Cherry Blossoms

I need your opinion....

Which one of these images do you like the best? I am entering another photography exhibit, and I think I may use one of these.

one

two

(Click to see larger, and see if you can find the heart.)

three

four

five




Thanks!

(A few of them look a little cool....(blue) ignore that. I'll warm them up. =)

Apple picnic

I loved this day.

My new favorite angle....just put the camera in the grass! I love the way it turns out.

Sleep

Sleep, baby, sleep,
Our cottage vale is deep;
The little lamb is on the green,
With woolly fleece so soft and clean
Sleep, baby, sleep.

Sleep, baby, sleep,
Down where the woodbines creep;
Be always like the lamb so mild,
A kind and sweet and gentle child
Sleep, baby, sleep.


I love to read this poem to my children, especially Simone.
The NICU where Simone stayed was decorated with little lambs.
My Mom would rock her there and sing "Mairzy Doats" in a soft whisper.
Simone sleeps with a little lamb in a purple tu-tu lately.
She makes it dance every night by shaking it's floppy legs,
and she smiles brightly behind it.
Oh, how that makes my heart swell.
I have a soft spot for little lambs now.

tomorrow is for cartwheels

I've been struggling.

To-do list- I hate you.

I have so much to do tomorrow. So I've decided....
Tomorrow is for cartwheels.

I'll knock a few things off that long list, but the number one thing is to spend the day upside down with Talia and teach her how to do cartwheels.

dots

..

Two more.

Poor neglected blog. I will get to you later.

I have a giant to-do list.
The kind that makes you cry just looking at it.
Where to start?

1.2.3.4.5.6.

Here are six pictures out of the 700 I downloaded. NOT EXAGGERATING! It was exactly 700. How many did I mark as "keepers"? 435.

Check back..I am working on more.

I love how this branch frames the Washington Monument.

Five. That is how many years I've waited to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival.
It was worth the wait.

Let the download begin....

449 photographs.


That is the first card. I have two others.


**

Play date with friends.

Macro ranunculus.

Cherry Blossom Festival.

Easter egg coloring with cousins.

Easter egg hunt from today.



I'll share soon.

..

Simone was adamant about a few details while I was dressing her.

Looking at the flowers.

You can see her new scar here. Except is looks so huge...the dark color you see is the glue. It looks better and better everyday. I need to post about the surgery day...but I can't find a USB2 cable at the moment. =)

I think this one will make me cry when my Talia is in Kindergarten.
How much I have enjoyed our "bonus year"!

Just going along. I am busy. Lincoln will be home tomorrow, he left last Thursday. I went shopping a lot while he was gone. (Sorry sweetie) I bought myself some flowers tonight. Ranunculus! I can't wait to photograph them. I missed all three of my ballet classes last week! I get to go tomorrow. Hooray! Woohoo! I love it so much!

Funnies...

I haven't be very good about writing down the funny things my kids say. I used to be much better at that.

Here are a few recent ones....

***


Natalia came into our room. She was playing "family" with Simone.

"I am the Mom, and she is my daughter," she said.

Lincoln asked her who her husband was.

She paced a bit trying to think up a good name for her imaginary husband.

She came back
and said, "His name is Lincoln Wyatt Peanut Butter."

Then she lovingly put her arm around her "daughter" and said proudly, "We're the Peanut butter family."

We laughed so hard, and that delighted her. She was so serious, but loved that we thought it was funny.



***




Somehow the kids talked me into making a chocolate layer cake tonight.

My best chocolate icing yet.

I used my charming new turquoise cake plate with a ruffled edge, and it
wasn't even someone's birthday.

After the forks had be passed around and everyone had been served, it was quiet.

Then Wyatt said, "I wish I could marry this cake!"



***


Simone got hit in the head with a super tall Hello Kitty gumball machine.

It reopened the wound on her forehead that was just stitched up 15 days prior, but not bad enough to go back to the ER.

What a mess.

The gumballs were all over the floor. She began to pick them up by the handful in hopes of keeping them.

I encouraged her to help me put them back.

She was a great little helper.

The last blue gumball was picked and shoved into her mouth before I could do anything about it.


Now she retells the story like this.

Mum. Mum. (gum)
Head. (Points to her head.)
Owie.
Blue.



***



I was brushing Talia's hair with a new brush. She had something sticky in her hair (painful), so we washed her hair. She was amazed how well the new brush worked. It didn't hurt. (Hello...we had just washed your hair sweetie.)

"How did that brush do that so well?"

"It's a magic brush, " I said in a whisper, "Magic brush .....get rid of the tangles."

Then Natalia said, "Magic brush....I want a kitty."

"It doesn't work that way sweetie," I said between laughs.

Natalia's surgery went well. I have pictures...and a few funny stories to share soon.

Goodbye bump

Look at that little thing! I found this old picture (film) and loved seeing it again.

Natalia will have surgery tomorrow to remove a mass/bump from her neck. She was born with it, and it is time to take care of it.

This picture shows it really well.

