Mama's Little Loves

We took a trip to the Children's Museum today. Oh, how I wish that we would have gone sooner. All of the month of May I could get in for free with my membership and I so wish I would have taken advantage. I guess I had the idea that a museum is a museum and would be filled with stuffed birds and other such things. I was SOOoo wrong! This place is amazing and so much fun. We definitely could have spent the entire day there.
Check out this kitchen. It was filled with all sorts of fun things for kids. Here is a sand area filled with all different kinds of trucks and toys.
Piper driving a VW Bug. I don't know what is going on with my camera, but the pics turned out a little blurry I though.



Sorry for the multitude of pictures, but I had so many more that I could have put up. I just wish my camera would stop acting up and take better pictures...or maybe it's me. Who knows?

Labels: My garden, The Gardens

We had such a relaxing weekend over the Memorial Day Holiday. I love those weekends when Caleb gets a little extra time off of work and the girls and I get to spend a little bit more time with him. Ambry and I cleaned out the toy room and organized it over the weekend. I could not believe her! She was picking stuff to sell left and right, no tears or anything. I had got 8 little clear plastic tubs on sell at Lowe's for 4 for $1.00 so we were sorting and organizing all those misc. little pieces. I figured it would make it easier to find stuff also for her. She does way better picking up also when everything has a specific place to go.

We got her bedroom furniture last week!!! Yeah! Her clothes are now in drawers and I love it. No more messy shelves. She LOVES having her new bedroom set and is also better at cleaning up her room now too. Gotta love it when they ask if it is okay to clean their own room!

I've had my garden in for a couple weeks and took some pictures. I have one cherry tomato, 3 tomato plants, 3 jalapenos, 3 banana peppers, 4 green peppers, two red peppers, two yellow peppers, 3 cups of cucumbers with about 20 seedlings growing in them, and about 8 seedlings of watermelon--I think they are called Sandia watermelons? They are the smaller ones. I had cucumber and watermelon seeds that I planted in little cups to get them to germinate and just about all of them germinated! I don't think I have ever been so excited to see something grow. I think I planted WAY too much, but I think it will be fun for Ambry to go around and try to sell them. She is such a little salesperson. When we go to garage sales, if she sees someone checking out something, she will go over and try to get them to buy it. There were some cookies and bars at one and she was going around offering them to people and trying to get them to buy them. The lady having the garage sale joked around that she should keep Ambry there to be her saleslady.

If I remember to, I will load up pics of Ambry's "new" room and the garden. Hope everyone has a good Wednesday! Boy, that feels funny typing that--it feels like a Tuesday to me. :)

Labels: My garden

Beach Day!!!

Thank you so much Jenn for taking the girls and me to the beach! We had so much fun! Ambry was soooo tired today--and grumpy--but it was definitely worth it.
I couldn't get any very good pictures of Ambry. She was way too excited to be at the beach.
Can you believe she is actually in the water?!? Althought the water felt like it was in the lower sixties, it was a pretty windy day. Definitely NOT swimming weather!

Here she is getting ready to run down a "sand dune".
Piper enjoying a snack out of Jenn's suntan stick.
She spent most of the day in the backpack carrier since we spent a good hour walking the beach and the pier. Plus it was easier to set her in the pack than it was to deal with digging sand out of her mouth every two seconds...literally, every two seconds!
Just curious, also...about the whole swimsuit modesty issue. I wear a two piece bathing suit and love the little girl bellys in two piece swimsuits. But, is it just "preparing" them in a way to dress more immodest as they get older? I honestly can not remember what I wore for a bathing suit when I was four or even ten years old for that matter. Anyway, just curious.

Labels: Ambry and Piper pics, vacation

**WARNING--picture overload**

I had one of THE best mother's day ever! Caleb took Ambry on Saturday morning to a workshop at Lowe's. They had a free herb giveaway and you got to make these little holders for the herbs also. I told him that was what I would like for Mother's day. So that was all I was expecting to get. Ambry kind of ruined his other surprise a little bit. They got home and Ambry jumps out of the car to give me the herbs and then turns around and tries to get something else out of the car. Caleb wanted to completely surprise me and was a little flustered when Ambry tried to get the other present out of the car. He finally hid it in the trunk-the only place she couldn't get to. :) Anyway, Sunday morning he gave me the other present...Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0!!! I have wanted this program for a while and I was very surprised that he got it for me. I am working right now of going through my thousands of pictures...literally...that I have taken and deleting the ones that didn't turn out and organizing them. I have messed with a few pics so far and I can't wait to do more with the program. It is soooo much fun!

We went to Caleb's mom's house for lunch and then up to my mom's house for dinner. I also got a present up at their house from Jeff. THANK YOU again!!! He got me Clinique makeup set witha little makeup bag and the Happy perfume set (body creme lotion, big perfume bottle, and a rollon stick of perfume with lip gloss on the other side. All of that also came in a cute bag.) and a nice big bag that all of that came in that I am using for a bag for all of Piper's stuff. I am smelling so good while editing my pics! I was not expecting anything at all and it was so nice getting something! Thank you Jeff! Here is a picture of Ambry and Rosie after putting makeup on each other and then sporting some oh-so-cute sunglasses. If only you could have seen the great job Rosie did with makeup. Eyeshadow above the eyebrows and hot pink to boot!


