Pic's From The Last Few Days...

We have been parked at the local fairgrounds for the past week or so.  It's been crazy hot!

The boys run around all day playing guns.  I don't know how they can stand it in the heat!?!?!

 

Molly and Peanut - You can definitely tell they have big brothers! LOL!!! 

 

Caleb loves to 'help' Dad no matter what Dad is doing - in this case, grilling!  He will sit on the bench and watch every move Dad makes... 

 

And when he gets tired of that, he just sits down and takes a break.  ;)

I was ecstatic when I head that the Budweiser Clydesdales where going to be at the fair this year! I am not a fan of Budweiser (or any alcohol), but I have always wanted to see the horses.  We got to pet them when they where out getting some exercise... 

They where so beautiful! The little kids loved them...

I felt bad for them when they where in their stalls.  They didn't have much room to move around since they are so big!

 

Caleb loves cake! We really had to watch him tho.  Turn your back for a second, and this is what happens. LOL!!!

He was pretty cute tho ;) He'd see us watching him and just giggle :)

 

All that playing is enough to make anyone tired!

 

 We are probably going to stay here for the next few days. We're going to do the fair in a few days, and maybe the rodeo this weekend.  Having fun, but boy, I'm going to be glad when we get out to the lake and can cool off!!!    :)

Must read for every girl!!!

I think every girl should read this (it's posted on another blog, link to it at the end)... 

My sweet Belle,

I sat and watched a show the other night where a roomful of beautiful women competed with one another for the love of a man.  I watched the drama as they quarreled, manipulated, flirted, cried and triumphed, but all I could think about was you.  I saw your fresh face smiling at your baby brother, heard your silly giggle as you told Daddy a joke and felt the weight of your head as you laid it sleepily on my shoulder.
I know your two-year-old mind dismissed everything I told you that night so I wanted to write it down for you.  Because someday, Lord willing, you will be old enough to listen and you will be wading through all the confusion that the world will toss at you about these things.  Things like beauty, strength and love.
So, my precious girl, here are the things I desperately want you to know.

1. The most beautiful women in the world look ugly when they are mean.  

Beauty is complex.  It involves your hair and skin and eyes, but all of those things are just a shell. That shell is transparent and I promise you that whatever you fill it with will be perfectly clear for the world to see.
Your eyes will always be beautiful when they look kindly at someone.  You will have lovely lips whenever they smile a genuine smile.   And your nose?  Well, noses are tough.  You either have a good one or you don’t.  Luckily for you, yours is adorable.
If you cultivate goodness and kindness and wisdom and strength then not only will that beauty shine out of you but you’ll find that you breathe joy and beauty into the lives of those around you.
But if the most beautiful woman on earth lets herself be filled with jealousy and hatred, she will look like a troll.

2. No one, in the history of the world, has done anything out of jealousy and made it look good.

You’ll be jealous a lot, sweetheart.  Trust me.  You’ll be jealous of other girls shoes or hair or elbows. You’ll be jealous of their friends, their boyfriends, their poise, their intelligence, their humor. (Maybe even of their mother, just don’t tell me about it if you are.)  You’ll be jealous of people you’ve never met and people you love dearly.
When you focus on that thing that some other person has you stop caring about them at all and only care about the thing.  Jealousy will make you act like a child because it is an utterly selfish feeling.  Trust me, whatever you do or say when you are driven by jealousy will make you look like an idiot.
So be on your guard against it.  When you see jealousy sneaking around (and you will) take a little time to be grateful for the things you do have.  And if you can’t come up with anything, call me.  Because I can see that you have so much beauty and strength and wonder in you that it makes my heart ache and I’d be happy to tell you all about it.

3. Don’t confuse SELFISHNESS with STRENGTH

Some of these women said terrible things to each other then defended themselves by tossing their pretty hair and saying, “I’m just being honest.  I have to say what I feel.”
Well here’s a little nugget of wisdom for you, sweetie.  Not everything you feel is worth saying.   There will be plenty of times when you will have emotions tumbling around inside of you like a litter of puppies on crack.  Some of them will be worthwhile but some will be stupid and you should do your best to send them packing.
You’ll meet plenty of girls who don’t agree with me.  They’ll claim it is strength of character to blurt out any thought that crosses their mind regardless of who will be devastated by it.  But honey, a woman of strong character has the wisdom to shut her mouth until she’s thought for a moment about what she’s feeling to decide whether it’s an emotion that she wants to own, an emotion that makes her into the woman she wants to be or one of those emotions that she should look square in the eye and say, “Yer outta here.  You and the hormonal horse you rode in on.”

