James' Room - Makeover

A long time ago in a ranch house far, far away a little boy dreamed of a Star Wars room.  Enter a Grammy (pre-baby trip) and a gander through Home Depot and an idea was born!

Too bad it took the pregnant lady a few months post delivery to make things happen.  But it has all been well worth the wait!  The room turned out better than either I or James imagined.  It is super cool!  

Furniture, but no fun.

The beginnings of something cool!  (The Light Saber Wall!)

He helped me choose what light saber should be which color.

Tape off - now time to edger and finish her off.

This baby looks so much cooler in real life!

After the painting was done - it was time to get decorating!  We had got some Star Wars wall decals FOREVER ago.  Finally James was able to get them out and put them up!  Wyatt and Isabel helped too! 

I painted some ordinary white frames with the red I used for the light sabers.  Then I framed some of James' latest art work.  I am a huge fan of his "Angry Birds Star Wars" drawing!

Vader - the new Fish

Hoop, there it is

Do you know what a Ferrier is?  It's a person who trims the toenails of horses and shoes them.  No joke.  Well, ours ran into our basketball hoop a few months back and nearly toppled it over.  

JL and a friend were able to push it back straight, and we have been using it, but it was just a matter of time before it blew down.  We weren't too broke up about having to replace the old one - it was super tall.  James nor Wyatt could really use it, so we decided the new one would have to be adjustable.

Random picture of Big Wy trying out his new golashes.

Callie - the hay haulin', truck ridin', wonder doggy!

So what was to become of the old hoop?  One tug from the big truck and that baby fell right over.  And after that?  A tractor pull, of course.  JL hooked it up and James drove it out to the burnin' pile.

It currently rests in the woods near the burn pile.  James is using it for target practice.  ;-)

We inherited a new hoop sorta by luck.  James and JL were helping a fellow ward member move and stumbled across his that he no longer wanted.  It's much better!  It's adjustable and is now sitting in the spot of our old one.  The boys love it!

The New Back Door!

Two weeks ago we had the back door to the ranch replaced.  Can I just say - it couldn't have happened soon enough!!  

The old back door was ... well ... OLD!  And all the weatherstripping was missing and torn away.  And the door was warped and wouldn't close properly.  And the drafts were coming in.  And the bugs were coming in (that was really the last straw!).  

So I had it replaced - and it has changed that side of the house tremendously!  Not only does the new one look 100% better - but the drafts are gone and the bugs are less!

See those nasty 1980's blinds?  They were always breaking!  No amount of super glue could save them from the in and out traffic and slamming that is my kids.

Then there is the lovely 1.5 inch gap that lets in the air and those bugs I was mentioning.  Do you need a reminder what kind of bugs we have out here?  

And I just didn't like the way it looked.  Besides all that.  The word was BORING.

And cracked and OLD

Make-shift weatherstripping.  Yeah - you know who loves to peel that stuff off?  Kids and dogs and kids.

New shiney door!!

New shiney door with some spiffy paint on it!  Yay!  

The Take Back

This is the story of a girl who asked for a take back.  A re-do.  A what was I thinking - I made a mistake.  She's a sweet girl who really only thought she had her family's best intentions in mind.

Picture it - the ranch, early December of 2012.  A wife and mother decides to sell the family horses.  The reasons are still unknown.  Being the saleswoman that she is - she sells June Bug for a hefty profit and is quite pleased with herself.  That is, until they load her up in the horse trailer and drive off with her.

Then the tears begin.  And they go on for a while.  When they are still going on by the next day, she begins to wonder if she has perhaps made a great mistake!  What can she do?  Is the horse lost forever? No, the horse is not lost - one quick text and things are in motion to get the horse back!

Turns out the gentleman that bought June Bug got a call on a different horse not 2 hours after making the purchase.  Said other horse was the one of his dreams!  So when the beautiful wife and mother contacted him to see if it would even be remotely possible to get her horse back, the gentleman was more than happy to oblige.

But he kept her saddle.  No worries - it was an awful heavy thing anyway.  Or so the pretty woman in the story has said.  ;-)

Safe and sound - right where she belongs!

The Garden

Our fall garden is going really good so far!  These are even super outdated pictures.  The Radishes are coming along the best.  The carrots are probably the least.  But we are really hopeful that we will see some veggies soon!

A big Loss

I'm really sad to announce that my Daughter's beautiful tabby cat, Beauty, has died.  :-(  

I've had the cats living outside exclusively since I found out I was pregnant back in January.  They took to it really well.  Mostly they would prowl around the property and hunt up a few insects here and there.  It's only been recently that Beauty has become somewhat of an explorer.

She often times will cross the fence to the neighbor's place shortly after breakfast and not return until shortly before dinner.  But she's always within ear shot of my voice.

The other day, I found her hiding out under the front rose bushes.  A big fat rabbit was in her clutches.  She had somehow caught and killed the poor thing.  She spent a great deal of that morning dining on her kill.  Ick.  I remember thinking at the time that this could cause problems and bring her to hunt more and further away.

Well, she went missing over the weekend just as October was starting.  We didn't see her for 3 days.  I'd call to her each night at dinner time, but she was no where to be seen.  Our other cat, Shooter, rarely will ever leave the yard.  Occasionally if he tags along with Beauty, he'll cross the fence for a short time, but he always comes back.  Most of the time, you can find him laying on our patio chairs.  But Beaut - she's always enjoyed her outings.

Unfortunately, something happened to her on this most recent adventure.  She did return home, but she was in bad shape when we finally saw her again.  Last Tuesday morning I decided to walk the fence line calling for her just in case she was close but couldn't remember how to get home.  About 2 hours later (while we were planting the garden) she showed up by the chicken coops!  She was covered in burs and we could tell she'd been without food or water for days.

I picked her up and brought her right over to the house.  Gave her some fresh water, some milk and a fresh dish of food.  She'd have none of it.  She was very lethargic and wouldn't hardly open her eyes.  My dear sweet Isabel was there, worrying about her and offering her sweet suggestions to help Beauty feel better.  And yet, she knew just like I did, that Beauty was probably not going to make it.  And you know, when Beauty died just a day later, Isabel took the news way better than I did!

Seeing these pictures and remembering how much Izzy loved that cat - my heart breaks.  Up until Shooter and Beauty I'd never had a cat.  I'm not sure if they are all like this - but our two were exceptional!  Both of them tolerated the abundant love my kids would dish out to them.  Heck, Beauty use to meow outside of Isabel's door at night just so we'd open it up and allow her to sleep on the bed with her girl.

We will miss you Beauty.  You were a great cat.

Fall Garden

Over the past 2 weeks, JL had been prepping our garden for fall planting.  About 5 days ago, he and Wyatt and Izzy and Grammy planted our seedlings!

James helping Dad prep

Pretty soon, the whole gang got in on the work.

An updated picture of our ducks!  They are growing like crazy!

Planting day

Izzy putting in some carrot seed

Wyatt doing the same.

We've got Carrots, Raddish, Spinach, and Beet seeds.  Already today - just a few days later, we have a beautiful row of Raddish sprouts.  And the Beets aren't far behind!

This little guy LOVES to help Dad!  He's Daddy's little shadow right now.