Where do I Start?

So while I was working on this today....


Tanner did this. (This picture does not even start to do justice to the house. t

He has been playing so good lately. Today he brought ALL of his toys out to the living room, he even included the toy box. Now I have toys, three different "frains"(trains) plus their "frain fracks" (train tracks) to handle along with all of the balls, guns and cars one could wish for. It is 6:30 and I have no plan for dinner but we are all hungry. Hmmm where do I start?

Projects Done!

This last week or so I have been able to check off my biggest projects of the summer/fall. I am really excited to have them done. Maybe I am just really glad to get them finished, but I think they turned out pretty great.

So if you have anything in your house that you just want to get rid of talk to Brian he is sure we can use it. That is how we inherited this fine love seat with a matching couch. Call me picky but this just was not going to be part of my house without a little tlc.



When I started this project I thought reupholstering them would be the hardest, but with Cindy's expert help we got most of it done in a day. I was naive enough to think that using a varnish stripper on the wood would make refinishing the wood easy. Yah that didn't work and after more sanding than I ever want to do again they were ready to be re stained. Was it worth it....still working on that one, but I am definitely glad to have some more "new" seating in our house.



The next project was to get Tanner into a twin bed. I found a great deal online, and with a little help from Grandma Sorensen's quilting machine finished up this bedspread to go on it. It has fishes and baseballs on it. He loves it!


Finally I really wanted to have a matching blanket and bumpers to put in baby sister's bed (we still have no name for her). Being the cheapo that I am with a little time and less talent I decided to make them myself. I recovered Tanner's old bumpers and then made this blanket to go with it. Brian doesn't undestand what was wrong with what we had, but I think it was worth it!






Now I need to finish up things for my class and get working on my holiday lists!

Am I Biased?

I am sure that I am at least a little biased, but I think Tanner is pretty much the cutest cowboy I have ever seen. He had a really great Halloween. That afternoon we carved our pumpkins together (he was all kinds of excited to help). It is fun to see him get excited about the holidays. Saturday morning while I was getting him dressed he asked if we could go trick or treating again that day.


Thanks again to Grandma Sorensen for the material.

B is Ready for Halloween

We spent our day Monday in the mountains getting more wood. As the last tree fell Brian took off in the opposite direction as fast as his little white legs would take him. Unfortunately he ran into a live standing tree. (I am told he hit a branch that was sticking out and that "you would run fast too if you heard that tree coming down"). Being the manly man that he is we were still able to finish the load.

This is gross I know but here is what it looked like before he cleaned it all up.


After he cleaned it all up he decided that he needed stitches. Silly me suggested he go to the Urgent Care. What I didn't remember was that he took a class in facial something something reconstruction and therefore was qualified to do it on his own. He headed out to the office and came back within 30 minutes with these really nice looking stitches (I know scary).

The morals of the story: 1. Watch out for standing trees 2.Apparently a DDS is pretty much qualified to do anything in the medical field (Right?).

P.S. Please feel free to blow up the picture of him chopping wood so that you can closely examine it and then be thoroughly impressed with the size of the tree, and Brian's manliness. Apparently the picture I took and posted doesn't quit give it justice.

The Process

We have being working on potty training for some time now. Tanner has been really good about keeping himself dry all day long. The poo poo part of the trainig wasn't going so well until we develped the process. Here it is.
So I put him on the toilet at about the same time each day. He needs to have this towel on him, not for modesty purposes, but apparently it is too cold to sit in the john and relax about your business without it. Then he gets "his" magazine, or another book. Within 15-25 minutes we have success everytime. Gotta love it!

Chopping Wood

For Brian's birthday he bought himself a hitch for the Jeep. His main reason being that we needed to chop a bunch of wood to use in our fireplace this winter. (I am sure it had nothing to do with the fact that it is one step closer to getting a boat, or pulling up four wheelers and snowmobiles to his favorite play spots.)
Anyway yesterday we got our first of at least three loads. It took about 10 trees to fill up the trailer we were using.

Cowboy Boots

I bought these boots before Tanner was born to decorate his room with. Last Monday Brian took Tanner horseback riding and of course he needed some cowboy boots. I was sure they wouldn't fit (they are still two sizes too big). With an extra pair of socks and a little practice wearing them he continues to tell me "They fit mom, they fit me."


We have also inherited this play horse add that to the boots and hat and we have a real cowboy. The boots are the first thing on in the morning (I caught him putting them on this morning with half closed blurry eyes) and the last thing off.


This is Tanner riding the bucking horse(just like at the rodeo).