It doesn't get much better than this...

We are loving our new house and all of the space we now have! We are out of town but not too far, only about 3 miles, so it's nice and quiet where we're at. We have 7.4 acres and the kids LOVE to explore. We haven't explored the West side of our property yet because it's mostly just sagebrush - but we sure have fun discovering new things, so we'll check it out soon! These pictures were taken literally at the edge of our property - the girls love naming all of the trees and rock formations. We have Eagle Rock, Surfboard Rock, Pirate Ship Tree, Tree In Rock, and so much more, including Trampoline Valley, but I'll explain that one at a later time.

Trysten likes exploring the North side...

And here are a few places just beyond our property...

Our closest people neighbors are about 1/4 mile away - but these are the neighbors we share a yard with. We also hear coyotes at night but haven't seen any yet.

Yes, this guy was right in our front yard - maybe 20 yards from our front door.

The pictures aren't very good because I didn't want to scare him off by opening the door, so they are taken through the window screen.

Deer are not uncommon around here - if you go into town you are almost guaranteed to see at least a dozen deer, mostly does, fawns, and really young bucks. In fact, they consider it a deer problem in town - we enjoy it, they don't bother us so far! We'll have to build a tall deer fence to protect our garden, that's for sure! When I take the girls to the bus stop in the morning we usually see a few bucks, there was one morning we counted almost 10 bucks and that was just in the mile drive to the bus stop! There is one pretty big one that we usually see about halfway down our road, but I haven't been able to catch a picture of him yet. There are also 5 small bucks that we usually see in the same area close to the bus stop. I look forward to all the other wildlife we're going to see around here! Here are 3 of the 5 young bucks - we see them most often...

And these neighbors are just across the street - Kaylee is hoping to have one of our own someday - that's my girl!

These ones are down the street - everytime we pass them, the kids say "Hi Donkey Neighbors!"

I love the scenery, rock formations, and other fun and unique 'landscaping' around our place and see lots of future photo shoots!

Thanks for visiting my neck of the woods - I hope you enjoyed our view as much as we do!

My Favorite Room...

...in our new house is...my kitchen! I never thought I would hear myself say that - but then again, maybe that's because my craft room isn't completed yet (check out yesterday's post to see the status on that). Plus, do you remember the kitchen I had in our last house - click here to view - and the 5 rentals we had before that were no better - no wonder the kitchen was my least favorite room for a long time!

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Anyway, my new kitchen is awesome! I love the vaulted ceilings, the space, the island, the view, the hardwood floors, and the open floor plan. Here it is the day we moved in...

...and here it is after many hours and coats of paint, and new appliances! The color is called VaVaVoom - that says it all! I really love the red walls and black appliances with the beautiful hickory cabinets.

The fridge before was way too small for a family of 6 - it is now serving as an extra fridge in the basement! I LOVE my new double oven - so handy!!! And the over-the-range microwave is always nice. I would really like to change the top to my island eventually - I'd like to extend it to make it larger and more comfortable for seating. The kids and I have already done many cooking projects on this island - I love it!

So there's a peek at one of our new house projects - thanks for visiting!

Studio J to the rescue!

This is what my scrap room currently looks like in our new house...

I won't even show you the boxes, it's bad...which is why THIS is where I currently get my creative fix in...

The status of my room and boxes is why I'm SO excited about Studio J! I have actually been scrapbooking since we moved, can you believe it?!? I am really going to have fun working on my Studio J projects while all of my scrap supplies are boxed up and my room is under construction. I can't wait to get my room set up and get my fingers inky again, as I will never give up traditional scrapbooking or papercrafting, but in the meantime it feels good to get some projects done! Here is a quick peek at a few of the projects I have worked on since moving. I have already met some new scrappy friends here in our new town as well, and they invited me to a crop play day a couple of weeks ago - this is what I was able to work on while the kids played - and all I had to take was my laptop - now that's the way to pack for a crop!

