And the leaves turn...

Wednesday was the very last branding of the year. It was a chilly morning, with a light fog at the base of the mountains, slightly overcast, definately a day to pack coats for the girls. We got out to a later start than I would have liked, but by the time we made it up to Middle Creek, branding was in full swing. My hubby was on Fred, Scott on Roany, Lloyd on Dalcie, and Matt on his horse (he's the new guy, I don't know his horse's names yet!). It's moments where being so isolated and so far away from town is so so so worth it. As the crowd of calves began to thin, and lunch was being set out, it was official, summer had come to a close. The days have gotten a little cooler, a little calmer, a little shorter, and fall has rolled in with a whisper.  At around one it was time to head home, and with two tuckered out little girls we made the half hour trip back to the house.

 Sarah waving to her Daddy!

 The bug!

Miss Sarah and her beautiful blue eyes!

Bryce and Lloyd

 

And that is how peacefully the seasons change.... 

Fall Fun!!

What can I say, the man still has it! Today was a glorious day off and we decided to spend it going to breakfast in Cascade and playing with the girls in the park. Both were fabulous ideas!! Even though the basketball was a little flat, Sarah was disappearing picking flowers, and Char was trying to eat every rock in Montana, it was so nice just to relax and have some family time.

Told you she had a thing for flowers!! Wish away my love!!!

 Char playing keep away... Bryce says he sees a future player! :)

These are our other daughters, aged respecively at 1 and 2 they have made life a little more joyful. Within the first month of owning her, Molly broke her leg, then right before Sadie came, she broke it again!! Then in the last couple months we have had two near misses with both of them being pregnant. Thank God neither one of them were! Life wouldn't be the same without these girls...

 

 The above shot is so that everyone knows that Bryce can still dunk it.. Me on the other hand... Haha... yeah, I would be the reason the saying 'White girls can't jump' exists!!

In all it was a wonderful day and now we are off to ride our new pony, Pepper. I wonder if Bryce is ever going to get anything male around this place... His only company is Fred and our rooster, but maybe he just loves all the feminine attention... This man gets doted on alot!! :)

Swai filets for dinner!!

 

Options...

My Bug's tastes are evolving every day. Since the day she was born, Charlotte enjoys having options. Where Sarah needs to focus on one thing at a time, Char needs to have options. From binkies to toys, the more diverse and colorful the better. Sarah loves to wing it, moving erraticly and never either following through or planning ahead. Char loves to move things methodically, she moves carefully, and likes routine. At night we cuddle, then I lay her down in her crib followed by her 'options'. Her blanky has to be tucked up over her ear (she won't sleep if you don't), and she gets given 5 binkies. It is a gamble which colors she will choose but she usually goes one of two ways. She will take the pink one, the purple one, and the green one, (one for each and and one for her to suck on) or she will go for all green. Rarely does she use two green and a pink or purple. How she eats is another options game. Going with the different color behavior I try to make our meals diverse, green peas, white chicken, brown bread. She picks from each category and eats accordingly. I've never met a neater baby. As I speak she has her bottle in one hand and her sippy cup in the other, switching drinks on the go!

Shortly after this picture was taken, she found the purple binky and dropped the second green one!

The Book

Ever have a ton of magazines around the house and you don't want to get rid of them because you have an article you want to keep? I found a solution to that and it's becoming my household Bible!

 

 

The first section, My Style section! All of these are torn out of those 'one article' magazines, placed into page protectors and put into a 3 inch binder!

 



 My home section, my organizing wizard, my future kitchen, and decorating! This one might be in the top 3 of this book. I can't wait to own my own home and actually put these ideas to good use!

 

The money saver section... Self explanatory and mandatory for a family!

 

My recipe section, most definately the biggest section... A variety of recipes from Travel magazines, Cooking Light, and Taste of Home! Yum!

 

 

Aaahhhh Travel. This is my favorite section, just a huge reminder of all the things I want to do in my life!

 



Bryce's section, filled with cows, horses, dirt and silver!

Yes, that does say 'How to Raise a Foodie'! The girl's section, from children's saddle, to how to cook with your kids... Another top pick in The Book!

 

Just had to share what my limited creativity created!!!