4. Love

This one is a bit complicated, honey.  You’ll spend a lot of time looking for it and thinking about it and being jealous of it.  It doesn’t come in the same way all the time and it often ends up looking different than you thought it would.
But I will tell you one thing.  If your hunt for love begins with manipulation, jealousy and games, it’s going to have a very hard time finding its way to a happy ending.  Real love will start when you find someone, get to know him, and you guys spend time being kind to each other.
And if you do it the right way, with the right kind of boy, it will involve a lot less drama than Hollywood says it should and a lot more happiness.
Oh, and one more thing the show made me want to tell you:  If there is ever a boy who you are – I was going to say “kissing” but the thought of you kissing boys will probably give your dad a stroke, so lets go with – rollerskating with and he is openly rollerskating with several other girls. Like six…or seven…dozen…other girls,  STOP ROLLERSKATING WITH HIM.

This is not the type of boy that makes a good skating partner.  Someone who’s really fun to rollerskate with will like you because he sees what an amazing girl you are.  He’ll never ask you to prove to him that he should pick you over a dozen other girls.  He’ll be smart enough to know you’re the greatest thing he’ll ever find.
The only reason you should ever even go near the guy again is to point him out to your big brother so he can kick his #**.   No, forget getting your big brother.  You do it yourself.  Go straight for his…ankles.  Those two-timin’ rollerskatin’ ankles.
I love you, my darling girl.  Go back to playing with your trains.  We’ll chat again about all this in a decade or so.

Love, Mommy


http://healinghamlet.com/healing-stories/letter-to-my-daughter-after-watching-the-bachelor-2/

I think it's important that girl realize what true beauty is!  So many girls think that it's all about what you look like on the outside.  Many times I have heard my big brothers say "I can't stand it when I see girls wearing so much 'Paint' " or " Beth, if you EVER dress like 'that' you will have ME to answer too!"  I love it when they say things like that, because it means that they're looking out for me, and they're getting turned off by that junk.  It makes me sad when we go to the beach or local pool and I'm ashamed that they have to see so much nastiness :(  I know 'very' few girls that actually wear modest swimsuits.   I don't see why girls think that they have to show themselves off to get guys to notice them!?!?!

Well I've preach my sermon. LOL!!!  Just my opinion, and maybe I'll lose views-but I don't care.  Just remember girls;  the guys that are worth it are going to love you for who you are, not how you dress.

~Beth

PS. I love comments! Please take the time to tell me what YOUR opinion is on this!

Party Time!

For the past few days we have been out at my Aunts ranch.  Every year we help with her annual 4th of July party! (which is usually the Saturday after)

We start prepping food Friday morning.  The food usually consists of; burgers, hot dogs, baked beans and quite a few different kinds of salads.  Some of the boys' jobs are: building the dance floor, mowing the lawns, setting up tables and chairs, digging out boxes of decorations etc...

Here the boys are on their way to get decorations, in cousin Conner's new truck...

 

I don't know how many times I messed up on the frosting recipe...

 

The bosses making sure we got everything...

Charlotte helping with the mustard...

Chopping Walnuts for the brownies...

Us girls (my cute cousins and I) love hanging out while prepping food!  We can be found giggling with the country music blaring through the speaker system, groaning when we realize we forgot to make a certain salad... Ya, we have a good time!

 

There is usually an average of about 250 people each year, but I think we did double this year!

Dad and Uncle Brad! The Grill Kings!!!

None of us had seen the newest addition to mom's side of the family - Baby Lizzie!!!
I hardly ever saw aunt Cara holding her!  Lizzie was always off on an adventure with a cousin...

Talk about a cutie pie!

 

And last, but definitely not least...

The Firework Show!!!

This display made the East Helena one look like kids stuff...

course, we were a little closer  ;)

Ugh... I think I went to bed around 1:45am

...tho for the record, Mom and Dad did the dishes while the boys and I helped clean off and pack away tables and chairs, put away food...  :)
Fun times!  Already looking forward to next year!!!

