Wednesday January 30

It has been kinda nice over the last couple days.

The kids actually went outside to play a little bit today.

Elsie and I did some buffalo hunting, or course :)

Cassi, some tree climbing.

And Madi and Porter played on the tire swing, while Mittens watched from up high in the tree.

I can't wait for it to be Spring!!!!!

*****

Dad has been working on his shot-gun today.

He modified an old Ithaca 12 ga, shortened the barrel, modified the plug, bored out the end of the barrel and added a heat shield.

(Yes, he did tell me all that stuff, cause I have no idea what it means :)

Anyway, it looks pretty cool.

It will be fun to shoot.

*****

I played with watercolors today.

I had so much fun and I think I need to make more time to do it more often :)



Tuesday January 29

Elsie makes me laugh.

Everything she does, she does all the way.

She is so focused in what she does.

She is becoming very confident, but also more stubborn.

She knows if she wants, or doesn't want to do something.

And there is no changing her mind very easily.

She worked out with me today after she got home from school.

She went and picked out her own 'workout' clothes.

Changed herself (very proud of her for that :).

We worked out.

After that, she finished up her homework, then painted.

I always have a hard time throwing anything away that she draws.

Everything she does is very abstract.

But it is always so colorful and very bold lines, and just beautiful.

I love it.

I thought I would start saving them and cut it up into squares to glue on the front of a blank card to use for thank-you cards and such.

Anyway.....the only problem....she has a had time keeping the art supplies away from her mouth.

Silly girl.

She is very comfortable in her skin and likes to do what she wants to do.

I caught her eating her own yogurt, that she got herself, just hanging out on the couch watching a show.

I had to laugh.

It does drive me crazy how she is so stubborn, but really this is such a good thing and it has helped her to be a determined little girl and has helped her do all the things she wants to do!

We also made her some play dough today.

So she had her cookie cutters out.....Halloween cookie cutter, of course :)

I went upstairs after doing some laundry and saw her talking with her cookie cutters.

She was asking them what they were going to be for Halloween.

Made me laugh pretty hard.

I love this girl and the light that she is in our lives.

I love her determination, her stubbornness, her creativity and her imagination!

Just a perfect little Elsie package :)

 

Monday January 28

It may look like Dad is playing 'hookie' today.

He should be at work, but yesterday and this morning, and off and on today, he has had bouts of nausea and the sweats.....

I think he might be sick.

I thought we were avoiding things pretty good.

Guess we will see what the next few days bring us.

Anyway, it is hard to keep the man inside, even if he isn't feeling good.

When Madi got home, we went out and did some shooting, and when Cassi got home, we continued for a bit.

Dad has been doing a bit of selling/buying of guns.

Making his collection exactly how he wants it.

I think we will make it a point to go out and shoot more.

I really enjoy being out there.

I may not know what names go with what guns the way Dad does.....

But I do enjoy shooting them.

I have a secret wish that I could have gone shooting with my Grandma, who was a trophy winning sharp shooter back in the day.

I think I would have had a lot of fun with her :)

The girls are getting the hang of it.

Port likes doing it with his Dad.

I am sure he will become a fine hunter :)

We plan to make ourselves our own little 'real' shooting range.

We will start having some competitions, that would be fun!

 

Sunday January 27

 

Just boys being boys today at our house.

These two are two peas in a pod.

I love it.

 

 

*****

We had quite a time with Elsie today.

She did not want to go to sharing time.

I fought with her the whole time, trying to just get her to at least go in and sit with me.

I finally got her to go with me for the last 10 minutes and she was happy and stuff and we got in the classroom and I went to leave, and she had a melt down.

Luckily Dad was there to save the day.

He went with her to class and said she had a really great time.

Lets hope she had a good enough time that she wants to go next week....cause Dad will be at work.



Saturday January 26

Our ward does an annual Man-food night,.

The man must make the most manly food, and make it on their own.

There is minimal done in the way of decorating for the night.

It is put on by the guys, so they like the no-fuss kind of thing :)

So tonight Brent planned and very meat filled manly dish.

He dubbed it the 'Manloaf'.

5 lbs. of animal wrapped in bacon.

So I am not a bacon fan....but this thing was really good!

And guess what???

He won the prize for 'Most Manly'.

And won his woman a box of chocolates :)

Pretty cool.

Lats year he won 'Most tasty'.

My man sure knows a lot about manly-ness!!!

It was a fun night.

 

Friday January 25

It was a very uneventful day.

Dad went in today for some overtime....

Elsie got to have a penguin party in class today, but her poor teacher had to go home sick and she missed it.

Elsie felt bad for her.

But she had fun at her party.

Cassi has been doing really well in the mornings going to class.

Madi was glad to be on time to class today :)

Yesterday her bus never came so Dad drove her to school about 30 minutes late....

When he went to sign a very stressed out Madi in, they said don't worry about it....kids will be trickling in all day :)

She cracks me up....always so worried about being late, or doing something she might get in trouble for.

So she was happy today.

Porter and I put Transformers Lego's together today.

I did do laundry, but that's about it :)

Oh, and I worked out.

There was a lot that I wanted to get done, but for some reason it did not happen today.

I did actually put together a layout of the upstairs, and then made another layout of what I want it to do....

I think I am ready to present it to the boss (Dad) for approval :)

We want to start doing things to the inside of the house....but we are sick of doing temporary things.

And we do temporary things, because we know things will be changing around, so we hate to put too much money if we are just gonna rip it out.

So maybe we can make a plan and start doing permanent projects.....

We watched 'Shark boy and Lava girl' tonight.

And they are all in bed in good time.

Maybe I will get to bed at a good time :)

 

Thursday January 24

We went out tonight for dads birthday dinner.

