Christmas decorating at the Tarbet Home

We got a tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving this year and that week we got it decorated along with the rest of the house.  I especially love doing this part and every year seem to have more decor to put out, which I love. 

Our 2011 tree!

Mini trees that I use all year long, with my homemade ornaments

Little village that keeps growing, it's really fun!

West End Banquet

Every year we go to a banquet dinner for all the firemen and their wives and the commissioners.  It's usually really fun since we don't get together often.  This year we met and finished decorating the tree that Saturday for the Caring and Sharing Tree Festival and the guys delivered it as soon as we were done.  Then we decorated the hall for the dinner that night.  Each row of tables were decorated in a different theme that way we could use up some old things that were lying around.  Happy Hour was at 6:00 where everyone visits with a delicious dinner at 7:00 of the best steaks, dutch oven potatoes, shrimp, and various side dishes that the guys cook up.  Sutton always puts on a slide show afterwards of events they have been involved in around the community, fires, and other calls.  It's ALWAYS entertaining since he sneaks in a bunch of candids.  After the show and awards for that year, we hang around to cause a little trouble :)
 

Caught in the act!

These were not all mine, I promise.

Wonderful friends!

Such a good night with great people!

Becoming Crafty!?!

I've always liked the idea of making my own cute decor for the house, but I have a few problems with it....

1.  No time!  I know, I know if I don't have time now I never will.

2.  Lack of ideas....plain and simple.

3.  I hate staying in the house for long periods of time until the dead of winter.

Earlier this month there were a couple cold & windy days including Nascar Sundays.  Kent knew the next few Sunday (which is our hangout day) were going to be pretty boring for me, so he loaded us up along with some lumber and took me to Dana's to cut the wood I needed to make my projects.  Pretty cute because he got me all set so I could make stuff while we watched Nascar...so I had no excuse and I started making stuff. 

In the making... 

Fun ornaments!

 Then came some pumpkins that I have been wanting to make.  I saw a similar idea a few months ago on Pinterest.  Love Pinterest.  Without it, I would have no ideas...well not many.

These are my favorite!

I'm pretty proud to say I made this stuff myself.  I have gotten a lot of ideas from googling pictures and Pinterest too, but I still think they are pretty great and practically free other than the paint and wire.  The pumpkins are 2x4 out of my wood pile :)  Now what else can I make?

Halloween 2011

This year I had no idea what to be for Halloween.  We googled ideas, looked at old clothes we had at home, but nothing was standing out.  I don't like buying a costume from the store and I really don't like being 1 of 27 pirates at a party.  Something original was needed and something that people would really look twice at.  HA! 

Meet Willie and Waylon.....

Lacey came up with the idea and we started this transformation less than 1 week ahead of time with a little shopping, rummaging around the house, a lot of cardboard, and hot glue for our guitars.  We had the best time.  Our first stop was Grandma's house, then on to Virgil's....they loved it!  We toured around town to a few different places and eventually made our way out to Skyline where we landed.  I'm not so sure that Tarbet and Scotty were very thrilled at first to be seen with us, but once the party got started they loosened up.

Look at this cutie I picked up!

The group at Skyline...Waylon's done performing for the night

Acting like he owns the place....

Halloween was a success this year.....we didn't make it home til after 2A.M.

:)

Happy Fall, Ya'll

This year I really slacked off on the gardening and didn't grow any of our own pumpkins.  So we made a run to the patch and picked up a few.  I love going to the pumpkin patch so I enjoyed it for a change.  A few days later we ventured out into a friends corn field and kicked out some to decorate with.  I tied them to the colomns on the front of our house, used my cute red pots but replaced the plants with pumpkins and corn husks, and added a few other decorations including my 4th of July star.  I think it turned out really fun and i love seeing it every night when I drive down the driveway.  Loving Fall!

Liam's 1st Birthday

I cannot believe that this little boy is now a 1 year old. 

We all went to the pumpkin patch!

He loves being outside so he had fun!

We had cake, cupcakes, and snacks.

He opened presents, a lot of presents.

I'm so glad we could all get together to celebrate for his birthday.  I always thought it would be cool when my sister had a baby, I just didn't know how awesome it would be.  He sure has brought a lot into my life.  Happy Birthday little buddy.  I love you and I'm so glad I got to spend your day with you!

Dress up is FUN for Boys too!

Me being their mother...of course my Boys had to wear a little something for some Halloween spirit.  They should feel lucky they didn't end up with a full costume.

It's harvest time and I really enjoy this time of year.

I love the weather and how it's cooling down.

On the farm it's the time to see the "fruits of your labor".

Sometimes good, sometimes bad.

