6 years

So I am going to wake up one of these mornings and be 80 years old, because that's how fast the past few years have flown by. Today celebrates 6 years ago that another blizzard covered our state, and that Cowboy and I became legally bound! I say that with a smile because we dated since high school so it wasn't a real shocker when we finally got married after college. Above is our beautiful bridal party who braved crappy conditions to come celebrate with us; most of our friends and family were able to attend and everyone made it home safely despite the horrible weather. I have heard stories years later of how horrible it was--they didn't want to tell me right after the wedding and make me feel bad!



So 6 fast years have flown by us. Wow. Cowboy doesn't really read the blog or I would tell him I loved him and I am still happy I married him. So I'll just have to tell him in person :)

Merry Christmas

As this Christmas Day nears an end, I thought I better post a few pictures. We had a nice Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We departed from our normal holiday routine and stayed at our own house for Christmas Eve, something Cowboy and I haven't done as a married couple. We figured Paige was entitled to wake up in her own bed on Christmas morning once. My parents braved the weather and came over on Christmas Eve and we went to mass, and then had a wonderful shrimp supper. Then came the presents. It was a good thing Gramma came over, because the present level quadrupled when she came!

One of Paige's presents she was so excited about; a new princess dress!

Opening up presents from Santa; all smiles. I asked her later in the morning if Santa did a good job. She said, "Santa did a good job." We all slept in this morning which was needed after the late night. Paige slept until after 8:30 and I was walking around the house waiting for her to wake up. The funny thing about her and presents is she only wants to open a few and play with those; she doesn't care if there are a few more remaining. So this morning she played with some stuff; and then opened the remaing 2 an hour later. She also just likes to tear the paper off and look at the box--if its a generic box she thinks that's the present!

Our family gift was a Wii and it has been a lot of fun today keeping us enterained while we wait out the blizzard that is still raging outside. Cowboy got a big game hunting game, complete with gun, and has spent a good chunk of today attempting to master it.

Paige and I attempted some MarioKart this morning; and she did a pretty good job. Mom has to assist with some steering, but for her first attempts she did well. I image in a few years she will be better than Mom or Dad; all kids seem to be that way with video games. Note the big pink castle; that was from Santa and has been a big hit today.



We had a wonderful Christmas despite the blizzard that has shut down the state. We won't be able to go see some family tomorrow like our plan was; but hopefully we'll be able to catch up with them in a weekend or two.

On the 8th day of Christmas

On the 8th day of Christmas my true love gave to meeeee. . . .a bathroom where the toilet tank is emptyyyyyy. So. I come home after getting groceries, etc. and find out there is no water at all in our house because the handyman Cowboy has it shut off so he can fix the leaking messed up shower. Our old house does not have a separate bathroom shutoff valve. Its the whole house has water, or none of it has water. So there goes dishes, laundry, etc. tonight while he is working on the shower. Oh well. Bad side of this, Paige and I have to use the bathroom every 10 minutes! Think we are road tripping to Gramma's to use her tub tonight. . .

9th day of Christmas

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to meee. . .a movie date with his favorite little ladyyyyy. We are all going to the movie tonight--I don't want to do anything and want to rest; so why not at the theatre where the temptations of laundry and dusting aren't even there?

Paige quote of the day:

"Paige, look, Mom's owie (?) is gone on my lip (referring to my lovely cold sore)"

She scopes out my face and is happy to see its gone. She analyzes and saids, "How's your chicken pox?"

"I don't have chicken pox anymore." I had them about 2 months ago. As an adult. How fun.

Then I look in the mirror and see the huge zit she would think is a 'pox'. Wonderful.

3 year old wisdom

"So I heard you had a nap today at Kim's house (daycare)," I say as we are taking our coats off at home yesterday.

Big blue eyes turn and look at me.

"Mom, how do you hear me at Kim's house when you are at work?"

Note to self, use proper verbs when speaking to a 3 year old who takes everything literally.

