Before and After: yard edition

And $2,600 later:

This photo barely does justice to the yard as it is now. It's like a miniature version of post-explosion Mt. St. Helens. In a good way...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This is Sammy trying to say Cheese! It comes out more like "sheessss!"

Ballet lessons, part deux

Olivia before her class today:

And during:

Then later, she colored her eyes blue with a pen: 

I said she looked like a fairy sprite, so she gave me her fairy face:

Love this kid.

Bye bye, Brasada

Happy trails to you, until we meet again.

Brasada Ranch

Alisa and I are vacationing in eastern Oregon this week. We're at Brasada Ranch for clear skies, relaxation and a little horseback riding. I took a few pics from the ride this morning. Alisa had never been on a horse before. Here she is on "Sweet Thing."

What a beautiful place this is. Many thanks to Gramma Margie and Grampa Chuck for watching the kids all week.

Sammy is 18 months: Part 2

Here are the boy's stats:

Height: 2' 9.47" (83.41%)

Weight: 25lb 9.5oz (67.21%)

Head circumference: 19.57" (95%)

Little Lights Valentines

Olivia's school takes Valentine's Day very seriously. It has to be handmade by the kids and this year we were reminded: no super heroes or my little ponies, please. The snow last weekend have us ample time to work on our cards. Really, Olivia doesn't quite get that quantity is more important than quality when we are talking ten kids' valentines. Here is my favorite of the three she did finish:

So cute. Here she is signing her name to Scarlett's card.

She wanted her name to have sparkles so she wrote it first and then added the dots:

Super cute.