Daddy

Vacation at Home

Posted on by Amy
For the past week, my husband has been on vacation.  Usually when he has time off work, we go somewhere.  We live far away from our families, and think it’s important to see them as much as possible, so we are often traveling to visit someone.  This week, for the first time in a long time, we vacationed at home.  It was wonderful.
We got to spend lots of great quality time with the Daddy.  He was able to come to Miss’s gymnastics class and to the girls’ music class.

 I think he really enjoyed observing both classes.  Miss has really blossomed in her gymnastics class and both girls really get into their music class.  Miss loves to sing and play the instruments and Lass is a total ham.

Today we went to brunch, where we got to carve pumpkins for Halloween.  Miss and Daddy did all the work on our pumpkin.  Last year the Daddy did it all by himself, but this time Miss was able to really participate.

She helped scoop out the guts

and decide what type of face to draw for the Jack-o-lantern.

 Lass enjoyed wandering around and looking at some of the other pumpkins.

 Miss was even able to help cut out the pumpkin face.

 She was pretty happy with the finished product.

We also spent lots of fun time with Daddy at home.  Tonight Miss got to try out her new dot markers by drawing with Daddy.

They drew snakes and faces and lots of grapes and blueberries.

It has been a great week.

It’s a Girl!!!

Posted on by Amy
Yesterday, we had our ultrasound and got to see Baby.  We were thrilled to see a healthy little one, growing and developing right on track so far.  We were also able to be able to find out Baby’s gender.  Though I was pretty convinced that this baby was a boy, we were very excited to see that we are having another girl.  Miss and Lass will be having a Sis!  I’m so happy to imagine how wonderful it will be for all my girls to grow up with sisters so close in age.  Though I don’t have a sister, I’ve heard they’re pretty great.  I love that my girls will have each other.  I’m picturing some pretty fabulous tea parties, slumber parties for which we don’t even need to invite any guests, and lots of great girls’ days out.  They can do each other’s hair and share clothes and be each other’s best friends.  I love having girls.
And just in case you’re feeling badly for my husband, swimming in a sea of estrogen and nail polish… Don’t.  He is thrilled to have another girl, if maybe slightly terrified.  One of the first things he said after our ultrasound appointment was something about needing to build a 20-foot wall around our house.  But he loves having girls too. He’s gotten very good at playing Care Bears and dress up.  And our ladies are total Daddy’s girls, especially Lass right now.  
We may or may not someday have a little boy.  Of course we’d love to have a boy, though we would be perfectly happy with all girls too.  And even if we never have a son, I’m quite certain my husband will never feel like he’s missing out on anything.
Our girls love to watch football with him on Saturday mornings, 

though he is not terribly happy with their choice of teams.  So far Miss has expressed her preference for “Go Blue.”

For the record, when I bought these shirts for the girls, I wasn’t in search of Michigan wear.  I was shopping online for a few things for Miss for school and I happened to see these on Old Navy’s website.  I actually did look for Iowa shirts on there too (I’m not entirely sure I would have bought them, but I did look).  No Iowa shirts at Old Navy.

And in case anyone was wondering, when Michigan and Iowa play each other in a few weeks, the girls will be wearing neutral clothing.  Maybe I’ll just dress them in Maize-colored shirts, since both teams share that color.

We try to keep our rivalry all in good fun around here.  But I have to admit I was very excited that Miss burst out singing the Michigan fight song, completely unprovoked, in Target a few weeks ago.

Whichever team our girls choose to root for (it’ll probably end up to be the Badgers anyway…), we still all love to watch football together.  And they love to be outside with their Daddy.

They don’t mind getting dirty or playing a little rough.  Miss loves to try to climb trees.

Yesterday we were taking a look at a house on the water.  Miss went out on the dock with her Daddy, and when he told her it was time to leave she said, “No, I want to fish.  I don’t want to go!”  My hubby will teach them to fish and even to hunt if they are interested.  Miss had her first archery lesson yesterday.

I was really bothered the other day when Miss was looking out the window, watching my hubby shoot his bow.  She said something like, “If I was a boy, I could shoot like Daddy.”