Everything is extremely busy before it slows down.

I'm looking forward to it slowing down and spending some much needed quality time with my boys.  I also have two great friends, Lindsey and Jeannie, who I'm glad will get to do the same.

Harvest is kind of a scary time too.  There are so many accidents every year and this year has proven to be the same.  Already there has been countless wrecks involving semis and ten-wheelers.  For some reason there has just flat out been a lot of deaths and bad stuff happening recently.  It always makes you worry and wonder what could happen. 

I'm the kind of person that worries endlessly about that kind of stuff.

Waste of time, I know.

You can't spend your life worried,

it won't do you any good.

Although I have a hard time reminding and getting myself to quit thinking that way, it also makes me think of how precious TIME is.  I hope to hell I have a lot more time and also that my family and friends have a lot more time.  Overall, I will tell you one thing....I am so very THANKFUL for the TIME I am getting TODAY.

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice. ~Meister Eckhart

Last Minute Trip

On Sunday, the 25th, we jumped in with Scotty and Lacey and headed to Jackpot.  They had tickets to Larry the Cable Guy and on Friday they begged us to tag along.  We were both lucky enough to take Monday off and jump in and go!  When we got down there, they hurried of to the concert.  Webb, Jenn, Joshlyn, and Bobby were also down and I'm pretty sure half of Rupert-Burley too.  Since Tarbet and I didn't have concert tickets we made our way to the buffet.  It was really good for a buffet and I would definitely go back.  After dinner we walked out to the concert and we really scored because we ended up watching most all of Larry the Cable Guy for free!  We stood right outside the grandstand entrance, we could see Larry the whole time, and we were right next to the concessions.

We spent the rest of the night hanging out with everyone and gambled a little.  Tarbet tried his hand at the tables, which confused the hell out of me, and I only spent $3 dollars all night in the machines and came out with $40+ and was extremely excited that I won that much.  Jenn had a free room that she wasn't using so we all stayed in it that night.  Thank-you Jenn! 

It was totally not planned for us to join in and go, but I'm so glad we had the opportunity to.  Last minute trips always turn out the funnest!  (:

My Try at Canning

If you know me very well, you know I am far from being a domestic housewife. Not even close, bud!  I'm more on the other side of the fence...the one where I would prefer to be in my boots and carhartts in the tractor or out in a dirty field any day over some office.  I'm different...let's just get that out there.  One of those things is my hate of being in the house / kitchen for long periods of time.  HATE.

It all started when Jerry, who I work with, mentioned he had a tree loaded with peaches and we should all come get as many as we wanted. He was leaving on a cruise for the week and said they would just go to waste otherwise. I love all fruits and Kent loves peaches so I thought I really should go pick some but knew we would never eat them before they go bad, so I thought to CANNING. First of all, I am not a fan of pressure cookers and I also didn't have much time or patience for that kind of crap either.    After reading a bunch on the Internet, I learned how to do it using a water bath instead. 

I picked three grocery sacks of peaches at Jerry's and Friday night I got everything out and ready to go for Saturday.  While I was learning about canning peaches I found a strawberry jam recipe that was pretty simple so I gave that a shot also Friday night.  It tasted good while it was in the making, so we will have to crack open a jar for breakfast one of these mornings.

One batch of fresh strawberry jam

Saturday I worked on the peaches.  I was really wishing I had a partner to help because there sure is a lot of steps in canning anything, especially the peaches.  I'm proud to say that I did a couple batches all by myself and every jar sealed! 

Peaches!

Kent was home the next day and after eating a jar of them, he decided we needed to go get more.  We cooked up a few more batches and called it quits for the weekend.  It's not hard, but it sure is time consuming!  Good deal it was a crappy day outside because thats about the only thing that will make me want to stay in and do something like this.  It really was worth it since I now have a bunch of jars that are better than any peaches you could buy at the store and they were practically free other than buying the jars that I will get to use over and over again.  The only part that will be tricky...hiding them from Kent so they don't all get eaten in the next week.  :)

Lacey and Webb's Birthdays

Saturday we went to Twin and celebrated Lacey’s birthday at Café Ole.  We had a table full of Scotty, the kids, his parents, Tarbet and I, Jen and Webb.  It was Webb's birthday also so they both ended up with a sombrero and a tequila shot.  

We had an early dinner then went back to Jerome to Bobby and Rita’s house (Scotty’s parents).  They have a really nice patio and we sat outside til a good midnight having so much fun.  It was a pretty calm night but I had the best time.  Those people are great!

