the lovely ladies, four weeks old

Zumbrota continues to impress with her feathered feet. 

I often get the strong sense that Butterscotch Cookies wants to eat me.

Eggs is going through an awkward adolescence.

I have no idea, but I'm thinking Almonzo is a boy. Which makes me sad, because we were going to call her Almonza if she was a girl. And that would have been awesome.

Legos is still Ivar's favorite. 

In this picture I think Hamburgerpoopedonthecarpet looks a lot like 

those rubber chickens clowns throw at people.

The ladies got a huge box thanks to our neighbor who bought an electric jack hammer. 

Rory made them two levels to perch and at one point we found all six ladies side by side on the taller perch. It was adorable. But I couldn't get to the camera before Ivar got to the chicken box. 

Zumbrota found a third perch tonight: the top of the box. I think we're going to have to use some chicken wire to keep the girls in the box until the coop is completed. We may use the same on Ivar's crib, who had a victorious escape tonight and found his dad in the garage while Elsie and I were out with friends.

Rory asked, "Did you fall out?" "yeah." "Did it hurt?" "yeah."

this and that: tiny stories to share

+Ivar loves it when we're driving and we see "a truck with a little hat on it!" We've got a Napa Auto Parts nearby and so we see those trucks with little hats a lot. Above is Ivar's attempt at putting a little hat on his own truck.

+When we put Ivar to sleep we sing him two songs. The song choices are varied: Country Roads, Jesus Loves the Little Children, Jesus Loves Me, Love Him in the Morning, Leaving on a Jet Plane. Come to think of it, it's a pretty equal mix of Jesus and John Denver. Anyway, the current favorites are Love, Love, Love...that's what it's all about and a Rory-original called Ivarwiess (a remake of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, Edelweiss) Rory sings: Ivarwiess, Ivarwiess, every morning you greet me. Small and white, clear and bright, you look happy to meet me...

+Here's a picture of the Brussels sprouts I enjoy a few times a week. I wrote a loosey goosey version of the recipe here. Usually I use deli ham and string cheese, but bacon makes everything better. It's a pretty picture isn't it?

+If you ever want to get Rory all riled up, talk to him about the current state of... ice cream. Something is happening in that industry so that it is nearly all reduced fat or whipped. Rory wants full fat, creamy, ice cream. But ice cream makers everywhere seem to be lessening the cream in their recipes and Rory is not fooled.

+At farm class the other night they brought in baby goats that were four days old.  The presenter passed around her own home made goat cheese and then I got to hold one. Suddenly goats have been added to the list of: one day at the Grovestead.

+In the meantime, we will just have to enjoy our neighbor's adorable puppy. Bandit is a new favorite friend around here and has even made it into the bedtime prayers line up. I'm sure Bandit appreciates the prayers.

+For my very first time ever, today I used the drive thru pharmacy at Walgreens. As I sat in my car I thought, wow, this is so handy and wondered why I've never utilized this service before. I think I'm like a decade behind.

I love this picture of Elsie with her Mimi and Papa on Easter Sunday. Mimi and Papa took care of our kids this weekend and it was awesome. I feel like I got some motherhood mojo back. And Ivar cannot stop talking about his time at Mimi and Papa's and how he got to play with Papa's trucks.

Donald Miller has been posting all sorts of good stuff lately. I enjoy his writing so much. I just started Storyline and I can't wait to work through this workbook.

At the beginning of this month we got in a few visits with the Groves cousins It was wonderful and it made me so sad that we no longer get to see them every single Sunday morning at church. Moving away from that consistent family together time was a real loss for me and for my kids. 

Our little fluffy chicks are getting bigger and bigger. At some point in the near future I believe we will have to start calling them chickens. Just look at Hambugerpoopedonthecarpet!

We have had three or four Sugar Snows. When we decided to tap our trees this winter we thought it would be a fun thing to try. But since this season is one for the record books, we have turned into a full-on maple syrup operation. At the moment we have over 80 more gallons of sap waiting to be evaporated. And every bag hanging on every tree is overflowing. Rory is out by the fire right at this moment. And will be for a few days...

