the little things

mmmm mmmmmmm turquoise!

Remember my love of all things turquoise? hee heee!  If you don't.. this past March, I did a little decorating... new prints, trays and even a turquoise chair.  Lots of yum!  Before that, it was lime green.. which we still have a lot of around the house... but it is now accompanied by yellow and all things aqua/turquoise!

Since I am a very matchy matchy.. well, not so much matchy matchy... but a 'things need to flow' kind of person.. I needed to bring a little bit of the new into the outdoors as well!  I had talked and planned a little about it here.. and have been sloooowly making it happen! hee!

The newest.. turquoise doors.  Bright wonderful turquoise doors!  I did them all.  Yep.. all of them!  I started with the front (on the veranda)..

Then went to the side door (the side entrance is where we go in and out of most)..

Since I loooved how these ones turned out so much, I continued to the back and did the patio doors as well! heeee!  Loooooove them!!

So, there you have it.. this is what I did for the last three days. ha ha ha!  What a huge improvement.. the doors were only primed before... so nice to have them finished finally!  And I love that it added a little 'funky' personality to the exterior of our house as well!!

Later! :)

my little horse lover..

Well.. horse camp was indeed a HUGE hit for my little girl!  5 days straight (drop off at 8am and pick up at 5pm.. 3 hours of driving every day, but she got to sleep at home! heee).  Horses, games, good food, new friends!  What is not to love!?  It was so so so good.  Like seriously, every little girls dream.  Definitely little girls who want to grow up to be cowgirls! hee!

Here are a few pictures.  All of the riding ones were taken on the final day of the camp.  The parents were invited to watch.. one impressed mama I was, so proud of her!  

By the end of it, she was trotting, posting (super impressed by that!) and walking the horse around the arena on her own.  Not bad for a girl who had never rode a horse before!

There she is.. posting while trotting!  A little pro!  Looks to me like she is destined to be a cowgirl after all! 

Oh.. and they ate really well too.  Yep.. by girl claimed the spot right beside the homemade cinnamon buns! hee heee!  You should have heard her list off the things they would have for snacks and lunches!  Oh my goodness.. YUM! lol

This picture above.. where do you think I took this?  Looks like a home doesn't it?  Nope.. it is the barn.  Yep.. the BARN!  I counted 3 flat screens on the walls of this room.  Talk about nice! ha!  The 'barn' had this main foyer area, then stables and an indoor riding arena.  Can I be rich someday please? ha ha ha!  Maybe my cowgirl will grow up and build herself a barn like this.. and I will move in. ha ha!

Some more pictures..

This horse is named Pepsi.  Pepsi.. I apologize for cutting off half your head in this picture.. I just wanted to show off those pretty braids of yours! hee!  Do you think the horses liked having 10 little girls around them all week? hee!  I am actually thinking they loved it!

Oh.. and they painted them too.  Yep yep yep.  Talk about combining the best of 2 worlds!  Arts and Crafts.. AND horses!  I think Laine would have loved to stay all summer! ha!

Little Miss Serious! hee!

They had a demonstration with a trainer and a 'fancy' horse (one of their super expensive show arabian horses).. talk about WOW!  I missed 99% of it (my little man was acting like a monster), but the 1% I did see.. blew my mind!  Laine calls those ones the 'fancy' ones. hee heee!

Here is a picture I snapped from the car the very first morning we were there.. we were early, so we sat there awhile.. 'oohhh-ing and awwwe-ing' over the barn! ha ha ha!  ..and woweeee, you should have seen the houses on the property! lol

One more..

Yep Pepsi.. I have a feeling she will be back to see you again next summer. :)

sick sick sick

All 4 of us.  So not fair, especially for Miss Laine who is on day 2 of horse camp! :(  Today, we were up and out of the house by 7am.. dropped the kiddo off, went to Starbucks (of course).. got the oil changed (which took about an hour ugh ugh)... got McD's for breakfast.. came home, hit the couch.. and have done nothing since.  Nothing.  Watched some Discovery channel shows.. one about a really big boat and another about some loggers... oh my gosh, why I did not change the channel I have noooo idea! ha!  Debating on what form of take out we are going to grab for supper.. because nobody feels like cooking.  Bad food day.. soo soooo bad.  Oh well.  I am going to soak being sick for all it is worth! ha!

