a few random things...

Anaya, after her first day of Friday addition, looking a tad disheveled!

The boys measuring the size of Noah's ark, which, I might add, was amazingly huge!

School is going well so far for everyone, we are thankful for a great few weeks in.  Anaya is loving Friday Addition, (the kids go to a home school group every Friday) it feels weird to just have Lucy with me.

 I have started including house work as part of school and we call it "home economics class."  {Thank you Dorothy M. for the great idea!}  Since renaming the 'chores' and doing them as part of our day instead of tacked on to the end of it, the kids have been much better about getting it done without complaining!  YAY!

Dylan plays on the varsity soccer team since there is only one team, and even as a freshman has been able to get in some playing time.  Their team is doing very well and it is fun to watch his games. {yes, I actually said that!}

Dylan is enjoying high school.  I feel like we hardly ever see him anymore, he is involved in sports and has practice or a game then homework and it's off to bed, pretty much.  But, as I look back over the years I am so thankful for the time we had together here at home and I pray that he will be a blessing to those he comes in contact with every day.

How many of you have this on your "To Do List?"  Notice it says "last."  Um yeah, they would do this first and spend all day out there with those cows if I let them!

Lucy has been sick..ish for nearly a month now.  She is totally fine until, she has a "Bronchial spasm."  Then she coughs so hard she nearly passes out and sometimes she throws up or has tons of nasty junk...I'll save you the details, but its bad.  Really bad. I have brought her in to 3 different DR.'s and the ER, and all say bronchitis...one even said "mild Bronchitis!"  That was after I video taped her coughing fit.  Mild my foot!  Shes been on steroids, antibiotics and breathing treatments, nothing seems to help.  So that's been fun...Thankfully she is totally fine most of the time and the fits seem to be getting fewer and farther between, hopefully she can start sleeping in her own bedroom soon?!?

I think that is all for now, we are enjoying the cooler fall weather and getting settled into our new routine, it feels good to have turned that corner of dreading the end of summer and I am feeling rather blessed!

the view from my front porch....

whether from the outside looking in, or the inside looking out....

 it's been a strange day here on our front porch.

 a horse, a turtle and a cat.... crazy stuff!  But, I must say that the craziest...

 Is this...

 Peach trees are blossoming...in MARCH!  I'm no farmer, but I am quite certain this is some crazy stuff!  It was 80* here today!

We are loving this weather, and praying there will be no major frost ahead for all of our farming friends! 

science fair....

Dylan explaining his project...

 This cracked me up, all the girls were standing nicely near their displays and the boys...they were throwing paper wads at the target on the wall behind the display tables.

 Dylan won 2nd place for the 8th grade!  He was pretty surprised.

the other 8th grade winners...

This is Dylan's first year being "in school" as apposed to home school.  It has been a blessing for us to watch him do well in school {always room for improvement, but he's learning...}interact with his friends and teachers and  handle this adjustment so well.  While we miss him around home, this has been a good year for him and he is enjoying it and for that, we are thankful!

Good job Dylan!

 Lucy got a haircut today, no she didn't get a hold of a scissors again...I just decided to cut it, it was getting quite long.  

 But, she did get a hold of a green PERMANENT marker!!!

Who knew...lotion works fairly well at getting it off skin, Thankfully, as far as I can tell...that is all she colored on!!

Oh my...this girl!  Such a little stinker!  Speaking of stinker...

I have 2 of them and they are so much fun!

what do puppies and toddlers have in common?

Well, I am finding out, a lot actually!  You can't take your eye off either of them for very long or they will find trouble.  Take this for instance...
Hmm...I wonder who made this mess in my shower???

Or how about the scratches in my leather couch...{it's hard to see in the picture, but there are many that are quite obvious in real life!}

That would be quincy.
Okay now guess who was busted doing this...

That would be Luisa!  She was found in our bedroom CUTTING my comforter!  There are about 15 cuts like this all around the edge of our bed!  Good thing she didn't get hurt.  I had a very sharp scissors in my nightstand that was brand new{still in the package!}that she found and just started clipping away!  Her and her buddy Ryan also enjoyed plunking quarters down the register vent the other day!

