And then it was November....

As some of you may know.....our hard drive crashed...hard! We lost pictures, journals, papers, etc. I know we should have had them backed up...we just never got around to it. All is not lost, the memory on the hard drive is still there....we just have to get it fixed. But alas, I have not been on the blog in a while, so the crashing of the hard drive is not the only news that has not been shared. So forgive me if this is long...and sadly, without pictures...

In the last post I shared that we were on our way to Fair...one of the biggest and most stressful times of year for us. I am a 4-H leader and Rebecca is involved with different 4-H groups. So to say the least, we go a little crazy around fair time and when it is all over we take a great big breath and crumble on the couch. This year was a bit more chaotic...and we owe it all to a pig!

The plan for Fair time is to have everyone ready with their record books (lists their activities for the year, what they have done, what they have learned, what they will do differently...) Of course this is never, ever finished. So there are a ton of kids scrambling last minute to get their record books done. From my 4-H group, yes they all come at once for me to sign their book and help with filling in the activities of the year (a good group secretary helps, but I always keep notes too...just in case). And....Rebecca...we always seem to be finishing her book at the last minute. Really, it isn't entirely her fault, there is a lot that needs to go inside the book and you have to keep an accurate record up until the book is due, and well, this year, this year was our first pig....so yeah, the record book was terribly frustrating. But we carried on and finished it just in time. Then came Fair..(this could be a dirty word...) Dave was a ginormous help with Fair. He was right there to help with the pig...who was not as cooperative, and kind of a turd. Dave and Rebecca headed down very early to load "Coconut" up in the truck to deliver him to the Fair, he needed to be weighed and cleaned. Not such easy feats, really! Dave called me and had me come help them get the pig loaded, it really is a 3 person job. So with 3 sleepers in tow I joined them at the pig hotel to load said pig into the truck. Got him in and then headed to the fair grounds. Rebecca had to have him weighed...300 pounds! And then she had to give him a bath, because nobody wants to look at  dirty pig. Every morning she had to have him fed and his stall cleaned by 8. Each evening she had to feed him and tidy his stall after 6. She spent the entire weekend at the Fair with barn duty, food booth duty (for all her 4-H groups) and basic pig checking. Fair made for a very long weekend! Then there was the ever stressful (more for me) showing of the pig. Becca was fantastic! For her first year, having no idea what was going on, she was great, we were so very proud of her and all the effort she put into her project. She had to show her pig on Thursday night for market price, which we learned that the way it is judged is not necessarily the way the buyers see things... Then on Friday night she had showmanship. Both nights she had to lead her pig around the arena with a smile plastered on her face. She was great. The pig....not as great, he ran all over the place, but she kept a smile on :) so proud of her. Then came the big day...market day. Saturday was a long day of waiting and we all learned a few lessons, and when it came down to it, we learned that Becca must stay with her pig and not with her family...who distracted her from things. She barely made it to the sales barn on time. But when it was all over and done with she made enough money with the sale to pay us back for the pig, put money into savings and have enough to purchase her pig for next year...yup, she is doing it all again! I am so pleased that her experience was one that left her enthusiastic about next year. It was hard to sell her friend, a pig that she could lay down with and scratch his belly. But the lessons she learned through the process where priceless.

After our big debut at the Fair, the kids started school..that's right, Fair goes right into school here...no breaks. Rebecca is in the 6th grade, here it is the last year in Elementary...next year a big Jr. High gal! The twins are in the same class again this year, and this will be the last year. They are in 1st grade and their K teacher moved up to 1st, this was one reason we kept them together again. The other was that K was 1/2 day while 1st is all day and we though the transition would be better if they were together and we were right. The 3 older kids have been doing very well with school and though our mornings can be a bit of a challenge...we seem to be doing OK. *When it is Tim's turn to say the night time prayer he never fails to include..."Please help us to get up on time and help Aleyna to get dressed and ready so we can get to school on time and not be tardy..." the wording changes, but you get the idea.

Kaitlyn was able to start pre-school this year. With luck she was able to get into Head Start, and she loves it. It works out very nice for us because she is the only one at a babysitters when I am at work and then she is in school. I get off work at 3 and she gets out at the same time. This was a great blessing for us this year.

