Decorated

I really love this time of the year. We aren't big into decorating for pretty much any holiday other than Christmas. We do love Christmas decorations! This year we decided we needed a bigger tree than the "slim" fake tree I've been using for the last decade. Don't get me wrong, I love that tree but as far as available real estate, it was lacking on room. I adore all the homemade ornaments the kids bring home and there wasn't anymore room so when my parents offered me the use of their large fake tree I took them up on it. It's a lovely fat tree compared to our old one and there is so much room for ornaments.

This year I set the kids lose decorating while I made dinner and fed animals. I'm trying to lighten up on my controlling nature. :)

I put Sean in charge of managing the decorating (making sure glass ornaments didn't get broken and such) and came inside after feeding the livestock to find this.

Poor guy was exhausted. I hope everyone reading this has a wonderful Holiday season!

Special Visit!

We were so thrilled that Granny Randi and Papa Rich came to visit early in the month. We really miss them as we live several states apart. The kids could hardly wait! Randi brought her knitting gear and taught Greta to knit. Greta had been asking me to teach her for ages and I have no idea how to knit, so this was perfect!

We broke out the WiiU and did a little Mario Kart too. Which provided some hilarious entertainment. :)

We took them to the air and space museum while the kids were in school (the kids and I went not too long ago, so I was fine going while they were at school). It was an enjoyable day.

We had some really beautiful weather while they were here and we enjoyed it by going to the park and playing around like monkeys. They kids adore their silly granny.

My folks wanted to see them while they were visiting so we all went out to dinner one night and had a nice time. My kids have some wonderful grandparents.

Puppy Days

We haven't had a puppy in the house since Sean and I got our very first dog together right after we got married in 2001. It's amazing how little I remember about that puppy stage. Winston is growing like crazy, packing on about a pound a week. He is ornery and sweet at the same time. Loves to lick my chin for some reason and then bite it with his tiny piranha teeth. He's lovingly gained the name "piranha pup" because he chomps on anything and everyone he encounters.

He sleeps all the time. Usually on his back. I find it hilarious. His favorite place to sleep upside down right behind me on the computer chair while snoring loudly. He's doing it right now.

I'd like to say the potty training is coming along, but it's not. He must poop eight times a day and at least 2-3 of those are in the house. Unfortunately he likes to poo on the rug by the back door. The rug that is fairly busy in print and camouflages the poo nicely until someone comes along and steps in it. That someone has been me, twice. First time I was wearing shoes and didn't realize I had stepped in it and then proceeded to walk all over the house with my poo shoe. Sigh. This too shall pass. Good thing he's cute.

A quiet puppy is a mischievous puppy.

Family Pictures

Since discovering that my old college roommate had taken up photography we've been having family pictures taken, and I love em! I don't think you can ever have too many pictures of your cute kids. She moved out of state a couple of years ago but still comes back to visit family and keep a few local clients photographed.

Fall Projects

This time of the year stresses me out! I can never quite put my finger on it but it's a super busy time. I think it might be the impending winter and frigid temperatures that drives us to accomplish all the little tasks that didn't get done over the summer.

I've had "staining the deck" on my to do list the entire summer and now that it's cooling down I was able to finally mark it off this past weekend. Sean put stairs on the deck a few weeks ago and replaced a few deck boards that were warping. It needed a nice staining to make everything look uniform. It looks beautiful, if I do say so myself.

Here is the before:

Here is the after:

I had the best helpers to help me clean off the deck and pry acorns from between the boards.

Sean got the seals replaced on the hydraulics on the skid loader and located the battery drain so it's in tip top shape now. First order of business is scooping out the horse pen. It did great! We're so happy to have some way of actually picking up the manure rather than just pushing it out of the way.

Sean is still figuring out how to drive it and maneuver the bucket and had a little accident with the fence. Oops. Thankfully it was an easy fix.

Since we live out in the country we are forced to use the only semi-fast internet service provider around. We have a dish on our room which has a line of sight with a giant tower several miles away. The down side to this kind of internet is that trees grow and obscure the line of sight causing our internet to slow to a crawl. Our options were to put up a free standing tower in the yard or increase the height of the pole on our roof. We went with the cheaper option and increased the pole on the roof to a 10 foot pole. Ten foot required guy wires to keep it on the roof for when the wind picks up....and the wind picks up a lot around here. Sean went out last weekend and put it all up and I'm happy to say our internet is better. Not perfect but good enough to delay a tower in the yard.