Spring

 I haven't blogged since September and here it is, the end of Spring and we are making our way into hot Summer.

After a long, cold Winter, the arrival of Spring was glorious.

This is a tiny creature I found on my walk one day:

 And here is my walking partner on that very same day:

 This bush in my yard (not quite sure yet what it is), always has the prettiest blooms in the Spring.

 And I love the bleeding heart plant my mom gave two years ago for Mother's Day.

 It was a long year, but also it seemed to be short.

It was Brad's last year of preschool (graduation pictures to come), and Tyler's first year of preschool.

I cannot believe that three years went by so quickly for Brad being at preschool; next year we start homeschooling him for Kindergarten.

I hope to blog more often. I think about it quite often and would love to make a book for us some day out of my blog.

Spring!

 We are so excited that Spring is here! 

It seemed to take a long time to warm up, but now the temperature has been consistently comfortable each day.

I love seeing my flowers bloom!

This is a bleeding heart plant that my mom got me for Mother's Day last year. 

I got her the same plant, and when she found out I liked it, too, and wanted one, she went and got one for me. :-)

The yellow tulip in the background of this picture is special to me, too.

For our wedding, we had tulips as center pieces.

My mom gave us most of the bulbs and I had them planted at our previous home.

I took them out of the ground the Fall before our house was on the market, but when we moved to our new house, the bulbs had pretty much disintegrated in the dirt they had been stored it for a year. 

So, I went out and bought new bulbs, from the same place.

I love seeing them because they have special meaning to me and remind me of my wedding day eight years ago.

I also have Hyacinths in my bulb garden. 

I think they are so lovely but they do not last very long.

The photo on the left is the first week they started to come out and the photo on the right is one week later. 

They are currently shriveled up and brown.

This is a picture of my lilac bush!! 

My great-aunt and great-uncle gifted this to me almost two years ago when we first moved here.

This is the first year it bloomed!

Many thanks to my husband for keeping up on this all last summer when it was so dry.

He remembered more than I did to water it.

In fact, he has already watered it for me this year. :)

I am so excited to see this bloom!

Last year it did not because of a late frost that killed the very tiny buds that were starting.

The boys have enjoyed being outside without sweatshirts and jackets.

Tyler discovered this John Deere toy and was so cute going around and around in it.

 

For a few days in a row he also carried around that little blue car all day and even took it to bed at night.

It was too cute!

Bradley loves the warmer weather, too (this picture was taken while it was still a little chilly).

He keeps asking about planting in the garden, which we will very soon.

I just love Spring, it's so refreshing to see and smell all of the new life outside after Winter.

The thing about Spring...

 ...is that the weather can be very warm, like in these pictures.

Or quite cool and chilly, like it has been recently.

 I took these photos on a hot day and poor Tyler turned beet red outside.

Even in the shade.

 

 Brad enjoyed a few munchkins and some of Mommy's iced coffee. 

(I love donuts and coffee more than I should)

 Tyler likes to have what we have so he played with the straw for a while.

 We went inside because I wanted to see if Ty would nap.

It was nice to be out of the hot sun.

Brad decided he would put his pirate shirt on and pull it over his face.

He's a smart and funny little guy. :)

  

We all went back outside later when Daddy was home.

It was so beautiful out!

Tyler watched his brother be silly in the yard.

 Then when I tried to get pictures of Tyler and David, Brad got in the way. 

He thinks he's funny.

 And sometimes he just does it because he wants attention.

 

 Brad agreed to get in the picture and we got a nice "Daddy and sons" photo.

 

Brad likes to take pictures, too, so he put David's hat on me and took this photo.

Tyler liked the hat, as well. 

He liked chewing on it though.

Mommy had to take it away because Daddy's hat is dirty.

He sure did like it for teething though.