Our Campers...

Well, we made it through the carless night. I was very worried about it for some odd reason (well...I WORRY about everything....CoooCooo!). No emergencies that warrented a taxi or the ambulance, so we are doin great. I started a post last night about our fun, girly day, but got sidetracked (imagine that....I know my A.D.D. has gotten tons worse with each pregnancy), and just deleted the first two sentences when I came back to the computer screen this morning. I just uploaded the pictures Grady and Stu brought back from their BIG Father Son Campout and thought that I'd share them....

hmmmm.....snow....why??? I'm not sure...haven't gotten the spill on these photos yet....
....gettin' ready for 'mallows or 'dogs maybe?...
....NICE BEANIE!!!! I made it on Thrusday night, but forgot to take a picture and upload it before I sent the camera away for a few days.....
...and the biggest news....STUART LOVES FISHING....everyone left camp this morning, and he had to go back for a few more casts before allowing Daddy to pack up to come home....
........LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS ONE!!!.........

They stayed in the suburban since it seemed crazy to put up our huge tent for the two of them and one night. They blew up the air mattress before leaving yesterday and had it all planned out. Sounds like it was a very, very late night and early, early morning for them. Glad I wasn't the only one with little to no sleep. Yes, mine was a self inflicted wound. I was up until about 1-ish trying to figure out the crochet patterns and then had to tend to Myles and Fiona after that. No biggie, I enjoyed the "ME TIME". I even took the girls walking this morning and mowed the front yard. Have a wonderful weekend.

What I've Been Doing....

The other night a friend of mine showed me a very cute baby beanie that she liked. I thought about it the rest of the night and was debating on whether I should just buy that one off of etsy, or if I should try to learn how to make them. Well, great minds think alike. The next morning I went out and bought the "I Taught Myself Crochet" starter kit and some yarn. THEN, she called and asked if I would like to take a class with her next month (about the EXACT same time her baby is due), and the rest is history. Here's my new fetish....

The first one was for Stuart. He has a Father/Son campout tomorrow night, so I thought it would be neat for him to take it. BUT.....I made it too small, so Myles got it....
...and he LOVES it!

Then next one that I made was for Macy, but Fiona wanted it, so Macy decided BEFORE it was finished that she would let Fiona have it. Here she is showing off as soon as I finished it...

I stayed up late last night to get Macy's done. She had a tough day yesterday, so I promised I'd get a good start on it when I put her to bed. I finished it this morning (we were up before 5:30!), and just finshed Stu's larger one. So....here's the four cutie pies......
...and I had to share this picture too, it was WAY TOO CUTE!!!!
I had a marker in Stuart's to help me remember where I was as far as getting it sized just right. He liked it so much that he wanted me to leave it in there. I am going to attempt to get one finished for Grady before they leave tomorrow. He's got a special request, so we will have to see how far my self teaching can go.

If I could get myself to sit down long enough to read the instructions thru, I may be able to follow the patterns that I have printed off the internet. I have some flowers that I'd like to add to the girl ones, but the patters consist of numbers and abbreviations...a bit too confusing (or time consuming) for me at this moment.

We have a Cub Scout end of the year pot luck tonight. Have a great weekend if I don't post again before then.....but, check back for Grady's cool cap... :)

A Long Weekend

We started off our weekend with Momma FINALLY getting a picture for you all to see how we watch TV....Trombley style! It all started with one Stu head, and then a Macy noggin would appear. Pretty soon we were seeing a blondie there too, and now....NOW....we have trained the newest member of the house to do the same. I can't tell if it is the heat that thing puts off that pulls them near, or if it is the fact that they just can't hear it. The world may never know.... We started in on painting the interior again. I have had a few requests for some pictures, so here are a few.

The before of the railing.....

...and the after. This has been done for sometime now, but still wanted to share.

The before of the upper hallway....
...and the after. We still need to paint the walls, but the trim and the doors are done!
We had a "small" get together yesterday. We cooked some dogs on the BBQ (do I sound like a redneck typing that?). We ended up with 15 (including one newborn and another on the way very soon!) children here and 9 adults here (one had to work that day :( sad. ). It started raining, so we ended up all in the house. Grady took pictures, but I don't know if I can post them, so I better play it safe. My kids are still talking about it. They had a blast! It wasn't too bad on me either. I think that maybe, just maybe, my hormones are going back to a more normal range finally! Did you all enjoy your extra day off?

