Grandma Ipson's Funeral

This was such a great funeral. Grandma Ipson was turning 90 this month and the date of the funeral was the date of Grandma and Grandpa Ipson's wedding anniversary. It is very sweet.

It was a great experience for our kids. We stopped and explained to the kids how funerals work and what happens with our bodies and our spirits when we die. Samantha was in tears thinking about it. It was interesting to explain to not be afraid and it is okay to feel sad. It is an experience we have not had yet.

When we said good-bye before they closed the casket, Samantha again was weeping and it was so sweet to see her recognition of death and to see my sweet Samantha is growing up.

I really enjoyed seeing Kevin's family together and to take pictures of his aunts and uncles with his mom. Seeing his great aunts Mary and Viola was really sweet too especially since we don't see them often and they send such great Christmas cards each year.

Listening Ears and Sunglasses

Preschool gives us many reasons to laugh. I found this activity for preschool one day and it turned out pretty fun. The kids just cut out ears and sunglasses and wore them for the day. My kids wore them for the longest period of time by far so I had to take a picture of their pleasure in wearing paper ears and glasses.

Diane's Visit

My sister Diane with her 5 boys came to clean-up and fix the pasture because we are sharing a beef cow. Those boys worked pretty hard shoveling a couple inches of dirt out of the barn rooms that was left over from the 2007 flood. They also used a pitch fork to get the moldy hay out of one of the rooms. Hard work and sweat! When Kevin was home from work we all worked on shoveling out fences and gates and fixing the barb wire on the fences.

We found out one room in the barn is set up for milking cows with a trench leading outsite for poop. It is awesome.

We took a break Friday and went on the Bowl hike. It took us about 3 hours and the kids had lots of fun.

I'll have to take pictures of the good work in the barn.

2nd Annual 29th

Happy Birthday Kevin! So it has started. The annual 29th birthday is being carried on. Kevin only remembers his dad being 29 and I guess our kids will have that same memory. Although I did tell the kids he was 30 this year and they told everyone else that but all the same, he is 29 again. The birthday hat is my favorite because it was Samantha's from school. She insisted on keeping it for her dad's birthday and Kevin willingly wore it. It is stored in a drawer now and we will see if it survives until the next birthday.
We did invite some friends over for dinner and cake. We used our whole grain noodles for the first time for lasagna and they were very filling. It was a fun evening.

Grind Your Own Grain Noodles

So when we moved into our house, the previous owners left a few things behind including a noodle maker. It was still unused in the box and very old. We decided to try it out since we are going strictly whole, grind our own grains now. My blood sugar has given me too many problems so we are starting a new lifestyle... Back to the noodle maker-We decided it would be Kevin's job to make noodles since he loves pasta and I was making everything else!

This was truly an experience. We have no idea how noodle dough is supposed to look and so we followed the directions to near disaster. I don't think there was any way that I could have pushed those spaghetti noodles out with how we made the dough. The kids sure enjoyed it but Kevin definitely got his workout and we decided that we needed to try it again to see if we could make it easier.

In the end we made a small amount of spaghetti noodles and I ended up rolling out the dough to cut lasagna noodles. We do love lasagna so at least we know we can do that easily, however we will see how often we have spaghetti!

Erickson Visit

We visited my family for Logan's (my nephew) baptism and to see LeAnn (my sister) since she flew in to visit too. It turned out to be a great weekend and it was super fun to have our kids see a baptism. Samantha will be 8 next year and it was really a good experience. LeAnn's daughter Maryn went hysterical when Logan went under the water, typical reaction for a 1 year old. After Logan was confirmed his brother asked him "Was it fun?". It was so cute to see all our family together and experience such an important thing. Too bad I forgot my camera for that event.
I also got the chance to talk more to my soon to be brother-in-law. JR is a nice guy but its been hard to talk to him when he's kissing my sister the whole time. Christine happened to come late so it was great to get to know him better without the distraction.

