Nebraska...living the good life!

We are back from our trek to Nebraska and we had the best time! The drive was long and Trevor now doesn't like cars and screamed today when I put him in the car to pick up Shane from pre-school! Poor boy. I don't blame him we drove over 3,000 miles in 10 days!

Farm life is completely different then the city life we live. It really is living the good life! Everything is slow paced, relaxed, simple, and kind. Yet everyone is constantly working and having a good time! Things are different on the farm and sometimes parents who ALWAYS require a car seat forget it on the farm because it's so cute to see your 2 year old's head pop up over the back seat of the old pick-up driving away with pride on his face with great grandpa!

I love a clothes line! There is something about the clothes blowing in the wind to dry that I just love! Even though my clothes would dry in about 2 seconds in the Vegas summer heat I don't think I could live without my wonderful dryer! Damon's Grandparents have a dryer but don't really ever use it. I'm sure I was the first person to use it in years. Shane and Trevor loved the clothes line for other things. They loved chasing each other around and playing in the towels as they hung to dry.

Trevor's favorite part of our trip was the kitty. Cowboy(as the boys call them) Grandpa and Grandma don't have a cat but this neighbor cat is always around. I think Grandma and Grandpa are going to have a hard time getting rid of it now. Trevor drug that poor cat around everywhere and the cat was so nice to him! One night Trevor and I were the only ones inside and I think I kicked the cat out 3 times and Mr. Trevor must have let him back in each time I turned around!
The boys loved Grandma's HUGE garden! They would get their buckets and walk around trying to find some food to pick and eat!

When Cowboy Grandpa showed them that carrots grew underground they could not believe it!

I have never seen a watermelon so big! We loved having fresh vegetables and fruit each night with dinner! I wish so bad that I could have a garden here in rotten old Vegas!

After washing up the carrots (part of the fun because you get all wet!) the boys would enjoy the feast! I don't think they have ever eaten anything but baby carrots so they loved the big carrots. Each day they would run outside to pick and eat more carrots!

Great Grandma and Shane washing up the watermelon.

We went to the park one day and had a first, a teeter totter! Sad to say but the boys had never been on one until now and they sure loved it!

We picked up corn from the silo that you feed the cows with so we could feed some ducks and deer at the park. Shane wasn't too into it but Trevor sure was. He fed them one kernel at a time which ended up taking FOREVER until Damon helped out and threw handfuls at a time.

Great Grandma and Grandpa are 83 years old. I cannot believe how much they do each day! How lucky are my boys to have them play and push them in swings at the park! They loved all the attention they get from them.

We truly are city folk. Trevor wasn't too happy about this cow pie out in the fields! It was almost as big as him and he just stood there plugged his nose and said, "Stinky!"

One thing I love about Great Grandma's house is her wall of 6 month old babies! The boys loved it and loved picking out Grandma Young, Daddy, Uncle Josh, and themselves! Shane couldn't believe his friend Norah from Vegas was on the wall too. (She really isn't but he thought one of the babies looked like her!). Both Shane and Trevor would stand at the wall and Shane would teach Trevor who was who (after I told him of course).

We are back to our busy city life but enjoyed the good life while we could. I'll post more about the farms we were on too! Although vacations are great it is good to be home and sleep in our own beds. We actually slept with no kids last night which was a first in a long long time of vacation land.

Pages, pages, and MORE pages!

Really, should I be up at this late hour!?! Man, Damon will be waking up in 2 hours! I had to put ALL of my pages in sheet protectors and it took FOREVER! Plus I have been finishing laundry, packing, and cleaning up my house! I have a little confession. On my last post with a picture of my pages it wasn't ALL the pages I had done, just Shane's! Here they all are: Shane, Trevor and the family pages. Let me just say this is more then I have done since the birth of Shane! The grand total: 130 pages in a 2 month period and 3 of those weeks I was on vacation!

I can say I'm competitive so that has worked well for me during the challenge. Without this challenge I don't think I would have done ONE page during this time so even if I don't win it was so worth it. I'll post with results tomorrow.

Disclaimer: Damon was watching Shane when he did this trick in the swing!
As for me and all the diet coke I have drank to keep me up tonight I'm off to bed because the caffeine has worn off! I do hope I win so I can have some cash to buy me some albums I'm now in desperate need of. Good night to all or I should be saying good morning!

UPDATE: I'm back and I totally won! I actually had 127 pages!!! This was so much fun and I hope we do it again. We are off to NE right now so I'll have to spend my prize money at the scrapbook store when I get home!!! Thanks again Donna and ElRae, this was so much fun! I can't wait to get home to scraplift some of those cute pages. Well, I'm needing a scrapbooking break right now but I hope it doesn't last too long. :)

Don't bug me, I'm busy SCRAPBOOKING!

The are only one and 1/2 days left before the end of the Super Summer Scrapbook Challenge. I have been a slacker this week and so now I'm in crazy mode!! I had those horrible headaches on Monday and Tuesday and yesterday I realized that I'm a lame-o and put my contacts in wrong! Hence the worst headaches in my entire life. I couldn't function those days. So now the competitive nature in me is cracking down and I'm neglecting all my household duties. This is hard since we are getting ready for a 10 day vacation this week-end too!

Here is how I work, a messy, messy, girl! As long as I have my diet coke and water I'm good. Although after Stamp-a-stack last night I'm in some serious need of cinnamon bears!!

