Doesn't get any better

I came back from doing some laundry and found Madigan and Leo reading together. I don't have many words for this other then my heart feels full.

Trees, finally!

We finally got some trees for the backyard this year. They make me immensely happy! We got a Northwood Maple, 3 quaking aspens and a honeycrisp apple. We feed our birds pretty good so they were already in our yard, but now they also fill the trees most days. (I thought these pictures would be a little better, but you get the idea.)


And here's our girls. We lost one and now have 5. I can't ever go back to buying grocery store eggs! We feed them a Montana grown, organic food and the eggs are not yellow, but orange! Being this close to our food chain has been a pretty cool experience. If there's ever a time when we don't have dogs, our chickens will be able to roam the yard-- but for now they're stuck inside this fence.

Summer?

We're still waiting for Spring/Summer around these parts. Madigan and I planted our flowers this past weekend. We have done it the last 3 years. She also got some marigold seeds as a gift and we planted those around our new maple tree (pictures to come).
We're into birds around here--Kyle likes to look them up in his book, I like to make crafty bird stuff. M is always spotting birds and saying we "should look that one up". On Saturday she found a butterfly book and decided that since Dad had a bird book to look birds up in, she now has a butterfly book to look butterflies up in. (She also has a butterfly net this year!)
We've been collecting lots of worms this year for both the garden and to feed to the chickens. And now Madigan has pet crickets! I thought her and Dad would get one or two and instead they came home with 15 ("they're only 11 cents, Erin"). I'm not sure what fate these crickets will have at our house. For now they have grass and water in a mason jar.Looking for birds:

Baby Bath Station

I saw this idea online and knew M would live it. She has water in the backyard at all times in all sorts of containers. It's a baby doll washing/bath station. She had her own baby, a bottle of baby shampoo, a washrag and a tub. It kept her busy for at least 20 minutes.
This year we'll definitely need a pool, but I'm also thinking we should get her a fun sprinkler. There's so many cool sprinklers in the stores these days!

Kids in Bed

Leo on the Floor - 4 months

First Bath Together!

Madigan was thrilled when I put Leo in the bath with her this week! I assured her that there would be many more baths in coming months and years when he can sit up on his own.