Thanks????

I love it when the boys want to help out with the yard work. They are great at helping trim bushes, picking up sticks, and shoveling. Sam is the most motivated to work outside and help out. And he is truly helpful most of the time. Apparently he was "helping" out last week and decided to shovel dog poop. We have almost 2 acres of yard and he must have found every pile of dog poop that existed (and then some). Sam then proceeded to shovel 4 months of dog poop into a SLED and filled it up to the rim. Then he hid it in the bushes in one of the planters on the side of the house for me to find a week later! Talk about disgusting! Thankfully I found it before it had frozen into a gigantic sled-shaped pile of sh$%! Now I have to add that to the ever-growing list of things that you can't do outside. Boys, don't turn on the hose. Don't try and "sail" down the stream next to the house. Don't open the neighbor's mailboxes. And don't shovel dog poop into a sled and hide it in the bushes.

Look Who's 3!!!!

I can't believe that my baby is turning 3 years old today! He is starting school this morning and he's totally ready. The problem is that I'm not quite sure that I am!!!!!

A Solo

Shaners first solo snowman... with a little help from Mom!

Bigger is Better

Challenge yourself......

Snow Play

Even though we have not had much snow at all so far this winter the kids have been making the most out of it! They have not been able to use their igloo makers at all and have not had enough packing snow to build a snowman at all this year. So they have been improvising.

They were able to build a fort out of snow chunks from the road. They hauled the chunks to the necessary location by sled with Jonah acting as the supervisor.


They also made snow castles by shoveling snow into huge piles. Sam was the main workhorse on that project.
They did some sledding at our next door neighbors house and behind the four wheeler. Then they attempted a similar ride behind a bicycle which didn't go as planned.


It doesn't take much to keep these guys entertained... just the great outdoors and a bit of snow!

In Stitches

I unpacked my sewing machine a few weeks ago to make a curtain for our first floor bathroom. I set the machine up in our bedroom and was actually able to get some serious sewing accomplished while the kids were home and awake! I was so pumped!

I used to do a lot of sewing before kids, but have never been able to leave my stuff set up because my peeps can't leave that kind of stuff alone. So I have hardly used my sewing machine over the past 6 years since it is so much work to get everything out every time that I want to make something no matter how small.

But I set up a table in our bedroom (1st floor master) and have been able to leave all of my stuff out without anyone "checking" it out and it has been 2 weeks! So now I am coming up with sewing projects in my head almost constantly!

Last week I used some old sleep sacks of Shane's and made the boys some winter face masks. I made up a pattern and they turned out decent....even if they look a bit Muslim when wearing them!

The Art of Compromise

When you share a room with your brother you learn to share. If you're favorite color is blue and your brother's favorite color is orange then your room might end up something like this....


Everybody is happy.....


except Daddy because his estimation was a little off and we have an entire unopened can of orange paint that can't be returned. So if anybody is interested in some Behr Orange Poppy interior paint we are willing to make a deal!