Birthday's and Storms....Oh My!!

It was a pretty eventful Memorial Day weekend. We had severe weather most of the weekend, including during Madi's birthday party. But it didn't damper the fun we had. I think it turned out to be a great afternoon.



We got Madi a swing set Saturday and the kids played on that.



They also had fun with bubbles. We hooked up a trailer to the back of the tractor and pulled the kids around the field a couple of times in it. I thought Madi would be the first one to bail out of it, but she absolutely loved it!





And she had a ball having all the kids out to play with. Half way through opening gifts she took off to join the rest of the kids playing in the play room. I had to drag her back to finish opening her gifts.

Chris went to high school with a guy who is an artist and also does cartoon drawings. Chris had him draw a couple of pictures of Madi (more for me than Madi). They turned out really cool.




During the birthday party, a lot of the adults were standing outside watching funnel clouds dip in and out of the clouds just north of our house. Fortunately, we didn't get any of the severe weather that hit in other parts of the state and everyone got home safely. But we had a lot of lightning, wind and rain.

Yesterday evening we received some bad weather again. But the sun came back out just at sunset and we had some awesome skies to look at and rainbows too. Made a nice end to a long and busy weekend.



We hope everyone had a great time at the party and a safe weekend.

Love, Amy

One Year Later

I cannot believe just a year ago we were in the process of buying our land. It doesn't seem possible that so much can change in just one short year. And we didn't even get started on building until late September. But what a satisfaction of not only having it done but knowing that we did it ourselves. We are pretty proud of that!

I am busy, busy this week. Someone pretty special to me is having a birthday on Sunday!!! (Isn't she cute?!) I guess that means it is photo montage time. (I really don't have much to blog about :))


May


June


July


August


October


November


December


February


March


April



May

Happy Anniversary to Tom and Betty!!!

Love, Amy

Happy Mother's Day!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day. Sorry I am so late on that one. I had a great Mother's Day. I got to sleep in...8:15!!!! Chris made me a coat rack for the back hall. It has Madi's hand prints on it and it is really nice. We then went out to the lake and spent the rest of the day with my parents. It was very nice and Madi was able to run and have fun. She even got to play in the water with sticks. She loved it.

Chris had a brain fart weekend. Friday he got his new mower delivered and he thought it would be fun to go ride it through the field. He didn't get very far. He drove the front into the terrace and stuck it in the mud. It rained pretty good here on Thursday and was still very soupy. Not the brightest idea ever. So then he had to pull it out with the tractor. It was pretty fun to watch though!! I love him, but he sure doesn't think things through all the time.

We also had some bad news on Sunday. A lot of you know Billy, Chris' best friend forever and he was also in our wedding. His dad passed away Saturday night. He hadn't been in the best of health for the last several years, but still a shocker. He would have been 57 in August. The service will be Friday afternoon. We went and visited Billy and his mom last night. They are doing pretty good.

Madi is finally letting us do girly things with her. She got her fingernails and toenails painted bright pink. Very pretty!

Happy Birthday to Chantelle!!! And congrats to all the graduates this weekend.

Love, Amy

I'm Back Online!!!

It feels so good to get my internet back. I was just telling Chris last week that I feel so out of touch with the world. No internet, we don't listen to local radio very often, I don't get the chance to watch evening news, and we only get the paper on Sunday's, I have felt lost. And after 5 weeks with no internet, I have spent two hours going through my emails. For some reason I am still receiving all my emails off my old account but I can't send off that account. Strange and hopefully tomorrow I can get it figured out and will let everyone know my email address.


So much to tell you about from the last 5 weeks, I don't even know where to begin. I guess the best place to start is with Madi. What a doll and a holly terror at the same time. Terrible twos are here. She is a ball of energy and is non stop. It is getting harder and harder to get things done around here. I told Chris all I do all day is play with Madi. I try to sneak away every once in awhile just to get something done. Of course I wouldn't want to trade it for the world, but there are days that I ponder it. She is also very bossy right now. And most of the time Oliver is on the receiving end. She must think since he is smaller than her she can tell him what to do. It is quite comical at times.


And I must brag, she is very smart. And it is amazing at some of the things she can do and say. She knows her ABC's and breaks out in song at least a half dozen times during the day. She can also count 1-10. At times she can get to 13, but not as consistently. And she doesn't just say the numbers, she counts things. She counts people and toys. Chris was pretty amazed yesterday because she came up to him and said a whole sentence. "Ah oh, were did Oly ver go Daddy?" She asks a lot of questions and usually turns around and answers them herself. "Oh, Mommy, what was that? Thunder!" She is just too darn cute. I have lots of new pictures of her. I will post some and hopefully get the rest uploaded to Winkflash sometime tomorrow.


This afternoon we found two baby turtles on the driveway. It was pretty amazing. I have never seen such small turtles. I have only ever seen larger turtles on the side of the road or wandering out at the lake. Of course I have never seen them in my front yard. That was pretty cool. I was more amazed with them than Madi. But I made a little habitat for them and brought them in the house for a couple of hours. And since I had my internet back I was able to find out that they were Red-eared Sliders. Not the typical Box Turtle you find in Kansas. I just wanted to make sure they weren't snapping turtles. We named them Lenny and Tuck from the Wonder Pets, one of Madi's favorite cartoons. And then we told them bye bye and let them go. Chris was able to get her to pet one of them but he moved to quickly toward her with one and she kind of freaked out. I also had one crawling on the counter in front of her and she didn't like that either.











We are absolutely loving the house and being out of town. The wildlife is awesome. The peace and quiet is awesome. Everything has been great so far. Our road isn't a through road so we don't get many vehicles traveling it. Maybe a handful a day. We still have some projects around here that we will be starting on soon. We want to get the basement done, a deck built, put some fencing up, get the dirt all smoothed out and planted with grass. The weather hasn't helped much lately. By the time the ground dries out enough to work outside, it rains again. So we still have a pile of dirt in the back yard and still trying to get the slope right in the front so that the water drains off and doesn't leave a lake in the front yard. We also have had some trouble with the siding on the back of the house. We had some very windy days a couple of weeks ago (40-50 mph gusts and winds) and had some siding torn off. We still have those to replace and getting the rest of the loose ones nailed down and secured. But it has been nice to take some time off too. Somehow we still manage to be busy every weekend. But it's a nice break from building.


Here are some more pics. I hope everyone is healthy and enjoying the spring weather.
Love, Amy


Madi with her Baby Ava. All of her dolls are now named Ava after visiting my cousin in the hospital when she had her new baby.


Riding her horse that Uncle Jon got her for Christmas. I have now been able to get the toys unpacked from Christmas.


Her favorite play place most days, Mom and Dad's bed!


We finally got her to ride the 4 wheeler last week. She still isn't quite sure of it yet.