Fishing with Friends

Our friends from Seattle, Greg and Cheryl, spent the weekend with us earlier this month. Cheryl had never been fishing, and Greg hasn't been fishing since he was little boy back in Australia. Since we have beautiful Lake Como right down the road and it has been recently stocked with fish, we decided to take them fishing on Saturday afternoon. Here is Olivia helping daddy carry the supplies down to the lake.








She's ready to bring in the big one!

Olivia had so much fun playing with the worms. She was not scared at all and dove right in to examine, stretch, and otherwise manhandle the poor nematodes.

The boys.

The girls.

After about an hour, the kids had their fill of fishing. George drove us home, then went back to get the fishermen about an hour later. During that time, Greg had reeled one in, and a friendly old man down the shore a bit had caught his limit and gave them 3 more fish. His secret was using mini marshmallows on the hook before putting the worm on to make it float better. George "prepared" the fish at the lake, then brought them home and grilled them.

What a nice weekend!

Backyard Fun

Slowly but surely the weather is starting to improve here in Montana. We are taking full advantage of the warm days by spending time in our newly fenced back yard. With a few adjustments, the fence is now keeping both the kids and Charlie in. George has been getting the garden in and has started his mowing rotation. As you can see, the dandelions are taking over. That didn't keep Olivia from posing like she was in a field full of tulips or poppies. To her, dandelions are just another flower.

Nate likes to play in the exersaucer outside. He's not sure about crawling in the grass. Besides, wouldn't want him to find a little Charlie/Buster 'present' hidden in the grass. Keeping him confined is much safer.

The behind the scenes glimpse of what was happening in the picture below... as you can see in the picture above, Nathan seems perfectly content. He suddenly became kind of cranky, and when i picked him up out of the exersaucer, there was some poo on the back of his leg. YUK. Then Olivia noticed that there was also some excrement on the floor of the exersaucer. "Look mommy! Pooooop!" Fun in the sun. Diaper changes are oh-so-lovely these days. He wiggles and turns and does whatever he can to avoid the dreaded diaper change. We experienced that to some degree with Olivia, but her brother is WAY stronger. I often find myself having to literally pin him down with one of my arms while I frantically wipe away at the bum with the other hand. It's a good day when the diaper gets changed and i don't get any poo on my shirt. oh the joys of parenting. Anyways, this particular day, i must have had the diaper on a little caddiwompus. It didn't adequately contain the mess and thus, interrupted our day of fun in the sun.

We also got to see Nanny and Grandpa for Memorial Day weekend. George had just finished building a deluxe sandbox, complete with sun umbrella. It's designed to stand at waist height for the kiddos, but Livy likes to climb right in. I added my barely creative touch by stenciling some dinosaurs on the sides and painting the legs contrasting colors. Olivia is having so much fun with that sandbox. Even though it was cold and windy last weekend, all she wanted to do was play outside in the sand. Good job George! Olivia will be the envy of all the playgroup kids.

Look At Me!

Everyone who knows Olivia has seen her flair for drama and that she loves to be the center of attention. Even her Kindermusik teacher remarked last week that she is destined for either the stage or the big screen. Olivia is very animated in class, singing as loud as she can, displaying very interesting facial expressions and somehow always finding her way into the center of the circle. Teacher Beth said, "I have never seen anything like it!"

Her new favorite thing is, "look at me..." and following it with something she thinks is really nifty. Yesterday, she put an empty cereal bowl on her head and said, "Look at me! I'm a movie star!" Today she was transferring water from one bowl to another using a medicine dropper. "Look at me, mama! I'm making medicine." Ever since she was on antibiotics for her ear infection, she thinks she needs medicine every day. I got a little inventive and colored some water red to look like her cherry medicine. She sat at the table for almost an hour transferring it from one bowl to the other, dispensing it in her mouth, and finally even using her mouth to squeeze and release the dropper. A whole houseful of toys and this is what keeps her occupied?

The other interesting way she is using the phrase, "look at me" is when she really wants to get my attention. Apparently, sometimes I don't listen to her. She'll put my face between her hands and turn my head saying, "Mom, look at me!" And then follow that with whatever she is trying to convey to me. I think this comes from when I am trying to discipline her. Often I'll say, "Look at me. I need your eyes" to make sure she is paying attention. Obviously this has made an impression on her and she figures what's good for the goose is good for the gosling.

country bumpkin

ahhh I struggle with decorating. not just the money required, but making a decision on a theme and following through with it. Lately I've become interested in the whole "country" look. Not for the whole house, mind you, but I thought I'd do a small room, like our bathroom. I found a super cute "bath house" shower curtain with star rings and a matching soap dispenser. then I bought a coordinating rug and valance. then I got stuck. what to put on the walls? fortunately, Nate's recent portrait session provided the answer to my dilemma. He had a picture taken in a little wash tub. I ordered the print in sepia, found the PERFECT weathered, rustic wood frame 50% off at Michael's and voila...




Our little country bumpkin provided just what that wall needed. Thanks, Nate, for being so darn cute!

show me some skin!

We've had some unseasonably warm days over the last few weeks. I'm not complaining! It's been great. I have had to dig through some of the hand-me-downs we've received though to find something for Nate to wear. It's funny for me to actually see Little Man's legs, or see his chubby little arms when he wears short-sleeves. I have had him covered from head to toe almost his whole life, since winter here in Montana drags on for what seems like half the year. doesn't he look just precious in his little short overalls?

He's also chasing me all around the house now that he's full-on crawling, and pulling up to standing every chance he gets. Here he is helping me unload the dishwasher. He does everything with a smile!

clean dishes! Yippee! those dimples make even this dull chore fun.

Rise and Shine!

**disclaimer: my right hand shift key is not working. Instead of trying to use the left shift key for all caps, I'm just rolling with it. some of my words which should be capitalized will not be due to my laziness and refusal to use the left shift key for every dang cap I need to type. this keyboard malfunction is very upsetting to this former middle-school newspaper copywriter, but such is life. but I digress...

for some reason, the kids have been getting me up at 6 lately. this is very disheartening to me. i like my sleep and so far, Olivia has been happy to comply. Often I have to go wake HER up or she'd sleep the day away. Her usual wake up time is around 8:30am. Nate seems to like 7am. I can deal with that. Usually I just go into his room, lay on the bed and nurse/cuddle him until Olivia wakes up. but at least twice in the last week at least one of the kids wakes up ungodly early and refuses to go back to sleep. Here they are during one of these episodes.

Okay, now which one of you woke us all up? whoever said that the early bird gets the worm had it all wrong. In our house, the early bird makes mommy grumpy. I need my beauty rest. If I had taken a self-portrait that morning, you'd all agree. SCARY!

Oh Happy Day!

Guess what?

Nate cut his first tooth! Hooray! And he is REALLY crawling now, not just army crawling!

We also had a nice, warm, sunny day today. We took advantage of it by spending some time outside. Olivia kept very busy in the yard...digging in the dirt with a pumpkin seed scoop, helping George fill the bird feeder and bird bath, and then checking out the garden.

Oh, another reason to be happy! Olivia finished her antibiotics. This was her first ear infection. Poor thing. She was a very good patient though and would remind me every day that she needed her cherry medicine. Hopefully we will have a happy, healthy and warm May.