Dancing Smiles

Last night, the kids and I were invited to a dance performance!  It was so fun and cute and wonderful!  Smiles and tutus and dance shoes and cheers and screams!  These lovely children preformed during half time at the local basket ball team and it was wonderful!  We were there specifically for one lovely dancing girl and fell in love with all of them!  There were even two young gentlemen who performed and they rocked it!

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A New Weekend Art Project

So yesterday, while I was getting the house ready for our 1st Annual Super Bowl Party (Which ROCKED by the way!), Loren sat down with the kids and their friends with a new project that we had discussed doing.  So of course, me being me, I put down the party goods and got the camera out.

His mother, a wonderful strong intelligent woman, has a glass cutting system.  So he borrowed it for the day.  And we sat down to do a bit of experimenting.  There are so many wasted bottles and such out there, and honestly, some very pretty shapes and colors, so why not make a vase, or a drinking glass, or a candle holder?

Little Man found it so interesting!

The girls sat back and watched hesitantly at first.  After all, how can you cut glass?  LOL  Because at 13, you know everything!

God forbid a girl put down her phone!  LOL

I love the fact that Loren stressed the importance of reading and following the directions of any new project that the kids start.

Little Man found it fascinating. He didn’t understand how just scoring the bottle would work in causing the two halves of the bottle to separate.

He was quite skeptical, but hung in there!

Even the girls….who at 13…are captivated by the process.

Some girl talk going on.

Some heating….Some cooling….And some sanding….Look at that focus!

As you can see, these two are quite proud of the final results!  LOL

The Best Way To Spend New Years Day.

With amazing family and friends!

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The Best Way To Spend Christmas Eve

The Best Way To Spend Christmas Eve is with my children.  They are everything in this world to me.  Nothing else matters.  Nothing else comes close.

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I love you two!

 

My Self-Created Christmas Gift From My Little Man From Today!

He’s So Sweet!

Best Clients EVER!

<p>I am so blessed.  Today, the Fed Ex guy knocked on the door.  I was confused.  I was not due to get any deliveries today.  hhhhmmm…maybe I’m getting the neighbors stuff…again….by mistake.</p><p>NOPE!  By all means, that address does say About You Photography. </p><p>And…why does this box feel …. cool?</p><p>I hope it up and what do I see?  But this lovely box…</p><p> </p>

hhhmmm…what a pretty box!  But I’m sure I did not order anything!
Wait…a card?
Cathy, Cody, Ashton, & Rylie!  Probably one of my favorite families in the world to capture both inside the arena and outside the arena!

Oh My Gosh!  How Sweet!

And I literally did not know how sweet!

OMG!

How YUMMY can you get?

I am so torn between eating them and photographing them!  (Please excuse the horrible cell phone images!)  So tomorrow…I think I’m gonna photograph them and then eat them!  =0)

I LOVE the thought they added about me not having to share with the kids!  LOL

Thank You Cathy, Cody, Ashton & Riley!  You guys are the BEST!

Merry Christmas!
Michelle

Holiday Wrestling Matches!

Needless to say, there is tons of excitement in the air!  Little Man and Bug are full of pent up energy!  Last night, Little Man burned a bit of that off!

Birthday Gifts For Little Men

No matter how a loving mother doesn’t want it to happen, Little Boys grow up into Big Boys.  It’s enough to break a Mom’s heart!  Especially if her entire life evolves around everything that her children do, think, laugh at, cry at, and learn.

So one of Little Man’s favorite birthday gifts was from our dear friend Joel.  He got Little Man his first jack knife.  Yeah, I’m still wrestling with this idea.  But he only uses it when I am around and…he’s quite responsible with it.  It’s actually a cute little Swiss Army Knife with all the little doo dads that they have.  And he finds tons of great uses for it.

For instance, did you know that instead of actually PULLING a pop out of those little plastic holding things for the six packs, that it’s way more useful to CUT the can out of the pack.

Joel even made him this neat little lanyard type strap to go with it.  Little Man adores it!

I think it’s awesome that he knows he can not have it unless I’m with him.  He goes to such great lengths to reassure me that he will be careful!

