This week at the Homestead....

There's the beginnings of a floor!

Should be done tomorrow......

The best part: WE HAVE A ROAD SIGN!

P.S. - - an added note to this post. We've had inquiries about the name of the road... We wanted something personal. There was actually a poll on our facebook regarding certain names, (such as, "Temple Lane" - "Celestial Way", and even "Mormons Rule!" (loved that last one Chrissy!) But we wanted something that had some substantial meaning with our family. 'Mair' is my Grandmother's maiden name, and 'Loveland' is Bryan's Grandfather's last name. So.... in the words of the late....
"...and now, you know the REST of the story!"

Taylor's Birthday

So, my sweet little boy is a bratty teenager now. Well, not quite. In "name" only. He's still sweet. And we give him a bit of grief that he's still 'little'. Poor guy. He did grow whole inch since his last birthday. WaHOO! Grateful for every little bit. So, for his birthday, he's wanted a .22, but I just wasn't ready for that. Good thing he's got Bryan rootin for him. When we went shopping, I knew there was no way I was getting out of it - so I added my two cents worth, and at least made him get the camo gun. So, you know how they say the rest of it.....

Ruger 10/22 Gun - $330.
Accessories (of course) - $50.00


The look on my poor 13 year old's face - - -

$ PRICELESS $

Poor Brin

I have known this child was going to put me through the wringer - but holy cow! We've worried about our wood burning stove since we moved in, well, it finally happened. Brin is always running around the kitchen table, and I've had huge fears of her falling on the stove, but yesterday, she was simply walking by, and slipped, and fell backwards, and .... ouch.

The stupid part about this, is that when Brin first learned to roll over, she rolled right into our gas fireplace back in Ephraim and burned the fingers on her hand. Same arm. Same type of burn. *sigh* The nurse in the E.R. thought she was funny when she gave ME a sticker that said "don't play with matches".... DUH??!!!!!

Once we got home and got the wound wrapped, she was pretty proud of her tough little self. She loved her stickers from the E.R., and she's thinking the bandage makes her invincible.....
I'm so in trouble.

My Weekend

So I had a really cool weekend. I was able to go to Casper and take photos for the High School Basketball teams for state. SO much fun! A little intimidating, but, still pretty cool. I haven't edited all the photos, however there was one picture that I was totally excited for.....

I have to admit, I felt pretty cool to get my first "Media Pass" and be down on the floor with the other Event and Media Photographers. It was an awesome learning experience.

House Update -

We now have a basement! We finally had the cement poured for the walls this last Friday. Tonight Bryan and I went over to put chalk lines all over and 'map out' the rooms downstairs. Yeah! It's finally beginning to look like something!

Yes.... Stockton's expression totally sums up our weekend. (In a good way!) It doesn't matter what the occasion, when my family gets together, it tends to be a crazy mad house! But oh, do we have fun. This weekend it was especially needed. How fortunate for us, we were able to meet up with a couple of friends we haven't seen in years. It was very much needed. So thank you to all that we visited with; thank you for listening, playing, putting up with us, and making good memories! We love all of you!

McKenna, Caitlyn, and Maranda - out in Grandma's hot tub. (THAT was nice this weekend too!)

Can't believe how these kids have grown up! They have been buddies since they were "in the womb" =)

The reason for the occasion - little Jace's blessing. What a choice experience! Isn't he such a stud? I totally love his smile! And he has the BEST chubby cheeks!!

Happy little family! My rockin cool brother with his fine lookin wife (who had a really good hair day! wink wink!) sweet little Alli Jo and Jace.

Ok - explaination....... his name is Jace ANAKIN ........ hahahahahaha!! It's so HARD not to call him... the other name, he he he!

So, this totally explains my brother's true nature. Just hangin out with the little boys... 'nough said. =)

I also got a chance to shoot some maternity photos of my dang hot sister, and her very hot lookin honey. I had to put one of these good ones up, before I put up my FAVORITE photo of the weekend...... (I love you Keesa!)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

SO BUSTED!!

Remember I love you honey - but this is a sweet picture!

And just to make you feel better..... I put this on. (had my first eyebrow wax this weekend too. Not fun.) Thanks SO much Pootie for capturing the moment of surprise. ugh.

yeah! SO good to see Melanie, Shawnie......

Keith and Sari!!
Gotta love Facebook! Can't wait for the summer trailer park reunion!
(yes... I was poor white trailer trash. But we all were - and we were cool!)

Oh Carol!! SOOOO good to sit and visit again! I think that in April, we're going to have to send the kids to a movie though, and WE'LL sit in the hot tub!!

My sweet little sister -POO HEAD. For once she just smiled. And I caught it for proof! Do you know how many other photos I have of your 'weird face' with your tongue sticking out?!!

hmmmm..... that's a familiar look. One from my youth. Almost makes me spontaneously say

"I didn't do it!"

my brother's awesome photography skills at work here..... at... once again.. one in the morning. (see? we're always up way too late goofing off!)

Dave.... there are not words to describe the stud that you are.....
(p.s. - thanks for hangin with me so late. I needed that!)

hahahahhahahaha!!!!!
love you babe!

Thursday was scary for us

Some of you have heard, either directly from us, or on the news, we were involved in helping with a wreck Thursday night. The link to KSL's story is HERE - And the SL Trib's article link is HERE - It was pretty traumatic for our family. The paper's don't do it justice, but they hardly ever do. Not quite the whole story.... but a good over view of basically what happened. At least you get to know the family and get a glimpse of what their night was like.

Our family grew from this experience. We were scared. We were touched by some very personal things that happened in our car with both our families. We mourned. We hurt. We shared. We hugged, and sent them off in the ambulance. Then we cried. For a very long time.

We will never be the same.

It's lambing season

I sat and warmed up a little bummer lamb today at my friends house. So sweet! The little thing was smaller than the cat! It was the 4th lamb, and it wasn't doing to well. After spending time snuggling it, and getting it warm, I decided that there's days that Wyoming can be cool.

Ok, just because I haven't posted in a while, and because this made me laugh........

*WATCH THIS*


And have a lovely day!

I don't think I've been so excited about DIRT in my whole life!

I shot this, just to get a comparison view. I will have 9 ft. ceilings in the basement, so I was checking out how deep the hole is. It's hard to get an idea of what it really looks like without something in the hole??!

We brought the kids over later tonight so they could check it out too.

The tractor is sitting on top of Randa's and Taylor's rooms, IN MY KITCHEN! Yeehaw!

THAT'S A LOT OF DIRT!

It's the first time Randa has actually been out to the place. Stinker is always "too busy" to come out. She liked what she saw tonight! Of course, she pulled her, "DUH" face that she loves to pose with.

Taylor is always happy to hang out in the dirt. =)
Especially when he's planning where his furniture goes.

Once again, the view toward my backyard. (oh yes! I have a backyard!)

They still have to dig more tomorrow - yes, it's only about 1/2 dug. But, there's progress!!!
I guess this means we're staying in Wyoming for a while.

Happy Birthday to ME!

One of my birthday activities this year was to "assist" in calving. I'm pretty sure I wasn't much of an a assistant - but it was still cool to watch. It still blows me away to watch the birth of animals and how nature and instinct just kick in.
So very cool.
Thanks Heidi! Loved it!

(this is Bryan's favorite photo. mainly because he took it, and he got ME in it! He said it reminds him of a picture in our friends house with two little boys on it, the quotation reading "been farmin long?")

Blog address change

Just FYI: For those (few) of you who check out my photo blog site, I've changed the address. It's now listed under "kcephotos.blogspot.com"