Fair Weather Friend.

Meet Dax.

He is a soulful, sweet, sincere little dude. He loves to be held... by anyone. He loves attention. Being the third child, he sometimes gets the short end of the stick.

The older kids are not usually mean to him (though they have their spats). 

It's just that they ignore him. 

Which is the among the cruelest thing you can do to this child.

The girl perched in the background may have something to do with his crying.

You decide for yourself.

But tonight, for the first time, Maycee decided she was best friends with her little brother. 

And it was so sweet.

She wanted to share a swing with him.

Unheard of.

She followed him around and held his hand. Usually she doesn't let him in a three foot radius of her peaceably.

He ate it up.

He loved it. Look at him lean in to hug her.

She even gleefully climbed rocks with him.

Even if she is never nice to him again, we have some photographic evidence that they were friends. 

For a whole 20 minutes.

I just love these sweet, silly kids!

Happy Kitchen.

Today I had a happy kitchen.

It must have been a good morning for flower pickin', because I sure filled every vase in the kitchen with wildflowers [and assorted weeds and grasses of course.]

I love my three year old girl... she says she is going to pick me flowers every day forever.

My kitchen window sill... lovely!

My island countertop... shades of purple wildflowers. 

This has got to be the prettiest little bunch.

Love.

Yes that is grass on my table.

Can you spot the one from my flower garden? Ha.

And also to add to the happiness... glass etching. This is awesome!

I like to separate the cream from my raw milk and have a 1/2 gallon of skim (adults, lattes, etc.) and 1/2 gallon of whole (children, baking, etc) "in operation" at all times in the fridge. I wanted to jazz up some plain mason jars.

Enter some sticky contact paper, etching cream, and a cool font.

I cannot wait to decorate more mason jars.

Aren't they cute?

Life is Blooming!

We have had some great weather this May and early June. One weekend we decided to plant some shrubs and flowers along the front of the house... for some much needed curb appeal!

We are enjoying the sun, warmth, rain, and all the things coming alive this spring.

Note the awesomeness of the Dr. Suess-like shrub... my favorite by far!

Looking better! 

Thor loves to play in this sand pile. He says it is wet concrete.

Bike riding after a good rain! Note the backwards cowboy boots.

Right after our rain, Maycee set out to capture some wildflowers. 

A few of the flowers planted in the front.

Main attraction around here.

Lovely leafy spurge...

The back of his shirt says "Justice League." ha!

Got to love this photo... 

Pure sweetness! Love these two.

Looking at the water in the creek below.

Flower-picking madness.

Fresh picked wildflowers... so lovely!!

Dwight Drives

Poor cat. I can almost hear his cries for help.

 

 

 

He is certainly well-loved!

Bring Your Kids to Work Day(s)

One of the worst things about owning your own business is the sheer amount of work, time, and effort it takes to handle it all. From business calls to bidding projects, managing projects, employee troubles, bookwork, billing and collecting, cash-flow, and oh yeah... the actual work.

Sometimes it seems like a struggle between family and business. I don't want Leif to be too busy working and have regrets about missing out on the kids growing up. So we try to balance by including the kids whenever we can.

Of course, there are a few perks to business ownership. Off the top of my head:

• You stand to earn more money-- though it comes with a whole lot of risk and hard work. 
• Flexibility. Kind of. I guess the only one telling you that you cannot take a day of is yourself. This is why my husband only took one day off after our last baby was born. He simply couldn't allow himself any further paternity leave. He told me that Sunday night was actually a really bad time to have a baby... though he honestly felt really bad leaving me home with two toddlers and a baby only 32 hours post-partum.  I shall try to plan it over a weekend next time. Dang.

A couple days after Dax was born... now that's a handful of kids! HELP me! 

• Joyrides in an off-road dump truck at will. 
• That's all I can really think of.

So to summarize... if you cannot beat em, join em.

The closest to the Disneyland ride "Indiana Jones" that you can really replicate in North Dakota.

There is just so much going on in this picture.

Last Thursday. Naptime. Two kids snoozed in the car while Daddy showed Mommy and Dax how cool his new GPS-equipped bulldozer is. Now that is family time.

Dax loves riding in the Arctic Truck (off-road articulating dump truck.) 

These two were surprisingly unimpressed on their second off-road dump truck ride. Questions asked were "Can we go to the library now?" followed by "Can I play with your iPhone?" Really guys?

Tea Party and a Tantrum

The table was set with care.

The flowers she picked were set in the perfect spot.

The candle was lit as requested.

The markers were present, (just in case?)



The shoes by the door were all lined up, just so.



And oddly enough, an unopened box of diapers was put in the corner with a pink marker on top. I cannot explain that one...



The chairs were all pulled up to the table. She pushed the baby chair up to the end for Dax.

The piggy was sitting in his place.

Thor took his place, or what he thought was his place. He should have known better. 

 

 He willingly moved to the other side of the table.

Unfortunately, the sweet hostess didn't recover from the blow of her guest taking the wrong seat.

Dax looks at the her with a bit of concern.

Sometimes, hosting a great party is just too taxing.

 

New Every Morning

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

His mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3: 22-23

Also new every morning: a lovely jar full of "flowers" 

[leafy spurge, grass, and various flowering weeds]

from my sweet Maycee.

For some reason, it just reminded me of that verse. ♥