Sunday Walks

After almost 3 months of living out here, the chill has subsided and we are finally getting to enjoy the reason we moved out of town. Sure, those morning drives to school and back can be rough, not to mention the quick run to the store to pick up something you forgot does not exist any more, but on Sundays I am in heaven. There is nothing more peaceful than just walking down your dirt road looking at animal tracks, throwing big rocks, all with a view of a giant granite mountain.

Its funny how when you are not in town you get to actually know your neighbors. We know three different neighbors already, more than we knew in any apartment or house we ever lived in. Sad....but the truth. Too bad no one has kids. One neighbor of ours has an archeologist for a friend and on their property found a collection of arrowheads, a whole bucket of pottery pieces, an old Indian sewing needle, and some sort of tool used for chipping something made from rock. He told us that living on a hill like we do, we probably have stuff all over our property, and told me to look.Well the kids and I went out and found out that all of our rocks pretty much look the same to us, and that we know very little about how to find Indian artifacts. We do have a big plastic bag of miscellaneous rocks that the kids collected if anyone wants to see those. :)

Taylor and Colt

Our house from the back

Six!!!!

Abby celebrated her sixth birthday this week. Boy, does time fly.....it really feels like only yesterday Taylor and I walked into a North Dakota hospital to get me some IV fluids while I had the flu, only to find out that the baby was coming. I'll never forget calling my in-laws in the middle of the night to tell them I was having the baby, and it being such a surprise that my father in law said in a dream like state, "That's nice. Good luck." And hung up the phone. We still give him a hard time about that.

Well, no big friend party this year, but we celebrated the big SIX with pizza and cheesecake at Abby's request. Favorite presents included a swimsuit and coverup, magic tricks from mom and dad, a pseudo-American Girl doll, a beading set, and a REAL digital camera (a whole 3 megapixels)  from Grandma and Grandpa Unruh. (Been sitting in my moms closet since 2003, and really the best present you can give a 6 year old.)

I leave you with photos Abby took with her new camera. She's an artist in the making...watch out Megan!

I still have it....well, sort of.

Recently, I met a new friend while sitting and watching the kids classes at gymnastics. She is also a stay at home mom who was an ex-gymnast. After a little leg pulling she convinced me to start attending the adult gymnastics class at our gym  to flip and flop like I used to do years ago.

 

 

And then I got to bars, and uh...hem...lets just say that I need to work on arm-strength. I could barely hold myself up. Sad..... In my mind I know how to do everything I used to do. Unfortunately my body disagrees.

I have to admit, after attempting some of this stuff I was sore....no...make that extremely, barely able to move for over a week, sore. But it was fun, so alas we will continue trying to relive our peak years every Wednesday night.

And what did the kids do while I was doing my class? Mostly this.

Crawled around, entertaining themselves. Dang she's cute (and literally crawling)!  I promise I usually don't neglect my children like this. :)

A Big Month for the Abster

This month was huge for Abby.  We started out with her receiving an award at a spirit assembly at school for showing "Pawsitive Behavior." (School mascot is the bobcat.) Her teacher nominated her for the award, because she has a good attitude at school and is always willing to help out others. The principal presented her with the award in front of the entire school as a surprise.

On stage with the winners

 Abby and her teacher, Mrs. Alexander who nominated her

Then just a few weeks later, Abby lost her first tooth. This was after three agonizing weeks of her wondering when it would fall out but refusing any "help" to make it happen. Thus, her first tooth was lost as she bit into a cheese crisp, and swallowed it. In her almost obsessive worrying that the tooth fairy would not visit her because of this, she wrote a note to her explaining the situation, and asking that she would still leave her something. I guess the tooth fairy understood because in the morning there was $1.00 under her pillow.

And last, we rounded off the month with her being the student of the month "sign winner" for the entire school. They pick one "bobcat" from the whole school who exemplifies "bobcat" qualities and posts their name on the marquee outside the school. The principal also gives you a big metal sign to post in your front yard saying "Taylor Hicks student of the week lives here." Abby was so excited. Im not sure how we will be able to top this February for Abby, but I am sure she will try.