Why Montana?

We have yet another reason one should live in Montana.........the FORCESHIELD. Don't you know, we are protected from everything and anything. I love living under the Big sky.

The Amousment Park that is our Yard

So here it is. Our rediculously huge play area. Let's see....we have log swings, balance beam, tire tower, tire sandbox, tires to climb, seesaw, jungle bars, trampoline, a culvert, second story playhouse, a flip bar........whew, if I hear "I'm bored" this summer I might scream! I'll remind them how long it took mommy to shovel the gravel.



I told Brent he was crazy to dig the trampoline down. I think I might have even said I wouldn't help. I might have done one or to shovels full. Hey, I got him water a few times, that should count for something right? Luckily, he didn't hit a single rock!! Haha, good thing too or this project might have never gotten finished.



Grandpa helped finish off the playhouse. Good job boys!



Did I mention that Brent decided we needed an above ground pool the other day? Seriously, the sod is already removed for an 18 foot round pool 16x21 patio and two walkways. I think I'm busy for the next two weeks......

We're TRUE farmers now!?!

First I should say that we tried to hatch some eggs on our own. That didn't work so well...at all. Sooo disappointing. Almost as if to mock us and teach us a lesson on how nature knows best, the next week one of our hens (sparklefly) decided to sit on her nest. She sat...and sat....for 3 weeks she was so patient. Finally the day arrived and like magic, we had new babies!



We got to see one moving around inside "her"egg (hopefully a hen) . It was really neat.


We ended up with five beautiful chicks! Mom is so wonderful at showing them how to do everything. We'll put more pictures of them growing bigger later.



And we don't want to leave out proud dad "Jack" I am sure he was a huge contributor to the whole ordeal.

The girls and I think we are "true" farmers now. A friend of mine said we couldn't be true farmers until we had pigs.......................I guess for now we'll have to be fake farmers.

SKIN TESTING....YUCK!

Well, we knew Karli was having some reactions to peanuts. We were just keeping an eye on it until one day......A friend was babysitting and we somehow didn't give the reminder and her daughter tried to feed karli peanut butter for lunch. Needless to say I ended up with a call from a worried teen, and consequently ended up at the Dr's office making sure the swelling in Karli's face and hands was going down with a hefty dose of benadryl. We left the office with an appointment with the specialist.


Karli was a rock star at the testing. She didn't even start fussing until the last couple pricks. Poor thing had to get pricked 16 times!!



I think it is obvious which one was the peanut tester. She also tested bad for kitties. :( As long as she doesn't sleep with our Malcolm kitty she should be fine.



So....we now have to have an epi-pen for little Karli boo and we have to be rediculously careful. Daddy can't even eat peanuts at work. Even if he washes his hands and face he would have to change his clothes as well. Crazy! Did you know spaghetti sauce companies use a peanut powder as a thickener in their products? Back to homemade sauce. Oh, well, it's yummier.

I WISH........

Happy birthday Jaylyn!!!
Of course she wanted mom to make some of the new cupcakes! We decided on the pandas and she had a chinese type theme. So much fun.


I still wonder what she was wishing for. It took some deep thought.
The chinese food was yummy. All the girls wanted to eat it with chopsticks.




Jaylyn got a whole bunch of crafty stuff and even some awesome material to make things with. Looks like we have a sewer in the making!

GREAT TO BE 8!!

WHOOHOO!!
Jaylyn had her 8th birthday and was sooo excited to be getting baptized.



What a beautiful young lady! We are so proud!!


She got her first set of "real" scriptures with her name printed in gold.


Jaylyn made her baptism dress with a little help from mommy. Grandma Jackson helped do the sleeves and final alterations, thank goodness. And nana gave much needed advice and helped her pick fabric. Not bad, Jaylyn really did cut, pin, and sew alot of it!
What an awesome day!! Our first baptism. Wow, time certainly does fly by.

EASTER TREATS

I made some cute cupcakes for Easter this year. My mom got me a cool cupcake book for my birthday so I thought I better put it to good use. Not bad for little bunnies diving into their holes.

I also made homemade peeps. You can get the recipe from theidearoom.blogspot.com Such an amazing blog!!

I wasn't sure what to do with all the extra peep stuff in between the cookie cutters so.... I made homemade marshmellows!! Hahaha, they actually were really yummy!!

Ballerina in the making

It's about time I took some pictures of Jaylyn at dance this year. So this is a
tribute to all the hard work she is doing for their upcoming performance at
the end of April.


They have a wonderful class. The girls will do a great job when they have their
performance. They are so cute together and Pam does an awesome job teaching them.


Jaylyn hopes to be invited in to the Ballet class in the fall. The youngest they have
taken is 9 years old and since Jaylyn just turned 8 ,I am not sure if she is
qualified enough. Knowing her, she will practice all summer to prove she is "worthy"
of the cut. She is one determined gal.

Ahhh...The smell of a campfire...in the yard

What a great day! The sun was shining, it felt like spring, we were working in the
yard and life, was grand. So why not start a little fire and roast some dogs and
brats??? Works for me. It worked for the rest of the family too. Even nana
stopped by.



Remarkably Gus didn't fall into the fire but he did enjoy dinner and
soda pop with the rest of us. Only Jayna didn't care for his choice of drink......



We definitly look forward to summer campfires and fishing. Until then....hello backyard roasting!

Our Silly Gus

This is our silly little hound dog! I swear every time I turn around he is asleep in the weirdest spots!
It is so funny cause he is usually half on and half off!!! What a silly little dog.

GREEN PANCAKES??

Seriously, green pancakes. I figured since it was saint patricks day why not?
I don't normally make breakfast for the kiddos during the week so this was
an unexpected delight. The kids loved them and so did dad.
So easy...so yummy...so much praise. I love hearing it.. "mom, you're the best!!!"
I'll enjoy it while they are young ,someday I may not be so "cool"

Local feed store frenzy

Our local feed store has an annual customer appreciation day that is great fun for the kids. Plus you get a discount on your purchases so chicken feed here we come. The kids got to pet a bunch of little farm critters and one gigantic percheron. Oh was he ever beautiful! 17.3 hands high!! Wish I could ride him. So did the kids. He was so friendly.

We got to go for a ride in the wagon. The horses were very patient and sweet. It was a blast. Karli thought the horse was totally cool, but insisted on not touching him. She even pulled her hands back when Brent tried to coax her. She loved them, but only from a distance.


Nana showed up and even won a feed trough!! Lucky nana. We had some yummy hot dogs and popcorn. All in all it was a fun little family outing.

Walking in a winter wonderland???

When we had that funny weather about a week ago I was able to get some great shots of Karli wandering around the yard. She looked so dang cute lugging her baby around and enjoying the snowflakes.

On Your Marks.....

So alot of people were doing a family olympics and I thought it would be totally fun to give it a try. Of course, it was all last minute but it was totally fun. We invited the Ravelli's and the Kanenwishers to join us. What a blast.

Ok, so I know I look like a total retard in the picture. My camera was set on a 3 second timer! I was trying to book it over to everyone before it took. Oh well. Atleast I am IN the picture! We had a great time playing some simple games. We did the hula hoop toss.....

ummm... Chris? You look ummm good in pink?..?...

We also tried our take on the bobsled except, daddy was the sled.........

We played a couple other games and handed out medals.We had yummy hamburgers and delicious brownies. After dinner the kids all ran around outside playing in the dark. They had a blast! All in all it was alot of fun and no one got hurt!!