RANDOMS

Happy Friday everyone! I sure do love Fridays and it has been a good one. In fact all week has been pretty darn good, but I will blog about that later...

We have a few exciting things going on in the next few weeks, starting this past week, so I thought I better get the pictures off my phone of our little simple day to day on the blog. 

We are really loving play dough on those cold days we can't go outside. And it's been even more fantastic to include Owen in some of our play. I always feel bad when he just sits and plays by our side while we do some activity or play a game, so play dough has been something we have been enjoying to do together! He has learned to not eat it and to roll it. 

We enjoy Oreo's at our house on a regular basis 

Our Super Bowl was low key this year. We still made a bunch of delicious food, and chilled. It was nice. Our Sundays are sometimes our busiest days of the week, so we kept it low key after church to just enjoy being together. 

We have been really liking green smoothies, especially since I have found a bag of frozen fruit that changes the color. Owen drinks them either way, but June isn't such a big fan when the smoothie is green. One night she told me she didn't want a cup, she just wanted to drink it out of the blender. We were all served up, so I figured why not?! 

One night, Owen was finishing up his bath and I needed to give Range one, so I just ended up throwing him in with Owen. 

For those who got Valentines from us, you know that we now have lots of army men around our house and Owen has been loving them!

She's just too cute for words!

Owen learned to go down the slide all by himself and he was adorable doing it! 

The playroom was a huge DISASTER... BUT the kids were playing so happy in there, what felt like forever, and it was just good. 

So Thursday mornings... the only time I have to workout is while June is at school, since I can't do it at my usual time because I have MCO at night. But this particular morning Owen fell asleep on the way home from dropping June off. I picked him up and took him inside to see if he wanted to lay down. I tried to lay him in his crib, but he clenched onto me so tight! I continued to hold him and eventually sat in the chair and rocked him. He fell back asleep and we stayed like this for the whole 2 hours June was at school. Even though I didn't get my workout in, and nothing else got done that I had planned, I wouldn't have traded those 2 hours for anything!! The snuggles were totally worth it! 

If you have been to our house, you know that our light switches are super low, which makes it easy for little fingers to reach and turn it on and off. 

June wanted to stay dressed up as Anna from "Frozen" while I had to run to a few stores in a mall... I didn't mind, so when we got done, we went and played at the play place for a bit. She met a little friend there any they played hide n' seek forever! This little girl only called her princess Anna! hahaha it was cute!

Our weather has been AMAZING lately and we have had daily walks on the path by our house. 

June and Owen both at 15months in the exact same spot, exactly 2 years apart to the day. 

At the end of the day, these two really are best little buds and I love watching their relationship bloom 

June loves asking daddy "Will you teach me how to make a spoon?" She means spooning. 

Learning young

Owen has recently learned how to climb, and he climbs on, or up anything! He loves it and it scares me to death. He's tough though!

Enjoying the Sun

So.... This is a Super unflattering picture of me, but June has been loving taking pictures with my phone and I was pretty impressed with this picture, so for documentation purposes I'm putting it on the blog. 

Sibling Selfie... brought to you by June

The sandbox has definitely been our go to! 

And working in daddy's shoes!

Nothing to crazy has been going on, just our day to day and it's been pretty fantastic!

SandBox

We have this patch of nothingness next to our house in our backyard. It has driven me crazy from the day we moved in. When we first bought our home it had half a chopped tree and some poorly laid lava rocks that I have very strong feelings against! LAVA ROCKS ARE THE WORST!! 

So over the past 2+ years we have been trying to make this space useful and have failed miserably. 

The first thought was to make it into a garden. So Dan and I dug out all the wretched lava rocks and Dan dug up the tree with nothing but a plastic shovel and his bare hands. Ya, I married such a man! 

We filled it with proper soil and began our attempt at this garden... Well, in reality neither of us wanted to grow a garden, neither of us enjoy gardening and we live in modern America where I have a grocery store less than a mile from my house and can buy produce anytime I want, anytime of the year I want, with little effort. But for some reason we went ahead with the garden. It failed. It was awful, but at least it was dirt and not lava rocks. (positive thinking!) 

The unused area sat for a while. 

Then we built the gate between our house and our pool, which made that area even more valuable since it was more room for the kids to play around and use without me having to be hawk eye and making sure no one falls into the pool! 

So our next thought was plant grass. Have it as a play area and a place to sit and enjoy. 

What I failed to mention in the garden portion of this post, is that this little section gets about an hour or less of sunlight a day. So that was another reason why nothing grew. But we had our sprinkler system replaced last year and figured that the grass would be fine. Nope. It failed. The grass died. Well it actually survived a lot longer than we thought. It never got watered because our sprinklers don't hit that far, and for the first half of the poor grass life, the people who mow our lawn didn't know it was back there, so it grew and grew and grew. We are pretty sure thats what killed it. So like I said, it failed. 

So we had this muddy dirt pit, that was COMPLETELY USELESS! Until now. 

I told Dan my idea of wanting to turn that area into a large sandbox. It is the perfect place since the sun hardly hits it, the sand wouldn't ever get hot, and it's behind the gate so sand most likely won't get into the pool. Plus the kids can play in it while I'm doing things in the kitchen because our windows are right there. 

He liked it and we ran with it! 

The before... 

