garden greens

red barn wood beds 

 sweet mint (reminds me of summers in Bellevue)

peppermint plants 

tomatoes  

flowers for the bumble bees

chutes, ladders, and swinging solo

He's done it, ladies and gents, he's figured out the swing!! He can hop on (a little bit of a scramble to get on), and begin to rock back and forth enough to get started, and within a couple minutes his feet are as high as my head. My tips on Friday when he finally was willing to listen and try till he succeeded were a mixture of, "let your feet fly really high! then drop your feet back, then let them fly high!" Somehow something stuck and he was flying.

everything's more fun with a tail

A couple of weeks ago I spent some rainy days inside making these dinosaur tails out of canvas, velcro and stuffing. They have been as big of a hit with the kids as we had thought they'd be and it makes me smile ear to ear to see them laughing so hard at each other when they wear them; they must not realize how goofy they look, themselves. ha! Oh, I love it.

Mark plays dinosaur catcher, above

Mont runs away fast, below

Emmy prances along, pretending to be a princess dinosaur, I'd imagine:

And the two little dinos run off on a hunt:

reader reading

Hey there fellow bloggers! It's been few and far between these days that I get around to posting; then when I do, it's in a collaboration of catch-ups. Thank heavens for Instagram to post our happenings somewhere [on the record].

Question for those that are users of the great and glorious Google Reader: I saw that it is sputtering to a kaput on July 1 of this year. I am gearing up to go old style where reading blogs is concerned: a blog roll once again on the side bar, checking early every morning. Maybe it will bring back the old magic the blog world used to hold for everyone. What my question is, is what are you planning on doing to gear up for this change? Are there any programs that would take the place efficiently?

I'll end with a fun factoid.. on this day in history in 1819, Walt Whitman was born.. here are a few favorable quotes:

"I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends."

"Keep your face always towards the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you."

"Re-examine all that you have been told... dismiss that which insults your soul."

"I exist as I am, that is enough."

"Oh while I live, to be the ruler of life as a powerful conqueror, and nothing exterior to me will ever take command of me."

"I see great things in baseball. It's our game - the American game."

"Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes."

"Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth."

Happy weekend!

captain mont reeder

Have your read or heard of the book How I Became A Pirate? It's a favorite here at our house, and nearly every night it is requested before bed. We change Jeremy Jacob to Mont Reeder and he gets a kick out of it, checking to be sure that in each picture, "That's me?" "Yep!" And every day he wants to dress like a pirate, stripes and all. If it's not a "Smee shirt" (striped) then it must be a shirt with dinosaurs or dynamite or something equally as boyish. But pirates have green teeth, when they have any teeth at all, so whenever Mont asks for something good, he asks if it will help his teeth stay white and strong. So funny what some kids take from certain stories or situations. I love this little land lubber to pirate pieces.

may showers

Mark took this picture out our front door of the maple tree sprouting it's leaves during a rain shower. It's been one of the last to let it's new leaves out, but it has made this whole process even sweeter. Just as these two:

practice makes perfect

perfect match

While Buckwheat is only 9 pounds, he still controls the speed of Emmy's walking for the most part when she's the one with his leash. Pretty funny watching these two zip around to satisfy Buckwheat's need to sniff and search. Emmy couldn't be happier than when she is outside with some sort of animal, be it Buckwheat, a bird she's chasing, a deer she wants to hug, a horse, a sheep or a chicken. She loves them all.

clay pigeons and water jugs

Friday morning I took the kids to our friends' house for a visit and a bit of play, and as we got to talking, we decided to do a spur of the moment date night. With a last minute yes from a babysitter, we raced off for some target practice with a couple friends. I hadn't shot a gun since Mark and I were first married and visiting the Reeder Ranch for Thanksgiving. It'd been almost 7 years! I wasn't that great, but I did hit my first clay pigeon using our friend's shotgun. I wish I had stopped with that one.. because I missed the next three. : )

Here are two pictures Jenny took of the fun:

sailing ships and sealing wax

 Our nephew Maxwell turned two on May 14th, and as I look at our children... pirate ships seem to be all the rage right now with them. ha ha - So a "pirate" ship was painted and sent off in the mail. It's the smallest I've ever done, only 4" x 5", and it took me quite a while.. so much little detail that required so much time! I'm laughing at it, because it was such a challenge! Water might be the hardest thing I've painted.. I kept repainting over it and layering, then getting frustrated with it and doing it again. I believe it was redone 3 times. There's a good amount of paint on this little canvas! Maybe he'll like it for a few more years before it moves to a box. Happy birthday, funny boy!

springing

The buds came out this week and we have been out to see every one of them. While we're still in coats and pants, it's nice to know the plant life is even acknowledging some sort of atmospheric change! ha ha

17/52: three amigos

I love these three of mine!

Link to the hilarious article I mentioned below: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2156

Enjoy. : )

Lawrence Welk's birthplace

About a year ago, Mark introduced me to the actual Lawrence Welk show. All I'd seen prior were the clips from SNL's renditions. Both the real thing and the clips were hilarious. Mark was doing a little research Lawrence Welk and read that he was actually from North Dakota! What?! The article we read had us both laughing so hard. It was brutally harsh on why he left and never came back to North Dakota. While we like it here, he did not have our same experience; not in the slightest. Here's the wiki link. He was born in the german-speaking community in Strasburg, ND, and was the sixth of eight children. His parents spent their first ND winter under an upturned wagon covered in sod. Can you imagine?! When Mark told that to me, I couldn't wrap my head around it for a good long while. I cannot even fathom that. These winters are far colder than the ones we spent in Anchorage, Alaska. Those were some hardy folk.  Anyway, this past Friday we went to Bismark for the ward temple trip. It was our first time going, and we had a lot of fun. Then on the way back on Saturday afternoon we detoured to Strasburg, North Dakota!