Since I need to have a picture with every post.. here is a recent one of my crazy pup (one of them).. she makes a very good cuddle companion when you have the chills from being sick! hee heee!

How can you not love that face!?  It just screams.. "I am a nut case!" ha ha ha!  Love her to pieces!

Off to go pick up my munchkin.. staying in my jammies, James can go in and get her I think huh?  So much effort to actually put real pants on.  I promise.. I will not leave the car though. Nope nope!

Later!

some picture shares :)

I wanted to pop on here quick to share some pictures!  Last Thursday, I had the chance to take photos of my friend/neighbor's entire family!  ..so honored that she asked me to play photographer! hee heee!

Here are a few of my favourites..

 

It was a gorgeous evening, and the sun was beautiful!!

Exploring with mom..

 

I wish I could post these larger.. the little ones look so much better when they aren't so 'scrunched' ..oh well.  You can click on the images to view them bigger if you like. :) 

One last one...

That was more than a few wasn't it? hee!  I will not let the last picture give me baby fever.. I will not! Nope nope nope!

That is all I go for now.  Had to come share!!  So excited to have had the chance to get out there and learn a bit (ok a lot) and play!!  Thanks Krista!! ;)

Later! 

what is worse than a kid in a candy store?

My girl in the country/western store...

She does want to move to Texas and be a cowgirl when she grows up, after all! hee heee!  Her and her friend have this plan.  I try telling her that Alberta is pretty much cowgirl central as well.. and we are already here... but she thinks Texas is definitely more 'cowgirl' ..oh to be a little girl again huh!?

She giggled the whole time we were in the store.  Giggled giggled giggled.  We went in for boots.  For horse camp.  We left with her suited from head to toe. ha!  She looks stinkin' cute as a little cowgirl I tell you!

She starts horse camp tomorrow morning.  A day camp.. finally found one that isn't overnight!  It is going to be a very early morning.. all week long.  I am sure it will fly by for her though.  

She said to me while I tucked her in tonight.. "it is too hard to fall asleep when I am this excited mommy!"  Awwwwe!  

My little girl.  Going to horse camp.  Learning about them, and riding them.  40 minutes away.. ohhh, soooo much closer than Texas. hee!  

we have bears..

Yep we do.. or we did anyway, haven't seen them back since the first day.. which makes me happy.  We have sort of been on a 'lockdown' for the past few days.. a little scared to go out to play... we go from the house to the car, and back.. and that is about it!  

The other day.. Monday, I looked out our window and saw that something had got in our dumpster.. we have one of those big square-ish ones that gets dumped once a month (oh yes, the joys of living in the country)... anyhoo, there was garbage on the ground beside it.  My first thought was cats.. or maybe even a raccoon... although, I am not too sure we have those around here or not.. even though I know we are smack dab in the middle of bear country... it never entered my mind!  

So, I yelled downstairs to James that something had gotten in the garbage.. went to go out to clean it up... opened the door, went out on the deck and was on my way down the stairs to the garbage.. when a black bear walks out from behind the garage!  OMG.  I about peed in my pants I tell you!  Needless to say, I got my butt back up those stairs and into the house.. where I proceeded to scream "there is a bear in the yard, there is a bear in the yard!"  She was big too.. not big around.. tall and skinny.. but shockingly tall.  I have seen bears up here, mostly when I go out with James while he is working.. they are always in the distance and look quite small. ha ha!  Shocking when you are face to face with it and it is only 30 feet away. 

