February 2024. Showing ALL the Love and Going ALL the Places.

 Happy February, Everybody! 

February started off with me flying to California to watch my nieces for my brother and sister-in-law so they could get away for a bit.  It had been NINE years since they traveled alone together.  It was overdue.  They went to Salt Lake City to spend some time together, go ice skating and eat at some restaurants that they love.  Meanwhile, I got to spend some much needed and much loved time with three of my nieces and it was every bit as awesome as I suspected it would be.  

We did all the things and had all the snuggles and all the fun.  We even had both of my sisters and my mom over for a sleepover!  So the girls had "three aunties and a grandma" with them. (Nora's words).  I feel honored to have been able to spend that quality time with the girls and I love them each dearly.  

This was the night before I flew home.  There were lots of tears thinking of our upcoming goodbye.  

Nora is such a snuggle bug at night. 

Loves with Auntie Shasta.

I gave Auntie Shasta a haircut while I was there and Madison spent like 15 minutes brushing Shasta's hair.  She loved it so much! 

Loves with Holland. 

You can barely see it but this was a double rainbow outside of the grocery store after a rainstorm.  

We played MANY board games.  

Nora crashed on the sofa after a long day of playing. 

Nora and her friend. 

Holland at her basketball practice. 

Sleepover night!  We did "make your own pizzas" and it was a hit.  It was Madison's idea.  

Snuggles with Auntie Kelsey.  

Madz was hiding from me but I managed to get a little sneak in there.  

Rip and Auntie Kelsey. 

Grandma and Dottie. And Auntie Shasta.  

Auntie Shasta and her pizza.  

My pizza. 

Holland and her pizza. 

Madison and her pizza. 

Nora and her pizza.  I was so proud of her, she ate it all.  

Grandma and her pizza.  

Having fun with punching balloons.  

Gymnastics. 

Holland does an awesome bridge! 

Doing chalk after a rainstorm. It was warm so it worked out nicely.  

This was another day and ANOTHER double rainbow.  

I'm pretty sure I brought them a southern thunderstorm.  It was wild.  Just like at home.  The hail was huge too!  The girls were a tad anxious but it left just as quickly as it blew in.  The wind that day though!  UGH. 

Baking cookies.  

Nora got a cut on her finger. 

Cutest little bakers EVER. 

We went to a local bakery and bought donuts!  Madison was able to direct me there with zero issues.  I didn't need my GPS at all.  

I think Nora enjoyed hers quite a bit.  

Morning snuggles. Nora is the photog for this one.  Yes, my hair...  It has its own zip code.  

Morning snuggles.  Look at these beauties!!!  They're precious.  

Nora cried saying goodbye to her parents when they left so this picture was to show them that before they left the corner down the street she was fine.  

Dottie and Grandma.  They fell in love.  

Talk about falling in love...  This big guy is such a lover.  He and Auntie Kelsey bonded.
 

I can't tell you all what it did for me to be able to spend time with the girls and take them places and do a little spoiling. We had so much fun together and I cannot wait till I get to see them again.  I am saying all my prayers and doing all good things so it can be soon.  It was also incredible to see my mom, Shasta, Kelsey and Martin.  They had us over for a barbecue two days before I flew home and it was so nice.  The girls played in a huge box and we watched a movie and had a good time.  Their home is such a comfort to me.  

This was waiting for me upon my return home.  It's from Tristan. I thought it was sweet.  

My brother, Jeremy, and sister-in-law, Katelyn bought me these things in Utah.  I thought the shirt was hysterical.  

Eric has been looking to buy a Ford Bronco for some time now and he even considered flying across the country to purchase one.  He ended up finding one that was local and of course, bought it the day after I flew to California.  He is so happy and can't wait to get started fixing the minor things wrong with it so he can drive it.  We even completely emptied the shed and cleaned it out to store both it and the Camry inside until both are repaired.  We put shelves up and got that thing looking nice and organized.  

Both Nico and Nolan are in LOVE with the Bronco and can't wait till Eric starts driving it.  

After.  The bronco, Camry, mower, quad and tractor all fit along with all of our milking equipment, farrowing crate and all of our random junk.  

All of our tools are organized now. 

Everything put away.

All of our junk.  We really have too much stuff.  

Sadie slept in the tarp while we organized and built shelves.  

