A Family Day! I Have Proof!!

Yep you read the title of this post correctly, and yes Weston is in it. Sometimes I feel like I am a single parent, Weston is so busy trying to balance his town job and the farm and cattle. When he started his town job I was so excited thinking he would be home at 5:30 for the night. I am not real sure why I thought this, I was so naive. Weston's town job just made it so his farming day starts at 5:30 p.m. Why you might ask does he do both? Well the answer is quite simple really, we wanted the stability of a town job yet we both agree that the farm is necessary to raise our kids the way we want them raised. (Not to mention that farming is more like a hobby than a job to Wes).

We don't spend a lot of time together camping, fishing, hiking, gardening and some of the things that many of you enjoy doing as a family. We just don't have time, therefore I have found that we don't have very many pictures of our family activities. They just aren't that exciting to photograph. Wes usually gets home around 5:30 (except during the tax season) I try to have dinner ready and the kids in their farm clothes when he gets home. We eat, and then the whole family heads out to check cows and pivots and change water. The kids are learning a lot about the farm and they get so upset if we don't get to go. We are very grateful for the time we have together and I am so grateful to Wes for teaching the kids the importance of work!

Last Sunday we took the kids on a picnic to Warm River and fed the fish. This is the first time we had done this with them and they loved it. We took the scenic road home and were able to see and osprey dive into the river and come out with a fish. It was awesome!


Every time we try to take a picture of the kids Kallie busts out some kind of a pose. Should I be concerned? After our picnic we did this..... Pony Rides!!
After much begging and pleading and a little push from the neighbors, we partnered up in buying a pony. I am positive Weston has had more fun with this than the kids. He loves it, but so does Cole. Diamey is a good little pony that is broke to ride and pull a cart. She is really gentle and lets the kids maul her to death.
Kallie and Jalyssa are besties. We are so grateful for cute little Jalyssa letting Kallie tag along all the time and for being such a good example to our little girl.
Now that is a good pony for letting Wes hitch a ride. (she was not thrilled) Wes is such a nerd, I really try to not let him get too far from the house when he tucks his pants into his boots like that!

Kallie Turns 5

Kallie turned 5 on May 12. She could not have been more excited about this day. We started the morning off bright and early, she had gymnastics pix at 8:30. We let her open her presents before we left. All she wanted was a Baby Alive doll, which she got. She was thrilled. We had a little birthday lunch with her cousins, Hanna, Haylie and Brooklyn. Kallie was insistant she have a birthday party (which I am not a huge fan of) so I let her plan her party. It was a cousins only party and we played freeze dance (Kallie planned the games) and duck, duck, goose. Since Kallie is now five she is all grown up. She didn't need me to decorate her a cake, she did it herself. When we were in town she refused to hold my hand to cross the parking lot into gymnastics. I am sad about this, but I think it is funny that she decided on her fifth birthday she didn't need me anymore. Silly girl.
This is Kallie and Brookie. What cute little friends. After her "party" we play babies all afternoon. Then we met Weston for dinner, the Jensen's came with us since Libbie wasn't able to make it to the "party." We had a great day!

Excuses

Just so you know we are still alive, we are not sick, or out of the country, as a matter of fact we are not even all that busy. So what is my excuse for not blogging???

1. My camera got dropped on Christmas, it is not really working all that well. I may as well not have even taken Easter pix for how well they turned out. What fun is a blog post without any pictures right?

2. I am not creative enough to write a post that will keep your attention without pictures.

If you know of a good camera that will fit in my purse that doesn't cost more than I make in a month of teaching preschool (which is not a lot), and will take decent pix I am open for suggestions. My camera shopping starts now. I will then re-join the blogging world.

Here is just a brief update of us: (Mostly for my journaling purposes, like you really care)

Kallie

• Is very excited for summer
• still doing well in preschool
• has mastered a cartwheel
• wants to be the octo-mom when she grows up

Cole

• plans to be a wwf fighter when he grows up
• Has developed the "boy" smell (you know when boys go outside to play and instantly smell like wet dog even if they have bathed and been smeared with baby lotion not 20 min prior)
• Loves to go to the farm with his dad and his new dog Spice
• Had developed a love for milk (seriously drinking a half gallon a day)

Weston

• Successfully completed another tax season
• Finally talked me into a dog and then a different dog after he didn't like the first one so much.
• Is slightly obsessed with small farm animals ex: goats, ponies, chickens
• Enjoying a little time spent outside working on the farm

Me

• Have developed a slight obsession with couponing
• Trying to come up with ideas for the last few weeks of preschool (any ideas are appreciated)
• cleaning up lots of messes
  
• referring lots of fights
• loving my un-busy life and enjoying my kids so much
  

Can you say Cheese Ball!!

I decided since it has been over a year since I had the kids pictures taken that I would attempt this most dreaded job today. Kallie was totally stoked about this and practiced her poses all morning. Cole was excited as well until it was time for the actual event. Last time I had his pictures taken he was awesome and smiled a ton and we were done in like 10 minutes. Today was a little different, when I told him to give us his best smile this is what we got for the first 20 shots seriously. I then had to get after him a little for being silly which only made him mad. Then he said, '"I am not going to mile for that ole lady mom." It was pretty much over after that, but I got a couple of okay ones. I also didn't realize how badly he needed a haircut until I saw the pictures later. Ooops!!