 

This is mama bear's foot print.  Yes, I said mama bear.. which means there was also a baby bear.  We were on the phone with the Fish and Wildlife people (sitting on the deck.. kids inside don't worry) when baby bear wandered into a little clearing right beside our garden shed.  Baby bear was much much smaller! hee heee!

A few hours later, James yelled to me to grab my camera (I was too slow though, and didn't see).. but mama bear had come back into the yard... walked along the tree line in the back.. right by the little kiddie pool, and right on through the kids play area/sandbox.  Um hello.. I am soooo totally staying inside and keeping my kiddies safe!  That is a little too close for comfort.

The dogs have been freaking.. the oldest of the 2 (Newt) is finally going outside without being talked into it... and they only stay out long enough to do their business.  The first day after.. they had their noses in the air... smelling the entire time.  They are acting normal now though, so I am thinking the bears are no longer wandering close by.

Yes I am a paranoid person normally.. and this just multiplied it by 1000! ahhh!  The good news I suppose though.. we have been here 3 years and this is our first 'backyard' encounter.  Not bad for being in the middle of bear country!  Yes, I am grasping at straws here. heee!  There has got to be a positive spin right?  How about a harmless wake up call.. there ya go.  I have read enough about black bears in the past few days that I could probably get 100% on a pop quiz. ha!  Kidding.. but I definitely know more about what to do and how to be safe than I did 4 days ago! ;)

birthday party fun

Monday already.. and rainy and gloomy again.  We did have a few nice days though.  Yesterday especially! Which was great, because we went to a birthday party!  Slip and slide... kiddie pools.. cake and ice cream... perfect weather for it!  Although for me.. I am either complaining that it is too cold or too hot.. and yesterday was a little on the 'hot' side for me! hee heee!  We were laughing because in reality it wasn't even scorching.. just hotter than we have had in a while! lol  Ahh.. such a wimp I am! heee!  

It was a fun party.. the kids had a blast! 

 

I think we need a slip and slide! hee heee!  So fun!  Hard to focus on those crazy fearless children though! lol  Not even a second later, she hit the 'pool' at the end of the slide made a massive sploosh.. good thing I wasn't any closer! ha!  With it being on the hill like that.. they got moving pretty good!

This next one cracks me up.. not really a spectacular photo or anything, but I was going through iphoto and these ones caught my eye (literally).  My children glow.  They are so pale that they glow.  Really.  Ahhh yes, I do believe they got their mama's skin! ha ha!

My opinion.. pale skin is better than sun burned skin... with the exception of James, we don't really 'tan' in this family! heee!  Sunscreen is our friend hee heee!  

And here is my little people watcher...

Each kid was given a car with their piece of cake (cars were the cake topper, super smart Krista had a bag of extras so each piece of cake came with something special.. sooo remembering that idea).  One car per kid.. notice how Harley has a lap full of cars?  Oh yes.. we walked around sneaking them.  I tried stopping him, but it was indeed a battle I lost.  Little fart.  I think it all worked out in the end, and the kids who were concerned came looking and gathered their cars!  But still!!  Seriously little man.. not all cars are your cars! lol  

Fun day.  Pooped out kids at the end of the day, no complaining over bed time.. quiet house by 9pm... oh yes, very good day! heee!

Hope everyone had a great weekend, full of fun summer things!!!

Later!

lazy days of summer

I think she is getting the hang of it.. getting used to the idea of chillin' out and relaxing.  What do you think?

I suppose it helps a little that we finally got the hammock hung up doesn't it?  We had it up before.. hung it up how we thought it should be hung.. (ha ha) then we tried it out and we were laying on the veranda floor. HA!  Not quite what we had in mind.  So, in frustration, after quite a bit of work to get it up (James had to take down the soffit.. is that what it is called? ..and build supports where we had the hooks ..and yes, we had it all back up in place before we discovered our 'oops' hee heee!) we walked away from it for a few weeks ha ha!  Yesterday, he took it all down again.. moved the supports he made for up in the roof and hung the hammock again (ends further apart this time).  Yay!  We don't lay on the floor anymore! heee!  Perfect.  The place to relax this summer for sure.  If Laine will share that is.  If anyone is wondering.. the hammock is from Ikea.. of course. ;)

