Weekend Project

Payton LOVES to swing. So, for her birthday Brian and I bought her a swing set....well, Brian bought it, I put it together. She was so excited! She wanted to help so bad so I let her hammer some of the t-nuts into a couple of the boards. For all of you moms who know who Handy Manny is, she kept trying to put a pencil behind her ear while she helped me saying,"Mom, I want to be Handy Manny!" Sometimes she is so cute!

Here's a picture of her helping hammer...she actually did a really good job.


About 3pm...almost there...okay, a little over half way. It was sooo hot!


After about 9-10hours (about 2 hours short of the estimated time to build on the instructions) I finished my weekend project!


Payton probably asked me every 30 minutes if I was done yet! She could hardly stand it. First thing every morning she asks me if she can go swing. I love it.
(Yes, Brian helped, a little...he was at work most of the day then he put the last 5 screws in the slide and helped me attach it. Then, he made me dinner!)

Happy Birthday Payton!

We celebrated Payton's birthday on Saturday at Grandma and Papa's house! We had lots of water toys to play on and a small bounce house. She had a great time. She was so excited that all her friends were there at the same time!

I have the hardest time getting her to smile for the camera...she always wants to make a face!


Grandma and Papa's bounce house!



Payt with her cake!


Okay, so I kind of don't have the best pictures...my sister-in-law took some good ones. You can check out her post by going to Brent and Britta in my family column.
It's great to have family on top of these things for me!

Last Weekend...

I am getting closer to being somewhat caught up on my blogging. Last weekend Brian competed in a Ranch Rodeo. We had so much fun! It was good practice for the fall when he plans to compete closer to home...you can't lose with people you know watching, right? They did really good until the last event... They were in first place but one of his teammates missed roping the calf. Oh well, maybe next time.

Brian is 2nd from the right...kinda hard to see...


Ann and Vaughn brought some of the grandkids out to watch...it was hot but I think they enjoyed it.

Blake was so excited to sit on Brian's horse...do you like the blue mouth from his ring pop?


Dallin letting out his inner cowboy...Yeehaw, Dallin.


Kali had fun too...


And of course, Payton...she had to do her litte Yeehaw, just like Dallin.

Bikers?

So last week my friend Maribel and I decided to go for a bike ride. She was trying to find a good trail to take the Young Women on at camp. So, for our first ride we rode 12 miles, off road...I mean we are talking Xtreme Biking! Okay, for us it was extreme. 1st timers on a trail that was full of rocks, boulders,steep hills, sand pits...we just had to laugh at ourselves. We did it but decided it would leave most of the girls in tears. So a couple days later we did another ride. This one ended up being 23 miles. It was on a trail that was mostly gravel and hard packed dirt and flat. So, it wasn't too hard, just loooong. We didn't think the girls could hack that either so we settled on a shorter trail for the girls. We had a good time though, and even though we crashed, on flat ground, right between thistles, we laughed our heads off. (Maribel had a dragon fly land on her face and crawl under her sunglasses, hence the crash.) I wish I had taken a picture of our tangled bikes. We saw a turtle, which we named Rock, an armadillo, which was just cool up close, and many rabitts and geckos.

We are half way...only 11.5 miles to go!


Rock, the turtle.


Our armadillo friend...

What a character!

My little Payton is such a character. We were driving past one of our properties and she looked over and said, "OH! It's Broccoli!" I had to take a picture...I've heard of people calling broccoli, trees...but never calling trees, broccoli!



We also went to Cabela's to get Cody ready for his High Adventure trip to Colorado with the scouts. She was so excited about the polar bear that she had to pose with it and her bunny.


Okay, this picture didn't turn out like I wanted...I took it with my phone. Anyway, Brian took Payton out to see the Combines working in the field harvesting wheat. She absolutely loved it! They got in one together and he let her drive it around. She has talked about Combines every day since and wants to go drive it some more. Daddy's teaching her young! It's all fun now, just wait 'til she's old enough to be put to work! You can see her if you look close, sitting on her daddy's lap.

Okay, I was just trying to be fancy with my phone here....I don't know why but I just love to take pictures of the cows!

I have busy, busy, busy with painting. I took on the project of painting - my whole house! I have the living room, kitchen, dining room, bathrooms and Cody's room done. I think I have OCD! I have had to re-caulk, sand and paint! I have been a little anal about it I think. I'm sure my husband will be happy once I get it all done.
Here's a corner picture of Cody's room. We don't have it all decorated yet, but here is the final paint job.

Getting Caught Up.

Okay, I've been terrible at keeping up with my life...or at least, keeping you caught up with my life! I'll try to get back on track. So, for mother's day weekend we went to Abilene to a ranch horse competition and ranch rodeo. Brian hopes to compete soon so he likes to go watch the 'big dawgs'. All the hotels were full in Abilene so we went to a small town called Albany and stayed in a bed and breakfast there. Now, all I can say is "holy Country/Americana!" If that's your style, you can find it here.

A little old lady owns this house and keeps it neat and clean.


We drove through the countries largest wind farm on our way to the bed and breakfast...

The Ranches...Cody's favorite is the Tounge River Ranch...they always do well at these competitions.

We had a great weekend. Cody stayed with friends and my mother-in-law was kind enough to take Payton so we could have the weekend to ourselves! It was fun.
I'll catch up some more tomorrow!