what up

this is what has been up lately:

pretend swimming indoors

horse rides

learning to write

that sums up what we have been doing.....vacation is coming and we cannot wait!!!

Homemade Pasta and Fresh Tomatoes:)

We broke out our pasta maker the other night-and let me just tell you that will soon be a regular practice here. Homemade pasta is so good-just so different in all the right ways!! It is quite the mess-but the kids have so much fun with it I might just have to bite the bullet and be ready to clean a great deal. Also, my sweet little garden is giving up tomatoes:) lots and lots of tomatoes. I snapped a few pictures of my recent picks-huge, red, delicious!! Today's lunch will be tomatoes roasted soft with oil, garlic, salt and pepper and tossed all over pasta-one of my personal favorites! Yum!! PS: why did no one tell me you have to use a cage thing for tomatoes or they grow insanely all over??!! Live and learn I guess.

horse rider

Isabelle has been obsessed with horses (mainly riding them) for quite some time. The below picture is one of her favorite games-luckily Judah joins in with her on this game. She sits on "Rody" as Judah leads her around by a yoga mat strap....sometimes he gets a turn too. Oh, have I mentioned that Isabelle has a style sense I just envy sometimes? Look at how she showed up to the door when I was out watering my garden?? Too adorable that little one!

Roses....

Today at lunch a dozen long stemmed roses were delivered to my door. The note read.."love nate". That man is the biggest blessing I have on this earth-spoiled daily by his love, his humor, his godliness, his service, his generosity and his companionship. I love him.....and man are those lovely roses!!

rice crispies, popcorn and a movie night

The little beans helped me whip up a batch of rice crispies....and then we decided we needed something salty for our movie night. I just loved watching their sweet faces as we popped the corn-too cute. And dang...I forgot how good homemade popcorn can be!!

licking the spoons-this would be before we had even started making the treats

sweetest little boy in the land

and girl....my girl!!

who knows where he gets his goofball self from?? at least he is always cracking himself up!

while nibbling on the treats we begin the popcorn (in jammies now)

he has spotted it coming out...

focused

the end results-quickly consumed after this shot!!
**for those who are observant....yes Isabelle has gotten a haircut....we made the treats the day before the movie night with popcorn, but enjoyed them that same night-just to clarify:)**

The Fair

I love the fair-I can recall so clearly going to it every year with the Sandberg family and having the time of my life!! It is a blast to revisit places of your childhood with your children....and this year we got  to do that with the fair. Sweet Nate took the day off work and we had quite the time. We did choose the perfect day flipped between rain and sweltering heat....but besides that fun little bit it was nice. Pictures below:)

this was clearly the first thing we did-note Isabelle's expression and contrast it to the last photo and you will feel the flow of the day

watching the pig races

Judah never looked away the entire time....nor smiled

pony rides-of course!!

sweetest little rider ever

she adored every moment

honest

he just rode that pony.....so seriously

Isabelle wanted to ride this thing ever since she saw it on one of the ads for the fair-we gave in and rode it and she literally smiled the entire ride....love that girl!

then came the "we are done here" phase....she modeled it perfectly:)

Sorry I have been away for a bit-but I have been pretending I am on vacation:)