Old MacDonald had a farm...

Yesterday 3/4 of our family went to my best friends family farm. This farm started from a big piece of land and has transformed into this wonderful farm full of animals and place to play and hang out. Here you will see Aiden and Miss Lennon rockin' their cares away. Lennon is rocking a little harder as you can see. The thing that what I found interesting about all of the animals here was that they were all so vocal. No other place that I have been have had animals that have been quite so vocal. It was a great learning experience for Aiden. The animals that we saw were goats, and sheep ( one named patience with three legs), 2 horses, 2 mini horses, a ton of bunnies, guinea hens, chickens, roosters, donkeys, and a llama named Tula. When we got there we went to the "Goataminium" and went for a tour of the place. The goats were so sweet and friendly, but Aiden seemed to think it was a little unatural. Aiden got to watch the horses being fed, and give the donkeys a little corn treat. I was a little afraid Aiden might come home short a few fingers, but we still have all ten. The donkeys were hysterical. I have tried to explain that the animal that kind of looks like a horse is really a donkey and he says HEE-HAW instead of Neigh. Well these donkeys came running to us "hee-hawing?" very loudly.

Taylor was sweet as usual. I tried my off road stroller, but she is really too small still, and was less than thrilled about it, so she stuck close in the baby bjorn.

Fun in the....shade

Aiden really likes to play in the sand. I have searched high and low and there are not many playgrounds any more that have sand. It is usually mulch or recycled tire bits. We also looked around for a store bought sandbox and they are either really small or really expensive, or both. For the low cost of $31 dollars we now have a sandbox. Mark was super dad this weekend and built Aiden one kickin' sandbox equipped with lid. It is wonderful. He used pieces of wood that we had lying around and sand from a landscaping company down the road. It is under a group of huge trees so Aiden can play in it at any time of day without worry of sunburn. Yea!!!

Taylor is growing and changing. She is such a sweet little thing. I thought I would take a picture to recall how her hair looked at this point. The darker hair is falling out and coming in lighter. Aiden's did the same, it just cracks me up at how funny it looks. Like a little old man.

Another milestone happened on Friday. Aiden counted to ten. He was sitting it the back seat and while I was getting gas I just happened to peak in to get something and he was counting. He got to five and kept going. I made a big deal and clapped and hugged him, and since then he has done it several more times. I guess he got his Daddy's math skills. Thank goodness.

It's Hard

Its hard..... to color a picture.....
with a Tiger-lily in the way.

This is how I feel sometimes. I am engrossed in a task and something prevents me from completeing it. Mostly kids. But then I stop and remember how thankful I am for my babies and it makes it all worthwhile.

Its Pickin' Time

Happy 100th Blog post to me!

Today the kids and I went and picked blueberries at a vineyard near our house. Okay really I picked, Aiden snacked, and Taylor slept. It was a beautiful day with very low humidity which is hard to come by during summer in Florida. There were tons of blueberries and the biggest blackberries I have ever seen. At first we were the only ones there. I found myself really enjoying the sounds of a summer morning. These sounds were not only from nature but the little boy next to me as well. I looked over and Aiden deep in concentration was picking blueberries faster than he could put them in his mouth. After each one he would let out a long "mmmmmm good." Sometimes it was "mmmmmmm yummy." This little slice of cuteness was followed by the smacking of his little lips. I wanted to bottle this moment up and keep it with me forever. There was something so innocent about it. After about an hour or so I guess the fun wore off and it was time to high tail it out of there. Peapod woke up, Aiden was suddenly tired of walking and wanted to be pushed in the stroller, and I had a gallon jug hanging by a rope around my neck. Finally finding a break between the bushes, we weaved through the stickers and the thick grass. I saw the car in sight and it was all I could do to get there. The owner was extremely nice and after giving us some blueberry recipes, adding our name to his email list, and giving Aiden a juice box we could get going. Whewww... its time for my nap.

These are the big honkin' blackberries that we bought and what happens when you give them to a little boy..

