Monday, August 30, 2010

Shootin' Stuff



So what do you do with your family on Monday nights?  Around here we shoot stuff.  LOL!  I think what we were doing what getting a new dove hunter ready for the season.  Ian's little brother Kade just went through the hunter's safety course and got a new shot gun.  It was fun.  I hadn't been shooting with a shotgun for about fifteen years.  I didn't do so great but I started getting the hang of it again.  Ian and I are going to go out again when we get a chance.


This is Teagan, Sarah & Christain up on a hill exploring.


That is Jason farthest away, then Jody & Cookie closest to the camera.


Ian throwing pigeons.  He is just pretty whaever he does.  :)


Jade sat in the chairs and hung out with Grandma.  She wore her sandals because we didn't know we were going out in the desert.  Poor thing got a few stickers on her feet but she was happy.


Gauge on the other hand was very tired.  He really didn't mind the shooting at all.  It just kept him from napping.


At the end I got a turn.  Mostly Jason cleaned up my missed shots.  It was fun though.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

What did you do this summer?


School starts on Monday for us.  We are so excited to start this year.  One of the questions I was always asked when school started was, "What did you do this summer?".  Well I had to blog about what we did the majority of the time and will do until it cools off, the pool.  We would go in the mornings or in the evenings and have dinner there.  Sometimes Teagan and I would go in the afternoon while Ian stayed home with Jade and Gauge while they napped.  Really there is no way to survive Blythe without a pool.  We love the pool. 

It's definately been worth the membership.  Way better than being cooped up in the house.  Best of all no sunburns all year long.  Gauge got a slight one when I forgot his sunblock but it didn't even make him uncomfortable.  I actually used to work at this pool.  It's kinda fun when the kids I lifegaurded for come back all grown up.  Most of the people that have memberships keep them for years so their kids come back with their kids.  They stare at me for a while and usually I can recall their names and once I start talking to them they remember who I am.  I'm getting old.  Maybe someday my kids will come back with their kids.  :)











Friday, August 27, 2010

Two Years!

I've been blogging two years.  Oh my goodness that seems totally crazy.  I looked back at my 2008 posts yesterday.  The kids have grown so much.  I'm so happy that I decided to do this.  I suppose with two years under my belt it is time to print a blog book.  No more excuses.  Well here is to another two years to come.  Thank you blogger for coming up with a easy way to keep my family journal.  :)

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Big Boy Gauge


Isn't he huge!? Well by our baby standards he is. He has a completely different build than the other two kids. Every time he gets hurt Ian says that he will be fine because he is built like a tank. He is chubbier too which I love. Gauge is always good for a smile. Right now he likes to wrinkle up his nose and make a quiet laugh like Muttley in the cartoons. It's especially funny right after he does something wrong like dump out his food. The sweetest is his shy look. He will tilt his head down and look up at you with his eyes and cock his head to the side with a sly smile. He is cuddly and sweet.

Teagan was playing with Gauge and Jade yesterday and he held a yellow bear. The yellow bear told Jade and Gauge a story of a little baby named Gauge that would crawl to his mama every time he got hurt or scared. Ask me how much I love that. After having two very independent kids to have one that needs me is nice. Teagan even asked me why Gauge does that. I told him that what babies usually do. I left out that he and his sister would rather hide under the table than be comforted but you have to admire their independence. I'm grateful for the times they did let me comfort them.

Gauge is making all kinds of new sounds. I can tell he is on the verge of forming words. He seems to understand the world around him well. Several months ago he knew that you turned a knob to open a door. He studies things. He likes to look at everything he can. Yesterday he was playing with the little people toys and looking at the hole in the bottom of the chicken in one hand and the peg of the seat of the tractor in the other. Then he tried to put the chicken in the seat of the tractor.

Gauge loves to dance. It's really no wonder. He was born in October and we got ROCKBAND in December. So he was put to sleep with me bouncing him and singing songs on the game. It was a guaranteed way to get him to sleep. He loved to watch Ian and Teagan play the drums. So I couldn't pass up the t-shirt he is wearing in the photo. He will dance to any beat he hears, even if it's not music. He has developed some new moves in the last month. He bounces his body front to back while bobbing his head diagonally with a bit of a shake at the end. The end result is a hair band type head bang.

