March was a strange month around here, warm springy days with birds chirping followed close behind by snow and grey, gloomy winter days. We tilled a garden bed in the Spring weather on Saturday and by last night (Easter Sunday) we were hunkered down with a fire going like a cozy winter night.

Since I am so far behind on blogging I am just going to share some pictures. Seth’s parents have been with us this week for a nice visit and I wrapped up my last interviews for speech therapy jobs so it has been a busy holiday week!

baby bunny and egg hunt

building bird houses

A trip to see cherry blossoms yielded not one blossom so we made it into a trip to the zoo…we had never seen the Orangutans crossing over the pathway on the tightrope before, very cool!

Luray Caverns and Shenandoah National Park

the beginnings of our garden…it’s now framed out and looking great! We will have to wait a few weeks to plant but the prep is mostly done for now

Happy Easter! Hope you are all well!

I know it’s not February yet and I know that some of my readers are not in the US or celebrating Valentine’s Day but I couldn’t resist sharing a few ideas I have seen lately. And if you are anything like me you will need a couple of weeks to get anything done. I did a harmless search [read my sarcasm in the “harmless search”…we all know that each harmless search on pintrest, facebook, blogs and the like often leave us temporarily inspired, defeated and feeling less enthusiastic than when we originally typed in the search term :)] on Pintrest and around my favorite blogs to get the creative juices flowing and here are some of the things I found that I might attempt this year….

via Pintrest ( I have been on the hunt for the original source for this but the “Day in my life” blog isn’t coming up for me…if anyone knows the source feel free to add to the comments!!) This looks like a fun, easy card to make for the boys!

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pretty sure we’ll use these valentine’s for Jackson’s class…from Handmade Home

and a few things we have done in the past at our house that I’ve shared on the blog…

heart-shaped waffles and pizza

red whoopie pies (mine were more hot pink) from this recipe 

We have a little white mailbox that I have used in the past at v day to put little notes in for the boys. I saw a blue one at Target the other day in the $1 section! This might be good for year round!

Not sure about you but I have no intention of making pink hard boiled eggs, sewing flannel sheets with heart fabric or making hand-dipped chocolates. More power to ya if you have the time and energy. I want to do a little something extra sweet for my lovies but need to keep it simple! Which is why I loved the above ideas!  Guessing this year will boil down to some free printables for the Kindergarten class, some notes in our little mailbox and maybe some heart-shaped pancakes!  And a nice dinner for Seth of course!

What do you have planned for Valentine’s Day this year?!

A few (a lot of) pictures to sum up our Christmas festivities! People and food pics all rolled into one!  (And one added goal for the new year is to have Seth take more pictures so I am actually in some! My kids might think they had a single parent Christmas based on the photographic evidence. I hope they recognize my hands working in the kitchen)

Lots of fun memories with family and delicious meals!  Looking forward to a Texas Christmas next year!

Owen turned 3 on December 21st. I will never forget that first glimpse of his quivering lip! The nurse said “oh boy, watch out for that pouty lip”.  His round little face. His new baby smell. His daddy passing out just after his birth. His flipping and flopping inside me going breech and back to head down and back again. We were hooked up to an IV on December 19th for a c-section but the snow storm blew into Northern Virginia as Owen decided to flip head down so we were unhooked and sent home to wait out the storm.  That silly boy.  He was born a few days later via C-section because he went back to breech. The swine flu had broken out so we weren’t allowed to have visitors except for my mom, sister-in-law and a friend. Jackson couldn’t come meet his brother…which at the time was so sad but meant we spent lots of time resting and cuddling those first days! Owen has had quite an adventurous life with a move to Switzerland at 6 month, lots of travels and then another big move at 2 1/2.  He may be the younger brother but he is doing his best to at least make as big a presence as his older brother.  His favorite things to say are “yea, that’s right”, “hi guys”,  “and then…and then…”. His favorite food is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches…correctly pronounced as “peanujelly sanwich”.

For his birthday this year we kept it to just family. My parents had flown in from Texas for Christmas and my brother and his family live about 25 mins away with my two nieces and nephew so it was a crowd! Our friend Bonnie also joined in on the fun.  Owen requested a fire man birthday party and we just so happen to have a fire station around the corner from our house.  We took the kids over for a tour of the station and then came back to the house for dinner, presents and dessert.

the kids colored at the table while we pulled dinner together. We served giant hot dogs and chili with fixings so people could have chili or make a chili cheese dog,  We also served loaded baked potato dip with chips and fruit.

Owen didn’t remember opening gifts from last year so he was pretty comical. He kept telling people not to look and then when he had a gift opened he would lift it above his head and yell triumphantly “here it is”.

the cake tasted great but was by far not my most creative creation. The cake was red velvet with cream cheese frosting which worked well per Owen’s request for a red cake. The flames on the chandelier might have been Owen’s favorite and accompanied by the red table cloth were my minimal attempt to make the house look appropriately dressed for a Fire Man party and not Christmas.

Happy Birthday little man!