I was quite upset by this statement, and puzzled, because I have never said anything like this to her, nor have I heard anyone else make such a statement to her or in her presence.  So I don’t know where she came up with the idea that she would have to be a boy in order to shoot a bow, or do anything else.


Right away I told Miss that she didn’t have to be a boy to shoot a bow or do anything else, that she could certainly shoot with her Daddy, she just needed to get a little bit bigger.  My husband was so upset when I told him what she’d said, he took her out the next day to shoot with him.  I guess she didn’t need to be bigger, at least to watch and get the sense that she was doing it.

We will always teach all of our girls that they can do or be whatever they want, if they work hard.

And they will learn to do all sorts of fun things with their Dad.

So definitely don’t feel badly for my husband.  A few people have made comments like, “Oh how exciting that you’re having another girl!  But your poor husband!”  Of course, they mean this with all good intentions and kindness.  But, hell no he’s not poor!  To quote a song by Greg Brown: my husband is “a man who’s rich in daughters.”  Yes, we are very rich indeed.

Rainy Day Ride and a Recipe

Posted on by Amy
Today was rainy.  The girls were a little stir crazy after dinner tonight, so the Daddy brought in their wagon for a little ride.

They thought this was just about the coolest thing.  Then it broke, and they had fits.  But we colored and read books and did puzzles the rest of the night, and all was well.

On a totally unrelated note, several weeks ago I posted about my last “Chopped” ingredients.  If you recall, these were Duck breast, Avocado, and Gouda cheese.  I used the ingredients to make dinner a couple of weeks ago and have forgotten to post about it.  I made Duck and Gouda Hoagies with Avocado Spread.  I didn’t write down the recipe, thinking I would post about it while it was still fresh in my memory.  I have a pretty good memory, but this one might be a little fuzzy.

My ingredients:
4 duck breasts, skin removed
1 avocado
Gouda cheese, sliced
Salt and Pepper
Flour
Vegetable oil
1 Shallot, finely chopped
Maybe one or two cloves of garlic?
About a half cup of dry white wine
Mayonnaise
Hoagie Buns
One apple (optional)

I started by slicing the duck breasts crossways into about 1/2 inch-thick pieces.  Then I dried these, sprinkled them with salt and pepper on both sides, and coated them with flour.  I heated my pan over medium high heat, added about a tablespoon of oil, and put in the first batch of duck pieces.

I browned the duck pieces on both sides, then removed to a plate and continued with the other pieces in batches (adding a bit of oil with each batch).

After I got all the duck pieces cooked and set aside, I put the shallot in the pan to soften.  I can’t remember if I added a couple of pressed cloves of garlic after the shallot was soft.  I think I did.  If so, I would have waited until the shallot was soft, then added the pressed garlic and stirred it around until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Then I added the wine and scraped all the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.  I let this reduce a few minutes.  Then I put this mixture into the blender with the avocado, some mayo and some salt and pepper and tried to puree it to a really smooth texture.  I should have used my Magic Bullet, because the blender didn’t do a very good job of pureeing the small pieces of shallot.  So, the final outcome of this avocado-mayo spread was a little lumpy.  While I was working on this spread, I preheated the broiler, put some duck meat into a each of two hoagie buns, topped it with slices of gouda, and put it in the oven.  Once the cheese was melted, I pulled them out, put the avocado spread on the top of the bun, and it was done.  I should have used a lower heat to melt the cheese, because my buns ended up getting burned, but the result was still good.  I also should have toasted the buns beforehand, because the bottom bun was a bit soft relative to the super crispy top bun.  Oh well.  I was in a hurry…

On my hoagie I put slices of apple, which I thought added a crunch and sweetness that was very yummy.  My husband is not a fan of apples on sandwiches, so I left them off his.

