Long Time No Post.

Sorry for my blogging absence. I don't have any good excuses. But I'm trying to think of one.

Anywho... about my life.

Summer is here.
School is out.
My house is always a mess.
We live at the beach.
Asher in underwear is adorable.
Hannah wants a pet snake.
I wish soda was good for me.
What's that funky smell?
I hate mice and squirrels.
A good friend moved in next door. YAY! YAY! YAY!
Went on our first official family vacation ever.
I miss my mom.

The End.

Hannah's first school project.
Sorry Grandpa Allen, your name fell off.

Mother's Day Card from Hannah.

We are big on back scratching around here.
It's hereditary from Grandma Coleman. 

I love her funny ideas. This was a impromptu puppet show.

Hannah's sculpture art.

My yoga class at the lake. I leave feeling like a million bucks.

Strawberry picking.

Jared working on his bike. It's torture for Asher to leave the little pieces alone.

A very common scene at our house.
I love when I happen upon the 3 of them doing this.

Sometimes I just hate it here. The price for 1st floor living.
This was the mom. We've have since killed her babies.
For a brief teeny tiny millisecond I felt bad. I look back on this post from 4 years ago and laugh.
Chicago living changes you.
Die Barney.

Hannah doesn't like when I disturb her playdates. This is the look I get.

Picture of the Month - July

Vacation isn't complete without puppy.

While Hannah sleeps on me, I thought I'd blog...

It's one of my favorite things in the world when my kids fall asleep on me.

Hannah's pet butterfly. I let her wear him on her face when we went to the store.
He died a couple days ago due to too much love from a little girl.

Mango.

I love her.

Some things never change. Hiding in clothing racks is still an adventure.

My babies.

My heart swells when I see this boy having fun.

Crafting supplies.

Edible crafting supplies.

I love my girl.

Our Week.

Normally I love massages.
I'll pass.
Looks choppy.

This is the reason we sit in the back at church. More space for train engineers.

Grinding. If wheat could think and realized it was sliding to it's doom, it would be screaming right now.

A dad and his babies.

He calls it the sand slide. I think falling down a hill would be a better name.

You have to say the password before he'll let you pass. Welcome to summer.

28th floor.

The Butterfly Report.

Jared's business partner, Guillermo, gave Hannah a Butterfly Garden for her birthday. 

(it's the #1 selling toy on Amazon)

This present totally rocked our world.

First we got the small and cute caterpillars in the mail.

Then they grew at an alarming rate. It was crazy how fast they changed.

After a week they began their pupal stage. 

That's where they hang upside down and hold very still.

After a day they hardened into chrysalids.

Then we moved them into their butterfly net cage.

It only takes about a week for them to start popping out as butterflies! 

It was insane! 

All I could do for a whole day was watch them. 

I couldn't function as a human being because watching them was so awesome.

Until they all emerged we fed them watermelon and orange slices. 

They seemed to love it.

 All 10 are out. Time to let them go.

Everyone got their turn to hold one. 

Hannah and I watched this last pictured one emerge. 

I almost cried as I watched him get stuck in his own shell and web and ruin his wings forever. His wings never straightened out. He can't fly.

We ended up keeping him.

Hannah re-names him about every 20 minutes. She could not be more thrilled about having a butterfly pet. He crawls all over her all day. 

His current name is Stripy. This morning it was Crawly, then Crippled, and yesterday it was Spotty.

If you have a chance to, I highly highly recommend this family experience. 

We just loved it!

The Techno Break-Up.

You probably didn't notice. Maybe you did. But I have been blogging much less lately.

There is a reason for this.

To make a long story short.... I broke up with technology. Kind of.

It feels good. Hard at first like all break ups. But it's been a couple weeks, so now I'm feeling better.

I could write a really long post about all the events that led up to this break up, but that would cause me to take too much time out of my life to blog.

The short version of what happened was... I was spending more time with my phone and computer than my kids. (mostly the phone)

Simple as that, so we had to break up.

But we are still friends for brief moments like these before the kids wake up, during naps, and after they go to bed.

Until next time...

Homemade slime. 

We've been doing all sorts of projects around here. 

Hannah got a new job as a Hand Model for Peapod Labs.

She is having the time of her life with all these crafts with Daddy.

My Mother's Day card from Asher.

They said this is the face he made when they asked him to smile.

A picture language every kid understands.

We've been getting much ice cream now that it actually feels like summer here.

Lately Asher is obsessed with cracks in the sidewalk. We have to stop and examine every one. Makes walking around take quite a bit longer. But it's fun to see what interests him.

Yoga at sunrise. I love it so so much

 Special thanks to Amy for teaching yoga to all of us out of the kindness of her heart. Photo credit to J.H.

Picking Juneberries.

When you see a spider hanging from your ceiling you can't think about anything else till he's dead.

Hannah and Samarjeet. I think he likes her. He's always trying to hold her hand.

 Hannah was a flower girl in her preschool teacher's pretend wedding. I will have to do a post all about it. It was a full production and so cute.

Picking berries off a tree is a special kind of awesome.

The park across the street from us is full of Juneberry trees. Picking and eating them is way more fun for me than it should be.

Picture of the Month - June

10 Caterpillars.