My Friend Erin posted this so I copied it:

Everything that I have done is in BOLD

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables (do herbs count?)

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung Karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance [not the patient]

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous - Richard Simmons (sad i know)

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

I don't tend to tag people, but if you think it is cool and do it let me know!

Thanksgiving!

I don't think I've ever had a busier Thanksgiving than this year. I am finally in my house and so I offered to cook dinner. I ended up feeding about sixteen people and started the day at 5 am after three hours of sleep. (Tyse is getting sick - poor guy.) With cleaning and cooking, I finally got everything done and sat down to eat at about 3. It was a great dinner and we had so much that food that I actually forgot to serve the stuffing! I had it warming in my roaster and kept reminding myself to take it out before I forgot - needless to say - I forgot. The funny thing is - no one noticed until after dinner was done because we had so much food! My refrigerator is now completely stocked for the next month. It was great being with family and being able to visit with them and to realize how many blessings I do have and can be truly grateful for!

(Thats my aunt and I trying to get the turkey on the platter (it was a fresh turkey too so it was really yummy) and in the background you can see the notorious roaster hiding the stuffing lol! and the other picture is of Lex with my niece Keelie.)

Harry Potter???

Ok, I know that I am a little odd and obsessed but I was thinking that the 6th Harry Potter movie was to be coming out shortly. I have been without TV for the last month or so and have been feeling a bit lost so I got online to read some news and decided to find out when the movie would be coming out. I can honestly say that I was disappointed to see that it would not be opening until July of next year and not in the coming weeks as originally anticipated. I've watched some of the trailers and it looks amazing - I guess I will just have to wait and wait and wait.....

Our Thankful Tree...

I got this great idea from my friend Brenda. For FHE, they did a Thankful Tree and wrote what they were grateful for on leaves and made a tree out of it. So I borrowed her idea and did the same thing with Lex and Tyse. It was so cute and funny to see what they came up with. With Thanksgiving being at my house this year, I thought it was a great way for the kids to start to understand what it means to be thankful for things, people, blessings, etc. It was so much fun to spend some good quality time with my kiddos and to see them and their personalities in full. Here are a few pictures.

My beautiful babies...

For the last couple of days the kids have been visiting with their dad - which is wonderful for them. They enjoy his visits so much and they are so excited when he comes to visit. I'm so grateful that they do have such a loving father that wants to provide so much for them and wants to be there for them whenever he can and more, but I miss them so much when they are gone. It truly makes me realize how blessed I am to have them and to be their mother. It also makes me realize how short I do fall at not spending the quality time with them that I aught. Work tends to get in the way by working 9 hour days and sometimes an occasional 14 hour day. I truly realize how blessed I was to be able to spend my days with Lexus for the first four years of her life. With Tyse I was able to stay home with for the first year to year and a half with only working about 1 or 2 days a week. I know that I am blessed to have the life I have and that my father has provided so much for me so that I don't have to work as much as most. My kids have made my life so fulfilling even when they may drive me crazy lol. Since being in our own home, they have been doing so much better with their little quirks and they are so excited to have their own rooms and space. Its so wonderful to truly feel like we are settled for the first time in over two years. I can't describe how truly blessed I am and how completely loved my children make me feel. I love them so much and can't wait to continue to see them grow and learn.

Potty Training Help!!!

I'm in desperate need of potty training help for Tyse. He seems like he is ready and he'll go in the potty with the incentive that he'll get a piece of candy when he is done, but he is so stubborn about it. Lex was so much easier, but I was also home with all the time too. I'm very frustrated that I can't be home with him like I was with Lex and be able to all the things I used to. Having to rely on daycare is difficult. Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely lucky and blessed to have the daycare I do have - they are great but its just not the same. I'm hoping to really work on potty training over the Christmas break - I won't have work for two weeks, but if anyone has any ideas - I would greatly appreciate them!

The Misfortunes of Home Ownership...

We are finally into our house! Sort of, I'm still in the unpacking phase. Last week however, we had some extremely cold weather (it got down to 8 degrees) and my little manufactured home has yet to be skirted. Which means that pipes are exposed, but the exposed pipes are heat taped and insulated. Unfortunately, it did not stop mother nature from freezing one of my pipes underneath the house encased in insulation. I thought I was fortunate enough to have had a frozen pipe without a burst or leak. For several days, I felt secure in this knowledge until Sunday morning when I was walking around my dining room table and my feet became soaked. I thought one of my darling children might have spilt something but I hadn't given them anything, so my fears grew and I went to look underneath my home. To my great dismay, water had started to pool and the plastic covered insulation was bulging. I poked a hole to help drain it and started to dry my carpeting. Needless to say my Sunday became a stress filled day of trying to find someone to help, but to no avail. Fortunately, the people that I bought my house from are going up today to hopefully get it fixed. The joys of home ownership....

