November has come and Gone...

And oh, what a month it has been.  Shawn and I took Carter on the first Friday of the month up to the Snowy Range Mountains to get wood for the Central Broiler in the barn at the clinic. It had snowed the night before, and the back roads were a bit slick...slick enough that the Expedition slid into a ditch and we had to unhook the trailer to back out enough to get out. That was before we even got wood. I, of course, worried about taking a heavy load of wood back down the mountain once we got it.  The day was cold and the wind was blowing so it made it feel colder. We found an area with some trees that looked like we could fall them pretty easy and cut them up. Well, the tree didn't fall the way we wanted so the easy, because a little more work. 

 I'm sure Shawn was loving this... and playing with his chain saw. He looked to me like a Mountain Man.

 As long as we were working, I felt warm but the second we slowed down, I could feel the cold. It was so pretty up there, but I don't own work cold gear as most of my work is indoors with kids.

 He's so handsome huh?

We prayed before we left the place we got the wood and asked for help to get down the mountain safely. By the time we got off the back roads to one of the main roads most of the snow on the road was melted. I was most thankful that things went well coming down the mountain and knew there was divine intervention.



The next day we headed to Ft. Collins, CO for the Boise State, Colorado State football game. Before the game we took the kids Christmas shopping and both Mason and Emma were done with their Christmas shopping.
Emma and Mason had their hair sprayed Blue and Orange and wore their tattoos on their cheeks. I can not even begin to describe how much fun it was to take the kids to the game. It's the first game they've been to, and the first Shawn and I have been at since I was preggers with Emma 9 years ago.  It's the only away game I've been to, but probably will be to many more.

 

Mason was hilarious at the game. I should up load some of this short video clips to YouTube and share them.  He would yell at Boise to start playing, and at one point, he yelled "Get on your feet Boise!!!" He also tried really hard at the end of the game to get the Boise.... State shout going on his own and got frustrated that no one was replying to his yell... He'd yell BOISE and pause, turn to me and ask why no one was yelling STATE. After he realized he can't yell towards the field and have people reply, he tuned around and tried it again. Some people must have realized what he was trying to do and about 10 yelled State and Mason was so excited and happy. He kept yelling that for about 10 minutes and then decided it was time to try something else. The game was over by 10 and it was probably good it was over earlier than expected. Mason kept telling us at the end it was time to go. Most of the Colorado fans had left and I'm sure that's why he thought it was time to go. The kids loved it and I loved being there with them. It is definitely something I'll do again and again. Love these two cuties.

We attended the 4 H award ceremony where Emma got an award for her 1st year in 4H.  She also got second place for poultry for her record book. Pretty good since we've never made one before and had no clue what we were doing. 

Mason has continued swimming. His swim instructor is AMAZING with him. Every time they are in the pool I am in awe at how much he can get Mason to push him self. He can swim independently on his back from one side of the pool to the other and is getting really good at swimming on his front.  He is also turning from his stomach to his back and then back to his stomach really well. We are taking a lesson break during December with the assignment to get in the pool and practice all month so he doesn't loose what he's been working on. Mason doesn't respond to me as well as his does Tristan, but most kids don't. 

 Carter and I volunteered at the school 3x's the week they had the book fair. It was also the same week that Carter was sick with a cold and wasn't feeling very good. On Wednesday, he laid down on the couch to watch some TV and before I knew it he fell asleep. I've not seen him do that for a long time. He was so cute, I hated to wake him up.

I got my craftiness on this month and made these curtains for the half bath down stairs. The pattern matches the rest of the decor in the bath and I felt it was time to have something new. They are made from 2 bath sized towels and I just sewed a line in them and then hung them. Fastest and easiest sewing project I've ever done in my life... I really love how they look too!

November 27 brought us to Emma's Birthday! I can't believe we have a 9 year old! How did that happen?  We decided that we would open gifts as breakfast was cooking so we didn't have to wait till very late in the evening. Mason got Emma a scarf that is quite crazy and fits her personality well. She wasn't sure what it was until we showed her. Now she has to learn how to wear it so she looks put together and not all out of place. 

 Grandma and Grandpa Sanders sent her some clothes. She put the pants and another shirt she got on and wore them the rest of the day. She also got some fairy figurines from Paige, and Scrabble JR. from Carter.

 Emma got an alarm clock, a small purse, and a book form Shawn and I and we took her to her favorite restaurant for dinner,  The Number 1 Buffet. After dinner we went swimming where she went down the tunnel slide a lot. She had so much fun. When we were getting ready to leave she asked if we could go into the lap pool and see if the diving board was open. Emma and Shawn went off it a handful of times and then we hit the showers. Because of how late we were getting home, we had cake and egg nog for breakfast Thanksgiving morning. Next year her birthday will be on thanksgiving... Maybe some family will come for the holiday? We'll see.