Seriously what is that face, he looks like he someone just squirted lemon juice in his eyes!
On the up side this is the first time EVER that Kallie has not screamed and cried when getting her pictures taken. She did great!!
My Little girl is growing up so fast!
My Cole Man, good thing he is so cute otherwise I would have let Jenny adopt him by now!!

New Year, New Memories, New Messes

My kids had been in bed for about 15 minutes one evening when the doorbell rang. It was my dad and my brother who needed some technical assistance from Weston. My dad asked if the kids were in bed and I said yes and he just grinned and told me they needed another bedtime story. He went upstairs and climbed in bed right in between them and told them a story. It was so cute and my kids were so excited that they didn't go to sleep for over an hour. So much fun though.

I realize I skipped the Christmas post, those of you who know me and may be thinking it is because I just "love" Christmas nonsense so much you are party right, however this is all my kids wanted for Christmas. Two-ply horses!! This is not really what they got for Christmas, that would be slightly abusive on my part, but my kids spent a whole day riding their toilet paper ponies. The toilet paper was barely useable when they were done, but seriously a whole day of entertainment. Why is it again that we spend so much money on toys and junk for our kids for Christmas when all they really want is a little T.P. ( There is my Christmas vent for ya)
Will my son every grow out of this phase? I secretly hope not because it is pretty cute and funny. About a week before Christmas a package came from the UPS man. I took it in my room and locked the door to open it. The kids were banging on the door and when I came out of the room Cole was pretty upset at me. He apparently really wanted to see what was in the big box because about 20 min later I found him in the closet, he had dumped all the dirty laundry out of the hamper and climbed on top of it and up the shelves and was pulling the box down. I feared for his life so I got him down before I took the picture.
And what would a post from me be without Cole's mischievous grin and his most "handsome" shirt? And yes the picture does not do the mess justice, but if you can imagine what 5 gallons of laundry detergent looks like all dumped out that is what really happened here.

Stop the Mass Reproduction!!

Okay so that was a bit of an exaggeration, but seriously there are a lot of kids in this family. We got family pics with Weston's family a week ago and it seemed to go rather smoothly this year. Usually all the men are whining like little babies and the kids are screaming over each other but we were done in like 20 min. this year. Weston's family is a lot of fun and it seems like there is someone for everyone. How lucky are we that every member of both of our families live within 30 miles of us?!!


And here is my lazy way of sending you all a Christmas Card. Merry Christmas, and in case you are wondering, no he would not take the spurs off of his boots for the picture. Not really a battle I was willing to fight. I would rather have a happy boy for pictures, plus it will be fun to remember the days of the "spurs" because surely this phase will come to end.

Finally an update!!

Three months really? wow!! The truth of the whole "lack of updating is this": I have a serious problem with things laying around. It drives me crazy. I throw everything away and usually wish I wouldn't have within a couple weeks. So when we moved I found a large box of cords, I thought to myself gosh I have lived here for four years and have never needed these before, so why would I ever need them? Right?? Wrong. We got a new computer that does not have the cool little slot for my camera card that the old one had. Since I threw the box of cords away that I am sure contained my camera cord, I have been S.O.L! Lame excuse I realize, but there it is. I finally broke down and pulled the old computer out so I could get all my pix printed. Therefore I hope you enjoy this update, because there probably won't be another for awhile.

Cole is growing up so fast and is so much fun. He goes everywhere with his dad and won't let the big neighbor boys leave him out. (It is a good thing he is so cute and that they think he is a baby still or they probably wouldn't be so kind about letting him play!)

Kallie is a sweet little kid. She is loving preschool and calls me Mrs. Mandi during school. She doesn't act like I am her mom at all just her teacher. It is totally cute. She is doing great in school and is beginning to read small words. We just finished up swimming lessons and will definately need a few more sessions before summer comes. Kallie is a little scared of the water still but did pretty good anyway. She takes gymnastics once a week and is having fun with that also. Mostly Kallie looks forward to 2:30 pm when the school bus drops the neighbor kids off. She plays great with Cole and his little mommy.
Cole has DEFINITELY hit the terrible two's. The kid is into everything. I am serious when I say you can't take your eyes off him for two seconds. My poor new house is getting broke in way too fast. All that white stuff on Cole, ya that happened in a split second when I was standing a foot away. It is a prescription creme for his exema. Not cheap either. I nearly beat the child. Oh yeah and I realize that shirt is hideous, but it is his favorite. Need I say more?
Oh yes and that would be a little bit of corn flakes with his sugar. When I found him he had already eaten the whole top of the sugar mountain. Yummo!!
Halloween was a smash! Kallie is four so what else would she be but a princess!! Cole refused to wear a costume, so he wore his regular cowboy duds and I let him carry his horse, Pete. Which he was thrilled about. He wants to take that horse everywhere we go so this was a special treat. We got loads of candy and yes I ate it all in about 3 days!! Why is it again that I am 15 pounds over weight???