Horses, Horses, Horses

For those of you who know Shane, you know his LOVE for horses. It seems lately every spare minute of time he has is spent with the horses. His recent kick has been hooking up a team of horses to a wagon. Our family has been on several rides lately. The kids love it, and it works great around nap time, cause it puts the kids to sleep! Plus, we've pretty much got a zoo going on in Young Ward, there are lots of crazy animals to take a ride and see. It's GREAT! So if anyone wants a ride, come on over. He also brought the horses into our house the other day. Who knows what the neighbors where thinking, but OH WELL! We let the kids ride them around on the road anyways. It was great fun!

Play Time

I've found myself getting a little tired lately with picking up toys day after day. I thought having a playroom would help, all it has done is keep the toys in one room, that is always a mess! The kids help, but how much can a 3 and 1 year old really help? Well they've taught me a lesson... PLAY: to make a BIG mess with TOYS! I guess not everything has to be perfect and in its own place all the time. Lets have some fun.

A New Place, A New Ward

Well Shane & I are having an awfully hard time leaving our old ward. We have been to our new ward only twice. Our first Sunday in our house we went back to our old ward one final time we told ourselfs. Well they asked Shane to talk in sacrament, and also asked if we could do a little fireside to the youth on our experiences while Shane was gone. They hate to see us leave too. It is tempting to stay there, since we are only less than a mile out of ward boundary! (We didn't move far) Well yesterday Shane gave his talk and did awesome. No one would have guessed he prepared his talk that morning! What a stinker, I wish I could be that way. This coming Sunday is when we have our fireside. I've had like 4 weeks to prepare what I will say, but I am still at a loss for words! I'm sure things will come together fine, but I can't wait until it is over. Our new ward wasn't that bad. It just got split the week before we moved in, so everyone thinks everyone is new. No one really knows anyone. So it will take some adjusting and making new friends to make it feel like our ward.

Happy Halloween

Make a Smilebox greeting

The kids & I had a little fun trying on their Halloween costumes and playing some dressup today.

Our New Home At Last!

Well it has now been 2 weeks since we moved into our new house. We have been busy, with unpacking and getting settled and Shane hunting. The house was vacant all summer before we bought it, thus the dead lawn. I hope it comes back next year! Shane has had no luck with hunting thus far this year. He did take a brake from all the hunting and helped move in the rest of our things from our storage unit. So that was nice. I can't explain how wonderful it is to have our own home again! I am loving it, and so are the kids. They were excited to have their own playroom at this house, and so was I! No more picking toys up all over the house, they now are banded to one room! Shane seems to like the house too, he has already started building storage in the garage and finding places for all of his things. He bought a fire pit for our back yard this week, cause he thought we needed one. I think our neighbors have already figured out we are pretty red-neck! But that is okay. I have also managed to get 2 walls painted already. So things are moving along well for us. We are still enjoying having Shane home. I am not looking forward to him going back to work, we have been having so much fun with him!

Home Sweet Home

It seems like we have been very blessed lately. We got Shane home safe, we got our car sold, and we were able to buy a house, which is officially ours as of today! We are so excited. Now if I can just get Shane to move us in before he leaves to do all his hunting. I am afraid we might not be fully moved in until after the hunting season. But that is okay, we are just glad to have him home. He has 5 weeks of work off to spend with family, and of course to do his hunting. He gave me some pictures to post from Iraq that I thought might be interesting for some of you to see.



This is Shane when he first arrived.







Shane working, he does sheet metal repair work on the F-16's






This is a mosque located on base. Ballad Air Base used to be Saddam Hussein's main air base, before the US took over it. Shane says it was pretty weird to think he had been walking in buildings that Saddam Hussein had been in.







Ballad at dusk.








Lots of pretty bugs Shane had to deal with.

Welcome Home Shane!!

Well at last Shane is home safe and sound! We are so happy to have him home. He got home Sunday Morning. For those of you who didn't know, Shane has been gone on a tour to Iraq for the past 5 months. The kids are loving having their daddy home. Shane already has some big hunting trips planned, so it looks like I will be alone again until after hunting season!! He is planning on taking Bricker with him. Both of the kids won't let Shane out of their sight, and of course Shane is loving it!