 The day after Thanksgiving the kids and I clean the house, rearranged the living room and set up our tree. We decorated it that evening.

 Carter had so much fun and did so well getting ornaments on the tree and we've had minimal problems with him touching it since. I loved how determined he was at getting the ornaments on all by him self. 

We still have a lot of ornaments for the second tree we've had but done this year. I will be happy to have another tree up again some day.

I told the kids that since we are going to Idaho for Christmas this year, I may decided to not put any gifts under the tree (saves me from having to patrol the tree for the whole month too). They were not too happy with that idea, but we have to pack them to take them right?  We are going to be so busy in December, but we are so excited for all special Christmas things to come. With only a few more gift to buy, and a few evening of traditions to plan I think we are ready to welcome to our home the most wonderful time of the year!

October 2013

October seemed to fly by, much like the months before it. I have said I want to get back to blogging, and I am determined to make 2014 that year! I am going to try to get into the habit before the new year, so with out further ado:

In October Paige had her 5th birthday! She wanted to go to a local Mexican restaurant for her birthday dinner for 2 reasons. 1) She will get to wear the fun hat and 2) They will sing Happy Birthday to her in Spanish. No, I'm not kidding. She isn't a very big fan of Mexican food, but getting a hat and being sung to in a foreign language is worth eating something that wasn't her favorite.

 A few days after her birthday we took Carter to get his long wispy hair trimmed. He sits so well at the salon when he gets his hair trimmed. Not your average 22 month old hair cut. No other time in the day will he sit still, but still he is when getting his hair cut.

 Paige had her birthday party the following weekend. It was so much fun for her to have some of her little friends come. A few she invited didn't make it and they were missed. They played pin the cherry on the cupcake, opened gifts, decorated cupcakes and then headed outside to jump on the tramp. She was so happy to have a friend birthday party. Shawn was lucky enough to get to be home for her party and not get called out.

 We had Luigi, a dinosaur, a black cat and a witch come visit us on Halloween. We took the kids to the church for the trunk or treat were Carter and I handed out candy from the comfort of our warm car while the rest of the kids walked around collecting their treasures in very cold blowing wind. It was probably in the low 30's and after 1 row of cars, Paige came back to the car and helped Carter and I. Some smart people were handing out warm hot cocoa for the trick or treaters and everyone loved having something so warm so sip.  When we got back to our house, the kids posed for 1 photo with out coats on. They don't look cold.

 We went to 6 houses in our neighborhood and the kids had so much fun seeing the neighbors. Staying together wasn't easy for the older kids as they knew what the night would bring, and Carter, is just a bit slower then they are.
 We carved pumpkins for FHE the Monday before Halloween. This three eye pumpkin is Paige's creation.  Emma gutted, carved and cleaned her own pumpkin with out help this year. She was pretty excited about it.

If I thought that October was busy, I had another thing coming cause November was even busier... this was just a glimpse.

4-H Project 2013 (Poultry)

When Emma turned 8 at the end of last year, it was decided that she would start 4H this year. As we discussed the different projects that she could do, she decided on Poultry. After a while her dad finally came around got on board the poultry wagon. Good thing to, cause she couldn't have done this without him.

While it was too cold out for the chicks to be outside, they lived in a large Rubbermaid tote in the office with a heat lamp. While they grew, we worked on (Shawn worked on) building a chicken coop. We were so fortunate to get landlords who were okay with putting chickens in the back yard. After a while, the chicks became big enough to move the covering off the top of the tote and were able to get out. After coming home from church one Sunday, and having chicken poop all over the carpet, we decided it was time to move them to the garage and get the coop finished. 

 Once the coop was finished enough, we ran an electrical cord to the coop and moved them all outside with a heat lamp. I'm sure they loved to extra room to move about.

 Emma worked right along side her dad to build the coop and make it a good home for her chickens. 

After they were in the coop for a little bit, we got the run put up and chicken wire wrapped around it. After the coop was opened up to the run, it was hard to get these ladies (and cocks) back inside.

 As a family we went to the farm store and picked out 8 chicks. 4 were for Emma's project and 4 were for us to keep to get eggs from. Well, that was the plan until one of Emma's died in the chicken coop a few weeks after we transferred them to the coop from their box in the garage and another was not a pullet, but a cockerel. She still had 2, but as it got closer to time for fair, one was suspiciously looking like another cock, so she adopted another chicken as hers and practiced showing on all three. Rosetta was the easiest to handle because she was/is the calmest, but she's larger than the others which posed some handling problems for Emma. After a few days of work, Scurrier proved to be Emma's best handler and so she worked a lot for the few weeks before fair standing her on a solid surface, extending her wings and pointing to the different parts of a chicken's body.

