In no particular order...

Arrrggg...

Gettin' some love from Christmas present 1: Summers' Family, lots o' use, I'm telling you!

 

and Christmas Present 2: Uncle Brett & Aunt Kim & Tyler...squish city!

 I luv me some carrots

 Quick, it's sorta warm...run to the park & play amidst the sprinkling water falling from the sky :)

The process of our Lacto-fermented salsa

 Kefir hanging in the dish towel for 24 hrs so the whey can drip out (same can be done with yogurt). Ohmyohmy, it made the most AMAZING cream cheese once all the whey had dripped out. I made 2 batches, one that was totally creamy, nothing added, mild flavored & one a little firmer, stronger flavor & then mixed it with chives. Both were a big hit! 

 Pretty colors. Imagine how it smells...

 Half a cup of whey is all that's need to activate the salt and lactic acid. Translation=no water bath canning, it has tons of good bacteria for the flora of your gut AND it lasts for 8 months+ in a cool location (all the sites I read said, "You'll KNOW when it's gone bad...")

See the bubbles? That's the good stuff at work :)

I had a "Crunchy Gals Night" at my house where we watched the documentary "Food Matters" & ate healthy food the ladies were kind enough to bring: homemade yogurt, chocolate cake (coconut sugar only!), sweet potato seasoned Kale chips (I wanted to eat them ALL! So much better than the olive oil/salt variety), pear/berry cobbler sweetened with maple syrup, my cheeses on Sourdough, chips/salsa. It was all food I could eat daily and still feel awesome--my kind of party! Why did I not take a picture, why?

 Tony felt inspired to have a campout. In our living room. In a tent. The boys wrote this agreement we all had to sign with a 'gray blood oath' (pencil) so we would know what things were and were not allowed and to hold us all accountable. For example, no lights could be turned on the entire night. Only candles. We had to have fun, cuddle, sleep well, and so on...it was a beautiful document. We made homemade grahams to put chocolate and bananas/pb on and we had an incredible shadow puppet show put on by the boys. Then we all tried to sleep. Tony & I snuck off to our beds around 6am since we took the sun's arrival as an official 'release' from our sworn duties.

 Friend Preston is now an 11 yr-old scout, but since his Dad is the boys' Webelos leader he was able to join in the festivities of the Blue & Gold for awhile. The boys were even kind enough to save him his desired kinds of cakes (of which there were many) once he had to scoot off to his activity.

 The fire cake.

 These 3 darlings come to my house every week for piano lessons while their Mom is at class and we have all sorts of fun. They were so kind in assisting me to the car with my 20 jugs...talk about expediting the process!

 The cutest assembly line you've ever seen...Jyson---not pictured :( brought the Sam's Club food in from the car & would put it on the table. Then Rhett would pick it up & carry it to Ari, who would then turn around & put it through the 'portal' window into the kitchen. They stuck it out the entire time!

Sunshine babies

 This picture just does not do it justice and the next few days it got so much worse...we have these solid wood benches at our table & they are pretty top-heavy. Ari pushed one & it landed on her foot. It was so sad! She sure got lots of lovin', but boy did it bruise up.

 After leaving my long-lasting little clover in Idaho when we moved 3 1/2 yrs ago, I decided St Patrick's Day was the perfect occasion to welcome one back into our home (& my only purchase for the shelf :). So many sweet flowers!

 This says it all.

 Green, white, and burlap. What could be happier?

 And this is what greets our guest in the little entry.

 Gotta love Pinterest and free printables.

Normal Life

 Yup. Normal life here.

 Two of these are not like the others...

 Jyson's saran wrap handle for his water bottle

 The indoor Farmer's Market & other vendors. Purchased: Grade B Maple Syrup, a mini all-natural perfume bar & sugar/gluten-free goodies. They were gooood.

 Then on to the Main Library (again)

 Home again, home again, jiggety-jig

 His current favorite use for the kitchen. Now you see him...

 Cute eyeballs...

Only the chubby fingers. Delicious!

Is it picture time again?

But why should I have to look at the camera? My profile is equally cute

 Song break...

Huh? Take my hand down from my head? But that's part of the song!

 Mom says "good enough," whatever that means. 

Though now aged 21 months, these pictures are of the 18month buddy boy in an old outfit of Jaydon  & Jyson (good thing I kept it for 10 years!!). This kid has aged so much in the last couple months, it's incredible!
-Nursery? No problem. See ya Mom. 

-He talks up a STORM, and it's daily getting more discernible to the outside world :)

-He has come.into.his.own. Meaning, he is a mini powerhouse of all sorts of energy! He thoroughly enjoys tackling anyone and everyone to the ground, climbing up backs while grunting and laughing, sitting on tummies and jumping up & down, etc...

-He eats most everything...as long as HE does the feeding. Otherwise, plug your ears & prepare for the screaming to commence

-He has the cutest little munchkin voice. He says "yeth" with a lisp and when a new person comes into any room anywhere he waves and says in his high voice, "HI!" with great gusto.

-He can sing/say all the words to "I Love to See the Temple"...if you have your encoding ears switched on

-Daddy's arrival each night is his favorite time of day, bar none. He's usually sitting in his high chair, eating & he shakes from side to side, yelling, "HI! getting more and more excited until the hero walks over to return the love.

