The Wizard of Oz

A little more than a week ago, Cameron finally brought home our trampoline and our girls playhouse from our old house in Mattawa. He decided to set the playhouse on our raised patio right outside our master bedroom window. Very quickly I decided I didn't like it there because it blocked part of my view of the lake from the bed. So on Wednesday I knew that I wanted Cameron to move it as soon as possible since I'm no longer capable of attempting such feet's (I have moved it before but never down stairs). But Wednesday evening right after Cameron arrived home and the whole family was getting ready to go to our activities at the church, a TORNADO decided to hit Moses Lake! It picked up the poor little house and hurled it 15 feet away down onto the grass with a crash. Everyone heard it hit and ran outside to see the damage (at the time we didn't know it had actually been a tornado). Mia cried because her playhouse was RUINED.
The next day Collin, being the worker that he is, decided he'd take it apart and try to put it back together. But before he moved it too much I had him reenact "The Wizard of Oz" for me. (Sadly, he doesn't even know the story) He played the part of the wicked witch.
Most pieces are salvageable but I don't think the roof or front door survived. Who knows if it will ever get put back together well enough to play in again. I had plans to paint it pink and white this summer. Oh well - one less project.

enjoyment . . . and some less enjoyable

We had lots of ENJOYMENT this past week or so.

It was finally warm enough to really enjoy the lake and the kids swam with friends 3 days in a row! (Mia was a bit upset that she was not allowed to swim on Sunday too.)

I also got to join the girls at school for a parents lunch/bbq - although the bbq was really just school lunch of hot dogs or hamburger and we chose to all bring our own lunch. But it was fun eating lunch with them and seeing their friends. The day before I worked at the bookfair and they managed to talk me into buying more books than I'd planned.
Usually we've only seen the deer farther off or in other people's yards (which is fine because I don't want them eating our bushes). But this past week I seen the deer twice right on our trail down to the lake eating the brush down there (fine with me - they can eat it but we can't develop it anyways - might as well have them trim them back a bit).
And we've had some gorgeous sunsets!! I was doing dishes Sunday night and was looking out at this . . . too bad the mosquitoes are horrible right now so I had no desire to go out and sit and enjoy it. Just went out long enough to snap a few pictures. So the mosquitoes have ruined a bit of our ENJOYMENT because all of us have been bit a ton and I ended up taking Chelsea and Mia home after sacrament meeting of church because they were scratching so much and needed a good dose of benedryl. But I am glad I went out to capture the picture - I didn't even edit this picture one bit because it seemed so perfect without!

Now on to the MUCH LESS ENJOYABLE part of the week . . .

(I made these pictures small to spare you the grossness unless you really want a good look and make it big yourselves)

Our dog is in BIG trouble!! He ran away AGAIN (seriously we stopped keeping track) Saturday morning when I drove Collin to work. Apparently his dog tag was so worn out you could no longer read where we live (the weekend before 2 people dropped him off at our house after they followed them on their jogs/bike rides).

So finally on Monday late afternoon Cameron calls to say an animal shelter had him. I had to get the kids out of the lake with their friends and take them with me across town (25 min away) to pick him up. Of course their was a $30 charge to get him out of "jail." Then when we were headed home Collin said he had 2 ticks and we didn't have any more of that medicine for him at home. Against my better judgement, I pulled over at Walmart and quickly made him a tag and got the medicine while Collin stayed in the car with Max. When we were almost home (5 min away) Collin starts screaming that the dog is pooping! BOY was I mad and sick when he said it was diarrhea! We rolled down all the windows and everyone made it home. Collin threw up when he got out of the car.
I had my camera handy to take pictures of the disgusting- ness before I backed into the grass and tried to spray it out as best I could. Then went off to the closest car wash to shampoo and vacuum it out!!!

YUCK, YUCK, YUCK!!!!!!!!!

Needless to say - since we don't have a fenced yard - Max has been tied up since Monday.
My car still doesn't smell quite right and I think I'm going to have to go at some crevices with a toothbrush and pick to see if their is something I missed hiding somewhere!!!!

All about me . . .

according to Chelsea . . .apparently SHE thinks I'm about 6 inches shorter, I'm very skinny, I have the same eye color as she does, and I like salad best (maybe she just knows I like it and she doesn't). But I'm glad she thinks I'm creative and she knows my favorite color.

Now just for fun - I'll let you see how huge I'm getting with this 5th pregnancy. I'm just over 24 weeks here (thanks for taking my picture Debbie).

Not Much Has Changed . . .

Collin turned 12 years old yesterday and he's grown up so much . . . but not much has changed other than that.

He still loves to farm with his Dad

- He chose to take Monday off of school (sort of a birthday gift) to run the new John Deere swather all day long. (even though asked both boys forgot to take a picture of him running it)10 years ago, when Collin was 2 and he would jump at any chance to work with Cameron on tractors or on the farm.

Collin still collects or wants to play with or build tractor toys.