Almost immediately after I got home from California, we did a small birthday celebration for Tristan.  He invited two of his closest friends over (Jayden and Abby) and along with Emery we all went bowling.  We came home for food and cake and it was a great day.  Tristan requested red velvet cake.  The twins absolutely loved bowling and are basically professionals.  Jayden has been practicing jiu jitsu at home so he and Tristan can spar together.  I had leftover supplies from one of Nico's birthday parties many years ago (transformer design) so Tristan's theme was transformers.  LOL. He didn't even notice so it fell a little flat.  

Bear is a party animal.  

Sadie is doing all the celebrating.  Doesn't she look excited?  

Valentines Day kind of smacked us in the face.  It was on top of us before we even knew it.  I changed things up a little this year and did edible valentines that could be gone in one day.  Next year I plan to do the same BUT also add the kids' favorite meal (either fast food or bought meal) to the mix...  They all like burgers and burritos and we rarely waste our money on that crap so we figured it would be a good time to do so.  I made the kids' valentines for school and Lily asked for some for jiu jitsu.  The twins came home with a boatload of candy that has slowly disappeared and made its way to the trash can.  

From my Hubby.  Truth be told, I texted and asked him to pick some up for the table.  Lol.  

I made Lily, Sierra, Emery and I Stanley cup toppers for valentines day.  

One sample of the kids' valentines.  Each got a sticky notepad, a piece of cheesecake, a Snapple, and mini muffins.  

Aunt Leslie and Uncle Brian spoil the kids!!!  

Nico LOVES money.  

I splurged and bought these 'Friends' conversation hearts.  They're not worth it, trust me, but I love the bag.  

We went ahead and made the decision to have June spayed.  She's five years old.  We thought we may breed her and sell some pups but then reality settled in and we laughed at ourselves and the realization that we'd have 14 Border Collies running around here if we bred her.  Plus, not trying to sound snotty or anything, but the vetting process for prospective families would be brutal and I am sure NO ONE would "qualify."  So, we decided to handle business.  She healed very well after a routine overnight stay in the hospital and is very happy.  She was beyond pathetic when Eric dropped her off and beyond happy to see him when he picked her up.  

Eric and I were invited to Georgia to our friend's cabin and decided to finally take the time to go and visit them.  It was long overdue.  They invited the whole family but in reality we can't all travel together because of chores here at home.  Gramps is not able to handle things like he used to be able to.  So, we asked Sierra to come stay the long weekend and left Tristan and Lily home to handle things with her.  Plus, Tristan is in competition season for jiu jitsu right now and shouldn't miss any days if he can help it.  Lily is working so she shouldn't miss days either.  We took Nico, Harlan, Nolan and June with us for the holiday weekend to see the McKaskle family in North Georgia.  It was an awesome weekend and we loved it.  Their cabin is incredible.  They built it themselves and rent it as a vacation rental.  They have it booked most of the year so we really appreciated them letting us have it for such a long weekend.  Gramps assisted with running Tristan and Lily to and from places while we were gone and Sierra handled everything else.  Everything went very smoothly.  It was a great trip and we really appreciate Sierra always being willing to help us out and Scott being willing to let her come stay!!  Truly.  

The drive to Georgia was GORGEOUS.  It was also very winding.  I had to drive after only about an hour in the car because I would have puked for sure.  

Here is a link to the website for the cabin.  If you ever want to go visit the historic town of Dahlonega, GA., the Appalachian Trail, or even Atlanta, their cabin is the perfect place to stay.  It has it ALL.  They even have gold pans to pan for gold in the creek on their property.  There is river access for swimming and floating the river, they have a game room with arcade games and the town is just a short drive away.  The Zac Brown Band used to have a distillery near the McKaskle home but I believe have sold it.   There are a lot of local wineries and things to do in town.  Not to mention the incredible shower at the cabin!  You guys.  They spared no expense in building this beautiful cabin.  You really should take a peek.  

Tipsy Toad Cabin 

On the last day of our visit, we went to a local winery and thoroughly enjoyed the food, warmth, company, decor, and beauty surrounding us.  It was SO BEAUTIFUL.  There was a pond with ducks on the lower part of the property and the boys and I walked down to it while Eric, Andy and Monica chatted and finished their meal.  The grounds were stunning.  It was the perfect place to have a photo shoot.  

In my previous post, I had mentioned checking our trail cameras so I did.  WOW!  We caught a bunch of wildlife but I'll just post a few here for your enjoyment.  

I love everything about this man...  💙

A TEENAGER! 