He Rocks!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Pictures with Mama.


I needed a new facebook picture.  The one on there was getting old.  So I took some with Gauge at first and then Jade wanted to take pictures.  No the fan was not on purpose.  LOL!  The fan was on in Teagan's room.  This picture above won as my new facebook picture.  I thought the ones of Jade and I were funny though.





Yee Haw!


We got this horse from a friend who will remain nameless just in case her kids see this.  We love it.  I snapped some cute pictures of Teagan and Gauge playing on it.  Gauge was having a blast until I started taking pictures.  Teagan is such a sweet big brother.




To be, or not to be?


That really is the question.  All was going well and escrow was closing on September 10th until the house was appraised.  It appraised for just about what we offered them in our first offer but it's about $10,000 off of what we are paying once we all came to an agreement.  So this may not work.  If they are willing to come down all will be well but if not we will move on.  We do love the house.  It's unique and charming.  It's old but that is part of what I love about it.  It needs buckets of paint but has all new windows.  Whatever will be will be.  We've done a lot of praying and we feel very comfortable with whatever happens in this process.  I thought I would document things so we remember that house we almost bought or what our house looked like before we made changes to it.  Whichever it ends up being.


The living room.  I love the windows.  All the carpet has been removed.  We have a dark brown picked out if things go well.


This would be Jade's room.  A wall will be put up about where I'm standing to take the picture.  Jade's room would be painted the same green her baby's room was.


Another view of the living room.  I'm standing it Jade's room to take this photo.  The living room will be yellow.  Think of a fuzzy chick color.


The entryway from the living room.


Master bedroom.  It's converted from the garage.  Needs paint.  We were planning on pomegranite red with white trim.


Another view of the master bedroom.


The kitchen.  I'm thinking continue the ressessed lighting instead of the awkward light over the sink.


The brick goes to a solid color.  Maybe a taupe.  The cabinets white and the wall a carribbean blue.  I like color!


This is part of the family room.  It's too dark to see but the walls are wood.  We aren't sure what we think of that yet.


Another view.  Our plain was to paint the brick a solid color and then see what we think of the wood once the kitchen and the fireplace was painted.  Right now it's all way too busy but I think the brick is contributing to that most.  Pretty cool fireplace though.  It's bigger than it looks too.


The loft we love!  What you are looking at her is the sliding glass door that does to the laundery room.  We will replace that with french doors.  Also you see the stairs to the loft.


The back of the house.  You see the patches of brick and cement on the ground.  There used to be a tree in the middle of all that to shade the house.  All the brick and cement needs to come out and we want to put a tree there.  There are these ones in town that are green all year and have small leaves.  I can't remember what they are called but Ian loves them.  That is what we would put there.  There would still be a nice patio.  Also in front of the big windows to the living room are flower beds.  I would thinking Birds of Paradise would look awesome there and from the inside it would look like they were growing indoors.


This is the loft.  Our plan was for this to be a playroom.  The carpet would be replaced.  I planned to leave the wood.  It has storage a full closet and even a balcony.


Hi Teagan!


The balcony.


The view of the yard from the loft.


Now this is in the laundery room.  What we are looking at is another entrance to the loft.  We planned to put a ladder here so it can be entered and excited from indoors.


Laundery room.  Indoors.  Just what I was looking for.


Extra room for a freezer and food storage.


I took this from the road in front of the house to show how far the pool is that we are members of.  See the water truck down the street.  It's right next to the pool.


Also this shows how close it is to the grocery store.  Also it's not far from the park, library or the church.  So that's it.  Apparently I didn't get a picture of the boys bedroom or either of the bathrooms.  They were pretty basic.  We will see what happens.

I can do it!


Jade now wants to change diapers.  This is new for me because when Jade was a baby Teagan was old enough to know that diaper changing is not something he wanted to do.  I won't let her change messy ones but she gets to change pee pee ones once in a while.  She does a great job.  Gauge escapes this time but in the end she gets a fresh clean diaper on him.