We were heartily let down to drive up to it being closed with no tours beginning until Memorial Day. No accordion music for us to follow off the highway. ha! But it was still very nice because we had the whole place to ourselves to run explore a bit; it was warm, windy, and quiet.

Mark said "all his North Dakota dreams had just come true!" ha ha!! What a sport. 

16/52: ready for California

We're gathering clothes and fun things for a summer trip to California to visit a certain mouse in another month. We can hardly wait! For the trip and for Summer!

painting pals

This week we painted quite a bit.. on this particular morning, I needed to finish a small painting of my own, but I knew that would be impossible without satiating the need my two pals have to want to paint. Did that make sense? I knew they had to paint first if I was every going to be left in peace to finish my own. And it worked! Emmy and Mont painted for about 2 hours together. I was standing near, replacing water jars and dispensing fresh paper when they reached their fill, and lots of elbow wiping. But after those two sweet hours, I was able to turn on a little movie with a snack, and set to work myself. I carried on through nap time, then I was done when they woke. It was definitely a win win, and their paintings were showed off to a proud papa when he came home from work that night. I think we'll be doing this again very soon!

all in two short days

Emmy woke up with a small fever, but I didn't think much of it, until around nap time when she started whining more. 10 am was steadily approaching and I needed to take a shower still, before later taking Mont to the dentist in town for his 6 mo. checkup in a few hours. I decided to put Emmy down while Mont stayed awake a little longer; but before putting her down for her nap, I gave her a dose of Ibuprofen like I've done in the past, then laid her down to sleep. I jumped in the shower, and 10 minutes later when I was out, I heard Emmy through the monitor crying/whining. I sent Mont in to sing her a song while I dressed and toweled my hair - just to keep her happy for a minute until I could get there. I went in and found Emmy rubbing at her eyes, crying. Her eyes were swelling, and she couldn't leave them alone. What happened?! I texted Mark this picture, moments after I scooped her out of the crib, saying, "I'm worried about Emmy!" He raced home and took her to the pediatric clinic in his uniform, hoping to push through nurses who we thought would likely turn us away.

Thankfully they let her right in with her swelling! We did the right thing.. We've never had an allergic reaction around our house like this before, but they said we did the right thing by bringing her right in. You don't mess around with reactions! Good to know.

While Mark was with Emmy at the doc's office, I had to take Mont to his dental appointment where he was the highlight of this hygienist's day. He talked her ear off and told her all about his future plans, about how he will wear the sunglasses and he won't be afraid. She laughed so hard and was so sweet with him. He had a grand ol' time (as you can see):

The next day, Mont was the sickie, with a fever that hit 106º for a while. It was insane. I was on the phone with the same nurse that had helped Emmy the day before. She said to keep him home even with such a high fever because that was his only symptom of sickness. He wasn't vomiting, he was still drinking water, using the toilet, talking, and bugging Emmy, so he was just fine... just burning up like no one I've ever seen before. I put a cool cloth on his forehead that he said "feels good" to, I kept the cool water coming, and he took ibuprofen and tylenol with no reactions. Thank the heavens... didn't want to have to use Emmy's new fancy epipens on him! His fever reduced during the next night and he was just worn out the next day. Gosh... what a couple of days.. 

bird hops in snow

Thousands of birds migrated back to our area the about a week and a half ago, flooding the area with bird song and fluttering shadows in the trees. It's the sign of spring I usually trust whole heartedly, but this year these poor creatures have been braving the winter storms with the rest of us. I bet they regret the return trip, wishing they had stayed in the warmer trees of the South.

Yet after the snow storm, they still ventured out, hopping around the little snow piles near our backdoor, probably looking for some sweet morsels of food! I'm not sure how they are making it! But good news, the snow from the storm began melting fairly quickly... perhaps the birds won't have to wait much longer.

very merry unbirthday party

Yesterday, our church was shortened to Sacrament Meeting, and 15 minutes of an abbreviated Sunday School lesson. We were expecting a really huge winter storm, and our Bishop wanted all to be home and ready for it, not on the road heading home from church (some travel for 2 hours to reach our chapel). We were dividing the ward yesterday, so there was going to be quite the turnout to hear all about it. With all the excitement in the air, and wanting the kids to feel some of the excitement too, we came home, took baths, and I declared it our Very Merry Unbirthday! So promptly after our pjs were on, at about 12 noon, I began to make a huge chocolate cake from scratch (using the Hershey's Cocoa Powder box as my recipe - it's a good one, trust me!) while the kids took their naps.

After dinner, we took turns blowing out candles while clapping and singing the unbirthday song to each of us. It was pretty fun, and I got to eat cake for days. Please don't look too closely at it, bc it's not that pretty! But good thing we judge cake by the way it tastes, right? ha ha

15/52: spring?

We're not quite sure where Spring is. 

melting

While there was snow still on the ground, there was a light 'mush' falling from the clouds, landing heavily enough to push some snow back into water. I think it's officially started to melt out there! There might be some more snow fall, but overall, the snow piles are shrinking!