The Studio J Memberships started on Wednesday, which has me even more excited and I worked on a few more projects - I love the Member Only papers and patterns, like these:

Class Act papers - Glimpses

Class Act papers - Backstage

And this one uses the new Hooligans paper from the New Autumn/Winter Idea Book, along with a new Members Only pattern called Zoom In

And the pricing with the membership is amazing! So far I have ALL of these layouts added to my cart, and not only will I get FREE shipping and FREE page protectors and FREE JPGs, but I am saving $52 just by being a member! You can't beat that! If you would like more info on the Studio J Memberships, just Contact Me!

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Thanks for visiting!

Continued from yesterday...

I just had to post more pics from yesterday's events - too much fun, I couldn't resist!

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Trysten wanted to get in on the first day of school pics - here he is saying "Chee!" which means "Cheese!"

And here we are making our yummy banana bread. Just a quick note about the banana bread - this morning Brailee said, "What if we try it with peanut butter!" I was a little skeptical but if she was willing to try it, so was I. I must say, I now know why people like peanut butter and banana sandwiches - it was surprisingly good!

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Brailee was really good at mashing the bananas...

...watching it mix...

...and making a mess!

She played with this for almost an hour after we were done making our bread - she had fun but made a huge mess - at least she was good about cleaning it up, and still adorable in the process!

I wouldn't let Trysten attempt the same mess, but he had fun playing with his trucks instead - I love how he rides his Tonka - he figured this fun trick out on his own.

And he currently LOVES trailers, especially this horse trailer - he loves to hook it up to the truck and pull it everywhere.

He did climb up to help every once in a while - but he made sure his truck came along ;-)

...and he was sure to flash more cheesy smiles...

After we made our banana bread and got cleaned up, Brailee wanted to play dress-up. When does she NOT want to dress-up, she loves it. She must have had a long exciting day because she crashed! It was a late nap but she still went to bed at 8 o'clock, thankfully!

After we dropped her sisters off at the bus stop this morning, Brailee wanted to work on her 'homework' - here she is practicing writing her name. Oh, and notice she already had her dress-up clothes on first thing this morning - I'm telling you, she would wear them all the time if I'd let her ;-) BTW - I do have a couple pictures that prove I have let her wear them regardless of where we are going a few times - it was funny to see the looks we got those days!

After I took that picture, Brailee took the camera and captured this one - I love it! You can see she was practicing her A's on her notebook on the left. I just love the set-up and angle of this photo - all through the innocence and eye of an almost 4 year old!

Trysten wanted to get into the homework action, too - he would scribble and then say "G! G!" He was pretty proud of himself! Oh, and notice his jammies - as much as Spongebob drives me nuts sometimes, I just couldn't resist these.

Thanks for visiting - have a great day!

First Day of Preschool!

Brailee started "Mommy" Preschool today - 3 other moms and myself are going to take turns each week doing Preschool with the kids and today was their first day. Brailee was so excited, she could hardly wait! Today was the letter A and the color Red, and she put her outfit together the night before. She wanted to be COMPLETELY red to go along with the lesson, but I was able to convince her to throw in a denim skirt ;-) Isn't she a cutie - don't you just love the red cowgirl boots? She's growing up too fast!

She was a little disappointed afterwards that she didn't get to go to a 'real' school like her sisters, but she still had a blast - she loved putting her 'homework' in her backpack (that is nearly as big as she is) and playing with her new friends. It's going to be a fun year!

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Now we're going to make banana bread - she's been begging me all week - it's a good thing we have lots of old bananas!

New Adventures!

Wow, it's been a LONG time since I've posted - life has been crazy - good crazy, that is! We have started a new adventure in a new town, new house, new school, and we are loving it! Here is a quick update with highlights of our last month...

...here we are saying good-bye to our old house...

...and hello to our new house with lots of painting and a few upgrades (maybe I will post before and after pics sometime)...

...flying kites...

...starting school...

...enjoying the beautiful view from our house...

...just being silly...

...making birthday cake...

It's been a busy time but we are really enjoying ourselves. I do need to get back into blogging, not for anyone else, but for me - just to keep track of everything! I'll be back again this week to post something new - thanks for visiting!