The Hunt is over already

My husband and I go hunting every fall in eastern North Dakota. He began hunting long before I did, as a matter of fact, he is the one who has taught me (or teaching me rather) how to hunt. I love what we do. We go to a beautiful location....that can never be disclosed because of the Hunter's Code of Ethics, and we just sit there and soak in the beauty around us. Its a great way to clear the mind and just enjoy the moment.

Last night, we watch a little brown mink run across a frozen creek and dive into and under the ice. We watched the little air bubbles come up under the ice to show us the progress he had made. The little mink would come near us and bare his little teeth, just to keep us in line so we wouldn't try any funny stuff. :) It was fun.

Then about 15 minutes before our hunt would have to end, a buck peeked his head up from the grass and stared at us. Its always like that. Right when we are about to pack it in, the action gets going. My husband got it all on tape. We have watched it about 5 or more times now. We laugh at ourselves and at each other. Its fun. He wasn't the biggest one around....but I am grateful anyways. :) No, I am not just like Sarah Palin, I haven't field dressed one yet, my husband does that for me.

I have many posts to catch up on....I will do my best to do as many as I can.

Milestones and tears

Well.....I sent my little boy to his first day of preschool this morning. Yesterday, for the first time in my life I went school shopping for someone other than me. We had to get him a backpack.....he picked out Spiderman. For some reason, he likes Spiderman. He has never seen the cartoon or the movies, but he knows he likes him.

We loaded it full of spare clothes, immunization reports, a check for his milk ticket, and two snacks for his first day.

When we pulled up to the outside of the school, Daniel was more interested in what was behind the school, the playground.....and the fact that it was loaded with kids. But I could see there was some curiosity towards what was in the doors too.

He looks so little next to the school. We found his classroom. It was my second grade classroom with Mrs. Kvamme. The smell of the school and everything else whipped me back to when I was a little girl starting school. I got a little choked up. (No tears though, not yet)

I know that he will have a lot of fun with preschool. It will help to prepare him for kindergarden. This will greatly help his social skills. I didn't cry until I was almost home.

Yesterday while preparing to get him ready for school, I had to run to the clinic to get a copy of his immunizations. He had to go potty. I went into a bathroom and he did his business. Someone else walked in and Daniel dropped to all fours immediatly. His head went under the stall and he yelled...."Look Mama, that grandmas going potty too!" I just started laughing and couldn't stop. I ran out of the bathroom with him, laughing the whole way. Its one of the great memories I will keep with me as he grows.

Just a sidenote, today is my fourth anniversary!

For everything else.....there's mastercard

Come and Play....everythings a-ok. Can you tell me where the skies are blue? Can you tell me how to get.....how to get to Sesame Street?

I took my son to see Sesame Street Live yesterday. On Friday I told him that we were going to go and see Elmo and Cookie Monster sing and dance after church on Sunday. He took it to mean that on Friday we would go to church and then go meet Elmo and Cookie Monster......you can see

what happened, right?

I went through a few days trying to explain and cheer up a 3 year old that only wanted to go to church to "meet Helmo and Cookie Monter". I thought Sunday would never get here.

Church is usually a highlight for my baby. He loves it. He likes all of the babies there. So, during the confession of faith, during the Apostles creed.....he talked about "Helmo".

Then....finally 3:30 came. We went and picked up Grandma and left to go meet Elmo.....er...I mean Helmo. They charged $5.00 to park my car.

$22.00 a ticket.

Here we goooooooooo..........this should be great! Right? ......

We got there and immediatly we saw these little whirley light up Elmo toys.....I had to get it for my boy.....a lot of the kids had them!

Spinny thing

$15.00

The popcorn was 4.50, cotton candy 10.00, and coke was 2.00. Stay with me.

Then the show started......

and my baby cried and screamed. Why? Because he wanted to go on to the stage to "meet Helmo!" I went through about 20 minutes of fighting a wiggly and squirmy screaming three year old! Finally, I had had enough! Mommy wasn't going to stand for this awful behavior anymore! I took him to the lobby......intending to have a "talk" with him. Then I saw something and had a great idea. I would buy him his own Elmo to sit with him and then he would be happy. I thought of the Supernanny and how much she would disapprove of this action. Was I bribing my son to behave. Was I rewarding his horrible behavior and letting him know that he would gain from this type of action?

Yep. I may as well be honest about it.

Elmo doll

$25.00

Oh, I am not done yet. When we got back to the show....my mother in law just stared at me....her mouth was open. I was informed that I was spoiling him. I stated...."He is my only child!" Then I got to thinking of all the times my mom brought me and my siblings to the Shrine Circus and all I got was a Kitty balloon! Man....that sucked! Ready?...............

Really big kitty balloon....er, I mean Elmo balloon

$8.00

Talk about buyers remorse.

