a little break...

 We went from this....

 and this.....

 ...and this....to....

 ...this!

My poor baby!

He will heal and I am thankful for that.

Uncomfortable but still able to be soothed by endless Bubble Guppy watching, cuddles, ice water and chippies. 

He picks out the gauze like stuffing and I find it all over the house.  Totally makes me laugh.

He was a trooper and the emergency Dr. was the best ever. (helps that she lives like ten houses away!)

He seems to forget about it sometimes but then remembers and gets frustrated he can't hold the drum and stick to play marching band.  Mommy holding the drum just doesn't work.  So we build forts and dress up like pirates and will let the bike get dusty while we give the wagon a workout.  So long water table, pool and splash park. Hello Zoo, long wagon rides, hot wheel ramps and trips to the library.  Ten days until our next X-ray.

building family

Before I became a Mom I believed families just happen.  Thinking back I realize my Mom just made it look easy.  My Mom made everything look easy, especially her secret recipes!

Now that I am a Mom and a Wife I realize that families are work.

Building a family is a job I love with my whole heart.  I could spend every minute of every day with my family and never get tired of it.  The time we spend at our cabin for some reason is all about family.  Just our family with a few other families mixed in every now and again.  We have made the decision for no TV at our cabin.  I love that.  We have no computer, I love that too.  We have the lake, the squirrels and the fox to watch.  This weekend we watched two fox play chase on our little deck and beach.  To me, that is way better than TV!

I never stop thinking about how I can be a better Mom/Wife for my family.  My loving/almost perfect husband makes family building time look easy too. 

I love this image and this is how I view family building.

One cast at a time.

Never sure of what you may catch.

Taking a break but never giving up hope.

manual

 Little Brother slept on a lawn chair.

I had ten minutes with my Ipad to do a quick tutorial on shooting in manual.

 I had to pay my model to sit at the end of the dock so I could practice shooting.

This picture made it worth every cent of that nickel he chose!

(Ok, we will be working on learning about money/coin values soon!  Ooooo, what a good idea for our discovery table!) He is so comfortable at the lake.  He could live in his swim suit and rain boots, great combo.

  He loves nature and could fish for days. 

 It makes me smile to see him so at home when we are together at the lake.

cherries!

The plump, sweet and perfectly yummy cherries grow right here in the prairies!

I still can't believe it!

Friends of ours have cherry hedges lining their property and invited us over to pick and steal a few seedlings!  I'm hoping to put the seedlings by the playhouse at the lake.

I've made cherry tarts, pie and hope to make some cherry jam later this week.  Cherry bread and cherry muffins sound good to me too!

I like store bough cherries but I loooove these prairie cherries so much I'm also ordering a few trees!

fish story

 This boy loves to fish.
He had given up his dream of working with his Dad to be a "person who teachers people to fish".
Perfect.

 Pa takes him 3 times a day most days we are up at the cabin!

 He is not a big fan of catch and release.

He would eat fish every meal if I let him.

He also comments on how their teeth look like rice :) So cute!

We put the giant fish back but ate the others for lunch.

I am not a fan of fish an dour next BBQ must have a burner so the boys can fry up as much fish as they want without smelling up the cabin!