Memorial Day Weekend

What a weekend - We went out to Hart Ranch on Thursday night. I think it took me all day just to pack for all of us. We bought a new camper last October and traded in ours. We had an 18 foot travel trailer and bought a 2007 Keystone Laredo 29 foot travel trailer with a slide out. It has so much more room than our old one. We finally made it to Hart Ranch and my dad noticed that we didn't have a license plate on it. We had had it in storage since we bought it last fall and it looked like the wind had tore it off. So, Malaya & I spent an hour Friday morning at the court house getting a new plate and registration. Friday night Sheila & Mike came up and brought their tent. Everyone played rodeo golf and the bean bag game. Malaya thought it was funny to take the golf balls and bean bags and run off with them. On Saturday my parents watched the girls for a couple hours while Gary, Mike, Sheila and I went into town to Cabelas. That evening Malaya got to roast marshmallows. My parents and Mike and Sheila got to go fishing and caught quite a few good sized trout.

Sunday was Gary and my 6 year anniversary!! I can't believe it has been 6 years already!! Time really does fly :) My parents kept the girls while we went into town for supper at the Olive Garden. We had finished supper and ran to Pet Smart to pick up something for Shylow when it just started down pouring! We ran to the car and were going to run to Armadillos for ice cream when my mom called. She said she hated to bother us, but our camper was leaking. She said there was a lot of water dripping in. We said we would get there as soon as we could. We cancelled our ice cream idea and headed up 8th street. We have never seen so much water. Going up 8th street, water was up to our bumper. One car in front of us even stalled out. We finally made it out to the camper and there was definitely water coming in. We were so frustrated....brand new camper, first weekend out, and this is what happens. We had to keep running towels to the dryer to dry them because we didn't have enough to keep up with the water. We finally went to bed when the rain had slowed down. By morning most everything had dried out well. We figured out that the silicone on our slide out had a crack in it that needs to be fixed, so we will be making a trip to MidStates hopefully today to have them do some warranty work. But, once again, another anniversary we won't forget.

Since the end of February, Gary hasn't been getting in very many hours at Adams. They just have no work to do so he usually gets sent home early or some days doesn't even go in. They laid one person off the beginning of March and since then Gary's lucky to get 25 hours in. They keep telling him that they are bidding on work, but we finally decided he had to find something else or we weren't going to make it. He looked for about a month and finally got a job offer last Thursday at Lehman Trikes in Spearfish as a welder/machinist. It will be 8-4:30 M-F. The time works out well with our family's schedule - Gary can still help get the girls ready in the morning and we will be getting home at the same time by the time I pick up the girls and get home. If the weather is bad, he'll be able to stay with my parents or Mike and Sheila. He'll either start June 1st or the 8th. We are pretty excited that he was able to find something else so quickly and that fits well with our schedule and still allows us to be a family on weekends. He'll have to get used to the drive, but I guess there are 5 or 6 people who drive from Rapid so we're hoping he'll be able to car pool.

Malaya's old daycare provider in Gillette sent the girls matching PJ's so I have to include those pictures as well. Plus a few of the girls :)

Well, I think this is long enough for now. Hope everyone had a safe memorial day weekend.

Malaya running with the golf balls for rodeo golf

Dad and Mike playing the bean bag game

Malaya & Papa playing the bean bag game

Mike & Gary grilling supper

Grandma and Malaya roasting marshmallows

Malaya eating a smore

Miranda's first camping trip

Even the dogs like camping

Gary with Miranda and Shylow

Isn't she so cute!!

6 weeks old

7 weeks old

The girls

I just love Miranda's pouty lip

The girls in their matching PJ's

Getting Caught Up

I have been so busy lately and have fallen way behind on my blog! So, I guess I'll be posting 2 blogs on the same day. Gary went turkey hunting with Mike the weekend of the 15th so the girls and I headed to my parents. I helped mom unpack some boxes and also went through some that were mine from when I was little. My mom did a great job keeping EVERYTHING that I ever did, but I just threw most of it in the garbage. At that rate it didn't take long to get rid of some boxes :) Malaya ended up staying Sat and Sun night with Grandma and Papa. She had so much fun - they got to go to the park and see the ducks and fish and play on the swings and slides. She even got to go eat lunch on Sheila's deck and see Roscoe. While Malaya was off playing....Gary & I spent the weekend getting our yard ready for summer. We have about an 80 foot long retaining wall with 21 shrubs in it. There were soooo many weeds and by the time we got the rest of the flower beds and my garden ready, we were beat! But, it's done so now it's ready to go. Twila is coming up tomorrow to help me plant flowers (pictures will be in another blog).



