Tia Allred Blog

A few weeks ago we went on a very quick weekend trip to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival here in Washington.  Round trip, it was only about 30 hours from start-to-finish. And between traveling and traffic, we estimated that we spent about 12 of those 30 hours in the car!  Phew! The kids did excellent though, and we actually had a really fun time.

The tulip fields are breath-taking.  However, it was a total zoo and took forever to finally get to our destination (the video doesn't show how busy it truly was).  But we are glad we took the trip, it was fun to explore something beautiful and interesting in our new state of Washington!

The weather has really started warming up the past couple weeks--and we are loving it! When the wind subsides, we are outside for what seems like every waking moment!

Last Friday, was one of those days.  Brett mowed the whole lawn for the first time this Spring (it still takes about an hour and a half, even on a big riding lawn mower).  The kids each took their own turn riding on it with him.  Honest to goodness, I was pretty sure that each of them was going to zonk out and take a little quick nap while riding on it--they looked so relaxed and limp sitting on Brett's lap with his arm holding them tight and the lawn mower just steadily cruising along.
While one was out with Dad mowing, the other one was wandering around and digging in to their snack bag.
After the lawn was mowed, we started a fire in our fire pit and roasted hot dogs for dinner while the sun set.  We also had baked beans, potato chips, and IBC Rootbeer.  And of course, we made s'mores for a treat too.  It was fun and a great little evening together.

I had high hopes for starting a fun Easter tradition on the symbols of Easter, this year.  But unfortunately, time just escaped me and I did not.  Hopefully next year I can incorporate that into our Easter festivities.

This year, was pretty low-key, but great nonetheless.  We woke up and went to church as a family, and enjoyed the Easter messages that were shared.  While we were gone to church, the Easter Bunny left a basket for the kids.  He was a bit liberal with the candy (filling the eggs too full and whatnot), so he will have to remember that only a few jellybeans per egg next year will do just fine (still learning how to be parents, I guess)!  But by far, the best part of the Easter baskets, were that Landon and Vivienne each got their own little metal watering can, metal hand-held shovel, and metal hand-held rake.  They have spent hours upon hours "gardening" outside with nothing but their new tools, dirt, and the occasional bit of water, weeds, and sticks.
Brett's sister invited us over for Easter dinner, along with his other sister and their families.  She even put on a little Easter Egg hunt, and the kids loved it.  It was extremely windy, but that didn't stop them from having a blast.
Vivienne could not get enough of the candy.  She just followed everyone around after the egg hunt to beg for extra jelly beans.  Trying to maintain her figure, I suppose.

It was a great Easter Sunday, spent with those I love, and grateful for the Resurrection and that it makes eternal families a reality.

We added two fainting goat kids to our little homestead recently!

Meet, Gladys and Gertrude!

I decided to compile a little Spring & Summer bucket list for our family!  

Almost every afternoon when the kids are finished with nap time and quiet time--we go outside.  Our little routine is that I play with the kids for a few minutes, usually they just demand that I push them super high on the swing--but most of the time I just relax on the chair and supervise/referee.  And they come over every once and a while to show me something (Landon often makes me a "salad" he wants me to pretend to eat, using weeds he pulls out of the ground and puts in his bucket), or to give me a snuggle.  Sometimes I do work on a little project out there.  Once the garden is well underway, I'm sure I'll spend my time in there tending to it and weeding.  They go out alone in the mornings, quite often.  But in the afternoon, I'm usually ready for a little fresh air, and it makes keeping an eye on them easier--since they sometimes roam.

Spring tends to be quite windy, and some days are more gusty than others.  This specific afternoon was on the blustery side, but it wasn't downright miserable to be out there like it is on some windy days.

I snapped a picture of Vivienne snuggled up on my lap.  But sometimes since those pictures are so zoomed in, it doesn't really capture all I'm going for in the picture--like the big fields behind us with the tractors working the land, the stack of firewood off to the side, etc... (or the dirty diet Dr. Pepper and mosquito repellant on the table next to me...because let's be real)
So, I asked Landon to come snap a few photos.

