WA or bust!

We are in WASHINGTON for the week! The kids had a funny school schedule this week, only having two and a half (non consecutive) days on, so we skipped and came to visit Grandma! The kids are enjoying themselves already. I am glad to be away from the busy farm for a while. Mom keeps asking what I want to do.....I keep ignoring her.....I want to do nothing! (for a change)
The farming is going well, it is turning cold though now, which will make it start to be miserable farming. Ryan got home after midnight on Monday night, so I figured he wouldn't really be missing us anyway, he is too busy! I packed him up with lots of frozen pizzas and tv dinners that he probably wont eat, but at least I tried!
We left our house getting a new roof. Hopefully it is getting finished up today, I don't know how the wind is there, it was pretty windy when we left Tuesday morning. We have been with out dish internet and tv since the roof is off. We have been back in the stone ages, but it was amazing how much I could get done not having the internet distraction and we had a couple of days with no Diego/Dora, how have we survived! I hope it is all put back together by the time we get home. We have General Conference on Sat/Sunday also so we really need it put back together quick! This will have to be a pictureless post, I didn't bring any cords to hook up to moms computer. I hope to be back on the blogging wagon when we get home! We are enjoying our trip so far! Lucky us!

Harvesting in Arco

We spent the night up in Arco in the camper after Claire's party and cousin fun. It is nice to be so close to our Dad when he is working, then we get to help! We had lots of people staying that night, Mike and Shannon, Jared, Cody, Mark and Paige, and us. When Jared got there we asked him why Jenna didn't come, he said if I would have known it was a family reunion she would have come! It is so fun that we all live (well not ALL) but that some of us live close enough to just have family reunions here and there! We had fun working on the line picking clods, the kids LOVE it. Hopefully they will still like to do it when they are bigger! Yeah right!

Claire's Birthday Party

Claire finally got a birthday party! We packed up the cake and presents and went to Arco to meet our daddy so he could be there and we had a fun time! (Ryan still missed it, but did get a piece of Dora cake at least!) I wasn't going to do a yucky old home decorated cake again, but I felt bad not doing something, besides who am I trying to impress, CLAIRE, she could tell it was Dora so that is all that mattered! We had a barbeque at the Arco house and then opened presents with cousins and Aunt Sara and Aunt Paige. I think she was thrilled with it all, she is still singing happy birthday dear Claire..... What a fun girl!

Claire's BIG day

Claire had a full fun day yesterday. She got to go to story time in the morning, which the kids really love. She loved the kids singing happy birthday to her! She and Justin are working on their letter B worksheet.

Here she is getting her two year old measurement (and eating a cracker) she is 33inches tall, exactly the same as Justin was at two.

Then she helped me with the pizza dough, she LOVES the bread maker, all of the kids do.

Claire also got to play with cousins. She and Tayson spent a lot of time in the sand box (the neighbors gave us a couple of buckets of sand). (don't mind my redneck back deck, cat food, broken screen door etc,!)Claire kept saying going swimming and she even layed down in it, (I had to sweep the floor 5 times last night, not sure I am ready for a REAL sandbox!) Then it was off to riding bikes, she rode the barbie bike down the 4 steps out on the sidewalk. (She has some pretty funny expressions lately too!!)

She did NOT like that, luckily she stayed up right, I don't know how she didn't crash! (I think we are pretty fortunate to still have our 2 year old, she is always trying to hurt herself!) She got into the cupcakes before dinner, little stink!Then we finished out the day with Pink Dora frosting cupcakes and a candle. She did not like the candle she kept saying "hot." I told the kids if they blew out the candle they would get a spank, Ashley accidentally blew it out, everyone looked at Ash and there was silence, then Claire said, "I blow it" So we all clapped and said yeah Claire. Saved Ash from getting in trouble! It was pretty cute!

We didnt open presents or have her Dora cake or presents yet, when it is harvest time everything else gets put on hold, including two year old birthday parties! Fortunately she doesnt know, or care! WE love this baby girl!

