gone with the wind

Every spring it always amazes me how fierce the winds can blow. I love being outside but with these wind gusts it's almost dangerous. Ok, maybe not extremely dangerous but miserable. What can you really accomplish out here on the range when you have to fight just to walk in a straight line:) I'm looking forward to less wind and warmer temps. I heard 80* is forecast for Friday, Yippee!

construction zone

Now that's the face of one happy camper! Dawson's spring "to do list" is getting smaller and he couldn't be more pleased. With the nice temperatures yesterday we loaded up all the empty buckets we could find on the farm and headed to town to buy new sand for the sandbox. WOW! A five gallon bucket full of sand is heavy! Thank goodness the old DC arm wrestling champ(lol!) was with us....I would have only been able to bring home half full buckets.

CAUTION: Construction zone

pretzels

After a festive Easter holiday and a weekend of eating great food Dawson and I decided today to... keep eating!! The kids love the big hot pretzels you can dip in cheese so I decided to try my hand at making them. I made the dough in the bread machine this morning and then Dawson and I divided the dough into 12 roughly equal pieces. We then rolled those pieces into snakes to form a pretzel. Well, there must be an art to pretzel making as ours didn't quite have the Aunt Annie's look to them?? Hopefully their deformed look will not affect their taste?

Wah-lah! Our attempt at homemade pretzels...a tad chewy but edible! Maybe we snake played with the dough too much?

STUDS

Hilarious!!!! Dexter had a friend stay overnight for his birthday. I was hanging up something on the wall and had the Black and Decker Stud finder out...slide it across the wall, when it locates a stud the light turns green and it starts to beep. Well, leave it to the preteen boys to slam the thing on their foreheads and actually have it go off! Oh yah....they thought that was hilarious!

"It's found a stud. I'm a stud! You're a stud too!"

ELEVEN!

On April, 8 1998 Dexter decided to bless our world! He entered with a strong will and still carries it with him today. Did he know he was going to have 2 younger brothers?

ELEVEN!!! It's hard to believe my first baby has been around for 11 years! Where does the time go? It seems like yesterday I was waiting around to feel those first flutters to prove that I had more going on than a growing abdomen! Unusual maybe...but I loved being pregnant!

Today, eleven years later, Dexter is a silly, fun, clever, helpful, caring kid. He has a big sincere heart and finds great reward in helping others. I'm so glad I get to be his MOM!!

ole' Dad

"We didn't know we had a plumber in the house

a plumber in the house, a plumber in the house,

We didn't know we had a plumber in the house,

ole' Dad's... a jack of all trades!"

Soooo Dawson & I made up a fun chant for our handyman. The garbage disposal quite and the kitchen sink needed replaced...Sunday after church we dove right in! Off to Menards...settled on a sink they had in stock...got home... and instead of doing the dirty dishes that were in and around the sink we just threw those off to the sides and started rippin'! The little handyman project turned into a 12 hour ordeal(nearly flooded the dishwasher)! Fixed that and now have a new working sink and garbage disposal! We're so proud! Ole' Dad's a jack of all trades! HAHAHA!!!

April Fools.....

This was the year for practical jokes...Dexter was full of tricks! The cereal bags were switched to different boxes: Be carfeul what you're pouring! He and Jaxson called their Dad first thing in the morning to tell him "the bulls are out on the highway". NOT! Dexter short-sheeted Jaxson's bed. And lastly, Dexter came screaming into the house saying he fell getting off the bus. That's no bloody nose...it's marker! April Fools!!!!