Puzzled

Aric has a new hobby:

He loves putting together puzzles.  When he has them together, he'll disassemble and reassemble them over and over again.  He asks to play with puzzles and has actually refused to go outside because he wants to put his puzzles together.

I bought Aric a Toy Story puzzle today while we were at Target.  He carried it around the store like Gollum guarding his "Precious".  He wanted to hold it while we drove home and as soon as I let him out of the truck he ran to the door.  We've been home maybe 30 minutes and he has already assembled the puzzle 10 times.  I didn't even help with it and he never asked.  I guess we'll need to get him a more advanced puzzle.  Ages 3+ isn't cutting it anymore.

Things That Make Us Happy

Remember the problem of Kellyn climbing out of her crib?  Her crib design provides her with an unfair advantage because she can use the bar across the front to boost herself over.

When we were on vacation she was climbing out of her pack and play, too.  I wanted to rip my hair out in frustration.  It made for some very long nights when she decided she also didn't want to sleep a whole night through for a week and a half.  During one of those nights I had an epiphany.  Why not turn her crib around backwards?  So I did...

...and it works!  Ryan said she was attempting to climb out last night when she was unhappy about going to bed. Thus far she hasn't been able to figure out how to get out.  I pray that this is the case for quite awhile.  She's still not mature enough to be moved into a toddler bed.  Or maybe I'm not the one who is mature enough...

Since I moved to Kansas almost 10 years ago, it has been Ryan's dream to buy a 1/4 of a cow.  He has been close many times to achieving his dream, but then something always happened and the deal fell through.  This year his dream was fulfilled and our freezer currently looks like this:

The whiteboard next to it looks like this:

It is nice to have a stocked freezer and we're looking forward to some fabulous grilled meals this summer.  Neither one of us is sure what a tenderized round is and we've never tried a porterhouse steak before, but we're both pretty excited to try them.

This is currently the view of our entryway:

On Monday this will change.  I have tile installers scheduled to install tile that will match our kitchen.  I'm going to change things a little in the entryway and I'm pretty excited to see what the finished result looks like.

After moving this winter, we tried to move our cat, Gobbles, with us.  He has lived outside at the farm for the past three years and did not transition well to being a house cat again.  He was unhappy, losing weight, using Ryan's duffel bags as his litter box, and generally just annoying everyone.  We looked for somewhere for him to go, and even talked about having him put to sleep.  We just couldn't allow him to roam free where we live, especially without a fenced in backyard.  We finally found some family friends who have a barn and no barn cat.  They agreed to take him, but made no promises.  We understood that it might be temporary and thought we would give it a try.

We saw Gobbles when we picked up our 1/4 cow.  He was happy and healthier looking.  We could tell he genuinely was enjoying life out on the farm again and we're happy that he has a good place to live.

Back from My Hiatus

I took an unintentional hiatus from blogging.  I didn't really mean to, but time just kind of slipped by.  We spent the last three weeks in DC.  Ryan had a school in the area and we decided I would bring the kids and spend the time with my parents.  We had a great time, but blogging was kind of put on the shelf while I was gone.  I didn't really realize how many people read my blog.  I received a couple of e-mails checking to make sure I was alright and several people have commented that I haven't posted anything since March 11th. It is comforting to know that I have at least eight blog followers.  Thanks family and friends.

The last few days have been a whirlwind of trying to get settled back in.  Taxes, grocery shopping, visiting with friends, laundry, cleaning house, gardening and buying a 1/4 of a cow are some of what we've been up to since returning home. 

Yesterday, Aric had his very first tractor ride:

He was excited to ride around on a tractor.  Even if he does look a bit serious in that photo.  Apparently tractor rides are serious.

Kellyn was not as excited.  She might have been mad her arms were too short to steer.

It was nice to come home to a completed fence:

We are pleased with the finished product.  The weather has been nice and I have enjoyed being able to allow the kids to roam outdoors without having to tell them to stay away from the street and out of the neighbor's yard.  They have had so much fun outside in our back yard.

Kellyn is old enough to truly enjoy the castle slide.  She climbs up and slides down like a pro.

When she hits the grass she acts like a "girl":

She sits at the bottom staring at her hands saying "mess" over and over again.  Then she gets up and comes to me, refusing to start a new task until I clean the mess from her hands. It's pretty funny and kind of cute.