This was a successful meal, if not the most dazzling thing I’ve created.  The best part was the way I cooked the duck.  I relied on a strategy learned partly from my dad and partly from my cooking class in coating the duck with flour.  This really helped to hold in some of the moisture and the result was very flavorful, tender, and moist duck meat.  Score.  The least successful part of the dish was the avocado spread.  It ended up a little bland, and the chunks of shallot didn’t do anything for it.  If I made this again I would probably skip the shallots and pan deglazing all together and just use the avocado, some mayo, and some fresh herbs, maybe a little lemon or lime juice to brighten the flavor of the spread and keep it smooth.  My apologies for the haphazard “recipe.”  This is the best I can recall, several weeks later.

My husband has been working nights for the past two weeks, so we have been neglecting to select the ingredients for my next challenge.  Tonight is his last night to work (hooray!!), and we finally remembered to choose the goodies.  What did I end up with?  Tuna (canned), Panko bread crumbs, and Tomato paste. I already have a good idea what I’m going to do.  If it works, I’ll try to bring you that recipe with a bit more precision.

A Week to Remember

Posted on by Amy
We got back late last night from a long, tiring, yet fun-filled ten days at the Farm. The girls grew so much during the week it seems, with so much to do and so many loving people around to do it with. Both sets of their grandparents, aunts, uncles, a gazillion cousins. They saw cool and interesting things and had new experiences. This bird’s nest is just one example of the treasure trove of nature that is the Farm.

The photo doesn’t do it justice. It’s made mostly of pieces of baling twine, twisted intricately around the branches and woven with grass, and probably other stuff. The general consensus was that it was probably an oriole’s nest. We didn’t bring it back with us, though that would have been a hell of a find for Miss to take to preschool. Miss’s Baba also gave her a robin’s egg, but we forgot that too. Miss saw deer, a coyote, a huge praying mantis, the biggest spider I’ve ever seen outside a glass case, a stick bug, and on and on. She really loved checking out the milkweed pods and walnuts that she found on the ground.
A different kind of new experience came for her in the form of corn. She has had sweet corn many times that I cut off the cob for her, but this week she had her first try at eating it right off the cob. She thought that was pretty cool.


But much more thrilling was her first ride on the “Great Big Mable” float pulled behind my in-law’s boat.



She didn’t seem scared in the slightest.
Just waving and smiling. My little daredevil.
Right after coming in from the boat and Mable ride, she went fishing with her Daddy. They caught several fish, and she had lots of fun with the worms.



One fish broke off their hook, so Miss sat and watched for fish with my mom while her Daddy went to get a new hook.
Then they were back in business.




Poor Lass is too little to get in on lots of the action her sister is getting into now, but she had great fun playing with her cousins. She really started moving with her walking this week too. Though she took her first steps shortly after turning 11 months, she never really got going with walking, and in fact until a few days ago, had almost stopped trying entirely. Now she’s really getting into it, choosing to walk instead of crawling more and more often, and stringing together more and more steps.

After her fishing time with her Dad, Miss got ready to go for a treasure hunt. She got all ready in her boots and headed out to the Ranger. The treasure hunt is one of my favorite things about the farm.
Tons of kids and adults pile on the Rangers and go off to explore and look for treasures of all kinds. I used to love going on treasure hunts when I first started coming to the Farm almost a decade ago. I was always the “City Mouse” to my husband’s “Country Mouse” family, and thoroughly enjoyed going out and being awed by all the finds. It’s a hundred times more fun to do it now with my kids.
We stopped to pick lots of wild flowers, which Lass loved.

Then we got down to the beach, where the kids splashed around and looked for shells and critters.

There were tons of tiny frogs hopping all around and the kids had a blast trying to catch them. Miss got to hold one that her older cousin caught for her. She also found a snake that her uncle grabbed up for her. That girl and her snakes…
Lass enjoyed the beach too.
It was really a week to remember. Every new experience for my girls seems like something new and amazing for me too. I love every minute of it.
Today we savored the trip and each other, happy to be home and back in our routine. Summer is winding down quickly here in the North Country. Today was crisp and felt very much like fall already. Football has started (Go Blue!). And preschool starts this week! Loving every minute.