Well folks....I found Sesame Street! It costs a pretty penny to get there. But it was worth it....and it created a memory. and I learned that maybe I need to work on controlling my spending too!

Our newist additions to our family

Our family started with Jason, me, Daniel and a member of the family I don't talk much about......Zelda, our dog. I got her when I lived in Texas in 2003. She looks like this.

She is a really good dog. She doesn't do much. She is quiet. She keeps to herself. She likes to be pet. That is about it.

On Monday, we found these little guys on our doorstep....literally. They were very matted and dirty and had many, many woodticks on them. I took them the a groomer.

I had to keep them....you see, they are Shih Tzu's, my mom and dad used to raise Shih Tzu's and we kept them as pets for many years. Our little boy has fallen head over heels for the little one....he named him Gizmo. The older one is called Sparkey. Sparkey came to us potty trained....Gizmo needs work....but he is probably only about six months old.

They are cute! Zelda loves them too!

Before and After

I took some pictures awhile ago to be able to do before and after photos of our backyard. I took the "befores" in the early spring, right after the snow melted. The "afters" I was finally able to take yesterday. I wish I would have been able to take the "afters" when my lilacs were in full bloom....they were beautiful! But, here we go. My husband's and my life just got soooooo much easier. My husband installed a FENCE!!!!!! He actually did this over a period of two weeks, and didn't even let the downpour of rain stop him! Here we go......






Before After




Before After



Before After




We have cleaned out the trees, cut down trees, raked, sprayed weeds, trimmed back trees, taken down an old antenna, had stumps ground and installed a swing set. All for this......












Now our next before picture will be this......our home. Lets see what we can do with this?



You can kind of see my new car in the driveway.....my plates say "Xpresso". Thats right.....I am that cool!!!!

Let's go to the Circus!

We brought Daniel to the Circus for the first time ever last night. We didn't know what to expect from him. Would he be good? Would he be bad?

Here is Daddy and Daniel going to the Ralph Englested Arena....Home of the UND Fighting Sioux Hockey team.

I tried to prepare Daniel for the clowns. I know that sometimes kids are afraid of clowns. We looked up pictures of clowns on the internet. He just giggled and repeated the word "clown".

When we walked into the arena, clowns were there to greet all of the kids. Daniel was very excited and had a kind of frozen smile on his face. He didn't run and hide. He liked them. His bottom jaw shook. But he was brave!

Next, he got to go on a pony ride. His ponys name was Fat Joe.

He enoyed that! While we waited for the show to start I made the mistake of bringing him into the bathroom to change his pull ups. It became about the toilets after that. All the way until the lights went down. Once the show started, Daniel LOVED it! His big, blue eyes sparkled as he watched the show. He cheered and clapped. It was so cute. He got a green, glowing sword and you could tell by the look on his face that he thought he was pretty special as he waved his sword around in the dark.....you know what? He was!

Just a side note. I am enrolled in college at UND. I start with American Government this May. Wish me luck!

Happy Easter! Happy Birthday

We had a fun Easter at our house. Daniel, Grandma Bakke and I went to sunrise service at church. It was a good service! I have found a church I really enjoy. I get so excited about it! In a way its odd because its a Free Lutheran Church. Nothing against the Lutheran church, its just different than what I was used to. But the Free Lutheran Church is like a bridge between the Nazarene and the Lutheran. I really enjoy it and really like the pastors way of thought. Which is also suprising, he is very conservative. :) Daniel got up extra early and was suprised and delighted by his Easter basket that the Easter bunny left him. The night before, he wouldn't go to sleep so I told him that if he would just fall asleep, the Easter bunny would come into our house at night time and leave him candy. Daniel then said, "oooo, I cared" (it means, I am scared.) That made me laugh pretty good.

To join us for Easter and the "hunt' was his cousin Trace from Minneapolis, Uncle Vance and Aunt Kelly. Daniel loved to play with Trace.

The following week was Daniel's THIRD birthday! Wow, time is going to fast! He had a fun and very special birthday. He shares his birthday with two of his cousins, Jesse and Billy. Well, Billy came to our house to celebrate his tenth birthday all the way from Spokane! Along with Billy came Aunt Lisa, cousins Amanda, Sayde and Morgan. Great Grandma and Grandpa came over too! Daniel has taken a special liking to Morgan. Yesterday, we were on our way to Grandma's house and Daniel said "Is Morgan there?" I laughed. That is the most complex sentence Daniel has said yet! Here are some pictures:

Daniels favorite cartoon is Mickey Mouse. So, I found a Mickey Mouse cake. He LOVES cake. He LOVES Mickey Mouse.....He had a good day. He got a Tonka Dump truck, a John Deer Tractor and finger paints. Wish you all could have been there.