Our spring so far

I am so glad it is spring--we've been loving being outside and meeting neighbors and getting some sunshine. Although it is great, my kids seems to think they can go outside whenever they want, for however long they want, and regardless of whether we call them back. We are working on that. Unfortunately, Blake can unlock the door, and Sadie can get the door open when it is unlocked. Fortunately, they tend to leave the door open when they leave, so I usually know when they've escaped.

We've also played indoors on colder days, and now have to find more to do during May since Mom's Morning Out is done for the summer and storytime at the library doesn't happen during the month of May.

Busy with play-doh. He always grabs a bunch of kitchen utensils to assist in his play time

Can't get this girl to stay off the table--this picture made me smile

Sadie does pretty good with play-doh, as you can tell from the video: 

Play-doh pancakes

Blakey helping his Daddy--unfortunately, the little mower wasn't moving well through the grass, so he eventually gave up. Not a good design!!

Sadie loves hats!! 

Blake trying on Daddy's hockey equipment :) 

Having a lunch date with Teddy Bear. The kids love this table and chairs our neighbor gave us and drag it into the house sometimes

Sadie having her own little snack here (Blake was still napping) :) 

She also loves to put on Blake's helmet (and tear out the padding from the inside)

Morning snack with a shopping cart

Break for drink

Break for muffin

And we're off! 

Blake decided to take a nap in our room--which I didn't realize right away after sending him back to his bed after he tried to stay up. Had to take a picture b/c it was so cute :) 

Well, I just tried my hand at another garage sale (my second ever, but first on my own), and we made cookies for Blake and Sadie to sell. I'm serious when I say "we." This is the aftermath...

Things to note from the pictures above and below:
1). Bowl in the upper left hand side of the picture has flour and a spatula that Sadie was playing with.
2). (Semi-)Bare spot is where Sadie was sitting
3). Blue bowl has a bunch of flour where I was trying to sift out the tiny pieces of Swiss cheese that Blake had mixed into the bag of flour. I had already sifted the sugar...
4). Oatmeal that Blake tried to put flour into that I stopped before it happened. The oatmeal did end up in the flour though, but I think I got most of that out before the Swiss cheese was added.
5). Package of Swiss cheese that Blake shredded to add and mix into the flour and sugar.
6). Mess on the floor and on me is not visible in this picture :)
7). Oatmeal raisin cookies still a success! :)
(I even dared make chocolate chip after this)

Sadie after the fact

Blake after the fact :) 

 Turns out Blake is an awesome salesman and at times even placed bags of cookies into people's hands, so they were almost forced to buy from him. He was pretty persistent, so a couple times I told people there was no pressure :)


Turns out both my kids love our neighbors...and their electronic four-wheeler!

Sadie getting a ride. She loves this girl and always gets excited to see her.

This weekend Blake ventured out on his own and we haven't been able to get him off since....nor have the other kids. We are working on him sharing this toy that isn't his!!

He's a little pro!

Happy as can be! 

Blake and Daddy chillin' watching a kid's truck video on the kindle. 

A typical day

Gotta love kids!!!

Sadie's first words

Sadie has just all of a sudden started talking (as in Friday she started repeating things) and she is now loving the fact that she can say "no." It is so cute how she says it so I had to get it on video before she changes the way she says it. 

Sadie's first words

Blake has a cold right now, so is watching Thomas. Every day, probably at least once, he tries to tell me he is sick or has an owie so that he can watch a show. He's even got the "I'm sick" voice and facial expression down so that you truly feel sorry for him. He usually doesn't get the show, but every once in a while, like tonight, he does. So, I'm sure the charades will continue :) 

So, last week Blake and I made cookies, which he has a hard time not eating. So, the next morning he arrives in our bedroom while we are still in bed with the container of cookies. I tell him he can't have cookies for breakfast. A bit later, Scott goes downstairs and comes up and says, "guess who left the light on in the laundry room all night?" 

"Really?", I say. "I was sure I turned it off last night...I remember doing it. Maybe Blake turned it on...sometimes he goes downstairs...?"
I asked this in a feeble attempt to clear my name, knowing he doesn't go downstairs before breakfast.

