Christmas Time

The tree is up. We have listened to the Christmas Devotional. Most of my Nativities are in place. Some cookies are baked. Presents are wrapped and under the tree. Cards are coming in the mail. It must be Christmas Time.

More Fun From Thanksgiving

The day after Thanksgiving we opted out of early-morning shopping. Nate did get up and go with my parents to Murdochs after his parents called and told him that everything in the store was 25% off. Time to stock up on dog food. I took a trip to the office to get the tree and lights, but had to be back before dark in order to put them up. After Nate and I {mostly Nate} hung the lights across the front of the house, we had a camp fire. Our little scouts built the fire themselves as Nate and I supervised from the roof.
We made s'mores with these gigantic marshmallows that my mom found back in Ohio. It was really fun! It was Henry's first experience with a campfire. He just sat and stared and took it all in.

When we all got too cold, and the chocolate was gone, we headed back inside to watch Santa Buddies on our wall. We just may have started a new tradition.

On Saturday we went to the ranch to visit with Grandpa Bear. I talked them all into a picture.
We had a nice visit while the boys and girls played with Wyatt & McKayl. They LOVE their cousins. My pictures are a little few and far between. I didn't even get a picture of the kids playing with cousins, which they did for much of the weekend.

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Smile

"When you greet someone heartily, with a warm smile and a friendly salutation, all is well in that person's world - if only for a fleeting moment. The individual feels a sense of validation, that his existence in the cosmos has been acknowledged and recorded, that he is known."
~Yitta Halberstam and Judith Leventhal

Laughter is Good for the Soul

Last night we went to see the Bar J Wranglers Christmas Concert at the high school. It was wonderful. We laughed and laughed and clapped and enjoyed some old country-western music. If anyone makes it this way in the summer months, we will take you to Jackson to see them perform live. Even if you are not a fan of old western music, you can't help but enjoy the group, laugh at the humor, and appreciate their talent. Click here or here for a sampling. I really enjoyed their Christmas renditions, but couldn't find anything online.

The founder of BarJ Wranglers, the dad of the two boys on the sides, was there last night. He was fun to listen to. Clay is just cluing me in: below we have Scott.

This fella can play some serious fiddle. He is amazing. {Tim}

This guy {I don't remember any of their names-sorry} has an amazing set of pipes. Bass pipes. Again, thank you Clay...this guy is Danny.And don't even tell me that this doesn't make you laugh. Our Crooner here is Brian. And Sam needs you to know that he is in disguise and doesn't really look like this. For a real-life look at Brian, see the top picture.
Henry seemed to enjoy it all from the comfort of my arms. Emma was snapping and clapping until she fell asleep too. Clay, Sam, and Amelia sat behind us with Grandma and Grandpa Lester and really enjoyed the show. They loved the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer rendition. It was hilarious. So, I'm thinking that it is kind of funny that I have just spent all this time posting pictures of people most of you don't really care about, and will probably never see in your life. But, I needed to laugh last night. It was therapeutic and enjoyable to be out of the house with my family, enjoying good, clean entertainment, and I wanted to remember that. So, take it for what it is. Take some time to laugh. It will make you feel good.

Some Great Pictures

It was wonderful to have so much family here for the Thanksgiving weekend. My parents and grandma came out and Nate's siblings, and one of mine, were all here on Sunday for Henry's blessing. It was a busy, but fun weekend with all the family. These are a couple of the pictures off one camera. There are more to come.

Four Generations

Amelia with her cousin, Jackson. (He loved the lasagna!!)

This has to go down as one of my all-time favorite pictures. Don't you love that crooked little smile? Just like his dad.

Henry is Smiling

Henry is starting to wake up and take notice of things around him...finally. He's so darling when he smiles, and when he does, he really means it. So, we cherish the smiles we get around here. I was lucky to have the camera close the other day when I got him engaged and smiling.

Played with this picture a little too. Cool effects, huh?

I Learned A New Trick

See what Photoshop can do for a picture.

Before

After
Go here http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/2008/03/one-of-my-favorite-photoshop-tricks/ for a tutorial, step-by-step. EXCEPT...I used the "soft light" blending mode. It's right there on the menu by the "hard light." Try it. It's totally fun!!!!

The difference is a little more subtle on this one. Again, I used soft light.

You Might Be A Redneck If...

... this is how you take your kids trick-or-treating.

{having technical difficulties...to be continued}

Food

I have a new blog. Just for fun. If you like food too, check it out.
http://wyomingmeals.blogspot.com/

Sweet Baby Boy

Hair and Macaroni & Cheese

That is what I saw in the sink when I walked by the bathroom Monday afternoon. Amelia didn't really want that for lunch, and they were goofing off quite a bit. So, although I was quite annoyed at the lunch remains in the bathroom sink, I was even more curious about the hair. There was quite a bit there. It didn't look like doll hair. In fact, it looked remarkably similar to real hair and I was perplexed trying to figure out whose head it would have come from. Both girls know better and have had repeated warnings about the consequence of such behavior, so they wouldn't have possibly...???? Would they...????

I walked to the front room.

"Whose hair is in the sink?"

