pictures, pictures, and more pictures.

it's been a great last couple of days around the stickley house. I have definately learned to take things one day at a time, and i just love it when each and every day is a beautiful one.
Juneau, Juneau, Juneau.....she makes or breaks my day sometimes :) and lately she has totally been making it. About 10 times a day i find myself just being so thankful for her and for the gift of being her mom. Nova is a bit more consistent...i know i will get about a hundred gigantic hugs from her every day...the amount of whining that is mixed in between the hugs is quite variable....but the hugs are guaranteed.

Anyway, we had a little art project going on around here yesterday. I bought these cool (WASHABLE) watercolor concentrates from amazon, and I was exited to put them to their first use. Juneau (who is OBSESSED wtih The Incredibles) was delighted to learn there is a color called "Violet". Violet is her favorite character, and i don't think it had ever occurred to her that Violet is also a color....4 years old is so stinkin' fun.
The recipe"
1/2 cup cornstarch
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups cold water
food coloring (or paint)

You just put everything in the pan, and heat it up until it gets thick and smooth, then cool and add the coloring.

WE HAD FUNNN!!!!!

And made a mess (but it was easy to clean up!)

This morning we headed over to the good ole' pumpkin patch. and oh my goodness was it ever fun!!!!!

After finishing Charlotte's Web, we could not believe our eyes when we got out of the van and saw this gigantic pig!!! he was literally just lying there...it was awesome!

Nova was looking under the straw, and when i asked her what she was doing she said she was "looking for charlotte". haha! :) She said she thought Charlotte would make a web and write "Big, Fat, Giant Pig". Juneau thought she would write "Terrific". Really, I think "Some Pig" would probably be appropriate for this guy too :)

Seriously....is he not HUGE!!!!???!

There was some pony riding going on!

There was also a giant...well, i don't exactly know what to call it. I've never seen anything quite like it. It was like a bouncy house, only without the house. A big tarp that was SUPER bouncy, and SUPER fun. I think it was pretty much Juneau's idea of heaven. I didn't get many pictures of Juneau because she was running around and jumping like crazy. Everytime i looked for her i would find her in the middle of a group of 12 or 13 year old kids, and they were bounceing her all over the place! she loved it!

In between several episodes of whining, Nova loved it too :)

She took her jumping VERY seriously!

Next were the "duck races". They had old fashioned hand water pumps, with little pipes connected to them. There were rubber duckies that you set in the pipe, and then had to pump the water really fast to get the ducks floating....the girls thought it was totally awesome!

The girls were excited to ride in these barrels pulled by a tractor. Nova of course wanted pink, and Juneau, of course, wanted to be in the very first car! They sat in separate barrels for about 30 seconds, before Juneau decided she would rather just ride with her sister! so sweet!

ahhhh...the corn bins. always a HUGE hit!! I did find handfuls of corn in their tights when we took them off after getting home! haha!

oh man, is she ever a goofball. In fact, when she saw this picture she said..."i look really silly mom. Maybe you shouldn't put this on on the blog. Just print it up and send it to Grandpa Stickley because I think he would like it!". oh man, did i laugh and laugh! and, of course, i still put it on the blog, because that's what moms do :)

little miss nova....haha! a skirt probably wasn't the best choice for a day on the farm. oh well :)

ok, now this swing was super super cool....It's so funny because I totally think the owners of this farm must be distant relatives of the Stickley's....i can totally see Cris and his dad coming up with something like this.

you can ride on top of the tube...or inside the tube if you prefer!

but no matter what it is fun!!! Hands down, favorite pic of the day...not that the picture is so great, but just that this spontaneous little action from Juneau (who is not always the best at showing affection to her little sister) really made my day. We went down this big, homemade slide all together, and then the girls said they wanted to do it on their own. Well, Nova of course chickened out at the last minute, and said she wanted to go with Juneau, and Juneau instantly just put her arm around her and told her she would help her down the slide.

finally we made it to the actual pumpkin patch. Initially I told the girls they could pick out any pumpkin they wanted. However, when I realized that this one little mama would be carrying the pumpkins back to the car, with two tired, hungry, little girls tagging along, and one giant purse (holding a giant camera) slung over my shoulder, i decided our goal would be to just pick out the 2 smallest pumpkins we could find.....I was hoping for those little tiny baby pumpkins that fit in your pocket, but no such luck....times like this it would be kind of nice to have a strong husband around. But we made it :)

another jumping picture (it was almost 80 degrees! so the sweaters came off later in the day!)

riding on the wagon for the "hay ride". The girls were quick to point out they were driving "grandpa's tractor". they were happy to get to ride with a Red Tractor, because in their opinion "Green tractors are yuck!"

If you are a facebook-er, you may have seen pictures of our new friend, named "Lil' Fella". I titeled this photo - "Things I Do That Annoy my Husband - #172 - Encourage the children to feed potentially disease-bearing wildlife from the patio door". hee hee...isn't he just so cute? And a couple of pictures from earlier in the week...we were REALLY enjoying having a few final days of sunshine and warm weather! pretty little bug... Here is a little picture of Nova with the ipod touch...facetiming with daddy. It's her very very favorite thing to have cris read her a book from her Hawaii book collection. she will sit just like that for enldess periods of time while he reads to her. soooo cute.

well, i may not be able to pull off posting every day, but at least i take lots of pictures!!!! my schedule has gotten a little weird now that i am pretty much committed to sharing a bed (and a bedtime - 8 p.m.!) with these 2 little girls!