Bates Family

Wow it's been A LONG TIME!!

2011-04-22T18:09:00.000-07:00

Well it looks like it has been forever since I have updated here. Been busy this last year that is for sure. Farming is now back in full swing again for Dan. I have been able to find a little bit of work for this summer which allows me some freedom time wise as well as kid wise. It is nice to be able to make my own schedule and do my own thing that is for sure.

Well Lets see where to start otherwise. This last fall Dan took an EMT class so he had been gone a lot seeing as it was a major time commitment. So now he is just waiting to schedule his national test so he will be completely done after that. He is happy to have that certification though that is for sure. End of December we went on a little car trip to Salt lake City (12 hours long little). It would have been a good trip if Dan and the kids hadn't come down sick and remain sick for the whole trip. We did however get to visit lots of Dan's family as well as see Grandma Bates who hadn't been doing to well. Got to see Temple Square in the snow which was beautiful and very cold!

In March Caden turned 3 YIKES! Where has time gone. He is getting big that is for sure. Ashlynn is now 19 months and a little fire ball. Both kids love to torment each other all day which makes for a lot of tears and fighting. But they do love each other most of the time. Here this last couple of weeks I have been having to cook lunch for the farm crew as Janet has been in Pullman watching Dallin for Amanda. So that has kept both me and the kids busy most days. This weekend is Easter and I am still trying to figure out what to do for the kids. I know I'm a bad mom. hehe.
This last couple of weeks I have finished a queen sized quilt that I have been working on for the last 5 or so years. So that made my day. Just getting that quilt done was a huge accomplishment for me. Dan is happy to see that project finally finished though. He now can't pick on me for not finishing it. Been thinking about the next project though and I want to make Ashlynn a quilt for her room for when she gets an actual bed which will probably within the next year or so. So trying to get some inspiration for that project. Other than that the kids have kept me pretty busy most days.
May is coming so I will be getting the garden in the ground sooner then I think. I can't wait for the fresh veggies again this year. Last years garden was a good one so I would love to do that again. Ok well here are some pictures of the kids from lately.

Enjoy! Until next time

May.....June....

2010-06-10T13:51:00.000-07:00

So there hasn't been much going on here lately. The weather has been pretty bad the last couple of weeks so we haven't been doing much. Dan is busy farming like normal. It has been a rough start to the year seeing as all the rain is preventing the hay harvest to get underway. The pea crop looks pretty decent at the moment though because it seems to like the cold weather. We took one weekend in May and spent it digging in the mud in Pullman. The bottom unit in our duplex has had a water leak for a while so we had to put in a new drain system. Yay fun NOT! Memorial Day weekend I took the kids to my parent house on the west side for the weekend. We went to Northwest Trek on Sunday because it was suppose to be the better of the days for that weekend and we still had rain the whole day. Oh well we had lots of fun.
Ashlynn is now sitting pretty well by herself and is starting to figure out how to move around on her own. For not crawling yet she gets around pretty good. Caden is a typical two year old. Always into trouble. He has started lately going potty on the toilet a couple times a day so I think potty training is in the near future.
My garden is off and growing. I can't wait to be able to harvest stuff from it in the next week or so. We have already had lettuce and a couple of radishes out of it so it is yummy. Can't wait for onions, potatoes and strawberries and such. It is the biggest garden I have ever had and we have lots growing in it so hopefully it will be lots of fresh veggies for us this year. Well I should go. I will post pictures as soon as I download them off the camera. Until next time..