The Elephant in the Room...

While cuddling in bed with Miss Sarah this morning, I heard a funny noise coming from around the house. I told Sarah that I would be right back and headed to the door. It didn't take me long to realize that the elephant like noise was coming from a certain little person. My Bug. I walk in and she screaches, grabs a binky and throws her arms up in the air. Is there any better way to be greeted in the morning? I picked her up and squeezed her tight and then was greeted by Sarah who looked up and yelled 'OH!! It's the baby Charlotte!! OOooohhh Good Morning!!' As I type, both are sat down with some Apply Juice and Winnie the Pooh, sitting next to each other. Watching these girls, I am so jealous of them being sisters! They are each other's best friends, playmates, and ultimate frustration. Their relationship is so dynamic, probably due to their completely opposite personalities. Sarah loves to run around outside, she will climb up any horse, chases cows, pounces on the dogs, is in constant need of attention (correction half the time), she loves to be read to for about 10 seconds, and has been talking about Christmas for the last 6 months! Charlotte, on the other hand, is a much more mellow baby. She enjoys being outside but would rather sit inside and be read to for hours. She hates horses, hates getting dirty, and a quiet 'no' will put her on the right track. Her persistence goes far above and beyond Sarah's ever did though. A simple 'no' may turn her away, but she is right back at it 5 minutes later. My monkey takes a stiffer, louder voice but she's usually pretty good about it the rest of the day. It will definately be interesting to see how they grow and change over the next few years!

Make-Ut

Make- Ut.. what us big girls call make-up. My two year old has her own spin on things and I have to say it's pretty much adorable. Every night before sleep she asks for kisses, big hugs, and right before I walk out of her room she says in an escalating voice Mama, I lubbers you sssSSSSOOOOOO MUCH! The sweetest word i've ever ever heard. She is also my little girl in every way. She loves the animals, she will play in mud all day, but her favorite things are to help me with my 'make-ut' and my hair. She loves dresses, necklaces bracelets, and fluffy hair bows. I don't know what I would do without my baby!

While doing my make up today I felt compelled to write a review... I added a new mascara to my routine, Maybelline's Mega Plush Mascara in non-waterproof, Blackest black.I was very disappointed. I was using another one of their volumizing mascaras and loved it but the ads on tv sold me into this one. There is no feeling of wearing mascara which is a huge plus, but in order to actually LOOK like you're wearing mascara you have to go three to four coats worth. It also has a flexible brush, not a plus. No more blinking into the brush, girls! It makes it very difficult to get into the lashes for a good coat as well.  I sincerely hope you look at my beautiful girls more than my eyes, but the first day of Mega plush!!

Carrie Bradshaw

"Maybe Girlfriends are our true Soulmates, and boys are just someone to have fun with" -Carrie Bradshaw

My post last night dealt with my movie addiction, and this one is another one of the favorites. I've watched the series begining to end (many thanks to my room mate back in college) and fell in love with dynamics in the series. Four completely different girls, withstood the test of time as they each rose to the life they always wanted. Friends are wonderful gifts! They are truly the family you choose and I have been lucky enough to be blessed with many over the years. Some of us have drifted apart as our lives develop, but others have stuck for a decade or more. As we grow older friendships mean more and those friends are depended on more. As a mom, I never realized how much more important those friends would be. We may not get to see each other much any more, but we are there for each other in ways that are just as supportive. When the girls are at their worst, it is so wonderful to be able to pick up the phone, get some fresh perspective or a laughing voice that says:

'Go get some coffee and eat a cookie!'

My name is Emily, And i'm....

A movie Junkie!!! I spelled 'junkie' with a capital 'J' for a reason. I was able to sneak in an hour yesterday to watch 'Midnight in Paris' with Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams, and realized that I was very happily watching a movie I had already seen three times. Maybe it was the literary/art aspect of this movie (sorry, you are reading posts about someone who is a sucker for Picasso, T.S. Elliott, and Hemingway!), but maybe it was the time travel aspect. To go back in time to those glory days... Anyways. I love movies from just about every genre, excluding horror films (it disturbs me that there are people that think up horrid ideas and get payed for it. A.k.a. Saw). My husband just about falls over everytime he comes home to a musical. Phantom of the Opera is beautiful, who knew Gerrard Butler could sing like that right? THIS IS SPARTA!!!!!! Right now, the early 2000's teeny bopper movie Freaky Friday is on Starz. Yes I am watching it! Really wanting to watch something a little more adult, but it was this or The Bride of Chucky. Carnivorous psycho dolls... yep... not really my thing! In all, if it's Bob the Builder, or Buried My Heart At Wounded Knee, Lonesome Dove, to Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, i'm all for trying new movies! Any suggestions?

