Every Saturday for the last month we have found ourselves wandering around the aisles of Sams Club.

We go around lunch time and feed the kiddos all the free food they are sampling that day.

Great parenting huh. The boys actually really enjoy it. Karter will ask us "Are we going to the store with all the food today?"

As we were making our way through the food samples this last Saturday we came across the life jacket display. We are far from swimming weather here in the artic tundra but I learned last year that the stores don't have life jackets in stock past June (even though it's usually not swimming weather until July). So we grabbed one up for Mr. Karter to have for the summer trips to the "beach" aka Rigby Lake.

We are all so excited for the weather to warm up and to be able to spend the day with our friends at the "beach".

Karter is so excited that he spent Sunday afternoon pretending to swim. He put on a pair of shorts and his life jacket and "swam" around the house. He kept saying "Come swim with me mom!" Like he was having the time of his life.

I did do a few laps around the living room so I didn't feel like a lame mom.



Karter decided to add a diving board to the mix.

Oh to be young again.

I finally updated my blog. :) But be warned. There is quite a few new posts to catch up the last month.

I love living in Idaho.

I love how simple and unhurried life is here.

I live in a cute little town with two stoplights.

Our little town offers quite a few things but we have a larger town ten minutes away for all our major shopping and activities.

It's really quite perfect here.

But....from February to April and sometimes May or June it is very hard to remember why we love it here and why we choose to live here.

It is SO cold for SO long. When everyone is talking about yard work and planning their gardens we are still shoveling snow and fighting cabin fever. YUCK!

But I was reminded the other day of a blessing of living where we do.

Our neighbor told us that their was a flock (is that the right word) of swans in their field just up the road from our house.

We loaded up the kiddos to check them out.

It was pretty neat. There was a ton of them! We rolled down the windows and listened to them honking, which led to Karl honking the car horn so he could say he was talking to them. Dork.

So at moments like that I am reminded why we love to live here. Our quiet, simple, semi-country...but oh so cold life.

You'll have to excuse my lack of a fancy camera but you get the picture...haha.




Notice how all the snow is gone in the field. Well...we woke up to fresh snow this morning and everything is covered again. :(

This is another post with evidence that I live with boys.

I was doing the dinner dishes a few nights ago and when I went to pour out Hudson's water cup I was suprised by what I saw.



It's just a toy frog but when you aren't expecting to see something like that it does shock you a little.

It was even slimmy. Courtesy of the grubby little hands that dropped it in there.

I know I am super late in posting this but that seems to be the way my blog goes lately. I'm not sure why I can't get things done in a timely manner.

For Valentines I made the boys pink pancakes for breakfast. They thought it was pretty fun and I have had requests for them on other days since. I am thinking I'll have to make green pancakes for St. Patricks day.



Karl and I aren't big on celebrating holidays like this. They seem a little silly to us. Why should we set aside a day to proclaim our love to each other when it's what we should do everyday anyways.

Now that's not to say that I don't like getting a card and flowers but I think I would rather have them on some random day when I knew Karl was really thinking of me rather than a day that its expected. I do have a rule about getting flowers though. They have to be cheap ones from the supermarket. I don't like getting flowers from a specialty shop that cost $50 for a dozen roses when I can get them for $19.99 and not have to add another flower vase to my collection.

We decided we would have a candle light dinner at home with the boys. It was a lot of fun! The boys loved it...but they had a hard time not blowing out the candles before dinner was over.

We treated ourselved to crab. Hudson loved it and Karter spit his out. He will still remind us at random moments that he does not like crab.
Luckily Karl had gotten some pasta to go from Johnny Carinos so Karter had another option.

I found these fun cups for the kiddos on clearance just before Valentines.

My three cute Valentines!

I thought this was hilarious.

Karter decided he could not see well enough to eat his dinner with just the candles burning. He went and found his flashlight and ate the rest of his meal by "flashlight". Silly kid.

I made these valentines for the ladies I visit teach (a church thing) and for the Grandparents and Karters school teacher. I thought they were so darn cute. I wish I could take credit for the idea but this girl is not creative. I can copy like a pro though! I found the idea on a blog I follow. She always has fast, cheap craft ideas.

I wrapped a loaf of the YUMMIEST french bread that I made; courtesy of a recipe from a fab friend, and gave them a bottle of fancy jam. Not made by yours truly. I really need to get myself some raspberry bushes growing.

While I worked on my Valentine gifts Karter was busy getting his valentines ready for his school party. It was his first one and he was so excited.

Theirs a little girl in his class that he says has "two cute ponytails in her hair." Hehe.... I quizzed him a little on her so I could figure out which one she was. He told me her name is Hailey and that her grandma takes her to school too (my mom has the kiddos two days a week while I work).

It was just the two of us that night, Hudson had fallen asleep and Karl was out policing the mean streets of Shelley. It was fun to have some one on one time with him. He such a good kid...when it's convenient for him.




When I asked him how his party went the next day he said "It was good. Teacher let the little kids pass out their own Valentines. And mom...I love Hailey so much." I said "You do!" and he said "Yes mom but I still love you too."

Well good! I'm glad I haven't lost my spot in the heart of my little four year old.

Karter loves to get ahold of my camera and take pictures. He takes a TON of pictures! I just uploaded 151 pics and I think I only took 30 of them. I thought I'd share some of his shots.

So here's random moments of life through Karter's eyes.