Thanks Leilani!

Tetchy is the word I was wanting yesterday. Leilani figured it out. My widgit dictionary says that means bad-tempered and irritable. That's what I was. However, the day eventually got better. It was a gorgeous day outside...maybe 65-70 degrees. The kids went out to play, I finished winterizing the travel trailer, finished the laundry, well...got it all washed and dried...I'll fold it today.

The kids went to Gramma and Papa's this morning. I am going to fold laundry, pack for our trip to ND, mop the kitchen and get some work done on the computer. Maybe I'll actually have time to post some more pics, etc. On that note, off I go. Good day to you all!

My thought for the day...

Courage does not always roar. Sometimes it is a quiet voice at the end of the day, saying..."I will try again tomorrow."
Mary Anne Radmacher

Although it is only 9:45 am, this is already my thought. The kids are still kind of sickly, Jonathan is grumpy, and Annisia screeches every time he takes something away from her. (A nasty habit of his which MUST stop!)ARGH!

Today is Laundry day...maybe that's what's making me a little techy...(not tech-y, like someone who likes technical stuff; techy, like maybe British for snarly, grumpy, easily bugged, maybe Rachel can help me with this one?!)

Oh, go fly a kite!

We finally had a windy enough day to fly Jonathan's new kite from Gramma and Papa. We waited until Daddy was home to put it together and fly it with Jonathan. It's a really cool dragon. You can make its legs move by moving the reel. It was quite a bit of work for Jonathan to hold; he got tired pretty quickly because of the pull. It hangs on the wall of his bedroom when it's not flying in the air. He thinks that is pretty great too.


He is wearing his bike helmet because he's multi-tasking, (riding his bike while Daddy resets things), not because we were afraid he'd go flying. Although...he just let go of the spool once when he was done, and away went the kite! Run, Daddy, run!

Mostly Annisia

We went to Uncle Jon and Aunt Marti's place for lunch on Sunday, Sept. 14. (yes, still trying to catch up.) Here are some pics of the day. Annisia was photogenic, Jonathan was a typical 4 y/o and didn't want his pic taken. So happy with Pluto. Everything made her giggle because she was so tired.

And then she went to Uncle Mike and wanted up. He cuddles so good...she fell right to sleep. Thanks, Uncle Mike!
A couple of times now, we have gotten Gramma and Papa to watch Jonathan overnight and Annisia went to Uncle Mike and Aunty Ang's house for the night. They all enjoy that. This last time, I don't thing Annisia cared whether I came to get her or not! She was having a great time with them. She rode on Sabado, Ang's horse, and they fed the horses, and, and, and...

Uncle Mike and Aunty Ang

Jon has a great basketball court by the garage. The kids liked climbing up and down on it. Then Annisia got involved in Jon and Michael's game.

Click on this last pic to enlarge it a little. She is just giggling and having such a good time dribbling with Uncle Jon! Look at that smile!!

Annisia learns how to ride a trike!

Well, Annisia finally got the coordination down for pedaling. She likes it, she likes it...

Flowers Galore

These pics were taken on September 12. I love when my flower beds really look nice.
A peace rose,

My asters were just starting to bloom.

The apples were luscious looking, but I think every one of them was wormy. Bummer!

The Italian plums were great,

as were these other plums...don't know what kind they are. Round, red, sweet, YUM!

I love these snapdragons...I couldn't resist when I saw them in the greenhouse earlier this summer. They only got better looking all summer.

Michael's Birthday, Sept. 5

Well, Michael is another year older. "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Sweetie, Happy Birthday to you!"

Janice and Paul (for those of you who don't know them, Janice is my sister and Paul my bro-in-law) came to visit for a couple of days and arrived on M's birthday. We packed up dinner and went up to our campsite for dinner. Steaks on the grill, corn on the cob, spinach strawberry salad and key lime cheesecake for dessert. YUM! Unfortunately, it was c-c-c-c-cold! It was about 37 degrees F. So, instead of staying the night in the mountains, we came down to our warm home.
Here we are~Jonathan, Michael, Annisia, me, Uncle Bret, Aunty Janice, and Uncle Paul in our camper.

Smiling for the camera

I dressed Annisia in one of her pretty princess dresses for meeting one Sunday. I just had to get some pics. She is really a camera ham, isn't she?!


Jonathan needed his picture taken too. He's at the age where he forces a smile, I guess.