-This is the set up he currently has on the floor of his room. He designed and built the wooden shop and the disk thing out of k'nex in the background.

10 years ago, when forced to play inside, he would line up all of his tractor toys on the carpet to play with.

So . . . although Collin has grown up and can now run the real tractors himself . . . he hasn't really changed and we love him that way!!

Collin wanted the Bybee boys to come over for Sunday dinner when we celebrated his birthday. These 2 boys both love the farm as much as Collin and he loves to have them over to talk farming. Collin picked our dinner - ribs, green bean casserole, baked beans, potato salad and his favorite "dirt" cake.

This past week . . .

I found $100 in a Christmas card that I thought I'd already spent. So on my next trip to Target I picked up the big clock that I'd been eyeing for 6 months. I wanted a big clock with normal numbers so my kids could learn to tell time on it. Now it hangs in our front entryway.I started crafting again. Actually if you count making flower clips and boards with my activity day girls than I really started last month. But this past week (and still continues) I started painting again. I painted the Chelsea canvas months ago but then just wasn't into it. I didn't love how it turned out so I never painted anymore. Then I decided it was time to get it done. I started with the Mia one and then did the sisters. If I can find the iron flower hanger I had planned to hang these from I'll hopefully get them up soon. After finishing the 2 paintings I went back and repainted Chelsea's name on hers so the writing would all be the same.
Next I decided to reuse a canvas that I was no longer using. I bought it 3 or 4 years ago to hang in my room. It worked fine but I didn't love it. So I'm working on making it over for Morgan's room. It's going to be 3 abstract chandeliers when I get finished. But since the painting I'm basing it off of has sequins and a shiny, glittery finish - which will require a shopping trip to Michael's or Craft Warehouse (1 1/2 hrs away) this painting has been put on hold.
after one coat of pink.
After 3 coats of pink and white mixed, I used chalk to sketch my chandeliers. (You can see the painting I printed off the internet for inspiration on the left.)I found this tiny baby turtle in our driveway and we decided to keep it. The kids loved watching it swim and crawl around but sadly we couldn't get it to eat anything (including the turtle food we bought at Walmart). So a few days later we released our baby turtle back into the wild by the lake. Funny thing- as I was walking today with Mia we found an even tinier turtle at the side of the road. I think it was lost. I let her take it to show her friends. Hopefully they won't want to keep this one.
Our doors finally arrived!!! We have been living without a majority of our doors (the girls bedrooms and bathrooms and closet doors) since we moved in. We were so excited when Cameron put them up on Saturday afternoon. Sadly, Morgan's door was scratched by the delivery guy and she is still without a bedroom door until they deliver us a new one.
We went back to the dairy to see all the baby cows that were born that week. They had 5 girls and 2 boys and one was less than a day old. Collin watched his first delivery on Saturday when one of the boys made his debut while he was working there. Not sure what he thought of that.
Chelsea and Mia had fun petting them. And Collin let this one (and a few others) use his fingers as a pacifier. It wasn't feeding time yet. That would have been fun to have the kids bottle feed these little guys.
Other than that I've mostly been avoiding housework. Cameron and I had a fun date night with old friends (yes we're getting older) Scott & Debbie, Leon & Ashley and Sam & Meredith. After dinner at PF Changs we went to see the movie, "Date Night." Then we had a late night snack -ice cream at Sweet Treat before making the LONG drive home.

It's a . . .

GIRL!Cameron and Mia joined me for the ultrasound today. I don't think either of us were shocked to hear we were having our 4th girl. Now it's time to come up with a C name and go through the baby clothes.
Here is her face in 3D. She was laying on her stomach and the tech was having trouble getting a good shot of her face that was tucked way down. Plus she always had her arms next to her face or in front of it.
This is the 4D picture the tech took. Not too clear but you can see it's more of a profile and the baby girls arm is bent next to her face.

I'm 21 weeks and 3 days today. Way too long still left to go!

A Dairy!

Cameron being the true farmer that he is decided to (along with his brother and business partner, Kip) expand their operation to now include - A DAIRY! It has been operating for about 2 weeks now and the boys are loving it. Since us girls had never ventured out to see it (luckily it is not in our backyard) we took a Sunday drive to check it out. We missed milking time which would have been interesting but the kids still enjoyed it.

Cameron showed the kids the stalls filled with cows.

Collin showed the girls his favorite, friendly cow. Some of the other cows are very curious but none of the others will let you pet them and practically lay on them.

All the cows resting after giving their milk away. Cameron says they are averaging about 90 POUNDS of milk per day per cow! I can't imagine carrying that much milk around each day!
Then Cameron took the kids to see where the cows get milked. Luckily it had just been washed down and it was super clean in there. (I was told it gets washed down daily and so do the cows every time they come in to be milked.)

So that is our new farm adventure. They sell the milk to Darigold who comes to pick it up every other day. Sadly, I don't think I can support Cameron by purchasing Darigold milk since when I checked at Walmart it was about $1 more per gallon. Maybe someone else will though :)