Working

Proof of hard work! When we got in that night it was late and there was no time for a bath. I sat all three of the filthy little beasts on the bathroom counter and went to work with a washcloth. Next time I'll just turn the hose on them!
We are trying to transplant some aspen tree starts. They are pretty small and a little hard to see among all the weeds sooo...the kids put little stone borders around each one. They really worked hard and felt good about their work. My sweet kids are not good workers most of the time so when they get into a job that they enjoy and care about, it is pretty cool. I suspect that part of the reason they enjoyed this job so much had something to do with the dirt!
The light was nice and I've been trying to learn more about my camera so I can take some really nice photos. This one is close to what I'm going for. I tried to get the girls too but Sarah wouldn't quit making goofy faces. Maybe next time.

Random Summertime Photos

Welcome to summertime at the Hodgson's. There are no rules and few baths. No haircuts. Haphazard meals.

Saggy pants.

Lots of love though. Don't you love seeing your children being kind and loving toward each other? At our house it seems to be about equal to the amount of time they spend fighting. Sigh.

This is the face he makes when he is singing "We Are the Champions". What a nut.

Maggie fell asleep playing the Gameboy. She hasn't fallen asleep in her bed for several weeks now. I quit fighting her on it and now I let her just drop where ever and then carry her to bed. I know, nice parenting.

Isn't she cute though?

This photo was taken at the little park/city square in Twin Bridges, Montana. This is where my in-laws buy veggies and the most yummy chickens from the Hooderites. (sp?)

My beautiful Sarah Jane. And Hodgson in the background trying to control Gus. Dumb dog.

Here's Dayton playing Superman.

Here are all the Hooligans in Virginia City, Montana. We'll definately be visiting here again someday to ride the steam engine train. It looked really fun.

That's it for now. See you again probably after school starts. I can't wait!

I Wish You Could Smell My Backyard

Happy Mother's Day! I hope you enjoy the flowers and I do so wish you could visit this corner of my backyard and experience this fragrance. It is amazing!

Did you know that lilacs are one of my top 5 favorite flowers? Did you ever see the movie High Fidelity? He is always making top 5 lists and I started doing it too. I think I should start sharing these lists.

I'll start right now. Aren't you lucky?

Meredith's Top 5 Favorite Flowers

(in no particular order)

Tulips

Lilacs

Daisies

"Old Fashioned" Roses

I know that was only four. My mind suddenly went blank. Big shocker, I know. Rest assured, I will get back to you with a fifth.

Typical Sunday

Miss Sarah Jane found the sidewalk chalk and decorated the driveway for the family's enjoyment. She's quite the artist you know. And she has such great style...notice the oversize sunglasses and the lime green crocs? Wow. The girl needs some summer clothes and a tan real bad.

We spent a bit of money at Lowe's on some blueberry bushes and a thatcher for the lawn. Our lawn is 30 years old and showing it's age. This year the thatcher, next year an aerator and re-seeding and then hopefully lots of fertilizer along the way. I love a lush, green lawn. We have also started planting the garden and the peas are even popping up. I took some photos and will post them tomorrow along with photos of my beautiful tulips!

For your viewing pleasure: Maggie's tushie. Her new thing is showing it to me like 20 times a day. "Maggie's tushie!", she says as she flashes me. I am doing nothing to stop this behavior. I love it and it will stop on its own much too soon I'm sure. And anyway, if you had a tush that cute wouldn't you show it to everyone? I know I would.

Maggie in Pigtails

I think these pictures speak for themselves.

I just don't know why it took me so long to put her hair in pigtails.

Easy Like Sunday Morning

We had a lovely Sunday today. It started with the kids letting me sleep till nearly 8:30! If you know my kids then you know that this is almost unheard of at my house. (Right Aunt Maggie?)

When I did get out of bed I made our usual Sunday breakfast: pancakes with homemade syrup. Next week we go back to 9:00am church so pancakes will be our usual Sunday lunch!

Then I bathed the kids one by one. Except Davis. I let him shower on his own. It was a real spa day with a nice long soak in the tub and manicures and pedicures and massages!

Church was short today and when we got home daddy had burgers and fries ready for us. Then jammies, half a movie, s'mores, the other half of the movie and bed! I love Sundays (and Tuesdays) when we can all be together. I always feel so.....content! What a happy life.

365/1

I got to babysit my nephew Connor for a few hours this evening while his mommy and daddy went out for a Valentine's Day dinner. He is the sweetest baby! He is super easy to take care of because he hardly ever cries. And look at him...he is a creampuff! Man, I'm in love with that kid!

And speaking of being in love...how could you not love this little hippie/flower child. What you don't see in this picture is that she is wearing nothing but a diaper. She's a nudist. But if you had nuddies that cute, you'd probably want to show them off too. I know I would.

