Recently

Lately Brielle and I have been spending time together.  We cook meals, go to my now weekly Doc appointments followed by some errands, clean and work around the house, go to craft groups, play dates, visiting teaching, etc. She has been my little buddy and it has been fun having this time to spend with her.

Here she is at Sam's.  She always likes to order a slice of pizza and share an ice cream with me.  Although most of the time she also thinks whatever I am eating at the time is something she would like as well (my cheesy bread sticks with sauce is one in particular).

One morning we hit up the Salvation Army and picked up these two adorable pillows for cheep.  I sure do love a good find!

One of our errands included picking up some homework motivation treats.  Let me tell you the kids have been working hard and without complaints since I tried this recently.  After finishing homework they get to choose a small treat out of the treat jar.  No more tears or pushing them to do it.  They have jumped at the chance to earn their homework treats.  Here's to hoping this sticks!

These have been a recent craving this pregnancy (sigh).

I love having a rocking chair to rock and nurse the baby.  Whenever our old cheaper version breaks we have usually replaced it with a similar cheap version that soon gets beat up with the normal wear and tear.  We finally invested in a much nicer and comfortable rocking recliner from Sam's.  I hope to get many years of use out of this chair (Mckay actually surprised me with this one evening when his parents pulled up in their truck with it.  We had only viewed it online and it had good reviews so he took a chance and bought it before having Sarah and Dick bring it home to us since their truck was already in Great Falls).  The kids also love this spot as you can see!

This picture makes me happy.  We have borrowed Sarah's riding lawn mower from time to time as our lawn is in need of a trim (hopefully next year we can get our own).  When we lived with Swensen's, Brielle would occasionally hop on the mower and ride with Sarah.  Now, whenever Mckay or I am mowing our yard, she is eager to jump on with us.  It is probably more exciting to ride with daddy because he usually has earphones and sticks some nice tunes on for her while she is riding along.  But with me... it is just the sound of the mower and the two of us with the wind in our hair.  She actually tends to try and control the steering a little bit.  It is pretty cute!

One afternoon Brielle was dressed a little fancier than her normal attire, she loved this look and mentioned that her daddy would "Love it".  We had to take a picture to send to Mckay.  I think it is sweet that whenever she feels pretty she also thinks her daddy would like it as well.  Braids in her hair are another thing she knows her dad will make a big deal about.  It's a good thing that so far the only man's opinion she cares about, is her daddy's.

I guess I'll post a pregnancy picture at about 36 weeks.  Not much longer now, although I am eager to meet this little guy soon!!

About to head to the General Women's Broadcast.

Life has been full of getting things in order and all ready for Baby #5 to make his entrance soon.

I just set up our fall decorations and the kids sure love the splash of Halloween/Fall.

Working at the Cabin

Before the baby arrives we decided to take one last bash and head to the cabin in Phillipsburg.  Actually, it was a little bit of a work weekend since they are in crunch time to get some things finished on the new cabin before winter hits.  We still managed to have some fun though...

The kids were so creative and loved being in the mountains again.  Here they are building their own fire together.  Then Lars showed up soon after with his boys and dog, which the kids were also entertained with for quite some time.

After dinner, it was too dark to work so we started a fire to roast marshmallows and have SMORES (one of the kids' favorite activities while camping).

It was nice to sit around and visit before bedtime.  We spent the night in the camp trailer, it was fun.

I love this picture of Brielle, sitting on her stump munching on some chocolate, as if to say "This is the life!".

Payton enjoying his treat.

McKenzie and Taylor having a great time.

Mckay and I. 

 

By this time the kids were all getting a little tired, especially Brielle, who practically was begging for us to put her to bed.  Then another day of work and some play (I took the kids to a local park with Sarah and we also hit a couple of stores), then we came back and helped prepare lunch for the guys.  It was a busy yet fun weekend, but we had to head back Saturday evening since the Primary Program was that Sunday.  We saw a ton of wildlife on the way home that evening including: deer, elk, and a mother moose with her baby.  It was awesome!  The kids did well and had their parts memorized, and Payton gave a talk about Baptism and how his dad and him had practiced and held him under for a while, he did a good job and it was pretty cute.  I was sure hoping the primary kids would do well at the songs we had been practicing all year.  I was sure pleased when they did AMAZING!

Snagging Salmon

Mckay was invited on a guys fishing trip in the middle of the week.  He took off a couple of days of work and snatched Payton out of school for two days as well.  Then they headed off with Dick and the rest of the clan.  Time to make some memories!  The other kids were bummed to be left out, after all, they love fishing too.  Maybe next year!  We tried to have a little of our own fun back at home as well.

I only got a picture of Brielle with a treat that she picked out.  Later when Taylor and Kenzie got out of school we ran to the store and picked out a few snacks and some ice cream to eat that evening after a kid friendly dinner.  We finished up any school work and then had a little party of our own and watched movies before bed.