Things have been busy since school started too. We participated in soccer..and then it ended...phew. But boy was it fun to watch, and also to see how the kids improved through the season, Becca especially improved and she was awesome! Tim, well he is just fast and smooth, he reminds me of my brother Darrin, small and quick.

With Becca in 6th grade we have been active participants in the 6th grade field trip and fundraising. It has been crazy, and thank goodness our big part is over. We did the silent auction for the Harvest festival and we are done!!!!
We had a great time during Halloween. Party at the Church, Harvest Festival and then trick or treating on Halloween night. We have a lot of candy!!! Becca was a goddess, Tim was a ninja, Aleyna was a witch and Kaitlyn was a princess. The Church party and Harvest Festival were inside, busy and very fun. Halloween night....very, very cold and it rained. Thank goodness for friends houses that we could stop at and take breaks. Dave and Kaitlyn headed home but the rest of us stuck to the course of more candy and with some brave friends, stayed out until porch lights went off. Trick or treating in our town is a ton of fun...you know your neighbors and it feels like a old time Halloween. I know cheesy, but true.

And then it was November....

Things have not slowed down for us very much. Dave is just coming to the slow time of year for work, which means he is in the office more than out of it...I am keeping busy with work and the kids are looking forward to Thanksgiving break.  Before we know it Christmas will be here and we will be starting 2013. Time flies....





In other news..........I just had a hysterectomy. I did not get the smiley face scar that I wanted, but I suppose that I will get over it. :) This choice was the best one for me and for our family. I was struggling with a lot of crazy girly issues and things seemed to be getting worse over the last couple of years. So with the recommendation of a specialist, I had everything taken out. It has only been 3 days since surgery, but I am feeling pretty good, very sore mind you...but good. My parents took the kiddos for a few days and I miss them very much...but it was a good time to rest. I have heard from many women that having a hysterectomy was the best thing they have ever done and that they are healthier and happier because of it. I hope to be able to say the same things.
oxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Faaaaaaaiiiiiirrrrrrrr

Tonight we decorate the piggie palace at the fair (his final stay...) then tomorrow he gets weighed and our adventure at fair begins. Wish us luck.

Fair

T- 3 days to Fair and pigdamonium.......

August is almost over

I have been bad about blogging...

Ahhhh well here we go:

Grass is BEAUTIFUL!!!! It feels fantastic between the toes. Really you should come visit us just to walk on our lovely lawn!

Fair is next weekend...Becca is showing her pig, he will become some families delish bacon soon and I admit I am a little sad to say goodbye to him. But alas, that is what it is all about. I hope to video some of her showmanship...should be funny. He is a hoot of a pig.

School starts on the Tuesday following fair...really to Lake county, fair is totally more important than silly 'ol school.

Dave is gone a lot for work, I am so very happy he loves his job...but the field season will be over in October-ish...will be nice to get on a routine again. Nice to have my hubby back.

We have had a large fire here...over 90,000 acres and more than 300 miles of fire line. it started on August 6th and the smoke is still hovering in the air...wish we could breath again. There is a bit of a frustration at this time with the fire crews and their sleeping locations-they are camped at the fairgrounds...and you know how Lake county is about the fair...well let's just hope that things get sorted out before the big event! Fire schmire...

I am NOT ready for school to start, I feel like summer has gone by too darn fast and I want more time to have summer fun-but I guess I don't have a choice in the matter. The kids are excited to go back, and Timothy is especially excited to go back and see Mrs. McNeely-she is awesome and she has also moved up from Kindergarten to 1st grade so the twins will have her again. This is their last year being in the same class. They are growing up so fast...going to be 7 in October. Life goes on.

I hope summer was just groovy for all- on we go...

The yard.....

Our fam has been busy beautifying our dwelling...we have done a few inside rooms, painting and what not. But our BIG adventure has been our yard. We started working on it when we moved in and we will continue to work on it until it is to our liking. Really...it has taken 2 years to get it from the jungle it was to the yard we have today...but there is still more to do. We just put sod down in both the back and front yard, and then we will move onto the flower beds and kids area. Total labor of LOVE but it is going to be sooooo worth it! These first four pictures are from last year.

Here are a few from this year.....

These are from Thursday July 26, 2012

More to come...but for now we are tired, and we just want to sit on our back porch and look at our pretty grass! :)

July is here and I am still there...