Don't Blink...

The best advice I could ever give a new Mommy is that exactly ^^ Don't blink.... Ever! As Char's 1 year birthday is barreling at me at insanely high speeds I am realizing more and more everyday that I did in fact blink. Despite the above advice, I managed to focus more on the future than on the present and now that is the past. Besides a couple videos, I barely remember what Sarah's baby-talk voice was like. How it feels to hold a newborn. How often do we get frustrated and blink? Nod those moments out of memory, holding them to be inconsequential, slightly insignificant. I realized that this morning as a fit of frustration took hold and I stormed off to the pantry to grab yet another cracker to keep at least some of the whining at bay. It wasn't until I was switching laundry five minutes later that Charlotte was whining, yes, but she was whining 'Please', not just baby talk. When exactly did she start saying please??

On to brighter topics, have I said that I love to cook recently? A hershey's chocolate cake is on tap for after dinner, and dinner will be barbequed beef sandwiches on homemade rolls, braised carrots, and mashed potatoes! Yum yum! Company coming tonight!

I own a Zoo.

I watched my children playing this morning and with a cup of tea in hand I sat there praying for half their energy! Bryce and I watched Date Night the other day and all those movies that we used to watch about children and parenthood never really hit home. After Sarah came, it was more of a reality check. After Char, it was a most definately a lifestyle connect. A scene of 'Phil' and 'Claire' in the car where they were arguing about her behavior at 'Hollbrook's' house definately hit home. Especially the part where she said that 'It's always a SHOCK EVERY NIGHT that we have to wear pajamas!' When the girls were super tiny, I would have laughed almost scoffingly at the fact that it can't be that hard to get children into pajamas! Haha, yeah sure. There is nothing like true life experience that causes true laughter at movies like those! The saga of bedtime is just getting harder and harder as time progresses. Bryce chased Sarah through the house while she screamed 'No night nights no night nights!' And Char, well after I managed to get a diaper on her wiggly, rolling, laughing butt, Bryce wrangled her into a nightgown. Jammies with pants at this point in our life is just too much. So the nicknames for our daughters are very appropriate. We have our Monkey and our Bug... With all the horses, cows, sheep, chickens, and dogs around here, I would have to very joyfully say... I am the proud owner of a Zoo!

An evening, splendid...

I got my husband up late this morning :/ Something I hate doing, because it usually ends with him leaving without breakfast, which means he eats his lunch early, which means he's super hungry when he gets home. We all know what happens when a man is hungry.... That goes hand in had with another 'ee' word.... Grumpy, anyone? So while I watched him trailer out this morning I started dreading his return, but then I had a phenomenal idea. Cake! One Hershey's chocolate cake, a can of cherry frosting (picked out by the one and only Sarah!), and a spotless house later, I am headed towards the track of greeting this man with Dinner on the table and dessert in the air. Not to mention the fact that one of the sweet ladies on the ranch came over with a half gallon jug of a local Helena brewed IPA. Could the food and drink in this house get any better?!

On the fine note of yummy food, we have a birthday girl coming up! Char will turn one in the beginning of Oct. and we are planning a huge huge party! We are having friends from the ranch, family from Oregon and family from North Carolina and Georgia coming out to see us and we couldn't be more excited. My hubby and I have been married for three years, dating for a year before that and he has never met all of my side of the family. It should be a good time! ;) I am planning a huge snack spread which will indeed be challenging due to the fact that two of my family members are gluten-intolerant. So any ideas? I have a killer Artichoke spinach cheese dip recipe, and my mom is bringing something, but I love wow-ing the crowd with food! Here goes another adventure!