He just ran all over, jumped in the deepest drifts and kept eating the snow. He just played in it for ever, running trough it and flicking it in his face. Tyson and I of course were freezing so we just wanted to go back inside. Oscar just kept playing thoughand didn't seem to mind the cold and the wind at all.
I'm glad that he likes the snow because it looks like we are expecting a lot of it over the next week and beyond. Good for Idaho, bad for driving.
She doesn't smile for the camera well so this is one of the best that I could find. She loves to play with Oscar though and can keep our puppy in line.
The classic coming out of the temple shot...
Just a sweet picture....
By this time the rain was getting a bit heavier...you can see the rain drops on Tyson's jacket.
We ended up needing an umbrella...
So, it has been a year, we haven't killed each other yet so by all accounts everything is going great. It really has been wonderful, so much has happened and so many things have changed. We've gone from being two single people concerned with our own little lives to a married couple with a mortgage and a baby on the way. I love my husband and I am so grateful for him!
I decided that the I would wait it out and see who the vice presidential candidates would be and perhaps that would help sway me. When Obama chose Biden he was out of the running for me. I don't trust Obama, but I hoped he would perhaps make a good choice. His choice however could not have been worse as far as I am concerned. There is not a single senator that I dislike more than Joe Biden. So, I waited for McCain to make his choice. I was excited when he picked Sarah Palin. I don't care what you say, I like her. However, she was not enough to sway me. I don't trust John McCain either.
This little picture was taken at our first ultrasound when I was only 6.5 weeks along. We are now 10 weeks along (1/4 done!) and so far so good...
Sarita seems to have recovered pretty well and she and Eric are adjusting to life with a newborn. It is fun to get to be the aunt and just hold him and such when we are together and then hand him back to his mom when he gets hungry and fussy. It is really sweet though. He is just under three months younger than his uncle Jack (and nearly the same size) so it will be fun for him to have some family close in age to play with as he grows up. 
(Those of you who have potty-trained a child will understand the joy). He is also crate and kennel trained and is doing well with the command "come." He has grown so much and we are excited about that, though he still thinks that he is a lap dog. We found a wonderful obedience class that starts in January that will run for ten weeks. He will be six and a half months old by then, so the perfect age. He is a smart dog and catches on quickly (it took about a week to potty train him) so I think that this will be wonderful for him.
He picked red so our movie for the afternoon was Gone with the Wind. It is an absolute classic so I figured that everyone knew about it. When I told him what he picked he said "Oh, isn't that a Western?" I nearly died laughing. It was just what I needed to make me feel better. I told him that it was not and that it was a great American classic. He said "Oh, okay. It's the one with Dr. Zhivago in it right?" I don't think that I drew a breath for a few minutes after that one. I love my husband, I really do, but I forget sometimes how very different we. I love the classics, he loves the modern, so we get to experience both so it works out well. Really though, we are much more alike than I think any else suspects.
Well, I think that he is moving past his strong attachment to the frog because he has shredded the thing. At first it was one little tear one day and then the next day he started ripping out the stuffing. Finally he got to the point when he would stick his entire face in the frog searching for more stuffing to rip out. It was actually very entertaining. Tyson and I watched this behavior for days and enjoyed it quite a bit.
Tyson and I have both been wanting to get a dog,but we knew that it would have to wait until we bought a house. Well, now that we have a house and we have it ready to go, we decided that it was finally time to get the dog we have been waiting for. So, yesterday we picked up our little nine week old black lab puppy. He was already named Oscar, and I loved that name so Tyson let me keep it. 
I figure that it is just because as soon as we got home last night I gave him a bath (which he didn't like much). After that he ran right to Tyson and didn't come back to me for a while. Oh well, I should probably get used to it since it will probably work the same way when we have kids.
Though I guess his arms aren't quite as long. Really it was just a lot of fun and a nice way to spend the morning. It is funny how much it made me feel like a little kid again. I was just fascinated with all of the animals. Tyson enjoyed the building with all of the reptiles. Creepy crawlies terrify me, but he loves them. I told him he would have to visit them in the zoo then because we won't be getting snakes, lizards, or the like as a pet.
That is literally over a ton of rock. I had no desire to shovel that all out and haul it to the trailer to take to the dump. So, I posted it on Craigslist as free for the taking, but whoever took it had to come shovel it all out on Tyson's day off. I got dozens of responses. The first response I got, I called the guy back and within an hour he and a friend were at our house. By the time that I got home from work three hours later, they had taken it all. It saved me a lot a time not to mention aching back. Yeah for Craigslist!
Tyson went and picked up the sod and put it in on Thursday while I was at work. We have had a back dirt patch for the last couple of months, so as you can imagine I am thrilled to have grass back there finally. As you can see, we are setting up to put in a walk way, I'll have to get Tyson to finish that up before the winter comes.