This LOOKS LIKE Sadie being chased by a bear cub but it actually is Sadie being chased by Hank. 

Bunny

Opossum

Flying Pony - Buttercup

Coyote

????  We think Opossum

Fox

One thing I was thrilled about completing in February was Lily's dresser drawers!!!  I finally got the final coat of paint on them and the top coat and they cured and are filled with clothes and in her room.  NOW her room looks complete.  

The 'cleaning the shed' project was awesome for many reasons and one of them was the organization but the other was that I was able to go through things and toss things that were junk (either they never should have moved here with us or the kids playing in the shed for the past four years has made them into junk), and I got to unearth things that I finally used.  One example is these walkway lights that my Great Aunt Lindy gave to me back in California.  We had them in one of our walkway flowerbeds there and I finally brought them out and put them in one here.  The only "issue" was that they were FULL of red ants.  They had built quite the colony inside each lamp.  It was horrific.  I cleaned them out after spraying Zevo inside and all over but the amount of ants that just spilled out all over was sickening.  There had to be hundreds of thousands, if not more.  Anyway, the lights look incredible.  We programmed them to come on early in the morning and in the evening around dusk.  I love them so much and think of Aunt Lindy every night when I look at them.  

We have since bought black mulch to add to all of our flowerbeds so I will post updated pictures soon.  Plus, everything is super green again!  

This is just ONE pile of ants.  You can't see how high the pile is though.  It's horrible.  There were like four or five piles like this.  

Dogs...  My next post will have a bigger update on the animals.  We had Mia for a couple of weeks in February and loved our time with the little thing.  She's such a loving dog.  She is currently back with Granny K and doing wonderfully.  The afternoon we got home from Georgia, Sadie came back from the orchard or the forest limping.  I thought she had hurt her paw pretty badly and she rested a lot that day.  That night I started checking her out a little more in depth and when I spread apart her toes, she yelped.  I looked a little closer and noticed she had a stick poking out of her pad but it was very deep and kind of hidden.  I pulled it out and cleaned her paw.  The stick was big and long and really hurt her.  Poor girl.  It was buried about a half an inch inside her pad.  It took about three days and she walked normal again.  We let the horses out to graze the property since we started getting so much grass.   They love being out but it can't be done a lot because they do a lot of damage.  

Pork rinds are their favorite treat. 

Even Mia gets in on the action.  

My sweet Bear Bear.  He's my shop companion.  

Look at the size difference between Sadie and Mia.  

You can kind of see how far in the stick was - about 1/2 of the stick.  

Look at the little monster rolling around!!!  

Also about the dogs...  One evening Sadie and Missy ran off into the forest and were gone for waaaaayyy too long.  Normally they go and are back within minutes.  They also come when they're called and didn't.  I started to get a little nervous but decided to not panic.  Eric was on his way home from jiu jitsu with the kids and I had the twins here and was making supper.  When Eric got home, he and Tristan began a more serious search of the forest and finally found both Missy and Sadie.  Thankfully they were together and thankfully, alive.  They were bleeding and had some damage to their faces but were unharmed otherwise.  It appears they killed a deer and/or came across a killed deer and tangled with a coyote over it.  Missy had a lot of blood on her body but upon closer inspection, we realized it wasn't hers.  Sadie's lip got ripped open and has healed with a little split in the end of it.  I am so thankful they were basically fine.  Also, the next day, Tristan went and searched and found the body of a buck and evidence of the fight.  The pictures don't really do justice to the amount of blood and rips and tears.  I am just glad it wasn't worse.  

We have had a lot of coyote activity.  Here is a video of them just going crazy in the forest one night. 

The twins...  You guys.  The first day we woke up in Georgia, Nolan was absolutely burning up.  He had such a high fever.  Thankfully, Tylenol and Ibuprofen broke his fever and he was basically fine for the trip if we kept him medicated.  We told Andy and Monica immediately and they told us to stay anyway and they weren't scared of germs.  Long story short, when we got back, Eric immediately took him to Urgent Care because he kept spiking super high fevers.  He tested positive for Influenza B but it was too late for TamiFlu.  So, we had to wait it out.  When I messaged his teacher, she replied with "There is another kid at his table who tested positive last week, too."  Well, maybe sending a heads up out would have been a good idea.  Anyway, it sure did linger and Harlan ended up with it too but he got TamiFlu.  It still felt like forever until it was gone.  Everything makes its way through our household one person at a time, it seems, so it takes FOREVER for it to go away.  