Puddle Jumpin' ROUND TWO!

Mother Nature gave us a little tease today. The sun came out for a while and it was absolutely beautiful. They kids all went down for a nap...except Stuart. He was so excited for nice weather again. And when they woke up, it was pouring rain again. We were rushing around getting the garage cleaned up to make space for the suburban since hail was part of this thunderstorm (it never came here) and getting the dogs in the garage to keep them from having a heart attack with all of the thunder. Daddy came home a little early and took them out to have some more fun. Sweet Belle sporting her Dora Halloween costume (all day).
You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy.
Miss Macy having so much fun in the rain.
Myles safely watching it all from the warmth of the car.
Who do you think had more fun?




The kids or Daddy?

Puddle Jumpin' ROUND ONE!

It was 9:00 on a Friday morning....

After days (2 1/2 to be exact) of the kids begging, I finally gave in and took them out to puddle jump. We were finding better puddles farther and farther away from the house, so I had to load them up in the car. Myles and Momma needed some protection from the raindrops. Here's the best pictures I could snap in the rainstorm.

Here they were running back home. Stuart needed to use the restroom. I followed close by in the suburban telling them when to stop and then to cross. They had fun.

Some Guy's Kids....

Today was one of those days that you just HAVE to get out of the house. We were stuck inside all of yesterday (except for the 1.5 hours of preschool party...inside), and the rain has not let up. I needed to run to Cartridge World for some ink, so I decided that we would go walk the mall for some exercise. As we were unloading out of the car in the rainstorm....with puddles way deeper and way grosser (than I could find around my house) than this one...... ....I look down at the kids climbing out of the car and see these on Miss Macy's feet.....

...slippers that came with a night gown years ago....

"WHAT?!?!?!????!!!!"

"I told you that those would not work outside today! Get back in the car!"

"But, Mom, I don't have any shoes to wear in the rain." pouty face, pouty face.

And this I knew, of course. I just cleaned out the shoe box and packed up all of her tenny runners for Fiona later. She had one sneeker shoe...ONE ....that would fit her. We cleaned her room from closet to underbed searching for the other.....no luck. So, I really could not be mad at her for this.....keep quiet......the mall has a Payless, right??? I hope so....."okay, Macy, stay in the car until I have Myles loaded and then we will get you out and you run like crazy. Try to stay out of the puddles, your tights will just soak the water up." And we were off. First stop--Mall Directory. Second Stop--Payless Shoes. Her only request was that they had ties on them so that she could tie 'em. BONUS--BOGO 1/2 off sale! Yes, Fiona had to get another pair of shoes too. She will not take off her orange crocks, so we picked up a pair of pink Dora ones. Stu was feeling left out, so we tried desparately to find him a pair of summer sandals, but I promised something else for the poor kid. We pushed bear strollers around the Build A Bear for a while, and then headed down to Gymboree. I found these cute boxer briefs with airplanes on them online, but they were out of his size, so I was hoping for some here. YES! We SCORED again. He's happy and Myles doesn't know he was left out. SHHHH!

They even talked me into eating there. YUCK. I will not allow them to do that one again. I asked for two kids meal deals and had to pay for four. They charge per scoop? Why couldn't someone explain that one to me. You pay for the rice and then the topping. Crooks. But, I did manage to get the kids' energy burned down a little and have two asleep right now, so I better get back to invoicing. Have a Happy Thursday!

Preschool Graduation Party

We managed to make it through the entire preschool graduation party for Macy this afternoon. It was short and sweet. The kids all sat on the floor with the teacher (she was playing the guitar) and sang songs to us. We watched a slideshow set to music of the year, and ate cake. I met several other parents today, and found out alot of things....

1. They made me out to be super mom because:

A. I have four kids in the car with me;

B. I still look so cute with "perfect" hair (um, moouse and pull wet hair back into a bent ponytail....SUPERCUTE!)???;

C. I look so happy all of the time;

D. I manage to drop off Macy and pick her up on time everyday with the other kids in the car;

2. I must be SUPER ORGANIZED to have so many small children;

3. okay, I'm NOT supermom because I forgot my camera (and that made the other forgetful momma happy);

4. I could have given all of my kids away today...many people threatened to take them. I DID tell them that they would be hunting me down within hours. But it did make me think about what I could accomplish alot without the four kids and a husband in Wyoming......ummmm.....alot of fun.

