Spring Has Sprung!

I am so excited to see that so many of my plants are coming up...spring is definitely here and we have had such glorious weather the past couple of weeks...I really hope it is here to stay (we do have one day coming up with threats of snow flurries but it's just one day!) My flower beds are a terrible mess since I neglected them last year and the dogs did a number on the full-sun bed in the back yard....and now the front beds are going to get torn up with Kenny's plans of adding a front porch soon. I guess I will praise them now since I'm sure I will be cursing them while rearranging it all later. LOL!
A friend had loaned me some filters to use on my camera so I thought I would try my hand at them....I'm not sure what I am doing with my camera most of the time so playing around with filters was almost pointless but I had fun anyway. I did see some differences but I didn't record which were taken with which filter...next time!

I love all Daffodils but I especially love these Tete Tete

my beloved vinca minor ground cover....it covers a multitude of garden sins!

the fairy garden keeper....Kenny doesn't really like it but it is cute my only garden sculpture

one of my favorites...Bleeding Heart, the white one is a little behind and my Ruffled Bleeding heart didn't make it :(

yay! My tulips are going to make it...I planted them last year from a pre-blooming plants!

my Common Lilac bush given as a gift from my neighbor...Grandma Hazel(nut)

this was here when we moved in and I have never look it up, some kind of hyacinth?

this little bubble bee made his way into the picture...total accident but it makes me smile :)

so then I tried to capture him....see him on the periwinkle bloom?

again, trying to be a photographer....I had a much better accident shot of him! hahaha

Boy + Whites = WHY TRY!

I really don't know why I even bother buying any clothing for my kids that have even a speck of white in them....they ALWAYS get them stained....UGH! Why are boys soooo cute in white anyway? This picture doesn't even do justice to the amount of stains....the pink was from a peppermint Elijah got at the bank and then he got peanut butter all over the sleeves (still learning that sleeves are NOT napkins!) which are completely white, like a thermal shirt. Oh well, I'm sure I will still buy white....glutton for buckets of stain remover!

6 Months+27 Days....

I'm terrible about taking milestone photos of my kids...and I totally missed Ezra's 6 month mark! So I decided that it's never too late (27 to be exact) to get him at this milestone! haha. He is just so darn cute I want to chew him up...I love, love, LOVE having him in my life! These are my favorites:

I like that you can see all SIX of his chompers in this big-smiled photo...and boy does he know how to use them, ouch!

He didn't freak out when he got on the grass, in fact, he was fascinated and he kept trying to pull it out and smack at it!

I thought it would be nice him to focus on something and hopefully capture some sweet shots....

......he didn't really care for the taste!

then he crawled around like this for the next 20 shots...hahahahahahah! ADORABLE!

a few years back...

Awww, I was looking thru some old pictures and came across these...they were taken with my old point and shoot the day I left to go to Poland (July 2005). Look how cute Benjamin was. This is how Kenny likes my hair best...maybe I will do it again. I will try to post some pictures from my Poland Mission trip.....between my friend and myself we took over 800 pictures and Abbi convinced me to reduce them to 500+. She assured me that I didn't need 25 pictures of the clouds, mountain ranges, and ocean from the plane, haha...she's right, I'm just a dork and haven't flown much! Maybe I will make a slide show of those pics since there are so many and now I can't remember all the details of each picture...

First foods

The next 3 were taken a few days ago...squash. Notice the smear next to his eye...he is determined to feed himself, still a little uncoordinated. Then I set the food down to wipe him down and he decided he wasn't done and wanted more with or w/o my help....he can actually get out of that Bumbo. I'm not sure if it is because of his freak of nature strength or the fact that he is too skinny for the seat (I think these seats must work best with pudgy babies by wedging them in there..ha!).

I tried so hard to hold Ezra off from eating solids until he was 6 months for (various reasons) but gave in 3 days before the 6 month mark. He has been extremely interested in anything I bring to my mouth. I had been allowing him to drink from my cup and he was doing quiet well with it and then one day he got a hold of my sandwich and it was kind of a fight to get it away from him, he was like a little starved animal! I was determined with this child to get him interested in veggies early since I have had a difficult time, up until recently, with Elijah to eat healthy foods. Benjamin was and always has been a great eater, he will try and/or eat anything I put in front of him so I thought that this would hold true for any child I had...Elijah proved me wrong!

Ezra's first food was organic pureed carrots (I have a stock pile in the freezer for my Deceptively Delicious recipes) and he seems to like them well enough. Next we tried sweet potatoes...yay, he likes them--they are my fav! Then I tried avocado.....not good....he HATES! So onto pears...no luck there either. I tried to give him rice cereal mixed a couple different way...with water-NO, with formula-NO, with formula and pears-NO, with squash-uhh, NO! He was acting hungry after all that experimenting so I gave up and tried squash by itself, YES! So I have my veggie eater, at least the orange variety!

More Teeth

Tooth #5 popped through today! I took this picture the day before it made it's debut! Every time I see him smile like this I think of a cute little cartoon vampire, LOL. These two teeth cut through on May 27th (6mo.), the other top tooth is well on it's way to join the others and I am beginning to see the bottom side teeth bubble up. It must be in the genes...the other two got their teeth early and fast!

Special Quilts

My Grandmother is the best Quilter...she puts so much thought into the person she is making her quilts for. She has given each of my boys a quilt shortly after they were born and each is unique and so special to me, I hope they feel the same as they get older.

Benjamin's has been used by all three, it has that extra soft, broken in feeling. I really need to stop using it and put it away to protect it...I used it for Ezra recently by laying it down for him to have some belly time at bible study and he got a hold of a "empty" chocolate milk container that ended up leaking on the blanket. Thankfully, I was able to remove the stain with some oxy clean!

Grandma actually hand-quilted this one, I love that. The colors are classic too....so sweet!

I also love this personal label she adds to each one.

Elijah's quilt is a cute, simple yet playful choo choo train quilt. For the longest time he refused to sleep with anything other than this quilt and a handmade stuffed kitty from the neighbor that we call Grandma Hazel...I will have to share that story with a picture another time!

She made this one special by hand appliqueing the train border.....LOVE it!

Ezra's quilt is similar to Ben's in that it is a sailboat design but it has SUPER CUTE detailing with the quilting...can you see the whales and waves? OH MY GOODNESS...I LOVE LOVE LOVE it......I Love my Grandmother's attention to detail, she's the best!

New/Old Chair!

I am so excited over my new find! I went to the Good Used Furniture store today in search of a headboard but instead I came across this awesome chair! The upholstery is in pretty good condition--it needs to be cleaned--it's a little dingy in spots and the color is faded just a little but otherwise in perfect condition. I'm excited to use it in my bedroom (the wood detail matches my dresser and night stand) and maybe even as a photo prop! YAY!