Canada Geese

I love that Canadain Geese consider Idaho to be "south" for the winter. We were working outside yesterday and heard honking from overhead. Instead of looking up though, I looked down at Maggie to see her gasp slightly and look around for the source of the noise. I didn't point them out though, they were too far away and getting further. There will be lots more opportunities to show them to her.

Almost Summer

Big difference from my last post, huh? It's really warming up and today was the first day the kids played in the sprinklers. The sprinkler itself didn't last long and soon it was just the hose.

Poor Maggie Anne got the worst of it. She's so little and the others never pay any attention to what is going on around them so she got squirted every time they turned around.

Amazingly, she never cried. What a trooper. By the way, I washed her face like a million times today but she has a little cold and I just can't keep up with that nose. Poor kid.

Snow

Oh my gosh did we have fun today! I knew this was supposed to be a pretty big storm, but I was dang excited to see so much snow this morning! Chance and the kids scarfed down some pancakes and then got bundled up as fast as they could.

I don't know where that inner-tube came from.

I think Chance may have had even more fun than the kids. I swear, when he pulls those kids behind the 4-wheeler he is like a kid himself. He tried to get me to bundle up and come out so he could pull me too, but I refused. Then he told me the truth that he wanted me to pull him, but I still refused. He said maybe he could get Chase to pull him.

Maggie and I stayed in the house where it was warm and dry. Maggie doesn't look too happy about it does she? Our job was to have dry clothes and hot chocolate waiting.

Sarah was the only one to make any snow angles. She's a good girl.

Dayton looks like he's been white washed. The snow really flies behind the 4-wheeler!

Check out the rosy cheeks! Each time they came in and went back out, I would put dry clothes on them. Their closets are empty now and I have a mountain of laundry to do...but it was worth it!

A Week In My Life (Enter at your own risk)

I love this picture. I am always looking out the window and saying, "Wow! Look at the light outside!" I say that all the time. Does it have something to do with where I live or do you say that all the time too when you look out the window? I can't believe I was able to capture it in a picture!

So my week. On MONDAY I got up and fed everyone and sent Chance and Sarah off to school just like normal. A half hour later Chance and Sarah walked back into the house with doughnuts and chocolate milk. I forgot to look at the calendar; there was no school on Monday! Duh.

TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY were mostly filled with housecleaning and cooking. I signed up for these wonderful menus to be e-mailed to me from SavingDinner.com and we have been eating so good! I love this program. I got three months for $9.95. Six dinners every week plus the shopping list to go with them. So far there has been 1 beef dish, 2 chicken dishes, 1 pork dish, 1 fish dish, 1 vegetarian dish and one is always a crock pot recipe each week. Love it!

On THURSDAY I took Maggie in for her one year well-baby check up. She weighs 20lbs. 12.5oz. And is perfect in every way. Three immunization shots did not go down too well though. Thankfully, she recovers very quickly from that nonsense. During the exam though, she was amazing. She just sat there so still and looked at Dr. Brus with those big blue eyes like, "Whatcha doin'?" It was pretty cute.

THURSDAY night was date night. We went to Applebee's and Craft Warehouse. Woo-Hoo. It doesn't matter. We could sit in the car in a parking lot and have fun. It's mainly about being just the two of us with no hooligans around. You know what I'm talking about!

I purchased some pre-cut quilting squares that I've sewn into a mini-quilt top. Valentine's theme. I'll post pictures very soon.

FRIDAY Davis came home which always makes us all feel that things are back to "normal". And on SATURDAY we tore the kids' rooms apart to do some deep cleaning but we never put them back together. Oops.

And TODAY Chance is making my favorite meal for "First Sunday". Spaghetti and Meatballs! We'll be celebrating Maggie's birthday today. Fun! I'll post photos of that soon too.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pupcakes

Today the kids and I tried a new recipe. Grandma Hodgson makes Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies that everyone loves (particularly Chance and Chase!) And I found a very similar recipe for muffins. Actually, my recipe can be used to make cookies too and I bet you could make cupcakes with Sue's recipe. Here is the cast of characters. (Not the apples and bananas):
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves (I didn't have any so I left this out)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 egg whites
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2/3 cup applesauce
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix flours, spices and all the other dry stuff together. Be sure to take turns!

You're supposed to mix all the wet ingredients in a different bowl and then add it to the dry stuff, but I just did it all in the same bowl. Then stir in the chocolate chips. Chocolate chips are special so it can't be just one person's job...work together. Put the mix in your muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes.

You could also drop by tablespoonful on a cookie sheet to make soft cookies. If you do that, you'll only need to bake them for 8-10 minutes.

I used a whole bag of chocolate chips in these and thought it was almost too much but when I shared this opinion with Chance and Davis just now they looked at me like I was insane and said, "Nuh-uh". That's a direct quote.