{November} on my phone...

Dear Mr. Groundhog,

I really hope your prediction of an early spring comes true...

since I'm tired of snow, wind and -3 degree temperatures...

..and I can't wait for blue skies & pink blossoms!

So... about that thing I was so excited about finding on my thrift store stop! 

I've been looking for one {or more} for a long time now.. 

I kind of want a little collection of 'em like this girls,

love it-love it-love it...

and I finally found the first of my very own bright & cheery old globes! 

I can hardly wait to find more.. 

the hunt for the second, third & more has officially begun.

Isn't she a beauty..

I thought so!

what the SNOW is goin' on???

Monday, May 24th

MAY 24th.

We woke up to a winter wonderland.

It was a full-on blizzard.

Later that evening it had almost all melted.

leaving floods of water puddles.

broken tree branches.

and sunny, blue skies.

Seasons. Sm-easons.

I don't know what to think anymore.

It's the last week of school, and we're officially supposed to be going into summer very soon. I hope we don't have a repeat of last summer's cold month of June where my kids were flocking inside to play and stay cozy, asking for hot chocolate and if we could turn on the fireplace.

..and please, oh please... don't let all the flowers I spent hours planting last week die!

it seemed as if it would never come...

as usual...

but then it does...

and it's totally worth the wait!

Spring!

This is my favorite spring tree in our yard! 

I find myself taking numerous photos of it year after year...

and making time to walk into the one room in our house

with the perfect view from the window just to admire it!

I love living right below this gorgeous mountain too!

It delivers the most picturesque back drop as the seasons come & go...

Oh my...

Oh my, I don't even remember everything that's been going on since I last posted... not good. I should've at least written a little something here and there. I don't have very many pictures to post, although I do have some from the boys Blue & Gold Banquet for Scouts a week ago and today I took a few when I met La at the Dino Museum where we let the little ones play while we got in on some Mom conversation {believe it or not... photos coming soon}. 

I must say... a part of me is feeling so bummed lately. Almost ALL of my favorite magazines are going under, due to this not-so-lovely economy we're all going through {whether we like it or not}. Practically every day I hear of yet ANOTHER one that's announced its last publication. Just to name a few: Domino, Hallmark, Cottage Living & Country Home. -Aaarrrggghhhh!!! I'm so sad to know that I won't be able to look forward to my latest issue arriving in my mailbox, and doing everything in my power not to drop everything just to take a peek inside before I can find "that moment" after the kids are all tucked into bed and I can cuddle up in some cozy place and get my much awaited dose of grittiness amongst all the pages of everlasting creativity and inspiration! 

Anywho... Marcus never ceases to deliver. Sunday morning Tanner came running into our bedroom so anxious to tell us what Marcus' newest creation for breakfast was. He said that he had made "cherry" pancakes, {and pancakes for the very first time, I might add}. I was thinking to myself, "how did he make CHERRY pancakes, I wonder???" Curious to see his creation and hoping it was good since my tummy was rumbling, I wandered into the kitchen to find that he had added some of the "Rose's Grenadine Syrup" to the pancake batter to flavor it like cherries. I hadn't a clue of what to expect of the finished product, although I was a little skeptical but I must say... it wasn't bad! You really couldn't taste it that much, mostly it just gave them a tint of pink. We all gobbled them right up along side the eggs he made. {He reminds me SO much of Andres. He has a passion for cooking and creating a recipe all his own and savors every bite of it. He is not tunnel visioned when it comes to cooking, he looks all around in the pantry and fridge and creates what he'll make based on what we have and Andres is the very same way, where as I'm more the one to follow a recipe to the "T" and if we don't have the exact ingredients to make it then that's the end of that and they totally improvise. I have to admit though, that I'm starting to get better in that way and if it's something that I like or feel confident in making I'll improvise much more now than I used to}.  

I've been dreaming of spring-time, as I'm sure everyone else in my neck of the woods has... will it ever come, I ask myself? I long to feel the warmth of the sun and to see my little yard come to life. I've been wanting to get out and do some spring clean-up but the few days that have been a little teaser of warmth I haven't had time and when I do it's yet again, brrrrr-----! 

