Hunting at "The Shack" 2009

Alaskan George coming in from a very cold day out in the Wyoming weather.

Although hunting wasn't as successful as most would like it to be (only one deer hanging when we left), it was a fun weekend of visiting. The kids' favorite part had to be the hot tub, they were in it two times a day! Stuart was learning about the birds we have around here from Alan. He loved this book and enjoyed his time with Big Al!

Alaskan Mike coming in one evening!

Myles fell in love with Jed. Alan's puppy. She loved his blankets and he was a bit stingy with them at first, but ended up sharing with her like crazy. If he wasn't such a handful himself, I know that he and Stuart would love a dog.....someday.

The weather was crazy, and I took some neat pictures of the snow, but this is taking too long to upload today, so I'll save them. There's another post of fun following.

Parade Float and Macy's 7th Birthday

Macy's class, along with other first grade classes in town, rode on a float for the Homecoming parade. We were lucky enough to have some nice weather for it, and enjoyed gathering candy for the bucket at home. Here's our little cowgirl! ....and the float. A semi....how lucky were they?
Grady went out and raked up the leaves in our backyard. The snow and freezing temperatures froze most leaves on the tress, but this one just dropped them all. The kids had a blast playing in it before daddy could get them all bagged up.

Macy's 7th Birthday party was fun. We set up a treasure hunt for the kids and they found her present.....

...and then their "treasure", the cake!

It was a wild bunch of screaming girls, but they had fun and we managed to make it through the two hours of fun. She decorated her own cake!

My mistake and *S*N*O*W*.....

Sorry Monica and Deana, that picture on the last post was from our old home and it was the old tv. I posted is as a memorial for the poor television. So, I took a picture of the "new" living room and the "new" tv in the family room just for you. We still need to texture and paint these rooms, so imagine something more friendly to the eyes please.....

The weather is finally on an "up" for us and the snow is going away. Hopefully today. We have a leaking roof in the porch area, so I was out scrambling to get the toys out of there before they were ruined. Grady climbed up there and shovelled the snow and ice off last night. Darn lieing old woman anyway. We asked her about that when we were looking......what a crook she's turned out to be. Hopefully we'll have it all figured out by our one year anniversary....and fixed!

The kids really did enjoy the snow. They begged to go out and play. I love how it takes us 30 minutes to prep just to get out there and after 5 minutes of play, we're tracking snow all over the house. Their favorite part so far is eating it!

Happy Halloween Pajamas!

The kids received a package from their cousins (acutally Grady's cousins, but they are the same age as Macy) today. Inside were some wonderful pajamas for them. They had to model these for a photo. Man, I love it when we can find matching clothing for all of them. The size thing makes it hard. Thank you Tifen and Talon and Anita and Greg. We love them!

Myles, oh, Myles

This two year old of mine has been on a roll this past week. And by roll, I mean a tornado roll. It all started last Monday. He flushed something down the toilet. Not really sure what it was, but we are now down to one bathroom. Yup, the main one is shrink wrapped shut because it will not flush properly. I have found that most of the girls' hair ties are gone, and a nice big bar of soap is missing. I believe that is what happened to the "john".

Thursday we were pretending to eat and drink from the play kitchen as I was writing out invoices for storage. Fiona was in the living room watching tv and he was in the playroom. He wasn't even in the house for five minutes and she said, "something happened to the darn tv". Thinking tha Bresnan was having problems again, I tried to turn the channel. Only sound, no picture. I shut it off thinking that it would be okay when we got back from picking the kids up from school. We ran down there and came home. I surveyed the screen, it was okay. Turned it back on, and that is when I realized that he had broken the under part of the screen. So, that les-than-two-years-old LCD went to the trash. I called Grady at work so that he had time to cool off a bit before he got home to see it.

Bye, bye tv. It was so sad watching it fall into the back of the garbage truck. :o(

On Saturday, we went up to Red Lodge to attend the wedding of our Billings neighbors. It was a blast. Grady's cousin came over to stay with the kids until my mother in law could get here to stay the night. Yes, we had a kidless night! THANK YOU TO BOTH OF YOU! We ran into Billings to shop for a replacement tv, and came home with one that did not get taken out of the box until the wall mount was up and ready for it.

We are in the process of completing phrase two of the tile project. That means I am out a stove for awhile. It would be nice if we could go out to eat, but there just isn't anything around here to enjoy. So, I have a BBQ and a crockpot to be creative with for a while.

We take Grady's cruiser into the glass shop tonight for the replacement windshield and drivers window to be put in. Those darn deer need to watch where they are going from now on! If it is going to get cold, I need a car.

Snow is in our forcast. I hope it is gone before I enjoy another 29th birthday. I hit the big 3-0 and am now going backwards. I don't want grey hair and wrinkles!