On the 10th day of Christmas. . .

On the 10th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me. . .gift wrapped presents under the tree-eee. (If you sing it, it rhymes.)

The beauty being we had only 3 presents under the tree, and he came home disgusted that the massive pile of Target bags hadn't wrapped themselves. So he went through the stack and is in the living room right now wrapping presents. This is not a normal occurance at our home that he wraps the gifts. He secludes himself to wrap mine; and that's it. I just finished up Christmas cards; so we are officially in Christmas prep at our home.

The downside of Christmas fast approaching is our household is trying to get over some colds. I stayed home today with my head cold; and Paige is almost over hers. Cowboy, of course, is never sick. The good thing is since we are all feeling poorly this week, we'll be healthy in time for Christmas!

Happy Anniversary!

Wow, what 29 years does to people!

I hope you guys had a great day yesterday and glad you still

like each other after all those years :)

I love you.

Favorite things

When we unpack all the ornaments its amazing how a few will transport you back and how a few are more special than others. This is my favorite Christmas ornament. Its my first Christmas ornament when I was a baby. The beautiful baby is me :) Its always the first ornament to be put on the tree and it has its 'spot' right on the front, two thirds of the way up. My mom offered to give me my ornament this year as we helped her decorate her tree; but it seemed wrong. It still belongs on her tree. My favorite ornaments are still on her tree, the ornaments I remember unpacking for all those years. Our tree at our house is starting to get some favorites, currently they are Disney characters, but that's what my favorite person is into right now. Belle was the new ornament this year. She was a hit.

Speaking of favorites, Miss Paige has another one. Its Mickey Mouse pancakes. Gramma Shelly; this is what they are supposed to look like :) I'm told yours weren't like mine. Thought I'd be courteous and show you the secret! (Put the chocolate chips on last--not in the batter) Too bad she likes to eat the chocolate chips first and then only eats a little bit of pancake.

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree

Our family is having a real tree this year. Its our first real tree as a family. I am not used to them; and Cowboy grew up cutting down their own real one--don't know how he handled our Charlie Brown artificial one all these years. I got the privilege of picking it out and I think I did a great job. I arrived home to see it tied up and held hostage in the garage. Cowboy had cut the bottom of it and was letting it drink. However, he didn't want to lean it up against anything and have it be squished; so he cowboy tied it up with three ropes!

Paige to help Gramma Shelly decorate on Sat. afternoon. The outfit of choice when I showed up to get her--T shirt and undies. A classic outfit to decorate in.

A few days later we have our tree in the living room and were decorating it. Paige loves her Disney ornaments and is ecstatically showing me Nemo. Note my helper in the back.

Our almost finished tree. Note the blur on the side of the photo--that's Paige running out of the beautiful picture of her in her pretty dress in front of the tree. Sigh. I tried all day today to get good pictures of my family and none of them worked.

Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving; and once again, I didn't take a picture of the huge table of food. I took very few pictures; but thought I'd share these two. The first is of my mother in law and her granddaughters. Lovely ladies, aren't they? The turkey art is courtesty of Cowboy. I didn't know he could draw such a good turkey! We hosted at our home, and this was my 2nd official Thanksgiving. Nothing was burnt and everyone ate too much; so it was a success. Many thanks to dear Cowboy who stuffed the turkey for me. I have an issue with putting my hand inside of birds. I could do it, but he loves me enough to do it for me :)

Ina. .Matt; Matt. . .Ina

I had to giggle when I saw Paige's beloved play horse, "Matt" sitting on the counter this morning. He had been assisting her eat her egg and watch Mickey Mouse. She had ran off and I had changed the channel and was doing dishes. I glanced over once and got the giggles when I saw the horse still sitting there 'watching TV'--absorbed in Barefoot Contessa.

Matt goes pretty much everywhere Paige does. Sometimes he goes to daycare, but most of the time he stays home or in the car to protect it. He is a necessity for bedtime. He has escaped once; and I had that horrific parental moment envisioning bedtime without him and wondering how that would go. Thankfully he was found in time.