Tomorrow is little Syd's birhtday! She's turning 8!!! She says that this is going to be one of her REALLY special birthdays since it's the one that allows her to be baptized. She's been SO excited for this birthday ever since the boys had theirs and were baptized. She always seems to be ready for everything they are experiencing and can hardly wait to experience it for herself! She wanted to start going to school when they started school, so I put her in dance. She thought that it was SO cool that the boys were able to start going to Scouts when they turned 8, and is counting down the days 'til she gets invited to Activity Days. Tomorrow will be fun... everything is playing out in her behalf~ School ended up scheduling tomorrow as a half-day like Fridays due to teacher prep or something and today one of her friends invited her to go home with her after school tomorrow for a play date because of the half-day at school. Normally she would have violin on Wednesdays, but since it's group class on Friday she doesn't have to go to violin tomorrow, leaving more time to celebrate and enjoy her birthday! My parents are planning on coming home from their long trip down south that they take every year to skip the winter here and hopefully will make it in time to join us for her birthday dinner! I'm looking forward to making tomorrow a day she will remember, the day she turned 8!

How could I possibly forget... we had a flood in the house on Friday too! Tanner played in the sink in the upstairs hall bathroom and left the water running, 30-45 minutes later Sydnee frantically says "Mom what is that sound??? It sounds like it's coming from downstairs..." It sounded like someone had a water hose hanging over the banister and the water was hitting the floor at the bottom of the stairs. I still didn't know what it was and ran down to see. I found water coming out of the ceiling at the bottom of the stairs, I looked down the hall and saw water coming out of the light fixture on the wall. I STILL didn't know what had happened or where it was coming from. Then Sydnee yells that the bathroom upstairs was flooded and that Tanner must've forgot to turn off the water. I then went running up the stairs to assess the damage in the bathroom, {I figured it must be bad after seeing what I had downstairs}. There was water EVERYWHERE... the one sink was full, the counter was full and spilling over, the floor was like a stream, under the sink in the cabinet was all wet, it was seeping out into the carpet in the hall and LUCKILY... I own a Rainbow wet vacuum which I started sucking up water as fast as I could with and flushing it down the toilet and then starting over. Once I got it off the floor enough to not spill anymore into the heater vent, I took the vent cover off to find a pool of water down in the vent. I continued my journey of "suck & flush/suck & flush/suck & flush" for what seemed forever... and when I had sucked & flushed as much as I could possibly get to, I put everything away, turned on a fan to dry the carpet and wished somehow.. someway... I could rewind the last few hours of the day. 

It's a MaRsHmAlloW WoRld in the WiNteR~

When the SNOW comes to cover the ground 

It's the time for play, it's a whipped cream day

I wait for it the whole year round.

My favorite spring tree~

This is the tree outside Sydnee & McKynlee's window in our front yard and every year I can hardly wait to see it in full bloom. It's gorgeous~ Spring has finally sprung, although I'm still freezing everytime I step outside.

Longing for a Spring Wardrobe

I love yellow, it's so cheerful and addicting. I so need to add a few fun, yellow items to my much anticipated spring wardrobe. I guess it's good that I'm actually still wanting to dress like "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" solely due to weather.. because I still need to go through my closet. Out with the old, in with the new. You can find this classy little yellow jacket at Gap.

These great tops and curvy long shorts are all from New York & Company. Lovin' the yellow again!

And on a more casual note, I'm diggin' these cute city style crops which have snap pockets on back and come in a large selection of colors! Also found at New York & Company.

Cozy storytime.. Chilly snow...

Where in the world is Spring??? I keep trying to give myself positive self talk and say it's just around the corner... and then we get these freezing gusts of wind and it starts to snow- I'm so confused. Oh well, one good thing is.. I finally took down the christmas lights off of all my front yard trees and so now when the darn flowers DO bloom, I won't rip them all off trying to get the lights off the trees. hee hee hee

Anyhoo- It was freezing today and the kids came home from school with this most silly and hilarious book from the library, so all five of us snuggled up on the couch with a big thick blanket over us and read the entire story. It had us all giggling. I had never seen these books before and now we are so excited to seek out some more for summer reading. The illustrations were quite entertaining too.