March

March

March was a strange month for weather.  It was hot and it was cold.  I even woke up one morning to a thick layer of frost on my windshield.  I had to scrap it off before I could drive.

Dr. Seuss' Birthday
We started off the month by celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday.  Growing up I never really cared for his books but now I love them and so does the rest of my family.  The week leading up to his birthday, we read lots of Dr. Seuss books, we watched the Lorax (on Netflix)and Horton Hears a Who (which was one of the shared gifts from us to the kids).  On his birthday, we had Carter over for a Dr. Seuss dinner of green eggs and ham (an mashed potatoes).  The kids loved it. I think both, Josh and Carter, thought I was a bit strange. But they both said they enjoyed it by the end of the night.  We finished up by reading all the our Dr. Seuss books (5) plus the 2 we borrowed from the library.

Lego Class
Our Lego class is still going strong.  Landon looks forward to it every week, as well as many of the other kids.  I love teaching it, every week :)

Lego Class

 Everyday life

Fun around the house

 Red Robin
Gainesville now has a Red Robin.  I had never been to one but people around here seemed pretty excited.  Josh and I didn't really have any opinion about it one way or another... Until our friend Michelle told me that they were allowing you to sign up for a free meal.  So... I signed up our family.  Josh met us at the mall for lunch.  We had a lovely, yummy meal that was a little over $55 for free!!  How awesome is that?  The food was really good too!  So now I think I get why everyone was excited about Red Robin.  They have great service and awesome food! Plus they gave us some free food and I am always up for that!

Red Robin Lunch

St Patrick's Day
 I love St Patrick's Day.  I always have.  I am Irish. I had an Irish maiden name.  I always get pretty into St Patrick's Day, well I wear green and since Josh and I have been married we almost always have corned beef and cabbage at least once in March.  I LOVE corned beef and cabbage.  Which is kind of funny because I remember it being a big family tradition things growing up and I hated it!  Oh well, I guess that is why it is always good to keep trying things, because you never know when you will start liking them.

St Patrick's Day fun and crafts

Painting
We have been working on the play area in the back yard.  Arabella and I painted the inside of the playhouse/fort.  We used left over paint that we have collected.  So one great part was the project was free :)
There is now a green, red, blue, and purple wall.  While I was painting, a little bird came to keep me company and sing me a song.  It was such a treat!

More Corks & Colors painting fun :)

Family Fun Day
We had to do some work in Niceville.  It was only going to take an hour or so but we could stay.  So instead of dreading a 8 hour drive to and from Niceville, Josh thought we should just make a family fun day out of it.  We went to the Florida Caverns.  Unfortunately, it was spring break so the tickets for the caverns (which you can not buy in advanced) were sold out by the time we got there.  We still had a lot of fun.  We walked on the nature trails and found caves to explore ourselves.  We will be planning another trip there so we can go in the caverns but for a family fun day it was a perfect outing!

Florida Caverns

Easter
The Saturday before Easter/Resurrection Sunday, we joined many other friends at Mrs Jean's house for a pot luck lunch, games and egg hunt.  She host this every year and it is always a blast.  This year was no different.

Lunch, Dancing with Daddy, and Games at Mrs Jean's

Eggs!!!

Enjoying wide open spaces and the goats.  Especially the mommy with her baby.

Anyone interested in a "Apple" that tastes a lot like a potato?!?

 Sally and Jeremiah came to visit for Easter weekend.  We were glad to have them visit although it was much too short of a visit.  Thank Sally for taking our pictures! :)

Resurection Sunday family pictures :)

Christmas Paintings

I painted several Christmas themed pictures for gifts this year.  I plan on trying to sell my paintings soon.  But for now and I am sure in the future I love making them as gifts.  Let me know what you think of them.  

Birthdays!!!!!!!!!!

I love September. Well I might be a little bias... it is my birthday month and the month that I first held my first child for the first time.  Landon and my birthday are 5 days apart and I love it.  I also love September because the day after my birthday is Autumn my favorite month. 

This year Landon choose a Batman birthday theme.  Not really what I wanted him to pick but I went with it.  I was surprised he picked it because he has never watched Batman and doesn't even have a Batman toy (although now he has lots (;  ).  Landon helped a lot in the planning, I have to say he is quite the planner.  He knew what he wanted to eat, what decorations he wanted, what kind of dessert and who he wanted to invite.  I helped offer some suggestions but it was mostly his ideas. 