The End of Riding Lessons

Lex had her last riding lesson last week and I can honestly say while I'm sorry to see that she isn't riding I'm not sorry to getting home late every week. She did great and loved riding and she wants to keep going when they start back up in the spring. Its getting too cold now to continue. Since Tyse wasn't feeling photogenic at Halloween I've added a few more pictures of him when he was feeling rather happy. His terrible twos are getting worse but his sweetness is also growing so its a Jekyl and Hyde kind of situation. Lex however is busy with so many school things and wants to keep even busier; she's is quite the social butterfly although thats the main problem at school that we are trying to work on.

Halloween

This year Halloween was a little crazy because of trying to get all moved into our house! So I convinced Lex to wear her Belle costume I made for her birthday last year and Tyse was easy - Scooby Doo (how can you go wrong). Trick-or-Treating was great, we did a short loop the night before in Rocker and Lex had a great parade. Sorry for all the pictures, but I couldn't resist.

Rodeo

Since I haven't blogged in forever, here comes an overkill of blogs. One of the things that I have been doing is photographing roping events. Its been really fun, so I thought I'd post a picture of one of the pictures I have taken. Its amazing how many you take. The very first event, back in May, I took almost 4000 pictures in 2 1/2 days! It was almost exhausting and in some ways I didn't care if I ever took another picture again. But I got over it, although I have been taking senior pictures and it seems to have thrown off the pictures I do need to take of my children so hopefully that will happen soon, since I didn't order school pictures.

My kiddos!

The kids and were getting ready in the early morning hours (6:30 am) and I couldn't resist getting pictures because it was a morning when they weren't fighting me and were actually cooperating. Tyse is all excited to be dressed as a cowboy in his cowboy boots and cowboy shirt (which is growing smaller everyday). Lex was excited to have gotten up in time to have her hair done! She is getting so big and grown up - its sometimes hard to believe she was a baby at one point in time.

A Sad Day...

This week has been somewhat eventful in a sad way. On Sunday, Daisy, our jack russel puppy went missing and has yet to be found. It has been a very sad thing; she was such a sweet little thing and with the cold weather I have to admit that she may not return. We weren't that hopeful when Georgia disappeared, but the conditions were greatly different. Daisy is such a small little thing and yet she is amazingly aggressive and fast; both of which are to her advantage and disadvantage. She runs far and fast and yet the predatorial animals around here have been out in full force. The coyotes are very active and we think a mountain lion has been dwelling near by or visiting on a regular basis as two of my aunt's sheep have come missing. Its such a sad thing to think about.

Birthday Surprises!

One more year to the big 30 and its not as bad as what I thought it would be, but give me about 11 months and that could change! Perhaps the best birthday news I received was that my little house has power, which is a huge thing considering it wasn't supposed to be in until the end of October. All that is left is to get a drain field dug, a propane tank up, the well hooked up, the skirting put up and a porch built - all in all its moving a long great! I'm so excited to be getting closer to a place of my own.

Getting Dressed Up

I used to love putting on makeup and wearing nice clothes, but it seemed after kids that kinda went out the window. Between spit-up and 4 am wakeup calls; there seemed little point, but I have realized how important it is to actually take care of myself. Not that its a daily thing, but its good to do all that especially when you aren't feeling particular nice.
(I had some fun with the photo)

Update

I finally got this thing a little figured out - Wohoo! So I thought I'd give a little update on all of us. Alexus loves kindergarten and I love all of the great program her school offers and the small student to teacher ratio. She is learning to swim and ride horses and she love it. Tyse is like Jekyl and Hyde recently. The terrible two's are here and I'm not sure if they are ever going away! He does miss his sister while she is in school but he enjoys daycare and playing while I'm working.

Work. . . The never ending saga. Working at the yards is great but we are heading into fall run and kicked it off with the biggest sale this yards has ever seen - 5154 head of cattle. It was an extremely long day. My photography business is starting to pick with senior pictures and I'm also doing type-setting and graphics work through it as well. Needless to say its a little busy.

Our house is coming along, slowly but surly. While it on site, we still have no power, no drain field for the septic system, and no propane tank. This springtime project has turned into a fall/winter one. We are hoping by Halloween to be in, but I'm not holding my breath. Anyway, I gotta corral some children and head home for the day!

Finally

I'm finally getting this thing figured out! After countless minutes on a computer that wouldn't let me into the content portion and screaming children we have conquered! Life for us has finally settled into a small routine (after two years) and we are doing well. The kids and I seem to be busier than ever but we are taking it one day at a time and trying to stay sane in the process. I'm still trying to figure out how to post on other blogs, like ChickChat, so bare with as my eldering age is finally catching up to me!