Girly Girl!

It is so fun to have a girl, boys are fun in different ways! Yesterday Fern was definitely my girly girl! After Fern's nap she and I and her three babies sat in the rocking chair for a bit, I then had to go to the bathroom so I set her in the chair. She stayed there and held her babies all wrapped up in two blankets. And then she agreed to a few pictures!
Do you see her little had holding so tightly on her baby. It was so sweet!
Fern flat out refuses to let me put barrettes or such in her hair, but she found this old head band and decided she would make herself so pretty.
Here she is painting with water, don't you love her hair do, it makes me smile!! :)

TRUCKS!!

So yesterday a friend called and asked if we wanted to get out, of course that is usually a good idea! So we went to their favorite place, The Trucking Museum! It is a great place for boys, and Fern enjoyed it too! Here are the four of us in front of the thermos truck!
And the 3 kiddos in front of my favorite, a cool VW truck! Even powder blue, our favorite VW color right mom! :)
Here is Jake in an antique fire truck, it was nice that there were a few they could get in! They also had a great little play area, books, play kitchen, cars, art stuff, lots of fun.
And Riley in a big rig that had one part cut out so you could really see in it, even the bed in back! Right around the corner they had a little area with tables so you could take a picnic, and they had cookies out for us!! Yummy!
Here are the kids with Tractor Mac. There is a local artist who writes a series of children's books all about Tractor Mac, so they had a display of his art on the wall and then a tractor like the one in his books, they even added eyes to make it look like the character!
Fern LOUDLY refused to leave her perch, maybe I could rent her out to a local farmer!

We also went to the Naugatuck farmers market yesterday on the town green, it was a bit smaller than I am use to (3 vendors), but I got local onions, peaches, and blueberries so it was worth the trip. We ate all the blueberries today for snack, and used an onion for dinner, stone soup again! :)

Talking Fern!

I have been wanting to get this for posterity sake, so here is a video of Fern saying some of her words!

Hope it makes you smile!

Playing!

This afternoon was just beautiful, 83 degrees, and only 35% humidity! So we played for a while! Fern just loves to lounge in her swing, it is her favorite thing to do outside, except to pick green cherry tomatoes!
This is a stone wall in our neighbors yard. These are all over Connecticut.
Aren't my flowers pretty!
Riley was having fun running around doing alot of pretending! He stoped for a second to say cheese in front of the Winnie the Pooh tree!
Here's the top of the Winnie the Pooh tree, leafy hu!
And this is what Jake did.

CAUTION!!!

MAJOR COVETING GOING ON!!!! Dan sent some pictures of his trip so far. Here are a couple.Dan at the Parthenon at the Athens Acropolis. Yes this is in our history book this year, and no I will probably never see this in real life.
And the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I am sure I am not the only one with out sympathy for Dan having to go back to vacation...I mean work! :) I LOVE you Dan (even if I am coveting)!

Fern!

Fern was just too cute today so I have taken some pictures to share! This is Fern getting ready for the day. I was trying to get the kids moving but Fern was so cute I had to slow down and take pictures!
I love this one! Look at those cute toes!
She was very proud of herself!

Then we all went to the LLL meeting, had lunch, Fern took a nap, and the boys have run off with neighborhood kids! So Fern and I have gotten some time to hang out together.
She loves to look out the living room windows, they are just her size and all the others in our house are quite a bit over her head.
I caught her looking back at me!
Then she came and sat next to me and told me no more photos, but what mama could resist!! What a cutie, even when she is giving me the "eyebrows"! :)

Last night we had a Young Women's, it was the first Wednesday activity I was in charge of. The kids behaved well, although they would not leave my side. :) We are all still plugging along, it was nice to get out and visit with other moms this morning!

Thanks Guys!!

Well thanks to these two cuties, who are sitting in what use to be my make shift blanket box I got my new one!!!! Way back in Anaheim Dan came up with some great plans to make a big wooden box for me to keep blankets in in the living room. And then he built it, and then it sat in the garage, and then we moved it, and then it sat in our very own garage. :) But thankfully it is now sanded and sealed! I got to move all my blankets into it shortly after these two destroyed my elegant cardboard one! :) I know I didn't get a picture of it, I will but for now you just have to look at my cuties and see all the fun they had! :)
I love this one, their expressions are great! These two are just so cute, I am not sure if it is because they are closer in age than Riley and Jake were or if it is their personalities. But these two have a special relationship, it is great. :)

I GOT IT!

I got tagged my my good friend Natalie, so here it all is! :)

Jobs I've held:
1. babysitter
2. SVC Tour Guide (it is a National Historic Landmark)
3. General Store Clerk
4. Realtor Assistant
5. Dental office staff

Movies I can watch over and over:
1. Footloose
2. Mona Lisa Smile
3. Indiana Jones
4. Pride & Prejudice (newer movie)

Guilty Pleasures:
1. reading ALL day
2. antique stores

Places I have lived:
1. Vista, CA.
2. Buena (B-U-naa)Vista, VA.
3.Carlsbad, CA.
4. Costa Mesa, CA.
5. Anaheim, CA.

T.V. Shows I enjoy:
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Dancing with the stars
3. ?
4. ?

