My Oh My

My Oh My how the time goes by! It has been WAY to long since I got in here to post some things that we have been doing so please be patient with this one as it is a lengthy post to get caught up to speed here. Spring has finally sprung here and with that comes a little Spring cleaning. Last week I cleared everything off the counters in the kitchen and went to town, this is how I prefer my kitchen to be on any given day but with five kids that isn't always a reality, most days but not always. Ahhh a nice fresh clean kitchen that I know has no crumbs hiding, absolute clean. For some reason this just calms me, and makes me very happy. Here is Zachariah on Sunday teaching Malia who is 6 how to play chess. One of the "favorite" games we play and Malia can't yet so Zachariah being the sweet big brother he is volunteered to teach Malia the basics and even helped her play for a bit before she decided she had been at it long enough. I love and appreciate how Zachariah is to his little sisters, he is so sweet to them and is always willing to teach, shows such patience and truly is a really nice big brother.

I thought I should take a snap shot of Austin helping out with the dishes. He does this often and I am sure there will come a time that I just may need some proof that he can and does help out. I am also realizing there will come a time sooner than later that this will be a novelty here. The kids are growing up and will be leaving the nest much sooner than I care to admit. I appreciate Austin as well and all he does to help, he is such a sweet and tender hearted soul who adds so much to our family. Look he is even smiling while he works! That just shows what a sweet guy he is. I mean come on who in the world smiles while they are doing dishes?

Ahhh the comfort of our precious wood stove. Thank goodness for this valuable little thing it came in so handy last week when we woke Sunday to a very very cold house..well to me it was cold it was 56 in the house and that to me is cold. The furnace was running and doing a fine job... blowing cold air! We thought it was the pilot light so we called PG&E on Monday and on Tuesday found out it was not the pilot light. Our furnace is to new and yes it is gas but no it doesn't have a pilot light to worry about. I then made a call to the furnace folks and set up an appointment for their first availability which turned out to be Friday. If we had not had our wonderful wood stove we would have had a very cold week. This stove is original with the house which was built in 1913. We all think it looks like one of those wood stoves you see in the basement that come to life in the movies. Not the best picture but the kids wanted me to post one of it "Glowing"

Here is Royce reading the little girls a good night story, one of the many wonderful things he does for our little munchkins. They love bedtime stories and this is one thing we have done with the kids over the years that I believe is priceless.

I took time to make the family an apple pie for a yummy treat. My dad brought us two boxes of apples at Easter time. I love to bake especially for my family. Royce thought this was such a pretty pie that we took a picture of it. I make them like this all the time, I love that Royce appreciates me and my talents, so much so that he takes pictures.

Along with the Spring cleaning Mr. Gaston was well over due for a bath. He always gets bathed in the kitchen sink, primarily because he is so little and I don't have to crawl around on the bathroom floor dangling myself over the edge of the tub. Zachariah decided to give him the "hairdo" for the picture.

My sweet little dog is such a trooper and an absolute joy to all of us. He puts up with so much and is always so willing to do tricks and endure baths and "hairdos" all for the yumm yumm he gets in reward, plus he loves to please. Things are good for the Brunette household and we are very blessed to have one another and all the love that we share.