R-I-B-B-I-T!!!

Here is my new frog pitcher, mom got it for me for my birthday. When I finally freed it from all the bubble wrap Fern and Jake thought it was great fun to yell into the frogs mouth, it was pretty funny! Ironic that it is in front of my "frogs are lucky, they eat what bugs them" sign. :)

We are all still treading water here, it is looking like Dan will not make it home this week, we can hope for next, but that is not final yet ether. I have had a sobbing boy, and one with a horrendous mean streak! Fern is a bit extra fussy herself, and often asks "Daddy?" with her hands doing the I-don't-know gesture. Mom, well, mom is doing her best not to eat the bugs that bug her, or to fall off her lily pad and sink. :) Hopefully I will get some pictures tomorrow of the boy's new hair cuts, and maybe they won't be duking it out... maybe.

What have we been up to?

Well I have not been on the computer the last few days (hard to believe hu)! We have been enjoying the last couple days we had with Dan. He left under tearful circumstances this morning. :( Also occupying my time was Harry Potter, Daddy fed my addiction to good books, I received it in the mail Friday, and finished it last night. So when you get done let me know and we can gush over the last book and how it ended. I have to call Daddy today, he finished it a couple days ago. :) Here is my cutie!! Snoozing again, she has been have a hard time napping this last week, so she ether crashed during her afternoon nursing time (like this picture) or she crashes for an early bedtime. Last night she did the later, I was laying on my bed reading Harry Potter, she was sitting behind me playing with my hair and then she was conked! I could not even get her to nurse! It is bitter sweet (mostly bitter), she seems to be less needful of nursing. I will miss it.
Here is crazy Jake doing what he does best! He is wearing what he calls his "Steve" shirt, ya know from Blues Clues! Too cute! But it is already a dated photo, I cut the boys hair on Saturday. Riley wanted it all buzzed, I have been fighting it the last few haircuts so I relented. It looks so weird to see him with no hair. And Jake screamed through his haircut, so it is only marginally strait. :)

We are hoping and praying to get to see Dan for one night later this week, but there is a good chance we will not. But we may get 2 days before he leaves for Europe. All in all the next 3 weeks will be... well I am sure you can think of a few adjectives. :)

A Day of Birthday Fun!!

I got spoiled yesterday, it was my birthday! A great friend was generous enough to watch the kids for a few hours so that Dan and I could do things we normally do not get to do with kids around (no not that)! We went to my favorite restaurant for lunch, Carol Peck's Good News Cafe. MMMMMM!!!!! And then we went to the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington. Two very fun but not child friendly places! Here is the front of the house, it was built in 1901 and was planed by the owner's daughter Theodate Pope. Later she also planned Westover School (that is where our kids spent the day!), another school in Avon, CT, and many other homes. Funny thing is her father was business partners with Mr. Whittmore who lived here in our town, the library is named after him. And she almost married Mr. Whittmore's son, but later he asked Theodate to build a school here. So she also built Hop Brook School.
This is the receiving area, we went in through here.
Walking in.
Now there are no pictures of the inside here, but there are a few online, because we were not allowed to take pictures. But inside we saw the house just as Theodate Pope Riddle had left it when she died in 1946. The best was that as they were quite "well off" they toured Europe a few times and learned to enjoy art. So we were able to see 4 Monet's, 2 Mary Casset's, 3 Degas, a few Manet's, and various other artists works. It was great. I love Monet, we were able to see quite a few of his works once in Las Vegas at the Bellagio, and it was great to see a few more, including one of my favorites "Haystack With Frost Effect". They also had the most beautiful pale yellow and white Wedgwood tea set. When Mrs. Riddle dies she left a 40 page will, everything was specified she also included that nothing could be sold or lent out or brought in, it had to remain completely the same so that everyone could see it. (Seems a bit narcissistic to me but I still enjoyed it).
Originally there was 500 acres, now there is less than 200. It was a "gentleman's farm", they produced most of what they ate, and employed alot of workers from the area.
These stone walls all over CT. are so amazing, there is no cement or mortar of any kind, they just stack them. But they are made well, there alot still standing all over this area.

This is the back side of the house (far right) and then the carriage house.
This is the sunken garden, the master bedroom overlooks it! It was planned and landscaped in 1920, then seeded over during the war, when there was no one to upkeep it. Then in 1986 they rediscovered the original plan and volunteers keep it up. There are no flowers during any of the seasons that are red or orange, they are all blues and purples etc to complement the impressionist paintings inside.
Thank you for taking the Danna tour, we bought a book on it that is really good, so if you want to know more let me know! :)

Here we all are after we got back home. Dan made me a great dinner, we had Loren's Chinese chicken salad without the chicken. YUMMMYYY!!!! And then of course...
lemon cake!!! My favorite!!!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes!!!

