Inside House Pictures

Since my sister can now access the blog, I am going to post some inside pictures of the new house for her to see: Master Bedroom (top floor)
Dining Room (top floor)
Kitchen (top floor - appliances will be new stainless again)
Living Room (Entry floor to the right of door)
Family Room (in basement directly under Living Room)
Second Bedroom (top floor)
Bedroom 3 (garage level)
Bedroom 4 (garage level)

There are two bath rooms in the top level and one on the garage level too. We'll paint a few of the walls to change the color sometime. Hope you get the idea, Tosha.

Sidewalk Paint

Cousin Elijah came over for a visit today. We played with toys, the weather board, and puzzles. We read stories and he laughed when Macy was put into time out for a water mess she made. We all really enjoyed the visit. Thanks for coming cousin -- do it again soon!

It was such a beautiful day that we decided to go outside. The backyard was still muddy in the garden area, so we dug out the sidewalk chalk and went out front. I gave each child a paintbrush and some water to "paint" with. Here are some pictures.

Fiona just loves coloring and writing on the Aquadoodle. Here she is with a brush enjoying the fun. She walked around the sidewalk all afternoon. Thank goodness there aren't any scratches from her crashes though.
Stuart had a blast just painting over anything that I drew and just plain water painting the sidewalk. He did a great job of playing alone during this project.
Macy really turned into an artist. She wanted me to draw things for her and she drew her own to paint. It's a good thing that we were able to have some fun. Her day was lots better than the past few have been. We just need to get her to use her noggin more.

That's our day. I hope that everyone else was able to enjoy the sunshine too!

Saturday Branding

We made a pretty quick and direct trip to Wyoming for some branding. I did manage to get a few good pictures of the kids, although there were a few times that I wished I had the camera and didn't. Here is Princess Macy petting a calf and telling it that everything was going to be okay and it would see mommy again soon.

And Stuart basically saying the same thing. He really enjoyed this cowboy stuff.

He even remembered to take along his cowboy hat that Grandma Rose bought him when she was out in January. Later in the day he said, "These hats sure do make your hair sweaty."

And, finally down to the baby girl. Fiona had a blast. She kept wanting down, but after the handful of dirt she took in at home the other day, I wasn't about to let her down into the cow poo. It was a tough day of packing a baby that just would not give in to her tiredness. She loved the cows and all of the other excitement too much. What a party girl we have on our hands.

And the final picture for today.....a foreigner gets into the action. Steve and Terry are hosting an exchange student from Taiwan. Yi Chung (sorry if I miss spelled this, correct me if I'm wrong in any place of this paragraph) got right out there into the action. He was a bit concerned that he did not have any gloves to touch the cows with, and I assured him that it would be okay to go without...and he did! What a trooper. Yi is a very clean person, but was not a bit afraid to get out there into the smokey branding area and run a gate for assistance. Way to go man!

I came home with a terrible ache in my ear and back teeth. I was not able to do much yesterday except fall in and out of sleep. I just hope that it isn't a sinus infection. I was able to use some pressure on my cheek bone last night to relieve some of the blockage for a while, and have a call into the doctor. I've been battling a head cold for the past two weeks, and this just seems like the final attempt at getting me down. Hopefully we can come up with a good remedy for it quickly. Have a great week.

A New Place to Call Home!

We put in an offer on this house today, and it was accepted! We are tentatively set for closing on May 25, 2007. I am pretty excited. It is not new, but has 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a fireplace and a two car garage--everything that I wanted (plus an extra bath). It is on four levels, so we'll have to teach Fiona stairs, but Macy learned them fast. We will need to paint the exterior sometime, but that won't be much. I just had to share the exciting news with everyone!