Just Some Weekend Stuff

Posted on by Amy
My big girl had a big weekend with her “Kids.” This is what she calls her many cousins on my husband’s side of our family. Some of them came to visit us last Thursday in preparation for a big weekend at the Wisconsin Dells. Miss was so excited to see them. As always, she had a blast playing with them.





Her judgement of the time spent with her kids? A wink and a thumbs up! Sort of.
Another try at the wink. My girl is funny.

Friday we went to the Wisconsin Dells, where Miss and Lass saw the rest of their cousins on my husband’s side of the family. Everyone met at the Dells so that my husband, all of his siblings, and two brothers-in-law could run an event called the Tough Mudder. It’s a race about 10 miles long with several different obstacles to complete along the way. Here they are after finishing. They all completed every obstacle and finished in one piece. My hubby is the one on the far left.

While I was glad that my husband had a blast participating in the mud run with his brothers and sisters, I have to say I was really not impressed with the Dells. Though I really try to make the best of any situation and have fun wherever I go, I just didn’t have a good time there. There were too many people. The one water park I took the girls to was kind of lame for little ones (a lot of the attractions for really little kids weren’t even turned on). The food was outrageously expensive and not appetizing. And on top of the lackluster nature of the “resort” itself, my girls were super tired, Miss had a few meltdowns, I forgot to bring snacks for Miss (though I remembered tons of food for Lass) so I felt like a big Loser Mom, and Lass woke up this morning at 4:30 am. I was seriously ready to come home today. On the bright side, Miss did have a great time playing with her cousins. And that’s what really matters anyway! We have decided we might try to go back when the girls are a little older for a winter getaway weekend. An indoor water park would be a blast for them then.
In other news, someone is 11 months old today. So big!!
In the car on the way home this morning I taught her how to do “high five.”

She is such a ticklish, giggly baby.

She’s just so darned cute (even if she is sleeping like crud right now).
Today I made tacos with my homemade taco seasoning. I always use ground venison to make tacos or any other recipe that calls for ground beef. Before I added the seasoning I set some of the venison aside for Lass, who had her first taste of it at dinner tonight. She loved it!
When I was growing up, I ate venison rather than beef almost all the time, I think. I never really even notice the difference. I’m thankful that my husband hunts and that he gets at least one doe (rather than a buck, at my request) each year for us to eat so my girls will grow up knowing venison as the norm as well.
Today my hubby started the process of making sauerkraut. It takes a while to do whatever sauerkraut does while it gets made, but I’m eager to try it on some of his homemade brats when it’s done.
He’s pretty handy to have around.
Speaking of handy, my husband minded the munchkin (who napped for less than an hour this afternoon) so I could take a little nap this afternoon. I’m still pretty tired after being awakened at 4:30 though. My bed is calling me. Goodnight.

