Weekend Ride

Boy, he's a dead-eye ain't he?

Go Elmer....Go Elmer.....Go Elmer!

My $'s on the man in black!

Looks Serious;-)

Here's one way to stay warm!




Last weekend we went for a ride out to Consumers to see if we could spot any elk, we did see about 5 but they were standing way up on the skyline, could only see them through binoculars. The kids had fun, we stopped for a bit and did a little target practicing and had a snowball fight. I have to say I think I was the winner, DaNell, Taylor, and Maygun all ended up being white-washed in the snow. None of them thought I could do it, I'll bet they think a little different now ;-) Here's a few pics from our ride.

Math Class

Right now I am working on a math class for school, it's amazing how much I have forgotten since High School. I don't remember doing half the stuff I am doing now, and the things I do remember, I haven't used in 15 years (can you believe it's been almost 15 years since I graduated?). I am a little over half way done with this course hopefully my brain will kick in soon and I will remember everything I need to for the test!

My Latest Project

I have started a new project this week, it is helping design the 2008-2009 yearbook for Wellington Elementary. So far it has been fun learning and looking at all the different templates, backgrounds, borders, etc, but it sure is time consuming. I have 17 classes to do, 23 other pages, and all by the 16th of March. Wish me luck :-D

Leyton

Leyton is also doing well. He is finally used to going to Pre-school and has been coming out of his shell a bit. He has been working on learning to recognize his numbers and only has a few more to pass off (depending on the day and his mood that is :-) He likes school and is usually ready to go by 8:00 in the mornings, takes a lot some days to keep him entertained while he's waiting for his time to go to school. He is full of energy too, he loves doing whatever Taylor is doing and worries about Taylor's 4-wheeler being covered in mud, keeps wanting to go clean it for him. He likes to help me around the house, his favorite thing is vacuuming, although he runs over anything in his path...poor vacuum. He will be 4 in April, and before we know it he'll be off to kindergarten, then what will I do with myself? We Love You Leyton! I can't wait to see what life has to offer you! We are proud of you too, you keep us laughing!

Schydi

Schydi is great! She definitely keeps us going. She has so much energy and is the gamer at our house. Everyday it's can we play a game, can we play a game? We try to play with her as much as possible and she is getting better about winning and losing. She had Parent/Teacher conference last week, it went well. At the first one she set a goal to master her first 100 sight words, not only did she master those, but has also passed of another 100 sight words making it a total of over 200 words mastered. Way to go Schy's! She loves reading and math and is also a little mother when it comes to Leyton, she worries about him a lot. Especially when he gets out of her sight for very long. It's amazing to see how the world is still so fresh and new for her, I wish it could be like that forever. We Love You and are proud of you each and every day!

Taylor

Taylor is doing well, he is however getting a little Spring Fever. He's already talking Baseball, sign ups should be within the next couple of weeks then it's on to about 6 months of practices, games, and all-stars (if he makes it ) He seems really excited to get going again. He has also started his own blog his address is http://duct-tapefixesall.blogspot.com I think it's a great thing for him to do, kind of an online journal. He hasn't put a lot on yet, but he is planning to in the next little while. I can't believe he's almost 11, man where does the time go? I want him to know how much we love him and how proud we are of him for all he has accomplished. We know he will do well in life and all that he dreams can be accomplished! Thanks Tay, for being a great son, and a wonderful brother to your sisters and brother!

DaNell Update

So far so good, the bleeding had finally stopped in DaNell's mouth, she is enjoying her soft food diet and woke up this morning in very little pain. I think she is enjoying the time off from school too (thinks she's queen of the remote though :-). They said to keep her home for at least 48 hours so it looks like she won't make it back to school this week. She'll just have to make up the work next week which is usually pretty easy for her. I am glad she's doing so well!

DaNell's Surgery

Today DaNell had surgery on her mouth to correct an impacted tooth. Everything went well, she is home recovering. The Dr. said she would be sore for a few days and that she would feel like the roof of her mouth has been burned :-( They did give her some long lasting Novocaine, and we are keeping the pain meds going in an effort to prolong the pain. I'll update everyone again tomorrow on how she is feeling.

Weekend In a Nutshell

We had a nice weekend, Saturday we went to Elmo for a bit, then we came home and prepared a Chicken dinner and just watched a couple of movies.
Sunday Dave made the best burgers we have had in a long time. He braved the cold to bar-b-que and we all agreed it was worth it. We also had some family stop by and visit, it was nice and we had some laugh's. Monday we went back to Elmo and ended up watching some old home videos of DaNell when she was little, she was about 2 1/2 and was telling a story about some cows that were on the road between Miller Creek and Elmo, it is so funny we have now watched it about 30 times over and over, makes us laugh every time. It does make me a little sad to see how much she has grown and makes me miss those days. But I am proud of her to see all that she has accomplished and to know that she is on her way to great things in life. I Love You DaNell!
I am going to post about all of my kids in the next little bit. I Love Them All and wouldn't change any of them for the world! So stay tuned :-)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's wishing everyone a Happy Valentine's Day!

Taylor's Box

Here's Taylor's box, he wrapped it in Duct Tape, since he has been dubbed duct-tape at school this year at school. Then he drew the Nike sign on it, he says it's the best box ever. Each year, the classes do a competition where the kids vote and 2 boxes from each class win...low and behold 1 of the winning boxes :-)

Schydi's class didn't vote, her teacher put their names in a cup and just drew out 2, hers wasn't one of them, but she was happy anyway. They are both happy with all the cards and goodies the acquired today.

A couple ideas

These were a couple of cute ideas for Valentines Boxes I saw in Taylor's class. For his party we played Valentine Pictionary with all Valentine sayings, it was fun and everyone in his class had a chance to draw. Here's to the next big party!

Schydi's Valentine Box

Here is a pic of Schydi's Valentine box she decorated with minimal help from DaNell.

She wanted it to be HSM and has been waiting for days to make it. She really liked the results and wanted to take it to school already, I had to explain that she has a whole other week to take it !

Half-Time Entertainment

Who needs Bruce Springsteen? Here at the Ranch we had the "Full of Bologna Boys" along with "Davy Skunket" appear and keep everyone entertained. It was only for a limited time, I was sure glad I had my camera ready :-) Now what could be better than that for half-time?

Dang it

Well the Superbowl didn't quite turn out how I would have liked. I really wanted to see the Cardinals win..which they almost did (if it wasn't for all the penalties and the bad calls) they would have totally took it :-) Oh well, such is life. On the other hand, the food was really good, I am still full, this leaves me to ponder, what is the next big sporting event to plan for?

SUPERBOWL SUNDAY

Has arrived......I am beginning the food preparations early this morning. I am attempting to make one of those 7-layer bean dips to go along with the chips, then on to the meat tray, rolls, and goodies. I think the reason I am beginning to really like football, (besides the fact Taylor is obsessed, and I want to be able to understand what's going on when he starts playing :-) ) is because of the food...I have had a great time deciding what we should have to eat for all these games. Football food is great! Just wish more of the games were on during warm weather....our BBQ grill is getting mighty lonely!

GO CARDINALS!

6th place

Taylor participated in the Spelling Bee last Friday, and I think he did pretty well. Out of about 40-50 kids he wound up being in 6th place missing the word "vigilante" (by 1 lousy letter). He seemed like he had fun doing it, but was very nervous to have to speak into a mic in front of all those people :-)