Emma "I did NOT cut my hair."

Amelia nonchalantly says, "It's mine. I didn't cut very much."

"Let me see."

She pulled her hair from behind her ear to reveal chin length hair from the front clear to her ear, and then dropping dramatically to below her shoulders where it should be. I hadn't noticed before then because she had it so gracefully tucked behind her ear.

AARRRGGHHH!

Phone call to Adrienne...we have a hair emergency...

Bless her heart, she traveled up here yesterday afternoon, and did the best fix she could with what there was to work with. It was either straighten it up and let it grow, or sort of maybe blend it with lots of maintenance and regular fixing. We went for option 1. Here is the result.

Pretty cute, huh? I still think that she is a long-haired girl, though.

And Emma, of course, wanted her hair like Amelia, so she got hers cut short too. I think she looks darling. She can do short hair, in fact I like it better on her. Where her hair is so fine and thin, it looks better when it is short. She's my short-haired girl.

SO, thanks Adrienne, for responding to our little "hair emergency" here.

Emma

Here's a little glimpse of Emma.

She has a giggle that makes everyone around her laugh. It is so contagious.

She is independent and not afraid to be contradictory. Nate says things to her, just to hear her argue. She will play on her own for a long time, but really enjoys the company of her sister and cousins. She is delightful every hour of the day, except for bedtime. We still struggle when it's time to turn the lights out.

Some of her favorites right now:
Food: mac&cheese, spaghetti, gum

To Do: play with dolls, take dolls for a bath in the sink and then do their hair

Movie: Thumbelina

To Do Outside: Ride scooters, trampoline

Song: I Lived In Heaven, Taylor Swift "She Wears Short Skirts"...You Belong To Me, Praise to the Man

Other: New Clothes and Shoes, playing school, coloring and writing

Four

My baby girl turned four today. What a girl she is. Last night she went through the list of people she wanted to come to her party. Top on her list were Kaylon and Chevy {Nate's assistant's husband}. Chevy had to work. When we were getting ready to open presents, Emma asked where Kaylon was. Well, she was giddy with excitement when he got there. See?

Life Is Good

I think if you were to ask Henry, he would tell you that ...

And you really can't blame him. Eat, sleep, be held, rocked, or cooed to. He is such a delightful baby boy. He's still very sleepy still {except for that 2-4 am time frame} but when he's awake he's curious and often has a look that I interpret as amusement. I have a lot to learn from him. As I write, I'm thinking that maybe I should be a little more amused and less annoyed that my girls think they can swim in the bathroom sink with suits and goggles and then put on their pajamas at 2:30 in the afternoon so that they can go on a jammie ride to pick Sam up from school. Yes, I am the mom, but I'm tired.

Opening Day

Today is opening day of hunting season. {or one of the opening days...depends on the animal and the method} But, today is the BIG day. Henry's ready. Well, he's cute, anyway.


And the snow. For days I have been urging the girls outside, knowing there was a storm coming that would make it cold and snowy. They resisted. Before 9:00 this morning, they were tracking down snow clothes so they could make snow angels and snowballs. They played outside for a long time, and even jumped on the snowy trampoline. There is something a little exciting about the first snow of the season. They are pretty dismayed now that the sun is melting the snow. Really girls, there will be more. We have plenty of winter left. Oh wait...it's still fall.

Henry Burton Lester

Henry Burton Lester

Friday, September 25, 2009

10:38 am

6 lbs 2 oz, 19 inches

Two VERY excited big sisters.

One BIG happy family.

Something Besides Water

I thought you might enjoy a post that had to do with something other than the condition of my home. So, here are a couple of pictures from Nate and Sam's hunting trip over Labor Day. They were gone for 6 days and did LOTS of hiking and horseback riding. They had a couple of exciting incidents, but nothing like the bear chase from 2 years ago. Sam came home with major facial scabs from a run-in with a tree branch...serious misjudgement on his part. The school pictures will tell the whole story. He looks great now though...luckily they were just minor scrapes. And Nate's horse sunk in a bog...with him on it. But again, everyone...including Rey, came out of that one ok. Here is Emma on her first day of preschool about two weeks ago. We are doing a small "playgroup preschool" with four other kids. She has been so excited about it and asks when preschool day is. We have to "do the days" when preschool will be...Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Notice the doll. She is a constant companion for Emma lately. She is such the little mom, and takes the poor thing everywhere. She is such a nurturer, and was giddy with excitement when I showed her the newborn diapers for the new baby. She was even more excited that it fit her doll.