Home Run

Posted on by Amy
Raisins and cherry tomatoes were my at-home-“Chopped” ingredients this week. I thought and thought for a week about what to do with them. Initially I was going to cook them with some onions and broth and spices and then puree them into a sauce for some pork tenderloin medallions. Then I realized that the skin and seeds of the tomatoes would probably not work well in a pureed sauce, so I scratched that idea. I finally settled on making a pan sauce for pork tenderloin using the raisins and then doing a side dish by caramelizing some fennel bulb (my new favorite vegetable since I learned how to cook it in my cooking class) with some raisins and then adding in the tomatoes. I wanted to use caramelized onions and raisins in a sauce (topping might be a better word than sauce, because the raisins and onion made it chunky) for the pork but add in just a bit of heat to compliment, brighten, and balance the sweetness of these ingredients. Similarly, I thought the tomatoes would balance the sweetness of the caramelized fennel and raisins in the side dish. Yeah. I hit a home run with this one. Here are both of the recipes.
Pork Tenderloin with Spicy Raisins and Onions
1 Pork Tenderloin (about 1 lb)
Salt and Pepper
1 Tbsp Vegetable oil
1 Onion, halved and sliced thinly
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup white wine
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 cup chicken broth
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1 Tbsp pieces
Trim fat and silvery skin from the tenderloin. Slice it into 1-inch-thick medallions. Season with S&P on both sides. Then press the tenderloins (with your hands or the flat side of a knife) until it’s about 3/4 inch thick. Heat your pan over medium high heat. Put in the oil. When the oil is shimmering, add half of the pork pieces. Sear them on one side for 2 minutes, then flip them using tongs and sear the other side for about 2 minutes more (they should be firm around the sides). Remove to plate and cover with foil. Repeat with the rest of the pork. Add the onion and cook until it starts to get soft, stirring occasionally. Add the raisins. Let the onions and raisins cook together for a while so the onions get nicely caramelized. Add wine, cayenne and paprika. If you don’t like spicy, you can reduce the amounts of these, but I would recommend still adding them, maybe at about 1/2 of the amount I used. Let the wine reduce by about half. Pour in the chicken broth and any juice from the tenderloin pieces that has accumulated on the plate and continue to simmer for a few minutes longer. Off the heat, add the butter, 1 Tbsp at a time, swirling each Tbsp piece around until it melts. Serve the sauce over the pork medallions.
Fennel with Raisins and Cherry Tomatoes
1 tsp Vegetable oil
2 Fennel bulbs, julienned
1 Tbsp sugar
1/4 cup raisins, chopped
1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
Sprinkle of salt
Heat a pan over medium high heat. Add oil, then fennel. Stir fennel to coat with oil and add sugar. Stir, then add raisins. Cook for several minutes, stirring occasionally, to let the fennel soften and start to caramelize. I can’t remember how long this took, but the fennel will start to darken and get soft, but still have a little bit of bite to it. Add the tomatoes and stir them in. cook for a few more minutes to let the tomatoes start to soften, but don’t let them get too mushy. Sprinkle a little salt on, stir, serve.

I was so happy with the way these dishes turned out. Lots of flavor and great textures. The only thing I might have done differently would be to add more wine, chicken broth and butter to the pan sauce to have more of the liquid part of the sauce. It was yummy.
We have already decided to go to 3 ingredients this next week and I drew them from our spreadsheet. I do it like the old game Battleship, picking coordinates that my husband matches up the the spaces on his spreadsheet. The one way that we limit what comes up is that he makes sure at least one of the ingredients is a protein. So, next week? Sweet pickles. Bran cereal. And Pickled Herring. Yes, you read that right. Pickled Herring. My husband told me this and then said, “I hate pickled herring.” What?! This freaked me out a little, because I thought I was doomed from the start if he hates it (I’ve never had it, so I have no idea, though I can imagine, how vile it is). I was prepared to go ahead with it, but I think he felt bad for including such a horrendous ingredient on his list. He suggested we draw a different protein, and we did. The next one that came up was Canned tuna. But after thinking about it for a bit, I told him that I wanted to go ahead with the herring. That’s the challenge, right? Taking something crazy, and potentially kind of gross, and making it fabulous? *gulp* Hubby did point out that it’s actually a win-win situation for me though. If the dish I make is horrible, I can blame it on the herring. If it’s delicious, I become a cooking goddess. Score. I told him I can’t even begin to plan what I’m going to make though until I go to the store and get some herring and taste it. I have no idea what it’s texture or consistency or taste is like, so I can’t figure out what I’ll do until I know that. Wish me luck!!
In other exciting news from the weekend (and to get on to the cute pics), we got our swing set delivered on Friday! The Hubby and I started putting it together during nap time yesterday.

Naturally we couldn’t get it all done while the girls were sleeping, so they joined us outside while we continued to work on it.




We had to put in some more time this morning, though it was mostly the hubby getting it done today because the girls were awake the whole time. Finished product:
We have to trim up the landscaping and the dead stuff underneath a bit and put down some soft mulch, but the girls didn’t care about that. They went right to it after they woke from naps.






This one continues to amaze me with her climbing. My mom says she gets it from me.



