Pictures Part 3

1.) That's MY girl! A bird watcher/admirer in the making. We were watching the Indigo Buntings.
2.) Emma taking the Firefly out of my hand
3.) Abbi showing Emma another Firefly
4.) A Firefly gets away

Pictures Part 2

Pictures:

1.) Emma in daddy's work boots
2.) Abbi helping Mama water the flowers around the mailbox
3.) Emma and Abbi attempting to put training wheels on Abbi's new bike ( a .50 garage sale find) (notice how Emma is holding the wheel *smile)
4.) Abbi doing what she loves most... swinging

Pictures

Some pics I decided to add:

1.) Emma so proud of her new helmet from Daddy
2.) Emma painting a Rainbow and Abbi patiently waiting her turn
3.) Abbi happy to have her turn!
4.) Emma painting in her "My Little pony" book from Aunt Lisa.

Mama's Big Helper

Abbi LOVES helping me in the kitchen. Since daddy had to work late this evening, I decided that the girls and I would have "breakfast" for Supper. In the pictures above Abigail is cracking and pouring the egg into our skillet. As I was doing the dishes, she stood guard and let me know when they were "all done"! They were done to perfection. :)

It's official! Or rather, has been for a few days now! Jonathan, the girls and I are going on vacation! Lord willing, we are headed down South this coming Saturday to spend the 4th of July week with my folks. Emma is especially excited and looking forward to the trip to Grandma and Grandpa's. Plus she knows she will get to see many of her cousins! We are all excited and can't wait! :)

I asked Abbi if we should take her portable potty with us on the trip. She said "no.. we leave it home". Afterward I said "Well... yes, I think we should take it with us". I left it at that and forgot all about it. About 10 mins. later she comes and tells me .. "Puppy said we need to leave the potty home!" - haha... too cute! I can't quite figure out why she does not want to take it. She still uses it at home, as she is still too short to use the big potty all by herself. For the last several weeks she has entered this "I do it" stage. She has to do EVERYTHING on her own. She was asking me to help her on the big potty for a while, until she started the "I do it" stage. Now she would rather use the small potty vs. the big potty, because using the small potty she can "do it ALL by herself". I dare not help or she gets very upset. I am very anxious for her to outgrow this! :)

I have many more pictures to share, but they will have to wait. It's 11:30 and I have a big day of packing and cleaning tomorrow. I better jet!

American Gold Finch

Emma telling the bird it has a "sweet little tail"!

Emma talking silly to the birdie :)

This morning, I awoke about 7:30 and Princess Emma soon followed. I was on the computer checking up on a few things and Emma came and laid down on the couch. Soon afterward we heard a loud thud and Emma said "Mommy! That was a bird"! - which of course I was very familiar with the sound as this was not the first time this has happened. A Female American Gold Finch ran in to our window. I quickly got up and looked out the window and there it sat ... I was hoping stunned and not dead. I quickly went outside to inspect and Emma rushed to the window and asked "mommy .. is it dead"? I was happy to report that is wasn't! I picked it up and told Emma to hurry and get dressed so she can come outside and hold the little birdie before it comes back to it's senses. :) So she did.. and had a blast doing so. It was so sweet as she was petting and talking to the bird telling it that she will be alright. She was also telling the birdie " you have a sweet little tail"! :)


Abbi awoke about 10 minutes later and I told her to come outside if she wants to hold a bird. She quickly made her way out and as I took the bird from Emma and started to hand it over to Abbi it flew away. Abbi was very disappointed and I felt so bad as she was very excited about holding the bird. I told her.. maybe next time. She seemed content with the possibility of holding one "next time".

Enjoying Summer

Today was another absolute GORGEOUS day! The girls and I have spent most of the day outdoors. They have had so much fun riding their bikes, running through the sprinkler, chasing butterflies, birds and in the evening - Emma loves to catch the "Lightening Bugs". Abigail is still not too sure about holding the bugs. :) She shivers at the sight of one! Especially the Spiders. Yet - she LOVES the song "itsy bitsy spider". About 5 nights ago she slept in bed with Jonathan and I. They had already snuggled in bed and started conversation before I made it to bed. I am not sure how it all got started but when I tuned into their conversation they were talking about Spiders. Daddy was telling her that Spiders have 8 eyes and she said daddy has eye's like a "pider". She says... 1, 2, 3! Counting the eyes on daddy's face. Daddy said "WHAT?!?! No way! I have only 2 eyes!" Which of course Abbi had to argue all the while giggling so cutely. Needless to say, Daddy got tired and started to snore away while Mommy had to hear ALL about the Spiders. The more she talked about them, the bigger her eyes got and the more scared she was getting. I finally had to sush her up and make her go to sleep.

This evening as the girls were busy playing on the swing set, Jonathan and I were standing near the creek chatting about the days events and enjoying the cool breeze along with the beautiful song of the many birds. As we were talking, all of a sudden Jonathan says "Look! A Duck"! I look over, notice the duck and then we both notice about 5 little ducklings swimming close behind. It was the sweetest little moment and I was happy to have my camera with me! Of course, it is a new camera we had purchased today! I love it and have been snapping pictures like crazy - so I will be posting many pictures in the near future. :) The beautiful blue bird you see in the following 2 pictures is the "Indigo Bunting". Those are for my sis Monica! :) I must say - the MOST beautiful bird I have seen yet. I have many of them and I never get tired of seeing them. :)

Strawberry pickin'

This past Saturday, Jonathan, the girls and I went out to Suter's Farm and picked us some nice juicy SWEET Strawberries. (3 buckets full) Melt in yur mouth Strawberries. UMmmUUmmmm GOOD Strawberries. The only thing I kept thinking, was why haven't we done this before? Jonathan and I have been married for 5 years and this is a first for Strawberry pickin'. But surely will not be the last. Emma and Abbi both had a grand time. They had just as much fun picking them as they had eating them. I still have 2 buckets full in the refrigerator waiting for me to clean and freeze them. We hope to get out there once more before the season is over with.