-He does a great job saying "pease" and "dank you" even when snatching a toy/book/piece of clothing that may or may not be yours.

-He finally enjoys bath time...and drinking the water. That's when the joy ends.

-He learned how to climb out of the crib/play pen so now he sleeps on his little mattress on the ground (half the time I find him on the ground in the morning, cuddled up with his blanky)

-He tipped over the big ol' 4 drawer dresser singlehandedly recently during nap time with nary a scratch. Angel visit, I'm thinking.

-He's taught Ari to do all the things she didn't figure out on her own...climb on the table, the counters, out of the bed, push over the baby gates, open doors with the baby doorknob-things on them, run like the dickens when Mommy & Daddy call, find the chocolate chips for an after-breakfast feast, open the fridge, grab & shove whatever into your mouth, push the spacebar on the computer to get it to stop/start whatever is playing (music, conference talks, Dave Ramsey podcasts...) so Mommy will stop preparing dinner & come 'play', unload pantry shelves at amazing speeds, open the chest freezer to get out the 'staw-bewies' to then rip & devour, color & color & color on, oh, everything...

-He is such a happy boy and so joyfully mischievous, it's easy to forgive and love this guy.

A little V-day action

It's fun to have a deco shelf I can change with the holidays. The wreath I found for $2 at the thrift store, frame from Mom years ago, garland is the other side of the Thanksgiving garland, birds borrowed from another part of the house, candle from the candle storage bucket & I glued that pretty red toile (I've had it forever, made a curtain out of it & knew it would be of further use someday) onto the backing board that was in that thrifted frame...that's my favorite part because it's a lovely country wooing scene & it just fits so perfectly :)

Tony & I have a fabulous arrangement with a great gal in the ward...I teach her lessons & we get to go on a date once a month in exchange! It's marvelous because then all our budgeted money gets to go for awesome dates instead of paying for the baby-sitting! For our V-day date we went out to eat at "The Loving Cafe" which is a Vegan restaurant we recently heard about. It was soo good and we plan to go back there as much as possible :) Then we went to see Wreck-It-Ralph at the cheap theater. 

We did have a red V-day meal, but the proof is still lost in picture-cyberspace.

Moving on...

 Here we have the boys' final request...sleepover in the living room! Now that everyone was gone, there were plenty of air mattresses to go around...

 After staying nearly 3 weeks, it was time for Uncle Devin to go back to his other life. Ari was so sad that she couldn't go with him, she started crying and yelling, 'Uncle Devin!' as he was walking into the airport. Come again, anytime!

 When we got home Jaydon slipped on the ice going back into the house, and without a word Jyson went out & started chipping away at it so no one else would suffer the same fate. Warms my heart.

 Ari's 3yr checkup...at 3 1/2, he he. The nurses thought it was funny that she & Rhett took turns carrying around the big ol' bag of carrots (they prefer to eat them right out of the bag for some reason)

 A trip to the downtown library is more like a mini children's museum!

 Tony thinks I'm so funny because I say that one of the biggest perks of his job is the 'Gala' event in January. What can I say, I love food more than I love his clients? 

 Interesting that we mostly got pictures of the stuff we don't love to eat...the seafood spread (though Tony did eat some crab legs thanks to the tutorial of our friends). Still, the boat out of ice was pretty sweet stuff.

This, though, I totally dig. Major fondue fountain with the fixings. Mmmm...

 

Aren't I a graceful smile/chewer?

And...Tony received his 3 year award. He made it. We all made it. Who knows what the 4 year will bring...

 

Fellow member of the church who started working here about the same time Tony did. Since then there's been 2 others that are members get hired...they told Tony they like LDS guys there because of their honesty. Yes!

 And, since the holidays were a bit crazy, we opted to deliver "Happy New Year" granola to our neighbors.

 It was a beautiful day, so we got a lovely walk in. However, our Amish neighbors across the street have a big field and paddock closest to us so we had to walk on a more busy road to get to their place & the wind started blowing like crazy making me wonder if that had been the best choice after all for our little green-nosed kids. They are the nicest people. She wanted to invite us in to give us a tour, but she recently had her 8th baby (the first 7 were girls & they finally got a boy!) and he had a few health problems so she told us we could come back another time. We did get to go in their basement where she showed us her homemade laundry soap bars (they have to sit for an entire year before using!). She also gave us some of the best homemade taffy ever...it honestly tasted like caramel. Yeah, we'll be going back ;)

 We have really big leaves here, which equals really big ice formations of them sometimes. Neat stuff.

 

These kids just love to hang on Daddy's chin up bar. So does Daddy. He quite literally 'jumps' into the kitchen on a regular basis. And the boys have increased their pull-ups as well. I can do a whole half a pull up. 

 Sitting on tables is this dude's favorite past time.

 Sunday snuggles 

The boys decided to surprise all the nappers (that would be the littles & Tony & I) with a pancake dinner, complete with signs and a special surprise...

Remember Dashleen? She made another appearance, with the leftover handouts from the RS lesson I taught that day taped to her antlers. What a good little reindeer.

 The deal at our house is that if the boys want pancakes--and they do--they are responsible for the clean up. But who needs a shirt when you have an apron?

Lunch date with friends