On the road

We have been on the road this past week. I am working on a really fun project of furnishing the "Arco house." (When we bought the farm it had a yucky old rundown "trailer house" on it, we are going to use it during harvest and spring planting to stay in while the guys are working up there) Anyway, it has started the re-model process and has bedrooms and bathrooms ready to be moved into, the rest of the house is in shambles, but it is bein put back together as we speak, and the new kitchen will be so worth it! SO, I have been looking for deals and driving here and there, including a fun trip to Boise with my OBFF ((old BFF) long story, she is still my BFF, we just haven't had our paths cross much this summer) We went up to Nampa to find this: This is the bed in the master bedroom actually, I found the whole set on craigslist (which I LOVE btw) for a steal of a deal! It has been so fun buying bedding, curtains, towels, rugs, furnishings, on and on, I am SO in my element!! It has been a dream job! Anyway we have a start, now I have two more bedrooms 1 more bathroom, two family rooms, laundry room, and a kitchen to go! This is Me with the first load going to Arco, (I had help loading and unloading) and the pickup looks the same right now full of furnishings for bedroom #2.

Claire squished in with all of the fun stuff! Justin had to ride up front!

We are going to spend the weekend up there and I hope to get the other bedroom put together and the 2nd bathroom walls textured, and hopefully painted. We will see how well I do. More to come!

CLAIRE

This day two years ago our baby girl was born! What a special day! She is such a good baby, she is a blessing from Heaven! I love this little girl! She is just what I needed! Claire is very quick to obey, I know crazy for a two year old! She is always happy. She is saying the cutest things right now. I tell everyone that she is my doll baby because she really is, (I have even been asked (twice) if she was a real baby, people think she is a doll!) I feel like I am playing house with her, she is such an angel! We are so fortunate to have her in our home, we LOVE our Claire Bear! Some of Claire's favorite things, Dora, Dora, Dora!!! She also loves babies, story books, blankies and nuggles.

She wants to do whatever the big kids are doing, including getting her brains bounced out on the trampoline, she just keeps at it! Claire loves going to nursery, and rarely if ever cries. She is still sleeping in her crib and Ryan makes fun of me because I still change her diaper on the changing table. (she is my baby still, not a big girl yet!) She is the first of the girls to not be potty trained by her second birthday, but it is more because of a busy mom than a willing girl! Claire loves rides on the motorcycle with daddy, really anything with daddy, she is a daddys girl! We all love our Claire bear, she is a special baby......Big Girl! As you can tell none of us are ready for her to grow up! Happy birthday baby Bear!

Picture Day

The girls had picture day today at school, we don't normally do school pictures but our really good photographer moved away SO we purchased school pictures. The girls were excited, Ashley said " you are going to get some of these?" She was excited! We were so busy getting ready for the morning that I forgot to send the envelopes with money, therefore I had to make a trip to the school this morning. I like that the girls were excited to see me, even though they barely had gotten off the bus, I know one day they probably wont like me coming to school, so I am relishing it now! They looked cute, and we had plenty of time this morning Ryan had the whole house up at 6:00 am, cause if he is going to be up, so is everyone else! It was Ok though, we needed LOTS of time to do hair, I have funny girls!

Ashley's First Piano Recital

Ashley had her first piano recital on Monday night. She did a good job on different piece then what she had been planning to do......life doesn't always go as planned! She did pretty good anyway. It was fun to see her excitement, all the kids excitement for her. Emma prayed for her to do good in every prayer for the last couple of days! It was a fun evening.

Ashley and our fabulous piano teacher looking on!

I managed to mumble and fumble my shaking fingers through my piece. I had no idea my hands would shake that much! I wasn't even nervous (well until I started playing) I have a long way to go still!

I was surprised to see pictures of myself, Sara must have taken them???

More Cousins

I have failed to post another Telford baby arrival, Mark and Paige had their baby girl on August 17th. I have not even been to meet her yet, what kind of an Aunt am I??? She is going to be outgrown of all the 'little' outfits I got for her, girls are SO much fun! Here she is the little princess baby Sicily: Don't you just LOVE the hair bow! Good job Paige she is a doll! I cant wait to meet her!

I married my father!!