This picture shows my silly happy girl really well.





She is excited! I caught her singing, "They will take it.......off and then MY....BUMP....WILL.....be GONE!!!" Silly.


I don't feel the same way. I am nervous, and trying so hard not to let her see that.

Thank you so much to my friends that are helping out with my other children. What would I do without you? Seriously. You mean so much to me.

Wish us luck, and say a little prayer for her.

good day...

Here some photos from the most wonderful sunshine filled day.

We had a great time in Annapolis.

Saturday morning Lincoln asked me what I wanted to do.I said, "I want to make a memory."
"You want to make a Bon Jovi?"(There is a song.............anyway.....)


It wasn't funny then, but all through the day Lincoln would say, "Are we making a Bon Jovi yet?" The kids thought we were crazy.
Oh, we are.

When we got to Annapolis there were no parking spots. Except one...it was filled with those cemement parking markers. They must have been piled up with a snowplow or something. Lincoln said," If I move those we can park there." So he did. Everyone that walked by had something funny to say.

"That is one way to get the best parking spot."

I think he moved eight of them.

Lincoln told us all to salute, but Simone hugged me tight instead! I loved it!
She gives the best hugs with those little arms. =)

Ice cream cones by a tug boat. Does it get any better than that? =)

Then we went over to the Naval Academy so Wyatt could continue to salute in every single picture without looking odd.

three circle windows

Ask her how old she is. She says, "two" and it is so cute!


Fun day. Definitely made some good memories!

Hello Spring.....

Bandage? What Bandage?

2 years and 1 day old. =)

Hard worker. See all the pollen on his head?

Crocus

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Happy Birthday Simone

Two.

How can that be?

She was this little.......

Now look at her....







Two years old.


Things Simone loves at two....

She loves to say "no".
She loves Mommy and Daddy.
She loves to climb on things.
She loves to hug her big brother.
She loves to hold hands with her big sister.
She loves fruit
and "nandy".
She loves to fold her arms and say prayers.
She loves when I sing Wheels on the Bus
Itsy Bitsy Spider
and Birds in the Tree
She loves to play my iphone.
She loves to watch Dora.
She loves spotting squirrels outside, or hearing the birds chirp.
She loves pretty things.
She loves to wrap her babydolls in blankets, and push them in her stroller.
She loves to blow kisses, and does this for
"thank you", "good bye", and "i love you".
She loves to help, and unloading the dishwasher is her favorite job.
She loves to cuddle.


Simone, I hope you had a Happy Birthday!
We love you so much.
Please stop falling...I don't want anymore ER visits.

(She fell on Monday and had to get five stitches in her forehead. It was terrible.)

Reminds me of Jeri

I heard this song on the radio today and it reminded me of Jeri. Made me "Smile". Love ya babe.

~Lincoln


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=776TdGu0bNo

Too funny.....

or sad...not to document.


The girls woke up in the middle of the night. One coughing, one thirsty and MAD! Lincoln was out seeing a movie with friends, so I put the girls in bed with me. Lincoln came home, and saw there was no room for him so he took the sleeping beauties back to their beds.

He put Simone in her crib. There was NO MATTRESS in her crib, because she's been sleeping in her big girl bed. There was a dust ruffle over the wire grid that supports the crib mattress--- and he put her on that! She slept there for at least an hour. We don't know really how long. He was so sleepy when he put her in there.

Poor thing! Ouch.

LOVE 28

The last of the loves for February.

I have spent the last four days without Lincoln. He went to California to say goodbye to his Grandpa Tidwell who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just a few short weeks ago. I am so glad Lincoln was able to make the trip, even though Grandpa wasn't able to speak he would squeeze Lincoln's hand while he talked to him. It was a special visit, but a hard one as well. We will miss you Grandpa.

We have been so very blessed by the wonderful people in our lives. We have made good memories together. I prefer to remember the happy and silly memories. Fortunately, we have lots of those.

Like the time we stayed at Grandpa and Grandma Tidwell's house in 2000. Grandpa has a bunch of big motion sensor animals, and he would hide a 1.5 foot brontosaurs in various places around the house. We would walk in and set off the dinosaur and it would let out a big "ROARRRRRRR."
This became a fantastic game.
We would hide that brontosaurs and try to get them back. Lincoln hid it by their toilet and it surprised Grandpa in the middle of the night! We heard it go off and laughed ourselves silly in our guest room.
Then one day we saw him casually leaving the room we were staying in. We totally caught him, and he tried to play cool!
Funny! Sure enough he had left it in there.
Then as we were driving away from their house Lincoln started laughing and said, " I put the brontosaurs in their bed." We laughed so hard and couldn't wait until the next day to hear the story of how they found it.




So what is the last love post.




FAMILY.





I so love our families. There are so many of us. It is hard to be far away from so many of them, but I want them to know that I love them.

LOVE 27

I didn't have access to these files for a long time. They were on a computer and external hard drive that we put into storage last year.

I LOVE looking through them. I need to get all these in a book ASAP.

3

1
and bald.