Oh Deer

The mighty hunter asked that I get the pictures off of the camera of his deer and share. I am obliging. This is the 5 by 5 that is now in our freezer, may he rest in peace. He was taken on Saturday, the 7th before 8am. So my lovely hunter didn't have to trek all over for several weeks chasing deer around. I am not a deer hunter and was actually delighted that I at a concert the first weekend of deer hunting and missed this lovely specimen hanging in my garage. No watching skinning, skull sawing, meat cutting time for me! I couldn't go shoot a deer or anything that is fairly cute and fuzzy. I think I'd have no trouble knocking pheasants off the face of the earth--but Cowboy says I'd have to do hunter safety and learn to clean them. Not going to happen, so therefore, I just cook his kills.

Paige-isms

"Can you go get that, dear?" I asked Cowboy the other day. A 3 year old looked at me and asked, "Mom, why is daddy a deer?" She had just been hearing about deer hunting all weekend.



I was telling Cowboy how neat it was that I get to be a godmother. Paige says "Mo-om, you are NOT a fairy godmother!"



As I try to wake her up in the morning, she grabs the covers, rolls away from me and shrieked, "Mo-om, my eyes are not awake yet!"

We were at a craft fair and Paige found some pretzels. Gramma asked her if she had any money because she couldn't just take them. Paige fishes out the penny from her pocket and replies, "Yes." Gramma and Aunt Connie are suckers for big blue eyes acting cute and donated the $3 to the cause. Paige paid for them herself, and tried to give the lady her penny with the cash.

"Let's go shopping!" after our lunch break while out at the craft fail. That's my girl--she's a good shopper.

Paige's Christmas List

Soooo, I know its early but I am getting inquiries from grammas, etc. of what Miss P needs for Christmas. She doesn't need anything. Seriously. I don't think she is deprived in the toy department at all. However, I know that's not an acceptable answer. I was sneaky and have purchased a gift that the bearded man in red will deliver on Christmas morning. I got her this. Technically I got her the swan castle and the horse drawn carriage. However, it is a whole little world with other pieces to buy--which are under $20! I find that a great trait in presents. She's very into princesses right now and I was thinking a dollhouse; and found this. Seemed like the best of both worlds--for a very decent price.

Other than that, she's into horses, princesses, and dress up stuff. She's seen some pretty horses with fairy wings that Breyer makes, and oohhed and awed over those. She has almost outgrown her princess dress; so another costume dress would be great.

Clothes are always good--size 4T fits right now. She has lots of jeans and t's--but needs some sweaters, sweatshirts, etc. A cute dress that isn't for Christmas would be a hit.

That's about all I got--but feel free to be frugal and limit yourself--that is my goal! Grammas of the world--restrain yourselves! Or buy savings bonds--she can cash them in for college :)

A beautiful day

Paige and I enjoyed the day on Veteran's Day by not going to work/daycare. Perks of being a banker. We did spend some time at the park. Otherwise, we were lazy and in our pjs until about noon and decided we better leave the house for a bit. Its so nice to have those days.

Girls Weekend

So I had a wonderful weekend--took Friday off to trek to Williston to visit with some sorority sisters. A bunch of us tried to get a girls weekend together, but 5 of us ended up making it. We camped out in the fabulous Conlin cabin at Lake Sakakawea and attended the Lady Antebellum concert on Saturday night. It was so great to see a bunch of wonderful ladies I haven't seen in a long time. We drank wine, stayed up way too late, slept in, ate more food than imaginable, relaxed, etc. A small road trip led us to the greatest concert I have attended for $20--and a pregnant designated driver doesn't hurt. It wasn't a drunk fest by any means but a more mature version of a college gathering perhaps. I think we just all know our limits now and understand that having fun doesn't have to involve a 2 day headache :) I just want to thank those ladies for setting aside some time for their friends--its hard to do that in the real world, to leave kids and jobs and hubbies behind for a day or two. However, I think those same hubbies and kids get us back as much happier rejevenated ladies. I know I was. AOT.

