For Sale

The other afternoon, Boo fell asleep on the couch.  Bear apparently decided that she would capitalize on it.  She found a piece of paper and wrote "Boo is Free for 100 dollars" and stuck it to Boo's forehead!  What a smart alek.

My boy's pictures

B decided he wanted to learn photography too. I have to force him to put the camera down!  Here are a few pictures he took with our little Canon point & shoot.  I think he's better than me!  That's not saying much though  :)  I love the way he brought out Boo's eyes in this.

This is one of mine I took yesterday.  Apparently, I am fascinated with bees.  I do love bugs though.  So I'm sure this is only the beginning.  Wait til spring is officially here and all the really cool bugs come out!!  

Yes, they are dandelions.  Weeds.  However, to me, they are special flowers.  Nearly every day for the last 2 years (except in winter, of course), I have been given a bouquet of these flowers from my wonderful kids.  I look forward to it each day.  Bear told me today that, even though the flowers turn into "wishes", she would rather give me flowers than have wishes.  

One Thousand Gifts (11-20)

I need to get back to my things to be thankful for.  I've only done the first 10.  Since its Valentines day, I'll focus on my wonderful husband.  :)

11.  He, without being asked, will once in a while turn the tv to HGTV so I can watch a few decorating shows.

 12.  He buys me flowers.

And, he buys flowers for our daughters.

13.  He listens patiently when I call him in the middle of the day, interrupting his work, so I can rant and rave about the kids.

14.   Whenever he has two of something, he ALWAYS gives me the biggest or the best.

15.  When he comes home from work to a frazzled wife and no dinner, he goes out again for pizza.  No heavy sighs.  No eye rolling.  Just an understanding man.

16.  Takes us all out for ice cream when he's not feeling well.

17.  Always lets me sleep in a little on Sunday mornings, even though he is the one up at 5:00 am every morning.

18.  He is a man of integrity.

19.  His faith in God is unwavering.  He is a solid example of a Godly man for our children.

20.  All these reasons and more make him the most attractive man I've ever met!

More Pictures

These are a few of my favorites.  The first one was taken two weeks ago.  The bottom two were taken over a month ago. I'm having so much fun playing with my new camera.  I have NO idea what I'm doing, and I get weirdly excited when I discover some new thing - like aperture.  I know what that is now!  Course, now I just need to figure out how to use it properly.  Its great!

A was playing in the fallen leaves at the park.  She uncovered this board and was trying to convince me that she needed to take it home.

I have no idea what kind of plant this is but I thought it was very cool.  Lighting is off though. The colors are not as vibrant as they should be.

This is our kitty, Moira.  She died last month.  She was 15 years old and I still expect to see her coming down the stairs to claim her time with me after the kids go to bed.  I miss her terribly.  This is one of my favorites, not because the photo is great, but because it's the last picture I have of her.

Signs of Spring

I blinked twice and winter was gone.  Today we were at C & T's soccer game and I saw a tree in all its springtime glory.  As I walked up to the tree, it sounded as if it were alive.  The closer I got to the tree, the louder the bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz sound was. Looking up, I saw what must have been 100 bees!  It was amazing!  Here's one of the pictures I took.

I took this a few days later.  I like the way the bee's wings shine in the sunlight.

Dominos

This is what prompted the scrabble writing in the previous post.

 The other evening, B decided to set up the tiles and knock them down.  He started at 5pm.  About every 3 or 4 minutes, I'd hear the telltale clatter of tiles and B say "Oh, man!"  Then he would begin setting up the tiles again.  Finally, around 7pm he got them all set up.  (We had a break for dinner)  We gathered the whole family to watch the domino effect.

There it goes!  I tried to capture the action but my photography skills leave a lot to be desired.  It was very cool though!  The finished product was wonderful but more impressive was the amount of time B put into doing the project and his ability to remain patient and good humored as he accidentally knocked the tiles over again and again.  It never would have occurred to me to use dominos for character development!

My blessings!

Sometimes parenting can seem like a pretty frustrating and thankless job.  But then my kids go and do this..........

                and makes it all worth it!

 This one is from my 5 year old.  Originally it had the word "beast" instead of best.  I started laughing hysterically and may have hurt A's feelings a little.  She eventually saw the humor in her typo though.

I'm so thankful that God saw fit to bless me 9 times with children!  Sometimes, in the middle of fights and messes and not having a second alone to complete a thought, I forget that they are the biggest blessings in my life.  They don't let me forget for too long though!