I'm turning into my Dad

So I am turning into my Dad and all I seem to do lately is take pictures of the wildlife surrounding my house/yard and watch the weather to see how much its going to snow. If you know my dad, you know that the weather channel is his favorite thing to watch and its his favorite thing to talk about. Its been a busy week, weather wise; and I have a lot pictures this month of snow, then flooding, then more snow. I decided to throw in some animals for variation.

The icky turkeys that inhabit our yard. Cool the first few weeks. Now, a pain.
Part of the deer herd that hangs out next to the house.

The deer dining on the bales some thoughful farmer left out for them. On my way to work there are about 40 of them in the field.


Cowboy does really well on snow days; he makes it untill 2pm before he's bored inside and has to go outside. Fortunately, that is when the wind died down, so he decided shovelling was a necessity. The tractor came out shortly after he started this; so don't feel too bad for him.

My cowboy--happy he's not inside--even if it means shoveling.

Poor pheasants last night trying to find a place to hide as the storn set it.

Pre-Birthday Fun

We got to the ranch late on Saturday night and spent part of Sunday there. The weather forced us to leave a little earlier than we hoped, but that's another story. Paige got to celebrate her birthday a week early with Grampa Keith and Sandy; she got to play with the puppy; and help Daddy feed an orphaned calf. Needless to say; she had a four hour nap that afternoon. Thanks Grampa and Sandy for the cupcakes and presents. We still have a few that haven't been eaten!

napping

I found her napping with her hat. The hat originated from Crystal back in college. She gifted it to me with some other cowboy 'paraphanelia' for a bachelorette party. I wonder if she ever thought it would end up being one of my toddler's favorite things.

Snow Day

Beautiful 60 degree day on Saturday . . .

Here is today. . .

So we are snowed in at home today. I don't mind the day off at all, but it really sucks to see all the snow again. The rumer is we had 14 inches of snow--we'll see how much of a difference is reported by everyone tomorrow. I will take snow over flooding like all my friends in Fargo are having to deal with. Good luck to all in the valley and kudos to all who are sandbagging--our thoughts are with you!

Sienna

I wish I could say this cute little bundle of fur was our new puppy--but she's not. She's Grampa Keith's new puppy. Keith, Sandy, and Sienna came for supper on Friday night and I think its safe to say that Paige likes the puppy. We tried a little feminine pleading with Daddy to see if we could have one too, but he says not right now. Paige isn't too sure of why puppies have to chew on everything; including her toes. She took a while to warm up to Sienna, but I think when we see her next weekend she'll be ready to play.

I like puddles

"Hey Gramma, the new rubber boots work great!"

Pink Paradise

As Grampa Greg said, "it looks kind of pink and girly in here." That's what we were aiming for. Gramma Shelly is sewing us some lavender curtains and we'll be good to go.

Smiley faces

So Paige has learned how to draw smiley faces. Once I pointed that out; that was all we drew all weekend. I got out of the shower to see the fridge had 8 new pieces of paper from my printer (that were stolen from the feeder) and were all stuck on with about 21 magnets. She had gotten her step stool out so she could reach up high to display them all. On each piece of paper was one smiley face. I told her they looked nice but there could be more than one drawing on each piece of paper.

A River Runs Through It

So in western ND, we are not used to water. We usually only have it when there are freakish rain storms that decide to actually rain more than 1/2 inch here. We all know how often that happens. But spring has sprung here; or at least it feels like it. I found a fly in the house, so I know its getting closer. The temperatures were gorgeous this weekend and the snow decided to run. Cowboy braved the slick muddy hill to get some pictures of the creek that actually has running water in it. Normally its like two muddy puddles.

Is it Santa on the roof top? Nope its my awesome hubby getting the iceberg out of the leaky gutter that drips right on our front steps. No more skating rink for us!

Big Girl Bed

So its finally official, I don't have a baby anymore. Yesterday, she became a little girl who has her own twin bed, or as we call it, the big girl bed. Mom and I went and bought a bed yesterday in Dickinson and looked high and low for some cute bedding. Came home with a bed, and no cute bedding. Thanks to Mom, I do have some of the bedding from my twin bed when I was at home and my Bambi sheets that I used so much the color is faded where my little body slept on them. That is what Paige got to sleep on last night, and I am thrilled Mom kept the sheets. The bed has my college comforter on it until our fun new one gets here.

Starting last night I have been spending my time working on her room as much as I can. I am not painting, but am hanging up the sparkly flowers and butterflies from the ceiling, taking down the crib, and rearranging the furniture. I need to order the new bedding and find some new thicker curtains. I am taking down all the Pooh stuff, including the curtains Mom made (sorry!). I need new curtains to replace them since someone is up very early now and tells me, "Mom, its daytime out. Its time to get up." And since daytime is going to keep getting earlier, we need to stop the light into her room.

I'll post some pictures when its finished, but here is someone thinking the new bed is really nice. We left it on the floor last night and today put it on the frame.

Also, no one tells you how sad it is to take down the crib. She'd been in it forever since it converted to her toddler bed. I have to admit it was really sad to take it down last night and put it away. It was a chapter closing and made this mom almost shed a tear or two!

Spring?

So its been 50 degrees the last two days. The snow is starting to melt, there is all kinds of slush and mud. There was thunder and lightning tonight. There were geese honking overhead. And its raining--in March. More snow coming up over the next few days. Wow, what a country.



Paige is thrilled with the nice weather and loves to be outside in the slush. We had to go 'assist' her Daddy in his pickup because of a slushy situation in which the pickup and horse trailer where a little . . .stuck. He probably won't admit it; but we had to pull them a little. We are in 'my' pickup and she is telling me about her tired she is, she's dizzy (?), etc. I told her we'd be back inside in a few minutes. She looks at me and says, "Mom, its been a long day." Wow, almost three she sounds like she is thirteen. Scary.