Change of Plans.

Well I originally was not planning to be able to post as we were planning on camping last night and tonight. But we got rained out and so here I am. We did have our hot dogs (veggie) tonight, we cooked them over our fire pit in the back yard, with corn on the cob and cold slaw. MMMM. But then poor Jake got burned and we had a sad evening. :( His thumb (the really important one) got burned as did his arm near his wrist. So Dad and I yielded some good cuddle time this evening, but it was with a sad babe. Now it is time for all you anonymous readers to leave a comment (and those who leave comments regularly too)! Dan is going to Europe next month and will have plenty of time to see the sights. I have let him know a couple of places I would like to see, and we thought you all might have some great ideas! So he will be going to; Athens, Paris, Florence, and Lake Como. Florence just for a day, and in Paris he did the Eiffel Tower and the Louve last time, and Lake Como is in Italy near the Swiss border. Poor guy hu. :) I suggested Mars Hill in Athens where Paul gave the sermon on the "Unknown God". So where would you go, what would you see?? Lets hear it!

What is better than a...

Sleeping baby!!

This was Fern this afternoon, I went in to wake her up but she was so cute I took a few pictures first!!! :)

She sleeps more like a little girl than a baby!
So sweet!!
I know weird angle, but look at those lashes!!
I LOVE little toes!!

I kiss her toes often, and then the other day while she played with her doll she started kissing her toes!! Of course she was holding her upside down by the ankles doing it, and I try to refrain from kisses and hanging mixing! :)

We are still enjoying Dan, but he will be leaving for a 2 week trip during next month. And still being a bit freaked by our break in, this would be a great time to take that trip you have been thinking of making to visit us. As long as you don't mind missing Dan! :)

What Did You Do Today?

Last night Dan and the boys slept in the tent in the back yard, so this morning (since Fern got up SUPER early) we got breakfast together and woke the boys up! This was our breakfast outside, I hope the neighbors didn't see us all in our jammies!!! :) Crazy new neighbors from Calif!!
Cheesy baby!!! I was trying to get a picture of her shirt, but yea no cooperation. This shirt is a hand me down from our great friends the Sherman's, it says Fun and then has the definition. The appropriate part of it is that it says "usually accompanied by the joyful sound Weee-eee-eee" (or close to that). Anyway Fern has this new love of hills, so every time we drive down a hill which is anytime we leave the house, she yells WEEE-EEEE-EEEE all the way down. It is too cute! :) So the shirt is that much more appropriate!! Thanks Abby!
Dan put up our new-hand-me-down chalk board from our neighbor today! And Grandpa gave us like 10 boxes of chalk (schools use dry erase now), so the kids had a blast writing. This will be quite handy this fall when we start our new school year! :) It is hard to tell, but that is one of our newly painted walls in the basement!! I got curtains up on one of the windows today, and Dan has been busy building the shelves!!! :) I'll post pictures when it is all done (aka: maybe this lifetime)!

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So that was our day, minus the attitude, a few tantrums, and not quite making it to the potty. So what did you do?

Life!

I know it is hard to see, but Fern has Riley's doll on her table, and she is feeding her pancake. It was too cute, what a good mommy she will be! :)

On fun in our house news, Dan got our basement painted and it looks great! But then last evening I was upstairs when I heard Dan come up. I then heard him say, "Danna, can you come to the bathroom", that sentence only ever means one thing, blood. I know this because a) Dan rarely uses my name, and b) thankfully he is old enough to not need my help going potty! So I go right in to fix him up, but I took one look at the gushing blood, and knew I could not fix this one! So I got his hand over his head, made sure he would not be passing out, ran the kids to the neighbors and drove Dan to the walk-in clinic. Thankfully we did not have to go to the hospital (it's 30min. away), the clinic here at the bottom of the hill was happy to see him. We actually made the P.A.'s day, something to stitch up! So Dan had 2 stitches in his left thumb, and we had pizza for dinner. So now we wait until it is more healed for Dan to build shelves for downstairs. :) And you all though we were just sitting around! :)

Also today is special because my sister Mary had her last day of work outside of home! She is now a full time stay at home mom! Yea Mary!! So congrats Mary Ryan and Novella!! We love you!

What is in Mama's Garden?