LeAnn made a super chocolately cake for Samantha since her birthday was just a few days before. It was really sweet of her. The kids just ran around and played so I snapped some pictures while I did have my camera.
We ended up staying at my sister's Diane's house and it was so fun to have that adventure for our kids. It opened up the opportunity for me to have my allergies treated by my brother Spencer without kids but with Kevin present. So far the allergy treatment has worked! My wrist was a bit beaten up by the adjustment he gave me but it is doing much better because of it! It is so nice to have talented, trained, compassionate family members when you need them!

Stormy Clouds

We had rain, hail and snow off and on yesterday. On our way back from the bus stop I had to take a picture of the sky. It is just so beautiful.

Samantha is 7

This birthday really puts us in check. Where has the time gone? We have been married for 8 years and it really feels like just 4. Clearly we have proof of our relationship's age, our beautiful Samantha has turned 7. I am so grateful we have her in our family. She brings so much energy and fun and adventure to all of our lives. She teaches her brother and sister how to catch toads, climb trees, splash in the muddy water... All wonderful things that KayDee and Derrick need encouragement to do. She plays dress-up with KayDee and Derrick gets to be the prince or super hero. Samantha is an excellent reader and loves school and her friends.

I am so happy she is my Samantha!

Camo Spray Paint

"Mom's Ugly Truck" looks really cool now. This is my truck and I am so happy about it. We have never spray painted anything before and it turned out better than I ever thought!

So why is this my truck? Well I wanted a truck that could hold the family but be the same length as a regular truck (easier for parking, etc). Kevin obviously has his own preference on the age and body style of the truck and after 5 years of going over the possibilities with him, I talked him into it! He put this extended cab on a regular frame and had to cut off the flat bed to make it all work and it is FANTASTIC!

January Sun

This is why we love where we live! We have absolutely gorgeous days to play outside without the chill. We know there will be more snow later so we will soak up the sun until the weather changes its mind.

2 SNOW DAYS!

...So it totally snowed and we sooo love it! Samantha's bus was canceled and two days later the school district had no school from all the snow. Our friends got 3 inches but we got well over a foot! I took the picture of the table to show how much snow had been falling but that was before it was finished. Unlike our previous snow days here, the snow is still here... days later and wonderful!

When the bus was canceled, they invited all the kids from town to go to the Town Hall to watch "The Polar Express". They popped popcorn and had hot chocolate. It was super fun and an excellent idea from the other mom's in town.

Since we never have this I made the most of the snow. I drove around the rodeo grounds with the kids and did doughnuts, we made a snowman, and of course we found a piece of cardboard to go sledding.

Sledding was a blast! The cardboard was perfect size and we found a short steep hill for my little ones. They took turns going down by themselves and also with each other and me. KayDee just giggled and giggled as she turned in circles on the sled by herself down the hill. I was the heaviest, so of course I had to make the track and then the trick was to keep the kids from walking all over it. It was so fun watch them being happy together and being excited to pick each other to go on the sled together. It was really sweet.

While making the snowman, Derrick came up with the bucket for the hat and the sticks for arms. Samantha was amazing at finding rocks for the buttons, eyes, and mouth in the deep snow. They requested a carrot for his nose and of course I had to since this might be the only snowman they make this year! KayDee finally decided that it was fun to play in the snow when we figured out how to dress her so the snow hardly touched her.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Gingerbread Houses

So once again we used our "sorted candy" and made some gingerbread houses with leftover frosting from Derrick's cake and graham crackers. It was pretty easy and the kids loved it.

We decided to take a picture of them and then eat them now so they would taste good still, instead of when they are stale at Christmas. There were too many smiles to object!

Men in Suits

I gotta love my boys dressed up in suits. They look so handsome. Derrick's primary teacher told us he goes on and on about how much he likes the suit Rachel gave him. We had to take some pictures of him and his dad together in their suits. That Sunday he noticed the speakers who were wearing suits and one happened to be a young man going on a mission that week! Pretty cool.

