Just Some Pics

Just a few pictures that were taken this past week or so.

It's been cold these last couple of days but still Abigail insists on going outside. Thank you cousin Cameron for the new jacket!:


Spending time with her best friend Liberty:

Practicing her photography:

Here she is showing her independence and insisting on helping me clean my shop. I sweep the dirt into a pile and then she comes along and vacuums it up. I should have taken a picture of her organizing her work bench after I cleaned mine. It's funny how kids try to copy the things that we do.

Our Cutie

Sarah and Abigail returned from their trip to Maine so I was able to retrieve the camera in order to blog (I don't do anything too interesting that would be blog worthy). Here's some of Abby.

Not too impressed with Dad:

Getting up close and personal:

Another one of her self potraits:

Here is a documentary that she made about lunch time with Mommy:

She's such a cutie!

Abby's Pictures

When Abigail was trying to take pictures of the horses (see Post below) the camera kept saying 'low battery'. My first thought was "oh great, she must have left the camera on because those are new batteries." It wasn't until we got home and I was downloading the few pictures that I was able to take that I realized that we have a young photographer in the making. I found close to a hundred pictures and several videos that she's taken in about a week's span. Most of the pictures include a finger or two but I did find a few decent ones that I thought that people would enjoy.

Here she's trying a self photo shoot (she has over a dozen of these types);

A good one of Daryl;

Not sure why the closet;

And one of me when we were making chocolate and banana milk;

She had quite a few pictures of Sarah but last time I shared one without her permission my tool allowance got cut drastically. It's fun to see her get all excited about taking pictures and since it's Sarah's old camera we're not worried about her breaking it (Sarah told me that it was broken so we got her a new one. Hmmm, I wonder how "broken" it really was?? ;)

Sunday Pictures

Abigail and I are recovering from colds so we skipped church (so we wouldn't get the other kids sick too). We watched some movies and went for a ride on the motorcycle down to our neighbor's house to see his horses. He's a great neighbor and lets us feed his horses carrots and pears and even put Abby on the back of one. When we were getting ready to go see the horses Abigail grabbed her camera and wanted to bring it along. Good thinking Abby!

Here is the picture that she took;


Here are some of her with them;

She has gotten a lot braver although one did startle her when he nibble her fingers. Abby told me that she now wants a horse. I keep telling her that we have iron horses in the garage and workshop and those are enough.

Trip to Maine Pics

Well, I'm back home safe and sound. Thanks to those that let me crash at their houses and sorry to those that I didn't get a chance to see. The main reason for going back home was to visit my grandpa who isn't doing so well. I probably should have waited until they went down to Florida for the winter but I didn't. I experienced the Maine fall with all of its colors and cool weather. I also experienced quite a bit of rain. Altogether I put on an additional 3400 miles +/- on the bike.


Here's Franconia Notch, NH. One of the nice riding days.

Riding around New Vineyard, ME.

My cute niece.

It was a great trip. Hmmmm, where should I go next year?

More Pics

Abigail loves being outdoors. Trying to keep her inside is nearly impossible especially since we have a pretty large family of frogs around. She wanted to go outside one rainy afternoon but mommy said "no". Then she asked me after I got home from work. I told her "why not, don't you have rain gear?" (I might have gotten into a little bit of trouble from Sarah.) She ran to the closet put them on (with a little help) and ran outside. It was fun to watch as she splashed in the puddles and walked under the eves to feel the huge rain drops hit her umbrella.

Sarah and Abigail went to Ft Riley, KS to help out a friend who was having surgery. She was too cute in her stretchy pants and sunglasses:

Notice her babies all buckled up in the seat next to her:

A friend posted on Facebook about how FB was using their software to tap into our brains so Abigail and I quickly protected ourselves. We didn't have any tinfoil so we had to make due with what we had:

Don't worry about us, all brains cells survived! Thanks Marie for the heads up. We do get some odd looks from our house guests when we sit down to the computer and don our tinfoil hats. Ya gotta be careful!

Female Brownie Point System

The female demerit point system:
In the world of romance, one single rule applies; make her happy. Do something she likes, you get points. Do something she dislikes, you lose points.

You don't get points for doing something she expects you to do. Sorry, that's the nature of the game. Here is a short list of ways to get points or lose them:

SIMPLE DUTIES
You make the bed (+1)
You make the bed, but without the decorative pillow (0)
You throw the bedspread over the rumpled sheet (-1)
You go out to get her something she wants (+5), in the rain (+8)
But you stopped at a bike shop (-5)
You check out a suspicious noise (+1)
You check out a suspicious noise but it's nothing (0)
You check out a suspicious noise and it was something (+5)
You pummel it with your baseball bat (+10)
It's her pet (-20)

SOCIAL ENGAGEMENTS
You stay by her side the entire party (0)
You stay by her side for awhile but decide to chat with an old school friend (-2)
Named Tina (-10)
Who has had "enhancements" (-80)

HER BIRTHDAY
You take her out to dinner (+2)
You take her out to dinner and it's not a sports bar (+3)
Okay, it's a sports bar (-2)
And it's all-you-can-eat night (-3)
It's a sports bar, and it's all-you-can-eat night, and your face is painted your favorite team's colors (-10)