Our next project was something that I have wanted to do since we bought the house but I couldn't do it on my own. Again, I put Tyson to work. We pulled out (yes, I did help) the old rose bushes that ran along the sidewalk and moved them over in front of the house. They were beautiful bushes, but I hated where they were located. Three of the bushes are over fifty years old so you can imagine how large they were. What a good husband I have. We started putting in a border to create some beds, but as you can see, it still isn't finished yet.
Once Tyson finished tilling I put in a border along the front of the property to create a bed that was about half as wide as the old bed used to be (see, I help). Once I finished that I planted some new Nandina, heavenly bamboo shrubs that I believe we will like so much better. They aren't as thick and bless them, they are evergreen. Not really, the leaves turn red in winter, but they don't fall off until new green grown replaces them in the Spring. We went looking for five more because the ones we have are spaced out a little far, but every nursery in town is out of them. I guess we'll have to wait until Spring.
Our other project that we just finished was putting in a bed on the southwest corner of our house. It was just kind of dead space so I thought a raised bed might look nice. I'm still not sure what all I will plant there, but I did find two beautiful hibiscus plants which I placed on each corner. I need to find a nice item to put in the back corner, if anyone has suggestions let me know. In front of this bed we'll continues the shorter bed that runs all the way around our house (or will once I finish putting in the border).
This picture was taken on the day that we went shopping for my engagement ring (Tyson didn't trust himself to pick it out on his own). He was gone on wildfires pretty much all summer. This was during one of his relatively longer stays at home, about 38 hours. He would be out for about 14 days at a time and then home for about 2 days. Hence, the beard. I guess that when you are camping all summer long shaving is just too much of a hassle. The best part about it all was that two weeks after this picture was taken Sarita and Eric got married. So, the night before the wedding when all of the family was gathered, Tyson showed up to meet my entire family with this bushy beard and wild hair. Quite the first impression... The beard was gone by the following morning in time for the wedding.
Tyson loves my mom's canned salsa and so when we planted our garden we made sure to plant what we would need to make salsa. Luckily our garden is producing what I need at the rate that I need it. I had exactly enough ripe tomatoes and jalpenos to make two batches today. We pulled our onions a week ago because they were set to go. We found a great variety of tomato that we love. It is called a Jet Star Hybrid and it is perfect! It has a really good flavor with a lot of flesh to it. I know, not overly interesting to all of you, but I'm thrilled with it. Anyway, that is my exciting day...
So, we killed it all, tilled it up and re leveled the yard. So now the process of putting in sod has begun. We purchase 500 sq. ft. this last week and we need about 800 more so we'll be getting that in a few weeks. But in the mean time it is really nice to have our west side lawn done. I'm excited about it!
It is producing well though. We are having some of the corn for dinner tonight and one of our cantaloupes as well. I took over a dozen tomatoes to my parents yesterday because I had more than I could use and I have dozens of jalapenos and bell peppers. This is fun! More fresh veggies and less money spent at the grocery store. Tyson and I finally decided how we are going to do our garden beds next year so I can't wait to get those put in this Fall.
Anyway, I went into my bedroom this morning at 9:07 to grab my shoes and cardigan when I finally realized CHURCH STARTED AT 9:00! I don't know how I forgot that. We've been going to this ward for three months now and I have never been late but for some reason the day that I need to speak I forget what time church starts at. Anyway, I ran out the door and actually drove to church (it is only a block away) and walk in right as the Sacrament Hymn was finishing. I was so embarrassed because of course I had to sit on the stand. Anyway, I was a little but shaken by that so it took me a little bit to gather my bearings. Then, after than embarrassing situation did I get to just sit back, NO, I had to go and substitute Gospel Doctrine. Needless to say, I was glad when it came time for Relief Society so that I could finally step away from a pulpit and sit down and be quiet. Anyway, it made for an interesting morning which I am grateful is finally over.
So I started this project on July 2nd and today I finally finished it! Okay, so I've been a bit lazy and I keep getting side tracked...but today I finally finished painting my dining room! These pictures are a little dark for some strange reason. My dining room really is the brightest room in our house with all the windows and such. 
Anyway, I love the color! It was the one room in the house that I knew that I could get away with painting red, so I did it. It fits rather well with the gold colored living room as well. Now the only room that I have yet to paint upstairs is my kitchen, but I'll get that done next month. I can't wait until that one is finished. Anyway, I'm thrilled with how it turned out. I love owning my own house and getting to do whatever I want to it!
I mentioned in a previous post that I had finally determined what colors to paint the rest of the upstairs of my house. Until at least the Winter I am ignoring my basement. We don'd need the extra room down there and it needs a bit of work before I can do much of anything. 
Anyway, I have been working on getting my living room and dining room painted for about a week now and I finally finished the living room. The dining room is coming along (it takes a few coats when you are using red paint), but it should be finished by Wednesday. I had promised some photos so here they are. Prior to being painted the walls were just plain white and dirty, despite all of my attempts to clean them. I love this new color though. 
