around the house.

Just some unrelated pictures of late.

Carson "helps" make some chocolate treat. He was so excited about it, he even started licking the counter.

My friend from high school and her husband happen to live not-too far away. They came for a weekend visit; it was so fun to catch up!

Trying really hard to show some muscles.

I really, really love my new little vacuum. It is so light; even Faye can push it around. Carson is actually really good at vacuuming rugs and such!

Trying a green onion. That humidity makes for some not-so-great hair days for both of us.

Sometimes when Everett takes a long nap, he stays up pretty late. Occasionally I'll let him come out and play with his dad for a few minutes. It's pretty special when you're the only kid who sees your dad all week!

Look past the ponytail; this picture is actually meant to show the lovely, freshly painted chair rail. After I spent several evenings painting, taking the tape off ended up ripping up my entire paint job. That was an awful, emotional moment for me! However, I have some AMAZING friends here who all came over one night and helped me re-paint. We had fun, stayed up way too late, and I ended up with a beautiful, freshly painted kitchen and family room! Aren't they amazing???

If you do something like super nice like paint my house, you will probably get a jar of homemade granola.

These two have not always been the best of playmates. It used to always seem like Carson was way older than Everett, and they just simply didn't get along that well. However, for the past month or so, I have been absolutely amazed at how well (and for how long!) they can play super happily together. Interestingly, Everett is often the leader of the pretend-play; he has a great imagination and loves to get lost in his world of play. Unfortunately, I am still trying to figure out how to let them play their games without making HUGE messes! Here, they were knights preparing a feast for the castle. They brought out most of the pantry to do so. They did help me put it all back, but I have to say my pantry organization has yet to fully recover!

A few things I failed to mention from posting about Faye turning 18 months: she knows how to smile for the camera (obviously). She also has started pretending. She often crawls around barking, pretending to be a dog. This is especially fun in public. She also likes to carry around a bowl and a spoon, stirring something invisible and trying to feed it to everyone.

She also just figured out how to jump on two feet, and she can do a forward roll. She loves to sit on the potty, but has yet to produce anything there. She does tell me as soon as she goes and asks to be changed, so maybe I won't have to do two kids in diapers for too long!

Faye started feeding herself at a really young age, and I still think it's cute how precise and good she is with utensils.

I should probably do a new home improvements update, but here is just one little thing: a world map for the learning room. At first I was looking at really nice, vintage-y maps that I would build a frame around. But then I remembered that my kids are 4 and 3, and I got a kid-friendly map instead. It's been great to be able to locate any country we're talking about.

Having the crafts up there was supposed to keep the littlest people from messing things up. Yeah right. I think eventually I will change that whole wall.

Definitely one of her favorite places to sit, and most often she's drawing all over her body with markers.

Rick often leaves a note for the boys before he leaves in the mornings. So, they wake up excited to see what he said. He often challenges them to do something, like "make a new friend today," or "draw a picture for your grandparents." Carson takes the suggestions very seriously and makes sure to complete the task. Everett listens to Carson read the note and then walks away to find something to play.

One Friday I told the boys if they cleaned up all their messes that day, they could stay up to see dad and that he'd bring them a milkshake. He had had several late nights in a row, so I was banking on more of a 7 or 8 p.m. arrival time. Too bad it was more like 9:30! I can't believe I let them stay up that late... but I had promised. They enjoyed their milkshake and were nice and cranky the next morning.

We have a pretty simple little life, don't we? I love it, and to be honest I dread the day when I won't have babies and little diapered people running around asking for me to pick them up or read them a book. Tonight Carson and Everett were feeling the new baby move in my belly and asking about how exactly she's going to come out. I told them how it's a hard, really painful thing I will do, but how I have loved having each baby we have added to our family. They really are worth all the pain and fatigue and frustration and all of that. I'm so grateful that we have three really, really good kids. They are the best.