Liana, Thalia, Diana...and the Chicken's Bath

 
 
 
Liana just had back surgery! and brought delicious food to our house today! her mom came too..such a nice visit...
i let the chicken out today to play and eat bugs in the enclosed garden...all her chicken friends ran to the other side of the fence and they chatted away..catching up after so long...i could imagine "hey, where have you been?...what did you do to your back?" she had a wonderful time! and bathed in the dirt...so kelley and i gave her a water bath tonight.

Water Color

we go through finger paint so quickly and it is kinda pricy....so this morning, i just put some food coloring in little bowls with water and jack fingerpainted with that...it is so pretty! water color!

Cricket Classical Music

i am listening to whisperings...a classical station on itunes which plays piano music...they are playing a rendition of twinkle twinkle little star with cricket noises in the background...it is magically beautiful. =)
josh just got home...8pm! bless him...he is tired. kelley just brought the chicken home...she finished her last bout of antibiotics today...so she'll live inside with us for a couple more weeks until totally healed...she has a cage to go in under the kitchen table...but she likes to snuggle by the fire too =)
jack and esme and i dug up sweet potatoes today! we didn't have very many...next year, i'll plant many more...we eat them so readily...yummy =)
ok...off to bed now. jack has been out of sorts...the first day back after a trip is always testy. he is such a creature of habit....we had 2 tantrums today...one in hte parking lot of bells food store...and one here at the house...true kicking screaming tantrums.
night night

 
 
 
 

Our Kids

 
 
 
 
i think jack is getting to look a bit more like me...i dont' know...but esme is surely still her daddy's girl =) tom is working on this garden...the wall, the beds...and veggies..and next year flowers...it really is quite amazing. we dug sweet potatoes and found some nearly football sized!

More Bdays

todd had a bday at the beginning of this month...he turned 45...sure doesn't look it! and then josh, of course on the 16th of this month...27...and then tom the 25th of the month at 68...he doesn't look that either! i think josh looks a perfect, gorgeous 27 =) finally, he is catching up with me! o wait, it doesn't work like that does it? hehe.

the adams' family

 
 
 
 
o, so i realized once upon a time when i posted "josh will be gone tonight" and then laid in bed and felt a little creepy like i'd just informed everyone who i might not know reads this that i am here by myself with the kids! yikes! i used to live in a barn that didnt' have a lock by myself on 100 acres and slept like a baby. but somehow having children just changes all that...when i am alone with them at night, my mind goes down all the rabbit trails of what i'd do if someone came in...
anywho...so i decided i'd not post i was leaving and then just chat when i was in summerville ...but the connection is o so slow that i couldn't ever actually post anything! =)
but i'm about to make up for it...with oodles of photos =)
esme crawled under the table for most of our mealtime...like a puppy picking up crumbs =) jack just eyed the cake and yelled "cuppacake! cuppacake!" for "cut the cake" so cute.
the kids loved having all these loving arms to crawl in..especially jack. esme still thinks that mom pretty much is the bomb and everyone else is just not there yet =) how great to have live-in fans.

A Birthday Visit to...

 
 
 
 
josh's parents house! it was tom's 68th bday so his 3 kids came with respective families and dogs for a visit. i took the field photo bc it was hilarious...there were 12 dogs present on this occasion! molly and todd have 5 (molly rehabs strays and finds good homes for them...they actually only have 4 of their own and then any number extra), grace and tom have 6 and we brought cash (left harry at home bc he smelled like poop)
josh came home sunday...when i thought i would come home too...but jack was having such a good time that i decided to stay until today...grace just dropped us off...it was a lovely lovely visit

Updates

Sugar: i made cookies for tom's bday and ate about 8 of them...and now am eating the top off the rest of the ginger cheesecake
Chicken: kelley says she is watching law and order and walking happily around her house
Diarrhea: i think we are back to solid "dropping off kids in the pool" as my friend marybeth said once and i thought was so so funny
Stepping Stones: the mortar mix didn't work...i used portland cement last time and i should have used it this time..so i chipped out the stones with the names on them and will try again next week
Josh: left the house at 5:20 this morning and got home at 8pm...wow.

Coffee Night

 
 
 
 
after all of our munchkins were safely tucked away in bed, marybeth and i went out for a cup of coffee...we sat outside and sipped (or rather, i guzzled) our delicious hot wonders and chatted and chatted...until 11:30!!! i couldn't believe it was that late! it always makes me so happy to hang out with maryloo...she is one of the easiest people to be around. and has been such a friend to me since we were freshman in college...i honestly don't know what i'd do without her.

Happy little snake.

 

"go away snakes"

 
one time kelley yelled into the woods "go away snakes" and clapped her hands. jack found this very helpful and filed it away as what to do before entering the woods...always. so last night when we drove to the bottom of the property and hopped out to take a walk...he commences scaring all the snakes away...so cute. (and saying "1,2,3 wake up jeff!" which he learned from the wiggles!)
anywho, the next post is going to be of the snake we found =)

The Love of Hats

 
 
 
 
jack loves hats...esme hates them. jack loves them. he makes just about anything into a hat....and crawls up on his highchair so he can check himself out in the mirror...he made himself into an "lelephant!" and a "monkey"...and of course, an "uncle david"

Morning has Broken

and jack seems to be better about the deer. he woke up and told me he didnt' like the deer's face and we talked again about how grateful to the deer we are...and by breakfast, he was wearing uncle david's hunting hat quite proudly. it is a cold day!!! we started a fire last night and will probably have one in the fire place until spring =) the kids and i are trying to find inside things to play....pulling around in the laundry basket was this mornings fun =)
colds seem almost better all around...yippee!!!
tried to cob this morning but like putting my hands in icecream...soooo cold. will need to get some gloves but won't be able to cob for too much longer ...will have to think of something to put up there as a roof until spring.