Goodbyes and Hellos

We've seen a lot of changes at our house in the past couple of months.
The boys got new mattresses a few weeks ago, so we said goodbye to old beds and hello to all double beds. Myles' old mattress went to Berkleigh, who got Kelley's old antique bed (she looks like the princess and the pea with her high headboard). Carter got Aunt Claire's old brass headboard and a new sheet set. Merlyn got a new sheet set since she didn't get a new bed or mattress, and Berkleigh got Merlyn's old sheet set.

We said goodbye to the old playsets and swingset and hello to a big wooden playset (pictures of the new one will be coming soon).


We said goodbye to Bryan's lacrosse paycheck so I could say hello to my new brush hog that pulls behind the 4wheeler. Then we said goodbye to the overgrown fields (in the foreground) and hello to brush hogged fields (in the background). Soon we'll say goodbye to all those old stumps.

We said goodbye to store-bought milk in plastic jugs and said hello to milk fresh from a friend's cow in reusable glass jars. We also said hello to cream, buttermilk, and homemade butter. This is my first batch of butter -- isn't it pretty? It's delicious, too!

We reached the limit of miles on the truck lease at the end of March, even though the lease wasn't up until December, so it's been costing more than $300 a month in mileage just for Bryan to drive back and forth to work and lacrosse. Chevy was offering a two month lease payment waiver, so it was actually more cost-efficient to get out of the lease early. This past Friday morning, we said goodbye to the truck.

Then we said hello to our new Chevy van. We all love it!

This weekend I was very excited to say goodbye to all the chemical cleaners in our house.

We said hello to all-natural homemade laundry soap, dishwashing soap, window cleaner, fabric softener, household cleaner, toilet cleaner, and stain removers.

Here's the soap flakes melting for the laundry detergent. Myles (our resident chef) got a big kick out of making soap. Soon to come will be our own hand soap and bath soap. I'll be giving more details and recipes of all our cleaners soon.

My Mother's Day

On Sunday Myles and Carter woke me up around 9am by bringing me a cup of tea in bed. All the kids came up to give me the cards they had made for me. We went downstairs when Berkleigh announced that breakfast was ready; Bryan had made omelets and hash browns with artichokes -- yummy!
After breakfast I cut Bryan's, Myles', and Carter's hair. We got a little crazy (notice the lightning bolt in Carter's hair below). I made bread dough and went outside while it was rising.

I hung up a load of laundry (all socks and underwear!) that Bryan gathered and put in the machine.


I also mowed a little of the hill, just to mow something on Mother's Day.

I spent a couple of relaxing hours on my birthday/mother's day present from Bryan and the kids:

It was a beautiful day for knitting, of course (what day isn't?!).

I watched Bryan work on finishing our massive playset project.

The kids were so excited about the new cargo net addition that they waited in line instead of playing on the rest of the playset.

The kids and Bryan cleaned up the play yard while I took down the laundry, kneaded the bread dough, and made honey butter (with homemade butter -- more on that another day) to go with the fresh bread. Then it was off to Faye and Jerry's for a turkey dinner. When we got back I mowed the play yard while Bryan gave all four kids baths. We stayed up late watching the Survivor finale, which was a great way to end a really nice day.

Still Catching Up

Last month Chris and Tracy were in town so we went to visit them. The kids had lots of fun playing with Jaxon. He's getting so big, and he's such a cutie.

On Easter, Aunt Stacie gave the girls "jewelry", which they loved (and which prompted them to want to get their ears pierced). Braden loved the jewelry, too, and we all got a kick out of his sense of fashion, although his father didn't appreciate it.

When Carter, Bryan, and I left for Binghamton, Faye came to stay with the other kids and brought Flat Alex with her. Flat Alex is part of a school project for Faye's great nephew who lives in Indiana. Faye took Flat Alex places and kept a journal and photobook to send back to the real Alex. Carter showed him the OM backdrop before we left. Myles, Merlyn, and Berkleigh got to take a field trip to the Eisenhower Lock, and the 45th parallel as well as a sugar shack.

That weekend Faye taught Myles and Merlyn how to waltz together. I'm going to have to take a video of it, because it is really cute to watch.

One night I when I was checking on the kids on my way to bed, I found Berkleigh asleep in her bed with a crown on her head. The crown is from her "My Little Ponies" and it looked so tiny and adorable on her head that I couldn't resist taking a picture.

I found these pictures on the computer and I still have lots on the camera. I'll catch up one of these days. I've been trying to catch up on laundry, too, and it seems like I'll never get to the end of the clothes or the pictures!

Old Pictures

CJ (my longest-attending daycare kid) turned 5 on March 14th. The following weekend I took our four kids and Alison and Aleesa to his birthday party.

I loved the kids lined up according to height waiting to play Pin the Tail on the Donkey. From left to right is Carter, Myles, Aleesa, and Cole, and a little boy I don't know. Notice Myles with his hat over his face!

That night Pat and Annie were in town so we went out for St. Patrick's Day. Annie and I ended up back at her inlaws' house knitting (hooray!) while the guys went to a second bar. The kids were excited to have a babysitter for the first time in a long time. When we got home, this is how I found Merlyn, sleeping surrounded by balloons:

My parents came to visit after a cruise vacation. They brought maracas for the boys and dresses for the girls. When Berkleigh opened her dress, she got all excited and said she was going to put it in her "dress drawer". It was very cute, but surprising that she didn't want to try it on right away. A couple days later, Grandma Faye came over and the first thing the girls said was that they had new dresses from my mom. They ran upstairs and changed into them. The boys got their maracas and provided music while the girls danced. They put the red handkerchief on the floor to collect money while they played. I should have video taped it -- it was quite funny.

Those are the pictures I had on the computer. The rest are still on the camera, so I'll get around to putting them on the computer soon. "Soon", of course, means sometime today or tomorrow so I can continue catching up on blogging!