4H

Every week Arlie takes Sierra and our pony Patches to 4H. Sierra LOVES it. She is learning proper riding techniques, and has gone from crying when daddy had to let go of the lead rope, to trottting confidently in one month. Our nephew Aiden also goes with them, and he rides a horse named Leo.

Sierra always tells me that Patches trots faster than the other horses, and likes to be in front, so she cuts corners to try to stay in the lead. Here is proof of that. Arlie forgot that he was recording for a while...sorry.

This is Sierra and Aiden riding their horses in the figure eight pattern. Patches is a little bit more of a "go getter" than old Leo:)

Lexie singing...

This is from a few years ago, when the hippopotamus song was really popular. Lexie (at age three) sings her version of it in this video. I might be biased, but I think it's pretty cute!

House

The new house is in the framing stage right now. The garage roof trusses are up, and the house ones are sitting on the house, but are not installed yet. The interior walls are all framed. It's so exciting to see it all come together. I can now see what I've pictured in my head for so long! I can't wait until I get to start picking colours!!!

More new house pictures

Our floor joists are ready yo be installed!

Our garage is now poured...it's getting so exciting!!

Garage and house

Henry Winters is our framer.

He works VERY hard, and is a great guy!

Koko

This is our new puppy, Koko. She is a merle cocker spaniel, and she is very cute! She is seven weeks old, and loves to snuggle. Arlie wasn't really in favor of getting a puppy until he saw her unique markings. He finally gave in, and got her for me as a mother's day/birthday/anniversary present. She has VERY blue eyes which are usually covered by fur, but I got an okay picture of them in the bottom middle picture (where she looks scared). Eventually we are going to breed her with Scooter, our other cocker spaniel. I think they'll make the cutest puppies ever!

OUR NEW HOUSE!!!

I finally get to say that we have started our new house. This has been in the works for so long that to say that I'm a little excited is an understatement! Here are just a few pictures of our land, and the hole for our basement. The kids are excited now too because they can see the progress. I'm hoping to be in by Christmas, and maybe even host Christmas dinner this year. I will keep posting pictures of each stage, so you can share in my excitement:)

Arlie's Idaho Trip

Arlie went on a bike trip to Idaho with my brother and a couple of buddies. From what I can tell they had a great time, and Arlie is hoping to go again in the future. Here are just a few of the pictures Arlie took. He loves taking pictures of scenery, and he didn't take too many with people in it.
Here is one of Dan just for you Karen

Arlie said this is Dan's hair "waving in the wind"