The lazy days of summer also have wanting to do nothing much at all.. hee heee... I want to hibernate in my scrap room and do nothing but be crafty for a week.  But.. can't do it.  Have I mentioned the pile of rocks that has been getting larger and larger outside my house?  Rocks for our retaining wall that I sooo thought would be a good idea to build?  The joys of living on a hill huh?  Why oh why are we so big on the DIY way of home improvements? lol  I can feel my back hurting already!

Speaking of scrapping though.. it is my turn for the weekly challenge at 2 Peas today!  It will have you thinking diagonally!  Fun stuff!  Hope you can check it out!!  Here is the linky link if you wish to play along! :)

Kind of 'different' for me.. but it was super fun stepping out of my comfort zone a little!  The diagonally cut paper was seriously messing with my head! ha ha!

The rain has let up, the puddles are disappearing.. suppose I should figure out how to get motivated to move some rocks around... or not. 

Have a great weekend!! :)

should have just gave him a bowl of marshmallows

Really, I should have.  Why not?  Why give him a bowl of Lucky Charms to snack on when he does this...

He won't be convincing me of that one again.  As he runs around burning off his sugar high at this very moment.  Yep.. plain marshmallows might have been better! ha ha!

Do kids really even like the non marshmallow part of Lucky Charms?  I think it is just in there as a filler anyway! hee!

Oh great.. gotta go, I think he just dumped the bowl looking for the last of the 'magically delicious' ahhhhh!  Yep.. just brought the empty bowl, with a big grin on his face and two of the good ones in his hand. ha ha!

Can't blame him.. really. 

Later!

random thoughts and stuff :)

I am tired today.  I feel I am about 5 hours behind.. like it should only be 2pm... but yet I could go to bed and not get up until tomorrow.  How does that make any sense? I wish I knew! ha ha!  Harley woke up stupid early.  I opened his door and he had his bottle (yes I know) his blankie, and 3 cars.  He looked sooo tired.  He looked like I felt! lol  I asked him if he wanted to come to bed with mommy.. and off he went, got cuddled in.. but would not stop talking.  Piper (the boxer) was on the bed, and for some reason he thought that was the neatest thing ever, and kept saying "poo pooo" (Piper) over and over and over again! ahhhhh!  No more sleep for us!  Then Molly (the cat) jumped up.. and it was "cat cat cat cat cat" over and over and over again!  Although, he doesn't pronounce the 't' so it was actually "ca ca ca ca ca" over and over! haa!  Then Newt (our other dog) got out of his bed and left the bedroom.. game over!  He took that as wake up time! aahhhhhh!  If the dog is getting up, then he was too!  

When I finally did get some ambition, I came downstairs to work on this. Today was my day to post on the 2 Peas GG blog!  It was 'sketch it out' day.  Fun stuff!  Super simple sketch, but fun and easy!  Just what I needed to get the mojo flowing!  

You can check out the sketch and other info here if you like. :)

By the way.. she definitely didn't get her love for bug collecting from me!  Strange child she is. hee heee!  Kidding of course. Rather proud that she doesn't run screeching at the sight of a spider! ha ha!

I think this is part of the reason I feel so blah today..

Rain rain and more rain.  That is what it looks like out my office window right now.. well 10 minutes ago I suppose.  How is that for my photo for 365 today?  You know you are lazy when.. all you do is lift the camera and take a picture of what is in front of you.. I didn't even have to leave my desk.  Talk about motivation huh!?  Good grief.  I love the rain though.. we have barely got any so far this year.. so this is actually quite nice.  And the new trees have improved soooo much over the last few days!  They are LOVING it!

I think I am going to go curl up on the couch and read a book.  Crack the window a bit and listen to the rain.. snuggle up in a soft blanket... yeah, that sounds about right!

Later!