A little update

It seems like when we get to a weekend it is time to pack everything up and go somewhere. That has sort of been the routine for the summer anyway. The last couple of weeks have been especially bad. My mom and I had a booth at the Helper Arts Festival and we were very prepared. Then, wouldn't you know it Hannah had her baby that weekend too. He was 5 weeks early but healthy. He weighed 5 lbs. 6 oz. and they named him Liam. Since he was early no one was prepared for him to come. It is Hannah's first and they had been waiting to buy things until they were in their house and until after her baby shower. My mom didn't have any baby quilts done because she had been too busy quilting for the Helper Arts Festival. Her car seat and stroller were ordered but wouldn't be here for a week. Since I had Olin a year before I just packed up a bunch of stuff and my kids and headed for Salt Lake (I only got lost a couple of times getting to the hospital) So that night I stayed at Trent's parents house in Benjamin left my kids there for Friday and Saturday (sold most of the aprons I brought) then Michele (one L = mother in-law) brought my kids to me in Helper on Saturday ( I have a GREAT mother in-law) so here is a picture of my mom (two Ls = mom) with baby Liam. He is seriously so tiny and so cute.
Here are my kids after the trip. JayLee was asleep when I got home so I just put her on the couch hoping the noise of me unpacking everything would wake her up ( she has to wake up on her own otherwise she is a BEAR) but Olin just took care of it for me. He is the biggest tease. He crawls over there and we were watching him so every once in a while he would look back at us and smile. So he stands up being kind of sly and slowly raises his hand but always turning to smile at us then he pulled her hair or rub her face. This age is really fun but they are into everything.

So Olin will be 1 next Monday, so I figured I better start letting him have the spoon (this is what I consider the most daring thing a mom can do, I hate giving them the spoon) So here is the result.

I had some friends come over and make some hair clips for our girls' hair. We thought it would be the perfect day. We would make hairclips and chat and our kids (six of them 2-age 3, 2-age 2, and 2-under age 1) would just play with toys and have a good day. Yeah, I know you are laughing because of course it didn't go like that. It was AWFUL! my house has never been that loud, any kid that could scream did scream or fight over a toy. We even moved outside because we thought they would all be happier out there (how do you fight over dirt right?) Wrong. I did capture one rare moment that these 3 decided to get along. This is JayLee, Aften, and Stayton. (Aften, the one in the red JayLee considers her boyfriend)

Jay starts preschool tomorrow. I'll post some pictures

My First Refinishing Project!!

These chairs were in my house when we moved in. I almost threw them out several times but I finally decided that I liked the chairs I just hated the color and the upholstery.

There were actually 3 chairs and I have only refinished 1 because they are a pain in the bum!! All that spinny (is that a word?) stuff up each side. I thought I had to strip the old stain off so I did and it took about 6 months for me to finish the one chair that I have done. (mostly because I lost all motivation to finish them a couple of times) Next time I'll just sand down the flat parts of the chair and rough up the "spinny parts", prime it and then paint it. The only reason I'll sand the flat parts is because I like to see the grain of the wood. Any way here is the one I have finished and I don't think it turned out too bad for my first ever project of this kind.

Just in case you were wondering (Melissa) I spray painted it almond and then antiqued it with dark walnut. (brushed stain on with a paint brush and wiped it off with a rag)

Pictures, courtesy of JayLee Jo

I finally put batteries in JayLee's camera that she got for her birthday. Once they died I was so tired of that thing, I could have thrown it in the garbage. Anyway, I loaded the pictures onto the computer and thought I would share some with you. There were over 100 on her sd card but there was a ton of the ground, a lot of blurry ones, and a good number of my butt (clothed of course.) Anyway here they are pictures of our life, through JayLee's eyes.....

I think those are onions with a lot of weeds in the background

Me (too bad it isn't a little more blurry)

Green peppers from the garden (my pjs in the background)

Afghan on the back of the couch (thanks mom)

Trent cussing at the very thought of pounding a post in the ground in Ioka. I'll explain if anyone cares to know one of these days, but it is nearly impossible.

Elmo chair she got from Uncle Bro for her 1st birthday

Olin and two binkies, he hasn't used one of those for 6 months. (tells you that I haven't loaded pictures form this camera once, woops)

Me and Rio

Zak

Cattle trailer

Olin and one of his favorite toys, the remote

This is a picture Jay wanted me to take of her with her camera. That doesn't happen very often . She is the only one that can take pictures and when she does let you take a picture with it you have to put the string around your neck.

Kind of random but I thought it was kind of funny to see her pictures. My favorite is the one of the bottom half of me and Rio's nose. Tell me your favorite.

