Disney coming soon!

Enjoying a Day at the Park!

Random texts from my husband......

This post is for Dusty. For several reasons. He is currently in California right now, sculpting away in a little old hotel room, insanely missing his family. We are waiting for him to anxiously arrive home. The world seems to stop when he is gone. We get through our days...slowly. Time seems to stand still. Atticus always thinks he is on an airplane...Greta is always asking what day it is and when is her Daddy coming home....and Otto...well, he is practicing waving right now. He knows too that Daddy is not home. This Mom can't wrestle like Dad can, she can't build train tracks, play rock monster, tickle, draw, etc....... 2 more days and we will be complete again, a well-oiled machine....... So yes, this post is for Dusty. I always knew he would be a great husband, I never knew he would be such an amazing father. He not only works in California on a montly basis, squeezes whatever little time allows for him to work at home, he also takes care of our 3 children while I am at work. BUT..... the most important thing to me is that he always documents his day....through texts and pictures. One of the strongest parts of our marriage is communication. When we first met, he lived in California and I lived in St. Louis. We were together yet were ~2000 miles apart. We made it a goal of ours to talk every single day, even if just for a brief moment. 9 years later, we are still going strong! Thanks to cell phones, texting and picture messages - communicating is so much easier now! So I have been saving these pictures on my phone for quite some time now, unable to delete them, because to me they document our days, our life. So finally....here are some random texts:

out cold...ate both bananas and prunes plus whole 6 ounce bottle. chub chub!look at those chubby hands. holy shit! fell asleep in his jumper again. cutie pie.

3rd shot was a doooosy!

perfect kids...from the homeless shelter.

we are going on a coon hunt!

look how serious he is.

he crawled up cause he was scared, 5 minutes later, he stopped moving and started to snore.

he moved himself to where he can lay down and eat at the same time time??? what a goofball.

greta's in time out. so she made lines we couldn't cross otherwise we will get stung and get sick. she's a thinker.

cutie pie.

3 peas in a pod!

mommy and otto.

look at what atticus is pushing in his stroller. i never even noticed until i lined em up for this pic. hehehe.

we are going on a test walk for our zoo expeditions later this week.

look close...even otto is flying the kyte....we are a family of pro kytesman.

grumps.

look who just popped up!

he's a bit scared on the swing.

missing u.

We miss you and love you too! Hugs and Kisses,

Brooke, Greta, Atticus and Otto

My little man

Oh Mr. Otto - you are growing by leaps and bounds. 2 teeth now, 1 on the way. You learned how to clap yesterday while we were playing the Wii - you were clapping for your brother and sister. You can now successively stand up on your own for about 10 seconds and are oh so excited about that and the reactions you receive from all of us. You love to show us over and over how you can stand - it's hilarous - you were crazy tonight. You made my day and washed away the entire stresses and anxieties that I accumulated from work. Now I will go to bed thinking of you and your big smiles. Love you buddy.

Gathering Room and Pantry!

The Foyer

The Toy Room

Cowgirl Cutie

Greta was so cute on Sunday. Dusty and Greta were headed to pick up Kathy to watch the kids for the afternoon. Kathy's sister, Shannon, has a horse named Marshmallow and they called to see if Greta wanted to pet the horse. "Of course," she said.....one of her famous lines. She then mentioned she would be right back. After raiding the dress-up chest, she found her cowgirl hat and was ready to go! She got to feed Marshmallow some apple treats and also got to play with the bunnies. So a special Thank You to Gary, Rhonda, Shannon and Kathy for making Greta's day and for making my daughter smile like this..........

Greta and Atticus

Brookfield Zoo: favorite picture of the day

My Chub Chub: Mr. Otto

My Little Farmer: Mr. Atticus

My Sassafras....Miss Greta

Back in Action

It's a new year (four months into already!) I took a break as you can tell......a well deserved break. That was the most stressful situation Dusty and I have experienced yet. Living with his parents for 6 months, bringing baby #3 into our lives, building an addition onto our house, etc. etc. etc. I could go on and on, but don't want to bore you. To make a long, long story shorter, I will be posting more now. Facebook seems to occupy a lot of my free time. I would rather be on the computer then watch tv. Not sure if that is a wise thing, since I am on the computer for 8 to 11 hours a day while I am at work. So anyways, now I am going to switch my focus back to our family blog. For me, for my children, and for our family to watch this ever-expanding family grow. Stay tuned!