The Cabin That Brent & Jake Built (well...are still building)!

They worked through the month of August and it's looking great!!! I hope this video clip works. I will update when I have the September photos. :)

Fire!! Scipio Fire Sept. 4, 2009

We left for Tucson on Friday the 4th and went through Scipio. These are a few of the photos I got. We couldn't stop, so this is the best I could do. You could see where it jumped over the road, which had only been opened that day to public traffic. It was really awesome to watch, but sad at the same time.

Time Out!!!

We are visiting Jennie and her family right now. I will post when I return. Lots of catching up to do!!! Love you all. :)

The Cabin That Brent & Jake Built...

This month Brent & Jake started building a little "Bunk House" for a friend of mine who has a cabin up near the Uintahs. The idea started out late last summer as not much more than a "tough shed" idea with emenities. Well....over discussions and after I started the basic plans, it grew. So, they are spending time this summer building a small (432 s.f. footprint) 2-story cabin. The 2nd story is just a 200 s.f. loft.


After 10 days of hard work, it's really taking shape!!! The tall wall in the above photo took 3 tries to get it up. When it fell the 2nd time, it barely missed hitting all of them. (There are 2 other guys helping with the framing.) Their angels were very busy that day!
Their accomodations are the garage of the cabin. But, it has an entertainment center!!! And Brent built a shower (lower photo). He's so inventive (LOL)! Don't think there's anything he can't invent. Love that man of mine!!!! I'll keep you updated on the progress.

Small Blessings (But, Growing)!!!

I love being a Grandma!!!! Time flies and pretty soon there you are.



But, it's awesome!! And now we're waiting for #5!!!

Catching Up (As usual)

So much time has passed and so much has happened and changed our family.

February we celebrated a 3rd birthday for Erica and our 31st anniversary. (We really are married forever!!)

March brought Jennie and her boys to live with us and a month of trials just trying to get her house closed. It was a month of a lot of anxiety for Jennie and Patrick. But, it was so fun having them live with us for a while. They stayed until April 23rd when they rejoined Patrick in their new home.
April brought birthdays for ReyAn, Jennie & Me, Jen & Patrick's 6th anniversay and Jake & Whit's 1st one.
We spent Easter in our favorite little town and had hoped with Grandpa D. However, his health had been going up and down and he spent the holiday weekend plus some in the hospital. It was hard to be there without him right there next door to us in his house. But, the kids helped us make the best of it. We colored eggs, rode the quads and had the traditional egghunt.

The kids even got the opportunity to go visit new baby animals on a real farm. (Thanks to Wayne & Marg!) They loved it...all of them. Big & little. :) We also celebrated my 50th birthday with fell on Easter this year. It was an awesome way to celebrate and I loved it. Just before going down for Easter, Brent & the kids threw me a little party with my friends. It was fun. Gee....me & Barbie!!! (LOL)

We moved Jen & the boys the end of April and it was bittersweet. It was so great to have their family back together & their home is beautiful!! (Way to go, Patrick!!!) Walking in, it felt like her home & so right for them to be there. But, so hard because I've always had all my kids & grandkids within 5 miles of me. So, it will be an adjustment for all of us.

We miss the rugrats & their mom very much in our home. But, honestly couldn't be happier for all of them. We look forward to many trips!!!

This month we've had more birthdays, Cam, Brent, Jake and Jackson just today. It's definitely a busy "party" time for our family. We're loving the warmer weather & can't wait for the camping to begin!!!!!

Blog??? What blog?!?!?

I can't believe it's the 2nd month of another year and it's been soooooooo long since I wrote anything down. So much is/has gone on in our family. Thanksgiving was short and sad since that was the day Patrick left for training.

Christmas was wonderful (but, without Patrick). We had dinner and opened presents. The kids (the ones WITH kids) were able to get home early to get home to put little ones to bed and meet up with Santa. Jake & Whitney hung around for a while and we played "Deal or No Deal" (one of my great gifts) until about midnight. We had a quiet Christmas Day with a great visit from my folks and Grandpa D (who was here for the holidays).

New Year's Eve was spent at home with the family. We played games (Settler's of Cattan) and then brought 2009 in with a lot of "pops"!! Yep. Everyone made it to midnight!!!

New Year's Day, Brent & I took Grandpa home and spent a few days with him getting him settled back in and having our ritual Chinese dinner. My cousin-in-law, Marg gave me a beautiful wind chim she made from a silver tea pot, spoons, beads and a salt shaker. Yep, you heard me right. She makes them and they are so fun. (see photo in right column.)

January went by in a cold, snowy, remodeling hurry. We remodeled our kitchen and made some changes to our family room. Exciting, fun stuff. Brent & Jake are staying busy with their remodel business. And that doesn't include what they both have been involved with on their own homes. We also got a night with Harrison to ourselves. Jennie took Jackson ice skating, so we got a couple of ours with our youngest. He was very entertaining. While I was getting him ready for bed, he decided that he was a dinosaur. He had it right down to the stooped knees, bent arms and head and then he growls. The photo doesn't do it justice. We laughed so hard, but he didn't break character!

February started with Erica turning 3, Harrison being really sick and the weather being somewhat warmer even though hazy. Then today we woke up to 2 inches and it just kept coming. Totaling 6 inches by about 2 p.m.!! It even took down one of our big tree branches, blocking our street. That kept Brent busy most of the day.

This month will be full of all kinds of surprises, I'm sure. We look forward to seeing Patrick for a few days at the end of the month. And Brent & I will celebrate our 31st anniversary. Time flies!!! I'm going to try to do better with this so that it's not so long next time. Thank you to all of you for making 2008 so much better for us and our family. We love and appreciate all of you.