Lil' Chef

It appears I have a lil' chef on my hands!
Yes, today my sweet lil' dumplin' was in the mood to cook. The minute I started tinkering in the kitchen this morning, she asked me if she could cook something as well so we pulled her little kitchen out into the middle of the room so she could cook away!
We played kitchen and babies off and on ALL day. I had so much fun pretending with her and watching her imagination at work. I really love 3 1/2...so sweet and so innocent yet becoming more and more confident and independent. Of course, I coerced her into posing for a couple of pictures to document the 'event'.
And pose she did :)
Grant felt a little left out so he drug himself away from the TV (we just got Netflix today and he was in HOG HEAVEN checking out everything that was on there!) to pop his head into a couple of pictures.
This evening we moved the cooking into the real kitchen and whipped up the yummiest batch of ooey-gooey brownies, evah!!! I have been trying to stay away from sweets but I just had to have one (brownies are my all time fav) and I relished every single bite!
It seems like spring has finally arrived...we spent a lot of time outside on Sat and I have some really fun pics I hope to get edited and share yet this week. Until then, wishing all, that have stuck with me and still read my blog, a fantastic week!

Happy 6th Birthday Grant!!

Hard to believe that my little boy is 6 years old today...SIX YEARS OLD!!!! Holy moly! Where has the time gone?!? To celebrate the big event, we took the kids to a water park in Brainerd and were joined by family and friends for an afternoon of swimming, pizza and cake and lots of smiles and laughs!
Bear with me, there are a lot of pics but I guess I am just making up for lost time. And there aren't many from inside the water park because I was simply too busy soaking in the hot tub with Tootie and zinging down the tube slide with both kiddos!
The Krumrei's were kind enough to make the drive up to play in the water with us. Grant was super pumped that his little buddy, Peyton was there to chum around with :)
Kyle and Meghan...sorry, Kyle, but I just had to post this pic. I love your expression! ;) Hehe!Cousin Bailey was in the house as well!
And one more of Julie and Peyton...so cute!
Then it was time for gift opening...
And cake! Our fav...Cash Wise marble with whipped frosting. Yummers!
Little Mister huffed and puffed...
And it appears he has SIX girlfriends! HA!
Nothing like licking the frosting off of the bottom of a new snowmobile toy!
Oh wait! Lookie here...I actually WAS there!
Of course we had to spend some time in the arcade so the kids could waste a ton of money on video games, stale candy and the big hit prize...a trick pack of gum that would snap your finger when you grabbed a piece! So cheesy but super funny watching the kid's reaction!
There's cousin Emily playing the crane game, her favorite!
The boys had fun playing the race car game.
Tootie was the big winner...she won handfuls and handfuls of candy from one of the crane machines.
And she tried almost every kind she won. Can you tell she's all hopped up on sugar?!?
She stopped just long enough for a little head sugar from Daddy...
And then off to sort through her treasures! The best part was when she emptied her handfuls of candy onto the floor, picked out all of the pieces she had already tried, and knew she didn't like, and marched them right over to the trash can. Good girl...learnin' early to only consume the calories that are worthwhile!!
After everyone else left, the kids wanted to go for another dip in the water so we all suited back up and did about 20 more trips down the tube slide. It was old news to Grant because he's been to a handful of water parks but it was Tootie's first time and she loved the water slides. She loves a good rush, just like her Mommy! Next was bath time to wash off and then Grant was so tuckered out he fell fast asleep right after!
We couldn't let him fall asleep without getting a few pictures to razz him with!
Audrey was a good sport and thought it was so funny to make faces behind him while he was sleeping! Oh, and don't mind her pizza sauced face from her (almost) midnight snack!
Silly little monkey!
And finally, we had to commemorate the first hotel sleep over for both kids with a family picture.
Happy 6th Birthday, my sweet boy! We love you so much!!!

i heart faces - 'Sun Flare'

It has been far too long since I've participated in a weekly challenge over at iheartfaces but this week when I saw the theme "Sun Flare" I couldn't resist entering a photo I took last summer of my beautiful cousin, Chloe.
This was one of the photos from the shoot we did in July for her Senior portraits. Not all of the photos were 'senior portrait worthy' but we had so much fun finding all sorts of unique places as back-drops. This particular photo was shot at an aluminum recycling center. Go figure! Hope you enjoy the photo as much as I enjoyed taking it! And make sure you head over to iheartfaces to check out all of the other sun flares!

Snow Much Fun

Last weekend, the weather was absolutely glorious, especially since we had just emerged from a frigid deep freeze. The kids and I spent most of Saturday in the house cleaning out and organizing the toy boxes, doing laundry...yada, yada, yada...Much like what we did today because we are getting hit with another huge storm (or at least we are supposed to be, but thus far there's only been a little snow and lotsa wind) but that is a whole nother story.
Since we finished all of our chores on Saturday, we deemed Sunday a fun day! It was in the 40's, sunny and the perfect day bundle up and head outside to climb the snowbanks and have a good old fashioned snowball fight!
Well...the kids did all of the snowball throwing and I dodged them while attempting to capture a couple of good action shots!Roxy was even having a blast blazing through the snow drifts and chasing the stray snowballs.This little stinker has a pretty darn good arm, too! Thankfully I was able to dodge all of his bullets :)

It is such a good feeling to watch your children living life, having fun and enjoying the little things in life like playing in the snow on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
♥ It warms my heart to no end. ♥
After all, it is moments like these that they will remember for years to come...or at least I know I will.

Any Given Saturday

On any given Saturday, if you look out of our family room window, you are likely to see one of these...
One of these...
And maybe even one of these...
You see, I am a bit of and old soul at heart and enjoy feeding the birds and then drinking my coffee and watching all of them arrive to feed and frolic on a Saturday morning. Ever since I got my new copper bird feeder back in Nov, all had been going well until this little rascal showed up!
This little feller is the first squirrel I have seen even attempt to reap it's bounty off of my feeder. And he is one lucky little guy because the minute Grant spotted him, he was ready to get out the new BB gun he got for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa and blast his biscuits off!
Yes, my little Davey Crockett was all ready to have squirrel for dinner. He even went so far as to ask me how you get a squirrel ready to be eaten and what it tastes like. I explained the process of preparing an animal for consumption (I'll save you the gory details) and of course I my response to what squirrel tastes like was, "It tastes like chicken." Doesn't everything taste like chicken? he he ;)
Mr. Squirrel's attempts at emptying my feeder didn't go unnoticed either...
Mr. Bunny and Mr. Blue Jay were right below gobbling up everything that Mr. Squirrel had dumped out.
They all make quite a team, don't you think!?
Aside from the circus of animals devouring my bird seed, my favorite part is enjoying the beauty of the various birds that come to visit.
I know Blue Jays are very common and are kind of the 'bullies' on the block when it comes to birds, but I think they are absolutely beautiful birds.
But my all time favorite visitors are the Cardinals. Hands down, they are the bird I get most excited about seeing at the feeder. They are so colorful and vibrant and they always remind me of the Grandma's of ours that have passed and are now in Heaven.
Just wanted to share a few little beauties of nature that make you stop and think how blessed we really are. Happy Saturday!