So, there's our excitement for a while. I hope that he will calm down a bit. I think that I will go crazy if I have anything else to deal with.

Give Away.....

Okay, I found a giveaway thanks to Jasey! If I win, I may just have to give the bag to her. Go over here to check out these bags. You can have up to three chances to win. They are soooo cute! And, this one is fallish, with a bit of summer color still....kinda like we are here now!

calling for Alan. i know you read. get ahold of us. we're going camping this weekend, it would be great if you showed up. we are heading for sitting bull, but i am sure you can find us if we cant get in there. i will ruin my wifes blog every night if i have to until you call. 431 4831.

Some Projects

Here's that beautiful carpet that was in this house when we purchased it. Yes, my kids have already stained it up, and I have shampooed it, hence the reason for the removal...well, not to mention the "cuteness" of it. We pulled it upl and placed the ditra down, here's the "in progress" photo.

....and it's done! Well, everything but the kitchen area above. I have also removed the pretty wallpaper that you can see. The stripes, the dining area wasn't too bad, but came down too, and the entry had some pretty twiggy pattern. Now, I just need to texture it and paint!

BUT, I have other things taking up my time right now. Like, say, FALL DECORATING! My neighbor gave me the corn stalks and I made up tons of pumpkins for the centers. Not sure if the wind is gonna let these stalks stay up, so I may need to tie them more, but I like it!

We're off to an ice cream social at the school tonight, and tomorrow is the big night for the pumpkin patch of crafting. I am nervous, but hope that I have enough of everything to make it through. I had to order orange and brown craft paint off the internet because you can not buy it in this town. I was very dissappointed to say the least...I mean, come on, Walmart carries it for pete's sake!

Macy stayed home with a terrible cough today, but I think it's calmed down some. Everyone else has managed to be well since the flu episode. Crossing my fingers that is it for a long time. I hope you are all as excited as I am for the fall season coming so quickly upon us!

What a Weekend.....again.

Friday night I took Fiona into the ER. She had a fever that I was treating with tylenol and motrin. She had a red eye that really started swelling, and Grady wasn't to be home from Texas until 8:30. I called the neighbor lady and took the older two over to her house and dropped Myles off with her at her grandma's garden and we headed in. All four rooms were full, so we sat in the back room until one opened up. The eye was just a side effect of something worse. She was swabbed three times and had influenza A. The ER doctor wrote out prescriptions for the entire family to take Tamiflu as a prevention med, and Fiona was treated with that and one other medication. I called every person that I knew had been around us for the past two days and warned them to watch out because they were "exposed".

We wanted to head up the mountain for the weekend, but opted to stay home and finish the tile instead. Grady finished laying it Friday night and we grouted it Saturday night. Now all we have to do is finish the smaller kitchen area when we have the time to pull all appliances out. Sunday we kinda lounged a bit and Monday Grady worked on rearranging the garage to make room for both vehicles and I stripped the entry, dining, and kitchen walls of wallpaper. Man does it feel good to have that ancient decor! We need to texture it and get it painted, but I am fine with it being plain until then....just happy to have the wallpaper gone!

The kids went back to school today and Myles and Fiona had a heck of a time. They fought, cried, and whined all day long. It took me 45 minutes to get him down for a nap. I think that we took him out of the crib way too soon.

I hope that you all enjoyed your weekend. I know that we all needed to stay home and rest. AND, the house benefitted greatly from our days of labor.

Ideas HELP

The doorbell rings this morning, and I didn't hear it. Fiona says, "Someone's here, mom!" I ask her how she knows, and she says cause she heard the doorbell ring. I go to answer it, and sure enough, someone was here. It was a lady from the chruch. They asked me to head up a "craft night" once a month. Either I came up with an idea to teach, or I found someone to teach an idea to us.....

So, since it is almost autumn, and I LOVE autumn, we are starting our class in a few weeks making those wooden pumpkins that I have. October may be making (ie: scrapbook decorating) some Halloween frames for the kids' photos to go in, and I think that November will be making an "fall blessings" block set. But, I haven't a clue from there. I was thinking that December could be making some gift tags for Christmas.

I need your help. What do you think that other ladies would like to make. I need to have the idea and a cost set up for them to sign up. So I need to preplan. If you have ANY ideas for a month, any month, please let me know. If it is something that I can not do, I could try to find someone that could do it.

Thank you for your help.............

First Day of School!

Today was a bittersweet day for me. Two of my babies started school. I was excited to only have half of them home...thinking that I could get more done, but have found myself missing the other two....and it has only been almost three hours.

Here's my kindergarten man and first grade gal!

Grandma and Uncle Kaden came over before school for pictures.

