Time Flies

WOW...Time can sure fly by without even realizing it.  I feel like it was just a couple of weeks ago I wrote the last post here and it was 2 years ago.  So needless to say A LOT has happened since I last wrote.  I will give a quick run through (trying to touch on a little of everything) and then I WILL write again talking more on some of these more in depth.  I can say this "Paper Cowgirl" is truly becoming more of a True Cowgirl...we now have 23 hens, 2 roosters, 5 turkeys, 2 dogs, one show calf and two beautiful children.
So first off, the children...

Now 12 & 6

Can you believe it!!!  It is hard for me to believe and they live with me:)  Lauren is going into 7th grade (third year back in public school & she had a great transition) and getting ready to be involved in MANY things.  She had a great 6th grade year with straight A's, because of her hard work she was one of only 4 students in her grade that made straight A's ALL year!!  She also made the BETA Club!  During her 7th grade year she will be enjoying her second year of band (she played the flute last year and is wanting to try percussion this year), she will be playing volleyball for her first year and her biggest adventure is a show calf.  Meet Scarlett...
 

This is when she first started working with her.  (More on this subject later)

Austin will be in FIRST grade this year.  He absolutely LOVES school and is so excited for it to start again.  He also had a wonderful year last year with having the highest GPA (not sure how you have one in Kindergarten) of the boys in his class.  He loves to read and tries to spell everything.  He is loving living in the country and is growing up so fast.  He is quickly learning many "Cowboy" things and wants to be a real cowboy when he grows up (no Paper Cowboy for him).  He is excited to help his sister with her cow anyway he can (he really wants to show a pig but has to be 7...almost there).

Austin and his Kindergarten teacher

On to the house.  We have done a lot of work in the past two years.  We now have flower beds that go around three sides of the house, we built a deck out back and we are slowly getting grass to grow so we don't have so much mud:)  Our biggest project that was just finished was clearing the front fence line of all the over growth, ripping out the old falling down fence and having a new fence with entrance put in (and a side yard fenced for the show calf).  So I will go through a quick blast of pictures here to give you some visual updates.

 Just a reminder of what the house looked like when we moved in...

Here is a recent picture with all the flower beds around it:)

Here is a picture of the back before..

 .

And now with the deck.

 

I love all the space we have to hang out and entertain now

 

We will move inside now (because I am excited to show you this) and then go back out for fencing pictures.

 

Remember this wall I said we wanted to take out...(notice the corner of the entertainment center on the left)

  

Well, with help from my parents...WE DID...

Once we cut the sheet rock there was no turning back...

 

View from the kitchen to the Living Room...took us a while to decide how to frame it but once we found this old barnwood we knew it would be perfect...

View from the Living Room...we also decided to use the barnwood to make the TV wall more interesting (that is the same entertainment center pictured above...the flowers are where the saddle was)  It opens up the house SO much.  You may also notice the living room has been painted (thanks with help to my wonderful mom!!)

Back outside to the fences.  So those that have been to the house before know we used to have a pretty thick tree line right at the road.  This offered a nice bit of privacy and some block from all the road dust.  However, there was also a fence in the thick of it all which was falling down and was no good for use.  We still eventually want cattle and will need a working fence for this to happen so we decided to just have it all cleared to make way for the new fence.  Many people would wonder why we would take out the above listed benefits of the tree line but in the end I LOVE how clean the property looks now.  We will in time plant crape myrtles and other things to add some of the privacy back but without all the crazy growth like before.

So here are a couple of pictures before the clearing...

 See all the thick crazy growth...

And after...

This one was as the guy was clearing the trees...

This is now driving up to the house...

 

Our second entrance....

The main entrance...

 A little hard to see but you get the idea

And here is the new "side yard"...we borrowed the neighbor's cows to mow and test the new fence for a couple days:)

We are so happy with all the things we have accomplished in the last two years and it seems like no matter what we get done there is always a list a mile long of more to do.  

I hope you have enjoyed this little catch up and tour around.  I will write again soon because I didn't even get into the chickens (that is truly a whole nother story to tell with more chickens, another coop, hatching babies, turkeys...).  I will catch you up on that and more on Scarlett next time.

Until then there is always something to get done...