Hi My name's Terri and I used to blog here on a regular basis

Well Hello again...it's been a while. We have done lots of fun stuff and I am having the hardest time getting blogger to let me organize pictures so these are somewhat randomley thrown on here. We'll start at the top.

Stevan and I a few days after our 8th anniversary. His mom got a cake made for us and surprised us with her famous sour beef bean burrito which is AMAZING no wonder Stevan asked for it every time he seen her. Richie and Annie got us gift cards to one of my very favorite restaurants Olive Garden. YUMMY! Can't wait to go to dinner. We now as of November 11th have been together for 10 years. i can't believe it. A whole decade. What a wild ride it has been. I can truly say Love is a journey and work. It will teach you more about yourself then you ever thought imaginable. There are days of joy and bliss and other days you cry and are heart broke but it is so worth it and I wouldn't change a second of it.

My very good friend Eloise took us all to Boise to the Idaho History Museum and then for a paddle boat ride around the zoo. It was such a fun day full of great experiences for all of us. I learned as much if not more than the kids. Museum's are so much fun especially this day because they had actors there bringing the exhibits to life. The two other little boys are her grandsons. Such sweet kids.

Good ol Abe Lincoln we love that man around here. My favorite saying of his is that it is not my job to see that God is on my side but to be certain that I am on HIS!! So, so true. He found this a hard balance as the North and South fought so certain that God was on both of there sides.

Here the kids are getting to use the old printing press. The man standing there is the son of the man that restored that printing press. We got to talk with him for quite a while. It was a really neat experience. I couldn't imagine setting all that type!!

Wesstin loves and i mean LOVES boarder line is obsessed with anything with a trailer. So as you can see he has all his toys and chairs lined up in a train and then he sits in the first chair and scoots backwards to make them all move. He is in heaven . He also brings me all of his toys that have strings and I have to tie them together in a very specific order that he sets up and then pulls very very carefully through the house the whole way beaming from ear to ear. If this kid doesn't go into working with machines and automobiles I will be shocked.

He has also discovered costumes lately. The boys are having so much fun dressing him up.

Last but not least his other little adventure he's been on lately. To the untrained eye this looks like a very very messy living room but to Wesstin it is the best fort ever! And by the way DON'T TOUCH IT!! lol He finds every toy chair and blanket then positions them ever so carefully and stands back a glow to marvel at his work. This mess was cute for about 3 days and now whenever i hear chairs moving I quickly say NOPE! forts in your room and there goes a bummed little guy but he's getting a system going in his room now. He's so funny I just love being the mom of these three little guys.

We have gotten TONS of snow. At least a foot the boys and all of us really have been having so much fun. We had a huge snowball fight last night . It was great only three of us cried. LOL and yes I was one of them. Dang Stevan!! He always has to win. here is a pic of Wesstin with his snowman Mame who I catch him talking to all the time. Here is is giving him a kiss and he also shakes his hand a lot it's really funny.

WE picked tons of apples so yummy and great memories. Driving up to the orchard in the Chevy doesn't get better than that. The picture below is one of my absolute favs I wanna blow it up and frame it. I can't believe how big Hayden is getting.

Here is Stevan's first elk we are so proud of him and so thankful for food for the freezer we are going up to Council this weekend to butcher with the Vaughn's up at Kerri's parents . I can't wait. It's always fun with them

Beautiful Grandma with her baby Wesstin these boys adore there Grandma and I can't blame them. She' the best there is in our book. I'm so grateful for my mom. I love her hands in this picture she is just so full of love and patience, kindness and charity. I'm very proud to be her daughter she has taught me so much!

Here are the kids up at the Thomas cabin. This is on the deck off the main cabin looking down at the creek.

our good ol dog Gunner

These turned out neat. The boys were our playing football and we just grabbed some pics



This one turned out neat with the dog and the fog

Wess getting ready for his first play in the snow. Look at him looking at his big brother to make sure he's doing the same thing.

here is our foot of snow.

The beautiful butte. We took these out in the pasture.

Brendon palying Basketball he is doing so good. I'm noticing the dates on all my pics are wrong oops I need to reset that.

hello fall

Can you believe this is 4 years ago!!!!!!!