Eating pizza on the way to the Whitefish area.

And a Huckleberry Shake!  (Now I'm a little jealous!)

Some father and son bonding time!

Look at all those little Salmon!  I guess they caught tons.  Although it is more like snagging the fish because I guess there are just so many fish in the river at the time that they just use a hook on the end of their pole and move it around until you snag one.  No bait involved in this type of fishing.  Perfect for Payton (this is just up his alley since he didn't have to wait around and reassemble his own bait all the time).

Way to go Payton!

Looks like the weather must have warmed up a bit and it was time for shorts and getting a little wet.

Payton with his Grandpa Swensen.

What fun memories!

Payton and Daddy

Payton catching fish with the cleaning station in the background.

He is all BOY!

It would have been fun to see this in person.

The not so fun part.

Payton is still going at it.

Part of the group. 

By now Payton is more wet and in the middle of the river. 

Fun times! 

 It was fun to see all of their pictures when they got back.

Looks like fun, we just may have to come along next year!

Entry Door Makeover

My turn to surprise Mckay...
Before we moved into our home we had planned to sometime repaint the entry door.  This project kept being put on the back burner (and it took a little time to finally settle on a color that we wanted).  We finally bought a little can of paint and a had a nice week of weather so it was project time once again.

Here is the before picture.  It seemed to have maroon and a few purple tones in it.  Then the top door windows were yellowish.  Not to mention that our new hardware and door handles just didn't line up with the previous ones so some of the white was sticking out.

Now it is a nice blue color, the top door window trim is a fresh white, and the hardware looks much better and even kind of pops out.

We also added a few finishing touches to personalize it more.

We love it!  It sure has been fun making this house our own!

Laundry and Mud Room Makeover

Mckay and I have been eager to make this house our own.  We keep dreaming up new projects that we want to improve and change a bit to make it feel more like us (on a budget of coarse).  This week we decided that we would redo the laundry/mud room.  Its' walls were pretty bare and had basic paint as well as several nail pokes and needed a little bit of patching/cleaning.  Here goes yet another paint project...

The before

Another before

And the finished project.  We spent a lot of time washing and cleaning this room and now it feels good as new!

At first the turquoise color seemed to darken as it dried and I was unsure if I totally loved this seemingly bold color.  Now I really like it and I go in there all the time to check it out.  We also changed the color of the mud room portion in some left over grey.  I love how it turned out!

Yippee for some organization!

Mckay was anxious for me to put a vinyl saying on the wall since I had shown him some examples on Pinterest.  We both liked this one as it feels like our phase of life right now, so we went with it.  This picture is distorted because the quote is actually on the turquoise wall even though it looks like grey.

It has been fun to embark on these fun projects with my teammate (Mckay).  We work well together and have very similar tastes, which makes it easier.  I think it has been fun to see just how eager Mckay gets when we both (not just me) set our minds and get excited about a home project.

Crafting Bug

Along with the cooler weather this week...I was in the mood for some crafting.  There have been various projects that I have been anxious to finish up and get completed.  Maybe it has a little bit to do with nesting this last few weeks as well.  Anyway one of the recent crafts was to revamp a board with some vinyl and decorations to match the colors for our new master bedroom.  I went to work on my Silhouette and I am pleased with the outcome.

Matches our new bedding well.

It is nice to have a pop of matching color on our wall.

In addition, I was also able to work on a receiving blanket I had started a while ago for the baby.  This was even before I knew we were having a little boy.  Good thing I picked out BOY fabric by chance.  I added some Minky borders and backing as well as a little trim of Ric Rac.  Now, to finish I just have to quilt it and it will be all ready for baby.  We have craft day Fridays at the church that just started back up.  It is fun to get together with the ladies and chat/craft while the little kids are playing.  Hooray, for getting a few things done!

Payton Gets His Wolf and Advances to Bear

Scouts took a break for the summer once school got out.  We did do the Scout Day Camp, but then we were off for the summer and would resume once school started back up again in the fall.  Payton and I continued to pass off more of his requirements and get him all ready to advance from a Wolf and into being a Bear.  He really has loved Scouts, so he was excited to get back to going again!

It was a pack meeting the first day back and time for awards.  Payton received several awards from Day Camp as well as his Wolf!  He has also earned one gold arrow and three silver arrows that he is  still waiting on.

Waiting to get his awards and advance to Bear.

He was telling about one of his accomplishments.  Payton was mentioning how he had to help plan and carry out a few meal times with me.  I enjoyed the time I got to spend with Payton.  He is a good kid!

Looking at Mckay for recognition and a photo opportunity.

Way to go Payton!  Keep up the good work and enthusiasm!