Our garden!

We have a cute little garden now! Granddaddy gave us some plants and seeds, and Dennis (and Oliver!) built some raised beds for us to plant them in. 

It was a super hot, sunny day while they were working, so I set up the water table to help my big girl and baby boy cool off. :-)

Almost finished!

Taking a swing break from working so hard at the water table. :-)

A few days later, they filled in the beds and finished up the planting.

So nice!!! The empty-looking one in front is where Oliver planted his own squash and corn seeds. :-)

So far, we're been able to keep everything alive. Probably because we've been remembering to water, ha ha. Look at the cute baby watermelon!!

 And baby tomatoes! Yay for gardens!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my sweet hubby! This year I printed some "All About My Dad" pages that I found online and had Oliver and Buttercup fill them out. The results are adorable and hilarious!

Oliver's answers:
My dad's name is Dennis.
He is 33 years old and 6 and 3 in tall.
He has black hair and hazel eyes.
My dad likes to wear polo shirts and his favorite color is blue.
My dad likes to go to the Lego store and his car is a race car.
My dad's favorite sport is swimming and his favorite tv show is creepy ones.
He likes to cook eggs.
His favorite food is spaghetti.
His favorite drink is Sprite and his favorite dessert is cake.
My dad is the best at swimming.
My dad tries really hard to swim good. (Ha ha ha!!)
And he is so special to me because he loves me.

Buttercup's answers:
My dad's name is Daddy.
He is 10 years old and super tall. :-)
He has black hair and blue eyes.
My dad likes to wear clothes and his favorite color is orange. 
My dad likes to go to places, like Safari Champ (HA HA HA!) and his car is a putt-putt.
My dad's favorite sport is running and his favorite tv show is a grown up show.
He likes to cook hot dogs and weenies.
His favorite food is ice cream.
His favorite drink is lemonade and his favorite dessert is cake.
My dad is the best at being a daddy.
My dad tries really hard to help us get down from super high things. (HA HA HA HA HA HA!) and he is so special to me because he's my daddy and because I love him and because he likes eating popcorn. 

I love these!!! This is definitely going to become a new tradition. :-)  

Father-Daughter Dance!

Buttercup's preschool hosted a Father-Daughter dance on Friday, and surprisingly, Buttercup decided she wanted to go! At first she said no, but then I told her that her daddy would take her out to eat -- at the restaurant of her choice -- before the dance, and she changed her mind pretty quickly, ha ha.   

She knew immediately which tights and shoes she wanted to wear (pink polka dotted tights and sparkly purple shoes), but it took her a couple of days to decide on a dress. She ended up choosing a short-sleeved dress with a twirly red skirt. :-)  

I asked her if I could take a picture of her before they left for the dance, and she very happily posed and posed (and posed and posed) for pictures. She cracks me up!

This one is hilarious!!

As soon as Dennis got home from work, she ran outside and told him it was time to go! She was so excited and they had a great time!

 

Correction to my previous post

Oops. When I wrote earlier about what I love, I made a grave error. I forgot to list the most important -- my hubby!! Why I forgot, I don't know. I'll blame pregnancy brain for that one (seriously, thanks to my seemingly missing brain cells, one day I put the dirty laundry in the trash can instead of the washing machine, put the milk in the pantry, and put my car keys and cell phone in the refrigerator).

So, without further ado, here is the short list of things I love about my hubby:

-- he makes me laugh, especially when I'm determined not to
-- he's patient, kind, loyal, and unfailingly understanding
-- he's a great daddy and loves our babies
-- he makes sure that family comes first
-- he's always there when I need him
-- he helps me be a better person
-- he's (almost!) as silly as I am
-- he's very logical and level-headed when faced with a tough decision
-- he's my opposite in a lot of ways
and last but not least,
-- he's my best friend!

Playing with my new camera

My hubby and I decided to treat ourselves to Christmas gifts early this year (hey, we're not going to turn down a big sale!). He got a 40" flat screen TV, and I got a nice digital camera. I haven't quite figured out all of the features yet, but I've been having fun experimenting!

This morning the kids and I went on a nature walk and I took these first two pictures:


I love the fall colors!



During the kids' naptime, I played with the Smart Portrait mode, which is really cool. The camera detects a smile on the subject's face, and will automatically take a picture by itself!

So here's me (yes, I'm wearing makeup, I was bored).


And here's my cutie pie. I think we kind of look alike. Maybe just a little. ;-)
P.S. I totally wish I had her thick, fine, stick-straight hair.


Look at that sweet baby girl!! I love her!!!!

Does this look like a fossil to you?

Over the weekend, Oliver and Dennis went fossil hunting at one of the parks on the trail. They were gone for a couple of hours, and came home with a bag of fossils that Oliver collected:


However, they also came home with this thing, which is definitely NOT a fossil. And should not have been anywhere NEAR my babies and my house.



Oliver was absolutely thrilled with it and wanted to keep it in his room. NO WAY, I said. And just look at the grin on Dennis' face -- he was egging Oliver on and totally wanted to keep it. NO.WAY., I said again.



Even Buttercup joined in. "Itsy-bitsy spider? Itsy-bitsy spider, please?" Um, no baby, there's nothing itsy-bitsy about that spider, and it's going back in the woods ASAP.


Somehow, I feel like this is going to be one of the least gross things that my husband and son bring home from their adventures . . . but at least they have fun! :-)

He's the best!

Right about 7 1/2 years ago, I married a guy who I had known for only 6 months. Back then, what I loved most about him was his laidback attitude (a good match for my firecracker personality!), gentleness, kindness, understanding, and big bear hugs.


















Two kids and almost 8 years later, he is still all of those things, but so much more. He is patient, loving, giving, a good listener, a hard worker. I could go on and on. But what I love the most is that he is the absolute best daddy to our babies. I loved him then, but I love him so much more now for who he is and the ways that we've grown together in our marriage and parenthood. We knew 7 1/2 years ago that God put us together for a reason, and I still believe that today. I love this man, and I love God for giving him to me!

Happy Father's Day!

The best reward prize EVER

We've been using a sticker chart with Oliver to reward him for good behavior. He has the opportunity to earn 1 sticker each day, and when he gets 4 stickers, he earns a small reward -- he calls it a "prize" -- usually a $2 or $3 toy from Mardel or Target that either gets broken or lost in a couple of days. He earned his 4th sticker yesterday, so we went to the store to look for a new toy.

Then I thought of something that we could make for him instead of buying a toy . . . something that he would use every day, something that would last for a long time, something that would require a trip to Home Depot (Oliver's favorite store!) . . . We would build Oliver his very own workshop, in his closet!!!

So we went to Home Depot last night and purchased a sheet of peg board, hooks, a piece of scrap lumber that was cut to suit our needs, and 4 table legs + screws. Oliver and Dennis started working on it right after breakfast this morning.



























This is Oliver's closet before:
































And this is Oliver's new workshop!! Can't you just feel the excitement??!



























I'm so happy that we could do this special thing for him!