Welcome Summer Vacation!

Even though summer vacation officially starts for us today, 

we've sort of been getting in the mood for summer all week long!

Sammy is bound and determined to learn to crawl this summer, 

and already "scooching" himself forward bit by bit......

Mama is telling him 2 months old is too little to be trying to crawl!

And I don't know if you ever get a chance to read my blog Misty,

but I'm wondering if this red hair came from you??!!

Hawaiian day was the final dress-up day at Little Miss Mae's school.

Not sure if she or Mama enjoys these dress-up days more!

K-Rae bought a pottery wheel at a yard sale...

Again, not sure if the girls enjoyed the activity more or Mama.....

so fun to have an excuse to play and be messy!

This Little Man seems to get cuter by the day....

(cute striped outfit from Auntie Sara)

And I think RyDaddy is looking forward to more snuggle time with him 

this summer--and the year to come, 

as he got a job transfer to a school only 3/4 mile from our house!  

It will be such a blessing to not have the hour round-trip commute 

each day next school year!

 One night this past week, I turned this....

 

into these  a yummy healthy wheat and gluten free

Strawberry Shortcake Muffins....

(yes, you can click on that to get the recipe

that I repinned from someone on Pinterest...)

I am loving Pinterest by the way, Sara; thanks for the invite,

and I sometimes even manage to create the things I pin!

And we made it south of here a ways to see our friends for a day...... 

Sammy's first "road-trip" of about 90 minutes each way....he did pretty well!

Dress-up, riding in the ranger and playing with the new puppy, 

(all at the same time!)

were the highlights for K-Rae!

I think Little Miss Mae was pretty excited about driving the other kids around...(LOL!)

Oh---and I made these rosemary dinner rolls 

(not healthy, not wheat/gluten free, but ohhh soooo delicious),

and they literally melt in your mouth.  Yummmm!  

I'm pretty sure RyDaddy loves me more since eating these!

The recipe came from:

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from My Frontier 

(click on the title to order the book from amazon)

a book given to me by my best friend 

(whose kiddos are pictured in the ranger above).

I LOVE this cookbook, 

as much for the fun read and great photography

as for the cooking---

which I have a hard time coming up with the time to do lately!  

Here's an excerpt from her book:

"I'm Pioneer Woman. And I love to cook.  Once upon a time, I fell in love with a cowboy. A strapping, rugged, chaps-wearing cowboy. Then I married him, moved to his ranch, had his babies . . . and wound up loving it. Except the manure. Living in the country for more than fifteen years has taught me a handful of eternal truths: every new day is a blessing, every drop of rain is a gift . . . and nothing tastes more delicious than food you cook yourself."  

So for those of you that love to cook and read, 

you should get it....and I'm not being paid to say that!  

7 or 17?

As I was getting ready to leave last night

to go to a farewell party for a dear friend of mine,

the girls came out of the bathroom looking like this:

You can probably guess who instigated this look....

 

Not sure if they thought they were going with me,

or just thought they should put on make-up for fun.

Anyhow, I just said:

"Good luck RyDaddy!" and headed out the door...

Oh, and the purple stuff....yeah, it's "lip gloss," supposedly.

I'm pretty sure it came from Auntie Kara,

or we'll at least blame it on her!  :)

 RyDaddy had lots of fun trying to get that caked on stuff off their eyelids!

At least Sammy is behaving himself!

Family Fun

So we went to family night at the 

local science and math center a couple of weeks ago.....

Not sure why we haven't been there before, 

especially considering we've lived here for almost three years now!

 The girls had fun making three dimensional shaped bubbles....

 The snake definitely captured K-Rae's attention!

 This may be my favorite photo ever of K-Rae!

 We'll definitely go back---very cool place,

 and even Sammy enjoyed looking at everything!

We also made it to a local farm for a special events day.

Little Miss Mae loved the animals.

 Photographing the photographer of the local newspaper.

 K-Rae wasn't quite sure what to make of this turkey!

 Little Miss Mae could have spent all day trying out all the cool wooden toys 

this wood worker had crafted.

And as fun as it is to go places,

sometimes it's just as much fun at home!

Just ask Sammy...he'd be pleased to never leave home!

Mother's Day

It was a perfect Mother's Day times 3!

The kiddos enjoyed hanging out with mom in bed for awhile.

And they brought Mama breakfast in bed too;

it was so elegant and tasty!

 

K-Rae found the recipe in her High Five magazine

for "breakfast in a glass."

RyDaddy "helped" the girls prepare it,

plus yummy homemade muffins!

 It hit the spot for sure!

I got spoiled with presents and cards too:

Little Miss Mae and K-Rae each made me a beautiful vase with flowers.

Sammy got mom The Hunger Games trilogy---

appropriate, as he is always hungry!

And a mouse from RyD......

OK, so the mouse wasn't quite as cute as this one, 

but much needed anyhow---

and now the blog can continue! 

After a mid-morning nap---

 ---the day continued with a picnic and hike at the Monument, 

with perfect springtime weather.

 And of course time to dig for dinosaur bones!

 Sammy would've rather kept napping with Mama......

And threatened to call Grandma if we didn't let him get back to napping soon!

The day ended with some gardening, 

with much help from K-Rae!

Couldn't have asked for a better Mother's Day---

thank you RyDaddy, Little Miss Mae, K-Rae and Sam-Sam!

Catching Up

Time to just catch up on some random moments and share cute photos....

I couldn't tell you how the Rockies are doing, 

but this little guy is a fan,

and looks pretty cute in his Rockies onesie,

a gift from my good friend Susan!

Cute outfit from Auntie Kara:

 

We get this very intent look at lot!

Off to dreamland.... 

 Sleeping Beauty....

 Morning view out our front window

 Big sissy already teaching Sammy to love books!

 Sammy's first play date!

 Stop on by when you're thirsty.....lemonade is often for sale at our house!

 Awwwww   Kozy, yes, I'll take your picture too!

 Little Snuggle bug sleeping on Daddy's chest.

 Sometimes you play so hard you barely make it into the bed!

 How can you not relax when you look at this face?

 Boys play with dolls, right?

 K-Rae said "Sammy is an angel...." in this photo...and gave him a halo...

Little Miss Mae had "Hill Billy" Dress-Up Day at school a couple of weeks ago.....

 She really got into character for that----horse and all!

 And not to be left out of the fun, K-Rae dressed up too:

 This is one of my favorite outfits.....

A gift from my good friend Kristin.

Two months old in these following pics:

 Another cute outfit from Susan:

 The girls getting ready to plant flowers for Mama:

And getting lots of Sammy smiles and little giggles now!  

They just make my day!