I am a Daffodil!

I am a Daffodil What Flower Are You?

You have a sunny disposition and are normally one of the first to show up for the party. You don't need too much attention from the host once you get there as you are more than capable of making yourself seen and heard.

I found this on a friend's blog and thought it was neat. Do it yourself!

Kids and their antics!

Jonathan and Annisia enjoyed some ice cream and frozen yogurt after Bible Study. Then they enjoyed some regular yogurt too. Do you think they were hungry? Don't you just love their little table and chairs?
Jonathan loaded my mums into his loader bucket and hauled them to the flower bed. Then he even dug the holes with his backhoe! What a helper!


Jonathan and Annisia were both sitting in the go-go car. Jonathan told Annisia she had to get up on the top of the car. Silly kids!


The kids were hamming it up for me one day. Do you like Annisia's Crocs? She does!
Uncle Bret brought the lawn mower by one morning. Jonathan played out by and on the mower ALL DAY...from about 9:30am to 6pm minus 1 hour we went to have lunch with Daddy. Obviously, I had taken the key from the mower. I went out to check on him at one time and he informed me, "Mommy, there's no key. I am just pretending. And you push this lever for those wheels to go down, and these levers to make it go forward and go like this to go backwards, etc." He was on and off the trailer adjusting things too. At one point, he had the go-go car up on the trailer and had it strapped down just like Daddy does!
He wanted Snuggly with him after lunch, so we used a climbing sling to make a front pack for him. It was a windy day...ugh. He said, "Mommy, can you please make the wind stop?"
Last Sunday, while Annisia napped, Jonathan had some quiet time with his baby. He wrapped him up in a blanket to keep him warm then read him a book, "Elephant's Big Ride".

Jonathan likes Thomas the train. We got a video at the library and I think he'd watch it all day. One day, I made the kids a train after they had watched the movie awhile.

It's a little wet here...

Well, we've had a little rain here...rain in the mountains too, followed by more wet snow, followed by rain...you get the picture. Here is Clear Creek running the highest it has run since 1962.



This backhoe is likely protecting the bridge piling from any logs that may be washed downstream. Check it out...the wheels aren't even touching the ground

Just another view from Upper Clear Creek Rd...the road we go up to Bible Study.

And here is the rain water I managed to collect for watering later. 10 gallon jugs, 4- 5 gallon buckets and 1- 6 gallon bucket. Now, if I can just keep the kids away from these tempting sources of water...

Sunday happenings...

This was Sunday, Mother's Day. After naps, it was so gorgeous outside, so we all were relaxing in the yard for a bit. The kids enjoyed a fruit snack, and it looks like Jonathan is fixing something on the sidewalk. Annisia was posing...need I say more?!

Methinks she likes to get her picture taken! Maybe I should cut back on the number of times I call her dresses "pretty", or her upswept bun "pretty"...Now she practically preens!

Then, later, we were back in the house, getting down to some heavy puzzle putting together time. Annisia does incredibly well with this ABC puzzle. She has put the entire thing together. I know, I know, it doesn't mean she can identify her ABCs yet, and can do it by matching pictures, but I still think it's pretty great!
Daddy was given the computer to work with. Jonathan will wrap the keyboard cord around his preschool laptop like this. Then he says, "Mommy, push the A", so I do, and he says, "Now we're on Ebay." Heehee! I busted up the first time he said that.
Jonathan loves these puzzles. They are great even for travel. They are enclosed in a tray and have a template, or you can remove the template for more difficulty.

My spring flower bed.

This is my south flower bed with it's perennials...they start to show up sometimes in February...only the greens, of course!

This is columbine...

...roses, and an aster in the right upper corner...

(This is a hyacinth Sheri, our elder's wife, gave to all of us moms on Mother's day! What a sweetie!)

...then day lilies, asters, a fire lily and another one whose name I forgot way down behind the clay pots.

Laying sod on May 10

Two weeks ago, we helped M's brother, Bret lay his sod. It was a family event! We laid about 14,000 sq ft of sod that day. His place is gorgeous! And the grass looks good too!

Babies on the ranch

Only two mares foaled this year on Michael's parents' ranch. They are so sweet.
I already posted this picture earlier this month, but you can see this filly's growth in the next picture.
This is Papa with Mira's filly. They start working with the babies right away, getting them used to halters, leading, and people in general.
This is Beauty, a paint/Andalusian cross with her colt. We think that makes him a B-Azteca. Maybe Gramma or Papa could confirm that for us when they see this post.

My Birthday Present!

Well, I promised a long time ago to post a pic of the gift Michael built for my birthday. It is a gorgeous bench with two drawers for shoes and other sundries. Isn't is beautiful? Am I just the most spoiled lady around?! I don't think the photos really do it justice. You'll just have to come and see it for yourselves! It is made out of alder and so detailed. Michael is so precise with everything he builds.

It is in our front entry way, so shoes go in it right away when the kids come in the house. Right now, their drawer is filled with tennis shoes, sandals, stocking hats and little mittens. One never knows if it's going to be 80 degrees or 45 degrees these days!

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Hey, Mom. Do you remember this?

I planted a pot of flowers for both my mother and Michael's mother for Mother's Day 2003. And then Michael and I delivered it to my parents in ND! Were they surprised! I love you, Mom. You have taught me so much, yet encouraged me to be my own person. Thank you for all your advise...after seven of your own, you ought to know! Happy Mother's Day!

Pleeease take a drink!

(This is a post I did on another blog I contribute to. I got several good suggestions from other young mothers, but I thought I'd put it out there to the rest of you...I know there are some more experienced mothers who check my blog. Help!)

