Quite a year

  2014 has been quite a year.  I lost both of my grandparents the first of the year, and on Friday, we got a call that Dan's grandmother had passed away.  :(  We are both very blessed to have had our grandparents in our lives for so long. 

We went up to be with Dan's family for the weekend and they had a few pictures out of Dan's Grannie that I had never seen before.  I LOVE old pictures and family history.  I seriously can't ever get enough of it.  This was one of the pictures of her and her husband.  Aren't they just the cutest?!  :)

Hilma was such a neat lady.  We will miss her so much, and as sad as we are to see her go we are thankful that she's not in pain anymore.

I don't know what Heaven is like, but I sure hope that this handsome husband of hers was waiting for her with that big beautiful smile of his.  :)

On a much, much lighter note...  

I love this prayer that I found in the beginning of a book called, 'Let's all be brave'.  It is perfect for every single day.

On our way home Sunday evening, I looked down at the heater and laughed.  Dan and I have a lot in common but sometimes we are polar opposites.  This is a good example!  Haha!  By the way, it was me who had my side set to 90.  I hate being cold.  Our poor car was probably confused... we should have probably found a happy medium!  ;)

It is homecoming week at our school right now.  Today was dress like the 80's.  This is what we came up with.  We practiced last night giving her big hair, but decided to just stick to a nice side pony tail.

Gracie's junior high isn't participating... which I think is lame.  ;)  And after showing Jesse a few idea's of how he could dress up, he decided to pass and just wear his normal athletic wear. 

PS.  Sorry if this post is a little bit all over the place.  I thought about breaking it up into a couple different posts.  But I think that is just how life in this house is lived.  We grieve, we celebrate, we keep living life, making memories, but never forgetting the special people who we were blessed to love on.

What we've been up to

  We have found a home for our bunny Skipper.  I am so excited for Skipper and for them.  They have ordered a special rabbit hutch, that has an area for him to run around plus a 2 level house for him to get shelter in.  We will definitely miss him, as he has been fun and is really cute.  We just aren't set up at the moment to keep him.  We could try to make it work, but with winter coming, we have a lot of firewood and winterizing around here, and we are getting short on time.  I think he's gonna love his new home!  He's got quite the personality.  Look at him standing up and looking around while Emma went to say good morning to him.   

Mom went to a quarter horse auction last week and brought home 2 more colts. They are so cute! They haven't been handled at all, so we are teaching them about grain... and getting them used to us being out in the pens with them.  She still hasn't decided on names, yet...  so I'm still on the hunt for that.

I don't have great food photography skills, but this chicken pesto pasta dish that I make is one of my new favorites.  It's super easy and sooo good.

 I cook my penne pasta, and while I'm waiting for it.  I saute my cherry tomatoes and some garlic in Olive Oil, until they are nice and hot.  I then add in my pasta, shredded chicken, lots of pesto, parmesan and mix it all together.  Done.  Easy and so good!  When I dish up, I add more parmesan, because I love cheese, and because why not!  ;)  Serve with some bread and you are good to go.

Kicking up dust

The cows have been moved out to the back pasture, and the horses have been put out in the field for a little while.  I absolutely love watching the horses run... especially when they all run together! Ranger, the horse on the left is really kicking up his heals.  Ha!  They were having fun!  And look at all the dust, it was thick!!!

And on another note... it's FRIDAY!!!  :) 

We have volleyball games, and soccer games all lined up for tomorrow.  The tricky part is that we are now at the age where, both kids travel to play in different towns.  So this family will be traveling in 2 different cars around the county.  It won't be a quiet, lazy weekend around our house.  But hopefully we'll have some fun!

Have a great weekend everyone!

A random evening at our house

 Last night, we went outside to feed the bunny, and then decided to leave his door open so he could run around in the grass for a bit and get some exercise.  He's a fast little guy, so we have to keep an eye on him so he doesn't get too far away.

 My boys!  :)

 Gracie is taking a photo elements class in school.  They take photos and then get to edit them.  After I took a couple of pictures, I gave her my camera and told to her to practice.  She snapped this one of Dan and I. 

And then this one of Jesse running through trying to keep up with the bunny, who was trying to leave the yard.

