School, Camping, and Birthdays

 Alyssa starts 1st grade! Aren't those polka dotted shoes the cutest! Those little numbers started quite the shopping spree.  Shopping for girls is too much fun.

 Cole waves goodbye to his Sissa.  Gotta love the crazy mismatched jammies.

I got to make my little nephew's birthday invites.  Isn't he a cutie!

...........................................

We went hunting Labor Day weekend with the Rhodehouses.  It was fun.  Highlights of the trip...

• I cooked dutch oven by myself for the first time.  Mark always is the one that cooks with the dutch oven, but since he was out hunting, I had to do it.  I didn't even burn anything.  I made potatoes, jose's lasagna and a peach cobbler on different nights.  
• Mark and Uncle Nolin shot an Elk.  
• One of the times the guys came back in the middle of the day to hang out with us, my Uncle Nolin took us on  a little horse ride.  I hadn't ridden a horse in forever. 

 While we were camping, Alyssa decided that she wanted to have a pony party for her birthday.  (a rockstar party was a close second choice)  She had her friends come over after school to play with our miniature horses so we could take a picture to use for her invitations.  These girls are so fun to watch with the horses.  We have some poles that they get the brown horse, Hotshot, to jump.  They had fun pretending they were at the rodeo.

Pony Party pictures to come in the next post.

Who has time to blog when you're ...

busy painting zebra print on your neighbor's walls...

I looked at this sweater as I painted.

My neighbor Judy, redecorated her daughter's bedroom for a birthday surprise.  I suggested painting Zebra on one wall and volunteered myself to do it.  It was a fun project.  Judy is constantly helping me with projects so I was happy to have a way to help her.  The room turned out so cute.  Her daughter loved it!

...

Having fun in Yellowstone with Mark's old pal Cory, and his kids over the 4th of July weekend...

...

Taking kids to swimming lessons...

Cole had been talking about jumping off the diving board forever, but when it came time to do it, he froze.  We were laughing at him hanging on by his toes, but it didn't work for long, his teacher pushed him in.

 Camping with cousins...

.Jordon thought they should pose like rockstars.

showing off their bird feeders

 

 ...

Enjoying Mark's company party...

The kid's face painting was hilarious! Our favorite, was our friend's little girl that asked for a one-eyed cat-LOL!

...

Having tea with friends and family... 

Taking time to smell eat flowers...

...

 Having a fun weekend getaway with just Mark in Yellowstone...

It was so nice to be able to hike all the trails that the kids wouldn't be able to do.  The view of the canyon was so pretty early in the morning.

Our neighbors had a nice mountain man booth in West Yellowstone.

This is a real bear's paw that Mary hollowed out and made into a little purse.  It was kind of gross, but was one of the first things sold.  Mary makes all sorts of cool things with furs that her husband traps. 

Playing at Bear Lake...

 Going to the funnest Demolition Derby in Laketown...

Visiting the caves...

James and Tabitha and kids spent the weekend with us in Bear Lake.

 And Grandma Weaver...

 Growing a Garden...

 We have played more this summer than we ever have.  (We got some cool projects done too--a deck, patio, and a fence-yeah!) It has been a wonderful summer.  I am so sad that it is almost over :( One more day left before school starts and then we are camping this weekend for Labor Day.

Another Photoshop Project

 (Click image to enlarge)

I can't believe my beautiful, baby sister is graduating from High School.  I took her senior pictures last fall and we both just realized we were totally running out of time to make her announcement.  I quickly put this together last week so we could get them ordered.  They came yesterday, Phew.  They look great printed on a pearl card stock. It is probably a good thing we had to do them so fast.  There were soo many great pictures, we had to have a time crunch to make us decide which ones to use.

I have continued to neglect my blog. We have been so busy with yard work, building a deck and a fence for the goats and now horses.  Yes, we added two miniature horses to the farm on Friday.  I need to get the garden planted soon and I have been working on a side business with my sister.  I am almost ready enough to start sharing. It has been fun, and so far everyone seems to really like it.  Life is just busy.

Sweet Little Reese's Birth Announcement

I got to do a little graphic design project for my little...I want to say niece, but technically she is my cousin. Cheryl often has fun photoshop assignments for me and I don't mind. Isn't Reese a beauty??? It is sad there are so many miles between Idaho and Tennessee. I almost bought a plane ticket last week, but felt bad to leave Mark home again. I really want him to go with me to TN the next time I go, so I will wait until he can. There are a few things that he HAS to check out. Maybe this fall??

9th Wedding Anniversary

Nine years ago today, I married my best friend. It is weird to think it has been that long. We thought we would go out of town for the weekend, but because we are hosting my family's Easter Egg Hunt next weekend, we thought we would stay home and work in the yard. Doesn't everyone do yard work on their anniversary???
It actually was a really enjoyable weekend. Friday we ended up at Sam's Club where they were doing Vita Mix demos. I have wanted one forever, but neither of us have wanted to drop $5oo bucks for a blender. I enjoyed watching the demo and drinking a yummy smoothie anyway. Mark browsed through the store and when he came back to the demo to get me, he told me to put a vita mix in the cart. "WHAT??? Are you serious", I asked him. "Yep, Happy Anniversary-Mother's Day-Christmas!" I was so excited!! Then we headed to our nephew, Jordan's (who is the same age as Alyssa) 6th birthday party. Its always fun hanging out with the Taylors.
Saturday we worked in the yard and picked up/delivered bountiful baskets. We got a call from Ryan and Britton's neighbor saying we could have her sis-inlaw's goat if we went and picked her up. Our goat, Ferb, needed a friend so it was perfect. After we got her home we got ready for a night out. Ryan and Britton offered to watch our kids and let them stay the night. It was so nice. We went to dinner and a movie, slept in, went to breakfast and then picked up the kids. We made it back home and the weather was so nice that we did more yard work while the kids played on the swing set and rode the four wheeler. We built this really neat log retaining wall out of recycled power poles. We aren't finished with it yet, but I can tell it is going to be awesome.
All throughout the weekend, Mark and I reminisced over how we've spent the last 10+ years. I love just hanging out with Mark and chatting. It was a great weekend. I am exhausted though, time to make a smoothie.

Bountiful Baskets

Okay, I know it's kinda lame to take a picture of your groceries, but I had to show just how much produce you can get for $15 with the bountiful basket food co-op.

2 big bunches of celery
9 cucumbers
2 little bags radishes
1 acorn squash
2 heads lettuce
1 head cabbage
3 bunches asparagus
1 big bunch of bananas
6 kiwis
1 carton strawberries
1 carton blueberries
3 lbs of apples

I weighed my basket and it was around 28 lbs which makes the produce around 54 cents a pound. Order and pay online on Monday @ bountifulbaskets.org and then pick it up on Saturday. Wonderful.

Every week is a different assortment. You don't have to order every week. Volunteer to help unload the truck when you can. I am in love and it makes me wanna go vegetarian. Who knew a person could get so excited about produce :-)

Alyssa's Comments from the AA

"The top of Miley's dress looks like a bra because SOMEBODY TOOK the top of her dress...
It was HER!" (Zoe Saldana) I had to laugh, but I do agree with her!!

Shanley and Scott Tie the Knot

Well it is official. Shanley got married. She was such a beautiful bride. It was so fun to get to meet Scott and see Shanley so happy. My friend Tara and I played "wedding photographer" and got some fun shots. It was raining and my cold fingers kept hitting the wrong buttons on my camera, but I learned a lot. Here are a few shots that I took.