The dishwasher broke down (again) and instead of replacing it Ryan has just fixed it up so nicely for me, It looks like Dad was here for a visit! Yes, that is a light switch on the front of it! If you open the door when it is on the dishwasher just keeps running! The kids just LOVE switching it off and on ALL THE TIME! I am pretty sure Dad would have done the EXACT same repair job, must be a farmer thing??? I shouldn't be complaining, at least it still works! It was a miserable couple of days washing by hand until he had time to fix it! Yeah for a handy husband!

Harvest Baby

A new Telford cousin has arrived, just in time for harvest! He was born 9/9/09, pretty cool birthday I think! To top it off he weighed exactly 9 pounds too! funny! He is Aaron and Desaree's 5th baby way to go Des! He is so perfect! Glad he made it safe and sound!
Cedric Robert and PROUD big sister Megan!

Harvest Time!

The potatoes are running! So far so good down on the farm, the Arco farm is off to a slow start but will get there once we get through the first few days of adjusting and get a routine going. The potatoes I saw looked great, and tasted great today for Sunday dinner, I think we must be doing something right! Here are a couple of shots going into the cellar:you can barely see a red light at the end of the cellar, this is a REALLY long cellar, those potatoes were traveling a long way!

And out in the field, a couple of wind rowers:

And one digger way back there chugging along!

A couple of cousins doing a little farming. We were glad to have so many around for the weekend. We took advantage of all of these "BIG" kids and had them help dig some test plots, Ryan dug them (by hand) and the kids gathered up all of the potatoes. Fun times!

Sydney, Justin, Kaden, Emma, Megan, Alaina, Kegan, (Ash was in the front)

Gonna Have to Post

Even though it is boring around here......OK we are totally going into the most busy, crazy, scary, tiring time of year for us, but it is no longer exciting, just sad.... I have been a working mom the past two weeks and my house shows it! I am not good at holding down a job away from home and holding down the home too! I don't know how anyone does it, hats of to all the workin moms! So we, me and my little kids have been farming like crazy, but not as much as Ryan;

Ryan is gone, I have officially kissed him goodbye until November.... His current schedule is: 1:00am start baling, 8:00 am rush down to the farm to try and dig potatoes, 8:00 pm Home, eat dinner, shower, sleep, REPEAT! How can a person do this? I don't know, all I do know is I need more than 4 hours of sleep per night, and for a week running, he is so exhausted, poor man! It has only just begun! I told Emma she needed to be quiet because Dad was sleeping, she said, Oh I would like to see Dad I haven't seen him for a while, (3 days I think). I wish we didn't have to go to school, but we do...

The girls are enjoying school, I cant believe we are finishing up our 3rd week already, time flies! They both are working on spelling tests and reading a lot. I think they play with each other most recesses, which is fine with me. They are such big help, they can totally whip this house into shape in no time, I love my good cleaners!

Justin is mean. Claire is always saying "Justin, mean" and he is, he goes out of his way to be mean to her, I don't quite get this boy stuff. He and I have discussed much in our HOURS in the swather. He knows exactly what he wants for his birthday and Christmas and he has told me when I need to go buy it and how I should wrap it and hide it. He is funny, he really wanted to get his sandbox in, but not yet....can you dig a sandbox in November?

Claire is potty training herself, she told me to "shoo mom" when I was helping her in the bathroom. (we are always shooing kitties out of the house) I had to do a double take, I asked her again, and she told me again to shoo. She is AWESOME in the training dept. Not even ONE accident today???? Can it be real? She is still very quiet but talks a lot. She uses whole sentences now, takes after her sisters!

Today was our last day in the swather, Ryan keeps threatening that I will have to run the baler, fortunately I have a primary meeting in the morning so I cant learn tomorrow. I finished swathing in record time today, (well it took me two days to do one field, so record time for me!!) I somehow managed to swath up two skunks, now that is ROTTEN! This field had tons of wild life, 4 skunks, 1badger, 2 coyotes (we called them Swiper the fox, they were really orange colored), and 4 deer (3 bucks) And of course our favorite, the cows, they would run to the edge of the pasture to see all the wild life too, funny cows!Who knew! We saw more wildlife on our own farm then we did on our trip through Yellowstone! I hope we are really done swathing for sure this time, we will see what the harvest season brings on!