Just One More Thing

A couple nights ago, I noticed a huge decrease in our water pressure as I was doing the evening's dishes. The next morning, Nate complained about the shower...drip...that he had to take. An hour to fill the horses water and a minute to fill a cup of water led us to believe that we had {another} little problem on our hands. We assumed that the problem was coming from the fact that they had just put a meter in, as they are putting us on city water soon. Well, after two days of trickle showers, Nate had had enough and found the number for the project manager putting in the water lines. He stopped by this afternoon and said that they were going to look at the meter and see what they could figure out. When they finally got to it around 3:00 today, he pointed out that we had consumed over 35,000 gallons of water in the last week since they put the meter in. I was a little baffled. Sure, I do plenty of laundry and dishes, but for sure not 35,000 gallons worth. The next question I had was, where is this water going? We're just recovering from floods, and finished intalling the last of the carpet today...the thoughts of that much water being dumped into my house was scaring me. The guy told me that he thought there was a break in the line somewhere between the house and the meter. GREAT! So, we walked into the house where the water comes in, and heard water running through the softener. The guy thought that the system was just running the water through and then dumping it into the sewer. So, I left to get my boys with that thought in my head. And a million other thoughts...{ Where is that water going? Is our house going to flood again? We're going to have to figure this out TODAY. Do we really have to replace our water softener system? The guy that repaired it last year said it would cost in the thousands of dollars. We don't have an extra thousands of dollars. This is just getting too funny and a little absurd...laugh out loud...how much more stress can I handle? I need to call Nate}.
So I left a message for Nate to call me between patients. He called before too long and I told him what I found out. We hung up and I did my afterschool pick-ups and drop-offs. When I got home I was a little stunned still that there was that much water running through our house, so I went to check it. The meter was still and there was no sound of running water through the pipes. AND my water pressure was back!!!! Miracle of Miracles, I thought. What a blessing!!

Then I learned the rest of the story.
After I hung up with Nate, he was angry and discouraged {very reasonable reactions} before he recalled a conversation with our Stake President he had had earlier in the week. President Matthews often tells Nate that he is being refined. This time, he told Nate that he is having the opportunity to be defined...that these experiences, and how he reacts to them will define him. So, with that thought, after his assistant and office manager asked what he was going to do about it, he responded to them...PRAY! And he did. As he did the thought came very clear into his mind that he needed to check a valve that he had put in as part of the sprinkler system. The valve was attached to a pipe that ran under the ground and emptied into the ditch behind the barn, beside the road. He "hung up" and immediately called Darren and told him to walk out of the house, down the stairs of the deck and straight through the corrals , over the fence to the ditch, and that there he would see water spewing through a pipe. Darren was stunned...because that is exactly what he saw. Somehow, in the two days previous, someone had been back there and caused the pipe to be broken off. Darren returned to the backflow valve and turned the water off there. Problem Solved.
Chance? No
Luck? No
Pure Inspiration and Guidance from a Heavenly Father who gives us experiences to define us. I am Grateful for Prayer!!!! And Incredibly grateful that we don't have to dump a couple thousand into a new water softener system right now.

Laugh, If You Can

The conversation at 12:45am went something like this.
Me: "Wow, it's late...what took you so long?"
Nate: "You are going to be so mad."
Me: thinking in my head...what did you do to my new carpet? "Why, what happened?" with a little alarm.
Nate: "Well, when we were tacking the carpet down around the fireplace, we found a spot that felt like someone had dumped a cup of water on it. So, I went downstairs to where the paint was peeling {runoff from a heavy rain that we thought was from not having a cap on the vent from the kitchen sink} and poked it and water just poured out of it. {good thing we hadn't laid the carpet there yet} So, Darren and I took the pellet stove out and there was tons of water, so we got a flashlight and climbed up on the roof and there is a great big spot around the chimney that is not sealed at all. All the rain from tonight just seeped through. Darren's going to buy some tar and seal it tomorrow."
Me: laugh...does that mean we need a new roof too? laugh again. I mean really, what else do you do?

Wow...when it rains, it pours...literally.

What We Found

Yesterday we thought we were finishing up with our indoor projects. We had painted, moved furniture, and the girls even gave us a hand pulling up their old carpet. They were so excited. I was utterly grossed out at the condition of the carpet from the top...and once we had pulled it up, I was mortified that we were living on such a bed of dust and old stains from who knows when. I'm inclined to say that the carpet was original to the house??? It wouldn't have surprised me. But, we got it out and cleaned up, and fresh new carpet in the rooms upstairs before we started downstairs to the boys room to get it ready to put in the carpet. Darren was working on that one when I went downstairs to see how it was going. He was standing in the middle of the room..."you have to see this...it's not good."

No...not good at all. In case you can't really tell from the pictures, that is black mold lining the closet floor and covering the carpet. Nate and Darren put on masks to get the carpet and padding out of there as quickly as possible. And I thought I was grossed out at the condition of the upstairs carpet!?!?! It just makes me wonder if that is why the boys have been so sick this year with coughs, bronchitis, breathing issues...all year long, really. We had found black mold on the walls behind the vanity and sink cabinet in the bathroom, but we didn't even consider that the flood had created such water issues in their bedroom. I'm wondering now what we might find under the carpet in the office. I guess we'll find out Monday when we get back to it. We're going to have to Clorox the floor and walls and then paint the surfaces with Kilz before we can start with the carpet.

As disgusted as I am with the whole situation, I am so incredibly grateful that we decided to replace the flooring. I really think that the boys health will improve, and I will feel so much more comfortable bringing a brand new baby into a house without these serious health hazards. As Sam said, "I guess the floods were really a blessing."

He's right. {Although I would say that it may have been the floods that started this mess}