And no, she didn’t actually climb all the way onto the platform by herself, but she did climb the ladder all the way to the top, until her hands reached the platform and she wasn’t sure what to do with them to keep climbing. I don’t have photos of that part of her performance, because I was hovering around her as spotter just in case. She never even faltered though!
I love this swing set and I know the girls will get so much fun out of it. According to my husband, who had to deal with most of the inevitable frustrations of putting such a contraption together, they’d better!
As a last note, please excuse the status of my header right now. I thought it was about time to change up the photos, but for some reason could not get the far left photo to fit in the header correctly. Also, some of the photos in this post have a bit of a foggy look to them. It’s because my camera lens fogged up when I took it from inside the air conditioning to the muggy outside. Sorry!

Full

Posted on by Amy

Starting swimming lessons and gymnastics class and three forensic cases to do and trying to get in my 20 days of exercise this month and watching Chopped last night. . . and this week is quickly getting away from me. So I realized, “What happened to my Independence Day post?” Well, it got combined with my Wednesday July 6th post, that’s what. Here you go!
As I predicted, our 4th of July celebration consisted of more of the same festivities that filled the rest of our holiday weekend.

Well hello there Hunk.


Celebrating the birth of our country with my sunscreened babies, splashing and loving the water. Cherishing family. Perfect.


That and great outdoor food. We had grilled kielbasa, veggie kabobs, potato salad, the works. Even ice cream!
Miss loves her “Chocolate ice cream on a stick” – otherwise known as a Dove Bar.
And this little one had her first taste of the sweet stuff.
The brat making continued. Here’s my hubby making sausage.
My hubby after I pointed out to him that he’s wearing his “Wiener Shop” T Shirt.
Wieners.
We ate some for dinner tonight. Fantastic. There’s nothing like fresh, homemade sausage. He also made chorizo, which I love to cook with. I can’t wait to try out a new recipe using it.
Speaking of new recipes, my “Chopped” ingredients this week are cherry tomatoes and raisins. I wasn’t able to get to the grocery store until today, but I got my ingredients and have something of a plan for my dish. I need to refine it in my head before I dive in to make it, so it’ll be Friday or so before I do it. Stay tuned.
I think I’ve written about how I have ordered some new big girl outdoor toys for Miss so that the push-behind lion can be passed down to Lass now. We are still waiting for her trike, but her roller skates arrived yesterday. And so did these:
We had to try them on today to make sure they fit. I ordered them with the intention that they would fit her now and also be gear she can grow into, so they look a little big but they do fit. Naturally she didn’t want to take them off and had to dance around in them until I had to nearly pry them off her for nap time.

Soon to come will be photos of this ensemble, outside, with little Barbie roller skates. I love it.
Right now we’re busy in a great way. Miss loves her gymnastics class and seems to be enjoying her new swimming class so far. We’re having play dates.
I’m enjoying work. Being a professional. Sorting out the intricacies of psychiatric diagnosis when a case is a little unusual. It helps me to be well-rounded. To be challenged and stretch my brain in a different grown up way. Then I come home and get back to my real job. And it’s good. My life is full. In the best possible way.

A Daddy Weekend

Posted on by Amy
I can’t really even put into words how much I love having a weekend when all the stars are aligned and 1. we are not traveling, 2. the weather is nice, and 3. my husband isn’t working. Oh, it’s wonderful. Fortunately, I do not need to rely solely on words to describe this happy time. I have photo documentation.
Daddy has been making lots of forts and Little Sister has been able to join in the fun. The girl loves to roll around on a blanket.



“Can I come in?”

This one lights up at the sight of her Daddy.
This morning we baked our banana chocolate chip muffins for Daddy.
This is the face she makes when she says, “Cheese!”
“They’re puffing up!” She kept calling the muffins “mushrooms.” This kid cracks me up.
After they baked, she “painted” honey on top of them.
She was so proud of herself!
She said, “I eat a bwownie out of the mushwoom!” when she picked a chocolate chip out of the muffin.
Sharing a special snack with Daddy.
And can I just gush for a moment about how ridiculously easy it is to take the girls to the pool when I have another pair of hands along??
I was even able to take photos for once!


Lass is happy when she can play with a ball. Or two.


Easy, easy, easy. I’m gushing here.

Did I mention this one loves to play with a ball?


