Monday, June 24, 2013

A bear!!

We saw our first wild bear today! The girls thought it was so cool and haven't stopped talking about it! It was getting a little too close to the car for my comfort, so this is as close of a picture as I got!
 


Saturday, June 22, 2013

Summer solstice fun!

 The first day of summer actually FELT like summer up here! It was great! We started off doing some bubbles, which usually ends up with me blowing the bubbles and the girls and the dogs chasing them and trying to bite the bubbles. Normal, right?
 

 
Then, we were getting too hot, so we broke out the sprinkler!


 
Daughters of Marines always break out into practicing their low belly crawls under the sprinkler when it comes out.
 



Then, we discovered a pile of dirt, which brought about endless fun!
 

 
Especially when we realized that we could then make dirt hand prints all over the garage!

Since it was such a rough day, we had to end it with soaking our feet before bedtime! I don't know where they get this habit from! It could be from their mother with the pregnant Michelin man feet right now!!
 
 


Oh, and not  on the same day, but we did get a new car! We traded in our Tahoe for the Suburban because "we just couldn't fit" into the Tahoe anymore. My husband says this says more about me, then about the car, but we NEEDED the extra trunk space since we'll be filling up almost all of the seats, especially when Shelby is with us! So, an extra 3 feet of car for Mommy to back up, YIKES!!!

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Chores

We implemented a new system in our house. The girls are good about helping around the house, and they have certain chores they are expected to do just to be productive members of the family! But, we decided to add some "quarter chores." The girls have a few chores they can do around the house, and once completed they earn a quarter. We're hoping this will also teach them about saving money to buy things they want. Here they are in action doing some of their chores this week.
 
Taylor is unloading the silverware from the dishwasher.
 
 
And taking the laundry out of the dryer and putting it into the basket for me.

 
Riley is switching the laundry from the washer to the dryer. And this girl has quite the sense of humor. While she was taking out this crib sheet, she asked me if this was one of my "big underwear." HAHA, she's so funny!!!




Monday, June 17, 2013

Mothers Day gift

When you can barely keep a cactus alive, and your kids give you a plant for Mothers Day, what do you do? Well first, you try like crazy to make sure this little seed will grow into the flower your children are expecting. But, if your this mom all that happens to bloom are some dead weeds. So, does it make you a bad mom if you go to your local florist (yes, we have one here) and buy flowers and just put those in the pot they made you instead? I sure hope not....look at my beautiful Mothers Day flowers!!
 
 


Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Guns and karate

When your 36 weeks pregnant and it's been raining for 2 days, and you have kids who've been cooped up, and your all ready to get out of the house, what better thing to do then go the shooting range! And that's just what we did today!
 
 
 
Here's what Taylor did at the shooting range! Going potty and covering her ears!

 
Riley has been doing AWESOME at karate! She was a little intimidated at first since she is the youngest kid there, and she started in the middle of the class, but you'd never know it now! She's loving it, and here she is in action!
 
Here she is sitting on the floor, in the middle listening to her Sensei.
 
 
And here she is in action, it's blurry, but we were trying to catch her in action!
Here she is about to attack.

 
And here she is taking down a boy in her class!
 
 
And here she is getting flipped over by her Sensei!



 
She loved that part! It was an action packed week, full of guns and karate and everyone had a blast!

Garden!

The garden is in, thanks to some super cute helpers!
 

 
Chris was a super cute helper too, but I didn't get a picture of him. :)


This made me crave some fresh fruits and veggies, but it just doesn't taste nearly the same as fresh from you garden, so I impatiently wait for it to grow!
 



Saturday, June 8, 2013

Exciting time!

Who knew that one day could make my husband so excited, and who knew he has been looking forward and anxiously awaiting this day since we moved here?? Not me, that's for sure!
 
But, hubby got the scoop that they had filled the lakes up here with trout for fishing season. He knew it happened in June, but nobody knows for sure when. He got the inside tip that today was the day, he called home making sure we were there and didn't have plans for when he got home, then he rushed us out the door to go fishing! He was more then excited to get them out there.
 
And, he was right! They loved it and they loved being able to actually bring home the trout this time.
 
 
Here they are all set up for fishing.
 

 
This was our little spot, under a bridge, which they thought was pretty cool!

 
One of our first catches of the day.

 
And another....

 
And another....



Up close picture of my focused and determined little fisher woman.
 

 
Here was a look at out fishing stream from the bridge. The girls had fun yelling down to daddy to hurry up as he gathered up all our gear and fish when they were ready to go home!


And here's the proud papa and is girls after a day of successful fishing!
 



Thursday, June 6, 2013

Chicken chasers, and sneak peek at the boy's room!

We put the new chicks out in the chicken coop with the big girls the other day. I can't say the "big girls" aka the hens that we've already had, we're the gentle motherly types we were hoping when we put out the new girls. But, they are slowly learning to all get along. The girls missed having the chicks in the house, but they did enjoy chasing them around the chicken coop. The only way the chicks found to get away was to huddle together under the coop, just out of reach of Riley and Taylor.
 
 
We also have some other chicken chasers on our hands! They are just waiting for one of those chicks to come too close!

 
The girls also got a lesson on flag folding, as Daddy was putting up new flags on the house. Notice we are still wearing our boots. It's beautiful out, but there are lots of chores on the farm that require boots. We wear these boots year round!

 
And here is our boy's room! This was all done by Daddy. I attempted to help, but my husband (love him to death) can be a little anal when it comes to painting, measuring out the border, measuring out the width and height of the red and white stripes, making sure there were only 13 stripes that started and ended with red. It got kinda ridiculous, so mostly I just stayed out of the way.  Love ya babe!!
 
It turned out awesome though!!



Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Fishin'

We had our first fishing trip of the season the other day! The girls had a blast! We didn't catch anything we could keep, but they had so much fun because every time they cast their fishing poles, they caught something within minutes! I hope this doesn't set a precedence though, or they will be quickly disappointed when it takes longer! Or, maybe they are just expert fisherman, like their mother. For those that don't know, and yes I can already see my husband shaking his head and rolling his eyes as he reads this, because he may have heard this a time or two before.....BUT anyway, yes, their mama's first trophy was for blowing away the competition at a fishing rodeo. And, Riley's first trophy was for catching the biggest fish at a rodeo. Chip off the ole block!
 

 
Here is one of Taylor's catches.

 
And one of Riley's! I love that she is wearing her shades, her skirt and her "cinderella slippers" while fishing!

 
After fishing it started to rain, and then it cleared up and was sunny again. This picture doesn't do it justice, but we saw the most beautiful rainbow on the way home. You could see the whole rainbow, it was beautiful!

 
 

Saturday, June 1, 2013

My little graduate!

Riley enjoyed her last year of preschool! We went ahead and put her in the preschool, even though we're still debating on homeschooling. We did it because there is not a lot to do around here, and the preschool was only 2 days a week for 2 hours. So, she got to get out and enjoy time with her friends, and she honestly loved it!
 
This past week she graduated from preschool!
 
 


She was quite proud of herself!
 
 
And of course, she had to add her own goofy flair to her graduation pictures...
 

 
This was her before the graduation ceremony...notice we had sunshine, woo hoo!!!

 
Can't believe my little buddy is ready for Kindergarten!! That was a quick 5 years!!