Do I remember how to blog?

Hi everyone. We are all still here. I guess during the summer I would rather be outside than at my computer. I am going to post highlights of July through now. Nothing too exciting, but you will get caught up on our little family.

Fun with cousins Annie, Britnee, Macee






Our hike to Line Creek Plateau, I think that Jake started to get altitude sickness but we all made it and the kids did great (Kelly volunteered to stay at home with Taylor, that was wise). The hike was so worth the incredible view!

Snow in July

How many people can you fit in a truck?

The Stott Reunion, thanks Uncle Jim and Aunt Margie, it was so fun!

Rocking with Grandpa Atkinson

Above: After 4 days of no running water and still smiling
(and alive!) it is possible.

I took pictures of my cute "baby" brother Tate

I love my little monkeys, they can climb trees!

A quick trip to Glacier Park in August

It had been way too long, I am so blessed to live in the most beautiful state!

First day of school. Jake 7th, Colton 5th, Britnee 3rd,

Taylor pre-pre-school = a few more years with mom :)

Project 12 ~ failure...Oh well there is always next year!

Well I'm back, maybe no one noticed that I missed my "project 12" goal by not blogging in the month of May. However I will include pictures from May & June in this post. Life has just been busy. During May Lacee and her boys were here for a couple of weeks, school got out, in June I spent a week in Fairfield with the kids and then the weather got nice so I want to be outside!

In May Colton received the Arrow of Light award in Cub Scouting. We are very proud of him. Jake spent a week at Cub Scout day camp as a Junior Leader and "had to be nice to Tiger scouts all day" that is a direct quote from Jake.

When we were leaving the Arrow of Light ceremony I thought this flag looked neat. It is somewhere near Pompey's Pillar.

My cute little helpers!

I love them all!

This is the cute little fox in our subdivision, unfortunately our subdivision is bordered by a slightly busy road with a high speed limit (you know where I am going with this).

Father's Day

We drove to Worland, WY to go to church, we came home in the afternoon. We were in a hail storm around Bridger, MT (the sky was very dark). It looked like it had rained in Laurel. We turned west toward our house. I thought the clouds look interesting so I took a picture. Later we found out that this is what the clouds look like 20-25 miles from a tornado.

Am I really this boring?

Every year in February I make heart shaped cookies with my kids, I usually visit Yellowstone Park sometime in the summer, as a family we spend alot of time on the Yellowstone river, I make pumpkin bars at the first nip of fall (every year) am I the only one seeing a pattern here?

I was cleaning out my closet the other day in an effort to de-clutter my home (and my life for that matter) and I discovered that I am really boring. I have this many tee-shirts (most of them are solid, boring, & plain). Please tell me this is not the only thing you have ever seen me wear. Maybe it is just 12 years of a "mom" wardrobe added up. I also have 5 solid white tee-shirts. My picture only shows 4 I was wearing the other one when I took the pictures. Not pictured is the slightly smaller stack of long sleeve tees and the solid colored polos that I wear in the summer with capris and in the winter with a long sleeve tee underneath. I. need. help. Please tell me I am not really this boring! Wait a picture is worth a thousand words I really am.

In my own defense 2 of the tees have stripes and there are a few different necklines and look how nicely they are folded. I have resolved the next 3 shirts that I buy will not be plain solid tee-shirts.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday Mom, thank you for teaching me what is most important in life! Thank you for being a wonderful Mother & Grandma. We are all blessed to have you in our lives. We love you!

Kelly, Emilee, Jake, Colton, Britnee, & Taylor

Happiness

6 peanut butter sandwiches + a warm Saturday with NO wind + Yellowstone river + whole family = HAPPINESS

Britnee and Taylor checking out Jakes big catch!

I guess Kelly, Colton, and I don't get in on the pictures this time.

I spent plenty of time just listening to the river flow by and watching eagles soar.

Simple things (it sounds wrong to call these things simple) are what really make me happiest, time with my family in a beautiful place. I have nothing more to add!

My First Project

A few years ago (4ish) a park was built in Laurel, it involved a week of community volunteers working to get it done. That was probably one of the first times I used a power tool. I was drilling a hole for a bolt, pushing as hard as I could when a kind older gentleman asked me if the drill was in reverse. You know what, it was! What a difference it made when I actually drilled in forward (it was easy)! Power tools aren't so scary when you know what you are doing. I really enjoyed working on that project.

It lead to me not being afraid to use KELLYS tools while he was at work, I hung blinds.

Then my mind started wandering, Kelly and I could build a house...which led to us doing quite a bit of work on this.

Notice the pack-n-play Taylor was a new baby

Oh my, that was alot of work!

Well a few months ago I came across this blog. I was amazed! I spent way too many hours looking and planning. Ana at Knock-off Wood (one of the most blogged about blogs) has beautiful furniture plans for FREE. I finally decided on my first project, a headboard. The lumber cost me $44.oo at Pottery Barn a similar headboard is $699 plus shipping! Look at the pictures and tell me which you would choose. Granted Kelly has some sweet tools from building our house, we would be at a hardware store and he would say "I need this for the house" and I would say "O.K." At Lowes a nice guy in the lumber department cut each board to the length in the plan. The only tool at home that I used was the nail gun. Kelly only helped me with the top piece (it was a little warped so I needed the extra muscle to "bend" the 2x4). It took me less than 2 hours start to finish to nail and glue it together. I then distressed the headboard with a meat tenderizer/cleaver thing from my kitchen and chisels. I wish that I would have "distressed" a little more but it was scary(I wasn't sure what I was doing to my headboard)! Then I sanded and put 2 coats of dark walnut stain on it and then a coat of antique walnut polyurethane.

My wood after the nice man a Lowes cut it

Almost ready for finish work

When it dried my headboard looked like this.....

Panic set in.

After sane people talked me through the panic/what did I do wrong? I put another coat of polyurethane on and here is my final result.

Notice the little distress marks

The Pottery Barn headboard is beautiful, but I am darn happy with mine!
This is not my room,

but this is

I am so happy with my first piece of furniture, I am hooked. Now when I see a picture of a piece that I like I wonder if I could make it for a fraction of the retail price. Now I need your help I plan on making nightstands, have any of you seen a headboard close to the color of mine with black or white/off white furniture? I have a dresser that is painted black but if I decide to go with white I am fine with painting it. I am also going to make a bench the same color as my headboard for the foot of my bed. Let me know what you think would look good.

Tech Support

Can anyone tell me the easiest way to create a link (I think that is what it is called). When for example on a blog it says click here to go somewhere.
Thank you!