I've been busy enjoying my boys...

Not much to say today... except... I adore these boys. 

They are my everything.

Ollie...

Ollie... born on Mother's Day!

So... our Mother's Day began with trying to get the "perfect" picture of Mama and her boys before church...  As you can see, we all had the wiggles and the giggles! The pictures might not be perfect,  but being the mama of these boys sure is! 

Church was nice, particularly because my little Caillou went up in front and sang with his primary class for the first time.  He smiled at me, excitedly and bashfully most of the time, and occassionally sang a few notes of "Mother Dear".   I was beaming with pride, you see.... this could have been a disaster, my little Caillou and all his mischievious wonder, a microphone, a large audience for him to entertain.... but a disaster it was not.  He did climb up on the little podeum reaching for the microphone, and the Bishop lifted him back down twice, but once the singing started, he quickly joined in.  At the end of the song, all the little kids quietly walked back to the pews to sit with their families.  My Caillou was the last one to walk down, and with a twinkle in his eye, which I immediately recognized with an "uh-oh" under my breath, he turned around at lightning speed and darted back to the microphone.  I waddled at an even faster pace, and caught him before he could preach his sermon.  And all was well, no disaster, do tantrum, just a proud Mommy, grinning and giggling at her little boy's sweet silliness.  During Sunday school, the boys made craft projects for me, Jasper made a brown satin ribbon flower corsage for me to wear, and had a little baggy with heart shaped cookies for me.  Caillou made a darling little picture frame with a bit of help from Daddy.  It was a good morning. We stopped on the way home and Caillou visited his friend Betty.  Betty is a homeless woman in our town with a sad mysterious past, she wears black and red, and is called "Red Betty" by all the town folk.  We thought she could use a little cheering up so Caillou went to say hello and to give her a handful of pink carnation flowers.

After that, Daddy and the boys had a little surprise for me...

 A little stroll over to the taco shop for lunch!

Now at this point, I was feeling pretty good, well as good as you can feel when you are 9 months pregnant.  My body was tired, I had been having contractions the whole day before at 7 minutes apart, and had stayed up until 2 am finishing one last quilt for baby Ollie, but I was feeling good.  The diet coke came, and the yummy chips, and mmmm... I could smell my special Mother's Day lunch cooking in the kitchen of my favorite taco shop.

The food arrived, I took a bite, and suddenly.... those 7 minute apart contractions I had been ignoring for 22 hours, because after all, I was SCHEDULED for a wednesday c-section, the contractions would surely go away... well those contractions became something entirely different, LABOR!  Unable to deny it any more, I looked at my rolled tacos with guacamole, sadly knowing I was unable to eat them, and told Daddy and the boys, "This is it."

It was quite exciting and scary... Caillou and Jasper had been both delivered by c-section, but they were scheduled ahead of time by doctor's orders.  I had gone through false labor with both of them, but not REAL LABOR!  I encouraged my boys to finish eating and I called the doctor.  By now my friends at the taco shop knew what was happening and shared in the excitement, giving me hugs and good luck wishes and phone numbers to call when baby had arrived!  We ran home, grabbed the boys bags, which I had just sewn and packed the night before, for their stay at Grandma's.  We hurriedly packed a bag for me and drove down the hill to the hospital....

By 4:51 pm baby Ollie was here!  Oliver Lee Foret took us by great surprise, both by his Mother's Day debut and his size!  He ended up being our tiniest baby so far...

weighing in at 7lbs10oz and being only 19.5'' long.

We had a bit of a rocky start... and stayed at the hospital for 5 nights with little Ollie in the NICU.

But, at last, yesterday, we were able to come home!  Ollie is doing great and we are both very happy to be home.  Caillou and Jasper were exposed to the stomach flu and will have to stay put at their Boo-Bah's house and Nammy's house for 1 week to ensure little Ollie does not get sick.  The house is quiet and I miss my big boys terribly. But I am enjoying my time to get to know my sweet baby Ollie and getting to lay in bed and snuggle him all day! 

I have many more pictures to share... but for now... I am off to snuggle this darling little baby!  Have a wonderful weekend!

Mama's rough and rowdies....

An afternoon of play in our yard.  These days I have been too tired to waddle over to the park with my little guys, so I pull up a chair in the yard and the boys seem just as happy to play in their "little park" as Caillou calls it.  We love to snuggle in our hammock and look up into the leafy tree branches above us.  For now though, I will be waiting for hammock time until after baby is born, it is quite awkward and extremely challenging to get out of a hammock when 9 months pregnant!  After our playtime out in the yard, I gave Jasper's hair a little trim in the front, he now has crooked, funny little bangs, but at least he can see!  He was beginning to look a bit shaggy doggish in these photos.

Sunshine & Dirt...

Here is a little peek at our garden.  This is the second spring time in which we have had a backyard that we are able to grow things in.  I love spending time out in the garden with my little ones.  Sometimes it is a bit stressful and I find myself yelling " don't step on that!"  or the rooster is let out by curious little ones and we are frantically chasing it.  But, for the most part, outdoor time with my littles is very lovely.  We started our seeds excitedly, still when it was way to cold to be thinking of gardening, some in our kitchen windowsill and some straight in the ground.  We have growing red onions, garlic, swiss chard, carrots, red leaf and green leaf lettuce, yellow pear tomatoes, roma tomatoes, corn, sugar snap peas, strawberries, sunburst pattypan squash, zuchinni, and in a little plot on the other side of the chicken pen, we have a little watermelon and pumpkin patch starting to sprout.  We love our little garden very much.  Caillou and Jasper get great enjoyment spending time in the yard, searching for strawberries, and feeding the chickens.  Caillou has taken a particular liking to growing carrots, his whole little face lights up and he is bursting with excitement when he plucks them from the ground.  He quickly gives them " a bath" and gives one to his brother and they both nibble away on their little carrots.  We planted a variety called "short and sweet" they are cute, fat little stubby carrots, perfect for little nibblers!  It has been quite fun to pick some of our gardens bounty and share it with my mama and mom.  My mom has 4 rabbits, so they have really enjoyed the homegrown lettuce and carrot tops.  My mama particularly enjoys the green onions!  I am amazed our little garden has done this well so far, seeing as I am too poor for any fertilizers, soil enrichers, and stuff like that.  But so far... just good old sunshine and dirt and everything is coming along.  Garden time is a bit bittersweet for me.  Everytime I pull a weed or put another seed into the ground, I have to wonder if we will be here long enough to see it grow.  I find myself a bit weepy when the boys are out in their tree, climbing and playing, and swinging on their tire swing.  My boys really love their home, and I just keep hoping we will be able to stay here a good long time and make many more memories here.