Dealing with fevers here in our home...ugh! So how do you other mothers get your kids to keep drinking liquids? Especially water. Jonathan, 3 1/2, is SO stubborn. When he gets sick, he won't drink. Yesterday, he ran a temp anywhere from 102 to maxing out our temporal thermometer. It read "HI", which I read in the manual meant 107.4 or above. Pretty freaky.

So, we have tried everything...gatorade, apple juice, Pedialyte disguised as apple juice, lukewarm tea, popsicles... We try different glasses hoping one of them will interest him and he'll think it's cool to drink...Clifford cup, cool cup with built in straw/handle, just a plain blue plastic glass from the camper, his Camelbak, a big sports bottle like Daddy uses...Nothing works! Of course, when he's burning up, nothing is good. This is understandable, but it reaches a point where we are frantic to get him to drink. I fed him Saltines yesterday in hopes of getting him thirsty...it sort of worked. He did drink a little. FYI, I know he doesn't have enough liquids in him because he didn't pee today until about 1pm, not even this morning when he got up.

This morning was horrible. Now he is complaining about having "stains in his mouth from drinking the green water." (clear water from his green cup, which, btw, he specifically asked for last night.) Nothing takes the "stain" away. I brushed his teeth and tongue, he rinsed with mouthwash, I gave him 1/4 of a zinc tablet, gave him water in his blue glass, gave him a juice pouch, then resorted to yelling I was so frustrated. He whined ALL morning and it drives me absolutely bonkers. I asked him if his tongue hurt and he said yes, but couldn't explain it any further. I looked at it and it just looks like it may need more brushing...it has a whiteish film on it.

OK, so suggestions on 1) how do you get your kids to keep drinking? and 2) how do you get them to get past things like Jonathan's "stains on his tongue"?

The kids playing drums.

This was last Friday, the 2nd of May. The kids had fun with this for a little while.

News...

Finally sitting down to blog some this weekend. I don't know what happened in April, but I have posted some "catch ups" (not to be confused with ketchup!) so you (especially family) can be updated with kid pics.

Annisia ran a fever on Friday, really needy, took 2 naps, fine by Saturday. We all were outside most of the day cleaning up the flower beds, tying up the raspberries. This morning, Sunday, Jonathan wasn't really like himself. He ate part of his breakfast and kept complaining about being cold. So he sat with a fleecy blanket around him at the table. Soon he was feeling warm, like feverish. We watched him get worse...in an hour, his eyes were shadowed, cheeks were flushed, he walked like his clothes hurt him, and he only wanted to be bundled up and read to. I put him in our bed while I dressed for meeting and he fell asleep. Poor thing. Michael stayed home with him and he took a big bath. Annisia and I got home from meeting and he was playing outside! But he turned worse again. At about 1:45pm, we took his temp again and our temporal thermometer said "HI". We were puzzled and took another swipe across his forehead, same reading. A third swipe said 106.8, and into the bath he went again. I got the manual out for the thermometer and it said the scanner would say "HI" if the reading was 107.4 and above. YIKES! To make a short story long, he was up and down in temp all afternoon with a third bath around 5:30pm. It seemed like the fever broke because he ate quite a bit for dinner, he was animated, cheeks were normal, but around 8:30pm, he was back to 102.8. Off to bed with a dose of Tylenol and hopes for a good night's rest for that little boy.

On to better news, on Tuesday, April 29, Annisia counted to 10! Yesterday, May 3, she said her ABCs up to I! Then she'll complete them with me. I'll say, "J", she says, "K", and so on. Such a smart girl! (chuckle!)

May snowstorm

On Tuesday, April 29, it reached 80 degrees. The kids were to Gramma and Papa's, and Gramma put some water in the little pool for the kids. They had a blast. The wind started on Wed, April 30. The wind blew and blew and the snow started to fall Thursday, May 1st. By Friday morning, we had 3 inches of snow and 3 foot drifts on both sides of the house. On Saturday, I think it got into the 70s, a gorgeous day, and we worked outside all day cleaning out the flower beds, etc. Crazy, eh?

Our back (south) deck.

From the north...we always seem to get good drifts on the north side of the house with those prevailing north winds!

Jonathan with 5 hats

Have you read the story "Hats for Sale"? It's a cute book. Jonathan decided to wear a lot of hats like the man in the story. This was way back in Feb...I have had some trouble with YouTube and Blogger uploading videos, so...

The Do It Guy!

Last summer when we were in Glacier Nat'l Park, we got the kids these T-shirts. This is Jonathan's and Annisia's stick guy had a fishing pole. On the sleeve, there's a rough drawing of a TV and on the screen it says "Live outside the Box". Nice thought, and fun shirts. So, where am I going with this? Well...
Jonathan saw this book on our bookshelf and said, "Daddy, it's the Doo It Guy!" Cracked us up!

So that's what J calls skeletons now. Not that he sees lots of skeleons, but he does know that under our skin we have muscles and under that we have bones. We go to the meat plant a few times during hunting season every year (For those of you who didn't know, I worked at the plant for 4 years during hunting season...October to mid-November, packing, registering, and shipping.) So we bring them cookies and banana cake and the kids get to see deer, antelope, elk and occasionally moose. Well, Jonathan stands there with his jaw dropped and watches the guys skin the animals. One day early this spring, he pushed his wheelbarrow into the kitchen and said, "Mommy, this is the meat plant!" Then he pretended to hang a deer, took his "knife" (a stick) out of his pocket and said, "Cut, cut...I cut the skin off. Cut, cut...I cut the meat off the bones." OK, so maybe trips to the meat plant aren't such a great idea?! What do you think?