Parsee Cake (this one’s for you, Grampy Don!)

Eve has been in a treat making mood lately. She baked and decorated sugar cookies a few times, and yesterday she made some Jell-O. Seeing the Jell-O reminded Alan of a cake his dad created and his mom used to make for him every year for his birthday. She taught me and I took over the tradition for many years until he decided he wanted Birthday Cookies instead. Well, today, on our last day of February vacation, this happened.

She got pretty loopy at the end! I can’t imagine why?! :) She made the cake almost all on her own, with just my guidance and minor help. It came out great! I love how proud she looks. <3

Pets

We are pet sitting an adorable 9wk old kitten this weekend! She belongs to a neighbor and classmate of Eve’s. They just got her and didn’t know what to do for their previously scheduled vacation. Eve to the rescue! We go over twice a day to play with her and, you know, feed her. We may or may not have taken many (many) pictures of her!!

Eve and Luna

She loves her toys. Kitten are so very playful.

All the kitten love inspired Eve to take some pictures of our pets too. Right now when I look at my camera roll I have nearly 200 pictures of these three animals. LOL!

Jazzy loves sleeping in the coat cubbies.

Arlo says “put away the dang camera and take me for a walk!”

Oh, there she is again!

We’re only a little crazy around here!

A little bit of sunshine on a cold and dreary day

We were out running errands all morning, now home for a “no plans” afternoon. The temperature is dropping and the sleet started just after we got home. With a hot mug of tea in hand I found myself on Facebook, getting caught up in the “dangerous world / school shootings / let’s arm teachers” debate and feeling sicker and sicker. Then I came upon a cute baby picture with a post about cloth diapers by an old friend of mine who is on baby number five and still thinking about cloth diapers. We had a few exchanges and I decided to let myself get lost in my own blog for awhile. Partially to find a picture of my kids in cloth diapers, but mostly just to enjoy the babies they once were. It did wonders for my heart. In case you need an emotional boost, here a few pictures for you to enjoy.

Baby Eve in her cloth diapers.

Silly girls.

Breakfast with Doggie.

This boy.

Cuties in cloth diapers.

While I was writing this post I got a call from my momma who shared her own sunshine news. I feel a thousand times lighter now and ready to keep going. First things first, log out of Facebook!

I hope you are feeling the warmth and sunshine, if not from outside then at least from friends and loved ones inside your heart. <3

Eve quote

“When I grow up I want a team if Huskies,” she says to me. I smile and nod. She continues, “Yeah, so I can sit on the sled with all my cats and they can pull us around.” Ummm…. yeah, that makes total sense. 🙄

Husky conversation prompted by this adorable video: https://www.instagram.com/p/BfgaC0QA8co/

The exciting life of the Wilder Johnsons

I wanted to post an update but nothing exciting came to mind, so I went through my photos to see what would be worth posting. Guess what? Nothing! I have photos of the house being built down the street because the roof is weird, I have photos of bookshelves at the Howe Library because I like how they organized their series books, I have photos of a dresser we’re trying to sell, I have some school pictures that aren’t for this blog…. do you see where I’m going with this? Boresville! I did come across one worth sharing (though truthfully it went on Instagram yesterday)…

Aren’t they cute?!

We have had zero luck rehoming Arlo. Two families asked about him, both good families, but both have teenage boys and no fenced in yard, so I thought that probably wouldn’t be the best for him. We set him up with a window seat here and he’s settling down a bit. Maybe accepting the fact that he lives a lazy, boring life. Poor pup!

We are settling in here too. We have the guest room almost done (just need to sell that dresser!) and we’ve started hanging things on the walls. Slowly things are finding homes and still, every single day, we LOVE our house!

Hmm…. what else? I’m wrapping up my second to last course for my library certification. Only three weeks to go. The last course starts next week so there will be a little overlap, but nothing compared to last fall! I decided to continue on and get a Masters in Education from Montana State University as well. Only three more courses after I complete my library certification. It seems silly not to! That means this June I’ll have my library certification and next June I’ll have a M.Ed. Not too shabby! :)

We are gorging ourselves on Girl Scout cookies and thoroughly enjoying vacation. I am sneaking in small plans here and there so we don’t completely merge with the couches. Today we went to the Howe Library in Hanover so I could observe their reference librarian for a homework assignment. The kids settled into the children’s section and spent two hours happily playing board games together. They are awesome. Then we got pizza for lunch, stopped at Alan’s office to deliver cookies, then came home and considered it a very productive day! :) Tomorrow is a no-plans day, then Thursday I’m going to drag them out again for a few more errands. It’s a tough life!

Do you like how I managed to stretch “nothing interesting” into five (make that six now!) paragraphs?! I’m pretty talented like that. I also wrote a four page paper today after my library observation. I’d better go relax now!

Ice Castles

After many years of saying, “Oh, we should check out the ice castles…” this year we finally did it! It was a long drive, but a cool place!

All bundled up.

Ummm… this looks a little dangerous! :)

The sky looked purple against the blue ice. It was crazy.

We stayed for about 40 minutes, half of which was spent with Eve in tears because her sneaker-clad feet were too cold. We spent a ton of $$ on cheap hot chocolate and adequate cinnamon buns from the “farm to castle” concessions stand. By “farm” I think they meant Cumberland Farms, because I’m sure there was no actual farm involved! :)

It was a fun day, a beautiful icy structure, a checkmark on the bucket list, and we wound out the trip with a fantastic Italian dinner.

I put all the pictures in a Google album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/OEJgFNC6WA35YUXR2