July 4th

If you ask Trent what he did on the Fourth of July every year when he was growing up he will tell you we worked. Which is absolutely true. Growing up in Huntington we always had a big celebration and we went to all of it, every year. So I told Trent we had to do at least one fourth of July thing so we rode horses early in the afternoon and then went into town to watch fireworks that night.

This is Trent and Olin watching the fireworks.....

This is JayLee.......sleeping through the fireworks.

She fell asleep before we got there and would not wake up. Sunday morning she woke up and wanted to go and I had to show her these pictures to prove that we had gone.

She did have fun earlier in the day though. She got to ride horses and more important for her she got to ride Rio. Rio is my horse and he is soooo big. It scares me to put her clear up there but she loves it and he acts like a perfect gentleman for her. He bends his poll and rounds his back without her even asking. I'm sure it is just his lazy personality coming out. He'd much rather pack her than me.

A Trip to Strawberry

Monday and Tuesday we went to Strawberry Reservoir with Trent's family. It was my kind of camping since we stayed in cabins that were bigger than my house. We took our horses and Trent's parents brought four-wheelers and when we were riding those we just played games with the cousins. It was a lot of fun.

JayLee went fishing with Jenna and Kevin and she loved it. I was gone on a horse ride when they left Monday night and she fell asleep before they got back. On Tuesday morning she woke me up telling me all about her fishing trip. She also had fun with Tren't cousin Seth (who she calls Steve now because once she got home she couldn't remember his name, sorry Seth!) She had to eat dinner next to him on Tuesday night and she said the funnest thing she did was ride the bike in the house, which was another thanks to Seth. Tren'ts cousins are almost all teenagers but they were all so good to her.

I wish I would have taken more pictures but I didn't. This one is on the way home. JayLee fell asleep and this is Olin pulling her hair and thinking it is really funny. You should have heard him squealing about it.

Trent and I got to go on a couple of horse rides and that was all thanks to Trent's mom and Jenna. They always had my kids. I'm so grateful for them. Alese and Ryan went riding with us Monday night and it was so fun. They really need to move out to the Basin so we can do more stuff together.

This is Trent's horse Harley. She acted so good up there and is definitely a brush busting horse. I couldn't believe some of the stuff she would go through. JayLee didn't get to ride because her horse was so hyper once we got there I was too chicken to put her on. She asked Trent when we were loading her in the trailer to go home, "Dad, why did we even bring my horse?" What will we do with sassy JayLee? But Ryan rode her and as long as she was in the front she didn't look like a parade horse.

It was a fun couple of days and a great time to be with family.

Stillwater Reservoir

My friend called me this morning and wanted to take a trip to Stillwater Reservoir. I hadn't ever heard of it but it is this reservoir that overflows over the dam in the spring. It is about an hour from my house. So we loaded up 6 kids and went for a drive. It was really cool. My friend said you used to be able to get to the top and actually see the reservoir but it is closed off now and you can only see where it spills over. Here are some pictures.

When we drove around the corner and could see the water JayLee just kept saying "This is so cool, this is so cool, this is so cool." It was really pretty up there I guess I need to explore in the Uintahs a little more so I know how lucky I am to be so close.

The best day ever!!!

Before I tell you about the best day ever, it has been a while since I have posted. I have been sewing a little bit and JayLee has been having swimming lessons. It is mommy and me class so JayLee and I have been swimming every day for the last two weeks and YES we have froze our butts off and it has rained nearly every day. Wahoo they are finished today.

Olin had his 9 month well check on Monday and they told me (something I already knew) he is tiny. He is in the 3rd percentile for his height and weight. So I have to add butter to everything he eats. He is a vacuum anyway, the kid eats EVERYTHING but I don't know where it is going. So were going to try to fatten him up in the next couple of months. Wish me luck.

So now The Best Day EVER! I leave Olin with a neighbor while JayLee and I go to swimming lessons. So yesterday when we were picking him up, we went inside to chat for a while and there was a knock on my friend's door. So my friend answered the door and who was standing there but Pennie Marlene!! They were on their way back from South Dakota and came home through Flaming Gorge so they could see us. I was so surpirsed. They were driving along the lane looking for old farm houses or horses that looked or sounded familiar becasue they didn't know where we lived but then they saw my car and stopped. Thank you, Pennie. (or Slate and Max for letting her stop) I only got to see her for a little while but it was still a good day.

We have been doing some summer things here is a picture of Olin, JayLee, Mattie, and Aften at the Drive in movie. It was really hard to get them all sitting still for a picture just so you know.