Month in Review

Apparently I forgot about my goal to blog more often...seems how I have a month to catch up on now :)  Here's what we've been up to...

I should really stop taking pictures of the deer, but it's hard not to when they are always just outside our windows.  It's pretty much always the same deer and the kids and I get a kick out of watching them, especially when the fawns are playing.  I decided we might as well name them, since they're always here; there's Tiny-two-point, Fragile-fawn (she limps), Damaged-ear-doe (she's missing half an ear), etc.  This picture is of Brake-the-car-buck because everyone slams on their brakes when they drive by and see him.  Jonathan almost ran into him a few times on the four wheeler because he is so lax around people that he walked right in front of Jonathan as he was driving by.  We haven't seen him for quite a while though, so I'm afraid he might be in someone's freezer now. I almost feel like I could be a deer biologist now since I've observed so much of their behaviors, ha ha.  I saw two bucks fighting, antlers locked, one night.  It was like watching National Geographic out our window.  Today I watched a doe chasing off her fawns that were trying to nurse, she's obviously weaning them, but it was funny watching the fawns try to sneak up to her.  There's a deer on the ranch that Jonathan sees daily whose ears are put on wrong.  You know how deer perk their ears up when they hear you?  This doe lays her ears down and to the side instead; she looks more like a sheep than a deer.  I saw her for the first time last night, and it was the weirdest, funniest looking deer I have ever seen.  Maybe I'll get a picture because, after all, I haven't taken enough pictures of deer yet :)    

I love love love fall!  It's my favorite season of all, and it always seems way too short! You can't complain about crisp morning air, beautiful mountain scenery, the smell of cinnamon, apples, pumpkin, or the waft of the smoke from wood stoves.  Then there's the baking, and canning, and snuggling a little longer in bed because it's too chilly to get out.  Too bad fall brings winter, which is probably my least favorite season of all.    

I took the kids' 4 year and 2 year pictures.  Maggie's always photogenic, and Lane probably is too, but he doesn't hardly hold still long enough for me to find out.  So I took a lot of Maggie and luckily the few I got of Lane actually looking at me and smiling turned out.

 

I wish this picture wasn't blurry, but the owl flew off before I could get the camera on something still enough to take a non-blurry picture. It would have been a perfect Halloween picture :)  Either way it was fun to see a great horned owl fly up and land in the tree.  

 Yeah, the deer here are probably a little too tame.  This was right outside our office window.  She just kept munching while Lane banged on the window.

 I finally finished painting our dining chairs and table.  They look like antique farm house chairs now, instead of out-of-date 70's furniture :)

I took this picture during sunrise on September 11.  It is weird how different that day is for Jonathan and I.  I still remember that day perfectly clear as I watched the events unfold during my sophomore English class.  Jonathan, however, was on his mission half a world away, and to him, in a way, it's as if nothing happened because he didn't watch it on TV and he wasn't surrounded by the news and talk of it as much as we were in the states.    

Meet Victor and D-Con. (Actually, just meet D-Con; Victor unfortunately got a little too close of a look at a tire on Jonathan's work truck. R.I.P. black kitty, I guess you brought bad luck to yourself.)

 Making wishes on dandelions.

Lane's birthday cake.  It had to be incredibly simple because I didn't have much time to make it.  I knew he'd be most interested in the toy tractor on top anyway :)

 Opening presents.

I can't remember what was in this box, but it must have been something good :)  He got some pajamas, some toy trucks, a train track and trains, a plush farm with a tractor, truck, animals, barn, etc.  I'm probably forgetting some, but the point is that he had a good birthday :)

 The first thing he did the next morning was go play with his trains.

My nature walk buddies :)  We went fishing the other morning.  I tried and tried to get one caught on Maggie's pole, but it never happened.  They sat and watched me with my mom though and the kids thought it was funny to see the fish flopping around in the air each time I caught one and pulled it in to unhook it.  I feel a little spoiled to live so close to fishing spots :)    

I went antiquing in our yard and dug up (literally) this double tree.  One of these days I'm going to go out with a metal detector.  There's no telling what I might find then :)

I found this too in a grain storage part of on of the barns. Any idea what this is? I might have to take a better picture of it. The two shafts with connected rings to the left pivot, and  the flat part perpendicular to them is where it would have been attached to a beam or wall.  It has embossed letters that read, "The Western, Port Washington, Wisconsin, US. Patent October 23, 1900.  Whatever it is, it's old!  

We took the preschool kids on a field trip to the train station.  This is Maggie and her friend (the only other girl in her class too).  

 In the caboose.

Of all the things at the museum, the only thing Maggie really wanted her picture with was this horse outside.  That's my girl :)

This is Maggie pretending with her stuffed animal friends.  She was saying, "Can I sit by you guys? Ok. We have to be quiet because we're at church.  Who's going to say the prayer?"  She cracks me up somethings.

 Jonathan has a beautiful office!

I spy a Maggie :)

 Getting ready to move some cows.

Making Trees during my turn to teach preschool.  I'm not sure why it looks like Maggie's glaring at the kid across from her.  Maybe that's her concentration face :)

 I love playing with Lane's hair after his bath. I fluffed it up and couldn't believe how different he looked.

 Then I laid him down for bed, and shortly after he was crying in his room.  Jonathan when to check on him and this is what he found. Normally I put the wipes where he can't get them, but I forgot to put them away and he got his little hand stuck in the hole.  Who knew a wipes container could double as a human monkey trap?  His hand was fine, we just had to gently wiggle it back out.

 Playing a pumpkin drawing game for preschool.  They each took turns rolling a dice, and the number determined what shape to draw.

 Playing red light, green light at recess.

Maggie put diapers on her horses and then was saying something about not wanting them to poop in the horse pasture.  Where does she come up with this stuff?

This is Maggie's birthday cake.  I never would have guessed she'd want a tiger cake, but it's what she requested :)  I thought about making it look like and actual tiger, but black frosting tastes gross and I wasn't feeling that ambitious, so I just did this with stripes made out of dark chocolate ganache.  It tasted much better than black frosting ever could have.  

Opening presents.  She received lots of art/craft type stuff, pajamas, I sewed her some skirts, etc.  Her birthday was good too.  I'm still in denial that she's already four, but I suppose I'll be in denial every birthday. 

Maggie's first drawing on her new chalkboard easel.  I told her to draw everyone a pumpkin like she did in preschool.  It turned out looking more like a clown dog, but either way it's cute :)

We couldn't pick general conference up very clear on the radio in the house and we don't pick up any TV, so we went on a drive for part of conference.  We found this stick a little humorous.  The picture doesn't show it very well, but it looks like it's propping up the overhang in the mountain.  

Would you like to know what the very southwest corner of Wyoming looks like?  I have my doubts that very many people can say they've been to this corner of Wyoming, but it's where we ended up on our drive.

Phew!  That's all for now.