It is just so warm and inviting. I had several people tell me I was a little crazy with my color choice, but I love the way that it looks with my dark wood and especially my antique door with the stained leaded glass. Now that I have the room painted and our furniture back in there I have a good idea what style of fabric I need to buy to reupholster our couch and chair. Again, that will be another Winter project for me, but I am excited to get going on it.
The kids just love to play in the sand (I'm still not allowed to post pictures online) and to take some easy rides in the tubes. The older kids just tubed and wake boarded all evening. Rick and Jake were a bit restless though. There was a cliff relatively neat to the dock and back where we had set up camp, so while the boat was out doing some tubing they swam on over to the cliff to see if the water underneath was clear enough to jump off. 
It didn't quite work out for them, but it is funny to see that even though they think that they are all grown up they are still silly little boys. After thy boys came back from playing on the cliffs they went out again and Jake worked with Tyson to teach him how to wake board. 
He is really starting to get the hang of it and hopefully before summer is over he'll be pretty confidant with it.
So, I have developed a new hobby over the last year. I love to take used and unwanted items from other people, refurbish them, and then use them for my house. Yesterday I made another fantastic find. I went on Craigslist and found a gal who had two little bistro sets that she wanted to be rid of. I called her and picked them up last night.
On the way home I went to the store and bought a couple of cans of spray paint. I hosed everthing off really well last night and let them sit overnight and then got up this morning and started painting. I love how they are turing out! I ran out of spray paint so I need to go and get some more to finish, but they are great. Again, I let Tyson pick the color and he really wanted the copper color. I had no idea that any guy would have such strong opinions about color, but Tyson does. Anyway, it is just another fun project that I am in the middle of. I have also been painting my dining room and living room today, so I am painted out right now! Just taking a bit of a break and then...back to work.
So he pulled out a couple of marigolds that I had planted (they were nearly dead) and he put it in pot. Well, I went to go look at it today and low and behold, we have a peanut plant! I guess that peanuts are produced much like potatoes. Who knew? I have no idea what we'll do with it or if it will even grow here, but only time will tell I guess. In the mean time, Tyson keeps his potted peanut next to the garden to make sure that it gets watered with the rest of our plants everyday.
I've mentioned before that I often lose Tyson to the garden sometimes. Well, he spent the whole morning in it again getting it weeded and raked out and such. So when I came home from work this afternoon it looked fantastic! Everything seems to be growing rather well. Our corn is chest high (for me that is, it comes about to Tyson's waist). I'm glad that we bought tomato cages when we did a couple of weeks ago because they have really taken off. The yellow pear tomato plant is already over three feet tall and our cucumber is taking over, the the cantelope is also trying to invade the corn patch. My goodnss, doesn't it know that it is only June, 
we have a couple of months more to go still! I'm not really complaining, I love our garden. We picked our first cucumber yesterday. I know, it is silly, but it is our first garden so we are pretty excited about it all. We've started planning out the beds that we will build next Spring so that we are ready to get going on that project when the time comes. Unfortunatly, given when we moved into our house, we didn't have too much time for planning, we just bought and planted.
I have been racking my brain about this for months because it is a somewhat open floor plan, the rooms flow together, so I had to figure out the whole scheme for the living room, kitchen and dining room before I could move forward on anything. Anyway, the other day I finally figured it out. The dining room will be the red, the kitchen will be the lighter shade of green with the cabinets painted white and the living room will be the yellow color parallel to the green there. All of the trim, doors and ceilings are going to be the same beach white color (a pattern I have been keeping up throughout the house thus far). Anyway, some have said I'm a little crazy, but I think that it will be great. I'll post pictures next week when I'm done and you'll see, it will be fantastic! 
I was asked yesterday what we were growing so here's the run down. Behind the corn we have a cantaloupe, then of course the corn. In front of the corn we have a cherry tomato and a cucumber. Then there are six more tomato plants, one of them being a yellow pear variety. In front of those are our peppers, red and green bells as well as a jalapeno. You can's really see them in this picture, but in front of the peppers are our onion plants. Our primary purpose in planting our garden this year is to be able to make salsa this fall, everything else is just for fun and to save us money at the grocery store. That and to have tomatoes untainted with salmonella.
An then of course, there are my flowers. My petunias and daisies on my front porch are growing wonderfully and just getting more full and beautiful every week. We are finally supposed to have warm weather all week, so I'm excited to see where we are at in the next couple of weeks.
I had to put this picture up because I simply love the color of the roses on this bush. It is a little wild to Tyson is working on getting some starts going so that he can train a new bush that will give me the same vibrant orange color with fewer thorns.
Okay, this last one is where we laid some sod last week. This was where the dog run was and we moved that because we wanted to have a little more backyard and I also didn't want the run right up next to the garage anymore. I'm glad to see it all taking so well.