We went to the Gardens yesterday again. We spent most of our time outside and it was such a nice day to do that. I even let Ambry put on her bathing suit and play in all the water there and get all wet. She loved every minute of it!
Here she is playing the wooden xylophone. (I think that is what it is called.)
They have this little game outside with a path and different color spots on it. They have a monarch butterfly costume and you have to spin the little thingy and then 'fly to the next spot. The object is to make it from MI to Mexico--which is the migration of the monarch butterfly. Ambry had no clue. She just spun the thingy and would 'fly' to wherever she saw that color. She had no clue about following the whole path object. :)

There is a fountain there that I think you are just supposedto stick your feet or hands in, but Ambry decided it was for sitting in. So she sat in it. :)

Miss Piper lookin' oh so stylin' in her glasses.
She found some of that ornamental grass next to her and she was cracking up over it. I don't know why she found it so funny, but she would just look at the stuff and start grinning.
Here she is trying to eat more sand...
Hope everyone has a great Wednesday!

Labels: Ambry and Piper pics, Mother's Day, The Gardens

I was checking out some of the information that you can get from statcounter and noticed that someone landed on my blog by searching for 'plastic pants'. I don't think they meant to land on my blog, but I thought it was pretty funny.

Yesterday was Caleb and my 4th anniversary. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by already! It does not seem like we have been married that long already. He tried to surprise me last night with dinner, but it backfired a little. :) I called him around 5:00 to see when he would be home and he told me around 7:30 or 8:00. So the girls and I ate dinner a little early--around 5:30--because I figured I could get in a good walk to the park and be back in time to make him dinner. Boy, was I surprised when he showed up at 6:00 all excited to go out for dinner! He had even called his parents and asked them to come over and sit with the girls so we could go out by ourselves. I told him he has to quit trying to be so sneaky! So we went to Applebee's and he ate dinner while I drank a bunch of water. Then we went to the icecream place up the road from us and I splurged and got a snicker flurry. Yummm!

Even though we didn't get to really eat dinner together, I loved it that he surprised me. I hope that God will give us many more years together and that our marriage can grow more in His Love. Thank you for giving me four great years of marriage so far, babe. I love you!

Labels: stuff

So I start softball season here soon and although it isn't a serious league, I still want to be a little bit in shape...I figure I need to be at least able to run the bases without getting out of breath. :) So I have taken up walking. Yesterday the girls and I walked over th D&W. I put Piper in the backpack carrier ($5.00 at a garage sale and I figured it would be handy for trips like this) and put Ambry in the running stroller with some books. I even threw some cans in the back of the stroller to bring back. Caleb and Gerrit thought it was probably around 3 miles round trip. I'm hoping it was close to that. I figure I can bribe Ambry with going on that walk if we stop at the ice cream place on the corner.

We went to the park today and I was able to take a couple pics of the girls. None of them turned out real great though, so we'll have to go back and take some more. I loved this one of Piper cracking up though.

This is how most of the pics of the girls turned out together. Piper loves to pull Ambry's hair and Ambry loves to try to pull her own hair back. It is like some fun torture game for Ambry. So we will have to try for better ones of them next time together.

I like this profile one of Piper. It even looks like she has a chin. Quite an accomplishment for her. :)

Look at that grin. The picture turned out a little dark so I will have to try to fix that. I love how she is sitting up though and smirking. She looks so grown up.

I better get off to cleaning now. I am so tempted to go and sit out in the sun, but I have way too many projects that I want to get started. Have a good Tuesday!

Labels: Ambry and Piper pics

**EDITED with pics**


Boy oh boy have I been terrible about keeping this blog updated! Oh well. :) Our fencing in the backyard is just about complete. (I will put pics of it up later.) We just have to get some lattice to put under the deck by the pool so the kids won't be able to get out. It looks great! Ambry has been loving the dirt backyard! She goes out there and digs up worms and calls them her pets. Grandpa G., maybe when you are out here and if you go fishing she could find you some. She is not the least squeamish about them at all. Her Uncle Gerrit found her a baby turtle at work last week and gave that to her. They made a little home for it in her sandbox with a wall for it to not be able to get out and filled up a bucket with water. Unfortunately, an animal got it or something because we couldn't find it the next day. Ambry was a little down about that.


Here is just one pic of the two girls taking a bath. Those two LOVE their baths! Ambry thinks it is great now that they can take them together. They will usually play in there for about a half an hour. I warm up the water for them a couple times and they just splash around and play with the toys. I had some cuter ones of them both looking at the camera, but there were little legs going every which way. :) I will load up pics of the backyard later. Hope everyone has a good Monday!


Here is the gate by the side of the house. Those tall tree things worked out great right there because we didn't have to fence it in completely. Caleb made it swing to the inside--the backyard--and both sides swing so it isn't just a single gate. He wanted it that way in case we ever have anything real large we need to get in or out. He's so smart. :)



Here is the shed now with the dirt graded right up to the door. No more maneuvering to get the lawn mower in and out. Ambry's sand box is now full of sand and she loves it!







Here is the view from standing up on the deck and looking down. The right side of the fence runs into some huge pine trees so, again, we didn't have to completely fence it in. Then on the left side of the fence is where it runs into the pool deck. There is about a space of four or five feet under there that we have to put the lattice. Then the backyard will be completely fenced in. Yeah!

Labels: Ambry and Piper pics, redo back yard, stuff