Roger Finally Graduates!

Roger has finally graduated the police academy after having been away from home for 4 months! whew! That was crazy. props to all you single moms out there. Now we are trying to get back into normal life again. Roger is so happy to be a police officer and "bust the bad guys". He loves his new career and I like saying. yeah my husbands a pig!.... Lets hope he never pulls me over!

Very 1st School Picture

Clover had her first school picture. She might look like she's happy and having a good time but 10 minutes before this was taken she was crying and was scared of the photographer. I don't know how we pulled it off but we got a pretty good picture out of her. She's growing up so fast.

Stop To Smell The Roses Once In A While

(pictures don't do the sunset justice, but you get the idea)

(my chickens like to follow me around begging for food when I go out back)

We have the most amazing sunsets almost every night behind our house. I don't often pay attention to them because its the time we're eating or putting the kids in the bath. I need to take more time to stop and enjoy the beautiful world we live in. I can also see lots of stars out at night in our backyard, which is really amazing to me coming from a big city where you pretty much have to go camping to see any stars. I live in a pretty nice place, I guess I'm pretty blessed.

Pre-School Days

Clover has turned 3 and that means she is able to go to pre-school! She's so grown up! Before I had kids I thought that pre-school was a joke and it was basically day care that I would never put my kid in. Ha, I was wrong. Clover wanted to go to school, I didn't push her at all... And her school is so awesome. It is a christian church that has a preschool attached. The teacher is great, they learn tons, they do a letter, color, and shape of the week. The have art time, outside play time, snack time, show and tell, learn something about God, and all kinds of other stuff. She loves it. They have picture day this week for her very first of a long line to come of school year photos (I'm more excited about that than she is). But it is a great learning and growing experience for her and I'm glad she is enjoying it. She didn't even cry the first day. (she was the only kid in her class that didn't cry for mommy!)

Campbell's Farm Fresh Chicken Eggs

2 of our chickens have finally started laying eggs. Yeah, 5 months later and 4 chickens down (played with a bit too hard by our dog). but finally the fruits of our labor have come to fruition. We have not yet built them a laying nest because Roger has been away for work and we didn't know exactly how long it would take for them to start laying so they created their own nest. it is a very dirty cubbord next to our shed that has junk in it. I guess that will just have to do for now until we can get around to building them a proper nest box. Hey, it works and it's free. So now we have free range, organic brown eggs at your service every morning. (they lay about 1 a day). It is awesome. mush better then those store bought eggs. I love living on our own mini-farm.

Crew Turns 1

Crew turned 1 year old on September 25 (which is also my birthday, & I turned 30 Yuck!!!) and I can't believe how fast this past year has gone by. He is a little spit fire and is the happiest, giggliest kid I've met. He is cuddly, and sweet and eats like a horse. He is still learning to walk, and is into everything. He loves to play with his big sis and swing upside down. He is very inquisitive and loves our dog and chickens. We love him.

Clover Turns 3!

My little girl is all grown up (or so she thinks anyway). She had her third birthday on August 25. she got a bike from mom and dad, which she absolutely loves. it only took her 1 day to get the hang of the big kid bike and the training wheels. she's natural. we had family and all the neighbor kids over for a pinata and dinner and cake. i made the cake, and it did not turn out exactly as planned. lots of frosting was used to cover up all the issues i had... like the back falling off! oh well, nobody cared and it tasted good so whatev. Now she is on to pre-school. another post on that will have to follow.....

Backyard Picture Session

A girl that we met here in town that took our family pics back in October came over a few weeks ago and took some 6/7 month pics of Crew and of the kids together in our backyard. She is so talented. They turned out great. I have cute kids. (I might be a little bias). She even got a great shot of our St. Bernard Zeena Princess Warior. In other news our chickens (we got 6 chicks about a month ago and have been keeping them in our house under a heat lamp in the laundry room). We are finally going to get them out of our house this week and into their own chicken house! They are stinking up of whole house!! Also we planted our garden about a month ago and all our little seeds are sprouting. It's so exciting. If everything grows properly we are going to have veggies coming out the you know what! We've got onions, carrots, peppers, broccoli, califlower, peas, cucumbers, beets, radishes, tomatoes, corn, squash, zucchini, strawberries, and watermellon, oh and lettuce. plus we have 3 apple trees and 1 pear tree, wow! I better learn to can, freeze, and dry.

Where To Begin..... The Last 2 Months

ok. It's been awhile but life has been crazy the past few months. I'll do a quick catch-up. Well, we bought and moved into a great house. Built in 1909, remodeled in 2006, with a basement and finished attic, a porch, pickett fence and the best part a huge yard! We really like it. It has old charm but with 21st century amenities like new appliances, cabinets and carpet and paint. Next Crew is turning 6 months old this month. I can't even believe 6 months has flown by and my little man isn't a tiny baby anymore. Roger got a promotion at work. Meaning a higher rank and more money. So that was really cool. Roger has also been offered a job for the city of Umatilla (one of the 3 cities we live next to) for a full time police officer position. He has decided to take the position and should start in May. The only down side to this awesome opportunity (he's been trying to get on a police department for about 2 years), is that he has to go to the police academy in Salem, M-F for 16 weeks, and Salem is 4 hours away from us. That means he has to live there and we will only see him on the weekends for 4 months starting June-October. This is going to suck but its a sacrifice we have to make I guess. Another exciting (well not quite for me) but challenge we are facing right now is potty training Clover. It is going good mostly but proves to be trying my patience to the breaking point. Some days we have no accidents, others 5 times a day she is peeing her pants. I am at a loss.... And last but not least Roger brought home 2 dogs. Yes, 2 dogs and two different times. Oliver, is our little rat dog. He is half yorkie terrier half shitzu. And then there is our beast Xena (Zena), she is a full blooded St. Bernard. So we have a David and Goliath situation on our hands. Wow, as if I didn't have enough on my plate with a new house and 2 kids.....

Coupon Crazy

Spent $36 ............................Saved $58

I have officially decided that I am no longer going to stand for spending $400-500+ a month at the grocery store. I am going to take charge of my spending and I am starting a new way of shopping. Some like to call it crazy coupon shopping. I like to call it cha-ching saving! I have just barely started this process, only going 2 times so far. But, I am liking what I am seeing and have been doing really well. The basics of my scheme.... Buy on sale items, then use coupons and a few other little tricks to get rock bottom prices. Then stock up on your deals to create a stock pile of items to use for now and later. The 2 times that I have gone, shopping at Albertsons and Yokes (a Washington grocery chain) I have spent little and saved lots. Refer to my pictures to see all my items and my out of pocket $$ and then savings. You too can do this! It is hard at first, but oh so worth it when you see the $$$ your saving at the end



Spent $31........................Saved $67

Playing Dress-Up

Clover is really into dress up now. She is starting to play make believe and get an imagination. She has to wear her dress up clothes every day and even gets me to let her wear them out of the house sometimes. She is a character. She even got Daddy to join in on the fun once. Thank goodness I got a picture of this for blackmail purposes.

Let It Snow

It has snowed here a few times, stayed for a week or two, and then warmed up and melted. Even without the snow it has been really cold in Hermiston. We are finding out that this area gets on top of snow, freezing rain, sleet, and lots of ice. I didn't realize this when I moved her. But, I guess its nice to have seasons and weather from boring old Vegas where its sunny 300 days a year. So bring on the snow!