 We got an email the day before the 4H club was to do pin signs. So the morning of, we went shopping and Emma choose all the things she wanted to use on her board. Shawn gave her a board he had at the clinic that was old and he cut it down for her. Getting her board done was a lot of work, but it looked amazing and she was really happy with the results. 

The day before the fair we followed some instructions on cleaning up the chickens. Thanks to our photographer Paige, we actually have some pictures of the process. She went off to play when Emma was actually doing the cleaning for Scurrier.

I had arranged a babysitter to come watch the 3 younger kids when I took Emma to the fair to set up, but when I went to pick her up, she wasn't there. I called her and she told me she thought she said she couldn't come. Mistake for both of us and I may be the craziest mom ever thinking that taking all 4 of my littles and 3 of Emma's chickens to the fair to set up and get them situated in their pins would be doable. I stopped at the house and picked up their camp chairs and hoped I could sit them down and they would stay. (Yeah right)

If you know my kids, you know I was almost hoping for too much. Somehow, we got everything all set up and ready to go.

Emma had showmanship at 9am on August 2. She and Shawn got up early to get to the fairgrounds to clean up their pens and to clean up all 3 chickens. After they were done cleaning, Emma changed into her show clothes, which I thought she was so cute in, and got all ready. She said that she was not nervous, but excited and happy. She takes after her dad.

Emma did AMAZING at showing. She knew how to do everything the judge asked her to do, answered all her questions and handled Scurrier very well. At the end of show she was even able to take her hands off Scurrier and she said put. The only thing that she was marked points for was her talking. The kid just couldn't be quiet. When I asked her why she talked the whole time, she said that she was complimenting the other kids on how well they were doing. IF she wouldn't of been talking, I'm 100% sure she would have gotten Grand Champion for showmanship also. Lesson learned for next year I hope.

Quality judging was quite a bit later so we went and watched some beef showmanship, and looked at the exhibit hall. When all the classes were done showing, the judge moved on to quality. Lucky for Emma, her 2 classes of chickens, Cockerels and Pullets we 2nd and 3rd on the list. Little Peep, her Cockerel placed Grand Champion for quality and Scurrier place Reserve Champion for quality in the Pullets class. Her reaction was priceless, and we were all sure she was not really expecting anything. 

This year was a very good 1st year in 4 H. We all learned some things that we want to do differently, things we want to improve and things we want to stay the same. We're looking forward to next year already, and are planning on keeping our layers and adding some Lambs and swine to the fair next year. Shawn may have to take the week off from work just to help keep things under control.  *wink wink*

Cheyenne Frontier Days

For Shawn's birthday, he took half the day off, and we went to the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo. It was sure fun to be at a rodeo again, but was somewhat strange that is was during the day. 

For reasons of being really busy with 4 kids, we didn't get any pictures taken at the rodeo, but after it was over, we headed over to the amusement park to ride some rides.

Emma talked Shawn and Paige to got on this ride together, but only 2 to a seat, so Emma rode alone.

Mason started out easy and a train ride, and he wanted to be in the first car. I was sure this was the kind of ride he's do till his tickets were gone.

Carter and I rode this cute ride (cause there wasn't a height restriction) and he was ok with it at first, but by the end was done. He really enjoyed the merry go round. 

Emma and Paige wanted to go on this kiddie roller coaster (about all I can handle also) and we let them. They had so much fun!

 After they were done and had headed off to another ride with Shawn, Mason decided he wanted to go on it also. I was really hesitant to let him, so we tried to find something else to do. After the last roller coaster Mason went on, I wasn't sure I wanted to deal with another melt down, crying fit because he could just get off with it got scary. (He takes after me) But he was persistent. We left Carter with Shawn, and I got on the ride with Mason. I had to make him think I loved it, and I knew that going on this ride (I HATE roller coasters) so I smiled and put my hands in the air and tried to get him to do the same. He loved it the first time around, but when the coaster passed the exit and we didn't stop, he tried to get off, then covered his eyes and started to wine. I got in his face and told him that he liked it the last time it went around and this wouldn't be any different. He took his hands off his eyes and gave me his reassuring smile. It made me laugh.

We rode the tractor trailer to the farthest spot we could then walked the rest of the way to the car. Everyone agreed it was a fun day. It was a Happy Birthday for Shawn.