I love this picture of Malaya and her Papa



Feeding the Fish




Malaya loves the fish!!!





Papa and Malaya swinging



Malaya learned this trick at daycare



Going down the slide



Malaya's gymnastics class comes in handy



After a long day of playing, Malaya is eating her favorite snack - ice cream :)





Gary & his turkey




More Turkey Hunting

Mother's Day

I can't believe this was my 3rd Mother's Day already and that I now have 2 daughters to celebrate with on this day. I never understood how special this day was until I became a mother. You don't seem to really appreciate everything a mother does until you become one yourself. We took the girls to Old McDonald's Farm. Malaya loved seeing all the animals, but especially liked riding the train. We tried to get her to ride the ponies, but she was scared. We got season passes so hopefully by the end of the summer she will.

My parents are now officially residents of Spearfish. On Saturday they emptied out their house in Wall and moved everything to Spearfish. It actually worked out really well because they had rounded up a lot of help, so it didn't seem to take very long at all. But, you should see their basement - boxes everywhere!! I am so glad it's not us who has to unpack all of them, although we've done our fair share!!

Well, I guess these are the 2 main highlights for this week. Have a great week!

My girls and me

Happy Mother's Day!

She wanted to hold the bunnies...

Baby Chicks

The ducks are her favorite

Then the fish come in second

Of course the play area was a hit - I didn't know she knew how to swing like that. Gary said she learned at daycare

Waiting for the train to take off

On the train ride

Baby lambs - she said they were Papa's

What a Week!!!

Once again, another busy week... On Tuesday Great-Grandpa Paul came to visit us. He has never been to our place so that was nice. We finally got our 4 generation picture. On Thursday I took Miranda to see all my co-workers.

Friday, May 1 - Miranda is 1 month old today - time is going by way too fast. My sister also called to tell me that Mike had given her a may day basket with an engagement ring on top of it. We are all very excited for them.

Friday night my parents took Malaya home for the night. Malaya wanted to see the ambulance again with Papa. Gary & I rented the movie Marley & Me. We've wanted to see it, but hadn't because putting Chillee down was still too fresh in our minds. Finally we just decided we would watch it and cry. It is such a good movie and a great protrayal of our lives!

Saturday we headed to Wall to drop off Miranda with my parents and then Gary's cousin, Darin was getting married to Kelsie Peterson so we attended their wedding in Philip. The girls did great with Grandma and Papa and the wedding was beautiful.

Sunday we decided to take a drive through the hills. We headed to Custer State Park to drive through the Wildlife Loop. We only saw antelope and buffalo. Malaya does not like the buffalo (she'd put her blanket over her head when we drove by them).

Yesterday Gary came home after an hour of work because they were out of work so we spent the day together. Grandma Twila and Great-Grandma Williamson came over to the house. We had a pizza party, played play dough and finally got another 4 generation picture!

Today I had to take Miranda to her 1 month checkup. She now weighs 9lbs 6oz and is 21.5 inches. So she has grown 2 inches and gained 2 lbs 8oz since birth. She is in the 50th percentile, so she's doing fine. Then we left the dr.'s office at 11:30 and were headed home when Malaya said, Mommy, nice out, go to park. I told her not this time we need to go home and eat lunch. She said, eat at park - apples and chicken nuggets. (McDonald's Happy Meal) Then she proceeded to say, won't that be fun mommy! Needless to say, we had lunch at the park :)

Miranda 1 Month Old

1 Month Old

1 Month Old

4 Generations

4 Generations

Great-Grandmpa Paul and Miranda

4 Generations

4 Generations

Great-Grandma Williamson with Miranda and the bunting she made her

Sheila & Mike on the day they got engaged