Saying Goodbye!

After a long week of long hours on the house, we spent Friday morning with the kids. They loved painting Easter eggs with Grandma and Grandpa before they departed back to Utah.Brennan found a constant friend in Grandpa as all he usually said was "Gwampa, I NEED you!" before dragging him off in one direction or another.

We don't feel like we made the usually fun-filled memories while they were here, but we did make it out to dinner Thursday night, and enjoyed their company during the long work filled days. Mom and Dad Smith were angels to open their home to them to sleep at nights (as the cabin can get a little tight for too many people and only 1 bathroom). This week flew by so quickly. The clock struck 10:00 and a few tears and hugs and kisses later they were on their way home. Thank you so much for the week!

Jess' Grad pics

One of the breaks I took this week was to take Jess out to some ruins on the Smith Ranch and do a little photo shooting! She's looking for a few to send out with her Graduation announcements this year. After about 5 outfits, a little gopher hunting for me while she did wardrobe changes, navigating through cow manure, fighting with the glaring sun and 217 picutres later, here are just a few of our results..




What a beautiful young lady she has become! Love ya Jess!

Send in the reinforcements!!!

This last week was a heaven send! Mom & Dad Buckner and Jess drove 11 hours from Utah. To do what? Yes...work on the house...gotta love'em. They arrived Monday afternoon and even after driving since 6:30 came over and worked on the house until around 10p.m. That's what I call devotion, undying sacrifice, service, charity, love, and the list goes on. Just when I thought I couldn't continue to work any more, they came and gave me the boost I need to make it to the finish(hopefully). We worked on patching, priming, sanding, taping, masking, more sanding, more patching, more priming, and still more and more sanding. They seemed to feel new muscles that they hadn't felt for a while. I was impressed as dad even jumped on Nathan's painting stilts to cut in the ceilings, and didn't fall. Talk about skill.

They kept us on our toes and constantly working from sun-up to sun-down. (Although Jess and I did sneak away for a few hours to do her "grad" photo shoot -I'll post a few pics on that next). For us Buckners to get together and not include a games night is pretty rare, but this trip was pretty much all business, and we love them for it!


Thanks Mom, Dad and Jess for your love, patience, and hard work...we couldn't have gotten this far without you!