(I couldn't tell the pictures were a little blury when I took them so they will just have to do.)

Dog Pile

Derrick is 5!

My kids are getting so old! Derrick just turned five and he will be going to kindergarten in the fall. I made a helicopter pinata for his birthday and we had some friends come over on Saturday for a party. They decorated paper sacks, took turns being Simon for Simon says, played red light green light and Duck Duck Goose. I raked up a huge pile of leaves so they could jump and play in them, which they did very well.

Kevin loved the pinata since he has to be such a tease. He found a pully to put it on in the tree and yanked that helicopter all over the place. Crazy enough, the kids were still able to hit it.


KayDee looked like she would fall over each time she swung the stick and she mostly just hit it when she was bringing the stick back. The kids knocked it out of the tree before it cracked open enough for candy to fall out so Kevin had them get their sacks ready and ripped it open. Candy flew everywhere and the kids were really quick to clean it up.



Justin and Rachel hung out for most of the party and Rachel said she went a little crazy with his present and she did! She got him a very handsome suit. He got a helicopter from us, clothes from grandparents, toys from friends and birthday cake!

We did have our family party at our house with Kevin's parents on Monday which was his actual birthday. It was fun to have them join us for the party.

The Bottom of the Reservoir

Since the reservoir has been drained we had to take opportunity to walk on the bottom of it. There are still two large puddles and a small stream and the ground is still completely saturated. This limited our area to walk around.

I asked Rachel to take some pictures of us for our family picture this year. It was really bright and the mud was sucking us under. Rachel wore flip flops and discarded them quickly, then her feet dove into the mud as she followed us around. We definitely had our laughs, although KayDee was very concerned about Rachel's feet and shin disappearing.

This was an adventure we couldn't pass up. Fortunately we came off the reservoir pretty clean, besides Rachel. She had to hose off her pants and shoes. We went home to get some pictures of us not squinting in the "Grape House", and those turned out pretty nice.

Halloween

So we had a busy Halloween. We saw Samantha in the school Halloween parade. Clearly, she is a Fairy Princess and being shy. Derrick got to pick out a costume at the Dollar store since $1 is a good deal for a costume. He picked the SWAT armor and it was nice since I didn't have to paint his face. KayDee was a butterfly and barely survived her costume so it was a good choice this year. I wore an old, shiny dress and Kevin went as a mechanic who over charges people (he claimed he was the scariest of all).

After we went to all the houses in town we went to the Halloween party. Kevin and Justin did the doughnut eating contest. I don't know who won but the picture is really good! Our favorite part about Halloween is the candy sorting. As parents of young children who have extremely full bags from a very generous community, we have the duty to make sure their candy is distributed appropriately. We take candy out to save for other events (like pinatas or Christmas). After all that sorting, our kids ended up with a large bowl full, which they completely enjoyed for days! Samantha learned what it was like to get sick from eating too much candy.

The Mystery Machine

So, I made another car and I am posting it because it takes time to paint! Kevin requested The Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo. We try to pick a car that doesn't take a lot of cuts so this is what we came up with. Kevin cut and sanded it at work and I bought the paint, picked up the car from him, and painted it in the car. This we accomplished the day of the Pinewood Derby. The tires were nailed on in the church parking lot. We did place higher this year and we won most colorful car.

Just Girls

We went to the Laub Girl's Weekend this year. I took KayDee and Samantha and we drove up with Rachel. We played games, watched movies, quilted, played the Wii, did makeovers and went for a hike.


Not to mention, we ate some really good food. The homemade granola was my favorite!

Grandma Laub and Samantha were the brave ones to get make-up and hair done.


Samantha took the picture of us on the hike.


Kevin and Derrick stayed home and slept in the camper since Kevin had too many things to do Saturday to drive it into the wilderness.