Easter Egg Hunt in the TN Wildlands!

...aka, our backyard!

Welcome to Spring in Tennessee. This means the grass isn't completely grown in yet because we haven't yet had enough rain, so please excuse the patchy grass. The yard hasn't been mowed yet either, because up until very recently it's been too darn cold and the grass hasn't actually grown! And now you have an understanding of our lack of landscaping, so let's get to the good stuff.

We had an Easter Egg Hunt!

We took leftover candy...let me interrupt myself to say we're not big on eating Candy in our house, so don't be surprised if some of it is leftover from Halloween. Yes, it's been in Ziplocs in the pantry and despite an occasional stale piece, it tastes just fine. I know, I was the taste-tester...and filled the Easter Eggs with a peice of candy per egg. Miguel hid them all over the over-grown yard and the kids had a wonderful time.

Building a Fort - kid-style!

This was all Josh and Katie (well, mostly Josh):

Katie just wanted to show off her latest Princess crown and Josh's hair is getting really long. This is just after a bath, hair standing with only water holding it up.

Christmas arrived!!!!

It was a good day. My pictures uploaded backwards, so I will tell about the day backwards. While I made a ham (my first time in the 6 years we've been married, 'cause I think they're gross. Miguel likes them though, so this was one of his Christmas presents.) After dinner we decorated another gingerbread house. We really like the gingerbread houses. I think they're going to become an annual thing.

Here is Miguel while we were decorating the gingerbread house. So cute. Typical Miguel picture.

Here's the loot. The kids really made out this year thanks to the budget. Yep, we've put money away every paycheck, just for Christmas. Nope, I didn't wrap a thing. Not one single present. Yep, it's cause I am lazy. Work has been super crazy and no fun at all. I've been stressed out, strike that, I've been stressed-the-heck-out and just couldn't deal with it. I know, selfish mom. I'll get better, I promise.

Here's our Christmas tree. I loved having a live tree this year. The scent wasn't impressive, though, which was a disappointment. I think we'll go live again next year. In the spirit of the unwrapped presents, we didn't put any ornaments on our tree either. We have tons, we just didn't get them out. We only used the ornaments the kids made at church. I like our tree very much.

And lastly - the annual picture of the animals. The pretty one is also quite dumb, but thankfully he is calming down quite a bit. He is lazy and just doesn't learn the same way as the others. It's a really good thing he's so pretty. Sadie (the small one) still follows me around like the wonderful puppy she is. Sarge (the one laying down) is totally Miguel's dog and follows Miguel around the way Sadie follows me around.

Christmas 2009 was a huge success.

Peek-a-boo!

I guess they never get too old for this...

Invasion!

Okay, not really, but isn't this the biggest ant you've ever seen??? It was in my living room! I can't believe I took a picture of it, but that's how shocked I was to see such a huge ant-looking creature in my house! And please, if it's not really an ant, tell me what it is...

What happens when you turn your back...

My son is a goof-ball, this we know. This is just proof for those of you who haven't figured it out yet.

Poor little girl tries so hard to keep up with her big-brother. She didn't quite "get" the markers part, though some of it had washed off of her face by the time this was taken...thanks to baby-dribbling. See the remnants of green on her chin? And yes, her hair is still pretty wild. She has finally started pushing it out of her face and saying, "Hahr." So cute.

Did I mention they wrote all over the dishwasher too? Thank goodness it was washable markers. When I discovered how easily it all wiped off (thank you, Crayola washable markers), I considered allowing them to write on it regularly. Then reality set in and let that idea go. It's just easier to be consistent this way.

Random House Fun

The best part of having an old hand-me-down couch.

Katie was getting frustrated because the "fort" kept falling on her...

Our Very Own Jedi!

Anyone who knows my son, knows he is a bigger Star Wars fan than his father. It is not an uncommon thing in our home to hear Daddy telling us, "I didn't think there was a bigger Star Wars fan than me..."

*Josh's favorite movie is Star Wars: Clone Wars
*He LOVES the Cartoon Network series (it probably helps that he is allowed to stay up late to watch it...hmm...)
*He is fascinated with Ahsoka Tano - Anikan's padawan.

For those of you who have seen the movie, look for similarities between Josh and Ahsoka in these pictures. Those who haven't seen the movie probably won't get it, but I still think it's cute that Josh is trying to be a Jedi...and please excuse the disaster that used to be the living room. This all happened when Miguel fell asleep on the couch. I came out of my office and found this:


Notice the Lightsaber clipped to his belt for quick access?

How about the wristband up around his hand similar to Ahsoka's wrist-wraps?

For those of you unfamiliar with Ahsoka - here she is at wikipedia

Monkeys in my House

The other night hubby and I were sitting around talking, and my kids just started doing silly things. Yes, this is normal, but we'd never seen them do these particular things before. Enjoy...

