Patio Set!

Our new patio set was brought home on Friday and I just assembled it today .. It's really not much .. But it's our first one, and I really like it! Derek is going to put the umbrella in for the final touch and then it'll be complete. I'm so excited, our first patio set!! 

Our Garden #2

This garden is totally new to us and we have no clue what's growing in the backyard .. So it's fun to find surprises like this as growing season progresses: chives!! We won't have to buy any for a while now, we've got about three chive plants flowering :) So neat! 

Our Garden

There may not be a whole lot to it .. But dang, it looks nice .. Waaaay better than it did before! :)

It's so nice to have a little garden to dress up! 

"Before" Pics

... Because you've got to start somewhere.

New Friends

Making new friends that could be true friends is such an awesome feeling. It's new and exciting and there's so much to learn about each other and usually so much laughing .. It's great. I'm so grateful for new friends! 

Free Samples!

We went to bring Austin to the bus stop this morning and this little goodie bag was hanging on our doorknob .. Samples!!! Love!!

I'm so grateful to finally live in a place that gets samples!!

Books

I absolutely adore reading. I always have, ever since I learned when I was three! I have an ever-growing collection of books (and a bunch of favorites that I have read over and over again!). It's so nice to tune out the world and get lost in a good book.

And my kids just LOVE to read, too. Beaming Mama here. They will always bring me books to read with them. And this happens ..

I am so grateful that my kids have grown up reading and have learned to love it. It's something we will all share together for many years! :)

Geese

(I had to google an image because as we've all learned .. When we try to photograph something on our phones that is off in the distance, the picture looks like tiny dots!)

We live in an area close to many forests, lakes, bogs and beaches, so we get to see a lot of wildlife .. Especially geese! They fly in formation every single evening, coming from the bog and heading in the direction of the beach. My kids get so excited to see them, and they especially love to hear them honking. 

In fact, my kids call the geese Honky Honks. How cute is that?!

I'm grateful for the geese. They're something I think I've taken for granted over the years .. Seeing the wonder and excitement on my kids' faces really reminds me to take pleasure in the little things in life. They're teaching me to be excited about lady bugs and ants and flowers and yup, Honky Honks! 

Backyard Visitors

(I know it's a crappy photo - bunnies are fast!! And the deck is junky too, scheduled to be redone this summer, yay!)

I feel like a four-year-old kid every time we get some wildlife visitors in our backyard .. It's so exciting! We have rabbit visitors almost every day, and different kinds of birds visit throughout every day. We like to leave carrots for the rabbits (we never get to see the rabbits eat them, but they always disappear!) and we fill our bird feeder every day. So far we've seen a wide variety of wild finches, beautiful mommy and daddy cardinals and a really cool bunch of black birds with blue heads!

Edit: we saw the bunny eating one of our carrots last night at supper time .. It's like we were all dining together:

I know I've said this a time or two before .. But I love having a backyard!! And I love our little animal visitors! 

Sidewalk Chalk

I'd bought this awesome box of crayons sidewalk chalk last summer .. And we were told by property management of the apartment building that we were not allowed to use it :( Boo.

This year, we have a long car-less driveway to decorate, and decorate we did! That is seriously the best sidewalk chalk I've ever had the joy of playing with! We all had so much fun :)

Church Bells

One of my absolute favorite things about our neighborhood is the church bells. Every day they ring at 12pm and 6pm, and then after mass and special events like school children visits, weddings and such. My kids love the "jingle bells" too .. They're so pleasant and cheerful.

I'm so grateful for those heart-warming bells! 

Dress Up

A friend of mine dropped off some clothes for Leanna .. Mostly shoes and boots, hats and mittens, but there was a LoT. At first I was like, thanks so much and uhhhhh what do I do with all this stuff?! But then my little Leanna showed me ..

We play dress up!! 

I'm grateful for the clothing, as we now have a good stock in store for Fall and Winter .. And more grateful for this silly moment :)

It's the little things

This morning I woke up to a little surprise: hubby had a coffee ready for me on my nightstand. 

It's a very small thing but it meant the world to me. So sweet :) Grateful!

Family Movie Night

We had one of those rare days where all four of us were home (with the exception of the 3 hours Austin was away for school!). The remaining three of us went and did our big load of groceries for the week and made it home in time to get Austin off the bus .. And spent the day playing and laughing (and napping!) together. With the exception of the standard children "push our parents' buttons" moments, it was a great day, followed by our favorite taco dinner and then a movie night! 

We all changed into our jammies and had an ice cream sundae and started the movie .. Where we all snuggled under a blanket on the couch and watched Turbo on netflix (that movie is SO cute!!). 

Can you tell it was my cheat night? ;)

It was so good to be home as a whole family :) So grateful for these rare occasions, they are so special to me! 

Chuck Norris Jokes

Chuck Norris jokes always make me burst out laughing .. Like stomach-hurting, asthma-attack-invoking kind of laughter. Derek and I used to occupy each other with Chuck Norris jokes on our looooooong bus rides to the midwife office when I was pregnant with Austin! 

This morning we had a few good laughs over coffee. Thanks Chuck!