Three Things Tag

Sandy has challenged me to answer these (off of her blog), so we'll see what I come up with:

Three Things I Love:
1. My family
2. The mountains
3. Clean house

Three Things I Hate:
1. Being locked out (it happened at the house today, not something to worry about in WY)
2. Scooping Dog Poo
3. Being lied to

Three People Who Make Me Laugh:
1. My kids
2. My siblings
3. Driving in traffic with Grady and the kids (if I'm not scared)

Three Things that Scare Me:
1. Heights (but not flying)
2. Spiders
3. Anything I have no control over

Three Things I Don't Understand:
1. Abuse of any kind
2. Montana State Tax Returns
3. Why people don't pay their bills

Three Things On My Desk:
1. hand sanitizer
2. jar of buttons
3. piles of papers

Three Things I Plan To Do Today (or Did Today):
1. made cookies
2. Get clothes off of the line
3. fold laundry

Three Things I Want To Do Before I Die:
1. Go to Alaska
2. Finish my Private Pilot's License
3. Own a business

Things I Can Do:
1. Manage a business and full time mother
2. Craft
3. Take three and a half kids shopping by myself

Three Things I Can't Do:
1. Fix a flat tire
2. Change oil
3. Anything musical

Three Things I Miss:
1. Working at Milly G's
2. FHE with the entire family at home
3. My easy going attitude with housework and the kids

Three Things I'd Like to Learn:
1. To fly a helicopter
2. Play the piano
3. The ins and outs of successful food storage

Three Things I Regret:
1. Getting so angry at little things
2. Not keeping in touch with friends better
3. Not being a better organizer

Three Favorite Foods: (remember that I am pregnant)
1. Chocolate
2. Chef Salads with pears and grape nuts
3. Tony's Frozen Pizzas

Three Favorite TV Shows as a Kid:
1. Growing Pains
2. Three's Company
3. The Flintstones

Three People I Tag(and these people can either do this on their own blogs, or comment on this one!)
1. Deana
2. The Tharp Family
3. Jill (since I know that you read this)

Happy Spring to all, and to all a Good Night!

House Hunting

Well, tonight we decided to take a look at two new houses in the subdivision we were considerding to build in. The first house was built by a partner to the contractor that we have spoken with and looked like this:

We were not very impressed with it. It did have some great features like a large basement that we could finish for more bedrooms, a bath, great storage and a family room with lots of egress windows for light. It also had a huge garage (more than we need), but the interior was not finished with very quality carpet and cabinets. The lot was wonderful, and Macy picked the master as her and Stuart's bedroom.

The second house looked like this:

The quality of workmanship was tons better, but the garage was a very small two car and the basement was limited on what could be done for finishing. The cabinets were nice and so was the gas fireplace, the windows were wood and the flooring was better.

However, we just were not overly impressed with either. We have an older home that we want to look at since building right now would put us into moving in in early fall. Way too long for me to wait. It's pretty exciting that we can purchase without the Wyoming house selling, but now we just have to find the right place.

The kids are very excited to be looking for a new place. They are really missing their trampoline and understand that it will not be set up until we purchase. I would like to get into something so that we could start a garden for this summer. I am using up what I have canned the past two years and want to fill the jars again this fall. We should be able to get some fruit from Washington since Sandy will be coming out after the arrival of our boy (yes, they are pretty sure it is another SON!) I wasn't going to say anything since we have no proof, but after three attempts at getting a picture, we are sure there were boy parts down there! What a perfect way to finish up our child birthing days.

Anyway, that's about the best news we've had in a week. Everyone is on the mend, but I am still battling the head cold, and Stu and Fiona are still battling the runny nose yuckies. If we do make a decision to purchase, we will be sure to update everyone then. Have a great week!

A Weekend of Excitement - Really

We started off this weekend early Friday morning...heading down to Worland for an ultrasound and doctor appointment. It was pretty neat for us to see the baby. Grady even decided at the last second, "I only want to know what it is if it has a penis." Shocking to me, but exciting. We didn't get any "proof" pictures of the baby, only one of the face. This one is as wild as it's siblings...always on the go.
I was able to go directly to the doctor afterwards, and they said that I have gained 20 pounds in 2 months. I was as worried as the doctor...BUT Saturday and Sunday I was ten pounds less, so I have to think that she made a mistake...right? Please agree with me -- I'm in a pretty unstable emotional state right now....ha, ha.