This one isn't great, but it's the first time we ever saw this. I have no idea how she thought of it. She also likes to swing her legs from chairs, or stand with her hands on two tables (one hand on either side of her) and lift herself up and swing her feet.

Josh joined in because we were laughing so hard at Katie. Even better - I think Josh has his shorts on backwards...I'm not complaining, it's hard enough to get him to put his clothes on after he goes potty, so I'm very grateful he's not naked.

And here we were trying to get her to do it again and get a good shot of it, but by this time she was tired . It is still quite silly. Enjoy.

An Easter Entry...finally

Easter was enjoyed by all this year. Miguel told the kids the Easter-bunny poops out candy-filled eggs. He was hoping Josh would repeat that one in a public place, but to my relief, Josh kept it to himself.

Anyhow, it was an excellent weekend. I can't believe how different it is living here from where I grew up. People wish each other a Happy Easter at the grocery store, or the drug store or Anywhere! People don't worry about being Politically Correct here; it's truly my kind of place.

On Saturday the kids went to an egg-hunt at Church. We had a light brunch of blueberry muffins (Josh's absolute favorite), then a short ending to our Walk With Christ activity we'd been challenged to participate in at home. Finally, the egg hunt began!

There were only 3 kids under 4 at church for the activity, so Katie and Josh and another little boy got a head-start in looking for eggs. Thankfully they limited the number kids could pick up to ensure everyone received the same number. Josh took off and was able to truly participate well. Katie didn't really get it but enjoyed picking up the eggs and looking inside of them.

On Sunday, Miguel wanted to have our own Egg-hunt, but the weather was dreary. Not rainy, but colder and windy. So in the early evening, eggs were hidden in the living room and the kids had a ball.

That pink dinosaur on the bookshelf behind Katie is her Easter Basket. I was VERY excited to get both of their baskets on clearance last year after Easter. This year we bought Josh a cool Star Wars bucket to use as a basket, and surprisingly, he chose to use Elmo.

It was a good weekend.

These silly kids were playing underneath Miguel's desk the other day and I thought it was cute. They have such happy smiles, I know, I'm biased, but I though the world would enjoy this.

Miguel asked me to include this picture because of how happy Josh looks!

Our Recent Visitor

I don't know why, but I never named her. I don't know why I assume she is a her, either. She's huge. Seriously, the biggest spider I've ever seen in my life. I know, I'm a wuss from California and the country bugs and animals are new for me. I didn't believe my eyes the first time I saw one of these spiders. This spider is, seriously, at LEAST the size of a silver dollar. Big enough to make me shiver just looking at the pictures.

They are called Yellow Garden Spiders and other than being extremely gross, they make the coolest webs I've ever seen. HUGE webs with zig zags and they're amazing. Nothing in the bushes when I come home from work, and a nice bug-trap when I leave for work the next morning. I know, I contradict myself with my amazement at the industrial nature of spiders, and just how completely creepy they are to me. The web in this picture is nothing compared to what we had earlier this summer. At one point we had 2 of these spiders living in these flowers which line the side of the house. They made webs easily 3 foot tall. I keep expecting to open the front door and have a web on the front porch and one of these giants in the middle of it. Yep - made myself shiver again.

These pictures are from this morning as I was getting ready to leave. She had moved her web almost onto the front porch - finally at an angle I could capture digitally for the world to see...well, at least, the part of the world who reads my silly blog.

Our Little Rock-Star

A little background. Josh is recently potty-trained (YAY!!!!) and received a "microphone" as one of his goal rewards. For the most part, he walks around the house singing ABCs and "Tink-o Tink-o It-o Star" into it, and his voice echoes out of it.

The other night we were sitting on the couch and he grabs his microphone and starts singing. I suggested he get up on 'stage.' The kid knew immediately what I meant, and here is the result:



He stopped performing the complete songs by the time I grabbed my camera (I should be more prepared), but you heard him right, he says, "Thank you! Thank you!" at the end, followed by what we think must be a "closing prayer."

Summertime

Summer has finally hit in middle Tennessee. The Magnolia trees are in bloom. I hear the 17-yr cicadas are returning, but have yet to see any evidence (though I'm not upset about that, as I hear they are messy and stinky as they die off). It's averaged 80+ degrees the past week - in between thunder storms, of course - and muggy is an understatement. This is the life.

I don't know how this happened, but I haven't ever noticed the blooms on our Magnolia tree before. I notice trees, I enjoy their beauty, and to think I never noticed giant white flowers on a huge evergreen tree before? I think I must be walking around wearing blinders or something. Oh well. I noticed this year, that is what counts. It only took me 2 years...