Spring 2010

2010-05-03T10:17:00.000-07:00

Well we have been busy in the Bates house. Dan has been busy on the farm between water changing, planting corn and peas, as well as any maintenance or other farm duties he has. The weather is still not very pleasant here because the wind this spring just doesn't want to stop making it very hard to get a lot of yard work done with the little ones. We have completed the fence in the back as well as the alley way so now we just have the front fence to do and then that big project will be complete which will be a wonderful thing. The kids are getting bigger by the day and it is so much fun to watch them grow and explore. Caden is now a very rambunctious two year old and is into everything in the house. He loves to go with Dad though out to the farm but he doesn't get to do it to often right now. Ashlynn is growing like a little weed. Everyday she surprises us with something new. Lately she has finally shown an interest in solid food and has been trying to eat everything in sight. She has actually eaten green beans and liked them unlike her big brother. She is starting to scoot backwards on her stomach which keeps me on my toes.
The kids are both doing well and are itching to have lots of outside time so when the weather is nice that is where we are.
I have been staying pretty busy here at home and I love it. I have lots of craft project ideas as well as garden/ yard things I want and need to get done. I have decided this year to just till up the ground where I currently have raised beds and make it one big garden area verse having to keep the weeds and stuff down. I am so excited to have yummy vegetables again this year. Lots of strawberries and tomatoes and even watermelon and pumpkins will be planted this year. I love having a husband that supports me and my being home. He does everything he can to allow this and I so greatly appreciate it. I won't change anything now because I love being home with the kids. They are a joy (and a headache some days) but I love them.
Well hopefully I will have pictures soon of our yard and garden. We finally have grass growing and it is looking better and better every day. It will be so nice to have a good yard for the kids to play in this summer. I am looking forward to lots of fun times this summer that is for sure. And hopefully able to make lots of good memories with the kids.

Here are some pictures of our goings on....
Our new fence in the back.
Sandbox fun

She is getting so big

So there you have it until next time ENJOY!

Feb 2010

2010-02-24T14:24:00.000-08:00

Ok so we have been very busy the last couple of months with the holidays and everything so I guess I need to catch up on me blog. Well Ashlynn is now rolling over but hasn't figured out how to roll continuously yet so that is nice. She is getting so big and is such a happy baby. Caden turns 2 here on March 1st. I don't know where time has gone. He is turning into such a cute little man. He is begining to help with his sister which is really cute. There are many days I find him laying on the floor next to her just playing which is cute. I am now watching another little guy who is 8 months old during the day. He is so funny and just an all around happy baby. So my days are quite full of diapers, feedings, naps and lots of play. It is a lot of work staying home with the kids but it is so nice not having the stresses of work anymore. Now I just have the stress of cleaning up after all the kids all day as well as working on my craft projects that I like to do. Keeps me sane. Well Here are some pictures of the last month or so.
This one is from our trip out East to New York City (Obviously) It was really cold but at least the weather was sunny for the most part.

These are just from a average day in our house. Caden being a clown as well as Ashlynn and the little guy Jack that I have been watching during the day.

The kids are both growing and everyday they make me laugh. Caden is getting alot better at talking and my favorite is "whereditgo" and "Puppy, where are you". He is such a goofy boy. Well Kids are waking up from naps so I got to run. More pictures later

Smiles

2009-10-28T15:11:00.001-07:00

Ok so I am trying to stay up on the whole blog thing even though no one reads it but me. Ashlynn is getting so big so fast and she is already almost 7 weeks old which is crazy. Over the last couple of weeks she has started smiling and I have been trying to catch them on the camera with no success but today I was able to get a little one. I am so happy to finally catch it. She is such a good baby. Last night she slept from 9:30pm till 4:30am which was wonderful that is for sure. I was so happy to get the sleep but at the same time I am tired from sleeping to much Oh well.
So I guess I should include the pictures of her smiling as well as some new ones of Caden

Caden thinks that jumping on people is so much fun and Dan found out how much Caden enjoys if but if you are the one getting jumped on it isn't so much fun

So another update is last Thursday I had gone into the doctors for an appointment and we weighed Ashlynn. At 6 weeks old she weighed in at 10lbs 6 oz. She is one heavy piglet that is for sure. It seems like she is always eating and boy by that weight I would say she is getting enough to eat.
Well hopefully soon I will have some Halloween pictures. Caden is going to be a sheriff deputy, his uncle Sean is the Sheriff, and Ashlynn is going as the prisoner so it is pretty cute. I will have to post after I take some. Until next time.

