New School Year

September has brought changes to the Hillstead household. Jaycie has started dance class (tap and ballet) and pre-school. She loves both. I'm now watching 2 little boys. Easton on MWF for 4 hours and Shawn M-Th for 4 hours. They are both good babies and Saree just loves and kisses on them till they are sick of her. Jim is now serving in the Young Mens - again. He loves it.

I've spent most of this month canning and freezing. I still have about 50 pounds of both apples and pears to take care of and I finnished freezing about 12 qts of corn, and canning about 7 qts of beans. Last night I finnished up the tomatoes and now have 13 qts of spaghetti sauce and 10 pints of salsa.

We are currently getting ready to go to Denver next week for a conference and I'm looking forward to getting together with Kris and her family.

Pre-school

Well, my baby is all registered for pre-school. She starts on August 30th. I can't believe she's almost 5!! Anyway, she's VERY excited for school to start and I get asked daily if tomorrow she goes to school. I think part of it is that I haven't let her wear any of her new clothes yet and she's really wanting to wear them. Saree still thinks that she is going too, I'm not looking forward to the day that she finally realizes that we will be leaving Jaycie at school and we will be going home, or somewhere.

Jim is back to school, this week is teacher prep week and the kids start on Monday. This year they are on the AB block system and only attend 4 days of the week, we'll see how it goes.



I've been saying that I would put this pic on the blog/facebook for a while now, so here is the redneck plumbing that was set up under the kitchen sink.

At the Beach

While visiting in Wyoming we drove over to Bear Lake where the kids had all kinds of fun. Jaycie definitely has no fear and just plunged in and started playing. It didn't take Saree very long to run in either.

Almost the end of the Summer

It's the dog days of Summer. Jim is still working out to the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation Farm and Ranch Enterprise for Peaks to Plain Haying company. He'll finish up with full-time employment for them around the 16th of August. School Starts for him the 17th of August.

We made it to Idaho and Wyoming for family reunions on both sides. All of Regan's family was in for a few days together. The girls got to see all their aunt's and Uncles and cousins on both sides. Jim's sisters were both in Star Valley. Cathy was able to make it for a few days.

8 Years

I can't believe that it has been 8 years since Jim and I got married! The time seems to have gone by so fast. I also can't believe that Jaycie is starting pre-school this fall.

Things here are still the same old same old. Jim is working for Peaks to Plains - they custom cut and bale hay here and in a couple of other states. Jim has been putting in alot of hours since he started his summer job. He has finally had some time off though, we figure he will probably have about a week and a half off or so before the craziness begins again. He has been working on the raking crew and works from about 2 am until about 10 am. This means he gets home, we have lunch and then instead of snack in the afternoon have dinner (for the girls) and then Jim goes to bed at about 5-5:30 and gets up at about 12:30. This is such a drastic change from our regular schedule it has taken a little adjustment and getting used to.

I'm really excited to go visit mom and dad in July. I can't wait to see Lisa and David and kids.

Memorial Day Weekend

Well, Mom is going to kill me, but we wore her out!! Here is a picture to prove it.
We went to Mesa Verde on Saturday May 25, and introduced Mom and Dad to the ruins at Spruce Tree House. Later we went for a drive toward Telluride, GORGEOUS!!

New Car

We bought a new car!! We got a screaming good deal on a 2007 Ford Explorer with the 3 rows of seats. The guy said that we couldn't have asked for another dime. In fact we're paying about the same for this as what we did for the Intrepid, so we can't complain.