After picking strawberries, we headed over to Columbus where we watched our Nephew play baseball. The game went til about 10:15 in the evening and it was FREEZING outside. Yes... freezing. Just when I got excited about the warm weather, it chilled again. *sigh The girls enjoyed watching their cousin play baseball. We had them wrapped up in their little blankets so they stayed cozy and warm. They enjoyed the overall trip. They had so much fun, they didn't want to come home. Abbi told me to take my shoes off.. cause "we not going bye bye!" (sassy lil' thing she is!)

Emma and Jared set up camp in the living room and built a "fire" while Abbi was running around the house playing with Samson. (Auntie Lisa's Pug) At least there she has a real dog to play with. For about the past 4 weeks or so, she has had "imaginary kitty's". I have been petting them, feeding them, carrying them around in my pockets and on my shoulder's and head. A couple of times I thought she was handing me "food" so I would start to eat it, and she would get upset!

Abbi: NOOO - don't eat Kitty!!

Mama: Ohh... sorry - I thought it was food.....

Abbi: Noo... Kitty Cat ---pointing to my lap, she says "1, 2, 3" ... (letting me know I know have 3 kitty's on my lap)...

Which isn't much at all. She has counted 4 in my pocket, and 7 on my shoulder about 4 on my head....some days they seem to be countless. As long as they are not real.. I can definitely deal with this. :) I love to see her use her imagination. Today, as she was playing in the sand box, she was gathering sticks and said it was for a fire. I am not sure where she gets this idea from, as we do not build fires.

Well - I would have more to blog, but we just got home from Columbus and am very tired. Just thought I better take a min. to blog something or I would never get to it tomorrow. :)

Baby Bunnies

About 3 weeks ago the girls and I were out in the front yard. Emma and Abbi were riding their bikes and I was painting a picket fence sectional. The next door neighbor was out mowing his lawn. All of a sudden out of the corner of my eye I see something that looked like a dark flash run past me and across the drive way. Seconds later the neighbor is running across my drive- way too. I was like.. ooooo. k. Then he turns around and proceeds to tell me that he was chasing a baby bunny as he wanted to catch it so the girls could pet it. When I heard "baby" bunny, I decided to jump in on the chase. Unfortunately, our catch was unsuccessful so we all went back about our business. About an hour later the girls went down for their afternoon naps and I went out to hang some cloths on the line. On my way back inside I happened to look down; right there in front of me the cutest lil' baby bunny! He was sitting so still I was afraid he may be dead. Upon closer inspection I noticed he was breathing. SHEW - he was alive and SOO SWEET! I picked him up and carried him around for a while... awwwwww ... all the while wishing the girls were awake so they could pet him. I held him for about 15 minutes and knowing it would be a while before the girls awoke I sadly let him go.

That evening, Jonathan came home from work and he got to hear all about the "CUTEST little Bunny EVER". :) After supper he went out to mow. Knowing the lil' bunnies were now out and about he was on the look out fearing he may run them over with the mower. Before long, he came and told me he seen 1 of the bunnies. I found it, picked it up and brought it in so the girls could enjoy it. THEY LOVED IT! (as seen in the pics above :) ) Later we went back out and found another... Than another.... we were able to catch 3 out of 4. I chased the 4th one down all the way to the neighbors yard. He finally ran behind the stacked tires. I felt better with him being way over there rather than close to where Jonathan was mowing. So we kept the 3 in the box and enjoyed them while daddy was mowing. After he was all finished up, the girls and I went and put the bunnies back in the hole.. and one by one.. they disappeared. Abbi was so sad to see them go... (Abbi get's way too attached to things - that will be a whole 'nother blog within it self)

Mama: Ok girls.. it's time to say G'bye to the Bunnies

Abbi: No Mama ... Noo... I don't want bunnies to go.. noo..

Mama: yess... we have to put them back

Abbi: Nooo ppeaassee!

Mama: sweetheart.. if we don't put them back, they will be very sad. They will miss their mommy and their mommy will miss them.

Emma: Yea Abbi, their mommy will miss them! She will be very sad!

Abbi: aaaawww.... awight Mama ... bye bunnies!!

..... we are now seeing the bunnies each day! One lives underneath our deck, another underneath the fur tree next to the house. Each of the other 2 chose a fir tree further out into the yard. They are now medium sized and I am amazed at the rate they are growing. One of them will let us get within 5 feet of him, before he slowly hops off. I believe it was the first one I caught earlier in the day as it was so tame. It was also the same one Emma and Abbi was holding in the pictures above. :)

2 days later I caught a female Cardinal which was trapped in our sun room. They were able to pet her and loved every bit of it! They have been trying to catch the Robin's and butterflies, so far with no success. That doesn't keep them from trying again and again and again. :)

Summer is finally here. Today was rather cool - but not cold. Since it was rainy - (finally we get some rain!) - the cool weather was not bothersome. The girls have already been playing in water like little Duckies. Where there is water? There is Emma and Abbi - from morning to night. Buckets in hand - either dumping water on each other or drowning my flowers. Either way, no doubt they are having oodles of fun.

Emma has now completed her first year of pre-school. She misses going to school already. I am still not sure she realizes she is out for the Summer. She misses her teacher and her friend "Fisher". She has also been having fun being home each morning and riding her bike. She wakes up in the mornings and the first thing she usually says is "It's a beautiful day today Mama"! I say.. yes.. Praise God.. it's another beautiful day! :)