Harlan lost another tooth. 

Harlan has also been practicing riding his bike.  

Homeschool.  We are still trucking along with homeschool and loving it (mostly).  We REALLY LOVE the freedom and adjustable schedule.  The twins have started asking to be homeschooled next year but I don't think they're ready.  They don't take it quite serious enough yet.  They do join us in the classroom and I have put together a small curriculum for them for when they're home sick and on school break.  Like spring break...  Nolan LOVES to do his work.  Harlan only sticks with it for a short period. The ironic thing is that it is the compete opposite at school.  Mia even got her own bed in the classroom while she was with us.  You can see from the photos that she loved it.  

We found a little dog house on the exchange for $20 so Eric went and picked it up while the kids were in jiu jitsu one evening.  We bought it for when Mia is here but it's big enough for Hank or June too.  Or Harlan and Nolan who frequently climb inside and relax.  

When Eric took all of our junk to the dump after cleaning the shed, he came home with a brand new counter-top ice maker.  The guy at the dump said the lines needed bled and that we could have it.  Eric brought it home and we are hoping to make it work because it is nice and makes a lot of ice.  We use a lot of ice in the summertime.  I use it all the time so I am especially hopeful.  

I bought a new living room rug.  It's huge.  It's starting to grow on me.  At first I thought I had made a mistake because it was so large but I'm starting to like how it kind of makes the living room its own space.  

Random photos...  I'll post more on my next post but Eric had been working on Ivann and Andrea's night stands in between all of his other activities and made a bunch of progress in February.  He also teaches Nico about his saws and tools when he comes into the shop and told Nico that when he can tell him the names of the tools, how they work and how to be safe with them, he can start using them with Eric's supervision.  We have had some incredible sunsets and I can't wait to see more of them as the weather warms up even more.  Gramps is cooking again and made kabobs for us.  He had Eric grill them since there were so many.  A few years ago, I bought a nail dip kit and used it only once.  I am not good at doing that stuff to myself.  I tried again and they turned out pretty good this time.  They only lasted like four days though because as soon as they chip a little, they're gone.  

That sums up our February.  I already started on March though because it is a big post and a LOT happened in March.  We have suffered a big loss and are still in mourning.  We also had a fantastic month with HUGE milestones.  Lots of growing up going on in our home.  

UNCLE LEIGH- I sent your package!  You should expect it in the next year or so because I picked the slowest option to get it to you.  Sorry!  It was MUCH more affordable to send it carrier pigeon.  Lol.  No, seriously, it's on its way.  

Happiest of birthdays...  and anniversaries!  

  

Isabella Nelson!  Bella, you are turning into such a beautiful and talented young lady.  I especially love your talent and love for horses.  Keep it up, girl.  You are amazing.  We hope you had an incredible day.  

Morgan Fanning!!!  Girl, you amaze me on the daily.  You are so beyond talented and driven.  I love how hard you work for something you love.  Your dedication and hard work really shines and now you are reaping the rewards.  Keep at it and I know we will see great things from you.  Happiest of days to you.  

And... last but not least, happy anniversary to my sweet hubby, Eric.  I mean, I never like to brag but I'm pretty sure I have the best taste EVER.  I knew when I met you that we'd be married one day.  I could never have guessed at what our life would be like and how full it would be.  I also could never have guessed what it would be like to feel complete happiness and contentment with someone or know what it would feel like to look at another person and have my heart feel over-full with love.  I have said it before and I'll say it again, I am so thankful that I dug my claws into you, I mean PICKED YOU.  Oops.  Thank you for not taking it when my dad was giving you the out on February 6th, 2009.  Look at this life we have created!  It is so fulfilling to do this all with you.   I love you beyond measure.  

The day I flew home from California was our (actual) wedding anniversary.  We have the two anniversaries but February 6th is the day we were legally married in Idaho in front of my family.  My parents went all out for our "casual" wedding and it is something I hold close to my heart and treasure.  This year, my dad kept the kids for Eric to pick me up alone so we could go out to dinner.  We found a steakhouse on the way home from Nashville and enjoyed our time together.  The big kids helped a bunch too.  It was just perfect.  We missed one another while I was away, which I think is good for couples, and then we had our nice, relaxing, yummy reunion.  

I hope you all are staying happy and healthy!  

Take care!