What were most likely the first things you thought of when you saw your significant other for the first time?
What is that thing sticking out of his pocket? :) He use to have a "do not remove before flight" tag off an airplane on his key chain. It was like a foot long and 2 inch. wide, it hung out and down his leg. Romantic hu! :)

Places I have been on vacation:
1. Cayucos, CA.
2. Edmonton, Canada.
3. London, England
4. Upstate NY.
5. Washington DC
6. Rockbridge County, VA.
7. Puyallup, WA.

My Favorite Foods:
1. Corn on the cob!!
2. Dan's pizza!
3. green beans -warm from the garden!
4. cherry tomatoes -warm from the garden!
5. Chickpeas ala king on Dan's fresh bread!
6. Lorene's Chinese salad (w/out the chicken!)

Websites I visit daily: (or when your on the computer)
1. my email
2. Higher Up & Further In
3. Novella's blog (which is NOT updated daily!!!)
4. Cherish's Blog
5. Accuweather.com
6. Rima's Blog

Body parts I have injured:
1. knee #1
2. knee #2
3. various scraped/bruised/cut/smooshed pieces parts

Awards I have won:
1. Girl Scout Silver Award
2. Young Womanhood Award
3. Any more mom??

Nicknames I've been called:
1. Dan-dan
2. Banana
3. Bambi (threw you for a loop with that one hu!)

Now I get to pick 4 other blog buddies to do this:
1. Mary -my sister
2. Cherish -my good friend & old visiting teacher
3. Laura -my sister in law
4. Rima - my friend with 2 adorable girls!!

Now if any of you hit me again, you will pay, I hate these! But I will play along happily THIS time. Next time I may just pretend I did not see! :)

Fun & Dinner!

When I was a little girl my sister, dad and I had a special stone we kept in the cupboard and we would occasionally make stone soup. I think it originally came from my Girl Scout book. Well I thought we needed a little fun today so I took the kids outside to search for our own magical soup stone. And as we searched for it it developed a little more of a story, like there is only one magical soup stone in every back yard, and it is usually found near a tree. :) So my imagination has been a little more active since reading the last Harry Potter. Here is the magical stone we found in our back yard, it was under our Winnie the Pooh tree. Riley is quite in awe of it! :)
And here is our stone soup just about ready, it is just veggies & some black beans I had in the freezer, and a bit of cilantro at the end. We had this for dinner with some of Dan's bread made into garlic toast. MMMM! It is a good thing we have air conditioning, it was 96 degrees F. with 67% humidity, YUCK!!!!!

And we have been SUPER blessed, Dan left this morning for Florida, and the Dr. decided he wanted to come back tonight! So we get Dan tomorrow, and then until they leave for Europe! YEA!!!! We are very excited. :)

:)

Well we got a surprise last night, Dan got to fly home! He did not get in until midnight, but we all got to wake up to him this morning!! We are very thankful that it all worked out, we sure did not plan on it. So we get him for today and then he is gone again, but it is looking promising we'll see him for 2 days next week! :) Dan came bearing gifts!! You all are probably thinking , Ziploc's are a gift? Well these are the Ziploc Veggie bags that they do not sell in the U. S. anymore. Dan's captain Torry bought them for me in Canada! I was down to about 3, I wash them but they do eventually die. Torry bought me 2 boxes, so I now have 30 bags!!!! Yippee!! Then Dan brought us the sweets, in Nebraska there is a store called Licorice International, mmmmm, I love licorice! So Dan brought me black Kookaburra licorice from Australia, and fish licorice from Germany for the kids. It may be just after breakfast but I have already tried mine and they are amazing!! I'll let the kids try theirs after lunch! :)
Here is Riley's new haircut, it is funny there are sections of his hair that are lighter and some darker, and so now he has this round section of light colored hair on the back of his head. It is easy to see with it so short. Riley has been all about trying to ride his bike, he does not petal yet, but he is at least steering so he has not run in to the rocks and fallen in the flower bed lately. His bike is a bit too small though so that makes it a bit harder, when he trys to petal his knees hit the handle bars if he is turning! :)
This is Jake's, "I don't want to show you my new haircut" face. He was trying to keep his eyes away. :) But look you can see his eyes now, no sheep dog named Jake lives here anymore!
Walla!! If you've visited us you know that this side of downstairs was covered in boxes, you could only see half of the windows! But here are the beautiful shelves Dan made for me, and my new table (we love the "as is" pile at Ikea)! All the boxes under the table are filled with fabric (I am a Jenson girl) and the boxes in the corner are pictures, and then the picture boxes on top of them are so I can organize them. We found them super cheap at Ocean State which is similar to Big Lots.
This is the shelf on the left. This is my school shelf, see how nice and high the scissors, glue, crayons and markers are?? Do you think it will prevent little fingers?? We'll see! :)
And here is the shelf to the right, it is just for regular books, but the baskets at the top are also school, but they needed to be high also! :) As you can see I got curtains done for one window, now I just have to get the others done. Something for me to do while Dan is flying around Europe! :) That and curtains for the kids room, I finally have material for them! :)

I am now off to play with my family and enjoy my hubby!

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! :)