I get kudos for this one. I built this train track for Jonathan. It goes around a curve, up a hill, over a bridge and back down...then we ran out of track. He thought it was great! He asked for some coal for his train. We loaded a little wagon with raisins and duct taped it to the train engine. He thought that was great too!

We got Jonathan this double sided easel for his birthday. It has a dry erase board on one side, a chalk board on the other, and a spool for paper in the middle. Plus, Michael brings home big paper he prints plans out on. Paper that has become scrap for whatever reason. It's great, just the right size, about 24"x30". The kids love to paint and draw. However, they have been caught chewing on the chalk, and drawing on the chalk board with the dry erase markers. Argh!

Note, Daddy having fun too! heehee!

To the lake...

We went out to the lake a couple of times this summer. This one is memorable because Jonathan rode on the tube. In the video, you can't hear him, but Jonathan says, "Faster, Jon, faster!" to his Uncle Jon.


And then they crashed...asleep on the boat. Jonathan fell asleep just as you see him. Michael was sitting where Annisia is in the bottom photo. I was in the back of the boat holding her. I laid her down in the front of the boat on the seat and we went up on shore while they slept.

Jonathan's birthday

My baby boy turned 4! Kind of hard to believe, but there have been lots of fun days in those four years. Here's the sweeter bunkin boo just 25 hours old. Isn't he beautiful? He was 7#10oz and 21 1/2 inches long, born August 24, 2004.

Gramma brought his first birthday cake over the day after we got home. (Truth be told, she brought an entire meal over, plus a cake!) He was a little overwhelmed with the cake I think!One year old...

Two years old...

3 years old...

...and four years old!
Jonathan was so funny. We sang "Happy Birthday" to him at breakfast, and were asking him if he was excited on the way to meeting and if he knew how old he was. Then after mtg, someone asked Jonathan how old he was. He said, "Three." very matter of factly. We reminded him he was four, it was his birthday. He finally said, "No I am not four until I eat my birthday cake!"

I made a skidsteer cake...OK it looked better in my mind, and I was humbled by my little boy who took one look at the unfinished cake and asked if it was a meat eating dinosaur. Hmmm... needs more work, I guess. I started with a 9x13 sheet, then cut and stacked two 8.25"x4.5" pieces then used the rest of the cake and pieces I carved off the cake to form the bucket and dirt. The dirt was a mix of little pieces of cake and chocolate pudding as well as M&Ms, Treasure Nugget candies and granola. The wheels are Oreos. Once it was done, Jonathan thought it was cool. Ah, a sense of relief that it was finally recognizable!

Blowing out the candles...

And grabbing the first chocolate candy, before Papa could!

Uncle Bret gave Jonathan a skunk hat. Look at J's expression. It was so great! He hardly could have cared about anything else he got, until he saw the metal grader Gramma and Papa gave him. He put the skunk hat on for awhile, then declared, "It's too hot!" It ought to be great this winter.


Annisia was getting bored with Jonathan not getting all the gifts opened, so she started helping! We found some really neat wooden kits (for $1!) that you need to paint and glue together at the Michaels craft store in Billings. Michael (my Michael, not the craft store) and Jonathan already did a plane, but we gave him two more on his birthday, a train and a bulldozer. They are a great craft activity for Jonathan and Daddy.

What Dads let kids do...

Still some catching up...bear with me!
One day, August 17 to be exact, Michael decided to head up onto the roof to measure it. We are thinking of installing some solar panels. Anyways, I came out to see this!


Eeek~ I took some pics because Jonathan thought it was soo cool to be up there with Daddy, but I thought I might just have a heart attack if I stayed watching any longer, so I went back inside.

This video is one evening when I was at the YMCA leading a group cycling class and Jonathan was showing Daddy his tricks on the swing. Enjoy!

Handbag draw!

Well, I went to my friend Rachel's blog site and was perusing thru it when I saw a blurb about a handbag draw. Handbag Planet is launching a new website on October 15, and to celebrate they will be giving away a handbag every hour for 24 hours. All you have to do to enter the draw is click here or put this url into your web browser http://www.handbagplanet.com/ Want to increase your chances? Blog about it and you get 25 more entries into the draw. The handbag I was entered to win actually looked kind of cool. Hey! Anything to win a free purse, right?!

New background!

Isn't my new background great?! I was reading Leilani's blog and saw a comment from Dorlene regarding her background, checked it out, and found the site. Free backgrounds from a site called the cutest blog on the block. Just click on the backgrounds link on the left and it takes you to the free backgrounds. They also will custom make you a background for a fee. Anyways, I needed a freshening up. Now just to get caught up...