Where does the time go!?

It's hard to believe it's been two weeks since I've actually sat down, turned my computer on, and posted anything...Not just posted a blog post....gotten on the computer for ANYTHING! How spoiled we get when all can be done from a simple hand held device like an iPhone.
   When I took on the 366 day challenge at the beginning of the year committing to taking a picture every single day of the year I guess I never realized how many pictures in a day I actually take. Taking the photo is not the problem! Finding time to post them is. In the past two weeks I've been away we've managed to rid our house of 2 truck loads of junk, have a pretty successful yard sale, build a coop for our beloved hens, tend to our garden, go to work & school & fundraiser events and take an upwards of 200 pictures! Yes, 200! So here it is, scaled down to a simple 15 pictures that help sum up our past two weeks... In no particular order: 

Breakfast with Mom at school.

My sweet baby E.

Our chicken coop we built for the girls.

Are you ready for some football!?!?

Our first harvest from the 2012 garden! Radish anyone!?

Playing catch!

You are never too old to play in the rain! We all do it!! :)

Splish splash...or body board!

and I leave the post with a few kisses from Aaron & the chick chick until next week!!

Week 15 and a very happy birthday to the oldest kiddo!!

This week has been all about the K-meister! Six! It is so hard to believe he is six! We kept the whole party idea pretty quiet this year and decided to head over to a friends house for a cook out, cake and presents. The dude made out like a bandit! Bike, roller blades, money, new wallet, Wii games, DS games, a GA jersey that he hasn't taken off in 3 days now....I think I'm going to have to sneak it off to wash it in his sleep.
This is how his birthday morning started:

and this is how it ended:

Two cakes! Yes, one to take to school which is seen above and then the other for dinner.

Presents!!

No, we're not crazy! He didn't get drums for his birthday. He did enjoy playing them though! From the looks of this picture he seems like a natural.
And that's it! Another year done...another year older. It's crazy how fast time flies.
In other news we've settled in quite nicely from our camping trip. The dogs, kids, and of course us adults were all exhausted! We've enjoyed somewhat of an unproductive week.

That picture in the middle of E is a new fun app I've found on my iPhone. When I need a good laugh I just pull that picture up.
And of course, lets not forget the chickens, as they do feel like they rule the roost!

These little girls are getting bigger and bigger everyday! You can see in that bottom picture that little BBQ is about ready to fly the coop.....So with that being said-it's pretty obvious what we'll be doing this weekend. Yep, building them their new coop for outside. We are going to attempt to build them something called a chicken tractor. Wish us luck! I'm sure I'll be back with pictures and hopefully no stories of loss of fingers in the process.

Easter/Dreher Island 2012

We headed out for our first trip of 2012! It was also our first trip in our new camper. Excitement was an understatement!!

(and yes, I did eventually end up falling....and totally busting up my leg.)

The weather was chiiiiillllly in the mornings!!!

and perfectly warm in the afternoons!!!

The Easter Bunny even came to visit while we were there. One really cool thing is not only did he leave the Easter Baskets but then the campground put on an Easter egg hunt that all the kids enjoyed!

We also went ahead and gave K one of his birthday presents. This was too perfect of a location not too.

Overall this was a PERFECT trip other than the fact that it was far too short! It was a great start to our camping season. We can't wait to go again!!

Our Tale of the Leprechaun

The easiest way to wake Keagan up in the mornings is to tell him something he can be excited about for the day. Yesterday morning I went into his room, shook him good morning and told him, "Guess what!? When you get home from school today we're going to build a leprechaun trap and catch us a leprechaun." He didn't buy into it and told me leprechaun's were way too fast to catch. I told him that was not so....Just wait and see. I looked up to see Aaron staring at me most likely thinking,"What are we going to do now??!"
I put together my plan at work and this is what we all collectively came up with:
The long trail to nowhere....

We had our trap sitting on the tv stand and in ordered for the little guy to be able to get to it we built a really tall ladder for him to be able to climb on up.
The trap...

We painted an empty box of grits and then decorated it with things that would be charming to a little leprechaun. The leaves hold some lucky charms for bait. Little does he know that when he steps on the leaves he'll fall into the hole and not be able to get back out....
Morning:

Keagan was shocked! It looks like we did indeed catch a leprechaun but he used his shovel to dig himself out....And left gold chocolate coins along the way. I thought that was the cutest shovel I had ever seen. It was pure luck that I found it on my lunch break and knew exactly what I'd use it for!!
After all the excitement Keagan collected the coins and said, "I must have had a nice leprechaun because he didn't turn anything green." I just nodded and went about my business for the morning.

A few minutes later I hear, "Ok....The leprechaun peed in my bathroom!!!" haha! I thought that was so funny. He actually refused to use it until I cleaned the green out.
Breakfast time:

You've got to have Lucky Charms on St. Patty's day, right?? I sat Keagan at the table and poured the cereal into his bowl. Then I went and grabbed the milk and started pouring....The look on his face was priceless then he said, "Mommy, he peed in our milk too!!"
It was quite the excitement for our morning and unfortunately Easton missed the whole thing. He slept in until 9:00!! Oh well, there is always next year. :)

Sunday

Today has been a bit of an odd day. I can go years without hearing an artist. Michael Jackson was a perfect example. I loved him....but I didn't always listen to him. When he passed, I cried. Whitney Houston. I grew up with her! A perfect memory from my childhood was riding down the road with my mom and Whitney coming on. I was singing away as I do with EVERY song and she was making fun of me at how terrible I actually sounded. Even though it has been years since I have listened to her music, I can still sing every word to her songs and I still feel an empty space with her gone. I tried to keep a happy face today because lets face it....I really don't know her. What it boils down to is, a very important era for me is gone and as hard as I try, I still accept death with as much understanding as a newborn does to their new world.

Regardless though, Sundays are almost always good days. Exploring, relaxing, preparing....just good.

I want this.....

and this....I do love pears.

Lil' dude got a hair cut....It's only been a year. Wow, where did the time go??? I got kind of used to my little longed hair hippie.

Oh and it was cold outside...Oh so cold! That didn't stop us. It never does. We spent three hours working in our garden to prepare it for spring and then played by the fire.

Oh, this is what I love about Sundays....Goodnight!