Yesterday we went in to meet the teachers and see the classrooms. Stuart was so nervous and told me he was not going and that if I made him go, he would tell them he was sick. The sad part is that I think he really is sick now. He has had an earache since we left the week of swimming, and now we have a head cold thingy going on. After yesterday, he was excited though! Macy was excited until yesterday. She got pretty nervous after meeting her teacher and seeing her classroom!

I'm excited to go pick them up and see what they think. I heard the kids out at recess this morning as I was mowing the lawn, and I know that will be their favorite part. We'll keep you posted!

more Columbia River photos

The lovely Crescent Bar resort area on the Columbia River. After all of the fun, Myles could not resist a little rest on Teddy's shoulder.
Uncle John and two of his girls, Lauren and Lexi!

The cousins, Lauren, Teddy, and Lexi.

Teddy, Macy and Lexi on the tubes!

Loading up onto the boat. I forgot our swimming suits hanging by Grandma's pool, so we compromised and used the undies and our clothes. Macy was lucky enough to borrow a bikini top from another gal there.

Fiona, Teddy and Stuart taking a ride.

Uncle Russ and Myles having a bit of fun that turned into tears quickly.

Macy, Teddy, and Lexi tearing it up!

Stuart and Tanner chasing chicks!

It was a blast. We enjoyed tons of sun and water. Poor Macy's face still proves it. Thanks everyone for the fun times!

We had a vacation, and I didn't tell you...

We went to Washington for a week. Sorry that I have not been good at keeping this up. We came back with lots of canning to do. 34 quarts of pickles are under our belt, now on to the two boxes of peaches and two boxes of pears. Here's a few pictures for you:
Great Uncle Russ with Fiona, Myles and Stuart on the Columbia River. It was a blast!

Grandma Rose gave Myles an awesome birthday! He had tons of people over for a pool party complete with food and ice cream cake!

We enjoyed lots of swimming in her pool!

Myles was a jumper. We had to keep a close eye on that one!

Macy with Olivia and Stuart. They had a ball together!

It's taking forever to upload pics, so this is it for tonight. I am well past my bedtime and need to get into the school habit with the babes. Thursday is our first day!

Cleaning up OLD LADY stuff.....

Since I've come down to not wanting to unpack another box, I have tried to do other things that need done around here. Today I build shelves in the laundry room and was going to take out the nasty shower doors, but decided to take advantage of the cooler weather. Out front I want to plant a few shrubs, so I started clearing out her junk. Yes. Junk. I had to pull out tons of rocks, chicken wire, bricks and carpet. All laying in various places along this now-dirt path.

See, carpet. And there were these silly plastic boarder pieces around three sides of the planters, and one single solar light. Oh yah, and a rubber "welcome" mat laying out there too.
Inside it isn't much better. We have these beautiful yard decorations on the bathroom handles.

And a yarn bow tied to the screen door. And a very colorful turtle glued to the sliding glass door. These are the ones that I haven't removed yet. I have already taken stickers and vinyl clingies off of mirrors.

We've got vinyl shelf liner coming out the yingyang. Under every sink, on every shelf, and in every drawer. Yes, some of it is the contact paper stuff, but other is just laying there.

Carpet scraps and rugs everywhere. I've hauled enough to the dumpster to cover an entire bedroom already, and still have more. In the garage.....

...and by the front door. I am using these right now since we only have plywood floors there. BUT.....the tile is now in my garage thanks to my father-in-law. So, someday we'll have new floors.

There you have my fun times. I am really considering an all concrete house with drains in the floors and hose spickets in every room. It would be such an easier clean with my kids!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Some House Pics..

So, I've had a few requests for pictures. Haven't completely finished any room yet, but thought that I'd share the few that are looking more normal. First, here's the dresser. I sanded it a bit and used two left over glass knobs from Macy's dresser for the top since I managed to strip a screw for the old ones. It's okay, but I wish that I would have went with an off-white color instead.

Fiona's big bed. We had the twin in there and she loved it for a night or two and then wanted her big one back. Lucky for her, her daddy took care of it last weekend. She was happy, but quickly wanted the room painted too. Man-o-man do we have a demanding little 3 year old. Her poor husband (like in 20 years, that is).
We pulled down the dirty, nasty curtains since I took her pink ones from the last house and are very inpatiently awaiting the arrival of the blinds that I ordered last week. Still needs paint and the decor added to the walls, but it works for now.

The boys' room is larger, but Stuart refuses to sleep on the top bunk, so they are not stacked. They still have the nasty curtains, but hopefully only for another week or so. I have some curtains for it too, but will have to unpack them and then have Grady battle taking these down.

I am cruizin through unloading boxes today (yahoo, I may have some motivation back!) and will try to post pictures for you all as I get the rooms looking a bit more normal. You'll just have to excuse the yucky curtains for now. Better get back to it before I lose that motivation. Have a Terrific Tuesday!