Big Mouth Little Bird!

Rick walked into the kitchen and thought the sight of 2 little birdies waiting for cherries was camera-worthy. :)

Gardening and Landscaping

The kids and I have been busy doing lots of planting and watering.  

They're digging in a patch of dirt that eventually will be filled in with brick.  It used to be covered in lots of ivy.  I went on a mission to rid our house of ivy.  It's about 95% complete.

They came out of the garage with these cones on their heads.  Safety first!  They're from these Halloween costumes.

Our kids are so content when they are WORKING.  It is so healthy for kids to have little jobs, to contribute. . . There are some things they can actually help with, like hauling water and watering flowers.  And when I don't have an actual job for them, I make up one, like in the above picture.  I might not have really needed that antique wash tub filled with dirt, but I gave it to them along with trowels and they were SO happy and busy for so long.  So pleased with themselves.  (Of course, all our kids have their moments of just whining when we want them to help with something!  They are not perfect!)

Goal: be intentional about more jobs for the kids especially this summer when they're all home full time.

Fallyn is our happiest worker.  She gets GIDDY.  

Helping me dig a hole for our new Oklahoma redbud tree, a gift from my dad.  

 I really like digging and manual labor.  I could shovel dirt for hours, but the thought of 15 minutes on an elliptical at the Y--ugh!  

Can't wait to watch our redbud grow!  It'll add some character and color to the front of our house.

Playing in the back of Grandpa's truck.

Crafting - Vintage Wreaths

Fallyn has been busy off and on the past few weeks working on little wreaths made mostly with our stash of vintage supplies.

Vintage fabric, trims, buttons, feathers, eggs. . .

She is good with a glue gun and craft supplies!  The only part I've really done is form the flowers/rosettes that are made from vintage trim.  She glues everything and decides where to put things.

She has a long list of people to make one for.  All the grandmas, Aunt Ann, other special ladies. . . and Tyler.  haha!

I made little nests out of jute twine that she put on each wreath.  She said we need lace in the nest to make it cute.  Good call.  She is an old lady at heart!

Easter 2012

We did Easter supper and egg hunt on Saturday at the Orchards'.  Here's all the cousins except baby Bo.  It's the best we could do! :)

We try to keep Easter simple, because it's not about us or our kids!  If they ask why they don't get a lot of presents we say it's because their birthdays are about them, but Easter is NOT.  Same for Christmas.  We are not opposed to celebrations that include goodies but we do not lavish STUFF on our kids.  Easter is indeed a celebration!  Grandma and Grandpa blessed all the kids with an Easter basket full of goodies.

I was going to sew Fallyn a dress for Easter, but while I had the kids in St Joe to visit their cousins, Fallyn and Vivian both found a dress at a consignment store for a really good deal.  $6 plus not having to put in a couple hours of sewing = SOLD!  :)  

The cardigan was a garage sale find for $1.  So are the shoes. 

Fallyn wanted a braid with ribbon in it for Easter.  I made her a big bow to top it off.

Since it was Duncan's first Easter, I did do the rare thing of just walking into Target and buying a shirt off the regular rack.  Calvin got a matching shirt.

We hung out at our house all day Sunday after church and lunch.  It was nice to just sit and enjoy the kids on a beautiful day, celebrating a beautiful Savior!!!  We ended the day of fellowship by walking to Dairy Queen.

Here's Rick and his brothers.  

Fallyn and her youngest cousin Emily.

Seahorse

We have our first pet, a female betta we adopted from my niece.

Fallyn named her Seahorse.

(We didn't name her next brother or sister Seahorse like she wanted.)

We had some tiny fishies (like minnows, but not) from a creek for a couple days, and they didn't make it.  Fallyn had named them Rhino, Seahorse, Cupcake, Sprinkle, Cutie, and Snuggle.

Three Dollars

My sweet mama recently got me a Sams membership, and I found clearance flowers for $3.  They've been perfect for a week now!  What a nice touch for only $3.  I arranged them in 3 vintage jars/vases.

The middle is my favorite.  Vintage Bell mason jar with white carnations = perfection.

3 little bud vases in my kitchen.

And Fallyn wanted one in her attic room.

Life in Tornado Alley

You've probably seen the news reports all over the country about the crazy tornado outbreak by now.

I've lived in Kansas my entire life and like many long-time residents, this was the first time a lot of us actually took cover.  There were well over 100 tornadoes that touched down, and 99 of those were in Kansas!

That's practically double the annual average number of tornadoes, and it was in one day!

Experts were able to warn days in advance this time of a very high chance of tornadoes, and used lovely words like deadly, life-threatening, long-track, very powerful, very large. . .  and ZERO lives were lost in Kansas.  Our hearts and prayers go out to the people of Oklahoma (5 lives lost).  

 Entire homes were lost in Wichita and when you see the pictures of the destruction, it is amazing no lives were lost, and that the worst injury reported in Wichita was a broken leg.  Lots of prayer and lots of advanced warning were definite contributors.  

There was one very large (1/2 mile to 3/4 mile wide) long-track tornado that had been on the ground since Oklahoma City.  We watched the news reports and watched the clock tick until it was scheduled to hit Wichita.  We knew for a couple hours that it was on its way here, so it was time to get serious for the first time in our lives about a tornado.

We hunkered down in the basement with our friends and their 3 kids who do not have a basement.

We spent a little time Friday and Saturday gathering some things to put in the basement, and Saturday evening we took more precautions. 

Very strange feeling walking around your house trying to think what you really want to try to save if your whole house blows away later in the day.  I even took a quick video of each room in case everything was gone so that we could jog our memory of what was in each room for insurance purposes.

Shortly before the tornado was scheduled to reach our area, we put shoes on all the kids and ourselves, closed curtains and doors, and sat together and prayed with our kids.  We listened all day and evening to the weather reports--"Don't panic, just take precautions to save your life and the lives of others in your home."  Ummm, ok.

The power went out eventually, and we sat in the dark with the kids and listened to Jeremy's weather radio. 

Marcee's brave face while we listened to where the tornado had been, where it was headed (VERY near us), and then listened as the report said it had veered more eastward!  It missed us!!!

Our 5 babies (Fallyn was out of town with my parents, and our other friend is hiding under the blanket).

Brooks (left) conked out!

The only casualty was our friends' van.  Our street floods when there's heavy, steady rain. . . It barely sprinkled at our house, even!  So we were SHOCKED when our street was higher than it's been in a LONG time, with basically NO RAIN here!  Apparently a TON of rain dumped REALLY QUICKLY elsewhere in Wichita and still made its way to our street!  

Afterward. . . NO TORNADO, HOORAY!

After the storms died out, experts were saying on the news on Sunday that they were expecting another "Greensburg" or "Udall" (google those if you don't know about those--some of the most devastating tornadoes in history), expecting mass destruction, expecting our city to be in ruins and lives to be lost. . . 

We have much to be thankful for!!! 

Another Birthday Past. . .

Pearl turned four years old a few days ago. . . that makes me very sad.  
I don't like being here when they are there, and I don't like seeing more days and months and birthdays tick by.  

I'm praying hard we can travel "this year" and that more birthdays don't come and go (Spunky's was in January).  There have been setbacks. . . please do not stop praying, friends. 

Babygirl, not a day goes by that our hearts don't ache with love and longing for you. . . Happy Birthday sweet little Pearl.