Swings

Every spring/summer I enjoy listening to the cranes sing in the field adjacent to our house. Music to my ears. I've loved their songs since high school, when I went on the same biology field trip to the International Crane Foundation all 3 times it was offered to students. Someday I want to take the boys there. Soon. (The quality isn't great; I had to keep my distance and I had a 24-70mm lens on).

The weather has been unseasonably warm, so we've enjoyed time after school running around barefoot, swinging, walking, and playing with sticks.

Sasha.

I'm still crying, the 'what if's' creeping up on me...
Ethan doesn't understand, Austin gets it, and has shed tears.
Michael is taking it hard.
I'm taking it harder than I anticipated I would.

Sasha, our beloved dog of almost 9 years, was killed by a vehicle Thursday night.

I'm still trying to understand - she hardly ever (maybe twice) went down to the road.
I just don't get it.
I never will.

That's all I want to say about her death at this time....I can barely type right now. I might post more later about it, maybe not. I will have a post later with more photos of her. We had many good memories with her that we will cherish and always keep in our hearts. :)
We loved her.
So much.
It hurts.

Ethan's Free. (Three, that is!)

Ethan turned 3 on December 22nd.

He LOVES Peppa Pig...hence the pig family on his cake. The figures came the 21st in the mail, from the UK. Just in the nick of time. I made his cake this year....and it turned out pretty well. Everyone was pooping rainbows the next day. Kidding about that. Maybe.

We gathered a small crowd here at our home and celebrated him. He's a kamakazie, not afraid of anything, and a snuggly little boy. He'll get up in the middle of the night and crawl into bed between Mike and I, or the other night he crawled up into Austin's bed and snuggled with him. He crawls on the countertops to get my candy from the cupboards that I can't hide from him anymore. He responds to "dame un beso" which I love, and loves to drive Mario Kart on the wii so he can run into the cows. He hollers "tractor" whenever we pass one while we're driving in the car. He loves building things with the Magna-tiles and Brio train sets....and is a little helper around the house when I'm cleaning or putting things away.

That's Ethan!

We love him so!!

Polaroid Dump