These are a few of E's favorite things.....

Thank the camera gods my baby is back!! I picked her up Tuesday night with much excitement!I gladly gave Kevin back his point and shoot. I told the saleslady at Ritz how I was using a point and shoot and she laughed and said 'you CAN'T use a point and shoot after experiencing your camera!' LOL, very sad but true!

In celebration of her arrival back home (after 9 long agonizing weeks I bought a 50m f 1.4 lens. Should be here next week or so. I can't wait. It's a portrait lens so I can get some nice close ups of the girls!!! woo hooo!!!!

OK anyways heres some pics of E this morning playing with her favorite things:

First- her play gym, she LOVES this thing and goes crazy with it!


Next is one of her wooden spoons. It will still be at least 9 more months til she eats with them but for now she loves to suck and chew on them

and lastly one of her rattles,she was having lots of fun with this earlier.

It's nice that shes now interested in playing with things.

These are a few of E's favorite things.....

In Loving Memory

*I apologize in advance, I am exhausted and still in shock taking all of this in*


Of a truly amazing,caring,wonderful man- Michael or as K refers to him 'Fiona Daddy'.

Him and K last November

Him and K and Fiona and D'Anne last November.


He left this earth much to soon and is missed beyond words. Can I just say this is NOT fair! You never met a more caring individual.
All our love,prayes and thoughts are with our beloved D'Anne and Fiona.

In Loving Memory

Lazy Morning

1st off, can you believe it? I'm knitting again!! woo hoo!! I finally finished knitting and embellishing all my squares for the knitted farmyard play mat on Saturday,our lazy day as you'll see a pic of below. Now I just have to wait on the other 11 mamas to finish theirs so we can trade and knit them all together! So now I have started on a soaker for E. It's the Pea patch pattern by my friend Michelle (blog is in my list). I'm knitting it in 'Fiona' by Three Irish Girls.

Our garden is flourishing now. Here's some peppers I picked the day my family arrived.



This Saturday morning was one of those mornings I have been dreaming of for years now! We all were in the living room and E fell asleep in her hammock.


My knitting I worked on, finishing up the squares while everyone slept.


K playing with her dollhouse by herself.She was having a blast. And being oh so quiet to not wake anyone up.


Daddy and Nara fell asleep on the couch together.


It only lasted about an hour but it was heavenly.



I'm still editing my post for the family trip! Will be up soon I swear!

Lazy Morning

new haircut,amazing E, and snakes galore

After my pregnancy my hair was pretty ratty looking. Plus I have been growing out my Betty page bangs that I never like on my face. so I went and got 10 inches taken off to donate to locks of love. I feel so much lighter! This pic is a bad pic my hair isn't even washed and I just got out of bed but it gives you an idea, none the less. This cut is saving me seeing how I never have time to do anything to my hair out of the shower.

Last Wednesday our local library had a rattlesnake event. sadly they didn't bring rattle snakes though. kinda odd huh? K loves rattlesnakes right now. But we did see some other amazing snakes and creatures and K's friend Riley was there.

Here's K holding the tail end of a boa constrictor. I can remember holding one when I was in elementary school so K is following in my footsteps!


Here she is petting a milk snake


and in this pic she had just kissed the snake but my crappy point and shoot camera paused and got the picture after she kissed him :(


E,I have decided is a Saint in a baby's body. She is amazing, I can't believe how laid back and easy going she is. The exact opposite of her big sister!!
She even fell asleep on her own sucking on her fingers yesterday! see below


she did the same thing today too. I can't believe it! I am not used to this. And she is content doing just about anything now. She lets me put K down for a nap which can take a 1/2 hour sometimes,lets me clean and sometimes cook too.
She is just so happy all the time. she sleeps for an hour smiles and coos for an hour, then sleeps an hour and smiles and coos an hour..this happens all day long til 8pm then she goes to bed til 6-7 the next morning and we start all over again. shes just so wonderful, I feel so blessed!


Heres how she napped today, with Nara curled around one side and me on the other.
this pic cracks me up b/c of K's face. Nakies as usual.

new haircut,amazing E, and snakes galore

E being a ham today

It has almost been 8 weeks since I had to turn in my camera :( so hopefully it will be back in my arms again soon. I tried to have a mini photo shoot with E today. I took 155 photos and these were the only ones that were in focus :( arn point and shoot camera!!
anyways here she is!

smiles

with big sis!

E being a ham today

baking as meditation

Monday is our usual baking day,and we did bake on that day but we decided to make some things today too. We needed some more bread b/c we've been eating it like crazy. I found this amazing organic whole wheat bread flour that makes our bread so soft and perfect now. We just can't get enough!!


After we got the bread started we decided to make some cookies to satisfy our sweet cravings. I got out our letter cookie cutters to use for the 1st time,thinking I would just do some random letters but K requested the letters in her name and actually knew what they were! We have never taught her the letters in her name or any letters at all. We do not even sing her the alphabet song. She is too young fr these things yet,but yet she knows them somehow! So I'm following her lead and I made her the cookie letters she wanted. She was my big helper!!
cookie making

She wanted a random O as well.


Our 1st batch fresh out of the oven. These are my Grandma's recipe, we make it every Christmas in my family. I decided for my girls we'd make them whenever we got the urge to.


My very smart,simple living,frugal friend Jill started a challenge that I have been participating in...
I never bothered with coupons b/c everything we buy is from smaller companies so they never have coupons in the paper ,etc.
Now that we have expensive van payments we need to be simple and frugal more than ever.
Anyways she based her challenge after the $39 experiment (http://www.the39dollarexperiment.com/ ) but hers is online instead of wasting money on stamps,envelopes and paper.

So I began e-mailing the companies we buy from,spending about 2 mins an e-mail, asking them for coupons. So far every company minus 2 has replied saying they are sending me coupons.

Here's what came in the mail the other day from Earthbound organics and eden organic foods:

Tons of coupons,including ones for FREE products!! I received more coupons today from traditional medicines and Odwalla.This will help us out so much. Groceries are our biggest monthly expense b/c we refuse to lower our standards on food that nourishes our bodies. We will go without other things before going with out healthy eats. Especially now we us going soy free,I'm really looking at every bite that goes into our bodies. Plus I want us to be a good example for the girls growing up.
We are also now buying from local organic food co-ops and I am buying in bulk from a local organic farm (that's where our super yummy bread flour came from). Supporting our local farmers and saving gas and money at the same time, how brilliant!

baking as meditation