Our week at home

This week we have been stuck at our house due to a nasty cold that the kids and I contracted. Even little Taylor had a yucky nose. So in the best interest of our friends we have kept our germs away. Taylor did have her two month check up and is doing everything she should.

We lounged around a lot. Here is how I found Taylor when she was supposed to be sleeping, and sweet Aiden resting on the floor.

Eventually we got tired of lounging and I began pulling my resources. We have painted with brushes, and our fingers, we have played in shaving cream,we have molded, we have baked, we have eaten Popsicles, we have read books, we built towers with blocks, we have watched movies, we danced,and even practiced some yoga. What we did not do was a lot of cleaning the house.

I have had several reasons lately that I have wanted to bake something sweet. I have made triple chocolate cherry bars, chocolate chip cookies, a strawberry amaretto cake, and know I have moved onto breads. I really like making them and sharing them. I usually try to leave the dessert where I take it and only bring some of it home. One of my good friends,Lauren gave me a book to borrow called 500 cupcakes. I have gone through it and am in the process of copying recipes. Now I just need some volunteers to eat them, anyone? Anyone? I think that I have always secretly wanted to own a trendy little cupcake shop. So many cupcakes so little time.

A while back I bought a couple of handprint mold kits. I think it was during the holidays. After reading the directions ( I always read the directions) I discovered that in order for the mold to take, one had to hold their hand still for 2 minutes. At the time I thought that this was really unreasonable for Aiden so I put the kits at the top of the closet and decided to wait until he was a little older to try this. Well, this week I tried . I thought "oooh- father's day." So, I read the directions, I laid my materials laid out, I read the directions again. I had a dum-dum lollipop ready for Aiden to distract him. This was going to be a breeze. Well actually what the directions meant when they said let the hand sit in the ooey-gooey nasty gel, was let it rest, without touching the bottom, or moving a millimeter AND it will take more than 5 minutes to set ( We stopped trying at 5 minutes when Aiden began to cry very loudly and it stopped being "fun") So, needless to say the mold idea was a bust and it was extremely messy. Save your money… DO NOT BUY THIS KIT!

Yesterday I introduced Aiden to a yoga video I had. We had such fun together practicing the poses. He really got a kick out of it. I even put baby girl on the floor and let her join us. He had so much fun with it that I ordered a kids yoga DVD online, that also teaches ABC’s. It had wonderful reviews so we will see… Here is Aiden's downward facing dog pose.

My yearlong search has ended. Last summer a friend of ours had these homemade Popsicle holders that she found at Wal-mart. They are wonderful because the Popsicle twists up and the juice is caught in the container (unless you like to drink it like Aiden.)I found them the other day while wandering around. Aiden’s current favorite flavor is white grape pomegranate. I enjoyed my cherry coke creation. I cannot believe I am at the point in my life when I am excited about popsicle makers. Sigh.

Next week will be better... we are hoping to see some buddies, maybe pick some blueberries with Ms. Michelle and Fox, maybe hit the library.

Bring the Rain

Lately there have been things in my life that have happened that I thought were blog worthy so this is what Samantha refers to as a "Heinze 57" post.

A couple of weeks ago a pretty bad thunderstorm came through in the late evening. Mark and I were just headed to bed when the lightning and the thunder began. Now, I will have to admit that I love a good rainstorm but thunder and lightning makes me want to hide under the covers. It scares the bah-gee-bees out of me! As it started I thought of my little angels sleeping peacefully in their beds, mainly worrying that it would wake the baby girl who is so high maintenance at getting to bed. So when I heard Aiden screaming I was surprised. He has never woken at a storm, so Mark and I headed in. Aiden was lying in his bed panic stricken as the thunder boomed around him. We consoled him, laid next to him, telling him that it was the rain and with it comes thunder, but that he was safe. I must mention that throughout this conversation lightning is striking it seems right outside his window and the thunder is shaking things in his room, and every-time I nearly jump out of my skin. So he is shaking and now has his fist balled up and is pushing them as hard as he can into his eyes, and all of a sudden he opens his eyes and shout “light-boom!” and covers them back up. We eventually had to pull him out of bed and bring him out of his room because after a good 45 minutes he was still not calm. He finally went back to bed but only after the storm was long gone. A few days later out of nowhere he talked to mark about it. It went something like this:

Aiden: Daddy?
Mark: Yes Aiden
Aiden: Bad Boom Bye Bye
Mark: Yes Aiden Bad boom bye bye.