I know not the garden, but I had this one random picture, so it is here. I had run out to do a couple errands, and when I pulled into the driveway this is what I found. I then had to race out to take this picture as a big storm blew in! :)
It is always surprising what pops up! Isn't this gorgeous!
There are so many Lillis, tiger, white, and some pink ones are beginning to emerge. There is even some in another patch that are really tall, but have not flowered yet, well see!!
And the newest thing in my garden! FERN!! She has found the blueberry patch and now we can not keep her out!!! This was last night, everyone was swimming, but Fern kept sneaking off!
So proud of herself! She is actually really good about only picking and eating the blue ones, now if she'd stop picking my little green tomatoes!
This morning Dan took the kids outside, and then lost Fern. Guess where he found her!
And this is the second time today we have fished her out, and it is only 10:30am!!
Whenever I find her in there she flashes me a big smile, how can you get upset at that! Eating healthy fruit, and a sweet smile!!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I thought I was due for a garden update, so you all will have to bear with me!!! :)Here is the broad view, we have, cherry tomatoes, big tomatoes, pole beans, sugar snap peas, carrot ts, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, Anaheim chillies, pickling cucumbers, zucchini, watermelon, pumpkin, gourds, corn, & rhubarb. In the back yard we have a couple more watermelon, and a couple yellow squash.
Here is my finds last night!! The tomatoes were SOOOO good! (no I did not share!)
A couple cucumbers!
This is the red pepper.
The first zucchini!
Watermelon to the left, and gourd to the right. The gourd was this little 4 inch peat pot that Grandma sent the kids that had the seeds in it, all you did was water it. When the sprouts got to be 5 inch or so we put it in the garden, and now we have way too many vines in that box!!
So how does our garden grow? With lost of prayer, and lots of care! :)

Summer Fun!

A couple days before the 4th we got a fire pit, and we are enjoying it!! The boys were very helpful! :)
Fern wanted to help too!
Mama and Fern chill'en by the fire! It really was not so cool that we needed long pants and jackets, we were just trying to hide from the mosquitoes!!
Then a couple days after the fourth we got a whole handful of blueberries off our bushes in the back yard! They were VERY yummy! :)

We are enjoying our BRIGHT house this afternoon! Yep that's right, we actually had our windows fixed this morning!! YEA!!!! It is like living in a real house!! :)

Sad Day.

My sweet kitty died today. Angel was 14 years old though, and she had had a very nice stay at the Grandma Jenson Retirement Home. Thanks for being the mommy today mom.

FIREWORKS!!!

Since the 4th was wet, we did fireworks in between rain storms last night! Here are some of the shenanigans! :) Our crazy pyrotechnic!
Fern is not totally sure about the sparklers, or the other fireworks!
Our gang doing sparklers!! This is what we started with...
Then we lit off a couple of theses and...
we gained a few kids! :)
We had a few really good fireworks, everyone enjoyed them, and Dan did not loose any fingers! It was a good night. But unfortunately we had to say good bye to Daddy/Grandpa, he left early this morning and flew to Michigan to see his brother. Hi Uncle Steve!!

HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!

Well as you can see I am not outside on this 4th, it is raining and cold out. They have forcasted thunder storms and a good amount of rain! :( But here is what we did yesterday and this morning!!! Grandpa and Dad dug out and twisted the tree house, so that the slide goes down sideways, and thankfully now does not launch anyone! :) They also riped the sides off the tree house!!
Fern thought this was all good fun!!
Formulating plans!!
Riley is a helper!! That evening they had the sides mostly redone, but then ran out of nails!! Opps!
Today we all headed out early to try to beat the rain! Our neighbor across the street was cleaning out and figured his 13 year old daughter did not need this car anymore, Fern is enjoying it immensely!!
Here are our super workers!! We have a roof!!! Yea!!

Dan and Daddy had ALOT of "help"! :) Isn't Jake a cutie!
Nearly finished!! They boys are enjoying the view! They are looking towards the house.
Cheese! Happy 4th of July!!

Fern is a bit happier not to have to share the slide! :)
And Fern gets something just for her!! Our neighbor next door figured her 10 year old daughter would not be using this swing! So we re-roped it with purple rope and Fern is in heaven! Her very own swing, now you all will know where I am when I do not answer the phone!! :) It is very nice to have the youngest kids on the street! We are getting some great hand me down toys!! :)
Finished!! It is hard to see but the purple bucket is on a pulley, and eventually Dan will put wood shingles on the roof. Not too long after this we were freezing to death and it started sprinkling, and so we are now enjoying the Muppets!!

Have a GREAT 4th of July!!