And this (along with several other very similar variations) is what he came up with:

And so I let Vivienne take a turn, and she actually got this one on the first try:

We brought home 13 chicks last week!  There are 5 different varieties, although I can't remember which ones they are now. Can't wait for the farm fresh eggs to start coming, although we are a good several months away from that still.
We have had chickens almost our entire marriage--even when we lived in the city and before we had kids.  We had some great hens before we moved up to Washington, but moving them such a far distance would have been a huge ordeal, so we left them in Arizona.

Landon and Vivienne both love them, although Vivienne isn't a fan of holding them, just petting them.  Landon, on the other hand, is an expert at handling them.  He knows how to gently scoop them up and hold them.  Some of them even calm down in his hand and just sit perched on his fingers, instead of flapping to try to escape.

We had some friends over yesterday, and they were a little timid about picking them up but wanted to hold them.  So, they would request a certain color and Landon would pick it up out of the box and help them hold it.  It was darling and sweet to watch them all play with the chicks for a while.
They are already growing up so fast.  Brett has started work on their coop.  I think it will look so good when it's all finished!  He is under a time crunch now, since the chickens will keep growing whether we want them to or not!  And we really don't want our basement to be taken over by chickens, so the coop is a big priority right now!

I love the idea of little fairy gardens, and thought it would be a fun activity to work on with the kids.  Landon also loves gardening and plants--when he goes outside to play, he digs holes and redistributes the dirt.  And then comes inside and tells me all about the garden he made and what he planted.

I think we will make the kids their own little garden patch this year that they can work on, even though we will have a big family garden as well.  They have a few metal gardening tools, and rumor has it that the Easter Bunny is going to give them a few more.

This last week, we worked on our first fairy garden.  It was so fun!  We will definitely be making more.  I picked up a few things when I went to the Tricities a while back.  And we picked out a couple plants at the store.  The kids painted little houses to add (we will put them in our future ones, we ended up using the bigger house I painted in this one).  We planted in an old container we found in the barn behind our house before they tore it down this winter.  Brett drilled a few holes in the bottom of it before we planted, so it would drain.
I love it!  The kids love it too, and like to show their friends when they come over.

We added another animal to our homestead recently.  His name is Blue.  He is a good mix of several breeds and will turn 1 in June.  We really like him!  He is a great dog, although he does get really excited to see me or Brett, and it takes him a few minutes to calm down.  We are working with him on that, and hopefully he will calm down a little bit more as he ages.
Brett built a cute dog house and dog run area.  We still need to paint the dog house (per my request) and secure the bottom a little more, since Blue can dig out.  But it's almost finished!

Blue likes being a guard dog to the kids while they play outside.  It's adorable!

This year for Superbowl Weekend, we were able to go on a little getaway with several other families. We had a blast!  It's so fun to spend a weekend like that, all staying at the same place.  The kids go to bed and the moms and dads can keep partying until the wee hours of the morning.  Many movies were watched, many hours were spent in the hot tub, hills were sled, elk were viewed eating, a lot of food was consumed, and many mocktail mixed drinks were made.  But most importantly many friends and family ties were strengthened, and that is always the most wonderful part!
And thank you so very much, to Brett's cousins for inviting us and hosting us.  We had a great time!

We had a family Valentine's Dinner this year.  I hope I can turn this into a yearly tradition, to have a special dinner celebrating love, on or around Valentine's Day!  It was a great time to talk about who we love, why we love them, and to have fun together!  As a mom, I really enjoy trying to make memories with my little family.  I hope they know that even when I can't spend a lot of money, I try to make things special for them.

For dinner, we did cheese fondue, with lots of things to dip in the cheese, and a green salad!  We had "Crush" soda to drink.  And I made some special Oreo cookie pops for a little treat.  It was fun to spend time together with all the loves of my life!