3 Men & A Little Lady

Saturday, June 14, 2014

{Girls Just Want to Have FUN}

It was love at first sight when I spotted Jill's husbands mustang covered up in their garage. I told her it would be the perfect car for us to take on our Girls Night Out! The brakes didn't work well and its hard to steer, so she didn't want to, but after a lot of persuading, begging, and pleading, she did it for me!!!

IT WAS AWESOME!!!

We picked up Gina and the fun really began! Aren't we HOT!!!

Crazy sisters that I LOVE!

I felt like a teenager!

We rocked it!

We made it safely to the movie and caught up with some more girls to watch "The Fault of our Stars."

It was the saddest movie and I balled like a baby through the whole thing.

It was the perfect girls night!

Girls Night - Part 2

We got together to celebrate Mita's birthday at the Silo!

We climbed at least 100ft, ate dinner at the top of the Silo, and watched the sunset from way up high. It was not for the faint at heart. We then repelled down the inside of the silo. I went first!!!

It was exhilarating and so much fun!

I made it safely to the bottom and crawled out the very little door to level ground. I love a good adventure!

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

{Scout Day Camp}

Drew and Ian attended Scout Day Camp and had a blast!

Drew made this leather necklace.

Ian's two favorite things to do, fighting with a real sword and shooting the bow and arrow!

I am so glad the boys enjoy the scouting program. Its great for boys!!!

Saturday, June 7, 2014

{Dump Day}

We are clearing out what was once know as the "Garden" area for what we are making the "Kids Adventure Area!"

The kids friends love helping out with our jobs! I'm not sure how safe our jobs are!

The jobs make them feel more "manly!" Trees need to go for the underground trampoline!

Kenny is getting pretty handy with the chain saw!

Our burn piles keep growing.

Kelly thinks we are making the burn piles too big...he's probably right, but we won't tell him that!

Drew and the dog enjoying the fire.

Not only where there several trees that needed to be removed for out outdoor adventure area, but also piles of...crap...that has been accumulating over the last 40+ years. I loaded up several truckloads of junk, with the help of Kelly and we took it to my friend Brandy's house. Their neighborhood was having a yearly dump day, where you could put anything on the curb and the trash men will take it for free!!

Riding in the truck always makes for an adventure! Kelly, who has parkinsons disease, and who probably shouldn't be driving, was a champ at maneuvering the tight steering wheel and faulty brakes!

Brandy had no clue how much stuff we were bringing over and was awesome about letting us make her front yard look like a dump! Kenny's old swing set was in that pile. Surprisingly, a few men came at night and took all the wire, before the trash man came. One mans junk is another mans treasure!

With trees cut back and trash taken away, we can now cut the grass that we will be growing next spring! Little by little we will make this place our own!

Friday, May 30, 2014

{Grandparents Home}

It all started with helping Kelly clean out the 70 + boxes cluttering the sewing room. The task was given the name, "Operation- 70." We went through years of stuff: some treasures, some trash, some collectibles, some mice nests, etc. It was a dirty task, but someone needed to do it and I love to declutter, so I actually found it enjoyable. The boxes contained stuff from the last 73 years of his life. Papers were organized and filed and Kelly's boxes began to dwindle and the floor (green flowered carpet) was once again visible. We were organizing his life in preparation for the BIG move to the Grandparents HOUSE!!! Our stuff was needing to be taken out of storage, so that we could officially move into the big red house and we could all have a little more space. Don't get me wrong, living together for 10 months was so great! Kenny's parents were incredibly helpful with the kids and their generosity was overflowing with love! They made our move to Colorado, while still owning our expensive house in California, possible!!! We will forever be grateful for their sacrifice of having us live with them. We love them dearly!!!

One of my favorite treasures! How cute is my husband?!! Our Drew is a mini Kenny!!

One of Kelly's treasures. He's the teen with the glasses :)

We started to prep for the arrival of the house by clearing out the land.

Trees were cut down and burned.

Our dogs loved laying on the warm burnt grass.

We did not intend to burn the large pile of tree stumps that had been laying there for years, but it accidentally caught on fire when we were inside, so we let nature take its course!

I was so excited to see this pile gone, that I worked on it for 2 days, tossing the fire until it was all burned!

Neighbor Ron, helped us pull the fencing out, so the truck could deliver the house.

Good-bye Wire

Land being prepped!

Connie came from Texas to help with project 70. I was grateful for reinforcement!

The massive septic tank installed

The biggest septic tank for the small house!

Footings laid

Mya loved being home and watching the process. She thought we should just keep the large balance beam and put the house somewhere else.

The boys loved all the dirt!

We did have a gas leak and 911 was called. It made a lot of excitement for the day!

THE BIG DAY!!!

Kelly was so excited to see his new house arrive!

