Got Milk? And cereal?

My middle punk had a bowl of cereal and remembered his table manners by taking his bowl up to the sink when he had finished. He placed the bowl on the counter top next to the sink. Then this little guy came walking along and discovered a bowl perched precariously on the edge of the counter. Looked interesting apparently. I heard the bowl hit the floor and then there was crying. Interestingly enough, the crying didn't last very long.

Who wouldn't want to eat Fruity Pebbles right off the floor. And just to be clear, I did not let him eat them off the floor. In fact he has never eaten anything off the floor. Okay, maybe once. Or twice. Okay, never mind.

Mmm Mmmm .... Fruity Pebbles. Get ya some.

Lineman in Training

Our middle punk is full of spunk. And energy. And go. And energy... you get the idea. This is one way he shows his true colors - that he is a B-O-Y.

Sometime last year I walked into the boys' bedroom and there was our boy... climbing this post in his bedroom. Ever since then he has said he's a Lineman and he's climbing a pole. Here is what it looks like....

First you put a pillow down, I guess that makes it easier in case you "burn a pole" Burning a pole is pretty self explanatory, it's when you are up on a pole and you lose your grip with your belt or your gaffs, the sharp metal points you gouge into the pole. Needless to say you go down the pole, in a hurry, and I've been told it hurts. A lot. Especially when you get to the bottom.

You get a good grip and then it's just a leg up at a time.

Once you get to the top you admire the climb you just accomplished.

Then you sit back and relax for a few moments.

And then you climb - or jump down and marvel at your accomplishment.

Isn't it amazing the things a boy can think up.

A Boy + Winter = Anything crazy and dangerous. That's the way it is at our house anyway. How about your house?

3 of 52

Alternate Title: I am a Dork

Of course I got myself into this predicament.... Might as well take care of it. Since some of you are "chanting" for the picture I guess I had better produce it.

I hated the idea of having the same son in back to back "52 weeks" pictures. While on the other hand I also liked the fact that I could get it out of the way since we are in a new week already.

So here it is....... I told you I'm a dork.

I can't believe I am about to show you this...

Alternate Title: I think I pulled a muscle.

Alternate Title: I lost my mind to show you this.

Phew, what have I gotten myself into?

For Christmas I got our second punk a great little book, "The Superhero Starter Kit". It is a great book and he is having fun with it. It came with a neat red cape, wrist guards, masks, and stickers to make your superhero logo on your shirt. He has been running, leaping, dodging and diving ever since he put the cape on.

I thought he might like more variety for masks so I made more masks out of felt. I also made more wrist guards. And I am such a good mom that I did all of that for his dog "Bolt" as well. He goes around the house, he and his super dog, saving any stuffed animal or brother that needs saved.

So when I was going to get a picture for one of my "52 Weeks" pictures I thought I would incorporate his superhero character. I made a mask for me and put on the best super hero outfit I could think of. I have pictures of us jumping in the air and looking tough. I think I pulled a muscle in there somewhere too. When I looked at the pictures I had taken I thought there was NO WAY I would EVER show that to ANYONE.

That's it. End of story.



But I said I would show it to you, so here is ONE of the pictures.


Wait, no, I can't.



Fine - here it is......

But I'm NOT showing you one of me jumping in the air. No Way!

I still can't believe I showed you this.

2 of 52

Two pictures down, only 50 more to go! I used a remote on this picture, so it was hard to know when I had a good picture.... Thus this strange look he has on his face. I told him to give a little smile and this is what we got.

What a Weirdo

And no, I am not referring to my husband.

Bwaaaaa haaaaaa haaaaaa

Sorry, let me recover from that for a second.

I am actually referring to our wonderful, loving, caring........ ....... dog, Koda. This is how he sleeps about every night.

He lays in this little cabinet nook in the mud room. He always gets himself into these strange positions. If he isn't laying here he is usually laying next to the door, feet against the door pointed straight in the air. And if that's not weird enough while he is laying like that with his feet in the air then he begins to dream. And we all know what dogs do when they dream... they get their feet moving like they are running. So here he is, completely asleep, some strange position, running upside down. Then he starts scratching the door while he is running in his sleep.

I am starting to wonder if it is contagious. Just tonight my middle boy wanted to sleep UNDER his brothers bed.... in a little nook, with no room, with his feet in the air..... sleep running. Well, he really did want to sleep under his brothers bed.

Think on that when you turn in for the night tonight!

Drat that wind!

These next pictures were taken on New Years Day. Uhggg, New Years Eve was SO windy, I wrote about that already. Anyway, we awoke with not much damage and I was quite surprised. This is the roof of the garage, not too bad really. If ripped off several and then there were the shingles just pulled up. Lineman used about 500 gallons of tar on it and all the shingles seem to be holding now.

Ahhhh, my log swing! The wind picked up the swing, threw it against the house, then threw it against the fence.

It broke one of the legs so now the swing is in it's final resting place, at the dump. Too bad we don't have a fire place or we could have cremated it.

Yesterday our house had it's first showing. I was pretty excited but that buyer isn't going to work out. I got an e-mail from our real estate agent and here is an excerpt from it:

Talked to the agent that came out yesterday and they loved your home and the agent said to compliment you because your home showed beautifully, but he said as windy as it was it made the buyers decide they did not want to live rural, not much we can do about that. Keep in mind when they start looking in town and realize the disadvantages of it they might decide the wind is not so bad.

A little disappointing for sure. Funny thing is that the wind had slowed down quite a bit during the showing. Lineman said don't get too disappointed because if we knew what we know now we may not have chose to live at this location. But really it is windy everywhere around here, just worse at our house. Bummer to that. We do have a lot of positives to our house, the incredible view is one of them, sure hope the view will really help to sell the place.

Still crossing fingers here.

Crossing my fingers

Our house is "officially" listed as of today.

It's on the MLS and the sign went up today. Only 15 minutes after they guy put the sign up I had to leave the house for a showing.

And get this........ the wind has been blowing so hard today, probably gusts of 65 or so. When I left the house the wind had died down considerably, probably only gusting to 40. Now that the showing is over the wind has picked back up.....

Hmmmmmm........

Crossing my fingers here!

Don't they know it's cold outside?

The kids were outside playing the other day. It was pretty cold but it never stops them for very long. It doesn't look cold by the pictures, we have such a lack of snow, but trust me, it's cold. However, the day I took these pictures I think it was in the low 30's. I was originally trying to take a picture of Koda, our dog. He was just sitting there so contently watching the horses, cows and antelope in the valley below. Then I noticed my oldest son. Is it just me or does he look like Lewis & Clark? And what was their dogs name?

The neighbor girl has been coming over a lot. She is a few years older than our oldest but it hasn't stopped them all from becoming great friends. Now that she comes over my kids seem to have found their trampoline again. I wonder if they forgot it was there. Now they are on it constantly. It is so much fun to watch them play outside. Days like this one are hard to pass up for outdoor play. Mostly the kids are indoors due to the cold or the wind. Or both.

Thankfully on this day it was outdoor play.

Does anyone remember Lewis & Clark's dog's name? They did have a dog, didn't they?