"Are you talking about us...?"

Oh the joys of toddlers and puppy dogs!!

Luisa's first "walk" in the snow...

Jaydens first deer, and other firsts...

First and foremost, hunting season is upon us and we now have 3 hunters in the family.  Ryan took the boys hunting this past week on opening day and Jayden shot this nice 3 point buck.  The next day he got a button buck!  He loves being able to actually shoot something!

 Dylan shot his first deer with a bow this year as well. 

Another first is for Luisa, she has stayed dry for 2 days now!  She is really getting the hang of this potty training thing, it makes her momma very happy, and she is enjoying the candy.  Found out she loves Tootsie Rolls, she picks them over all the other candy, every single time.  Anaya loves to help Luisa, and she takes her in with her when she has to go, just to show her how it's done, too funny!

I was able to park my vehicle in the garage for the first time!  This was a momentous event, one of my favorite things about this house is that we finally have a garage, and now it is cleaned out enough that I can park in it!  We were giddy with excitement last night as we were taking the groceries in and could hear the rain and wind out side!

We also were able to hang clothes in the closets for the first time since we moved in.  Ryan finished up all of the kids closets this week and it is so wonderful to not have the huge mess of clothes on the floor.  Ours should be finished this coming week and we will be done living out of suitcases!  We still have to get closet doors, but, for now...

We are looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving this week, we sure have a lot to be thankful for! 

firsts...

Easton lost his first baby tooth last weekend!  My baby boy is growing up!  He is pretty proud of his new look, he had been wiggling that poor little tooth for a long time!

Here is another first...

Our first house warming gift!  And yes, that is a horse!

Our friend Krista's family donated 2 cute miniature horses for the Rodeo for Ryan benefit auction.  Ryan (my husband) told Krista that he was interested in buying one. While at the Rodeo on Saturday night, our friend Barb told us she was going to buy us this cute little miniature horse as a house warming gift.  

Well, when the first horse went to Barb, our friend Krista bid on horse #2 because she didn't see Ryan bidding on it and thought he would want it, so she bought horse #2 for us.  Afterwards, we found out we were the new owners of horse #1 and horse #2!  Too funny, we laughed so hard, we have never owned a horse before, so this is definitely another first!
We paid for the horse Krista bid on for us and she was gracious enough to keep the horses for us until we are ready for them!  The kids are super excited, Easton, Anaya and Lucy will be able to ride them in a few months, how funny will that be!  Apparently they will only be a little bit bigger than they are now.  Can't wait to see horse #2.  We have yet to name them...I am sure this isn't the last you will hear about them!

Demolition week 1...

 The boys are LOVING demo!!

removing the drop ceiling tiles...

Look at how much height we gained, so glad we did this!

Jayden found 2 hammers in the ceiling!

My brother in law Matt came up and power washed the garage.  Thank you Matt!!

I took these down right away, there was one on every tree out front!  Talk about unwelcoming!  We figure no trespassing is a given, and those who want to do so, well, they aren't going to stop because of a sign!

taking down the bulkheads...

lots of old wall paper...

Kitchen before the walls came down and after!

wow!

Thanks to all of our hard working helpers!

 This paint was supposed to be scrapped and sanded, however, it peeled off like wall paper in large sheets!

 We took off the subfloor they had put on upstairs and we are going to paint the floors.

We got a ton done this week and it looks a lot worse, but I guess that's the way it goes in the world of home renovation!  Plumbing, heating, and electrical are up next!!

After pulling nails and working so hard on the new house, we went home and Spencer got his finger caught in between his bike chain and sprocket, so we made a trip to the ER!  Nothing was broken and he didn't even need stitches, though he will loose his nail and has a couple of nasty cuts, they cleaned it all out and bandaged it up and sent us on our way 2 and a half hours later...!  Oh, well, we are thankful he is fine!