Spring Break

I love Spring Break. We went to the zoo, did lots of yard work, planted roses, planted lots of seeds for veggies, herbs and flowers, read lots of books, played a lot, had friends over, went to bed later, baked, and sewed. Nate spent most of his spring break destroying the house, his favorite pastime. I'm having a "Mom's Spring Break" tomorrow when Nate and I will fly out to CA for the weekend for a good friend's baptism. Can't wait!


They wanted to try sleeping together. No way, we thought. They'd never be able to do it. They were too excited to all be in bed together. But we told them we'd give it a try.


They were having so much fun. Nate cried for a minute when we left.

And then we found this.

The girls are taking sewing lessons. They were so excited about the aprons they made.

They each wanted to pose.

After I finished taking the girls' pictures, Nate popped on stage and started to pose. Just noticed that his buttons are off. Oh well. He didn't seem to care.

Nate had an appt. with a doctor up in St. Louis on Friday, so Dave took the day off and we hit the zoo first. Nate was mesmerized with the elephants in this picture. Really, he was mesmerized with ALL of the animals.

Precious

Today I was having a "Brie" moment where it hits me how much I love and miss her. Nate was right by me, and noticed my facial expressions changing (happy to SAD) and he got such a concerned look on his face. He hurried for a tissue, and gently wiped each little tear. Then he followed a tear with his finger as it trickled down my cheek. Then he got the tissue, wrapped it around my nose and made the sound of a nose blowing, so I would blow into the tissue. Then he said "hug" as he held his arms open wide and wrapped those sweet arms tight around my neck. Then he hurried to check how my sad face was doing. His sweet face reminded me of how much I love HIM and how much I miss my Brie and how I wish I could see her at this cute age. We held each other while I cried a bit more...sad and happy tears. Oh how I love my little boy. I wonder if he'll ever know how much joy he's brought to his mama's aching heart.

Brainwashing at Bedtime

I am sorry to the girl Nate marries. I'm sorry, because his daddy brainwashed him when he was so little to know better. I am sorry if Nate insists on owning snakes. It's not my fault. I tried.

Most people don't like snakes crawling on their backs. Nate thought it was fun. Not me. Last night I was on my bed, with Dave closeby as we were chatting about the day. I was lying on my stomach, and Dave was holding Rolly. Next thing I know, I see out of the corner of my eye, a SNAKE crawling around my back!! I shrieked for Dave to get that thing off my back. He was surprised that I didn't want her on my back - he thought I was getting quite comfortable with Rolly and was liking her a lot. I can handle her just fine. But I wouldn't say I like her. Especially not on my back.

This would give me nightmares.

Last Sunday afternoon Nate, Dave and I were taking a nap. The girls made a restaurant for us while we were sleeping. It was buffet style. The main dish was PBand J sandwiches - my favorite for a Sunday meal. They made their favorite "snack" mix with all of the random snacks they can find in the house.But they were so sweet about it, we had to indulge. They were super cute waitresses and wouldn't let us lift a finger.

The new family pet

Nate wanted to lay down by the snake - and here he is waving to him.

So happy to have a snake in our house!

Dave is posting here: It happened. The long awaited family pet arrived today. We all went on a drive to Jefferson City for a piano "festival". Afterwards we picked up our new ball python. Meliss wasn't crazy about the idea at first but she came around. On our drive home we tried to figure out the best name for it. Elizabeth, Sarah, Sherman...were all proposed but didn't seem quite right. Meliss had the idea of Raliegh because it sounds like Rolla, MO. We had a tortoise when we lived in San Francisco and named it Frisco...it fit. Everybody took turns holding it, even Meliss. We had to video Nate holding and kissing it. Raliegh is about 4 months old and can live 30-50 years! He/she can grow to 4-6 feet in length and will eat rats by then. Thanks Meliss for putting up with another snake in the home. Before you know it you'll be working in the kitchen with it around your neck!

Ashlyn's Big Day!

It was a perfect day for a baptism - with white snow everywhere, clear roads, and a beautiful blue sky!

Thank you Karla for the gorgeous white roses! Ashlyn loved them and felt so special getting the delivery just for her!

Nate probably would have preferred the 4:00 baptism time yesterday AFTER his nap, opposed to the 12:30 baptism right at nap time. He wasn't too bad. He even let the Bishop hold him during the actual baptism.

Ashlyn fasted for the first time today and it was soooooooooooooooo hard! I told her she could put anything that she wanted to eat on her plate to have ready to eat right after the prayer. She chose a leftover piece of her birthday cake. So that's what she started with. Then we had potato-veggie-cheese soup in sourdough breadbowls. She was SO happy to get to eat.

One more day to wait

We've had a big snow storm all day...and the baptism was rescheduled for tomorrow after church. Lots of fun was had in the snow earlier today, but Ash came in and got showered and all ready in her white dress when the phone call came that the baptism would be tomorrow. She buried her head in her dad's arms and cried. Poor thing. It was SO long to wait for this day to finally be here, and now she'll have to wait one more day.

Happy 8th Birthday Ash!

The girls and I had too much fun putting Ashlyn's cake together. My good friend here loaned me all of her fancy cake decorating supplies and we went to town making a total disaster in the kitchen.

Ash wanted two flavors - and yes, it is a 5 layer cake. Ash wanted to try both, so here is how her piece looked. Quite the tall piece of cake. We had to get out a dinner plate. Ashlyn picked the chocolate layer for Grandpa when he comes tomorrow because he loves chocolate cake!

Ashlyn's girl is on the left, Sadie's is on the right. They could have spent all day making creations with the fondant.

They were so proud of their finished product!

Saturday we took Ash and a few friends to a reptile ranch and although it was a sort of rundown place, the animals were so cool! Notice Jafar, the tiger, behind us.

We all took turns holding the alligator. Even I held it by MYSELF! It was scary, but I did it.

Dave is trying to brainwash Nate into thinking that we need an alligator for a pet. NO, we do not, Nate.

Ashlyn is getting baptized this Saturday and can hardly wait!