Wow, it's been 13 days!

Sorry to my three or so readers that I haven't updated in so long!

We've had such a happy spring. Busy, but happy! Mitch's life is all about classes and inventing new games with Nathan, my life is all about keeping up with the house, learning how to multitask more (with 2 kids in the house for 3 days every week...i'm getting my toes wet with 2, not diving in yet!) and planning for cub scout day camp, and Nathan's life is all about eating food, asking for more, and knocking on the front door, hoping we'll let him outside (It's like I have two dogs sometimes...).

Here are some photo recaps of the last few weeks. Sidenote: for the first half of April we had family visiting or staying with us continually. It was a little overwhelming in the moment (ya know how anxiety brain goes...Mitch was fine, of course!), but now we're just completely homesick for our families...come visit!!

Nathan was making awesome faces the other day, complete with his yogurt Hitler-stache...

We've been trying to spend the spring with lots of friends (probably because we're missing family and it's weird to be just the three of us again!). I love this picture of Nathan and his friend Burton. They LOVE throwing all the balls in the house down the stairs, then making the trip up and down (and up and down) to fetch them all. I love how you can just see how much fun they're having!

Speaking of friends, this is our newest friend, Emmaline ("Emmie-friend" at our house). She plays with us 3 days a week while her mama finishes her very last semester of school! I love having a little girl in the house. Because Nathan's friends are all older than him, it's fun to see him being the older one for a change! Emmie is tons of fun. She loves to watch Apollo and laughs whenever he's around. She takes great naps, is set in an awesome routine, and has the biggest grin you'll ever see! And Nathan gets lots of practice sharing! Someone please start paying me for every time I have to say, "Nathan, that's Emmie-friend's binky...give it back to Emmie...yes, her...thank you. Now where's Nathan's binky?"

The other night we decided to have a fun picnic. It was shady in the backyard and nice and warm with a slight breeze (not tornado-strength like it normally is around here!), and we were having a burger night. So, we brought it all outside. Nathan loved eating and playing in the grass at the same time. Well, as long as he had shoes on in the grass. We're still conquering that fear.

We took fun pictures, of course. It made me realize for the 2nd specific time this month how glad I am that we kept a point-and-shoot around when I got my SLR. Lots of people grow more comfortable with being able to change every aspect of a picture before they take it, and with a point-and-shoot you just can't do that. So, lots of times those cameras get brushed aside. Honestly, I use whichever is closer. Most of the time, SLR use is just more practice for me, but I loved taking my point-and-shoot outside for our picnic! My "little camera" is always in my diaper bag, and my SLR is always on a counter in a corner where Nathan can't reach it. The little camera is in a great case that Nathan can't unzip (yet...), so it's pretty safe to be in the bag. I love that if he's doing something adorable on the go I can just grab it out! Thank you, in-laws, for recognizing how much I love having the chance to take pictures anywhere I go! You picked an awesome "little camera" :o)

 Anyway, Here we go!

Waiting for the food to show up

Eating his hamburger bun before his burger was even off the grill! This boy loves bread and dairy! (Notice the cute little paracord bracelet his daddy made him...now they match! He loves to wear it, and if he's ever in a survival situation he can unravel it and use it for something! Haha what every toddler needs...)

I'm LOVING these cute little sandals...go Walmart! We needed quick on/off shoes that would protect his little toesies when he decides to crawl somewhere...I had to pay full-price, which I hate, but they were still a score at $9!

This has been dubbed as "Nathan's Camelbak"...if he sees you drinking out of it, you MUST have made a big mistake.

The man grilling meat...yay for a place with a grill that doesn't get used by 29358 people!

Our other little picnicker :o)

Conquering his fear of grass...he still is quite temperamental about WHEN he'll go in the grass, but we're taking baby steps (or toddler steps, haha)

And he's off!

I know it's not a big backyard, but I LOVE having space to chill outside!

My boys, playing their favorite game..."attack daddy!"

Little smudgy b/c Nathan had smeared the lens, but how cute is this!?

cheese!

If only I knew he'd be so cute...I would've put on makeup!

The all-time favorite, sometimes-seems-deadly horsey rides

Mama's not so great at them, but he looks so HUGE on my back! He'll be carrying me soon!

LOVE this face...he was being such a ham!

Love you! Haha whenever we hug or I sit in Mitch's lap or anything, Nathan wants to be included, which led to...

...this! Haha if only i'd moved the camera a bit; he was even smiling!

Yay for hilariously animated faces from the toddler :o)

The next time we get to see family is the end of May, which we're ridiculously excited for, but also kinda depressed that it's still a month away...we'll keep posting pictures so it's almost like we get to see our families regularly! We're really missing Dani and Danny, and hoping that Seattle's being good to them.

Happy Spring! I guess the farmers' prayers were answered this week. We had a ridiculously mild winter so they had no snowpack to cover their fields and soak into them (we're a really dry desert around here; it's all the moisture they get during the year!). Except this week it rained off and on for most of the week, so yay for moisture blessings! And for rain cooling down our AC-less house!