Brrrrrr, it's Autumn!

OK since we live in Texas it's not really "brrrrr", but it is the first day of Autumn today. Autumn is one of my favorite seasons! I love the food, (pumpkin pies, pumpkin bread, spice cakes, pies, apple cider), the birthdays, (Rae, Bea, Nanna, Uncle Chris, Auntie Kelly and so on..), the holidays, and the colors!! Although right now I don't really like the colors we have outside, but that's because the drought is so bad that the red, orange and yellow colors of nature, are actually because they are dead. )=
Today was such a nice day! It didn't get past 80 something, the wind was blowing and the evening felt amazing. I'm really excited for some coolness and still hoping for coldness, I love being cold and hate being hot, same with Daddy Ki-Ki. (why we live in Texas the hot state? ...I'll get back to you on that!)
Well since it is Fall and the girls have been such great sports lately with how busy Mommy and Daddy have been, plus helping out with the new calf, and helping keep the house clean, I thought they deserved a little treat.
While out and about with Grandma today we went to the fabric store and their licensed fleece was on sale, so I let the girls pick what kind they wanted and we went home to make some blankets for the "cold" seasons ahead!

Bea had a lot of fun trying to tie the blanket. She just kept saying, "cross over, go under, pull tight!"
Then she'd clap for herself, haha cute little dimples.

She picked Rapunzel and Grandma found the perfect matching plaid for the opposite side.

So excited about her  Rapunzel, purple, yellow blankie!

Rae really did tie a lot of her blanket and she did a great job. 

I have been informed that she is no longer a princess, but a cowgirl! (Go figure that living on a ranch and riding horses every week would do that to her!) But she still loves pink, so we found this fun print and a great pink plaid to match!

My little pink cowgirl wrapped in her pink cowgirl blanket.

So those are their "Too hot for Houston" blankets. They love them, and they were fast and easy and they were able to help. It was a fun activity for mommy and girlies to do together!

Busy Busy Mommy!

Awhile ago we had a post about a busy busy Daddy. Well he is still extremely busy, and now Mommy, (me), is some how almost as busy!
I got a new calling in church, I had it at our old ward, but this ward seems to be more active, so my calling is in action. I am the assistant weekly activities coordinator. I am enjoying it because this coming activity is going to be CRAFTS! We all know how I feel about crafts. (=
Another great thing keeping me busy is the girls home pre-k. We are doing it with some friends, and the girls love it! I love that Bea gets to be involved as well. She loves being grouped with her big sister. She so badly wants to be a "big girl". She's been working really hard on going potty. But she has no consistency, so maybe not  working that hard, but she still tries.  So that is another thing that is keeping Mommy busy, the potty training. (If you have been through it, you know the mommy works just as hard as the potty trainee does).
Anyway another great and exciting busy activity that I have been enjoying so much, is I joined Close To My Heart company. It's a direct sales scrapbooking business! I love it! I already have a craft show coming up in Oct, and my up-line is going to do it with me and I cannot wait! I am hoping to raise enough money to 1 support my scrapping hobby, so it doesn't have to come out of Ki's check, 2 to buy a new fancy camera because mine is so sadly dying a slow and painful death, then 3 to head to the CTMH convention in Dallas this year! I want to go so so so BAD!! But I need to save my pennies, which if you know me, is not that easy!
I am also trying to keep the girls really busy with the library activities and play dates, mall trips to play on the play set, and so on.
Today another great busy activity got added to my agenda. We got a baby cow that needs to be bottle fed 2 times a day because she is supposed to be nursing right now. But she is a twin and her mommy didn't have enough milk for both calves, so sadly she was the one that got the boot. But her previous owner was very good at giving her her bottle and handling her, so she is super sweet and great with people.
My girls love her and I do too. She is so sweet and gentle, I think she will be fun to have around!
So I am responsible for half her feedings and if I had to, I would do all her feedings just to pet her. I know it sounds weird, but I think her and I bonded LOL. Plus she was named Reba and we decided to keep her name. I mean come on, who doesn't love Reba?!