Well It seems that I am really really neglecting my blog. When hello spring and hello fall have only about 4 posts between them that's bad! Well at least with fall here maybe I will be more apt to blog away since I won't be outside as much. Though I must say my garden is still producing wonderfully and I am trying to think of a way to cover it all with plastic and preserve it as along as I can. I also am going to try growing lettuce and spinach in the house. I just love love love having fresh good foods from my home. Quite frankly food from the store has begun to worry me and I am looking for as much local good whole food. My new motto is don't eat it unless it had a mother lol and crackers don't have mothers neither do chips but so many yummy delicious things do. Like pesto.....hmmmm heavenly pesto.......now my noodles not so much but hey I'm not perfect just trying to do my best or at least better. Consciously eat my food. I wanted to share a link to 5 natural remedies for cold season. I try really hard to be as natural as I can for my family and so far were doing okay. Let's see what has been going on lately. We did a field trip to the farmstead in Meridian. It was so much fun and if your here in Idaho go check it out. It was so funny when we went out to the pumpkin patch Wesstin could care less about the pumpkins he just stood there checking out the tractor. He inspected every tire and then moved on to the motor while looking back at me saying "whoooaaa" "mom whooaaa" It was so cute. He is so wired as a guy. I really didn't know it just happened like that but he was just born that way. I love it. He will definitely be a jack of all trades like his Grandpa Kleinschmidt. They are so much alike it is funny. I really miss my dad but it's nice to be here at home and see all the projects we've done together and just be surrounded by him a bit. School is going well ....we're busy though it takes a lot of time every day. That's alright though. I'm so glad to be with my kids. Stevan is taking off to go hunting this weekend with Troy and Kerri and I and the kids are all going to have a sleep over at her house. We're looking forward to it.....I just love the Vaughns. Such good people. Next weekend Sara's husband is going out of town so Wess and I will be journeying to Boise to hang out with my buddy and spend the night talking and listening to music and getting in some long over due Sara and Terri time. Sure wish she lived closer!! Today we're going to get some school done and then head over to Caldwell and see Ms. Elaine. We are all so excited. Time with her is a treasured treat. I'm going to stop into Cliff's Market as well they have raw cow milk there I want to check out I'll let you know how it goes. well better get busy.

EXCUSE ME SUMMER I STILL HAVE THINGS TO DO......

WHERE IS SUMMER GOING? Our trees are turning colors already!!!!! NOOOOOOO!!!!! I say NOOOOO!!! Alright I'll stop now. I guess. We've had a really fun summer. We've squeezed in two camping trips, beautiful garden, fun birthdays and a visit from my dad. Not to mention all the fire pits and late nights spent enjoying our home and family. I love long summer nights! but alas it is winding down not all the way gone, but definitely winding down. School is back in session, it's chilly in the morning, and sweat shirts are a must now. I still have canning to do and freezing...lots of it really! I did a lot of canning this year with my friend Dawn. We canned pickles and tons and tons and tons of jam. all different kinds. We had plenty of adventures, such as a 3 mile hike with small children, all to get a bowl full of wild blackberries. But hey that makes memories. There are pictures of our labors down below.

The boys are in heaven with their Uncle Gus he is so special!

(can you believe this is my baby brother GUS! So glad we got to see him)

We got invited to the western Idaho fair by my neighbors mom that we lovingly and fittingly call Nana. she is so good to my kids. she gets me to go do things I normally wouldn't have done and am so glad I did once we're going. Here are pictures of all the kids having a blast. We stayed later than everyone and met up with Sara, Rob, Joe and Nicole. With a surprise run in of my little brother Gus. Boy that was probably the best part of the whole night. The boys were in heaven. So was I. They had a great dinosaur exhibit this year. The kids had so much fun going through there. Well Wesstin was scared and wouldn't look the whole time with the dinosaurs but once we hit the fossil dig he was all about it.

Sara and I having to much fun!

OHHH MY PICKLES!! I can't wait to eat them!! I can't find my jam pictures now. oh well. My friend Eloise and I are going to can apple sauce when she gets home from vacation. So excited. I love my little shed for cold storage now. I need to clean it out a bit better and make some more room. I canned peaches as well for the first time the other day. It turned out well. My mom has a peach tree at her house and we are going to freeze and can all of those this week sometime. Lots of tomatoes from my garden I've made a few batches of tomato sauce and pesto yummy yummy how I do love pesto!! My bell peppers are producing like crazy so I need to get them froze. How nice it will be to pull those out for fajitas this winter. I also have zucchini to chop and shred and freeze. I'm just loving all of this if you haven't noticed. Makes you feel like your doing what your supposed to be doing. It also gives you a confidence that you now know you can do it if you had too.

A picture I just had to add of sweet baby Kairi my best friend Falesha's little girl. She is so smart and funny and sweet I just love her!! They cam over for the boys birhtday.

John and Brendon

Uncle John and Uncle Robert have been able to stop by more often because their doing a job down here in Emmett. We have loved having dinner guests and visiting. Their very good uncles. the boys love them so much as you can see.

