These are my favorite flowers of spring. They will forever remind me of my childhood at the farm and my grandma, who always let me cut a bouquet of bleeding hearts from her garden to bring to my mom each spring. I'm so glad I can finally have a these pretty flowers on my table. With this crazy spring weather, I was worried my poor flowers wouldn't bloom.

Daddy's Princesses

Just in case daddy needs a little reminder of who his princesses are... 

We borrowed the 2012 Dairy Princess crowns for just a moment.

Make a Wish

Claranna had lots of fun blowing out her candles tonight!

Birthday Girls!

We are celebrating birthdays this month!  Ella turned NINE on Monday and Claranna will be THREE next Thursday.  Unbelievable!!  Ella had her first sleepover party with several of her classmates and friends.  It was fun for all of us.  Claranna is really exited to open some presents tomorrow when we have a joint family birthday party for the girls.  I am so proud of my sweet, beautiful girls.  Though, I honestly cannot believe that my first baby is nine and my little baby isn't much of a baby anymore...  I hope we have sunshine for the party tomorrow so all the cousins can play outside!

Cousins Sleepover!

It's a big night at our house.  The cousins are sleeping over.  The "bigs" (eight and nine year olds) are sleeping downstairs.  The "littles" (six and five year olds) are sleeping upstairs and poor little Claranna is sleeping all by herself.  It's been a fun night.  It's been a lots of laughter, playing outside, giggling over silly jokes at the dinner table, warm cookies and ice-cream for dessert, playing dress-up, snuggling in for a movie kind of night.  Hopefully lots of good memories will be made and stored away forever.  I captured a few moments of fun tonight that I think might be useful in the future as blackmail.  It has been a pattern for all the kids to play dress up and apparently, the big boys have been deprived in this department.  They always seem to put together some cute outfits when they are here. As an added bonus, Ella did their make up.  I think they look fabulous, but I am betting I'll be ordered to remove these if my brothers read this blog.  Enjoy while you can!

Spring on the Farm

Lots of Mud!!

Cows to Visit

Tractors to Tune Up

cock-a-doodle-doo!!!

This blog has been very quiet, but our house certainly hasn't.  It seems Spring has sprung early here this year, but I honestly doubt the weather will stay this perfect.  The kids have been loving the time outside in the sunshine.  I caught a nasty respiratory bug last week and it has knocked me down a bit and kept me on the couch more than in the sun's warm rays.  Thankfully, Mark has been able to work from home for a few hours here and there and has been extra help with the kids.  And, after a visit to the doc today, I am now armed with some antibiotics to knock this crud out of my system.

Though I should be off to bed, I just couldn't let this day end without documenting how it began...

 Mark and I literally awoke to the crowing of a little rooster this morning.  This was a first for our family and I am very anxious to see if this pattern continues.  Regardless of how you are feeling, it is hard not to start the day with a big smile when the sweetest little rooster is crowing away in the room next door!

Claranna loves books and one of her current favorites, much to Ella's dismay, is a book about barnyard animals.  It seems that Claranna thought it would be a great idea to wake up her big sister (they're still sharing a room) by crowing like a rooster at sunrise.  I don't think big sister was as amused by the rooster crowing as much as her daddy and me.  It's really hard not to giggle when the first sound you hear in the morning is a almost three year old "cock-a-doodle-doo-ing"!  I wonder what tomorrow morning will bring...