after the heat and humidity of texas, it has been just beautiful here. we're loving being outside as much as we can. after we get back from working out, i often spend a couple hours working in the yard. ryan rebuilt the fire ring with some nursery block that was under some trees, so i used the brick from the old fire pit to start making a little walkway out to the fire pit. these are leftover bricks from our fireplace and the front of the house, so they are a little tricky to get level-ish. i feel like i'm playing a real life game of tetris.
after school snacks on the porch are the best kind.
ryan found some little camp chairs for the kids. perfect idea. they love them - especially bonnie who will stay in hers much longer than she would sit elsewhere. we meant to go camping and had all the food and everything all ready, but it was pouring rain when it was time to leave. since it cleared up, we decided to at least have our camping dinner in the back yard.
bonnie ate about a quarter of a watermelon while we waited for the fire to really get going. makes for one happy girl!
aside from some of the outdoors work we've been doing, i got two boxes of pears from a friend of my mom's in thatcher. isaac and i have been busy making pear butter and canning pears. i'm so excited to have rebuilt our stores of pear butter!
bonnie's favorite job is to wear the canning lids. you can see lots of her mosquito bites in this picture. she attracts the bugs almost as bad as me or isaac!
we spent all day saturday out in the yard that weekend and got lots done! we moved a few railroad ties and an old bench from random places around the yard and made some seating for the fire pit. as we were cutting wood, cody had the great idea to use a few of the logs for seats as well.
we used a few existing t-posts and wire fencing to create our wood pile. we brought piles of wood from all over the yard and couldn't believe how much we ended up with once we split it!
we ended that busy day by burning a bunch of our yard trash.
ryan had the boys load up the wheelbarrow with pine cones from the front yard to burn. pretty sure we could load about six more wheel barrows with this much more!
i have been trying to get a few things organized inside the house as well. i created a space by the garage for keeping papers and such to try and keep the counters clear. the opposite wall has a bench with boxes for the kids' shoes and a shelf for hanging coats and backpacks. hopefully it keeps us a little more organized as we come in!
we're definitely enjoying our daily walk to the bus stop to pick up cody. generally ryan drops him off at school on the way to work, but cody ride the bus across the highway to the first corner in our neighborhood. isaac, bonnie, and i walk the half mile to the bus stop every afternoon. they won't let kindergarteners off the bus without a parent there (as we learned the second day of school when we were just barely late and the bus driver had to loop around to drop off cody). isaac loves running waaayyy ahead most days.
this week we found a little friend on the way home. we of course sent a picture to grandma berta who told us how beautiful she thought it's light hair was. sorry, no tarantula anywhere, ever is beautiful!
the next day i saw this huge snake leaving our lot just past the driveway. i was glad i was in the car, but made sure to get a picture to see if it was dangerous. ryan said the people at work thought it was just a garden snake, but i still hope we don't see him around again!
we are part of the pinedale ward right now, which include the pinedale community, which is about 10 minutes west of us. the community and the church do a few activities together during the year. this weekend the did a corn roast. they roast corn in these huge metal trash cans and then put it in coolers until people are ready to eat them. then you peel the husks back without pulling them off and hold onto the husks while you dip the corn into a #10 can full of melted butter. there is no better way to eat corn! i think this cob of corn is the only thing bonnie ate the whole time we were there! the boys spent most of the evening playing in the open field with some of the older boys from primary.
earlier that day, isaac and cody found the muddy back yard....
another job i've been tackling inside is cleaning the windows and blinds. here's the blinds from isaac's room. you can see the far side that i had already cleaned. nasty! dust cooked on by the sun!
today was quite an exciting day around here. isaac nearly had a full break down when we left to get cody because he forgot his sunglasses. turns out taking scissors to snip wildflowers is a perfect remedy for a sad boy. i let each of the boys create a bouquet and cody insisted we put his in a large jar and isaac's in a small jar when we got home. they make me pretty darn happy to see on our table. i'd have never guess there was such a huge variety of wildflowers just between our house and the bus stop!
the other exciting news is that our bedroom set finally arrived - well our bed and dresser (the nightstands arrived the day after the house closed). i have had the bedding sitting in a pile just waiting to be put on and we've been sleeping on a mattress on the floor since we got here. it will be so nice to sleep more than eight inches off the ground tonight! now if we can just get rid of the ugly valances and sconce lights :P
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