I looked out the window....

Last Saturday we worked in the backyard: gardening, weed terminating, and preforming general maintenance. As the morning wore on we stopped for a late breakfast and took time to plan for the rest of the day. The kids were all hyper from the fresh air and Mary and Will were smiling at the spring like weather.

Out of the blue Lillian grabbed Mary's hand and dragged her to the back door. "Look at the pretty tree 'mudder'," she said with a big grin. "That's our apricot tree." Mary responded and started to head back to the kitchen. Lillian's eyes got big and she pulled in Mary's hand again.

"Close the door mom we have to look out the window." She said and then with a very serious expression made her hands into pretend binoculars. "Come on mom we have to sing."

The two of them sang:

"I looked out the Window and what did I see?
Popcorn popping on the apricot tree
Spring has brought me such a nice surprise.
Blossoms popping right before my eyes.
I can take an armful and make a treat,
a popcorn ball that would smell so sweet.
It [isn't] really so
But it seems to me
Popcorn popping on the apricot tree."

After the song was over Lillian ran outside climbed up into the tree planter grabbed some blossoms and wrinkled her nose. "Mom they're flowers not Popcorn!" She yelled.

Anyway so our backyard is definitely coming together. The grass is coming up, albeit a bit patchy but it still has time to fill in before the heat comes. The tree circle is underway and the garden has begun to take shape. The peach tree we planted last Autumn is already in leaf and the Fantex ash is budding like the Apricot.
The first sproutlings of the year are up and put a smile on Mary's face every time she goes out to work on the yard.
Yahoo, it's official Spring has Sprung in the desert.

Halloween 2009 The Jurassic age

Dinosaurs roamed the streets this year on Halloween from the Muir house. Andrew was given the opportunity to choose a theme for the year and he remembered that back in January mom said he could be a sharp tooth. Lillian wasn't too thrilled with the idea but when she found out she could be a Purple Princes Pterodactyl (PPP) she warmed to the idea. Danny filled up the trio in a ceratops costume minus the (tri)


Andrew found a coloring book that had a sharp tooth on the front that had a light gray front and a dark gray back with red and pink tiger like stripes. As Halloween approached (in July) he happily showed his mom what he wanted to look like for Trick or Treating.

Andrew's one gripe about the costume was that sometimes people would step on his tail.
Lillian didn't waste time testing out her wings she just got right to it.


Ready set go Purple Princess Pterodactyl ready to take off.

Like most two year old dinos Danny ceratops did not want to stay still. He wanted to chase the Pterodactyl and step on the Sharp tooth's tail.

Lillian worked her Princess "P" and decided that the sharp toothed Andrew was a good sharp tooth and could act as her body guard. With a charging Danny ceratops she may have needed it. Of course a dinosaur tale wouldn't be complete if we didn't include the post trick or treating trek return and feed.

At first the kids all chose only one treat because we've been working on earning treats and they weren't sure how Halloween candy would work.


Luckily their dino nature won out and soon they were all digging in and searching for the best treat.


For Danny anything chocolate was the perfect ceratops chow.

Not surprisingly our Purple Princess Pterodactyl went straight for the purple and pink treats.

And our sharp tooth looked for the biggest acquisition to start his feed.

Soon there were fatalities and skinned prey strewn across the floor.

All in all I have to say we had some cute, happy Dino kids out and about this Halloween night.

Pregnancy Tickers from WiddlyTinks.com

Spring babies

So I know that baby animals make people think of springtime and in our home spring was ushered in with new kittens.

Two blackies and one grey ring tail like mommy. One of the black ones is a girl and the other two are boys.


First some explanation. Last year our little lady Stripes had three black little kittens all of whom died within three months. One was an accidental death caused by over handling and the other two were caused by evil Toms in the neighborhood (at least that's our theory). Their necks were broken and they were placed at the bottom of our driveway.

That being said we were willing to hold off on spaying our cat until she had the opportunity to have a litter of kittens live.

Stripes is a really protective mommy this time around and we're taking extra precautions with her little ones.



This is the little girl. Andrew named her Charcoal after the first little girl kitty that died last year.
This one Andrew named Bear. I have no idea why. This one has white hairs on it's front legs.

This one was named "Soot Tiger" because it's gray and black not orange and black. Will is incredibly happy we have a boy striped cat and feels like Stripes has done a good job. We plan on keeping S.T. and getting Stripes spayed. That being said does anyone know anyone who wants a kitten. There is no way we can keep all three. They should be weened in about two months.

just a note

I know that there are a few people who check up with us periodically and I just wanted to post an announcement that I finally finished the Christmas post. Sorry it took so long.

-Mary

I just loved this picture of the kids dressed up with their dad...So Cute.

Andrew wants to be a Hero

At various times during our lives we get to hear our children say things that spread smiles on our faces remind us that what we do around them make impressions. This last weekend Andrew had a couple of moments that warrant sharing them on our family blog.

First William took Andrew to a primary activity where he learned about God and how he made families and how each of us can work to build eternal families. He came home and put his stuff away and stayed in his room for a few minutes. William just happened to peak in on Andrew and ask what he was doing. Andrew lifted his eyes to meet William's and said, "I was thinking about how God made us."

Also the past month and a half William and Mary have been reading the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind and Mary has been watching the Legend of the Seeker series. Andrew has watched his parents read and peaked over Mary's shoulder during her "TV" watching.
About two weeks ago he came to Mary in the kitchen and announced, "When I grow up I want to be a hero,*pause*, with a sword."
Mary chuckled and asked him why and he smiled as if he did not understand the question.
Last weekend we went to a birthday party for a friend of Lillian's and because it was at a park on a Saturday the whole family attended.
The girls all got to wear glitzy gold and green headband crowns. Andrew was playing with whoever was around and paused on occasion to enjoy the treats provided. Mary happened to pass him talking to one little girl and almost fell on her face.
He was looking down at the girl and said, "You sure look like a princess. I want to be a hero."
It sounded like a pick-up line and Mary almost choked.

Andrew sure is keeping life interesting but he seems well rounded.

Train conductor Daniel B. Muir

So this is actually one of those rare moments that hardly ever happen for third children.

Danny woke up from nap time before either Andrew or Lilly and got one on one time with mom and Mary used it for a photo op.

The block train set came from Grandma and Grandpa Muir for Andrew's second Christmas and Danny has recently grown fond of it.

That's one happy kid.