The Race!

A few pics of my hubby during the Brookings triathlon this last Saturday...

As you can see from the photos, it was another yucky day for this triathlon. Wet and cold. You can tell from K's pants that she was puddle jumping, hee, hee. My husband rocks in nasty weather though! He placed first in his age group and second over all! He's amazing!
Kaelyn ran the last part of the race by daddy. I think she got as many cheers as the racers. :) She can't wait until she can participate... yep, she's just like her daddy.

Girl Time

I'm back! The weather has been gorgeous again the last couple of days. The above photos were taken today in our back yard. Anyway, thanks to my mom and hubby who watched K so I could get in some girl time in Sioux Falls. The mini-getaway was great! Tried Peachwave for the first time. I had never heard of it before... yeah, I don't get out much. :) It was so fun trying so many different flavors of yogurt. Then the next day four of us girls did lots of rummaging. I had actually hit a few by myself the day before. I don't know about you but I find it hard paying full price for kid toys and clothes. They grow out of them way too fast, so being able to get awesome deals on barely used stuff is awesome! Kaelyn was certainly excited with the toys I had picked up for her. I found 2 fun learning games, one is days of the week by Eric Carle's hungry caterpillar, and another is a money game with real looking plastic coins. She insisted we play them as soon as I showed her and they were a hit. Here are some of the other finds I couldn't pass up...

The sleeping bag she is on and the Lets Dress Up book with felt dolls and dress up clothes that looked like it had only been played with once. It reminds me of the paper dolls I used to play with only there's a book with different stage setups. Very cute!
Then onto the bigger toy I couldn't resist since she likes being in the shop with daddy...

Her own little work shop. It will probably be going in the actual shop soon but right now she is loving it in the entry. I'm pretty sure this keeps her busier then her play kitchen!

How about you... do you thrift and/or rummage? What have been some of your favorite finds?

Bubbles and Stuff

Here is what part of our Saturday looked like...

{K snuggling with her indoor kitty}

{Cheering on daddy and blowing bubbles while he trains for a triathlon coming up this next Saturday.}

Having bubbles blow around you is almost like being in a fantasy world. The different colors they show is beautiful. After hubby got done training for the day we had some fun family time... good coffee, food and meandering around. It was a good day. ♥

How was your weekend?

Puddles

Thank you to all those that called and commented about Kaelyn's allergic reaction earlier this week. It really means a lot to me. I'm finally a bit calmer about having to carry an Epipen (shot) everywhere I go. If you know me I hate shots (like so much I even had a natural birth, ha!) and thinking about having to give one pretty much terrifies me. I don't even know how I could hold her down long enough to give her one... but I'm not going to think about it. I'll just pray that never happens!
Here is an old picture I came across of K jumping in puddles. It's been rainy and pretty cold here all week. Going from 80 to freezing was too much of a shock to me. I miss the warm days. Good thing is they should be returning soon. :)

A rough start to our week

Life is interesting. From a distance one may think another's journey looks so perfect and beautiful but if you were to experience their ride you would more then likely want off at some point. Kind of like this carousel ride. When I road it with my daughter a couple years ago, it looked beautiful and I thought it would be so much fun but after spinning around and around I was ready to get off before she was. :) Must be an age thing. Ha!

Anyway, our week got off to a crazy and scary start. We hit another one of those "bumps" in our path. After eating breakfast Kaelyn started crying and wheezing and saying she was sick. She's had a couple wheezing attacks before from outside allergies but never from food, just rashes from food. And when she had the outdoor wheezing episodes we were able to calm her down pretty quickly. Well this time nothing was calming her down and breathing was becoming more of a struggle. Luckily the clinic in town was open. (They aren't open everyday and the closest is a half hour away.) They took us right away and gave her a couple benadryl shots which were a bit traumatic for her. We had to sit there for 2 hours for her heart rate and breathing to normalize and be monitored. Thankfully we were released and she has been doing fine since. But no more peanut butter for this girl. Nuetella put her over the edge. Sad, because she loves peanut butter and jelly and if she could have her way she would eat it for almost every meal. :(

K has always kept feeding time interesting. It was a struggle to get her to eat when she was a baby. It would take her 2 hours to get a little bottle down. Then we found out she had egg and milk product allergies and now it's peanut butter. It could be much worse, so we are thankful and very glad when things go smoothly.