I thought it would be fun to have the kids dress up so we edited the theme to be Batman's Superhero Party.  I loved the costumes!  I think I will be encouraging my children for more dress up themed parties.  Arabella went as Sailor Moon.  Sailor Moon is a Japanimation or Anime Super hero that was my favorite growing up. I made Bella's costume. Landon went as Batman, of course.  My parents, Josh and I bought the different parts to Landon's costume.  I was Catwomen and Josh was Joker, per request of our son-Batman. 

The Super Heroes (and Joker)

 Thank you everyone who made Landon's birthday special!!!

Party Time!

 The Joker had captured some of our little Super heroes (seen in lower right hand corner) so all the BIG super heroes had to brave past THE JOKER and bring the little super heroes to the safety of Mrs. Victoria ;)  The kids had fun!

Save the Super Hero Game!

Birthday Boy and His Cake and Cupcakes!

 Mommy and Batman's Party back home with our family at Uncle Jon's and Aunt Merry's.  I was surprised with the most amazing chocolate raspberry cake made for me by my sister, Merry.  It was the best cake I have ever had!  Although the trip home included leaving a day late (due to sickness and just too much to do), loosing Reesie for 4 hours in Tallahassee (Josh stayed behind to look for her and thankfully he and Sally found her), Jon driving to Tallahassee to pick up Josh, and a whilwind trip home in general, Landon and I did have a great time celebrating our birthdays and so thankful we have an amazing family to celebrate with!

The Super Heroes, Cat Women, and Joker

Cake, Presents and Play Time!

We also enjoyed celebrating a family friend's birthday.  Emma turned one! 

We were excited to celebrate with her and family and friends!

Family fun in the Sun time: Our July

Here is a few of the happenings of our July.

Fourth of July was spent having fun with family and friends.  We had a great morning as a family and then headed to the Durrenberger's after nap for dinner and fireworks.   Julie and her kids also were there to join in the fun. 

One Sunday after Sunday school, we headed out to the Ichetucknee Springs with Sally and the Fairrows.  It was so funny.  Arabella wasn't too fond of the 78 degree water, it did feel pretty cold that day.  She and I hung out and watched everyone play in the water and to Arabella's delight there were some kids with balloon that we were able to watch.  Landon hung out on Daddy's shoulders in the water most of the time.  It was a no nap day for Landon but he did awesome! 






 We joined my MOPS group at the UF Museum of Natural History.  The Peines were there too and we walked around the building with them after hanging out in the kids center. 











Here are some pictures from the rest of the month.  Mostly just having fun around the house.  We took Landon and Arabella to see a little local play of Custard the Dragon, which is one of Landon's favorite books.  It was okay but Landon loved getting to hug Custard (see below).  Landon, Bella and I went on a nature walk/ treasure hunt and made a college (top right hand). Landon is getting to be a skilled toothbrusher.  On night Josh walked into the bathroom to go brush his teeth and found Landon already doing so (second row on the right)  Landon has been having fun with exploring his world with chalk drawings, spray bottles and Play-Doh (pictures various places below).  Landon loves cars and trains and Arabella is normally trailing him as fast as she can (See below for train track made of books and a train station on a table )


I went to Chaysen and baby Emma's shower.  Can't wait until we get to meet baby Emma, who should be here any day now. 

 Landon helped Daddy make Mommy a shelf for the bathroom.  Josh later painted it black. 

 Arabella has found the fish tank and loves it.  She will scoot over to it (now she crawls since she is crawling on all fours as of this past week!). She just stares at it for several minutes then pulls up on the ledge and bangs on the glass. 

 Trying to get to the pool as much as possible but this month it just didn't happen that much. 

 Arabella loves music and loves Landon's guitar from his Great Aunt Leah. 

This was one of the strangest thing I have seen Reesie our cat do, which is saying a lot because she is a very strange cat.  She loves Landon's car basket.  Once he dumps the cars out she tends to hop in there and try to stay as long as possible.  This day I couldn't even get her out so I decided she would surely get out if we just started filling up the basket.  As you can see below I was very wrong.  She didn't get out until EVERY car, truck and train was back in the basket and she still waited a few seconds/minutes to get out. 

Why being a mommy of two is awesome...

My smiley girl

I have never seen such a young baby smile as much as she does

My silly boy

He has an awesome imagination and love to dress up.  Just about every night after a bath he wants to dress up in his hat, socks, and mittens and makes up some story about it being cold.

The best of all...

My loves loving on each other

 

That is why being a mommy is awesome!!!