"Just walk away Mom"

Tonight we were all in the office, and Cowboy was messing with his coyote call as he was rummaging in his hunting stuff. He kept blowing on it and it hurt my ears so I said "stop it" several times to him as he kept doing it and smirking, being a boy. My very astute three year old senses my aggrivation and said, "Just walk away Mom!" and turned to leave the room.

I tried not to giggle in front of her, as she told me this yesterday at one point too. I quizzed her on this--and find out if someone makes you angry, you should walk away from them. I ask her if she has learned to walk away from people at Kim's house when they make her angry.

"Yes, when Kyler's being cranky, and won't share, I just walk away."

The simplicity and brilliance amazes me.

Halloween revisited

I don't know if I am getting really sentimental because my baby is getting big or what; but I spent some time tonight looking at all the pictures of her first year and just smiled. Paige sat on my lap and looked with me at the tons of little video clips of her. At this time in 2006 she was almost 7 months old and trying to scooch across the floor and jumping in her jumper.



I found these pictures which were my favorites representing Halloween. This first one was a taken while carving pumpkins at my parents and I thought it'd be fun to put her in a pumpkin. She had a ton of fun and my grandparents were there to share it with us. Plus, a bath in the sink by gramma gets the pumpkin residue off pretty well.

The first Halloween costume, and also the picture we

entered in the beautiful baby

contest. . .and WON. Obviously.

Popcorn and Pumpkins

Normally I am one of those people who carves several pumpkins and will spend a few hours getting my pumpkin to look perfect. I remember that first Halloween Cowboy and I were married, we had 4 of the most wonderful pumpkins. I had a ton of candy. . .and we got like 12 trick or treaters because the weather was awful. Now we live in the country, so we don't get any trick or treaters, but we usually still have a few pumpkins on our steps. However, we aren't even going to carve a pumpkin this year--we are just painting them. Paige and Cowboy worked on two of them the other night.

A budding artist

Her creation

Cowboy's creation. . .I didn't marry him for his artistic flair!

Tonight I made my annual batch of Halloween popcorn balls. Apparently this is a known thing I do as my good friends Jackie and Noel purchased an air popper for my bridal shower--note I still use the same popper. That's the gift receipt from October 2003 still taped to the box--I am trying to see how long I can keep the box in one piece! I always laughed at my Mom who had a few things in their original boxes that she only used a few times a year--its scary to see how that happens to yourself.



Here is my final product--I think I ended up with about 30 popcorn balls and only one really burnt finger from the lava hot marshamallows. My gramma used to make hundreds of these to give to trick or treaters--I can't imagine how much work that work be.

Leaves through the years

October 2006

October 2007

October 2008

October 2009

So through the years its been customary to take pictures in the leaves. It started on that one beautiful Indian summer day when Paige was a baby and I had her in a onesie outside; and we got great pictures for our Halloween card. That year it was great joy to try to eat them. Now each year, I try to capture a few pictures with the leaves to carry on our tradition. This year it was pretty easy; I tried to rake and someone tried to demolish my piles!

epidemic

So the crud, flu, H1N1, colds, etc. are all floating around our small area and affecting everyone! I started to feel the icky throat on Saturday and stayed home from work today. Doing my part to not contaminate everyone else. I am planning on going back to work tomorrow since I am feeling better; but may not make the whole day. We'll see. My child however, has escaped being sick so far (thank goodness) even though one of her little daycare pals has influenze A. Luckily daycare was closed the day after that was diagnosed and no one else is sick. The neighboring small town had more sick kids than kids in school today. Makes me just want to scrub myself with Clorox after I've been out in public!

Cowgirls don't. . .