And finally, Ivar is really into deciding who is who in each of his books. He'll point to the people and tell me "there's Ivar, and there's baby elsie, and there's mama and there's daddo!" This line up made me laugh out loud. That's Baby Elsie with the black and blue pony tail. Ivar is Elmo, I'm the teacher and Daddo is that purple monster muppet in front. I double checked to be sure he didn't mean the blue faced preppy guy next to the purple monster, but no, Ivar was sure, that purple one with the healthy sized eye brows is Daddo.

o christmas tree

Tonight I was standing in the laundry room looking out the window waiting for they dryer to buzz. I watched the snow come down and was amazed at how quickly it was accumulating. Honestly, the snow is so ridiculous at this point that it's sort of laughable.

Sort of.

But then I saw our christmas tree. We had hoisted it into the grove in January. And since trees are heavy, it didn't get very far. I saw that tree and decided she wasn't done shining yet. I thought it would be funny to set her up in the front yard for all the neighbors to see, a christmas tree lit up on April 22.  So I told Ivar we should go out and decorate our christmas tree again.

Ivar loved the idea. He happily put on his boots and joined me in this adventure. And he said, "remember we get our christmas tree with Mark and Kathy and Baby Isaac!" Ivar doesn't seem to forget anything. We found the tree stand in the garage, grabbed the light box off the shelf and walked around the house to find the outdoor socket.

The tree is half brown and half green. And it is lovely. I hope my neighbors enjoy it too.

We are ready for spring here. Don't get me wrong. But this did seem like an appropriate way to make lemonade out of these lemons.

Once Ivar went to bed, I went out again and got some pictures when the sun was going down.

  

And now I just took this picture out the window. The snow had me down earlier this afternoon, but this christmas tree has brightened my evening. 

Elsie is 9 months old

Oh Elsie. I love you so much. You are a happy girl. Your personality is showing itself more and more. You started talking a lot more and you like to scream and screech. It is obvious you are proud that you can be loud. You talk in your crib for a long time before we come to get you, practicing your sounds. You now can crawl and sort of inch worm your body around the house. You are fast, and gates had to go up immediately once you learned you could move.

You smile a lot and often scrunch your nose and eyes when you're really happy. That's my favorite, because then we get to see all of your teeth. (all 4.5 of them.)

You say, "Mama" clear as a bell and I love it. You can pretty much get me to meet any of your needs with that magical word. It stops me in my tracks.

You do fine in the nursery at church, and fine when others hold you. But if you sniff out that I am about to leave you, you can get quite nervous. As in a big lower lip and crocodile tears ready to pour out. That's okay. I know we're good pals and it's hard to be apart.

You are a tremendous eater and love taking a bottle. I like giving you your bottle because we just stare at each other and smile. You put your fingers in my mouth and scratch my cheeks. When you're ready for sleep you are happy to be set in your crib. Your bear from Ruby and pink blanket from Mimi are your favorite things to snuggle with in your crib. 

When you're out of your crib you adore your baby doll and the monkey Katherine gave you. Both make you shriek with delight. 

Elsie, you are sunshine to me.
I am so pleased I get to be your mama.
And overwhelmingly grateful that you are my girl.
Love,
Mama ma mama

switching rooms

We switched rooms with Ivar this week.  I was so excited to move into the bigger room. So happy at the thought of having a closet in my room, a reading chair, creating a little haven where I might find some quiet. 

Well, it was a nice thought. But it didn't work...at all. Ivar's new room is the only access to Elsie's room. So when Elsie woke up each morning, she woke her brother too. Who happens to be very crabby if he doesn't wake up on his own. And naps were terrible too. Ivar goes down before Elsie for the afternoon nap. So I had trouble sneaking Elsie into her crib without waking Ivar. 

After five nights of miserable sleep, Rory announced that we would be switching rooms again. It was the right thing to do. Our kids are good sleepers, and this just wasn't worth it. So we took our queen bed apart again, moved the mattresses back through the doorways, lifted the crib through both doors, switched the dressers, brought all the toys back to the big room and switched all the wall art again. 

I have a feeling we won't be switching rooms for a long, long time.

*And yes, that is Ivar's crib. The boy hasn't tried getting out yet, and based on stories from other parents of kids not staying in their beds, we decided to keep Ivar in his crib until he's 17. 

...Or until he actually attempts to get out.