The Black

One of my favorite things is to read with Garrett before bedtime. It started out with him doing most of the reading (he was suppose to read for 30-45 minutes each night for school) and then gradually progressed to me reading. I realized that bedtime really wasn't the best time to ask him to read. He is usually so tired at the end of the day and really just enjoys relaxing and LISTENING to a story. Besides Andy and I feel that it is a bit much to ask a child to read every day for a set amount of time. It was really taking all of the fun out of it. We were starting to see a child that used to LOVE to read, start to really HATE it. Now that we have backed off on making him read I am finding that he is actually reading way more on his own. He usually always has his library book in the car and uses his time in the car to just read. I have even caught him on several occasions reading to Luke, but Shh don't tell him. For whatever reason it always embarrasses

him when I praise him for doing it. So I will continue to pretend that I don't hear him ask Luke what book he wants to read and pretend I don't see the way Garrett stops after reading each page to show Luke the pictures......so sweet! And before you start thinking that is the only time Luke gets read to, Andy usually spends time reading with Luke in the evenings. Sometimes we switch off, but Garrett and I have been reading chapter books now and I don't want to miss any parts! In fact the most recent book that Garrett grabbed off of his shelf was this one...

And when I opened it I found this...

It brought tears to my eyes. You see this was from Andy's grandmother. The very one whose name is Hope. The reason that we have hoped (no pun intended) that we would have a little girl one day to name after her and that little girl is on her way!! Mama was an INCREDIBLE woman for so many reasons. And to this day I can't look at our chickens and not think of her. She too shared a love for them among so many other things.

So upon finding the inscription, I had to stop to go show Andy. He had forgotten all about this little book given to him so long ago and was touched to see it again.

Well, Garrett and I just finished reading the story last night and both loved it. I had never read this book growing up and enjoyed it as much as Garrett did!

Wolves and Bears Oh My

Monday night was the Boy Scouts Blue and Gold Banquet. This is an award ceremony to celebrate the boys hard work throughout the year.

Here the Wolves are getting their patches and pins

Prior to the ceremony all of the boys were asked to make and decorate a cake primarily by themselves. Then the three best cakes were selected to be auctioned off to raise money for the troop.

This year Garrett wanted to decorate his cake ALL by himself. I was so proud of him for wanting to take the initiative, but oh man I had a really hard time stepping back (I know I am a bit of a control freak). Finally I really couldn't take it, so I just walked away for awhile and let him be. When I came back I was totally AMAZED.

Here is Garrett's creation....

And his cake was one of the three to be selected for the auction......yippee! I nearly jumped out of my chair. Ok so I did jump out of my chair, but I played it off so well. I just had to go and take pictures of the cute guy doing the auctioning.

Of course we couldn't let anyone else go home with Garrett's cake, so we bought it back ourselves. Best 20 buckaroos we've spent!

And one of Garrett's good friends, Drew, had his cake chosen for the auction as well.....yeah! I was so happy for both of them.

Drew and Garrett with their cakes!

Winter Wonderland

I can't believe this is our 2nd year in a row to receive snow like this. Man, when I was growing up we were lucky to get this kind of snow every 10 years or so. The boys had so much fun playing in it.

Of course they threw snow balls.

Garrett made a snow man.

Luke ran around playing with Molly.

Molly discovered she liked EATING the snow!

Even the chickens had a good time playing in it.

And if your out taking pictures, you can't leave this guy out.

Love him!

Then Luke told Daddy his hands needed warming up. Shortly after that Luke came in to take a HOT bath. Bless his heart he was cold.

Later I went looking for these two and found them making an IGLOO. So funny.

Look at that cute boy in his igloo cave!

At this point I thought I might need to run away.

That look in Andy's eyes usually means I am about to get tickled.....lol!

I wasn't looking forward to the snow, but now I am glad it came!

4 Wheelin Fun

Ben and the boys came down on Saturday and let me tell you we had some FUN!! Ben surprised us by bringing his 4 wheeler along. Of course it had to immediately be put to good use. First, Ben took Luke and Will for a ride and to everyone's surprise they came back soaking wet, covered in mud. Garrett and Chad couldn't let Luke and Will have all of the fun so they went next. By the time lunch was ready we had some very dirty boys.

Then after lunch, the boys went out to be gophers, I started working on Miss Ruthie Hope's crib (more on that later), and Andy and Ben went out to play in the pasture.

You can see Ben is RIDING the oil rig (photo editing done by Ben Garner). Not really. It never turned on while they were on it, but they did have some fun climbing it. Unfortunately I don't have any pics of Andy up there, but you can bet he was in on the fun too. In fact I don't have a single pic of Andy from Saturday, he's usually the one behind the camera. I really do need to get better at taking some of the pics too.

Here's Ben riding through the mud (photo editing done by Ben Garner).

Finally when I could take it no longer, I wondered out to the pasture to see if I could have a ride. After convincing Andy we would take good care of my belly and Andy threatening mine and Ben's very existence if we bumped little Miss Ruthie around, we were off.

Note: Ben was VERY careful to not bump me around and never even got out of 1st gear while we were in the pasture. It was a very SLOW ride, but fun none the less.

And, just when I thought we were heading back, Ben said he had one more thing to show me...

Yes, that is me getting soaked. If you look real hard you can see Ben leaning forward just to make sure I got nice and wet. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. There's just something really exhilarating about getting filthy dirty. Then on the way back up to the house I asked Ben if we could maybe go a little faster on the SMOOTH road. Finally, we were out of 1st and now freezing our tails off. When we got back, Andy got a fire started and I made some hot coffee.

Ok, ok, so that's not really Andy's fire. That is a pic from Bonfire from this past year.

Then the three of us sat around the fire watching the gophers go to town. Man those boys never cease to amaze me with their digging skills. This time Chad dug to China and actually hit the water level. Anyone need a well dug? It was really cool watching water seep into the hole and the boys had a really good time climbing in and out. Ben took some pics of the boys in their 'hole'. Can't wait to see them. Ben then took some pics to document my big belly. My hair was still half wet and I had mud on my face and was in some very grungy clothes. Needless to say, Ben had his work cut out for him editing these.

I thought he did a good job getting the mud off my face and LOVE the fact I have some prego pics now. I really liked the one with Scarlett looking at my belly. It makes me wonder if she really knows what's inside????

Later we had a really good supper and Ben introduced us to his Brown Sugar Sauteed Onions.......Mmmmmm, they were SO good. Andy may have to just get used to the onion breath because I can't wait to try and make some more. Then sadly, our wonderful day was over and they had to head back home. Looking forward to the next visit!!

This ain't my blog anymore...

Amanda got aholt' of tha blog. Can you tell?