Plane trip

2009-10-22T08:17:00.000-07:00

Ok So for some time now I have been asking Dan to go to the east coast. Well I haven't been able to find any good deals on tickets until now. We are asking to lose our minds seeing as we will be flying with two kids two on our laps for 6plus hours but I think it will be so worth the trip. I am so excited seeing as I haven't been to the east coast in 5plus years so it will be so nice to see everyone while we are there. We are leaving seattle on Jan 6th and return on the 13th so we will have a nice long visit which will be so nice. Dan has never been so we will have lots of sight seeing to do. I can't wait.

Fall 2009

2009-10-14T15:00:00.000-07:00

Ok so in the last two months we have been super busy in our house. On Sept 11th we welcomed a sweet little girl, Ashlynn Belle, into our family. She was born at 10:21am weighing in at 7lbs 12 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. She has been a joy to our family. Caden isn't so sure what to think of having a baby in the house but I think he is adjusting for the most part.

So to say the least I have been home enjoying my maternity leave with the kids. The weather has been pretty nice up until the last couple of days were it has turned bitter cold and has been raining off and on making it difficult to get Caden outside to play. With the weather being nasty the last week or so it left me with a lot of green tomatoes on my plants and rather than them go to waste I picked a big huge box of them hoping to find something to do with them. Well, being home and have oh so much free time(joking) I decided that I would try my hand at making green tomato mincemeat like my grandmother used to make. Well 4 hours of chopping/grinding and 7 1/2 hours cooking = 26 pints of yummy mincemeat. I am so excited seeing as this was my first attempt at it plus being home with the kids by myself made it out to be a very long process but man by last night my house smelled so good. We have plenty now for a while but I know I am going to have to share. It was well worth the hassle of finding suet as well as juggling the kids and getting everything done in a timely manner.

So I think Caden is begining to get used to me being home now during the day. We do watch a lot of movies but it is nice to be able to take him out to the park and color with him and things like that. I am hoping that next spring/summer I will be able to take him to the zoo because that would make for a wonderful outing. I am looking forward to being able to stay home with the kids and do things with them that I feel like I miss out on excepessally in the summer time seeing as I am always working. Well, I guess I should post some updated pictures. I still need to get some more recent ones seeing as Ashlynn is now 4 1/2 weeks old and I haven't taken any yet. Hopefully there will be more to come soon. Until then Enjoy

Long time no post

2009-08-11T16:44:00.000-07:00

Ok so I am really bad about posting updates. Since my last post alot has been going on. Caden celebrated his first birthday, he started walking, he started talking a couple more words (ice, grandpa, juice, itty(kitty), doggie and a couple of others, Caden got his first haircut, he now has a mouth full of teeth, and I could go on and on. He is turning into a very active toddler that keeps us running that is for sure. So since the last post we also have found out that we are expecting a little girl in September. So excited that is for sure. Little bit of a surprise being a girl and so soon after Caden but a good one. We have also been doing some landscape changes to our yard(by we I mean Dan) We are putting in a new sprinkler system as well as redueing the grass seeing as we have none.
Between Dan and I we have both been busy with work stuff the last couple of months. Dan has been farming and I have still been doing my current job as a field rep for sweet corn seed. Both of us work some crazy hours some days but it isn't as bad as it could be. My borther Bert gets married this coming weekend so we are going to the westside of the state for that which is going to be nice seeing as family that we haven't seen in a while will be coming into town for it. Not looking forward to the drive being 34 weeks pregnant but it should be fun all the same. Well got to run but hopefully I will update again soon with more pictures