We have been very busy! Our yard is lovely if I do say so myself....pictures to come soon. I hope I can put them in some order to show the whole process from the very beginning till now. It may take a bit. The last thing is putting in the sod. SOOOO excited to have something besides dirt in our yard (dirt leads to mud, leads to lots of sweeping and moppin').

I am still in June, school just got out and summer has not begun...so then I have missed something, yes? When did July get here, let alone the 8th of July? School will start again in about a month and a half-ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Rebecca is going to be a 6th grader and the twins will be in 1st grade-3 in school! Big changes, so I hope I can ward off the school year a while longer and keep having fun with the little gutter snipes for the rest of the summer. Gutter snipes is my name for the 4 of them...made it up myself and everything (unless I didn't and I heard it somewhere and cannot remember-if this is true tell me where I may have heard it from...thanks!)



In other news..........the dogito, Gussito- his barking has begun to stopito, thanks to an amazing egg that puts off a high pitch frequency when he does barkito! WOOOOOO HOOOOOO ito!

Rainbows

You know how there are those days when you feel alone, down hearted and small....I hate having days like that. I fell like saying to the world "I am a mom not a professional"-

But it seems on the days when I am having the hardest times I am reminded of how much our Father in Heaven loves us. Something as simple as a rainbow.

And here is how I knew-

We were up for a quick visit at my parents and there was a storm...rain, snow, hail, sun, cold...all in one day. Then it cleared up and there was a beautiful rainbow that covered the entire sky. It was so close and so bright-it was breathtaking. Then the most beautiful sound of the harmonizing twins singing "When I am baptised"

I like to look for rainbows when ever there is rain
and ponder on the beauty of an earth made clean again.

CHORUS:

I want my life to be as clean as Earth right after rain
I want to be the best I can,
and live with God again.

I know when I am baptized my wrongs are washed away,

and I can be forgiven and improve myself each day.

CHORUS:

I want my life to be as clean as Earth right after rain
I want to be the best I can,
and live with God again.


How very blessed I am! I guess I am doing something right-






In other news.........My brother is out of Afghanistan in back in Okinawa!

Finally spring & almost summer

Things are starting to bloom and green up around here. We have had two weeks of rather nice weather, and the past few days have been in the 80's.

Dave and I have been putting a lot...A LOT of work into our yard...when we have time. We are preparing to finish the fence and then to lay sod (toooooooo many birds for seed...crazy- it is like Hitchcock) so we have decided to lay sod and have instant lawn. I am very excited and really it can't happen fast enough!

We are very excited to have school coming to a close...June 13th is the big day! Life slows down for us during the summer....sort of.

The twins have been playing T-ball,  they call Tim- Turbo Tim , he is a pretty fast guy! This is their last year in T-ball, next year they start coach pitch-they are growing toooo fast. They are also about to graduate from Kindergarten-though there is no formal ceremony here, we will still have a par-tay! They have a lot of the same friends and play together a lot at school-always looking out for each other. We are trying to figure out what to do about next year-do we split them into separate classes or not? Big decision for us and for them. Tim wants to split, Aleyna wants to stay together and their Kindergarten teacher is moving up so if we do split them...who gets the awesome teacher? Trying to figure it all out- bleh!

Aleyna is reading and writing like crazy and she draws a picture to go with all her stories. She is learning a lot and loves to share everything she is doing. She is a tough cookie-the first of the two to try something that might be scary, like going down the BIG slide or climbing higher in the tree- though she is still nervous trying things that are new. She had a hard time with T-ball this year until she got to know the team, then she would practice and play. She is a stubborn gal who is passionate (a.k.a tantrums) about the things she wants to do. She is going to be a force to reckon with...I am going to have to take classes! :)

Tim is becoming a little artist and is trying to utilize shapes to help him draw animals and people. He loves his teacher at school and he is really a kind little man. He is obedient and very helpful-and even though he is surrounded by all these crazy girls he is still very much a BOY!!! He is into the avengers-star wars and transformers. He has a great imagination and sweet light saber skills! He is very particular about things and keeps his favorite items close to him up on his bed. He wants his own room so very badly he can taste it- sometimes it is hard to be surrounded by all the girly stuff.

