Random things around the house

 Here are some things that I don't want to forget about this time in our lives:

 It seems like every day when I go to figure out what is for dinner, this is what the kitchen looks like.  Sink full of dirty dishes, dishwasher full of clean dishes, counter cluttered with breakfast griddle and other random things.  Not what I want to see when I go to make dinner.  It is nobody else's fault but my own, but it sure makes it hard for me.  I need to get better about keeping the kitchen clean.  Then maybe we could have something other than pancakes or sandwiches for dinner.  :)

The other day when the kids were being a little bit "too quiet", I walked in on Zac reading to Emery and her friend Cassie.  It was so sweet.  Zac really is a great big brother!

Rob is very helpful in the mornings.  When I need to make the kids breakfast or make Sadie's lunch, I just give Riley to him so I can have my hands free.  He can get her nice and warm and then she will usually fall asleep.  :)  Also, he got up with the kids almost every morning last week.  He is pretty awesome!

 The kids helped Rob harvest the sunflowers from our garden.  We had eight total and they were all pretty big.

 This was the biggest one.  HUGE!  We roasted the seeds and have been enjoying them the last few weeks.

 The kids still love playing with their smurfs.  Zac built this tall tower all by himself and set up all of his smurfs on top of it.  Then he asked me to take this picture.  :)

 Many afternoons look like this.  She doesn't take naps very often anymore, so by about 4 she is pretty grumpy most days.  

 Zac still loves holding Riley.  Aren't they cute??

 And we get tons of these awesome smiles every day.  I love it!  It is so hard to get a good picture of it though.  

 We go for lots of walks while Sadie is at school.  Zac usually rides on the front ledge and holds on.  Pretty soon, I will have to start making him ride his bike.  :)

 We *try* to do preschool activities most days.  Sometimes, I don't get to it.  This was our hungry caterpillar day.  Pretty fun.

 Sadie didn't want Vexi and Smurfette to be left out so she stuck them on Zac's tower and had me take another picture.  ha ha.

 The kids love to play and dig in the garden.  They have a little spot that that are allowed to dig in.  So fun.  Especially with friends!

We have been harvesting and canning tons of tomatoes.  The other day we unloaded the bucket onto the table and noticed this tiny snail crawling around on it.  We watched it for a while and then brought it back outside.  We also have a TON of ladybug larvae in our cherry tomato plant.  It is fun watching them all turn into ladybugs.  I'll have to post a picture of that later.