Mud Fun...

I am getting terribly behind on

blogging.

We have been spending our days

living outside

and have had later and later bedtimes lately.

So finding free time to sit and blog

has been difficult!

As a result this week I will be posting

pictures from about a

month or more ago!

Better late than never...

and since this is our

Life Journal

I want to get all our random fun memories saved!

This spring was a very, very wet one!

The kids made the best of it

and spent plenty of time

slashing in mud puddles!

Angelina was taking it all in...

I'm sure she will be joining in on the

muddy fun next spring!

I guess mud boots are optional only around here!

She is a wild woman on her bike!

James thought Angelina would enjoy

being pushed out in the

middle of the mud puddle!

Fun muddy memories...

Happy Girl...

Elsie Jane...

my happy-go-lucky girl.

She is the reliable one...

always has a plan...

always happy.

~

Elsie doesn't always like her picture taken,

so it feel like I don't

blog about her nearly as much as the other two.

 Elsie is a major girly girl...

its almost rare to see her with no eye make up

or lipstick.

Its her dream to have a makeup desk!

If she hears someone is going shopping,

you can bet she will want to go...

especially if it means clothing shopping.

Trying on clothes is her favorite!

Her desires include,

dyeing her hair pink.

{her father agreed!}

getting a kid bra

and

living with her aunties.

 Elsie's mind is constantly spinning.

she is so creative...

all she needs is a piece of paper

and a pencil,

and she is happy and contented for a long time!

She loves to look on Pinterest for

creative inspiration.

And she gives me plenty of grief over all the

pinterest fails we have done together!

~

In Elsie's mind,

everything is a word.

She is constantly sounding out words.

She will be outside playing and will

come inside to tell

me how to spell some word she was thinking about.

She is counting down the days

till school will start!

She will be doing kindergarten and 1st grade

and is kinda excited!

She loves to learn...

~

She is still my little girl though

who loves playing with her dolly.

Who loves to cuddle.

Who loves to put her head on my shoulder when we read.

Part of me wishes she would stay little forever...

yet watching her grow,

explore and discover

is a special thing too...



More Fires...

If you so choose to

scroll down,

you will see an almost

ridiculous amount of random

campfire pictures...

This going to be an

'almost' wordless Wednesday post.

I can't do a post with no words at all...

because would just be boring!

 Camo shirt,

camo chair...

I'm noticing a theme here...

 My wild boy.

I would be lost without him...

 My sweet, motherly and caring girl...

 Papa Wayne feeding baby her dinner...

 Tired girl...

 When Jon knows I am trying to

take his picture...

he likes to do his best to make sure

the picture will turn out pretty bad.

He nailed it, here!

 Ummm...

so much better?

 Hanging a bird house in the tree...

it takes several guys.

And my little guy is always around and

taking it all in.

scary thought sometimes!

 My kids kinda love me.

 Angelina loves her daddy!

 We love family nights...



Campfires...

Campfire season is upon us!

We keep an extra bag or two of

marshmallows in the pantry at all times...

so we are ready for spontaneous

campfires on weekends!

{the blog has been pretty quiet again

lately because we have been enjoying

summer weather, plenty of campfires and

lots of late nights!}

I love watching the kids roast marshmallows...

Elsie does good...

but James is so busy twisting the roaster in a circle,

to get a good evenly roasted marshmallow,

that he doesn't even notice the

roaster is strait up in the air

and not even close to the fire!

After about 10 seconds of twisting it,

he announces it is done.

So he takes it off and devours it...

never even noticing that it is completely undone!

I love how my kids have no clue what a

s'more is.

They think it is completely normal to simply

eat a roasted marshmallow

with just your fingers.

The happy ignorance of growing up

gluten and dairy free, I guess!

Having a campfire alone,

with just 3 little kids,

is something I'm not willing to do quite yet...

so when Daddy comes home,

the kids always know it's

campfire time!

Phone Calls...

James loves to talk on the phone.

It's not at all unusual to

find that he found the phone and made

a phone call or two by himself without me knowing!