He and Aleyna still harmonize together and love to sing all sorts of songs. They still have their own kind of communication and sometimes they will be making up a song and somehow they both know the exact same chorus-it is fun to be the mom of twins and see how they are so similar and completely different at the same time. We call them Yin and Yang.

Rebecca just finished two of her biggest feats of the year, piano recital and spring contest for 4-H. Her recital was lovely and she is glad to have a couple weeks break before I have her start up again. She really does love piano. 4-H spring contest was a huge stresser...more for me- Becca had to do a table setting (she won grand champion), healthy snack presentation (reserve grand champion) and her first year as a phase II baker (she won a red ribbon for this) She made chocolate zucchini muffins-she had one hour to do it all by herself in the provided kitchen. Big year for her....plus she is going to show a pig. That is right...a pig. Really he is a hog and his name is Coconut because of the coconut shaped mark on his fanny. He is a funny guy and she walks him, brushes him and he loves her. So proud of the young lady she is turning into-hope I can be a good example for her.

Kaitlyn is very much into playing house & dress up. She tells the most fascinating stories...they go on and on and on and on and on and on......and on. She is very creative and kind of bossy-she gets the other kids to do things that they didn't even realize they wanted to do...clever gal. She is excited to start school and we hope that we can find her a pre-school in the area, sadly they are very difficult to get into...too many kids, not enough teachers etc. etc. She really needs something that is all about her and I think that she would have a blast in school, especially with make believe!

We are in the middle of a short play about a princess who gets locked in a tower- her mother misses her, but the prince who can cut through anything is on his way to rescue the damsel in distress. The queen (Kaitlyn) is explaining the entire play to me so I know exactly what is going on- it is driving the prince (Tim) and the princess (Aleyna) crazy! I told you her stories go on and on- Becca is with a friend and Dave is out at a lake taking fish surveys. I spent the day cleaning and trying my best to get ready for the week. I am looking forward to summer-







In other news...........My brother Daniel has just over a week left in Afghanistan- things have been a little scary, a friend in his unit was killed on Memorial Day- We are very glad he will be out of there soon!

What has been going on?

It has been well over two months since I have posted....and to be honest, I really shouldn't be posting now. I should be folding laundry....I really hate laundry. We have been busy lately and laundry is always the first to pile up. Oh well, I will fold in a minute-I really want to share with you what we have been up to, what has been keeping me away from this blog, what has made us smile and laugh, what has made us enjoy time as a family. So, without further ado and in no particular order...here is what we have been up to... Let's see if you can tell what we have done.... a 5K, Easter, anniversary to Catalina, visit with old friends from Laramie (we used to have 11 kids...now we have 15) and the biggest holiday EVER...St. Patricks day in Lakeview, complete with parade and potato peeling contest (which Dave & our friend Candace won, but were sadly disqualified...) So peek at our pictures and see what fun we have had!

A list of things

1)It is 5:40 and I have not started dinner.
2)There is a cold wind outside and it is starting to snow.
3)We have a winter storm advisory for WIND until 4a.m.-I lived in Laramie, Wyoming, what we have here is not WIND!!!!
4)I am extra special tired.
5)My brother was married this past Saturday...for lack of a better word it was really just a perfect day. (I made their wedding cake....it was DELISH)
6)I have pictures of the cake...maybe I will show you.
7)My kids have been getting along pretty well lately!
8)I have one day left of work this week...then crazy starts.
9)My first 4-H cooking meeting is on Thursday.
10)Kaitlyn is cracking me up...at the sitters today she helped wipe down the table-
Kaitlyn:"My mom is gonna freak out when she finds out I helped you wipe the table."
Sitter (Sara): "Does your mom freak out a lot?"
Kaitlyn: "No, but she might." She also likes to tell me bedtime stories about sleeping beauty and Cinderella...they are lovely!
11)I really should make some dinner.
12)My vacuum died. The motor went out...and now I am a borrower of other peoples vacuums!
13)Tonight I think hot cocoa may be in order.
14)I am jealous of my sweet Becca's ability to play the piano...it is beautiful.
15)My twinners are planning what crazy socks they will wear for crazy sock day tomorrow...it is Dr. Seuss' birthday on Friday, so we must celebrate all week. :)
16)I have a runny nose.
17)Here are some picture.......My handsome husband took these shots!
















In other news.....I really want to watch Independence Day, no idea why!