Life in North Dakota

Here are some pictures of what we have been up to since we got to Gackle.  It takes me a couple days to remind myself how to slow down.  There are days when we don't do anything but hang out around the house and go on walks or bike rides around town.  It seems like we would get bored, but we don't.  The days fly by.  

Once in a while Papa comes by on the "Red Devil" and takes the boys to get fresh water from the spring.  They love it.  I love that they love it, but don't love picking the ticks off them later.  The ticks here are out of control.  I have probably picked 8 ticks off of our family...yuck!  Every night when we bathe the boys, I conduct tick checks.  Something I've never done in CA.

I made a homemade Pizza Margherita the other night.  It was divine.

Self portrait by Ollie.

Jason's dad had a porch built on the front of our house this winter.  I bought a swing the first time I went into Jamestown.  We all love sitting outside enjoying the nice days and watching the comings and goings of Gackle.  This picture is courtesy of Oliver.

 I've wanted to put Ollie in gymnastics for a while now, but life is too busy (and expensive) in CA.  I knew once we got here there would be more time and we wouldn't be paying for his preschool every month so I signed him up.  He's only had one class so far and he was apprehensive at first, but by the end he loved it.  I love that I only had to pay $35 for the month of lessons (1x per week for an hour).  If he likes it I will sign him up for a longer, all boys class next month.

Oh my little Max.  He is just the sweetest/cutest thing.  He jabbers all the time. He also hums while he eats, which is really cute, I need to get a video.  He wants to play with brother and his friends, but is just a little too small to keep up.  Here is a pic of him hanging out on my bed with me, just talking.

 I think I mentioned last year about auctions in ND.  I love them.  The first weekend we were here there was one in Gackle.  I bought a box of games for $12.50.  It had Operation, Electronic Battleship, Deluxe Yahtzee, Scrabble, Dominos and a few others I'm not familiar with.  I was pretty excited.  A little about the auction.  This is the first one I have been to where the house didn't sell.  They started bidding at $15,000 and no one bid.  So the auctioneer went down to $10,000, then $7500, still no one bid and the seller wasn't willing to go lower.  Isn't that crazy??  The house did need some work, but still $7500!  My friend Sam also had a yard sale that day and I got lots of cute clothes for our baby girl.  They are the first clothes I have bought.

Jason humored me one Saturday night and played Scrabble with me. He isn't a big game person, but he especially dislikes Scrabble.  What a good sport! 

 One Sunday afternoon after we returned from church a couple of boys we know (Hunter and Eli) came by to see if Ollie wanted to play with them.  They are older than him, I think they are 7, he is almost 5.  I probably wouldn't have let him go anywhere else, but in Gackle I felt ok with it.  I was just really sad, because my boy is growing up.  I had a slight meltdown thinking of how he doesn't need me as much and he is growing up.  We talked with the older boys about making sure they brought him back since he doesn't know his way around town yet.  When it was dinner time Jason just went and found him.  Ollie went out with them the next two days as well.  Each time I would find him when I went out for a walk or he would just show up at home.  This must be what parents in the 50's felt like :)

When brother leaves I have this little guy to keep entertained.  This day he looked so melancholy without his brother. 

 I took him for a bike ride that day.  We got half way down the street and he told me he was too tired to ride. We came back and I put him in the wagon.  I looked back and this was what I saw.  Poor tired baby.  I brought him in and he continued his nap on the couch.

This was a yummy Thai coconut soup I made one day.  We have cool days here where soup is a perfect "supper".  

Last winter our house was rented to some construction workers and hunters.  One day Ollie pulled this out from under his bed and said "Look mom, a jug of water".  I told him that was not water and then dumped it out.  I was a little disappointed when I found out that there were a lot of things I could do with this besides drink it.  I shouldn't have dumped it!

Father's Day weekend we went camping (which I will blog about next).  Here are some pictures from Father's Day.  Of course I didn't take a pic of Jason with the boys :( 

They asked me to help out in nursery while we are in ND :(  I want to be helpful, but I am not going to lie, I was not excited about this calling.  I have a nursery aged child all the time and I teach sunbeams in CA.  I was looking forward to going to Relief Society, but I will help where they need it.  I do enjoy spending nursery with Max though.  During music time, the kids each wore an animal mask while we sang Old McDonald.  Max was a pretty cute cow.

I made Jason Spicy Coconut Shrimp with Mango Basil Salsa and Coconut Lime rice for Father's Day.  It is one of his favorites.  

Jason also requested that I make him some chocolate chip cookies.  Ollie heard this and came back with this drawing.  I thought that was so sweet.  Sometimes I think he feels like the only thing he can do for people is draw them something so that is what he does.  

We got Jason this jar of peanut M&M's. 

And this card that I thought was hilarious.  We also got him a pair of slippers that he wanted.

For Mother's day at preschool Ollie filled out a little questionnaire about me.  Jason had mentioned that he wanted one for Father's day so I made this for him.  I asked both boys the questions and listed their answers next to each other.  Jason really liked reading their responses.