So Paige is the proud owner of a purple rhinestone buttoned little western shirt--because her Dad thought she needed one. Its a light plaid color with purple accents, and sparkly purple buttons. She thinks its great. It was cowboy dress up day; so Thursday she wore the new shirt for the first time. I ask her if she wants to wear her butterfly jeans (cute sparkly pockets, embroidery on the front legs). She gives me the 'are you an idiot' look and replies, "Cowgirls don't wear butterfly jeans, they wear dark ones."
Dark ones for all you non-cowboy people are Wranglers. Not fun, plain dark wash, big pocket jeans. Jeans that my skinny little daughter doesn't fit into real well.
But after the look and her Dad's shrieks of joy that they out numbered me on that one, I gave in. I hope I just lost the battle and not the war. . .

A lazy weekend

We enjoyed a lazy fall weekend at our house. I had to work for a few hours on Saturday morning so Gramma Shelly & Grampa Greg came over to hang out with Peanut. After I got home, we did a fun activity of assembling the Halloween house I had purchased. I was at Michaels and found this foam kit for like $3 and thought Paige would like it. Should have bought more. She did really great at listening and had a lot of fun. There weren't any instructions and most of the pieces had stickers on the back side; so right up her ally.

Immense concentration was involved.
The finished product--a wonderful display.
Today was spent cooking, playing, etc. Paige enjoys home days just as much as I do and she makes a great mess of all her toys in the living room and loves to dress up. Today it was her Easter dress over her clothes (because its cold out) and she paired it with her cowboy boots and tiara. I think it was smartly accessorized. She hides from my camera on days like today--she must have some forsight that these pictures may come back and haunt her someday!

Glamour Queen part 2

Why does my 3 year old have better manicures/pedicures than I do? Plus, her jeans are way cuter than mine. Credit Kim for cute nails again.

"It didn't even hurt!"

(I cannot get this picture to rotate, sorry) Anyway, today marked Miss Paige's first trip to the dentist. It went amazingly well. This is her little bag of goodies she was so proud of--its amazing what joy a Snow White toothbrush, sparkly toothpaste, a sticker, and pencil can bring. We went first thing this morning and I commend the staff at the dentist office. Our hygenist did a great job of talking to Paige and telling her what all the tools did, why she wore a mask, etc. She got a good look at all 20 chompers and we have zero cavities. I was a little scared she'd have one--I had horrible teeth as a child. A quick look by the dentist confirmed our good teeth; and next year we'll get a cleaning.

We got to daycare just as another little girl's mom was coming out, and Paige told her "it didn't even hurt!" So I guess we aren't too scarred by the experience and will go back. I guess she told her little friends about the chair that goes up and down, the mirror that goes in your mouth, etc.

That white stuff. . .already

October 5th--we got about 5 or 6 inches of snow on top of some rain. That equals a really icky gravel road. However, by Tuesday afternoon the snow was gone. Yay! That left one disappointed 3 year old who loves snow.

Glamour queen

So we have a great daycare provider who is a former hairstylist. She usually has my child's hair looking 100% better than when I drop her off. The other bonus, she likes to paint Paige's nails. As a result, I have a 3 year old who sits wonderfully for this task and loves her toes painted. I picked her up the other day and saw her fingers had a bonus of little flowers on them. Stickers of some kind. Then I got to see the 'diamond' on her toe. One fell off but the other is still on--even the next day. I guess Paige walked around like her nails were wet for quite a while, afraid to ruin them. Additional bonus, it helps keep her from chewing her nails! Thanks to Kim!

Pretty, pretty

Not everyone can pull off sweatpants, a blue tutu and socks on their hands as gloves. Few princesses can do it. That's what she declared herself when I pulled out the blue tutu that Aunt Bobbi had sent down. She ran around in it for hours. It wasn't a tutu, it was a 'weird dress' she said. Anyway, thanks for the 'dress' Aunt Bobbi!