Aww... Finished.

We are finally finished with fireworks! On Friday and Saturday we inventoried and packed up what we had left from both stands, and put it all back in storage. 

After a day of hard, dirty work, we enjoyed a great night with friends at their house!  We had dinner, us girls went swimming and the kids played outside until dusk.

Once it got dark, the big boys went out and started the fireworks!  They lit off mostly small stuff to keep the littles kids busy until the parents came out...

 

My camera stinks when it comes to firework pictures, even on the firework setting it's still not very good ;)  It was a great show tho!

 

The boys had a blast lighting off all the big artillery... 

We really had a good time!  We used to do a party every 4th before we started doing the firework stand.  It's been 8 years since we last had a party, so it was nice to relax and have some great fellowship with our awesome friends!!!

 

We loved hanging out for a few hours that day! Hope we can do it again soon.

Almost Done ;)

WOW! We only have a few more days of selling fireworks left! I can't believe it went by so fast.  Business has been picking up a little bit, we really hope to be busy for the next few days...

We aren't very early risers, so we usually open the stand at around 10:00 every morning ;)

 

The afternoons aren't as busy as the evenings, so Mom is usually like this most of the time...

 

I usually don't wear hats, but I got so sick of the sun on my face in the late afternoon.  I don't care if I look dorky, I'd rather not have a sunburned face ;)

 

I was SOO glad when I finally got my new 4th of July Flexi-Clip! Mom and I have been wearing them every day, I love the beautiful Red, White and Blue heart with rhinestones!  It's perfect with any outfit, (even one that includes a cowboy hat) 

 

There is a small slab out in front of the stand that is perfect for the little kids to play with chalk! They spend hours out there writing animals, rainbows, flowers, just about everything. 

 

I'm glad that we are almost done!  I'm ready to hit a campground by the lake, relax and cool off ;)

Till next time.

The Last Few Days...

We started selling fireworks Monday morning.  It's never very busy the first day or so,  we mostly get kids that want little stuff they can fire off in their backyard.

Eli has been working in the stand a lot lately, one of the things he likes to do in his spare time is make survival bracelets!  He makes a ton of different weaves, and there's an open place, on the shelves, in the stand, where he can sell them...

That's my Brother ;)

 

But that's not the only thing he does...

That's Eli! ...his shirt says 'Got Ammo? I do'

100% Montana Boy!

On Monday, Dad went to storage and dug out the play fort for the little kids to try to keep them busy...

At this place it's hard to find things for them to do since we're right next to the road; they aren't able to ride bikes or run everywhere.  This is one good way for them to get rid of some energy!  

 

Caleb loves Snap-Pops...

 

We try to make a single box last, but he is usually through one in about 10 minutes.

He will sit in front of the stand, grab one of the snappers, gently set it down, and then stomp on it!

He does not like it when they're all gone :)

 

 Thankfully business has started picking up!  We hope it will stay steady for the next week...  

FIREWORKS!!!!!

WOOHOO!!!! We get to start selling fireworks tomorrow!  Today and yesterday we stocked our two stands...

This is our first stand...
It usually takes a few hours to set up each stand.  We have to sweep it out, stock the fireworks and staple up all the price tags...

 The work of getting everything put in the right place and inventorying everything, is dirty and time consuming.

 

Of course my brothers (like any other Montana boys I'm sure) love anything that involves gun powder and a bang!

 

Thank God for big brothers with big muscles!

 

Inventory is probably Moms least favorite thing about firework season :(

But... it's got to be done.

 

Gotta make sure everything runs right.

We usually have to replace a few light bulbs and such...

 

Even adorable Miss Molly has been busy!

I think this is my new favorite picture of her.

I really hate people taking pictures of me when I'm not expecting it, so I was trying to avoid the camera...

Our second stand... on the other side of town (:
I stayed home with the little kids while Mom and Dad took the big kids to set up the other stand...

 

One good thing about a big family, there are always enough hands!

Big and Little...

 They finished at around 4:00 this afternoon.

We are finally ready for tomorrow!  Since fireworks were banned last year due to the drought,  we hope to have a killer year!