It's Caterpillar Country!

We're in Caterpillar Country, so of course we had to see some tractors  (or "GAGAs" Joseph and Peter call them.)

Voss Mission to the Midwest 2016: arriving in Peoria!

Enjoying the hammock whole Oma and Poppi play with the grandkids

"Mama! I found a baby deer!" Our little Disney princess is enjoying the wildlife in Oma and Poppi yard

Truck spotting at a stop in Oklahoma

Here we go!! And we're off on our adventure to the Midwest! 

Joseph and Peter waved at the windmills we passed by

Elijah and his Poppi enjoyed building Legos together 

Feeling like Rey from Star Wars "I didn't know there was this much green in the entire galaxy!" 

Potty training??

Eva just decided to start potty training her little brothers. She sat them in their little potty seats and read them "Princess of the Potty." To her delight, Peter actually peed in the potty. Ummm... my work here is done?? Ha!

(For what it's worth, I don't think they are ready, but proud of my little lady for wanting to help out.) 😉

Cactus Flowers

Saw this burst of color along my running path today... There is something magical about cactus flowers. We didn't see many our first few years here due to extreme drought, but we've had more rain this spring and the desert is blooming in its way. In the 1st picture, you can see the flower buds of a week ago, and the second show today's flowers.💛

Blocks

Spotted Joseph building a block tower in a patch of light this morning.

Baby sitter checklist

Elijah likes to plan the activities they do when their babysitter comes. Activities: plasma car, Legos, Book, play house, TV, bed (bunk bed)

Cute!!

Mine!

It's well past bedtime and Peter and Joseph are in their room in the dark, in their cribs, hugging their blankies tightly and saying back and forth:
"Mine!"
"Mine!"
"Mine!"
"Mine!"
It's the exact same blankey-lovey. They both have one. There's no way the other could swipe it as they are in their own cribs. Ha!
Must be a twin thing.

P.S. Unrelated picture. I just thought it was cute. :)

Mother's Day

A full, wonderful Mother's Day with sleeping in and waking to fresh donuts and coffee the kids and David fetched from Rebel Donut, a good church service, and grilled shrimp, chicken and veggies on our newly inherited grill! It was sweetened by hugs from my loves and the best chocolate cake ever (that Eva and I baked yesterday.) It was made beautiful by cards the kids made for me and new flowering planters for our porch.

Happy Mother's Day out-take

The out-take. Haha!

Blooms in the Desert

We have had a wonderful, long spring with rain. The mountains look green! Flowers are blooming for longer than we've ever seen here. The kids know how much I love green, growing things and flowers, and point out the blooms they spy.

Our garden has surprises planted by the garden-talented previous owners. This purple beauty surprised us this week. The kids run out to check on it each morning.

Today at the park the grass was covered in golden dandelions and my desert babies were so excited. I don't think they've ever seen so many flowers. They picked dandelions all afternoon and I twisted Eva a crown. Little princess.