These pictures that I took of Jesse and Skipper make me laugh!  This bunny has got the cutest personality, and I love that he can keep this boy of mine on his toes.  :)

 Emma was all wound up from watching Jesse chase after the bunny, and Dan just sat and watched the chaos. Ha!  I needed to have gotten a picture of Gracie.  But I guess the photographer, rarely ever makes it in the pictures, right?!  ;)

  I love this crazy crew of mine!  :)

A Sunday Drive

Sunday I took a drive on some of Grandpa's property across the river.  Even though Grandpa is gone, and it's been handed down to family... I will always think of it as his.  I roll down the window's, shut the radio off and just drive.  No cars, no people, no noise, except the rushing creeks, and the sounds of nature.  I drive and I remember.  

 

Half way up my drive, I stopped and took some pictures of our valley below.  So peaceful to be up a mountain alone.  

Except, for when I start to freak myself out and wonder if I turn around, if a bear or cougar is going to be standing right behind me.  Which thankfully hasn't happened... yet.  :)

Working 9 to 5...

  My Dad had a total knee replacement here a couple weeks ago.  They are short handed at the store, so they asked if I would help out for a couple of weeks.  I started working the same day that the kids started school.  Man, let me tell you... I have a whole new appreciation for working Mom's.  Hat's of to you all.  This is the reason I haven't posted anything for a week.  Seriously I don't know how you all do it!?!?

  The kids went back to school last Tuesday.  :(  Goodbye Summer!

  We had so much fun this summer.  We managed to fit in a lot of fun things to do, but we still had a few things that we never did get around to doing.  It's just never long enough.

  Emma's birthday was over Labor Day weekend.  The kids and I went to church by ourselves because Dan had to go down to the fair auction and bid on a steer and a pig, which he does every year for the business.

  The kids and I went out to lunch to celebrate.  

  My sister braided a crown through Emma's hair, and she wore it like this to church, lunch... the whole day!  :)

   While we are at lunch, I get a text from Dan saying he bought a bunny and that they are on their way home!  What???  I guess Dan bid on a bunny like many others did expecting that he would just give the bunny back to the girl after he purchased it, like everyone else was doing.  But this little girl didn't want her bunny back, or wasn't allowed to.  I guess the family has too many and are trying scale back. All this to say...  meet Skipper! 

We will be looking for a new home for Skipper before long, but for now the kids are loving him. 

 Later in the day we celebrated Emma's birthday here at our house, with lots of family.  She had a great day, and we all had lots of fun!  It was a great way to end the summer... with a party. 

  Gracie is now in 7th grade and has started volleyball.  Jesse is in 4th grade and has started soccer.  Emma is in 1st grade and has decided not to play soccer this year.  Our plate is full right now, but we are embracing it and enjoying the different stages that each kid is at.  I love this crazy crew of mine!

Projects

  Today I've decided to link up to Andrea's blog and I'm showing you a couple of projects that I'm looking at.  See how I said "looking at," not doing or getting ready to start.  That's because I don't usually do DIY projects.  I wish I did.  Well I wish that if I did, that I would actually enjoy it.  I'm just not good at it.  I am not crafty... at all.  That being said, I do have a couple of things that I would like to have appear in my house.  :)

  First,  I would love to have some hooks in our mud/laundry room for the kid's backpacks and jackets.  When the kids come home, they throw their bags on the floor.  I come in after them and try and lean the bags up against the wall so they are out of the way, but no matter how many times I do this, I swear I am constantly tripping over them the rest of the evening. 

  I found a couple of pictures off pinterest that I thought were cute.  Isn't this one cute with a picture above each of the hooks?! 

Picture found on Pinterest. 

  This one is also really cute.  I like how they have the framed pictures up on the shelf.

Source

   I would also love to have some hooks in the bathroom, so the kids can hang their towels up, so that I'm not constantly washing the towels after each use.  They could use their own towel a couple of times, which would cut down on my laundry. 

Source

  My next big project would be to go through all of my photos from the time I married Dan, and save all of my favorite pictures in one folder.  Then as I can afford it, I want to print all of them and make different displays around the house.  Whether it be on canvas or in frames, or even to just put into different photo albums.  I have so many pictures that I've taken over the years, and they are either shoved into boxes or stuck on my computer. 

Source

 It's time!  :)