We spent Friday at my parent's house trying to help with something. Grady helped my dad paint two rooms, and I basically chased the kids around. My sister and brother were both there and we had some laughs, but Fiona was pretty miserable. I thought that she was a little feverish from teething (she still only has two). I was holding her and she did a quick 2 second shake and then fell limp....her eyes were open, but we just could not get a response out of her. I yelled for Grady to come out, that something was wrong. He was yelling back that he couldn't. I kept yelling for him, and finally he came out. Immediately, he took Fiona from me and ran to the car saying we were taking her to the ER. As I was driving there, we were stuck at a red light, and she fell forward on his lap, not breathing. I drove onto the sidewalk and around the truck ahead. The ER team was wonderful. They immediately took us in and started checking things. By now she was getting more responsive, but we were still worried. The doctor came over to check her, and said that she had a febrile seizure. It is pretty common with high fevers and really isn't as bad as it seemed to us. He said that they do go unresponsive for a few minutes afterwards, but it really doesn't forcast any more seizures or cause any problems. She did not test positive for Flu or RSV, but it is another virus caused yucky. SO.....we went back my parent's house with strict instructions to medicate her every three hours to keep the temperature down.

The medication only kept her temperature down to around 101 - 102, but that was enough according to the ER doctor. The poor girl was miserable all weekend. Grady and I were the only ones that could hold her or talk to her. Easter pictures did not work. Here is the best one that we got-

We're home now and Fiona is still battling the fever, although she is not quite as clingly as she was. Macy is fighting a runny nose and cough, and Stuart was coughing last night. We were unable to attend church yesterday due to the sickies. I am READY to be over this cold season.

We didn't even get any pictures of all of the cousins together. Bummer, since we were there and it would have been a wonderful picture to have. Maybe next time. Until better news arrives, I hope that everyone had a very Happy Easter weekend and will have a wonderful week.

More Mining Pictures

I just thought that I'd post a few more pictures to give everyone a sizing view. If you enlarge this one, Stuart and Alan are standing on the ground in front of the shovel. And here is one of a shovel filling up a dump truck.....
Isn't this just any little boy's dream? Vroom, vroom, I like trucks!....

To Gillette and Back

Doing my civil duty, we drove through fog and snow early yesterday morning to arrive in Gillette on-time for court. I had the family drop me off at the courthouse and then they headed down to take a tour of the coal mines. Our friend, Alan, took his lunch to show them all of the goodies. Here is Stuart on the bus all decked out for his exit. Macy had fallen asleep in the bus and missed some of the fun. Here is Stuart and Alan climbing down from the Shovel. What an amazingly large piece of machinery. Stuart loved it all!
Back at the hotel, the swimming pool was closed while they retiled the deck area. Luckly for us, they had this playground for the kids to play on. Fiona watched Macy climb the slide once, and she was hooked. I took off her pants and socks so that she could have a better grip. Check out our monkey girls.
Here's Fiona smiling for daddy after she reached the top. She was having a ball.
Here is the only picture of Macy paying attention to the camera. They all enjoyed running around before bedtime.
Unfortunately, no one slept last night. Grady finally went to the gas station for Motrin for the kids at 3 a.m. The room was a very warm and humid 75 degrees all night, so we just could not get comfortable. We'll not be staying there again....or should I just say that we're going to avoid the Gillette area if all possible?

When I finally checked the email, I did have a letter stating that my testimony was worth the trip as the defendant changed his plea this morning. I guess that the evidence was strong enough to prove the case and he just couldn't mentally go through another day of not having a true case to defend. Good news for me since I had been thinking this was an entire waste of time and State of Wyoming money.

We're getting snow AGAIN. I better be getting caught up on housework and work work before we head out again Friday. Have a nice evening.