Hannah and the Cozy Coupe

The kids and I came back down to Mom and Dad's house for a few days. Hannah loved playing with the cozy coupe after dinner. This little car has been around for a long time, I think we got it around the time Michelle was about Hannah's age, and it has seen a lot of use, but it's still a hit.

Triple Birthday Dinner

We took advantage of Joshua preaching in Orange Cove this past weekend to have a triple birthday dinner at Mom and Dad's house Saturday. After a delicious dinner, the May birthday kids got to open presents.

Mary was very excited about all of her gifts and loved reading the cards from everyone.

Then we had a trio of birthday desserts.

Back at home, Mary got right to work on her new gifts including Legos and her first cross stitch kit.

David was more excited about the new yard toys with lots of buckets and shovels for digging.

Mary eventually put her cross stitching down long enough to join him, and we cleared a little spot in the backyard for gardening.

Eighteen Months

At eighteen months, Hannah is a girl on the move. She loves to walk, run, and climb on everything.

A favorite game is running circles around the living room, dining room, and kitchen with Mary and David. She pushes chairs around the house so she can climb on them and get the things she sees that are out of reach, and she can climb up on the changing table and both bathroom counters.

She loves time outside going for walks or exploring the yard.

When Hannah is happy, especially at meals, she likes to yell, "Dada, Dada" at the top of her lungs.

She also likes blowing raspberries.

Fruit, bread, cereal, yogurt, and oatmeal are some of her favorite foods.

Hannah loves to be chased and to chase her sister and brother.

She has lots of great expressions, including a surprised expression with her jaw dropped.

 We love our sweet girl!

Spring Planting

We've been doing a little spring planting now that the weather is warming up. We planted rhubarb and rosemary in the backyard. In an effort to keep tender greens away from the deer, we filled some pots with soil and put them up in the tree house. The kids were so excited about their little garden and picking the seeds they wanted to plant.

After choosing their seeds, they planted and watered them.

 

The next day, they filled yogurt containers with soil and put those up in the tree house so they could do more planting. They have quite the little collection up there now.

Sourdough

I got a sourdough starter from Isaac and made my first batch of sourdough bread last weekend. When I was working at Tazzaria, I cared for the starter and made sourdough bread every week. I tried starting a starter when we lived in Oregon, but never really got it going. All that was a long time ago though and I've been thinking about starters again lately, so I was pretty excited when I heard Isaac had one.

We used an old Calvin Crest sourdough recipe because Katie gave it to me recently and I figured it was already altitude adjusted which is nice. It was a three day process, and the kids helped me knead the dough on the second day.

 The loaves turned out beautifully and tasted great. They had a pretty mild flavor and a more closed crumb than I was hoping for, but they were delicious homemade bread.

Gethsemane Adventure

Sunday afternoon we put on sunscreen and hats and headed out for an adventure in the warm spring weather.

We hiked to Gethsemane Falls. Every time we've gone out there this year, it seems like there's more water than the time before and this trip was no exception. I've never seen this much water there.

The kids were excited to wade in the water.

Hannah threw rocks in the water for a long time and had fun sitting in the stream and splashing her legs in the water on the edge even though it was chilly.

Spring Flowers

The kids have been spotting and wanting to photograph the flowers blooming.

 

Rocking Horse

 The kids and I went down to Dad and Mom's house for a few days to visit while Uncle Terry, Aunt Alma, and Uncle Craig were there. We arrived at the end of Uncle Terry and Aunt Alma's visit and stayed for the beginning of Uncle Craig's visit. It was nice to get to see all of them.

One of the days I went up in the attic and pulled down the rocking horse from when we were little. The kids, of course, thought it was great. When Uncle Craig came in from working in the shop with Dad, he recognized the rocking horse and I found out that he made it for us when Heather was a baby.