Labor Day Weekend 2011

Over the Labor Day weekend, I met up with Skip, Mom, Ashley, Bryce, and Liam to drive up to Sun Valley for the car show.  It felt like old times.  When we were growing up, we went camping to Bakers Creek outside of Sun Valley every Labor Day.  Since we were up there we always went to the car show.  Once we got there we had lunch at Wise Guy Pizza Pie.  Skip, like always, wanted to go into the second hand stores.  Ashley and I found some practically new baby and toddler clothes there and bought around 6 items for $7.  Wow!  I think I will remember that when shopping for baby clothes!  We went to the car show and watched some of the auction which is always interesting.  I kept my arms folded real good.  Am I the only one that worries about accidentally bidding on something?!  :)  When we were walking around looking at all the cars, Skip came over to us and said Arnold Schwarzenegger was standing next to Bryce.  They were both checking out the same car and it was pretty funny...he was such a short guy compared to Bryce.  Well, after my Mom followed him around trying to get a good picture, we left and did some shopping down town.  I found Tarbet a funny shirt since he was working all day while I was playing and we hit up Tully's for coffee drinks and smoothies.  It was really fun to hang out with them and I hope we can do it again, just with Tarbet next time.

The Rhino

I totally forgot to write about it, but back on July 18th we bought a 660 Yamaha Rhino.  I think it just might  have been one of the best purchases ever made!  We love it!  Ever since we borrowed a friends to go hunting back in 2009, we have always dreamed of having one and it just kind of happened.  I started looking on KSL and had a few possibilities to check into when we saw that a guy was selling his over by East Minico in Rupert.  I immediately drove over there and couldn't believe it....it was the size of engine and the color I wanted!!!  Plus it was well taken care of.  That all happened late Friday night and Rhino arrived safely at our house Monday afternoon.  YAY!  It's pretty awesome because I have already used it for yardwork, to haul wood to my firepit, we drove into town one night, camping, and we frequently take the boys for rides in it.  We all 4 LOVE IT!

Featherville

Last Thursday after work Tarbet and I had a lot to do to get ready for our trip to Featherville for the weekend.  We borrowed a trailer from the shop and loaded up the Rhino then went to load up Scotty and Lacey's bikes.  That was a trailer full and they strategically fit on it! 

Trailer Full!

Friday we took off of work and had everything loaded up and ready to go, we just stopped by Hill and got the pickup fueled up and bought ice...something like ten bags of ice.  The main reason for all the ice....Tarbet has a fetish with buying coolers, three in the last year and I'm not talking just a simple cooler-I'm talking the best 6-day-Extremes.  When we were grocery shopping at Walmart the night before, we hadn't even made it to the food side of the store and we had to go get a second cart because of this thing.  When we were walking through the store a man made the comment to us, "That is going to hold a lot of beer.  I say that because I have one too!"  Well it does and it did.  We both made the comment and laughed that it's going to be a good trip when your beverage cooler is twice the size of your food cooler.  We might just have to start bagging our own ice to make it affordable to fill that sucker.  Anyways, after that stop we were headed out of town!  Can you believe it?  Tarbet's phone was off for two whole days....AMAZING.

This tree was huge so I made Tarbet stand there to get his picture taken.

 Once we got there we found a spot to stay, hit up the Featherville Saloon and waited for Scotty and Lacey to get into town. That night was a blast! After I got reprimanded for driving off trail by some major hard ass camp hosts, we made up some awesome steaks and baked potatoes on the camp fire while the guys went and found some firewood. Lacey and I busted out the margaritas in a bucket, music....and eventually some sombreros that were in her Yukon. Why does she have sombreros in her Yukon you ask...."because you just don't know how much fun you can have until you're in a sombrero."

You know you're jealous....you wish you had a sombrero.

Dang boy won't stay in bed :)

Briggs was ready for bed after that party :)

 The next day we went riding and came back a dirty mess.  There is not a whole lot of riding places there but we love to take the bikes so we went down the road to Baumgartner and Big Smokey.  It was so hot we played in the water some then the boys went fishing.
 

Tarbet's fishing attire

We drove around town and went to visit Dave and Cathy Gentry who live up there in the most beautiful cabin.  Oh wow, I was so excited to go inside and see how it looked it is so nice!  That night was another delicious dinner in the dutch oven and then relax time. I took a bath in the river, which surprised everyone when I disappeared for a min then came back wearing new clothes and a towel on my head. Damn it was cold but hey I wasn't the one complaining the next day of how bad I wanted to take a shower now was I?!
 

We loaded up and headed home on Sunday.  Those 3 days off sure went by fast which is kind of depressing but it was a good trip overall.  I hope we can make it back to Featherville next year, it is beautiful up there!