At Mom’s

Mom has been asking me to help re-do this buffet since she moved.  We always run out of time on our trips.  This time we were determined to get it done.  I didn’t take any before pictures but it was that dark cherry kind of stain.  Trish and Erica put tape on the drawers specifying what was in each one, no worries though, they sanded off much easier than all of those stickers Kollin, Kiley, and I put on some of her other dressers…. the joys of children!  We will have to re-do those dressers on another trip.  I think it turned out just like her inspiration picture.  It makes me want to paint more!

And in it’s place.  We painted the top black, and painted the handles black.  It turned out great I think!

My Hand

When I posted that picture of Rett’s dirty face with my hand holding his head I pointed out my funny hand picture.  Ryan said that is not your hand, I agreed, but it is!  Emma was laughing and laughing at my funny hand.  I guess my hands are just not very photogenic! 

I have been growing my fingernails out too, FINALLY!  Now if they would only quit breaking and I would use some lotion I would have pretty hands, not wrinkly old weird hands!!  Funny!

In THAT Stage

Rett is into everything!  He unloaded the entire bottom drawer in the kitchen all by himself!  He is getting so big!  He also learned how to unroll the toilet paper this week too!  I'm so glad because now I wont be bored all day with nothing to do!!  I wonder who he could be learning these things from?

Maybe from this sister, at the very time Rett was un loading, Claire was LOADING that sink full of water.  And then lots of toys.  It was all fun until she fell in!

Actually that part was fun too!

She wanted to go swimming really bad so she took matters into her own hands!  I’m so glad to have two babies still at home with me to keep me busy, really it could be so much worse!!  I love my babies!

Texting

Claire Bear got out her phone and was texting with me the other night.  Ash pointed it out to me and took our picture.  It is nice having another little mom in the house to capture everything that is going on in our busy house! 

Claire is such a mini me, only better because of that red hair!

Justin’s Birthday Lunch

To keep with tradition I went in to have lunch with Justin.  He sat by me for maybe 5 minutes and then was ready to head out to recess!  He is such a boy!

While I was getting my lunch someone shut the lights off, I looked over and saw it was Justin and I gave him that “mom look”  Then he went over by the teacher on duty and she said Justin wants you to sing to him!  What a kid!  So the lunch room sang to Justin, the girls have NEVER done that before!  He was pretty proud of himself and told EVERYONE it was his birthday!  I think he thought it was a pretty great day!

These are the girls who were left with me in the end, Emma ran off to basketball practice and Justin was too busy to stay and visit with me!

A Birthday Celebration

Sara and her kids brought a party to our house this week!  Good thing I have Sara to bring me a party, present, and cake!  I was starting to feel a little sad that I didn’t get any of that for my birthday, its tough being the mom sometimes, (ok lots of times!!)  Having Sara close makes it a lot easier though!  The kids blew out my candles and we had a great time!

We love our cousins!

Grandma’s Visit

Ryan got invited to go fishing for the week so Grandma Nielson came to our house!  We had lots of fun and lots of work!  We canned applesauce,

and strawberry jam.  We also painted the living room, hemmed Ryan's suit pants, and picked out new carpet (I will post pictures when it is all finished!!!)  among lots of other things!  It was a productive week!  I couldn't  wouldn't have done it all with out her!  Thanks Mom for coming all that way and keeping us company!  The kids and I were sad to see her go!

Canning in the winter?

Ryan helped me can 35 quarts of applesauce last week. We were both tired, but so happy we got it done! This is just one of the many things that went on last week. The girls were out of school most of the week for girls basketball tournaments, which btw our girls are STATE CHAMPS! Two years in a row! Mom and Dad, Trish, and Aunt Kathy came to my house on the way to my cousins Tyler's funeral. Bret came also, so we had a little house full on Tuesday night, which was nice to see everyone. (mom brought all the apples for the applesauce) Justin, Claire and I went for a little walk this morning to see if we had any "signs of spring." I was VERY pleasantly surprised we have something (not sure what) coming up out in the flower beds! We were really excited and hooping and hollering! We LOVE Spring! Too bad it was -4 this morning.....still feels like spring to us though! It has been a busy good week!

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???

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!

BYU-I or BUST!

This girl is going to COLLEGE! How exciting, I wish I was going with her! Good Luck Danielle! We will miss you!!

While The Boys Are Away The Girls will Play!

Ryan and the men-folk in his family are gone on the annual pack trip up in the mountains for a couple of days. He was so excited to get away from farming for a little while, I was glad he could go....well sorta, it is never fun to be left home alone! But we haven't been sitting at home at all, today we took the kids and went to Hop2it. Super fun place! It is just a whole bunch of those bounce houses and slides and fun kid stuff. Sara and I were laughing at our agility, or lack of it! I think I may be sore tomorrow after all of that climbing and bending and sliding. It was a lot like that American Gladiator show that we always used to watch, that stuff is hard to get through and climb on! I am getting old! Still, it was a great time, we cant wait to take all of the men when they get home!E and Ash, I never even saw these two the entire time, they were just going and going! We were the only ones there most of the time so it was perfect for keeping track of kids because they were ALL ours!
Justin and Jaci buried in the ball pit, this was a fun spot!

Claire, BALLS!

jumping on mushrooms, I think, look at them laughing, we all laughed A LOT!



I did make it to the top of a couple of slides, I only had to be helped up one time, this poor guy thought I was hurt because I was laughing so hard, I just kept slipping and losing my socks, I was quite embarrassed when he offered to help, I climbed up and then he handed me Claire. I could do it just fine by myself, I didn't really need help.....how humiliating!

I've got TALENT!

I got my mixing spoon stuck in between the beaters, and I wasn't even trying to! This is my 4th mixer this year, I think I am a little rough on them......or something!
check out the cheese on that baby!


It does still work it just bangs and clangs on itself, I am hoping Ryan can bend the beaters back in place, (keep in mind I had been at scout day camp all day), I'm exhausted! I'm going to go take a nap!

(I couldn't bear to not have a post for so long! I am working hard on a super huge gigantic post of the Big Brown family reunion that we just got home from, We had such a great time!)

Not FAIR!

My mom just sent pictures of her beautiful, green, luscious yard and garden. Do you think maybe some day when I grow up I can have a pretty yard too? My grass isn't even green yet, let alone any flowers blooming! What would it be like to not live in the desert, the COLD desert I might add!

Check out that strawberry patch, and a man who weeds-what more could a woman want!