Free Range on Fairview

Reading a library book together at bedtime. It is the most wonderful feeling to know that my boys will grow up with their brothers. To have siblings to be picked on by and to be loved by unconditionally. Dylan is a great big bro. He will play with the littles, read to them, encourage them, and dote over them. Don't get me wrong, he is still a pain and tries to get them in trouble or avoid playing with them when he friends are over, but he is extremely protective. They are instant friends. When I'm having a tough night or Dylan hasn't done his reading homework I will have him read to his brother (s) and all is right in the world.  Lincoln loves his big bro.  Camping this summer. He absolutely idolizes him. If "Bowbie" has his hood on, Lincoln will wear his. His outfits, his mood, his snacks, all reflect whatever his older brother is doing. It is a great opportunity to remind Dylan that whatever his choices are will impact his little brothers but it a...

See, I told you I wanted to talk about beets. Why? Because they are super awesome. We read a fun book called Tops and Bottoms about a lazy bear and a poor rabbit. The rabbit tricked the bear by telling him he would plant and take care of the garden but he will give the bear the bottoms of the plants and he will get the tops. So the first round of planting he grows things like lettuce, and corn, broccoli. So basically he gets the good stuff and the bear gets nothing. Then he tricks the bear again and says the bear can get the tops and the rabbit will get the bottoms, so he plants things like carrots, beets, radishes and potatoes, all things that you eat out of the ground and discard the tops. In the end the bear learns not to be lazy and the rabbit family doesn't starve so everyone is happy. The boys got a kick out of the mischief in the book and we talked about how we eat different parts of different plants. We planted several different types of vegetables including beets in o...

Here's the article I wrote for my monthly MOPS newsletter. If you are interested in reading the whole newsletter it and many other things can be found at the Ellensburg MOPS website.  "I have three boys. Three chances for perfect little carbon copies I can shape and mold any way I like. Except each child is unique and there is nothing I can do about it! I have one child who saw all of his school pictures lines up from the last few years and said, “Oh it’s so cute, I almost want to cry!” I have one child that can sit and stare at a tv screen for hours (if I were to actually allow that sort of thing, right?) with his tongue hanging out but can’t stop running around long enough to color in a picture. I also have another child who loves carrying around different tools of sorts, a wooden spoon, a Swiffer or this week, screwdrivers, wherever he goes. Each of my boys live in the same house, they even sleep in the same room, they eat the same food, they all s...

I think there was a crack in the system. Ok I needed something to blame for my lack of posts in oh what, two months or more. Maybe it was getting up at 4:45am or around there to go into the gym to work out for three months. Maybe it was the fact that I became a football mom and have three rowdy boys and it feels like everyday is starting to revolve around balls (yes, I mean every kind). Maybe it was finally getting on depression medication and trying to figure out our new normal. Maybe it was a wacky summer and I just needed time to breath. Maybe. But I'd like to officially blame Pinterest. In case you don't know it is a website where people share pictures linked to websites of inspiration for all aspects of life and you can "pin" the images to your virtual boards to get back to later. It is an awesome place to find recipes, decorating ideas and crafts etc. I put off ever going on there even when friends would rave about how much they loved it because I knew it...

Shane hasn't had any extended vacation time from work in a while so we were thrilled to finally be able to take a nice long family vacation. The first leg of our trip we drove down to Gearhart, OR where we had rented a two bedroom condo right off of the beach. It was a short 10 minutes from Seaside but in a much more quaint and relaxed town. We figured staying in a condo (which was basically like an apartment with maid service, a pool and fitness room and a laundry room facility) would be much easier and more economical in the long run than a hotel room. We had two bathrooms, a full kitchen and a nice balcony with an amazing 180 degree view of the coast. The weather was great and we had more fun and relaxation than I thought possible.  It took a lot of food and snacks to get us through the trip, but I'm sure much less than if we had bought it all along the way. Bags, boxes and coolers helped us stay on budget while still eating fairly healthy but still enjoying ourselves...

Yes, I'm still alive! It's been pretty busy and we are in the midst of summer but I've just been taking time to take care of the kiddos and myself and get things back on track. We just got back from a much needed vacation, some camping, some birthdays and some other life stuff that got in the way of blogging. But here we are. Hopefully I won't be reposting any ideas or pictures but it's been so long since I've posted things are already fuzzy :) We started of July pretty wild!  Lincoln and Dylan were wrestling around with each other and some how Lincoln's arm got hurt. After X-rays and hours in the ER nothing was really confirmed and he got a splint wrapped arm and a sling for a few days.  The cool X-ray of his bones, he was so excited to see what things looked like on the inside. Daddy met us after he got off work and helped walk Lincoln out. Luckily having one arm didn't keep him from doing much. He still wanted to try and help mop....