Naamen and his baby

Naamen seems to really like being a daddy.  He loves playing with Emma's dolls.  I love it when he does this.

Proudly sitting his baby in the high chair.

Taking the baby shopping.

 My baby having his morning cuddles with his baby.

A turtle in our porch

One of the many perks of living out in the country is that we get to see turtles out in the wild every once in a while.  This little box turtle was so fun to catch and play with for a little while before letting it go free again.

Oma and Great Gram visit

Oma and Great Gram came to visit us for a week.  They arrived late one night and only Byron was awake.  He got out of bed and quickly brought Oma and Great Gram a book to read.  It looks like everyone in that picture is happy!

Part of the morning entertainment while they were at the house was going into their bedroom in the morning.  Naamen and Byron often put on a show of sorts, part of which included putting Naamen some sunglasses and make him all happy by our "wooooowwwww" and "guaaapoooo."

Oma was the one who got us started with our garden last year.  So it seemed only appropriate to have her help us set up our garden this year.

He loves flowers

Byron seems to be fascinated with flowers.  He is always excitedly pointing them out when we are out and about and he sees them, whether on the ground, whether they are weeds, whether we are at the grocery store... he loves "beautiful" flowers, and loves picking them for me.  I wonder if this little passion of his will ever develop into something deeper.

One morning while Naamen was napping and I was in the kitchen, I peeked out the window and found him picking this "bouquet" of flowers (aka-- weeds) for me.  My heart just about melted on the spot.

The start of 2017

In an attempt to do a better job of posting our pictures on the blog, here are the few pictures I've taken over the past two weeks.

It is true what they say that "more is caught than taught," and our THREE kiddos are well on their way to becoming avid readers.  I came home from a solo walk the other day, and when I walked in this was my sight -- daddy reading a book to the big ones, and little Naamen flipping thru his own book.

We love having Emma all to ourselves during the holidays, and one of the fun things for everyone is of course the way her and her little partner in crime play together.  One day they decided to build a train in our TV room, and they must have played a total of five hours on that make-believe world of theirs.  

On that same day they decided to have a little parade outside, with a stick as a mic and an old box and maraca as a drum.  I'm not sure why we bother ever giving our kids toys for Christmas... they always just go back to the basics -- sticks and boxes.

And then another day they discovered some sand behind Memma and Poppa's house and decided that they would build "ant houses."  How kind of them...

In an attempt to live a little more frugally and below are means, I've been trying to incorporate more meatless meals into our diet.  With avocados being 50 cents at Aldi, this beans and rice dish is hardly a sacrifice to consume.

We've been taking a lot of walks lately up our 3/4 mile driveway, and on this slightly cold day, this handsome little "bear" was so cute I couldn't resist not taking a pictures of him.

One of my latest projects has been figuring out a family sourdough bread recipe.  This was my second attempt at it, and compared to my very first attempt (a complete failure), I'd say this one went much better.  I still need to work out some details, but I'd say all in all we are well on our way to making this a family favorite.

Family fires have been a favorite thing of ours to indulge in.  On a cold Sunday night, after the kids are in bed, you may find Byron and I having a little picnic date together near it, sipping hot chocolate after dinner is cleaned up.

And back to our kiddos playing together.  Here you have "Miss Morris" teaching Byron his lesson for the day.

This picture is sideways, but if you are able to read it you'll see that Emma is quite the perfectionist... just like her daddy.  We love having our Emma Girl with us during the holidays, but we also love watching her thrive in school both socially and academically. 

The last picture dump of the year

The kids had been wanting to camp with daddy for a long time, so at the end of October they finally got their wish granted by camping outside of our land.  LB ended up coming back into the house to sleep on his bed.  When we asked the kids what their favorite part about camping was, Emma's response was:  "sleeping in the tent" and LB's response was:  "sleeping in my bed." :p

I had been wanting to refurbish our dinning table chairs for a while, but didn't want to spend too much money on them.  Lo and behold I found a huge roll of this fabric at a yard sale for $4.  I was able to refurbish all eight of our chairs, plus make the cover for one of our small side tables in our guest room.  Score!

LB likes playing with his tools, but somehow he got hold of one of daddy's tools as well, and one day while nursing Naamen, I heard him "fixing" something out in the hallway.  When I can out, I saw that he had dug a hold in the wall :'(  I just about died!

 One of Emma's school assignments one weekend this Fall was to bring Paws to the house and take care of him.  I'd say she did a great job at it.

 

I finally broke down one day at around Thanksgiving and gave Naamen a haircut that got rid of his head mullet that was always covering his eyes.  I took this picture and sent it to Byron to see.  His response:  "are you sure you've got the right kid?" :)

An early Christmas gift from Memma and Poppa -- a family outing to see the Nutcracker.   It was a hit, and both kids are already asking when we'll be going there again.

That glorious afternoon when all three of my children fell asleep in the car.

Setting up the Christmas tree.

Dunkin Doughnut treat with my kiddos to celebrate the beginning of Emma's Christmas break.

Emma loves to read to her brother, and brother loves to be read to.  I caught these two doing just that one morning over Christmas break that just melted my heart.

When we asked LB what he wanted for Christmas, one of his requests was that he wanted to go to "Green-bell" to see his cousins.  We had a wonderful day playing with them the Friday before Christmas.

This boy is just too cute.

We did a Nativity play this year on Christmas Eve at Memma and Poppa's house.  Emma was Mary, Ames was Joseph, and LB was the donkey that always tagged along side with them (he was supposed to be the innkeeper, but LB had other plans for himself).

It always startles me a bit the first time I see my babies pull up on their own.

Loving their gifts from Tia Alison.

Naamen's passport picture is just too much :)

Playing in the rain

School got suspended last Friday due to hurricane rains, so we got to enjoy our Emma Girl at home all day once again.  What a treat!  Of course, the kids decided they would be their usual nutty selves and dress themselves in their winter attire and go out and play in the rain.  These pictures do not do them justice, but they were quite the site, especially since Byron was wearing his sister's boots! 

Snuggles

I didn't realize how much I missed his snuggles until just the other day for the first time in a while, he snuggled up on me and took a snooze.  I think I could have cried.  Time does fly by.