Second half

Concrete ramp laid. The whole house is handicap accessible.

Who can resist wet concrete?

TA DA!!!!

The house is beautiful and fits grandma and grandpa's needs perfectly!!!

We are so blessed to be able to live down the lane from them. Our dreams of living on the land Kenny grew up on are a reality! We look forward to the many memories we will make here.

Kelly's Christmas letter: In his words the experience of the big move

They say the cutest things.....

Mya, my little girl, said in her prayers last night, "Please help us to be strong and healthy like the Hulk!"

Owen almost ran straight into a woman as we entered a dark parking garage. As I told him to watch out, he quickly yelled, "Well she's all black!" Coincidentally she was African American! She was wearing a black dress, which is what he was referring too!

Owen told me today, "You are the best mom I ever had! I love you all the way up to Jesus!" He also loves kissing and told Kenny, "I just want to stay home from school and kiss mom all day!"

Drew lost a tooth at school when he bit into his apple. He felt the tooth inside his mouth as he was chewing and when I asked him about it, he said, "I didn't realize it was mine and I wondered if it was one of the workers!"

While at church, a teacher asked the kids what happened to Jesus right after he was baptized and brought up from the water. Ian enthusiastically raised his hand and said, "He asked for a towel!"

After a long struggle with my boys, to get them inside, bathed, and into bed, I yelled, "I am done, go to sleep!" Owen looked up at me and said, "Mommy I'm sorry you're sad, but the problem is that you don't beat up Drew and Ian. Just beat them up and I will be on your team!"

We are not a family who eats beans, so when Drew went to a friends house to play and eat dinner, he was hesitant to eat the burrito that had refried beans in it. When I picked him up he said to me, "Mom she put mud inside the burrito!"

Aunt Connie pleaded with Owen to shoot his daddy with the gun instead of her and his response, "No, he's the best daddy i've ever had!"

I begged the boys to quit fighting and Drew looked at me and said, "Its not Mothers Day anymore mom!"

Owen got kicked in his "man hood" and said, "Oh, I hurt my Tenders!"

Drew asked this morning, "Mom in 2011 can we get a cat?"

Everytime I feed Mya prunes, Owen comes up to me and says, "Me like chocolate mom!" I give him a bite and his face turns to total disgust.

Owen ran up to me after wrestling the dogs and said, "Me see Cassie's boobies!"

While I was nursing Mya, Drew walked in and said, "Is she done drinking from your boob?" I replied, "No and it is called a breast, thats the proper way to say it." He looked at me puzzled and said, "No thats the Spanish word for it."

Kenny opened the fridge and said, "Something in here stinks." Ian looked at him and said, "Dad, sometimes I toot over there!"

Last night as the boys were saying good night to Mya, Drew looked up at me and said, "Mom, Mya has a boy haircut!"

Drew was reminding me about how when we saw macaws in Hawaii, that one of the macaws was chewing on a woman's hair. He said, about the macaw, "Thats not very nice, it's not choosing the right."

My favorite word Drew and Ian used to say when they were toddlers was, Laddie- for water. I thought it was such a cute word. Owen comes to the fridge and points his little finger and says, "Wa-Wa" for water. So cute!

Last night Kenny went in on a call to deliver a goat and Ian came into our bed. He climbed in and snuggled up beside me, he usually snuggles into Kenny. I asked him why he was snuggling with me and he said, "I can snuggle you because daddy isn't here mom!" He is such a daddy's boy.

Ian is such a daddy's boy. The other night Kenny had to go to the clinic and Ian was sobbing for him for a good twenty minutes because he wanted to go too. When I asked him why he was so upset he replied, "I just want my daddy, he is my favorite boy!"

Birthday parties celebrated in California are usually BIG! There is always a huge jumper, pinata, food for the whole family, and tons of presents. Well we went to a party last night and the boys spent 2 hrs. jumping in a big jumper. On our way home we saw another party going on that had an even bigger jumper with a slide attached. Ian asked, "Can we go to that party too?" I replied, "We don't even know who those people are. " His response, "Well lets just go ask them their names."

As we prepared to go to the Glenwood Springs pool in Colorado with Kenny's four sisters Drew impatiently said, "Come on girls, you're taking too long!" Kenny told him, "Get used to it, this is what men do, wait for girls to get ready."

Much to my dismay I found black ink all over our white sheets on our bed. I of course went straight to Ian and asked very sternly, "Did you write on my sheets with a pen?" With an innocent look he replied, "I was just trying to write my name."

Drew was watching me as I divided my hair into sections with clips to straighten it. He looked up at me and said, "Wow, you look beautiful!" Then when I was completely done with my hair he said, "You're a cute little mommy!"

Ian was dipping his finger in Kenny's contact solution and then touching his eye. I asked him what he was doing and he replied, "Just putting my eyes in mom!"