Halloween Treats

I will be the first to admit that when it comes to Halloween, my husband and I are on opposite sides. I hate (no LOATHE) Halloween. Tyler LOVES Halloween. So, as a compromise, he is going to help the kids pick out costumes and I am arranging for a treat making night for Halloween family night since I love to cook and be in the kitchen. So, this Saturday we are making Halloween Butterfinger Eyes and Halloween Tombstone Treats. I must admit I am really looking forward to spending some time with Tyler and the kids and doing something fun.

Then, unfortunately, we have to do the trick-or-treating thing. Luckily, Gillette has a Treat Street where you can trick or treat in a popular hotel if you bring a donation of canned goods. Local businesses set up with treats in hotel rooms and you can just go from door to door. It was a lot of fun last year.  We will also be going to the "Hay Maze" on Saturday over by the Rec Center.

Yesterday Jackson and Layla were under the kitchen table giggling and when I went to see what was going on I found the two of them sharing a yogurt.  Jackson had sneakily taken the yogurt from the fridge.

Jackson was saying "mmmm....good" to Layla and feeding her the yogurt. :)

My poor husband. He was working in a grease pit all day and was the only one who could fit through the tiny entrance hole to get into the hole. All of this grease soaked THROUGH 3 white chemical suits and duck tape holding the suit into place.  Here are a couple pics. :(

We recently went and picked up some pictures of the kids in Casper and had a pit stop while we waited for the store to open. Layla LOVED the playground and had such a fun time crawling around.

YAY to having a computer again!

Well, we're up and running again! Yes! Yes! Yes!

I am very proud to say that this year was the first year that I went hunting and shot a wild game animal. Tyler was so wonderful to be so patient with me and teach me the things that I needed to know to be safe and still have fun and properly shoot and harvest my first antelope.  I had such an amazing time. Except, now Tyler says he doesn't want to go hunting wiht me because I'm such a great shot that he would be embarressed to shoot something along side me, lol. I shot at my antelope from about 375-400 yards and unforunately shot him in the leg....or what would be the ankle portion on a human.  He ran around a little, so we ran around a different path to get a better angle on him ( he was walking away from me at an angle when I shot at him). We got within 100 yards of him and I aimed behind his left shoulder and pulled the trigger. He dropped instantly and when we got over to him Tyler looked at my shot and I entered into his chest cavity from behind the left shoulder and the bullet went straight through his lungs and heart. He says this is the most perfect kill shot he has seen in a long time. :) Thanks baby!

This is my first antelope. He had 14" horns (antlers or paddles lol) His paddles were 4.5" wide. I don't know much about antelope but Tyler says this one is pretty good, but I don't know what "good" means in this case. LOL.

When Tyler took us hunting for his antelope (we wanted lots of jerky this year) we had the best time! Jackson was particularly interested in what we were doing and as soon as we got him and Tyler was cutting up his buck, Jackson kept saying "Daddy. Shoot. Lanalope" LOL. The rest of the week he wanted to do nothing but watch hunting shows on TV with Daddy.  He would see animals on the shows and Tyler would tell him what kind of animal it was (elk, boar, moose, etc) and Jackson instantly remembered what it was. The next time he saw it on TV he would repeat it's name and say "daddy. shoot."  He is so cute! Oh, and if the hunter on the TV missed while shooting, Jackson would say "oh crap" He's such a peach.  Oh! We have been working on his ABC's and he is going SOOO good....he knows "A, B, G, H, I, J, M, N, O, S, T, U and Y" It's strange how he has remembered some of them so well, and choses not to remember the others. Whenever "S" comes he says "S, Snake, ssssssssssss" and when "U" comes he says "U, Up" and puts his arm way up high in the air.

Layla is getting her first tooth in and it's been a rough few days for her...and me.  I haven't ever had a baby get teeth this early (sooner than 12 months) and I haven't had a baby that the teething process bothered before. It was usually just one day a tooth would come in.  So, we are nursing poor Layla through it one day at a time.  She has also started to crawl around like crazy so I have been baby proofing all my cupboards and floors.

Carter and Savannah are doing very well in school and seem to be enjoying it very much.  They come home each day excited to have the day over, but are learning very much as well.  Carter can write his name and is working on other letters and sounds as well. The fighting between the two of them seems to be happening less and less now as well. (THANK GOODNESS!)

We went and had some pictures done at Sears and are really excited to get those back.  It was probably very entertaining to watch me wrangle the kids around Casper all day. Me vs. 4 others means I'm always outnumbered, lol.

More to come soon! It's nice to be back!

West Yellowstone, Montana

What a long weekend! We were missing my mother very badly and talked her into coming and seeing us for several days and told her that we would meet her halfway (from Idaho) in West Yellowstone, Montana where my Uncle Bill lives and owns a Motel (it's called the Hibernation Station and if you are ever staying outside of yellowstone...this is the place to stay!) We stayed the night one night in Worland on the way to pick up mom, stayed one night in West Yellowstone and then planned on driving all the way home on the 3rd day. Well, I took the wrong turn out of Yellowstone and we ended up in the Grand Teton National Forest instead of the Shoshoni National Forest...so we had to turn around and go through the South part of Yellowstone Park again, lol..so we spent a full day in the National Park on accident. We did stop to see Old Faithful and the kids loved it and seemed to really enjoy the Park as well. Jackson pointed out "goose" in the river and "ruffalo" (buffalo) in the fields. He saw all the fall trees and kept saying "cute" :) He has really developed over the last few months and is now saying his ABC's with me. When I count down from 5 for Cartern when he is in trouble,  Jackson beats me to "4"!

