The 4th of July

Every 4th we go fishing in New Mexico. My kids love it! They always catch a couple of fish (its a stocked pond!)

Cade and the Kenz with her first fish!

Carson is so funny! There were about 3 or 4 that got away from him before he got this guy reeled in. He was super excited! He did lots of jobs to earn his own fishing pole and practiced casting for about a month before we went. It was so cute, he yelled and hollered once he finally caught a fish. My Grandpa D would be proud of this little fisherman!

Carson and one of his cousins fishin' away!

And of course, FIREWORKS!!!! Always a good time with Papa and Grandma Jan.

MY HOUSE!!!!!!!!!! part I

Jeez! I finally got some pictures downloaded!!!! Yay. Of course they are backwards, and I have tons of other more recent (2nd story!!!) pictures now, but first things first!!!!!

Ok, these are the exterior walls dowstairs. This is the west side of the house, my kitchen and family room. The big openings are either doors or windows.


The front of the house! Also the south side that faces the road. The big horizontal boards towards the top are headers for windows and doors. The center header is the front door!

One of the BEST babysitters ever! My mom!!! She got to be here for a couple of weeks which my kids LOVED (and I did too!) !! She helped with the kids alot so I could help Cade.

Lots of good help! Cades family came and helped us stand up these monsters!

Standing up the exterior walls! It took 7 of us, I think. Heavy!

Before we got the north and south walls stood up!

First sheet of sub-floor on! Cade might be wearing an apron! Hahaha, its for all the nails!

Floor joists. Cade did all of these by himself! THis is looking south, towards the road.

SO, this is the begining of our house!!!!! We are really excited/stressed/broke! But so far we have been able to do everything ourselves! Hopefully I will get some more pic up soon! We stood up the 2nd floor exterior walls last week! We are making progress!

Fairy God Mother

Again, the bias "mom" opinion. My kids are SO cute!! Last weekend Kenzie found a magic wand at a garage sale. So, for a dime, she got it (my kids are a little spoiled too). She has been casting spells on every one. This morning I could hear them playing together and Cars was telling Kenzie to turn him into a prince. She looked at him funny and asked, "Princess?" Carson was a little adamant," No, a PRINCE!" "Princess?" This went on for about 5 minutes until Carson lost his patience and not so calmly explained that he was NOT a girl, so he could NOT be a princess! It was so funny! I laughed out loud. I don't remember exactly how it ended, but to hear their little argument and their own little personalities. I kinda LOVE them.

Attempt to catch up!!!!

WARNING!!!! LOTS OF PICTURES! Well not tons, considering all thats happened in the past 2 months! This is a small taste of all our adventures. First, this picture is a classic Carson-ism. He likes to wear his swim gogles outside when its windy so the dirt won't get in his eyes. Which in and of itself is a Carson-ism. He didn't want to come inside to take his gogles in, and he has had the talk, "Don't leave your things outside where the dog can get them/ruin them." This was his own solution!
Cars, doing what he loves...... eating chocolate cake. @ Kara's work (love you Kara!)

Em taught Kenz to blow the seeds off a dandilion. Pretty girl.

Em & Kenz at " This is the Place"

All time FAVORITES! There are penguins behind the kids. Oh, the kids are favorites too =)

cousins

CuTe GiRlS! I love the different looks on each of their faces!

The only pic I got of the kids birthday party! it was fun though,

MORE PICTURES!!!!!!

For Carson bday he wanted to go to the park and play. so, we did!

merry-go-round

slidin'

Kenzie wanted to do the same thing for her bday too. They play SO good together most of the time. I love it.

Phew!

Well, th-th-th-th-thats all folks!

Attitude Adjustment

Its a good thing that I have good kids around to remind me what is important, and how to look at this life with a positive attitude. Carson got a new infaltable waterslide for his birthday (thanks Papa and Grandma Jan!).He has wanted to set it up every single day! The weather has NOT been cooperating. It has been cold and super WINDY. I am pretty vocal about my dislike for this "stupid, nasty, ol' wind!" It stinks. In fact its supposed to snow a little tomorrow. When I told Carson that he was really sad. He just wants to play in the water! Poor kid, living in land-locked colorado! He didn't stay sad for long though. When he said his prayers tonight he prayed that we could have fun in the snow tomorrow. =D Hows that for an attitude adjustment? Smart boy.

Branding........

One of the benifits of being married to a cowboy! I love branding, of course I don't do much of the work, but it is SO fun! Every one loves it, especailly these two cowboys. Look at those grins, I can't tell who is having more fun!
Cades family does it the "old fashioned way", with a fire and horses. Not everybody brands this way. Its part of what makes it so fun though! Cade dragging a calf to the fire on his colt. Yep, I married that.

EVERYBODY gets in on this! All the little cousins, from 14 to 2 year olds. They all want to help and be involved.

I don't know why this is in here twice. It is so cute though =D

This is Carson riding a calf, or at least the tail (haha) end of it. He rode two or three. He LOVES this stuff! Such a little cowboy.

I have a video and more pic's but the computer isn't cooperating right now so..........

Kenzie was there too, but she thankfully slept through 3/4's of it. But she loves it too.

So cute, so much fun. I love that my kids get to grow up this way, its kind of a lost art. Very western, very tough. I think.

Spring time on the ranch!

Sew, I made this ......

This post is for you mom! You would be proud, I've been quite the little seamstress lately! Not really, but I try!This was the latest and was kind of an experiment. I liked the u-shaped yoke I had seen on a differnt pattern, so I tried to make one. I had to cut a couple out before I got it right. Ema did the flower for me. Cute baby eh?


This is #3, a little out of order I know. I love it tho! I really like purple.

This is #2. The first one I did without any help tho. Well Ann helped me fix the straps to be ruffle-y. I have enough of this material left to make 1 for Myah too =D

This was #1. I got it all cut out and Ann helped me to read the pattern instructions. I never have used a pattern before! I really like these colors too. I am going to sew the bows in, cause Kenzie pulls them out and the dress falls off!

This one was all me! I even made the straps cross in the back!

I didn't do hardly a thing on this one. It was kenzie's easter dress. CUTE!

Kenzie laying down in this one, you can see the flower better tho.

She is so cute!

So I got a little carried away with this pattern, but they are all so cute! They are all a little different, and have different lengths. Some are dresses, and some are the longer, tunic-like shirts. Anyway, not too bad eh mom?

ps- I also made Carson a little tractor scripture case/cover. He was feeling a little left out of all the sewing! He is super cute too!