Pumpkin Patch

We had a fun filled Sunday in Bismarck including a stay at a hotel, swimming in its pool, a trip to the pumpkin patch, and a shopping excursion. Cowboy gets one free day and we take advantage of it. We got to Bismarck late on Sat. night, and someone was up and at 'em ready to go to the pool on Sunday morning right after breakfast. She only went down the water slide 2 or 3 times, but loved the adjacent pool that went from 8inches to 3 feet. It was perfect for her, and the water was abnormally warm. It was like bathwater. We had a lovely morning swimming.

Cowby and Paige on the slide.

This was our first trip to Papa's Pumpkin Patch in Bismarck and we will be going again if we are there at the right time. We were there for only an hour, but in the 40 mph wind today, that was suffice. There were great wooden things for kids to climb on, such as this combine. Cowboy and Paige loved it.


Lots of photos--including a lot that looked like this one--not the perfect shot!

Cowboy was creative with picture of a bale tunnel that a slide goes down. However, Paige didn't actually go down the slide--too high.

The pumpkin patch chair that everyone gets their picture taken on--we aren't one to argue with tradition.

We had a lovely time there; got to see the pumpkin catapult almost take out the channel 5 news crew, Paige got to pet some animals, and I resisted the urge to buy 10,000 pumpkins! Plus, we got winter gear for Miss P ranging from a new coat to boots so she'll be ready for winter. This is the first year I am prepared, so I am sure it won't even snow now.

I made it with squash. . .

What in the heck is that? Is it a mangled brain. . .dog vomit. . .or. . . mac-n-cheese made with squash? Correct answer is mac-n-cheese made with squash even though it looks like the others. I bought this cookbook called "Deceptively Delicious" last week and thougth I'd give it a try. Basically you puree a bunch of vegetables and freeze them; and then incorporate those purees into normal food your family eats--but they are none the wiser that they are really eating an additional vegetable. I spent my Monday evening creating purees out of squash, yams, and cauliflower--wasn't too challenging except for the fact that I have a very small food processor; so it took me a while to puree everything. But in my freezer are neatly labelled bags of those foods waiting to be incorporated. I have to admit, my family eats vegetables pretty well by themselves; its just sort of a cooking challenge for me to add these purees in when I can. Plus a few of the baked goods recipes don't have any oil in them; they use the purees instead. I'm game for saving calories and adding a little nutrition.

So tonight, I thought I'd make the mac-n-cheese to go with our sloppy joes. It cooked up really nice, I added the 1/2 cup of squash, and away we went. The recipe has cream cheese in it and I think that ruined it. It made it very sticky and that taste overpowered everything. I could have added liver and the cream cheese would have blocked that out. If I do this version again, I would omit the cream cheese and it would probably be better.

The verdict on how it tasted? Ryan--he ate it (I didn't tell him there was squash in it--he HATES squash). I ate a little bit, but didn't care for the consistancy. Paige--ate a few bites and ate 2 sloppy joes instead. So I don't think we'll make this version again.

I'm not going to abandon the concept, just this recipe. I am going to work my way up to the brownies that have spinach in them!

The Big 5-0

So my Mom turned 50 yesterday. I calmed my desires to embarrass/surprise her and behaved pretty well. She was greeted with plenty of decorations at the bank. . .I will claim a small part in that with a lot of appreciated help by her co-workers. Thanks Amanda!

But in a small town you can put signs on Main Street--did you know that? Some people even get up at 5:30 am to make sure they are in place! Kudos to my family.
Mom got them as a momento.

After work Paige and I went over to see her and opened up presents. Mom loves orange and is trying to accent her kitchen with it. So I got her some Rachel Ray moppines. Very cool.

Paige helped her open up her big present from Dad.

What could it be. . .more Rachel Ray stuff. Orange cookware!

Mom loved her orange cookware, and she really needed some new pots and pans. She can shriek with joy like I did when she doesn't have to soak a pan for an hour to get it clean. My aunts and gramma came out for cake and we had our pick of angel food, pumpkin bars, or red velvet. Nice. Hope you had a great day Mom and we love you!