This is what I've gotten done so far. I won't let you know the count so if someone is close to me they won't pass me up!! :) Notice that little baby, it's Shane! Wonder what my boys do while I have been scrapbooking today? They join me and make projects. It's fun sharing my stuff with them until Shane uses a sheet of Thickers on his own page! Oh, and Trevor gets into an ink pad I told Shane not to get down for this very reason! We still have fun but they don't last as long as me and are on to forts out of the couch cushions. They are loving it because I'm allowing to do things that I usually don't. Note to anyone buying a couch: NEVER and I mean never my a couch where the cushions come off. Trust me with little kids they will never be on the couch!

This has been super fun. I really can't wait to see every ones pages!! That is the best part, well the best part is really that I have actually scrapbooked something I haven't done in a super long time. I even have done pages from our trips this summer!! I better go finish the dino museum which I still need to post about!

I'm famous!!

This morning I was blog hopping trying to find some good ideas for Fabulous Friday and I remembered a favorite blog of mine, Thirty Handmade Days. I went and found it again and to my surprise she has featured my blog in her Birthday Party ideas!!! I am so excited! She says she wishes I was her mom which is a huge compliment because she is so creative and fun! If you haven't see her blog before check it out we will for sure want to do something crafty after that!


I did however, submit to Tip Junkie for her birthday party ideas. Maybe they are friends of something. She featured Lanae today but hasn't done boy parties yet. I gave her Lanae's name too but for Thirty Days Handmade, I have no idea how she found me.

First Day of School

Shane had his first day of pre-school today. He is back at the same school with the same teacher , and same classmates so there wasn't much of an adjustment. He was so excited to go and made Ms. Dolores a picture last week and picked out some apple stuff and Bath and Body.

I had this vision at the bus yard it didn't go as planned. I got 5 pictures total and he was a grump! I guess there is always next year to break the law and go into authorized personnel only--shhh, don't tell Damon!

Don't laugh at how big his shirt is either. I was so mad. I cut it last night so it would be smaller!

A quick peek through the window. He looks so much taller then last year!

Proud moments by the door. At this point he just wanted to run in to say hi but I made him stop for a picture!

See what a great teacher she is. Already down and ready for some new games. We are so blessed to have Ms. Dolores as Shane's teacher. She is just what he needs kind, patient, and so loving to each of the kids.

He made himself right at home. Threw his backpack on the ground and kicked his shoes off. I picked them up of course and put them in his cubby. The is what he was doing when I left. He didn't even really say good-bye. What a difference a year makes! Last year we were both holding back tears!

I enjoyed some alone time with Trevor. We hung out went to a few stores and then went to the park. Poor kid, he doesn't know how to play alone! He walked around the park clueless about what to do. I would show him a slide and then to sit in the shade and he would run back over to me! I guess he is use to having a big brother show him the ropes!

It's bad when....

you just used your LAST diaper and you are still sitting home not buying any! I don't know what is wrong with me. I have had this horrible headache all day and don't want to do a thing! Please no surprise visits to see my disaster house! That doesn't really explain why I'm fresh out of diapers. I never would have run out of diapers with Shane and with Trevor I have come close but never this close. I even ran out to the car and got my back-up diapers! I don't know, I have been so much more lax with Trevor then I was with Shane I wonder if a third child would survive! Oh well, we'll be making an early run to Target in the morning.

I just saw the previews for 90210 and I'm actually excited for tomorrow! I know, I'm lame. I'm even watching the Hills as I type. 90210 was so my favorite show so I'll be watching tomorrow to see how it goes. Will anyone else be joining me or am I the only loser out there?!?

Too much fun!

Do this look like a happy face or what?!?! Our trip to CA was just full of fun, fun, fun! I have actually been scrapbooking these pictures and our trip for the Scrapbook Challenge I'm doing so I'm sort of bored with these pictures!

What better thing to do in August in Ventura then go do the Ventura County Fair! We went twice and loved every second of it BOTH times.

Can you believe my little Trevor loved this big boy ride? If you recall last year when he was only 18 months old he loved a spinning ride at the pumpkin patch so this just goes with his little dare devil personality!

Pure excitement for our little 2 year old!

Best thing at the fair is funnel cake! Yummy.

I swear everywhere we went we rode a merry go round! After we got home I counted them up and if you count this one at Chuck E. Cheese we went on 5, yes five in a 10 day period! As you can tell by Trevor's face he loves riding the horses! **Don't mind the spilt drink all down his shirt. This boy is never clean!

We went to Griffith Park in LA and met Aunt Tara, Cyndi, and Allie (Grandma Stewie drove with us) and had a great day. The best part, Shane playing in a park named after him!! He thought he was sooo cool and the BOSS!

We rode horse real and not so real, had ice cream, and enjoyed a picnic. The neat part about it is my mom use to go on picnic's here as a little girl and would ride this same carousel now she is riding it with her Grandkids!

I don't think they have painted it since my mom was a kid but I think it looks cool!

Grandpa Young took us to our annual rodeo in Santa Barbara. The boys just love this and seeing all the animals.

I think we had the cutest cowboys around!

We went to a Dodgers game and the boys loved cheering on their team and doing the wave. We had fun having the Frye family with us too!

Joe's family came the last few days we were there and we had a blast all being together. Gavin had a birthday party, another trip to the fair, a day at the beach, and yummy dinners. Shane loves having his big boy cousins around. They would just play and play and would have such a good time together.

We had a great trip and had fun with our families and friends. We sure did fit a lot in our trip and the boys loved every second of it!