A bit later, I realize the cookies are nowhere to be seen, so I ask Blake where they are. He replies, "the basement."

I whoop with glee as I tell Scott he'd better apologize to me for blaming me for leaving the light on all night, so we have Blake go down and show us where the cookies are as proof (because Scott was not about to apologize without proof).

He brings us to the laundry room!!

I tell Scott, I want this documented, so I make him hold up the box Blake had stowed the cookies in. He wasn't thrilled with this documentation, as you can see :) 

Blake longingly looking at the cookies before breakfast, haha

Following are just some fun pictures over the last month or so :) 

Sadie's favorite spot to "help" me

Such a big helper

And of course Blake needs up after seeing Sadie up here

Checking out the backyard

My apples after my helper was on the counter with me :) 

Baby girl sleeping with her "old" teddy

 I guess I should explain the above photo caption. Sadie fell in love with Blake's bear. I tried to replace it with the above bear, but it still just wasn't the same, as she still completely preferred Blake's. I'm sure it was due to Blake loving it, but who knows, maybe this bear has magical powers over my kids...so, I found a "collector" brown bear, which was a Kohl's cares bear 3 years ago online! Gotta love the internet. I then get Sadie the exact same bear as Blake and she loves it. I was a little concerned she wouldn't b/c there is an obvious difference in color, size, and feel due to 3 years of hard loving from Blake. His bear is darker (dirtier?), definitely less fluffy, and more flimsy due to matted stuffing, but she's really grown attached, so it was a good buy :) At least they are easy to tell apart--Blake never mistakes Sadie's bear for his own.

Heard the kids laughing outside and stepped out on the deck to find Sadie pushing Blake, haha

Checking out the border Blake had pulled out from our gardens :(

We had leftover steak from the night before and Blake grabbed it from the fridge and brought it outside. I opened the door to find Sadie chewing on it, with the extra piece lying on the concrete :) 

Me and my girl

A rare smile from her, as she won't take smiling pictures with me

Me and my boy (and his bear)

Sadie's stink eye

Ok, some things are just worth running downstairs and posting b/c they are that good. Sadie's stink eye falls under that qualification, if you ask me. Scott and I both just laugh so hard when she gives the good ones, like in the video below :)

Stink Eye


She gave another good one to Scott b/c she wanted guacamole. He wasn't too keen on sharing initially, but got the stink eye and then gave in. Sadie is the type of girl that thinks she has to eat just because you are. It doesn't matter when she last ate, if you are eating, she needs to too.

Sadie has also developed a fondness for Blake's teddy bear, which she gets to play with when he is napping and didn't decide to take to bed with him :)

In and out of the drawer...

Back out and slinging under her arm to assume the proper carrying position

And she's off :) 

Before church this morning, Blake asked Scott to play blocks with him and to build a car. Well, Blake is pretty bossy when he instructs Scott on how to build a car and it eventually morphed into a tower b/c Blake was putting restrictions on blocks Scott could use (i.e. the block with a half moon cut out of it is a tunnel and just cannot be used as part of a vehicle, haha), but Blake was ok with it going higher and higher.

Well, Blake was about to take a piece out of the tower, much to my horror, b/c these blocks are heavy and hard and it hurts when they fall on you from a short tower, much less Blake's "car" tower. Anyway, he discovered an anomaly in the blocks--there was one that wasn't supporting anything!

So, we got a picture...and a couple more :) I tried hard, but couldn't get them both to look at the camera at the same time, but here's a couple good ones

Then Scott discovered that we could remove a couple more blocks:

Yes, this is actually leaning as it appears due to Scott's "wheels"

Add caption

And the final removal of blocks!!

I must say, I was quite impressed!!

Well, of course you can't have this and not destroy it, so I made Blake put on shoes to protect his feet and he got to destroy it:

Car tower destroyed

Typically, when they destroy towers, the blocks fall towards them, so I was pleased on the destruction of this one. As a note, Scott just gets such a kick out of Blake saying "Blake Miles" which is why he laughs after he asks his name. And as another note, "ball" is the only word that I know for sure Sadie says :) and yes, she does love to play with balls!