Pop of Color

{Be Still & Let God ~ mixed media in progress}

The pops of color are being added! Yay! I really hope to finish this piece up over the weekend. We'll see.

Linking up with other creative souls at Studio JRU!

Rewind

I can't believe this week is about over! Before this next weekend arrives I thought I should share a glimpse of our Easter weekend. Saturday we celebrated with hubby's side of the family. Kaelyn stayed at the decorating table longer than anyone else. :)

{me and my girl getting some stickers to put on}

{K and her daddy}

K had to be like her cousin and play an instrument too!

Then on to Sunday, church service then to my aunt's house where there is always
an egg hunt for Kaelyn. She loves it!

{the kitties are hiding eggs}

My aunt had a very clever idea to put a coin in the eggs and then fill the piggy bank.

My cousins did fill some with candy for her though too. :)

We had a wonderful weekend with family,

had lots of great food and K was one spoiled little girl!

She is still asking why Easter has to be over!

Be Still & Let God {mixed media in progress}

{Be Still & Let God ~ mixed media in progress}

Finally, a new piece in progress! I am so excited about this one. It has been on my mind for months! Every part of it has a special meaning... I could almost write a book about it! Ha! I won't bore you with the details but I'll just say it comes from a lot of things that have been on my heart lately and this was the creative vision I had from it.

I have always loved drawing portraits. Making them come alive through their eyes is so much fun! Really the eyes are the only thing that is actually done on this piece. Lots of layering left on the rest of it. And I can't wait to add a pop of color to a few places. That will take some time!

I hope you enjoyed seeing a preview. Have a wonderful Easter weekend!

Handmade Toys Part 1

Being a work from home mom is even more challenging when you have kid(s) at home. Keeping them entertained while you are working can be quite a job on its own. In our household we aren't big on TV shows/video games. We do not have cable... one because it is an unnecessary cost and two we keep plenty busy with other jobs that we don't have time for it. We also like to have our daughter use her imagination as much as possible with creative play. I must admit, some days it is easier to let her sit in front of PBS watching kid shows or pop in a movie. But I've noticed the more TV she watches the worse her attitude is which equals an unhappy mama. So I sometimes have to be creative on keeping her busy with other toys and crafts. Luckily my mom kept a few of my favorite toys I had when I was a small child and passed them on to me when I had my daughter. Here is one...

Meet the bunny family. Made out of felt, fabric and thread. My aunt/godmother Colleen made this set for me some 30+ years ago and it is still in great condition! I loved playing with it and now K gets to enjoy it as well. Such a treasure!
The details are amazing! To get an idea for size, the mama bunny measures 6 inches from the tip of her hear to the bottom of her foot. The small twin babies are 2.5 inches tall. So not very big. The dresses on the mom and daughter can be taken off.

The bunny family has plenty of room to live in the carrot which makes for easy travel. Great for car rides and in church.

I hope this handmade treasure will last for several more decades to come! :)

I would love to hear what your favorite childhood toy was.

wonderful ending to March

We were lucky enough to have another beautiful weekend, which meant not getting much done in the house because we were always outside. :)

Friday night was a little bonfire in our backyard. Just before I took this pic Hubby was outside entertaining 5 kids. He's amazing with kids... all ages! Love that about him.

A quick snuggle with his girl... she doesn't sit still for long!

Then Saturday was another lake day! We went to a lake we hadn't been to before and went fishing for the first time this year.

And there were lots of turtles here too. It's nice not having a motor boat to scare them away before you get to see them. They still are quick to jump in the water, especially the baby turtles, but a fast camera and being ready helps. This turtle made me laugh. His back feet aren't even touching the stump! I think that made it a little harder for him to jump off so I got more shots of him. :)

The best news was that hubby caught a sunfish in his boat! Kaelyn was thrilled but bummed she never had a bite on her line. She said the fish was sooo cute! Ha, ha!

We took one short shore break for sun guard and so K could throw a few rocks in the water. David did some more fishing.

I still can't believe the boat and oars was one of the first things hubby ever made/built out of wood! This was made in our TINY garage of our first house when he hardly had any tools! Lets say it got him addicted to woodworking... which was a good thing because I have some beautiful pieces in my house because of it. :)

Sunday started off cool and damp but by afternoon we were up to 88 degrees. Couldn't believe it for this time of year. I managed to get some yard work done while K played outside with her neighbor friend. It was a good day and such a great ending to March.