Anyway, my hubby is home and he's chatting, so I lost my train of thought. I was just amazed how others see me. I guess that I'm not as grumpy as I see myself. Have a great evening.

NOTE: I just placed the rest of the post under the comments section....

MIA...well, Kinda....

I had another "wild hair" Friday and decided to redo the deck. I have some sickness that makes me start a thousand projects and then never quite finish them. Well, I did manage to get one completed from START TO FINISH in four days! The four hottest days, mind you. Let's face it, the deck was in dire need of attention when we bought the house last year, but I was HUGE and it was HOT, so I had to wait. It has been bugging the heck of me since. Here's the before....

..yeah...it really needs to be replaced....IT REALLY NEEDS TO BE REPLACED with TREX (or real wood), but I am CHEAP (can you tell what I want?). So, I had this wonderful idea to use a solid color stain (I call it paint) on it because I'm really cool like that. haha. I started in 84 degree weather on Friday afternoon. Yup, I CAN'T wait...that's me! My wonderful husband came home early just to help. By the time the kids were going to bed we had went through the entire gallon and had to stop. Grady and Fiona were up bright and early Saturday morning to buy more. I was origianlly thinking that I'd get away with 2 gallons max, but it took three. I just finished the second coat on the high traffic areas today. Way more work than I originally thought, but I am happy with the outcome. Ta-DA!!!!
See the Blueberries? They all three came back!!!

In my painting marathon, I have to say that I did manage to do some major "bad mommy things". Fiona had a crash with Macy on the bike last week while I was planting flowers out front. I warned them, but...

...and then I forgot the sunscreen. I used the broken table umbrella for Myles this weekend, but completely forgot to protect the other kids. I have some red on myself, but it was the poor fair skinned girl that I feel so bad about. She came upstairs three times Saturday night saying that her arm hurt. The two older ones managed fine....they have the skin made for sun just like me. AND, being the lazy momma that I was I put Fiona into big girl panties while we were outside. I was hoping that it would help her to understand. We went through many pairs, but she did go "Poo" on the toilet! I wasn't expecting anything when she said that she was done, but when she scooted forward we saw it. We had a huge cheering party for her. No more success stories since then though.... :(

We managed to take a break on Saturday morning to hit the zoo again. Stuart wanted to take Daddy back and then he wanted to invite his friend. We had a fun time and got to see Bruno the bear. He isn't out in the zoo area, but came out to a cage that was on the end of his home. A few more weeks and we can watch him play. I could not manage to get the four of them to look at me all together...

That's why we don't have any current family pictures.....

Well, I need to go check messages and get the house picked up AGAIN. Have a wonderful week.

Preschool Field Trip

Macy's class went on a Field Trip to the Zoo yesterday. My other children were feeling so left out that we decided to go too. I put the Burley back together and loaded it in the car. I remembered my camera, so here are a few pictures for you: Stuart was the BEST! We went through the gardens this time and he loved them. When we were walking through the Sensory Garden, we found a few patches of grass with the label "Elijah Blue Fescue". Stu was so excited, saying "I have a cousin named Elijah Blue!". I told him that is just what Nana calls Eli. We also sniffed some Lemon leaf thingies, and felt Lamb's Ear. It was neat to have only the children that enjoy "taking time to smell the roses".
Fiona's favorite....the Siberian Tiger.....she was on her way to go potty....I won't share that picture!
Here's where we ran into the preschool....at the wolf den!
And the HIT OF THE DAY was the river otters. They are usually sleeping everytime we come through, but today one was showing off! Stuart and Fiona ran along the window everytime that he came swimming by. We've decided that they need to clean out the tank though...wouldn't you agree?
Here's the bus leaving the zoo. I thought it would be fun to take a picture of all of the kids looking out the back windown, but there was a minivan in between us and the bus. We spent the entire 2 1/2 hours at the zoo, and now we are planning another trip back tomorrow with daddy. Have a great weekend!

Macy's Eye Is HEALING!!

We went back to the eye doctor yesterday evening and things look like they are on the mend.  Dr. Tom said that he is pretty sure that things will be fine now.  We have to keep the antibiotic drops going thru Friday, and then things should be great.  I learned one interesting point though.  The doctor told me that eye injuries heal pretty well as long as they were NOT made by living things, such as a fingernail, leaf, stick, etc.  If an injury occurs because of one of these things, there is a chance that the eye will heal, but can be re-injured easily...by rubbing the eye, or just bumping it.  The top layer doesn't seem to heal as securely to the second layer.  WOW!   Since Macy's was sand, it should be fine.  That updates you on us.  