Little baby Reba.
2 months old and weighs about 100 lbs.
 I felt it twice  today when she stepped on both my toes. they are still sore.

The girls are going to be in some dance classes again this next month, and we have birthdays coming up! Rae is going to be 5 in 8 days!! I'm shocked, that I am old enough to have a5 year old girl! Bea will be 3 on Nov 4th! So I'll have a 5 and a 3 year old! How does that happen?
 I'm still crossing my fingers for my 3rd baby and hopefully it will come sometime soon. But until then I need to keep my mind off of it by keeping busy. It's just too depressing to keep thinking about it every single day.
We went to the Temple though and I did get the confirmation that we are not done. So it's just a waiting game for us now, but it is hard because no patience in me at all. Ki on the other hand is super understanding and supportive about the whole thing. He always knew that we weren't done, and I love that. I love that he is so in tune with what Heavenly Father has planned for us and what we need to do to get to where we should be.
I'll continue to stay busy, love my girls, love my husband and care for my family the best I can. I love my life and I'm glad for everything and everyone in it!

Saturday's on the Ranch

Saturday's on the ranch are a lot different then the Saturday's we used to have when we lived "in town".
They seem to be more. Sometimes more work, sometimes more fun, some days just more to do and more errands to run. But we always have a full day and a great day.
This past Saturday Ki woke up early and cut down a tree in the front yard. He parks by this tree every day and a couple days before he noticed that there was a huge crack in it. This made him nervous because there was a tree that was back behind the shop and it just fell over. Ki saw and heard it fall over and a large part of the tree is still standing so we think that a lot of that tree was still alive.
With how dry it is and this horrible heat wave we have been having, he didn't want to take any chances. So he cut the tree down. Once it was flat on the grass he starting cutting the branches off and cutting the log into smaller pieces. We saw that a majority of the trunk was black which meant most of it was dead! So it was a only a matter of time before that tree would have come crashing down on the car!
I'm surprised it didn't come down the other night when we had the wind and rain storm. Most of the trees were blowing over so far the looked as though they were about to snap as well.
Here are some pictures of him cutting the tree. Sadly I didn't get any of the tree falling over. )=

 Chop chop

 Contemplating his next move...

 Sharpening the blades on the chainsaw.

After Ki got showered and cleaned up, we got a call from a guy that Ki had emailed about a little tote goat, (tiny motorcycle/dirt bike). Ki was excited because we got the bike at a really great price and it is something he has wanted for a long time. We later found out the Dad has always wanted one, which totally broke my heart because now that we have one he can't ride it because of his leg. )= But knowing Dad I'm sure he just happy that his Kids and grand-kids get to have the fun things he wanted. But man I wish that he could cruise around the ranch on that bike!
When we went and saw the bike Ki really liked it, he had fun driving up and down the street test driving it even though it was 111 degrees that day! If you know Ki you know that he was dripping sweat, but then again at 111 degrees, who wouldn't be?!

 Raeanna's first motorcycle ride. She is hooked and loves it! This could be a problem when she grows up!

Look how happy he is on this tiny bike!! ^

Oooo it's red, sexy!! (=

Getting it started.

The best part is: I CAN RIDE IT!!! Muahahaha!! I need to find my helmet (=

Here are some videos of us riding....

http://upload.youtube.com/my_videos_upload this is Lizzi riding and it's funny cause you can hear her screaming and making silly noises the whole time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hbyDUp7lJ8  this is Raeanna's first ride.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiHEM2tGRdg  Ki rounding up some of the horses.