We decided to try a new place.

We have talked about it for a long time....we have just never gone there.

So tonight was the night.

It was a fun time.

And Elsie was the happiest little girl :)

We got a bunch of different flavor wings....and all shared them.

It was a lot of fun.

We all kinda have some belly aches tonight though....

I am sure we will go back again.

*****

Then we stopped by RC Willey to enter the trip to Hawaii.

Wouldn't that just be the greatest!!!!

Anyway, and we got sucked into buying a floor model TV for an amazing deal.

Ya, I guess RC Willey knows what they are doing by sucking you in for that free trip.

 

Wednesday January 23

Happy Birthday DAD!!!!

Poor Dad had to work on his birthday.

The kids and I have been making plans to surprise him for his birthday.

First I cleared it with Madi to make sure it was okay that she missed a little bit of school so we could go and surprise Dad int he morning and take him cinnamon rolls.

She was okay with it....so we were good to go :)

I worked last night to get the cinnamon rolls all ready to get out and cook first thing in the morning.

I tried a new recipe....and I am very pleased with it.

They turned out perfect :)

Anyway....I told Dad that Madi wanted to call him before she headed to school.....and then the plan was for us to already be at the station and she would tell him to come outside....

But as we were driving to the station, he sent me a text saying he was leaving on a fire and she would call when he got back.

We still drove to the station....I figured we could wait for a while, and if it took too long, we would just leave the rolls at the door and give him a call later.

But lucky us, it was a small chimney fire and they actually got to the fire station just before we showed up.

The kids were so excited to see him for his birthday :)

Porter had a very special present picked out for Dad.

He was so excited for him to open it.

Transformer Lego's....so cool!

He can't wait to put them together with Dad when he gets home tomorrow!

Porter also made sure to take his DS with him so he could show Dad how many coins he had earned....that boy sure loves his Dad!

Oh and the guys at the station made him a nice expensive dinner for his birthday, so that was nice of them.

Hopefully we can celebrate as a family sometime this weekend.

Happy Birthday Dad!

We LOVE you!!!!

*****

Poor Mittens has been locked in Dads shop since Monday night.

Madi went looking for her and found her in the shop.

Poor kitty was hungry.

But at least she was pretty warm in the shop :)

I let Port bring her in for a little bit once we got her some food and water.

I made him stay on the rug right by the door.....

He sat there for a long time with her....it was pretty cute.

I really hate cats....but for some reason I kinda like this one.....

*****

Tonight we had activity days....

My friend watched the little ones while I took her big ones to activity days.

When we got back she invited us to stay for dinner...

And since she is an amazing cook, and I had only planned to have leftovers.....I was happy to accept :)

So I got the kids home, little ones in bed....big ones homework done, then in bed....now I need to clean the kitchen...

 

Tuesday January 22

I had to laugh a little bit while doing homework with Elsie today. 

Not sure that 'blog' would have been on any rhyming worksheets a couple years ago.

It's a different world :)

She is doing really good with her handwriting.

Her name down there on the page is not a good representation of how well she does her name.

That one is a 'spooky' Elsie, according to her.

Monday January 21

I cannot believe how grown up these two girls are. 

We had a fun night tonight.

The Youngs came over and we had some yummy pulled pork dinner and played some games.

We had original plans to go sledding, but that just sounded cold :)

And a few of the Young girls are just getting better form being sick.

So it just sounded better to hang out in the house, with a heater.

I love when we get all the girls together.

It doesn't seem like very long ago when these two beauties were tiny babies.

 

Sunday January 20

Elsie bug went to class again today!

YAY!!!

There may have been a promise that we could decorate the front room with spider webs :)

Hey, you do what you have to.

And I think the spider webs look quite nice!

It made a nice home for her little black sparkly spider from Katie.

We rested today....and dad hung some quilts in the window to block the light.

Am I crazy.....it kinda makes me want to hang quilts as  curtains :)

Saturday January 19

 Dad made me a little something today.

I found a cool looking canned food dispenser on Pinterest, and Dad thought he could do even better.

I wanted a good way to store the canned food, but rotate too.

So he made this for me, and I am so excited.

He is gonna make another one that will hold the bigger cans too.

Later.

This was just kinda a trial.

It turned out good.

Great!

And he made it so cute for me with the polka dots.

We did that so we can tell how full the column is, and if we need to get more.

Madi and Elsie had fun bringing cans downstairs and sorting them so we could put them into it.

I think it will work great.

Friday January 18

Cassi got to have a friend come home with her today.

Carly is a sweet girl, and they get a long like to peas in a pod.

I have had a rough time with Cassi over the last week.....

Not so much with the school stuff, we are doing not too bad in that area....

But she has been so unwilling to help out, very mean faces and words.....

It is hard to figure her out.

She lets her emotions rule the way she acts....and she has had some all out 2 year old style tantrums lately.

So crazy to me that she is so sweet and light hearted and happy, but then can be so angry at the world!

We really are trying with her and trying to make it work better around here.

It is hard to break bad habits....

*****

After school I made them some frosting for the Halloween cookies I made yesterday, cause I didn't make frosting yesterday :)

They were excited about it.....and probably used way too much :)

While Cassi and Carly were playing, Porter was teasing them, and between all the stories we figured that he either got pushed or fell into the playroom table and has a big ol' goose egg under his eye.

He had dad to cuddle with, so it wasn't too bad.

i am thinking tomorrow it is gonna be one good looking bruise.

*****

After dinner, the girls cleaned up....

Then Cassi and Elsie snuck off together and I heard them cleaning the bathroom.

Super cute.

Not sure how clean it really got....but really sweet of them to do it :)