I have been a lazy blogger

Ok, so I've been a lazy blogger and our housewarming was a month ago. It's such a process to post 5 pictures at a time so I've been using facebook. Maybe there is an easier way, like the new blog that Jason set up for me many months ago but I haven't figured out yet. I'll get there, perhaps after the girls start school and I have a few hours a week to myself. We will see...

Here are the housewarming photos. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm but not too warm. We had a great turn out and enjoyed being able to have all these people out at one time and not being crowded in a small area. I loved walking around with almost all of our favorite people enjoying our yard, pool, food. I've never enjoyed hosting a party before but out here, I wish we could fill the house with family and friends every day (and for the first month and a half we just about did have visitors every day).

Austin - Heather and Brant's son
Heather, Austin and Tara

Liam and Reagan cruising around the yard

Liam's first time in the jeep, he was holding on for dear life, we all got a good laugh at his expense

Aydan was enjoying herself

and so was Reagan

Shawn and Nicole

a little bean bag toss

Doug and Dad

Abbey (Piper's "best" friend from Preschool), Piper and Reagan enjoying a snack

Robin and and Marilyn swooning over a new baby (he was pretty darn cute, I got to hold him for quite a while too).

The pool was a popular hang out, it just took one person to jump in before many others joined. Jason and I wish we could have jumped in too.

Lisa, Jason and Nate

Uncle Mike taking it easy

Lonny and his brother John

Liam, Kayden and Brecken in the background having some fun

Brecken and Kayden enjoying a stroll, I think this is about the cutest picture.

Jason showing Shawn and Mike the views

Bill, Mike and Doug

I did manage to squeeze in between everyone to dip my feet in briefly, it was refreshing

The expectant Mommies having a little chat

John and Sandy brought their Granddaughters Ella and Anna out to visit

Grandma Ginger renamed the boys.........you'll have to ask me verbally for their names

Decorating

We are finally getting around to decorating the house a little bit, with a little help from our friends and family of course. Geof picked up a pool table for us and brought it out. It was a very generous gift and we can't thank him enough. It was fun to watch him assemble it as I've never seen one taken apart before. Jason and I keep sneaking in games whenever we go downstairs and man, we are out of practice. It's been years since we've played and it shows.

I finally got around to painting and decorating Piper's room. She picked out the color and I made her go one shade lighter (if you can believe it). Mom came over and helped me paint, she actually did all the worst parts, taping and doing the trim around the woodwork. She saved me hours of work. She even was brave and patient enough to let the girls take turns doing some painting. I just have to pretend they don't have a brush in their hands without a drop cloth otherwise I freak out. Not Mom, she's as cool as a cucumber.

In addition to picking out the color, Piper also picked out the bedding and the bean bag. We had a lot of fun picking everything out and she's been so excited she's made her own bed all week without having to be asked. I hope that continues but know it won't. Thank you to Niki as most of the wall decorations have come from her, some several years ago and most of it recently as left overs from Vienna's room. I will have to post a picture of her curtains when I finish the last panel. It involved sewing which I am not that great at but I got the job done and they look pretty cute.

We love being outside

We are enjoying being outside in the yard and pool. Jason has been hard at work getting the barn all cleaned up. He has finally got it looking really nice after putting in several weeks of sweat and tears. Ok, I don't think there were any tears from him but there were definitely some from Piper when he gave her the task of sweeping the barn floor. It was too dirty of a job for her and she was not a happy princess.

The girls are getting brave in the pool. Piper has finally realized she can touch the bottom and has started working on learning to swim. She does a modified dog paddle/treading water technique and it works for her. Reagan is working on holding her breath and sliding into the pool with a noodle. Most of her face is dunked and she just pops up and takes a breath and goes on swimming. It's so much fun to watch them.
The neighbor's horse which we call "Pretty Boy" because he doesn't have a name that we know of. The neighbor kind of grunts and says call him whatever. I haven't figured our neighbor out yet even though we've had several conversations. He's a nice guy but doesn't say a lot.
So, Pretty Boy comes up to the little bit of pasture in our back yard and we get a chance to pet him and talk to him. He's a nice horse and we love seeing him around, I am so glad we have him around but he's not our responsibility.

Jason loves to vacuum the pool, it gives him a good excuse to jump in with the girls and keep busy while they all swim.

4th of July

Well it was the first 4th of July in our new house. We wanted to explore Lonsdale and Northfield and see what activities they had close to home. On Saturday Lonsdale had their big festival/games/baseball and fireworks. That was the day Joe came out to visit with his kids and so we stayed here to visit and missed all the activities. That was fine, we enjoyed visiting with Joe. We did go to the top of the hill in our pasture to see what firework displays we could enjoy from our own yard. Unfortunately we spent most of our time defending ourselves from the mosquitos and saw a few different firework displays, only far off in the distance so we couldn't get the full oooh and ahh effects of the noises. Oh well, we decided to go to Northfield on Sunday and enjoy their's up close and personal. The kids parade and carnival happened about 6pm and we went to that, it was cute and the girls had a great time but I was kind of bummed, it was not a big thing, just a small parking lot with kids games and facepainting, no food or anything like that. After we finished that we had 2 hours until Fireworks started in the park and it was like a ghost town, I have no idea if people wait around and then walk down to the park before it starts or what the deal is, there were all of 60 people milling around the kids area and then nothing, just ducks and crickets for 2 hours. We decided to pack it up and come home and go to bed. I think next year we will continue the tradition of going to Excelsior and watching fireworks from Mom's steps or perhaps go up to the cabin and watch them on the boat.

See Jason and the girls fighting their way through the crowded sidewalks???

We waited in line for almost an hour to get the girls faces painted, they were so patient and loved it!

They even got to pet a bunny during their wait.

Here it is, the big event! Sorry for the sarcasm, we did have fun I was just a little let down, I tend to get myself all excited for these things and then get let down when it isn't quite as exciting as I expected. I don't know why, I hate crowds and waiting around, this was the perfect size for me.

Piper got dressed up for the occasion, we couldn't find Reagan's red shirt.

So cute!

We couldn't help but crack up, they told Piper to move up closer to the board and then she started pitching these bean bags, almost hitting one lady in the head and tossing them over and to the side of the board at full speed. I think she has my crazy throwing arm.

Reagan opted to have her face painting on her arm so she could check it out.

Piper opted for a sun and rainbow on her cheeks