When the phone rings here,

it's a big fight about who is going to

answer it first.

I almost always loose!

 I think Grandma B. is about the only one

who can understand James on the phone with no problems.

Of course one day she called when I was

in the shower,

so he answered it and told her

I was naked in the shower so I couldn't talk to her.

At least he had it all under control!

 He can do amazing things while talking on the phone.

He pushes the phone so close to his face,

that the touch screen gets activated.

So it's not unusual for him to rename my

contacts with strange random letters!

Or he will put one person on hold and call another person.

I don't even know how to do that!

Good thing it will be several years before he will

get his own phone!

~

So, if ever you call

{or get a call from me}...

beware!

Monday...

James...

The man of many faces.

Gosh, I love that kid.

He keeps us all laughing...

and will make us all gray before long

with all his wild and crazy ways.

I am not even being

dramatic.

 I am happy to say this boy

is completely potty trained.

Oddly enough though,

he prefers to wear a pull-up still.

Or go commando!

I guess undies just aren't his thing!

~

One day while at Auntie Ceara's house,

James had to go potty.

He wanted to go outside, in the

lilac bush.

Literally IN the bush.

He got in the middle of the bush,

he was holding branches away from his face

with both hands!

His goal was to pee on the flowers...

so he stood in the

middle of the bush,

on his tippy toes, with his back arched...

doing his best to aim way up at the flowers.

I couldn't help but laugh.

He is too funny.

And he has no clue!

Just for the record,

he never did pee on the flowers.

 I cannot count the times we have managed

to get all the way into town

before we realized

James did not wear any shoes.

The boy

HATES shoes!

and Jon and I don't think to remind him to put any on!

{parent's of the year award, I know!}

Recently he has discovered

socks...

he thinks socks and shoes are pretty much the same thing.

So now I find him running around

with socks on his feet outside.

He also thinks the feet on his

fuzzy pj's double as shoes too.

Which explains why he can be seen

wearing pj's outside to play at all hours of the day!

Creative mind,

I tell ya!

 James birthday is next month.

He has his birthday list all figured out...
1. a 4-wheeler
2. snowmobile
3. little car that really drives
4. go cart
5. jeep
So, a kinda over the top birthday list!
We'll see what we can come up from that list!
And he is requesting Orange frosting on his cake.
Go figure.
Slightly obsessive about the colour orange lately!

I love my

rough,

brave,

adventurous,

super L.O.U.D.,

wild,

curious,

cuddle bug,

imaginative,

crazy

little guy.

He is pretty much perfect...



Rice Baby...

Both Jon and I love making baby food...

in the past we have had friendly little

arguments about who gets to

make big batches of baby food to freeze.

With Angelina we only got to make

baby food 1 time...

and most of it's still in the freezer!

This girl just up and decided she didn't have time

for baby food,

but wanted big people food!

She actually snapped her little mouth shut and

simply refused to eat baby food.

If we plopped some big people

food on her tray,

she would happily gobble it right up!

 I have yet to fine a food she doesn't like.

We stream all veggies and

all firm fruits in the steamer...

then just plop them on her tray in chunks

and let her eat away!

 She goes bonkers for

rice, carrots, sweet potatoes and avocados.

She also gets...

apples, bananas, potatoes,

lentils, pears, peaches, beans, oatmeal,

pancakes, green beans, melons...

pretty much all veggies and fruits.

None of which she doesn't like!

 If she happens to notice that we are using

a fork or spoon to feed her,

and she isn't holding one of them...

she will scream until we give her one!

And she makes a specific little grunting noise

when she wants a drink of water.

She loves water and can't get enough!

 Our high chair is rather slippery because its wooden...

she I made a nifty little chair wrap for her.

And it kind of doubles as a bib

and catches all the dropped food!

Last week, Angelina learned a new trick with her food...

when she is done eating she quickly moves her arms back and forth

across the tray...

meanwhile tossing the left over food all over the floor!

boy, do I love that trick!