We're getting rain again today, but will be near 90 degrees this weekend.  What is it with the weather?  I was looking around at how green things are getting here and noticed that there are still tons of leaves that froze on the trees last year instead of falling off.  Are we just skipping spring and fall now?

Macy Update

The Letter E... E is for EYES! We've had some eye issues lately, so I thought that I'd give an update to you all. Saturday evening Macy was outside playing in the sand box. She came in crying that she had gotten some sand in her eyes. We flushed the eye out with saline solution, but it was still bugging her so she went to bed. We were up two more times that night flushing it out with saline. I asked if I needed to take her to the doctor, but she refused. Sunday she was still rubbing on it, but managed pretty well. After church it was really bugging her. She told me that I could take her to the doctor. I said that we would check it on Monday morning and see what we needed to do. She went to bed early again. This morning she woke up and it was still red and puffy. I made an appointment this morning. I took all four kids in....and it went rather well. Fiona made a stinky diaper, so I left Macy in Dr. Tom's hands and went out to change her. Myles had to be buckled up to prevent any further accidents. When I went back in Stuart told me that the doctor put drops into her eyes that would make them yellow to other people. He showed me her eye. She has a pretty nice spot taken off of the outer tissue. It's a little smaller than the end of a lollipop stick. He said he would put a contact in an adult's eye to keep the eyelid from bugging it, but wanted to see how she is mending tomorrow evening. So we're going back. I acutally had the antibiotic drops that he wanted us to use, so we saved some money of having that prescription filled. She's been a real trooper through all of this. The drops aren't even stinging her eye, and they burned mine. Here's our sport:


And, I can't talk about eyes without showing off Stuart's BIG Brown EYES! Everyone falls in love with them:
He actually prayed for Macy's eye to be better last night. Such a sweet boy. I'll keep you posted on Macy's progress. She keeps asking for more drops, so the three a day shouldn't be bad.

In other news, Myles has started pulling himself up to the standing position. He now doesn't want to sleep in the crib since it is so cool to be standing up in it. I think that I've finally got him down for a nap....only three hours after the original nap time. He's keeping us busy for sure.

We Did It!!!

A friend of mine told me how to make the dandelion crowns last night. She stressed that they needed to be HEALTHY dandelions so that when I made the slit in the stem for the next one the first one would not split completely down. Thanks Jasey! Well, our's were NOT healthy dandelions and since Grady was mowing the lawn, we sprinted around saving what we had. I had to modify the making process a bit, but managed to get some for the girls.

My first attempt was to just tie the stems together. Macy took it over, but soon came in saying that Fiona had broken it. On to another system.... I wrapped pipe cleaners around the smallest screwdriver I could find and then just twisted them into it. That way we could clean it out and use it again. Here's the girls showing of their "cowns"! (in Fiona's words)


What a fun spring day. The breeze is a bit cool, but it isn't stopping us! I have to go to the church and make Mother's Day pin ons for tomorrow. I hope you are all enjoying your Saturday.

The Letter D...

D is for Dandelions. I have been getting so may bouquets of them from my children lately. I actually used to hate these weeds. After this spring, I have learned to look at them as beautiful flowers, especially when the bouquet is brought in by three tiny hands. It means so much to me that my children love them and love to pick them for me. Hearing Fiona say, "Petty Flowers" and bend over to pluck one up for me makes my heart melt. We put them in a cup of water for the day. I've found that if I allow them to sit much longer, they begin to smell funny. This brings me to another idea. Does anyone know how to make a Dandelion Crown? I think that it would be a fun thing to do with the girls if the sun ever shines in our Big Sky again. I want pictures of them showing one off. If you know how, please, Please, PLEASE post the directions in my comments. I promise that I will share a picture of the beauties with you all.

I need to go get my scrapbook things in order. It's that time of the month again, and I have become so disorganized with the stuff, that I need to give some time back to it. I spent an hour uploading pictures to start Fiona's tonight. The dads are all gathering at our house with the kids for a BBQ and some fun while we mommas are having our time! Have a wonderful weekend, and don't forget to share the crown directions.