Summer Fun

 When the kids were at my Mom and Dad's on Saturday it was quite hot.  We didn't have an swim suits so we attacked the slip-n-slide the old fashion way, in their underwear.  Well...all except Weston, who wouldn't even wear his underwear (hence no pics of Weston, don't want to go to jail or anything).  They had a blast going down the slip-n-slide. 

 Cody was getting cold at this point. 

My little cutie!  (One of them).  :-)

Build it and they will come....

My dad is building a shed/detached garage at his place.  Brian has been helping him with it, and a few weekends ago they poured the concrete for the floor.   The boys had a BLAST hanging out at Grandpa and Grandmas house and playing in the dirt.  Mikey (and others) came out to help, so Stella and Weston hung out with the boys for a few days too.  

This was their 'couch' in their sand house.  

 Sliding down the sand hill.  There was about a pound of sand/dirt in each of their boots after this.

 Weston just wanted to hang out in the Skidloader all weekend.  He was so excited when he got a ride in it.

 Dan working....

 Dan relaxing...it was hot, he didn't want to over-exert himself.  ;-)

Finally all done for the day and having a beer.  

Random

A totally random post.  

I recently got a new camera, my first Digital SLR camera.  Sherri and I are taking the free Digital SLR classes offered at National Camera Exchange.  So far I have a lot to learn about how to use it, and for the record I have no illusions of becoming a professional photographer.  I'm just tired of Scrapbooking images that are poor quality.  Plus my children NEVER stop moving, so I needed a camera that could keep up with them as well.  Here's a few snaps of the boys with the new camera.  

As is was last summer, the boys favorite past-time is driving their tractor and race car's around the yard.  Unfortunately we're only a month into summer and they're both broken. :-(  The tractor will only go backwards and only one wheel on the race car will turn.  Hopefully our super hero Dad can fix them both.

This picture makes me sad.  I took this about 3 weeks ago and a week and a half ago, Ruger ran off and hasn't come back since. He was Brian and I's first dog and a GREAT dog!  He's sorely missed around the Ranch.  We're still hoping he'll randomly show up one day, but every day he's gone we lose a little bit more hope.  :-(

Some random pics of Logan.  We were just playing outside one night and I brought my camera out.  He asked me to take some pictures of him, which I gladly obliged.  Again, I'm no professional photographer, so most of these are really dark on his face, but he's still a super cute subject!

We went out to Mike and Deb's cabin the other weekend to fish and play in the water.  Mikey had caught this huge bull frog.  They have a ton of them around the cabin.  Stella, wanted to hold it, but no one else wanted too.  Cody wanted to hold the baby one we caught, but not the huge one.  Frog legs anyone.

Logan is obsessed with this wet suit.  Every time we go out to Deb and Mike's cabin he wants to put it on.  Strips down and jumps into this wet suit.

My little fish!!  We started swimming lessons last week and my little fish just LOVE it.  They can't wait to go back and ask to stay longer.  It's so fun to watch.  


Anyway as I said before, this is just a random post.  Brian's swamped with landscape work and farming; trying to get it all in before Little Sis arrives.  Only 8 more weeks before she's here...at the most.  The boys are excited and can't wait to meet her.  There's a few more things I need to get done before she's here, but for the most part we're ready.  Nursery pics to come soon.  We're finishing it up this weekend I think.  Here's to hoping the boarder goes up well.  And here's to hoping I post again soon....  :-)

Meyer Ranch Mini Makeover (Part 1)

This weekend we gave the Ranch a mini makeover.  I promised the boys a while ago I'd paint their room camouflage.  The original color was a mauve purplish color, not very fitting for a little boys room.  And Baby Sis' room was baby blue.  The two rooms were the opposite color schemes for the appropriate children, so this weekend Sherri and I rectified that...or at least took steps to rectify it.  We did manage to get the boys room completely painted and put back together.  There are a few finishing touches that I want to add, but I'm so excited with how it turned out I had to post pictures to.  I hope to finish up the 'finishing touches' later this month.  Baby Sis' room on the other hand is not put back together.  We painted the base colors, but didn't fully finish the details yet, so you'll have to wait for pictures of her room.  


Has anyone tried to paint an entire bedroom with a 2 year old and a 4 year old that are so eager to 'help' paint they've been talking about it for literally weeks?  Oh not to mention they didn't nap that day?  No...well let me tell you it's a real exercise in patience and understanding.  But I am proud to announce we've got NO paint on the carpet and only a few places where there's paint on the floor boards.  Go us!  And to be honest Logan actually did help.  I figured both the boys would lose interest after about 15 mins of painting, which of course Cody did, but Logan was there almost the whole time.  I had gotten him a little 3 inch roller and he LOVED it!  The only thing we told him he couldn't do was get his roller wet with paint again, and I think he only tried once to do it himself.  He was listening like a champ and was so proud of himself.  I was so proud of him and kept telling him how much of a big boy he was.  On Sunday he even helped Brian put together their new book shelf and toy bins.  He was using the hammer and the drill gun all by himself (with Brian watching closely of course).    It was both a heart warming and bittersweet weekend to be honest.  I'm so proud of him for listening so well and the pure joy and excitement on his face the whole weekend was contagious; yet at the same time it makes me incredibly sad.  My little man is growing up so fast.  It seems every day he needs his Mom less and less.  And while I know he'll always need his Mom, sometimes his independence is both incredibly rewarding and at the same time incredibly sad.  He told me on Sunday, when he was helping his Dad, that he was a 'Dad in training'.  I had to laugh and tell him not for a very long time yet. :-) 

Sherri and I Friday night at "the wall".  It took us 12 hours total to do just this one wall.  Our knees had carpet burn on them from kneeling so much and our necks, shoulders and backs were incredibly sore, but the look on my boys faces when they saw 'the wall' was priceless and so worth it!  They were so excited!

Sunday morning finishing up the second coat on 'the wall'.  We did unfortunately have to do 2 and even 3 coats on most of the sections.  I do realize I'm going to have to use an entire bucket of primer to paint over this wall some day...but again totally worth it for my two little hunters!

Logan up on the ladder painting in Baby Sis' room.  He was so excited to be on the ladder and like I said before did a fantastic job!  He had to wear this shirt too; you can't tell from this picture, but it says, "Mom's Handy Man" on it with pictures of paint buckets and brushes, etc.  It was his painting shirt.  


Here are some before and after pictures.  The 'before' pictures look even worse since the boys room was a total disaster (I didn't clean up just to take the before pictures since I was taking everything out of the room anyway).  Also I got a new camera so the 'after' pictures are better quality as well, which just help make the room look even better!  I also got a new bookshelf for their room.  We had an old TV stand that we were using as a bookshelf, but every time you'd take one book out about 10 books would fall out.  You couldn't read the titles or find anything if you were looking for it.  So hopefully this new bookshelf will help keep the books at least on the shelf.

My boys enjoying their new made-over room.

Special thanks to Sherri for all your help this weekend!  It was super fun and I can't wait to finish Baby Sis' room!!