We dug out all the weeds and raked all the dirt to make it smooth. June loved helping by adding water (to feed the worms) and made it kind of a mud bath, but she was in heaven so we just let her be. 

Owen loves the water table, but he hasn't been able to play too much. Poor little guy just can't get better and now has a double ear infection. 

So since he's been sick he hasn't really had a chance to play. 

After cleaning it out, Dan went to Lowes and got fresh lumber ready to be cut and stained. My original plan was to just build the whole area as a box of sand, but Dan and his brilliant mind knew we would want a place to sit, so he calculated out a little bench for the sandbox. 

Building it was easy and hard. We have no power tools. So all the nails were hammered in by us, and Dan used the manual saw to cut all the wood! He's awesome. Once we got the wood into place we laid down garden fabric. It's supposed to help let the moister go in and out, plus keep the weeds away!

Dan's nifty little bench. It's perfect!

We had a few extra wood scrapes so June got to paint them. 

We stained it and then Monday night we filled it with sand. 

June had gymnastics so while Dan took her, I gave Owen a bath and then we headed to Lowes to pick up our 40 bags of sand. 50lbs each. My car would only hold 24 on the first trip, so I headed home and unloaded all 24 bags on my own. Dan pulled in right as I was finishing up and came with me to pick up the second load! I was SOOOO HAPPY! I was a bit worn out. We got home and put the kids to bed, then we both started hauling the bags of sand and slicing them open. It took all 40 bags. It actually worked out perfectly. Power of Math! and also Dan's super Math skills. Guys I don't know if you know this, but Dan is SO SMART! I think I take that for granted sometimes, but this man of mine knows his math. I was so impressed with him! He chuckled at me and said "it's just basic trigonometry." hahaha I know he does A LOT harder math at work, but I could barely solve a basic geometry question, so major credit to him! 

THE END RESULT!!  

We are super pumped at how it turned out! It's a perfect spot for it, since it's 90 percent in shade and behind the pool fence so the kids can just play, play, play. It's big too, so we can have friends over and there is plenty of room to play! 

She has been in the sandbox as much as possible! She loves it. Owen still hasn't quite played in yet, because he's been so sick, but hopefully soon!

The bench was a perfect idea! It's right outside our kitchen window, so the window can be open and the kids can play while I'm doing other things! And if sand get's inside, it's no big, because it's tile and super easy to sweep. We set some ground rules, so hopefully that helps keep the sand under control. 

I'm really excited about it, and how much June has loved it. It's nice to not have the space feel wasted anymore, and have it used for something the kids can enjoy! 

First thing in the morning we have been in the sandbox. Hopefully we enjoy it, because it's a pretty permanent base! haha 

We are proud of ourselves from building it from scratch. I know it's just a box, but it wasn't as easy as you would think! It really turned out awesome! 

Randoms

Happy February everyone! Oh man, I am so glad that January is finally over. I haven't ever been a fan of the month to begin with, but this January was a real drag and I felt like bad things just kept on happening. Thankfully this past week, things have picked up and we seem to have our groove back, but for a while there, things just weren't going our way. 

So here are some randoms to welcome in a new fresh month and to also wrap up the remaining January pictures. 

When it's really early in the morning and Dan's up showering, June will sometimes crawl in to bed with me and I can sometimes get her to fall back asleep. Dan snapped this picture, (obviously because I seem to be out cold. HA) before he left for work one morning. He's so awesome for all his hard work and letting us sleep. 

Owen's been a big grump lately. It just added to our awesome month of January. He is teething and he does not handle it well. He has also learned how fun it is to throw tantrums. It's been great (enter sarcasm here) 

But then he is also super awesome at being happy, and when this kid is happy, he is HAPPY!

When he falls asleep in my arms, it makes my heart so happy!

Dan went to midland Texas to an oil rig for a couple days. We don't do well when we are apart, and it kinda scares me when he's at the rig. He's just so good looking in his uniform. 

Waiting for June to get out of school. This picture makes me realize how big he is getting. Playing with his cars and just being a big boy.

We had a few days of AMAZING weather! Let me say it again... AMAZING! We spent every possible minute we could outside!

Dan has buried Owen and June was not impressed. So she took it upon herself to try and pull him out. Turns out he weighs as much as she does, and she couldn't quite pull him out. 

when birds fly south... This is where they go. I can't ever explain how many birds are here over the winter. It's creepy and cool all at the same time. 

Be still my heart.

One Sunday evening on a beautiful night we walked down to the paths and fed the ducks and walked around. 

We are very fortunate to live so close to such a beautiful little place that is literally right down our street! How will we ever move?! 

He didn't so much feed the ducks as much as he fed himself

June was not happy that we were heading home, so she just sat on the side walk as we walked away. As we got further away we heard her yell... "well hey guys wait for me!" hahaha this was her running towards us.

It was so nice outside we ended up hanging out in our front yard for a while

Easter Cantata rehearsals started back up again with our Stake. It's gonna be another great year! 

Reading and dressed up as Doc McStuffins for the day. 

June asked Dan to lay next to her, and she snuggled right into him and they both fell asleep. I honestly thought Dan was going to sleep there all night! He eventually came to bed.

June has a "secret hideout" where she goes and hides from whoever the bad guy is that day! It's our closet on top of our sheet bin. 

There is the end of the month. Now looking back I see that there were a lot of good moments that came from the month of January, but I'm still not sad to see it go. I'm excited for February!