Aric still enjoys the slide, too:

He doesn't make a big deal about getting dirty, though.  He is still all boy and loves to chase his sister, kick and throw balls and play in the dirt.

It was nice to see my family and it's nice to be home again.  The days are longer and getting warmer.  We have plenty of outside projects to keep us occupied for awhile.  It'll be nice to not be trapped inside by the cold weather.

Tractor Tippin'

Ryan bought Aric a Tractor Tipping game yesterday while they were out at the bookstore.  It's a cute idea of rolling the dice and moving your cars around the board tractor tipping and hoping Frank doesn't come after you.  Whoever has the most tractors at the end of the game wins.  Laura was over yesterday and she and I tried to play the game with Aric. We tried until he decided it would be more fun to claim all of the game pieces for himself and re-enact the tractor tipping scene from the movie.  It kept him entertained for the rest of the day.

This morning Aric stumbled out into the living room.  He climbed into my lap half asleep and sat there for about two seconds before asking. "Mommy, where are my tractors?"

The Fence

Have I mentioned how excited I am about getting a fence in the backyard?  It has been such a huge adjustment for us to move into town.  We are actually not even in the big city, but right outside of it in a township.  It sounds great, but Ryan and I have discovered just how much we like living out in the country.  It's the little things like not being able to take the trash out in your underwear that you miss.  Not that I took the trash out in my underwear much, but now anytime I go outside people are watching. 

Case in point-  when we had our yard flagged for the fence I went over to the neighbors, introduced myself and let them know about the fence and wanting to make sure they had no dispute over the fence placement, etc.  Well, Mrs J (as I'll call her) was chatty and seemed nice enough until she said, "so you have two little kids, right? and so and so said your husband is in the Army, right?"  Which made me walk away from the conversation with thoughts screaming in my head.  "The neighbors are watching and taking notes and talking with each other!  Ahhhhhhh!"  For the record I do scream in my head sometimes, it's quieter that way.

A fence will shield us from that.  They won't know when I didn't fix my bedhead, or that my clothes are mismatched and covered in snot or banana or whatever else was wiped on them.  They won't know that I decided to experiment with black eyeliner and feel glamorous in my sweatpants and bedhead.  We can hide.  Well that, and I won't have to be worried about the kids trying to run into the street, and the dog will have a bigger area to roam.

So close to having my own little utopia in the backyard:

Update

My husband has complained that I haven't updated this in a couple of weeks.  One cute photo of Kellyn apparently doesn't work. 

Last week was a sleepless week.  I was sick, the kids were sick and I didn't sleep well any night.  Every night I was awake for hours and hours.  Some nights I got up, others I tossed and turned.  By this past weekend I was exhausted and feeling the lack of sleep throughout my body.  I think last night was my first night of "good" sleep in well over a week.  It wasn't even that good since I had to get up with Aric at midnight and get him back to sleep in his own bed, but it was good enough that I am feeling better today.

We're still enjoying the new kitchen.  After living with it for a couple of weeks we are finding we are still pleased with the changes we made and the functionality of the space.  I purchased the extra tile to install in the entryway, but have decided to wait until at least April to have that work done.  I wanted to give myself some time off from projects before I start more. April is already filling up with projects: entryway tile, more painting in the guest room and guest bath, a garden in the front yard and a vegetable garden in the back yard. 

That's not to say we aren't having work done right now...

The backyard doesn't quite look like this today.  The posts are a bit straighter today as our fence guy is outside setting them right now.  We knew we wanted a fence before we moved in and it's nice to see that coming to fruition.  It'll be a private, big, safe place for the kids to play and a space for the dog to roam.  The sides of the fence will be wood privacy and the back will be chain link.  We'll have some seclusion from our neighbors and not block our view of the rest of our backyard.  I am ready for spring and being able to spend more time outdoors enjoying our yard with the kids.

The only other exciting thing going on is that Kellyn learned how to climb out of her crib.  She's not a budding 17 month old gymnast.  Her crib design gives her an unfair advantage:

The bar across the front gives her a foot hold to swing her little leg over.  It sure has made nap and bedtime really interesting.  Ryan and I constantly have to check on her when we lay her down to make sure she's still in bed.  She's not nearly ready to be moved into a toddler bed.  In the meantime we'll just keep checking on her.

And that's about it for now...

Stolen

I'll give you one guess on what Kellyn stole out of Aric's room.

I'm glad someone is using them, because for some reason Aric won't wear them.