Layla also has grown a lot and she started crawling over the weekend. Before she was getting around either by rolling or doing a sort of army crawl.  She is really developing a very cute personality and enjoys being around Jackson and stealing his binky from his mouth.  She is eating a lot of table foods now and I find her picking out the marshmellows from the Marshmellow Mateys and she feeds the dogs all the "matey's" lol. She picks out the green jacks in Apple Jacks and won't eat the orange ones.

On a side note, it may be a while before I can write again as my desktop computer has quit working and the MacBook that my mom loaned my has decided that it doesnt want the keys to work properly and several of them do not work and when you push them, a series of random letters appears instead. None of the numbers work so I can't type in my passwords to sites either, lol. Oh well, it can't be that bad being computer less, can it? AHHH...yes it can...I am going to go crazy!

So, until next time....Good morning, good day and good night!

"Daddy Work"

Ugh. Poor Jackson. The last few days have been so rough for him. He has been an absolute terror. He just screams and screams.  He gets very upset over little things and then doesn't calm down. He just looks at me with big tears in his eyes and he is either screaming mad or crying sad. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with him until this morning I just decided to ask him and see what he would say.  He was particularly upset and I asked him what was wrong and why he was crying. He looked at me and said "Daddy, work".

:( Made me so sad. I knew that I would miss Tyler and that the older kids would miss him a lot but it didn't really occur to me that Jackson would have such a rough time with it. Poor guy, he loves daddy so much and just misses him. He's acting out because he misses his daddy. :( Hopefully he will understand that daddy is coming home soon.

Hot soup on a cold day

It is starting to get very chilly outside, and the kids asked me to cook some home made chicken noodle soup with a special request for homemade egg noodles.  It sounded good to me too, so we went to the grocery store and got the remaining items we needed but they didn't have a thawed whole chicken so it's going to have to be turkey noodle soup, that's just as good I think.

Having turkey cooking on the stove smells so wonderful! Every time that I make home made soup I always think about my dad.  I remember him sitting at the head of our table with a steamy bowl of soup in front of him on a cold day. Often times he had just came back inside from shoveling the sidewalk and driveway.  He would always say "The worst thing about hot soup on a cold day is that your bowl never gets empty" and then he would sniffle. LOL. He is such an amazing father. He's always there for any of us when we need him and loves us unconditionally.  My mother is quite literally the most wonderful person that I know. She is more compassionate than anyone I have ever met, more loving, more giving and more selfless than anyone I have every met as well. She knows just what we need before we need it and we don't have to ask.  She is always thinking of something that could make someone else happy or what would brighten someone else's day. She has evolved into the best grandmother with all her grandchildren as well.  I am sorry that so many things have been allowed to drive a wedge into our family relationships because we truly had the best of parents and they deserve to have their children be close.  Hopefully some day bygones will be bygones and we can all get back to being a big happy family.

"You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around - and why his parents will always wave back. " ~William D. Tammeus

"Ding Dong"

I think that I might have the trouble makers in the neighborhood. I sent Savannah and Carter to check the mail and they came back arguing over who's idea it was to go "DING DONG"(we used to call it.....something different when I was growing up) the other houses on their way back from the mail box. So, after some investigation I discovered that Savannah was the culprit behind the idea and was sending Carter out to do the deed. Hopefully they won't be doing that again.

Then I sent them outside to play a little bit and they came back in the house after like 5 minutes and Savannah ratted Carter out for jumping into the back bed of someone's pick-up truck. Ugh. Needless to say I'm finding it difficult to explain to the kids that just because things as specific as staying out of other peoples trucks and don't ding dong the neighbors aren't spelled out in the rules does not mean that it's okay to do. So tonight we went over things like having respect for out neighbors and our friends and for other people belongings. Again.

Layla is getting around so good now. When put down on the floor she can find anything within a 10 foot radius. She really reaches out now and is loving exploring her surroundings.  She has also started pulling hair and scratching faces when she gets frustrated. Most afternoons both the babies end up napping on me and when they wake up they have a binky war.  Layla will notice Jackson's binky and reach for it and take it out of his mouth and Jackson will yell "NO NO LAYLA, NO NO" lol. I have been very surprised at how gentle Jackson is with Layla and never gets angry with her or tries to hit or hurt her. I think that they are going to be great friends.

I have been shopping for Halloween costumes and have found some very cute ones for Layla, but can't make a decision. I found one that's too small for her but I think that it's hilarious...it's a whoopy cushion for an infant.  I guess that I will keep looking...I have plenty of time. :)

Woopie Cushion Baby Bunting Infant Costume - Costumes

Woopie Cushion Baby Bunting Infant Costume - Costumes