Uncle Robert and the boys

ONTO MY BIRTHDAY BOYS!! Here they are in the morning. Wesstin's b-day is the 19th and Hayden's is the 21st so we combined which their fine with. We had almost all their friends here and had a blast with water balloons, cake, slip and slides, and friendship.
Now I swear all of my friends are awesome cake makers so I got inspired this year and mad the boys a Motocross race track. I was pretty excited about it. Hayden helped design the course complete with whoops, big jumps, table tops and big corners. It was fun. The funniest part was that when I went to find motorcycles to put on the cake there was not one to be found in my whole house. GO FIGURE!!! They got some great gifts from everyone but more importantly great memories.
We had an exciting trip up to the Thomas cabin way way up above Riggins. Pete, Betty, Levi, Gavin, Pete's mom Roberta, and our family all spent a wonderfully relaxing weekend. It is an amazing cabin that Pete's parents built and I'm so thankful that we were able to see it and enjoy it with them. I love that whole family so much they are truly my other family. I just love them such good people. They make me strive for the best me I can be. The trip down was a bit more scary. We we're flying down above Riggins and thought we had a flat tire really all our lug nuts broke off and it is a true miracle we didn't' flip our car. We ended up breaking down right in a huge turn off which had a trail down to the beach of the river. The kids had so much. I called my mom and Joe and they in turn called my Uncle Dave to the rescue with his wrecker and trailer to pull us home Thank goodness. Thankful we have so many people who love us. We love them too.

My guys

AWWW my boys. How I love them so much!!! This is the 4th of July here in Emmett all cuddled in the truck. That's our neighbors boyfriend in the background Dave. They are such good people. So glad for good neighbors. I just am loving my life. Though it may not always be pretty at the end of the day everyone knows their loved and special. I'm always working hard on being the best mom and person I can be...let me tell you some days are harder than others. It's an interesting journey and I'm embracing every step of the way. Even when it hurts. I think one of the hardest things is living up to the person i want my boys to be. To lead them by example and not my words. For that is truly what their watching. I'm also enjoying learning more about our history and founding of our country. It's a beautiful blessed place to live. I could cry almost every time I think about it. The sacrifices and want of freedom that people have fought for and are still fighting and I'm ashamed to say I have far to often taken for granted. I do not anymore. It's so much more precious when you truly embrace and think about it through your daily walk of life. I hope to instill this love and appreciation in my boys. Along with thankfulness, the ability to walk in a clear conscious and to love one another and God. I just can't believe how big their getting!!

Westtin loves his daddy so much (so do I) He waits on the front steps for him and Stevan stops and lets him sit on his lap to drive and park his truck...he then has to help carry Stevan's lunch stuff in and get his dad his beer. The picture below is of them watching predator quest (for those of you who don't get the joy of this show it is coyote hunting.) It cracks me up though as soon as Wesstin hears the music or a coyote call he runs to sit with his dad. He's such a little man. He is fascinated with cars, big machines of any kind, all tools or anything he can take apart and now hunting. He just cracks me up it truly is bred into them from birth.

August is our celebration month. It starts with my birthday the 8th Sara came and spent the night with me again. That was the only thing I could've ever wanted. I can't believe i get to have sara be my best friend. She is just indescribable. She's always there for me and understanding. We can share anything with each other and know the other one will never judge. It's a very unique relationship that I'm not sure all people get to experience. I'm so blessed to get to. The next celebration is Wesstin turning 2 this year on the 19th and Hayden 9 on the 21st then we finish it out with our anniversary the 31st which will be 8 years this year. That feels so good to say. We have been together for 10 years this November. I honestly love that man more today than ever before. That Brad Paisly song and I thought I loved you then reminds me of our life together. Just as in life we have at times had to fight tooth and nail for baby steps and sometimes have gone backwards but we've stuck it through and we are stronger for every battle we've won. We have shared so much joy laughter and life together. I'm proud to share my life history with Stevan. I love and look forward to sitting in lawn chairs watering our garden with him for the rest of my life. I need to take pics of my garden it is doing so good. We all just love it. I can't believe the summer is escaping though. I feel like it just started and here we are harvesting things and thinking of firewood. oh well that's time for you.

Wesstin is no longer a baby. As we watch him chase the boys trying to keep up we realize he's left the "look out for the baby" stage and moved right on to the "Wait for me guys" stage. And they are such good brothers for it. The pic below is Hayden giving him a tattoo which he yelled the whole time owww oowww oowwww I hope that's a sign that he won't come home tattooed up later in life. (= And if he does I'll love him anyway.

He's my underwear man too not fully potty trained but working hard toward it.