Sad Day.

Our favorite chicken died a last week. We got our first two eggs and the next day Henrietta was dead. I don't know if they were her eggs, but we haven't had an egg since. Henrietta was the only chicken that liked us! When we let the chickens out she would just waddle on up to the back porch wanting to come in and hang out. She would let Tate just pick her up and tote her around under his arm. He'd have a chicken under one arm and a kitty under the other. It was so cute. I'm sad to see her go, now we're down to 4 chickens and still no eggs. They are just over 6 months old now so we should be seeing some production anytime now.

California

I grew up just two states away and yet I had never been to California until this weekend. I had the awesome opportunity to fly out to California to photograph the wedding of my friend Melissa Thulin...now Melissa Borland. It was a beautiful sealing at the San Diego temple. After the temple we went to the beach to take some bridal shots. Then we traveled an hour and a half north to the L.A. area for the reception. It was an exhausting but wonderful day. I'm so happy for Melissa and Brandon!





Of course I couldn't miss the opportunity to do something "California". First stop...In n Out burger. I've always wanted to try it and I was afraid all the hype would let me down. No let down here, it was soooo good. I did it double, double, animal style. I'm drooling just thinking about it. Oh did I mention the fries?! Oh, the fries!!!!

The next must do in California of course is Disneyland. Of course since I've never been to California that means I've never been to Disneyland either. I probably went on the worst possible day, Labor Day. It was crazy busy but that didn't stop me from having a GREAT time. I was there for 11 hours all by myself. I didn't have to negotiate with anyone or chase little ones around. I just did whatever I wanted. Splash Mountain, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, Captain Eo, Jungle Cruise, I may have ventured up Tarzan's tree house and of course tons more. My absolute favorite ride was Space Mountain. I would have ridden it over and over had the line been shorter than an hour wait. That ride just blew my mind and made my day!




Last thing I HAD to do was eat some Carne Asada. Oh man, It was heavenly! Thanks for taking me to lunch Sue!!!


I had to share my California black eye with you too. The night that I flew in I was getting into the rental car and totally cracked myself in the face with the top corner of the door. It hurt, but not that bad and I just got a little red cut under my eye. No big deal until I woke up the next morning ready to shoot a wedding with a nasty black eye. So I still have it and I can't go anywhere without being stared at. I'm pretty sure everyone looking at me thinks I'm either a battered women or I got in a bar fight!

1st Day of School

Today's Qoute:

If there were no schools to take the children
away from home part of the time,
the insane asylums would be filled with mothers.
~Edgar W. Howe

The kids (and I) were so excited to finally start school today. All their friends in other school districts started last week. Our Georgia friends started last month. Taylor is in 7th grade this year and that means...dun, dun, dun...Junior High. She loved it and said she was even helping other kids open their lockers. Her bus comes to pick her up at 6:15am and I think that's crazy early so Alan is going to take her. On the other hand, the boys don't have to be in class until 9:30am. Love that! Tanner is in 5th grade this year and has a man teacher. That's a first for us. Tate is in 1st grade (thank goodness for all day school). He has informed me that his teacher is mean and he wasn't a very good boy, but he doesn't wanna talk about it. I think we're in for an interesting year! Lula and I had a great day together!

Ensign Ranch

This was one of the best camping experiences we've ever had. We went up to the Ensign Ranch near Cle Elum, WA with our friends the Nerland and the McConnels. The amount of laughing that went on over the 3 days we were there was therapudic. Words cannot begin to describe how much my face hurt from laughing at Alan's pants ripping incident. We know this is a camping trip our kids will remember for a very long time.

Before & After

You may remember this hideous mess from exactly 1 year ago...




I don't know why I haven't posted any after shots yet. This part of the house has been done for ages. Of course there's many projects still needing attention but we're taking it slow these days. We plan to repaint in a lighter shade of this olive green sometime in the near future. The paint has already taken a beating from our 4 kids...deep sigh. Hence the reason I'm sticking with plywood floors, this floor can handle the kids.
We also plan to replace the fridge with a black one someday when there's extra money laying around to replace something that's working just fine!







For anyone wondering...
- We did all the work ourselves with a few helpful hands here and there from family and Friends.
- We reused the old cabinets. Added beadboard, trim on top and bottom, painted, glazed and added hardware that was purchased on ebay.
- The granite counters were purchased on craigslist and installed by my hubby.
- The apron front farm sink and butcher block island counter are from Ikea and they were both a screaming good deal.
- The floors are made out of 4X8' 1/2 inch plywood. The hubby ripped them down to 8" strips then routered on all four sides. Then install them with screws. I then painted them black and sanded them. Voila, farm house floors on the cheap.

More Chalkboard Love...

I've been wanting to paint an entire wall with chalkboard paint but Alan was not feeling the chalkboard love like I was, so I haven't pushed it. But after buying my super fabulous chalk ink pens I couldn't resist any longer. So...while he was at work I went to work on a little wall in my kitchen. When he got home I showed him the wall and he was not so happy (he gave me the scowly face). I told him to read the quote so he looked up and then bursed out laughing. He said as long as I keep the Nacho Libre quotes up then he loved it. He wants me to take down the chores and just cover the wall in Nacho quotes...um no.

Family Pictures

Since my entire family was together in Idaho last weekend we decided to take a family picture. It was a little chaotic and we were in a big hurry but we got a few good keepers.