I love that with my family we can have fun without going out and spending money on 5 minute gratification. We always have fun even if it's sitting at home doing nothing. That is why the ranch is so great for us! There is so much to do and so much fun to have! Now If grandma asks we were all wearing helmets while riding!
Until next time,
The Grawes (=

Utah 2011

Our trip to Utah was a last minute wild ride!
My oldest nephew was getting married and I wanted so badly to go. But Ki wasn't sure if he could get the time off to go. We had a couple different plans that we were waiting on to see which one would work the best depending on what his work had decided.
Almost at the last minute his work decided they needed him too much that he just couldn't go. It was the start of hurricane season and Ki's company does a lot of work off the coast and they needed him in case all heck broke loose. So it looked like we were going to try and just fly me out for only a weekend so that I could go to the wedding and then come back in time for Ki to to go back to work on Monday.
It was Thursday and my nephew was getting married a week from Saturday. My girls and I were on a mother daughter date, and while I was waiting for them to finish their chicken nuggets, I checked my FB account. I saw that a friend here in Texas was looking for someone to drive out to Utah with. Her hubby was out of town and she thought it was a good time to take the kids to see her family. Well I wrote on her wall that I needed to hit Utah as well. So we got it all planned out and left the Tuesday!!
It was planned so crazy fast and we decided everything so crazy fast. But it was totally worth it! The ride out was a little rough. She has 4 beautiful, great, well minded children and with my two, we had a full car! But the youngest (her 1 yr old) had tummy problems on the way out there! It was so sad, the other kids were having a hard time with the smell, but her and I just felt bad for the poor little cutie! How and scary that must have been to be 1 yr old and not being able to have mommy snuggle you when you have tummy issues. On top of that she was stuck in her car seat for 2 days! She was a strong baby though and made it through.
Once we got to Utah, my sister lives closest to the canyon where we came out and her family lived further away. Her family were great troopers and they came and picked her up, then came and dropped her off when it was time to head home to Texas.
I was so excited to be in Utah, the wedding was so beautiful, and I got to see so much family that  I haven't seen in YEARS! One of them was my amazing Aunt, I haven't seen her since I was in California 4 years ago for my friends wedding. Raeanna was just 11 months old. So my Aunt hadn't even met Bea yet! I was so excited for them to meet and to see my Aunt again.
Another relative  I saw was my biggest brother! I haven't seen him in four years either, but it was great to see him. He brought my nephew and he got huge! He's 16 not and so super tall. He gets it from his mom I swear cause my brother is short, LOL! It was so fun to visit with everyone and get to know them all again.

 I could only get Rae to hold still for a few pictures at the wedding. She was having way to much fun with all her cousins and friends!

This is my aunt and Bea loved her!

This is my mom and Bea has always loved her!

Another quick picture of Rae, the wild dancer at the party.

Here are a few more of the wedding. It was a lot of fun.

 Some dancing  shots of both the girls

My sister's beautiful family. 2 kids married and a grandson! Crazy stuff I tell you!

This is her and just her kids without their spouses and kids.

After the wedding we had fun just hanging out with family and friends for about 2 weeks. We had a lot of fun playing with cousins and friends and extended family.

My niece and nephew having fun with their friend. She's a sweet heart and I have known her forever. 

Here's the group, I can't remember what they were watching on the computer, but they thought it to be entertaining.

 

Rae and her cousin. They have about a 3 year difference, but they get along really well.

 

 It wouldn't be an official Utah trip if we didn't go up the canyon and walk around to see the beautifullness! 

We found some fun swings.

My pretty little Bug

She loved her flower she found

My pretty little Bumble

Bea loved jumping on the tramp, but was always scared to get on and off. Luckily she always had a cousin around to help her!

My great nephew. He has his mommy's crazy attitude, LOL!

I love the drive to Utah. On the way to Utah I was driving on the second day when we were going through the canyon. But on the way home I was feeling so sick! I had the stomach flu. The night we got home I practically slept in the bathroom. It was so sad!  But anyway here are some pictures of the trip home.

Love the cloud sitting on the mountain!

We had a lot of fun in Utah. But the fact of the matter is, my family and I need to go on a vacation for just us, only us. Not visiting any family, just going and having fun. So that is the plan for now. It's just a matter of saving up the money and trying to decide where we should go! Ki and I can't decide so far. I want to go on a disney cruise, but it costs a lot of money. So we will see how it goes.
I have a lot to blog about because It has been so long since I tried uploading the last blog, then it died. So the next couple of days that's what I hope to get done. Wish me luck!