Now Mark and I never referred to the thunder as a “bad boom” this is just something that Aiden came up with. This was especially sad to me because it made me realize how much that it in fact had scared him. Since then he has asked me at random times about this bad boom to make sure that it is in fact gone.

Taylor is wonderful. If you ask me this at bedtime I might tell you different. She is really difficult to get to go to bed, but when she does she sleeps. Last night made the second night she has slept for 11 hours straight. PRAISE GOD! On other nights when she doesn’t sleep all night she will sleep from 8pm-3am and then to 7am. After she eats then she usually sleeps again until 9 or 10. Pretty good for 8 weeks.

I think that Aiden is getting sick again. He woke up this morning with a fever and has been ever so whiny. Words like “mama” turn into “maaaaamaaaa” and “cereal” turns into “ceeereeeeaaaallll”. When Aiden is sick the number of syllables used around our house increase dramatically. This is nothing that a pallet on the floor with some Little Einstein’s cant fix.

Today we showed our house again. First of all keeping a house show ready with a baby and a toddler is no fun. I find myself putting toys away right up until the last minute and Aiden is still pulling them out. Like I said Aiden woke up with a fever today so I should have taped a sign to his shirt that said “BEWARE.” When the people came to see our house 40 minutes late I scooped up Aiden and took him outside. Taylor was sleeping so she was no problem. As soon as we got outside Aiden started asking for his ball that he likes to play with. Well of course Mark has put all of the toys away. I begin looking for the ball but I hear his whine starting to grow. By this time our big beast of a lab is barking furiously and our beagle is starting her beagle howl/cry. This by the way is my only job: to keep the kids busy and the dogs quiet and so far I am failing. I try to make the dogs get quiet but they are louder when I am near them so I abandon ship and tend to Aiden. He had now given the cat a hug and a kiss and is getting upset because of the amount of cat hair on his face and in his mouth. I clean his face and redirect back to finding the ball. The potential buyers are now outside and the dogs are still barking. Aiden now has hurt his foot and is crying (loudly) and refusing to walk. I check his foot. Nothing. Still crying, still barking, now we are sweating. Finally, the buyers leave. I was about to pull out a popsicle. When all else fails, offer a popsicle. Magically Aiden's foot is healed and the dogs are quiet. JERKS.

Lately I have become what I heard someone once refer to as a blog stalker. It can become addicting because one blog will lead you to another then another. Mark thinks that it is weird to read other peoples blogs that I don’t know but what does he know anyway? One that I was reading was a mommy blog that I found particularly funny called Rocks in my Dryer. This blog had a link the other day to another blog post called a letter to my daughter. After reading this post I then went back and read all of the posts from the beginning. This mommy created a blog to log the story of their dear baby that they found out had a number of problems in utero, and has just recently passed away. In addition to this, her sister in law who had a baby right before her just lost her new baby to SIDS. I am amazed at this woman’s sweet spirit and courage through what can only be described as a nightmare. The numbers of people that comment on her blog and pray for her have been unreal. It is heartwarming. I have found myself praying for this family and for their healing. If you have a few minutes to read or to take a look, or to pray, please do, but remember your Kleenex. The power of prayer is amazing.

Here are my sweet babies. When ever Aiden lays on the floor next to Taylor he tells me "mama picture." I think that he has learned how cute they are together and wants me to take a picture. Notice the orange spaghetti stained face. Aiden enjoyed swimming with YaYa and Taylor was pouting because it was sticky outside. Gross.