Rodeo Day

After the holidays, we always look forward to the rodeo coming to town. This was the first year we really got to take the kids and play. There were lots of things for the kids to do there--farming, petting zoo, pony rides. They also got to see baby chicks hatch and pet rabbits. There was a brand new baby calf born the same day we were there. The girls thought that was pretty cool. Mark and I were exhausted by the end of the day and didn't even end up going back to see the Rascal Flatts concert like we had originally planned. We gladly gave the tickets away and enjoyed a peaceful evening at home with our bone tired children asleep in their beds.

Long Past

I am just finally posting my Christmas pictures so I can remember what a fantastic holiday it was. We got to sleep in until after 7am this Christmas--what a blessing! Mark wanted to wake the kids up earlier than that because he was so excited. The girls were very excited about their gifts and so was Spence. I was excited about them too especially because I was on a pretty strict budget this Christmas and used a lot of price matching and coupons this year. I even had Mark take time off work to stand in line at Toys R us for Avery's bike. I was all about saving money this year and it was nice--for once--not to have gone overboard. We had the most lovely day ever. It was peaceful and quiet just being in our home with no where to be. We all fell back asleep and had a late lunch. It was sad to see Christmas end but I am one of those people who likes to have closure to my holiday. I can't stand to leave all the decorations up for very long and I have too turn off the Christmas music. Mark calls me "Scrooge" but I'm just ready to move on. Am I the only person like this?
Pre Christmas mess


Thanks Grandma and Grandad for the barbies and Toy Story blanket



My sister made these cutest ever cupcakes--the girls love, love, love them!

What's the deal?

Some of you may be wondering what the heck is going on here. I hardly ever post anymore and my blog is getting way boring. But never fear. I will try harder. Here is a little update. Mark and I got the bright idea to start school in December. We have a community college right around the corner from us and the tuition is DIRT cheap if you live in the district. Mark has been itching to get a different job for a little while now and I have dreams of someday becoming a labor and delivery nurse. Over Christmas we took what they call a "minimester class". Basically we crammed a semesters worth of work into 4 weeks. Fortunately, it was a communication class and we both got an A in the class. This semester we decided to take on Human Anatomy and Physiology and we both have to retake Intro to Psychology. They are both online classes but they consume a lot of our extra time these days. I am thinking I'll take a break this summer. My brain feels like it's going to explode and the semester just started. Mark has high hopes of taking two more classes this summer--I'm so proud of him.

On another note, my husband finally completed our shower. It is beautiful.

He also put in a pull down ladder in our garage to make an attic for extra storage. We were running out of space so it is nice to have such a huge, accessible storage area.

Decorating for Christmas

This year decorating for Christmas was very fun for me. I guess I was just really feeling the spirit of Christmas this year. I have so much to be grateful for and I was incredibly excited to celebrate the birth of our Savior. The kids pitched in and decorated/destroyed our Craigslist tree. It is a nine foot pre-lit treasure. We just loved it.

Snow Day

It has only snowed where we live a handful of times EVER. So you can imagine my surprise that out of the three winters we have lived here, it has snowed twice. As always, I love it when it snows but I am glad it is very temporary.

So far...

I am so far behind but I have some cute pictures. Mark's sister was kind enough to take some great family pictures for us before Christmas.
Here are my cutie pants kids.

Mr. Buddy and his daddy

Me and that handsome guy

The little princesses

Spence the Man

Our cute family

Bad Idea?

WARNING--Some of the images in this post may be disturbing!

Shortly before Thanksgiving, I got the not so bright idea to knock some of the tiles in the shower out. It was going to be a quick replacement job so that I did not have to deal with the awful mold building up that I just couldn't clean. Well, I opened a can of worms! This is what happened to the dry wall behind the tiles! That explains all the mold.



Well, we invited my parents to celebrate Thanksgiving with us and knew they would be in town in one and a half weeks. So the goal was to have it done by then. Mark was great at the demolition work. I wish I'd gotten a picture. He replaces the layer of drywall then the tile board on top of it.


We FINALLY agreed on some affordable, yet attractive tile and began to put it up.



The shower was not finished before my parents got here so we all got the pleasure of sharing the only shower in the house for a few days. It has nearly been a month and this is what our shower looks like at this moment.


As I reflect on this remodeling experience I am reminded of the HGTV show called Renovation Realities. The people on there have these low budget and short time limit goals. They always go over budget and over the time limit. Now this is my reality. Yay!