A NIGHT OUT
You take her out to a movie (+1)
You take her out to a movie that she likes (+3)
You take her to a movie that you hate (+6)
You take her to a movie that you like (-2)
It has machine guns and explosions (-3)
You lied and said that it was a foreign film about orphans (-15)

YOUR PHYSIQUE
You develop a noticeable potbelly (-15)
You develop a noticeable potbelly and exercise to lose it (+10)
You develop a noticeable potbelly and resort to baggy sweatpants and baggy Hawaiian shirts (-30)
You say "it doesn't matter, you have one too." (-8000)

THE BIG QUESTION
She asks, "Do I look fat?" (-5) (Yes, you lose points no matter what)
You hesitate while responding (-10)
You reply, "Where?" (-35)
Any other response (-20)

COMMUNICATION
When she wants to talk about a problem, you listen, displaying what looks like a concerned expression (0)
You listen for over 30 minutes (+50)
You listen for over 30 minutes without looking at the tv (+500)
She realizes this is because you fell asleep (-4000)

*Stole this from the internet* Good thing this isn't for real. I'm seriously in the negative numbers.

Our Little Helper

There's nothing like having an eager little helper that insists on helping out with the chores. Feeding the dogs, putting out bird food, cooking, vacuuming, mowing the lawn, are just some of the things that she likes to help with. Usually we're too busy trying to make sure that she doesn't break something or harms herself to take pictures but I was able to sneak these.

Today was pajama day for her and Sarah but she decided to water mom's flowers for her:


The sidewalk got rinsed off too:

Also, as I was uploading pictures, I had to stop and close one of the windows because she decided that the house needed to be washed too. I'm going to save these pictures and remind her of what a great helper she was when she gets to be a teenager and refuses to do her chores.

One of Abby's favorite things to do is to help me mow the lawn. The problem that usually occurs is that she wants to drive. She is getting better but still doesn't drive in too straight of a line. It's more like a weave down the lawn. We have had a few close calls and almost ran over a shrub or two (and narrowly missed crashing into the workshop). Her other favorite thing to do on the lawnmower is fall asleep. If it's any time in the afternoon, about 30 minutes of riding around knocks her out. I really need to get a picture of her because one of my favorite pictures of my grandpa and I is of me sitting on his lap, fast asleep while he's mowing the lawn at my parent's house. I'm not sure why this occurs but next baby we get that doesn't fall asleep at night is getting a ride around the lawn. SORRY NEIGHBORS!

The Workshop and Crafts

Most of you have read that I enjoy spending my free time working on my motorcycles out in the workshop. You have also read that Abigail also enjoys spending time out in the workshop, which I encourage. Well, my workshop has started to exhibit signs that a little girl enjoys spending time with me out there. This weekend Sarah let Abby get her stamp and ink set out and somehow it made it way to my workshop and onto my bike table. It was funny to see her with her ear muffs on, stamping away while I was using the grinder. We also have babies, pink balloons, and other girlie items out there too.

Here's my bike table now:


Her princess cereal bowl that suddenly appeared out there:

Taking time out from stamping to work on the bike:

Who else has such a diverse workshop? (The baby is what started it all. I allowed the baby a few weeks ago and now she's moved her arts and crafts out there. I am drawing the line to having curtains, a sewing machine, or knitting in the workshop. I need to keep it on the manly side in order to keep the testosterone flowing.)

Abigail also enjoys helping her mommy in the kitchen. Here they are with their matching aprons baking up a storm:

Swimming

Abby loves going to the pool and the splash park.

Child Labor and Things

The past couple of months have been fairly busy for the Stinson family. I do apologize for not keeping the blog updated and after much heckling from the peanut gallery here are a few photos that capture a bit of what has been happening.

This past weekend I've had my head under the hood of both of our vehicles and ordered new tires for the Harley. I was lucky to have the car trouble happen over a four day weekend, although I did end up getting called back to work to "dispose" of a few items. Of course wherever I was, my little helper was right beside me. I finally decided that maybe I should put her to work and take a break myself. I let her borrow some wrenches, gave her the manual, and sat down in the chair to enjoy some lemonade. As long as I keep the freezer stocked with popsicles and a box of fruit snacks in the cupboard she's a happy worker. We got the truck finished tonight and tomorrow we'll tackle the van. She wanted to take the truck for the test drive but Sarah put a stop to that. (Mother's, always ruining a good thing.)

She wasn't happy about the bedtime tonight so hopefully she doesn't go on strike tomorrow.

Here's a picture of Abby playing some putt-putt up in Maine. She's not very good at it. We need to work on the whole hand-eye/swinging a club coordination. Sarah did say that Abigail had a lot of fun doing it.

Okay, so you might be wondering why we're lacking photos of Abigail lately. Well the cute two, almost three year old has now gotten camera shy (she likes to pretend to be to get more attention). Here's evidence:

Sometimes we have to bribe her or I have to chase her around the house to get a picture of her. Now that I'm at the end of the blog I just realize that I don't have that picture posted. Look for that one later in the week. It was a cute 4th of July outfit (yes, I realize that it is August).

Fourth of July

Abby loved the fireworks this year. Aunt Mikhaela joined in on the fun this year. We had a great day and hope you did too!

Our new pets

Abigail loves it when the cows come over for a visit! She will stand outside for hours or until they make there way home. We love living in the country!

Playground with the Brown's

We went to the playground and had an awesome time. Abby can't wait to go back again! We are soo thankful that the Brown's joined us.