Morning Birds

Look who visited our front yard this morning! Wild turkeys. So cool. I also forgot to mention that the butterflies here are HUGE, abundant and beautiful!

Keeping the Tooth Fairy on Her Toes

The tooth fairy has been a frequent visitor this week! Lincoln started things off losing a little tooth just to the side of his front teeth. Mom is hoping some big teeth push those two front teeth back together! She was a day late in her delivery, so we think she might have tried to go to our Oklahoma house and found a girl in that room instead!

Jackson was asking just a few days later when he was going to start losing teeth and he lost his first one on Wednesday. He wouldn't eat all day because "he had a loose tooth and it hurt." Finally at dinner time he was starving and begged for something soft to eat. We were on our way to the beach and stopped in for Vietnamese noodles and it came out mid-bite. The tooth fairy confused him as well because he fell asleep in mom and dad's bed and got moved to Lincoln's bed, but there was nothing under either pillow. Apparently she only put things in your OWN bed (which he refuses to use lately - "it's just not that comfy." Floor sleeping has been quite popular). Both boys were thrilled to get a pack of sugar free gum, a new "dessert" flavored kind: strawberry shortcake for Lincoln and mint chocolate chip for Jackson.

The Great Outdoors

We have really been enjoying our new place. The backyard has all kinds of fun things to do: a giant sandy firepit (still weeding it!), a pond (that also needs attention) with Koi and lots of fun frogs, a giant hill, a swingset, the trampoline, a hot tub (one more thing to fix up) and a nice little patio (almost done weeding between all of the pavers). We saw the neighbor girls riding down their steep driveway on a plastic tricycle and thought that might work for us too... summer sledding (named by the girls) has been the big hit of the yard.

I love all of the wildlife here. We have seen chipmunks, lots of rabbits, lots of frogs, new varieties of birds (there are some small yellow and black ones that are my favorites) including a family of guinea's that we've seen crossing the road a few times - so neat.

I have to say it sure beats the tiny backyards of our past!

I Miss My Mom

I know that people are going to hate me for saying this - but we have been waiting for a warm day. We have been watching the temps so that we could head out to the beach again - this time with Jeff. I mentioned it in passing to someone I met yesterday and she suggested we find "Seven Bridges" in Grant Park. We did just that. It wasn't just a parking lot by the beach this go around... it was an amazingly beautiful hike through the forest to the beach. The path swerves back and forth across the river and there are, as promised, seven bridges. I know my kids had a great time, but the whole time I kept thinking, "my mom would love this place." I have had that thought about quite a few things since I've been here... thinking of all I want to show her when she comes to visit.

Here is a glimpse of the place that I stole from google who stole it from someone else - I left my camera at home - boo hoo. This is to tempt my mom to come and visit me and I promise to show her beautiful things.

I also promise to one day finish the book that is officially supposed to be done tomorrow for her birthday. Many obstacles have been set in the path of that book's fruition, but it WILL be done. I love you mom! Happy Birthday.

A Different Kind of Move

I've been thinking a lot lately about how little my life has changed. It seems like when you up and move to a new part of the country that things would be quite different. In reality, the things that make up my every day world have stayed the same. In my abundance of moves during my college/mission days my roommates, classes, activities, etc. all changed each time. Now my life is my life no matter where I go. These three young boys and their amazing dad are what my life is all about and that isn't going to change. I'm a pretty lucky lady.

Pics - Jackson and Dad collecting all of the clean laundry for folding. They made a "laundry cake." Harrison going through the baby door at IKEA - he couldn't get enough of that - just kept going around and coming back through again. He was devastated when it was time to move on.