Dirty Happy Children

"Mama, take a picture of me like this."

Peter loves stroller rides and playing with his shoes.  Today, he tried to help Henry put on his socks.

"Where did everyone go?"

Peter's Walking!

I haven't posted in a while cause our routine has been thrown off by our cows. But, now I'm back and I can't wait to share pics of Peter walking! He's finally taken off.  He has been taking steps for a while now, but he wouldn't "take off."  We love seeing him walk all over the place and he's much happier that he can go where he wants now. Yay Peter!

Before he "took off", he would just hold onto our pants legs or hands and try to drag us in the direction he wanted to go.  This was very frustrating for BOTH parties.

 

 

Today he walked over to the grass and just walked around in it, squatting down to pick flowers,  and then he fell flat on his face. It was priceless.

Need a fix?

Sorry for the lack of posts -  I have been trying to document this exciting time (our cow giving birth and learning how to milk her) on Jason's blog.  Feel free to hop over there and see what has been going on! I will post more family pics once I have a moment to catch my breath :)

The Farm Life

Riding four wheelers...

Jumping off hay bales in the dairy barn...

 

Babies in slings durring cow chores...

 

 

"These became part of that child who went forth every day, 

and who now goes, and will always go forth every day."

-Walt Whitman, There Was a Child Went Forth

Growing Up

Climbing trees...

Learning to write her own name...

(She has a hard one! This was the first time she wrote it by herself with me spelling it out. (I had to help her finish Mary) I love the letters crossed out and her old fashioned "a".  Her how to read book teaches it that way and I have just rolled with it.

Henry is growing up too and loves to write in notebooks.  He carries them around with him and will say "write B," and then look down at his notebook and write/draw something.  He also loves to write letters, most of which he writes to his sister..."dear Mary".... Henry is the only one Margaret Mary lets call her "Mary" 

Henry also has turned into the ultimate Papa's boy.  He will crawl up in his arms and saw sweetly, "Wu my daddy. I sit in wu wap"  We don't know where he got daddy from.  

Hanging with the Havens

As I mentioned on the previous post, we spent the rest of the Memorial Day hanging out with the Havens. We had brats, roasted potatoes, salad and homemade jello!   We are truly blessed to have them as friends and enjoyed our time with them! Here are some pics of their beautiful family and all the kids. We both have had three babies in three years, so there were six of them running around!

Their beautiful Faustina

Becky and Francisco

All the kids! Don't you love Henry's cheese?

Francisco is a few weeks younger than Peter and has the nickname "bubba" as well!

The Beautiful Haven's Family

Little Faustina again. She looks right into the camera with the most adorable faces! Don't you love her curls?

The next day we packed up our things and headed home.  We loved our visit to Nashville and hope to make the trip again soon!

Memorial Day

We spent Memorial Day in Nashville as well.  We first went to visit a cemetery to give our thanks.  I really enjoyed reading the tombstones and Margaret Mary enjoyed kissing the tombstones.  I am always in awe of what people say on tombstones;  what would you say about the one you love in less than 20 characters?  This cemetary was huge, graves as far as the eye could see.  It was very humbling.

Loved this caption, "A Family Man and a Patriot."

We ended the day with a cookout with one of our favorite families...(see next blog post)

Nashville: The Procession

Procession is a favorite game at our house.  Henry gets decked out in all his liturgical gear, Margaret Mary throws flowers and they sing and chant.  Henry often holds a giant broom or stick as his cross or candle.  In Nashville, the kids got to be part of a REAL procession and they were so excited! Henry couldn't wait to wear his cope (the white cape, look at the fourth picture down to see one on the priest):

Margaret Mary got to hold Jimmy's hand for a while during the procession.  Jimmy is a family friend whom the kids adore.

Henry insisted on bringing his "loud incense." aka a baby toy tied to a string

The procession ended in a dance party, which the kids thought was amazing.  The simply ran around the room with joy to the music.  Margaret Mary even got to dance with Jimmy.  It was a great night and the kids crashed almost as soon as we started the car to go home for the night. 

Nasville trip: sleeping in

As you can imagine, MM fell asleep on the way back to the house we were staying after seeing the sisters. She also slept in the next morning. MM has become quite the sleeper, sometimes sleeping int till 9 in the morning! She rolls all over the bed, picking new positions, as if she's a princess...