Caden in December 2008

Caden May 2009

Update - Family pictures

2008-12-13T20:21:00.000-08:00

Hi all,
So it has been a longgggggggggg time since I updated this. I am not to good about keeping this blog up to date but I try to post updates when I can. Well we got family pictures done right before thanksgiving and I thought that I should share. Everyone was bugging up to have pictures done and so I was finally able to get Dan to participate so here they are. They came out pretty good for being Sears and we were really pleased. This weekend Dan is gone to a fire fighter training class so I am home alone for the weekend with a sick baby and decided that while he was gone I would go get a tree and decorate it. So that is what Caden and I did today. I had lots of fun decorating while Caden enjoyed pulling the needles off or chewing on the ornaments(don't worry they are plastic). We had a lot of fun needless to say. Dan should be impressed because I even had to re cut the end so that it would be able to get water. The tree isn't perfect but it will have to do for this year. Well I got to finish my xmas letter so that I can get cards out hopefully soon.

Halloween

2008-10-31T18:21:00.000-07:00

So Today is Halloween and I wanted to get a costume for Caden but couldn't bring my self to spending money on something he will only wear once. So what are we doing tonight. Caden is sleeping and it is only 6pm. He only had one nap today so he is pretty tired and I am boring so he fell asleep which is fine with me as long as he sleeps tonight. We shall see on the sleeping tonight. But I hate to wake him seeing as he would be a complete monster for the rest of the evening. So here I sit waiting for Dan to come home. Dinner is cooking so at least that is in the works. So now I am just being boring and handing out candy to all the little trick or treaters.

Pictures

2008-10-21T19:41:00.000-07:00

Caden playing in the laundry basket thanks to his Dad. He enjoys playing with laundry though Socks are his favorite

Caden's 6 month picture.

Well that is it for now I will try to get some pictures of the new floors up soon. I have a feeling however that it is going to be awhile before the house gets completely done but we shall see Winter is coming and that means shorter work days and more house projects YAY.

NEW FLOORS

2008-10-18T22:41:00.000-07:00

Just thought that I would give everyone a little update. We are finally winding down for the winter and have been slowly working on redueing the floors thruout the entire house. We started with the baby's room about two months ago and decided that we really liked the flooring so we went back to Home Depot to get more and come to find out that it is one clearance so it was only 48 cents a square foot which is super cheap seeing as it is engineered wood flooring. So what really got to us to get these floors done was the fact that we were pulling up the carpet and noticed someone was so kind and let their pet pee everywhere in the house. The carpet had stains everywhere and in some places the animal had peed so much that it soaked down into the floor boards YUCK! So anyway we just were grossed out and so we have been working on the house for the last two months and now I am proud to say there is no more carpet in the entire house at the moment. We still have to finish the new floors but we just ripped out all the carpet this last week. So we now have all three bedrooms done and the living room now on to the hallway and we have decided to do the kitchen to at the same time. Bathrooms are going to be a little bit more work however one because we want tile and two because they are going to need new counter tops due to the fact that the old ones are maroon color and need to be redone. So needless to say the house project list is quite long. It includes painting the outside, most of the inside, moving some big rose bushes, moving the shed, building a fence, building a garage, building raised garden beds for veges for next summer, and the list goes on and on. It doesn't look like the end is in sight anytime soon. Oh well,
Caden is getting bigger every day, He is starting to want to really get mobile so any time now I expect him to start crawling. He also had two bottom teeth after months of teething two teeth showed up within a week. So that has been fun. Caden is now 71/2 months old and we still can't figure out where time has gone. He is just growing so fast and has a funny personality. Well Got to go but will try to get pictures posted soon.

Desided to Try this

2008-06-29T15:12:00.000-07:00

Drowl monster

Ok well everyone I know has started doing this so I thought that I would give it a try to see if I can actually keep up with something like this in my crazy schedule.
Caden is now 4 months old which is hard to imagine. He is getting so big. He is already sleeping through the night as well which is wonderful for me seeing as I am still working and so is Dan. He amazes us every day with the new bits of his personality that have been appearing. He is teething now as well which is interesting. Now when you feed him you have to battle to keep his hands out of his mouth which can be a treat. He is such a happy baby at the moment and is always full of smiles. We love him to bits that is for sure.

Relaxing on the old tree stump