“See Mom?  I’m being VERY careful!”  He tells me exactly what he’s doing every step of the way.

“I’m always careful Mom, you know that!   And, I can use it to help you too!”

He’s so proud of his little Swiss Army Knife.  It doesn’t take huge expensive over the top things to make a child happy.  Just involvement and caring.  I love you Little Man!

Michelle

What A Beautiful Beginning To Winter

This fall and beginning of winter has been…unusual.  Virtually NO SNOW in ND.  AND…beautiful warm weather!  LOL  It’s WONDERFUL!  By this time last year, We had a HUGE snow hill pushed up in the yard for the kids to ride their slides down.  This year…after I got Little Man a snow board…nothing.  Trust me, I’m NOT complaining!  It’s wonderful…but…Mother Nature can have a twisted sense of humor so I’m waiting.   LOL

In fact in the last few weeks I’ve been working a lot of cattle around the state for great friends.  And it’s been so enjoyable not to be fighting 3 foot snow drifts and 40 mile an hour winds.  Makes it much more enjoyable!

And of course, all of my friends have wonderful senses of humor.  For instance, when I ran over to one place the first day of a series of days of feeding calves and cattle for a few friends, I found a sweet funny little note stapled to the first gate I was to open.  Of course, me being me, I’ve got my blackberry phone with the camera so I’m shooting away!  I giggled.  He and his wife are awesome!

And the calves couldn’t have cared less if I was there or not.  Even when I was dumping corn in the feeders for them.   Nice calm stock.  None of them fighting to go through the far side of the pen.  More like big pets that needed to be pushed outta the way.

I have to say, working cattle in such great environments has been a healing process for me.  The people I help out are happy and grateful that I am there to help them.  They know they can rely on me no matter what we are doing.  I haven’t been screamed at or called a nasty name in the last few years and it’s been refreshing.  In fact, my opinion is asked for and is respected.  In the past, I remember dreading going to pens because I just knew nothing I did would be right, fast enough, or good enough.  Now, I enjoy it.  I’ve discussed health issues and am treated with respect as far as my thoughts, experience and opinions.  I don’t stand in the center of the pen and wonder what is going to hurt worse…playing bait, or the vocal nastiness that would be coming my way when I didn’t move fast enough or couldn’t read minds.

Another wonderful thing about this year is that I’ve not had to fight any frozen water set ups!  There has been very little ice.  I HATE water troughs that freeze up.  HATE THEM!  Spend so many wasted hours in the past fighting them.  uuugggg…Mind you, that’s normally a Mother Nature thing, but in the process of locating the frozen troughs and fighting the weather to thaw them out, well, let’s just say those have been very negative experiences.  Every person who works with lives stock will secretly smile when they see open water in the troughs!

LOL  Love it.  Wouldn’t it be nice if the winter continued this way all year?

After the horrible floods up here this last spring and summer, all the people forced to live in FEMA trailers, all the displaced people who lost everything they worked their whole lives for.  Well, an easy warm winter would be a blessing.  I know we’d undoubtedly face drought issues next summer, after all, our snow fall is a major part of our annual precipitation, but just about everyone here deserves an easy season somewhere.  We’ve all been having night mares of what next spring and summer could be like if we got a lot of snow again this winter.  Maybe Mother Nature is giving us a small reprieve?  I hope so.  I also hope this isn’t a cruel joke and we’re gonna get slammed with horrible cold nasty weather and excess snow later on!

Let’s enjoy it while we have the good stuff, right?  I certainly am!

Michelle

Salsa

It’s been so crazy.  Keeping up here has been next to impossible!

But, in the true spirit of the Anti-Domestic Goddess…I decided to attempt to make my own salsa!  And here we go!

Love my little blender!

I so love Salsa!  Anyone who knows me know I really LOVE salsa!  So, I think it was natural that I would attempt this!

Yummy!  Yes, I just opened up my spice board and just added what I thought would rock!

wwhhhiiirrrrrrrrr!

Yum!  I have to say…it was darned good!  I want to make some more!

The Anti-Domestic Goddess strikes again!  LOL