I know I've been MIA lately...

...but I have no intentions on abandoning my blog for the duration of winter, just being distracted by life lately. I have a few posts almost finished that never got published so I might go back to them first. Until then, Anya and Elijah are saying 'HI!'

yes, Elijah is wearing a shirt instead of pants and he has socks on his hands. A boy with very unique sense of style, as you can tell :)

too tired to think of post title...

It's late, very late. I won't even say how late it is right now, because considering how little sleep I got last night, it's a crime to stay up this late, not to mention, sit down just to make a blog post when I was all ready to head to bed. Granted, this is a much needed and very much overdue post, but still... Did I mention that it is VERY late? I might as well just say "Good Morning!"...

I was heading to bed, 3rd time tonight, but just can't commit myself to sleeping because I'm afraid this night will fail me again, just like it did yesterday, whenever I tried to close my eyes.

But something is giving me hope. It's raining outside, and I can barley hear soft rolling thunder in the distance. There's no better lullaby for me than rain. And thunder is like my ultimate cue to GO TO BED. It also prompted me to sit down and finally update my blog. Unpredictable thing, that thunder is...

Ahhhhhh, more thunder... Sleep... Write...

And in the spirit of me declaring my love for thunder and rain, here are some recent photos from our last drive in the mountains, chasing yet another thunderstorm.

driving out of the storm and towards the setting sun

That evening we were all giddy about going on a hike. The storm was one step ahead of us, but we didn't mind. In return we got one of the most incredible sunsets, with a fantastic rainbow on top. The light from the sunset made everything glow with pink and orange, how often do you get to see that?

and now, good night...

Just a couple of 'Maya' moments

That girl never ceases to amaze me. Recently I got her an embroidery hoop and a blunt needle, just for the sake of letting her learn something new. Saying she was thrilled with this new activity would be a criminal understatement. She could.not.put.it.down.

And here's a new gem that came out of her mouth today:

me: Maya, what are you going to wear today?
Maya: You. I'm going to wear you out.

I guess that's what comes after all that practice with 'knock, knock' jokes.

Allow me to indulge myself

Anya doesn't like wearing hats, but her big sister's bike helmet is different. She asked me to put it on her today and I just couldn't resist the cuteness of it all. I went through the dozen of photos I took of Anya in the helmet and could only bear not posting ONE of them, the rest are impossible to leave out of this post!

August days are for...

:: playing in the backyard dirt (digging tunnels never gets old) ::

:: getting cleaned up afterwards ::

:: play dough making ::

:: finishing projects ::

:: celebrating Annie's Birthday ::

We're loving August here!