We’ve been playing very hard this weekend.
And even after all this playing, Daddy is making bratwurst tonight. I can’t wait to eat them. Homemade bratwurst are the best.
I’m listening to fireworks outside right now. I tried to get Miss out of her bed (she’s not asleep yet) and take her out to see, but she didn’t like the sound. She wrapped herself around me, clung on for dear life, and said, “I want to go in my bed and go to sweep.” So she’s missing the fireworks tonight, but tomorrow we will celebrate the 4th of July. Mostly our day will consist of more of what you see here. Family. Love. Fun. Eating. Pool. Mix in some patriotism and perhaps a sparkler or two, and you have a celebration. Happy 4th of July.

Fun at the Farm, a Few Firsts, and Father’s Day

Posted on by Amy

Last week was full of the fresh air and beauty of the place we call The Farm.


I love how this place seems to seep into our souls and revive us. Miss is in her element here. She would spend all day every day outside if she could, and comes close when at The Farm. Upon waking, while still drowsy with sleep, she will look up through her crazy bed-head hair at her Daddy and say, “Go outside?”

She had so much opportunity in the past week to play with her “kids”, which is what she calls her cousins. And they seem to adore her and Lass. They dote on my girls, especially the older cousins. It warms my heart to see how much Miss loves being with her kids and how wonderful they are to her and her sister.


The Farm is all about the simple things. Watching my girls thrive here is so satisfying. No fancy toys needed. Just the imagination and innocence of a two year old. One of her favorite things last week was going out with her Daddy to throw rocks into the pond over and over.




She and Lass had a blast on the swing set, as usual.
Lass went down the slide, with assistance of course, for the first time and loved it. She has turned out to be quite a little climber, trying repeatedly to climb up the slide, climbing up the stairs for the first time, on top of suit cases, etc. Oh boy.

My girls just love playing with their Daddy.

Miss refused to take off this life jacket, except when she went on the swing.



A day outside would not be complete without some sidewalk chalk. Miss has started showing her artistic talents.

Lass got to try out the chalk for the first time.




Miss had her first popsicle.


Miss asked me to draw our family. Yes, I drew this. No, I am not embarrassed. Much.
As much as we love The Farm, we are happy to be home today. Here’s a real family photo after we went out for brunch to celebrate the most important man in our world.
Husband, Daddy. He is amazing and does so much for us. I am thankful every day to have such a wonderful husband and Daddy for our girls.
Happy Father’s Day.

Three Years

Posted on by Amy
Three years ago today, I married the man of my dreams. I know. Saying “the man of my dreams” is totally cliche. However, I think the reason many phrases become cliche is that they are so true. My husband really is the man of my dreams. Before I met him, if I thought of the kind of person I wanted to, or dreamed of, spending my life with, I would have described him. Handsome. Intelligent. Funny. Considerate. Hard-working. Sans piercings… You name it. If I once wished for a quality in a potential mate, he has it. And then some.

Another way I could describe my husband is to say that he is my soul mate. All right. Another cliche. But it’s true! The man could have been created especially for me. He gets me. We’re a great team. He completes me. Oops! There’s another one 🙂

Okay, how about this? My hubby is my best friend. My BFF. Cliche? Maybe. But also true. I would rather spend time with him than anyone else. I love to spend time chatting with him about all sorts of things. I also just love to be in the same room with him even if we’re not talking. He could be working on his computer and I might be reading, and I will always choose to read my book in the same room as him just to be near him.
He is the person I look forward to waking up with every morning. He is my partner in all things. He makes me laugh. He does the dishes while I put the girls to bed. He encourages me to pursue my interests, like book clubs and cooking classes. He lets me know in many ways how much he appreciates me. He does fun things with me like our “Chopped” at home adventure. We share the same values. He loves me and respects me and takes care of me. He is a wonderful dad to our girls.


Here’s to three years of wedded bliss, harmonious matrimony, living real life every day with the man of my dreams. My soul mate. My best friend. My husband is all these things. Truly. Cliche or not. He floats my boat. Lights my fire. Trips my trigger. Yep. I love him.