting a great post complete with pictures and videos. (I even edited some videos to include. You'll note that the today's other post references non existent videos. There was supposed to be a binky bear video and one of Briton walking.) I have been trying for days to get my videos to upload, but no such luck. I decided to post video-less. I'll be a better blogger.

Updates

Here are a few things about us:

Abby is a big girl and no longer sleeps with her binky! We took her to Build-a-Bear last weekend and she put the binky inside the bear. What a fabulous idea from our friend! She was very excited about it. (I was the one who got a bit teary.) Here are a couple pictures and a video of her explaining it all. (If you don't want to watch the entire movie, my favorite part is from 0:30 - 1:00.)

Briton can walk. He took his first steps back in January and officially took off at his birthday party. He started a little wobbly (as they usually do), but is now fast. Church is challenging:) but he is happy to be so mobile!

Friday was our 6th anniversary. We left the kids with a couple from our branch. (Bless them.) Mike and I went to a nice restaurant on campus. Delicious! We then headed to a bed and breakfast in Williamston. It was really nice. The B&B was on a llama farm so here we are with the llamas.

It was a very nice getaway and I am very grateful for Mike and our marriage. We are very blessed in many ways!

Sun: Welcome back, we hope

Today the weather was beautiful. It is still cold. There are still 18ish inches of snow on our front lawn with 3-4 feet piles lining the driveway, but it really was beautiful. After naps (they're both napping these days) we took Briton's birthday wagon for a ride up and down the street. They must be as stir crazy as me because I couldn't for the life of me get them to look at the camera. Take my word for it, they looked cute and were all smiles. (I had to remind myself - We're not out here to take pictures but to take in sunshine!)

PS We still love the hats. Abby calls them the "debilous penguin hats".