Keeton's First Day of Kindergarten

I can't believe my baby boy is starting Kindergarten TODAY!!!  He's growing up so fast.  But I have to say he was the cutest little kindergarten boy at PCA. 

Mommy and Daddy are so proud of our little bubba.  And we are really excited about PCA.  We went to an all school worship on Monday where the entire school started off the year with prayer.  Followed by a picnic in the plaza where the kids had a blast and parents got to meet other parents and get to know the school. 

This is in front of PCA.  We've been trying to get Keeton ready for school for a while, talking about how exciting and fun it will be.  He meet his teacher a week ago at a kindergarten kickoff social and again on Monday at the back to school fair day.  So, Keeton's been looking forward to this day for a while and I think he's ready to get inside and get started already.

This is his wonderful teacher, Mrs. Soper, we have heard so many great things about her and we are looking forward to a wonderful year.  The other teacher in his room is Mrs. Denniston, the teacher assistant.

 He's at the blue table this year, which is funny because he was at the blue table last year, too.

This is the class bulletin board with all the students names and pictures.  The Class of 2024 sounds very odd and such a long time from now!!!

The Inside is Almost Finished

This week they will hopefully finish the fireplace and the floors upstairs and downstairs; and then we can start moving in furniture and appliances!!!  : )  We are still waiting for the counter tops for the bath and kitchen so all the sinks can be installed.  Although we have electricity and a working toilet, Andy's not for spending the night out there until he can take a shower.  We did buy our first piece of furniture, a cute little futon we are going to put upstairs to function as a "3rd" bedroom.   I have a sofa and bed picked out that I like just just waiting for Andy to see and hopefully approve.  Also, have my eye on a couple tables but not sure on that Andy's going to have to help with that one, too.  The rest of the house will be furnish with hand-me-downs from our house and others.  We are so excited this project is almost done.  The longer it goes on the more we're ready for it to be done...I guess the "newness" for the building part is over with and we are ready to be done!!!  Here's some of the latest pics of the inside of the cabin.

This is the Living Room/Dining Room/Kitchen.

Better view of Kitchen Area

 This is opposite of the first picture.  The open door is one of two bedrooms with a bath which connects with both of them.  In the middle of the picture is the stairs. To the left is the back door and the other door leads to the utility room, which contains the pantry and washer and dryer hook ups.

 This is the game room upstairs.  There is also another room when you first come up the stairs and another full bath.



Harvest Moon Bash at the KMR

We had a fabulous time this past saturday at the Kelsey Marie Ranch with the GATEway's Harvest Moon Bash.  There was so much going on, I'm not sure where to begin!!!  We had lots of fun with games and crafts, way too much food, a hay ride, zip line, climbing wall, the Gateway Band, dance and costume contest and best for last the best FIREWORKS show ever!!!!  There are so many special friends with lots of talents that makes something like this happen and Andy and I were just glad to be small part of the fun!!!!

I hope this photo album works there were alot of great pics, some are mine and some are borrowed (thanks Steve)

Harvest Moon Bash 2010

Patti and Andy

The Climbing Wall at the KMR

A friend of ours from our GATEway Class, Meade, wanted to build a climbing wall at the ranch for our class event the Harvest Moon Bash on Oct, 30th.  He did a wonderful job, with a few helpers.  Andy and Rick set the posts, you could tell this was their first time doing something like this because they were a little off (well 3 inches off????).  Andy helped Meade a little the first night and Uncle Al came down and helped all day Saturday.  And again, a little on Sunday night.  Meade and his two boys spent the night two friday nights in a row.  They all seems to love the outdoors and the ranch.  These pics are from the first weekend.

The next weekend Meade finished it up with more support, added the climbing things and a rope ladder to get down the back. It's incredible!!!! Keeton, Andy and I are already enjoy it before the HMB.  Thanks Meade...and his boys, Hunter and Walker).  Here's the finished climbing wall.....

Lots of Changes at the Kelsey Marie Ranch

The Kelsey Marie Ranch is changing these days.  The easiest way the tell you about what's new is to show you so here are several pictures to show you all the updates.

First and most exciting, we're building a small log cabin.  I say log but it's log siding so the inside is not log, but we are putting up some knotty pine so it will have a rustic feel.  It's one and half stories, with two bedrooms, a full bath downstairs and a full bath upstairs.  The kitchen and living room will be one big open room, with a cozy fire place.  We are going to put a futon upstairs to make another sleeping area and it has a big game room area for many uses.  The outside is finished but we're still working on the inside.  It has water and electricity and most of the wall are almost up and by the end of next week hopefully stained and painted.

We love the surrounding trees and the big front porch.

If you have been to the ranch before, this is how the house is positioned in reference to the pavilion and original container that we called "base camp".

We also had an official Kelsey Marie Ranch sign/gate put up as you enter the main ranch area.  (The front of our land is a wheat field that a farmer rents from us, so the land we "play" on is behind that.) 

We cleared more area down by the creek so it's looking more and more park like.  Added rocks around the culvert and a log crossing for foot traffic.  Keeton had no problem crossing when there was no water in the creek but now that there's water he's a little scared.

My cousin Greg put up his zip line and Keeton loves it!!!  At first he wanted us to go with him, but now he likes to do it all by himself.  I put a couple of hay bales at the end so he can land gracefully when he stops

The Tank (aka pond) had to be redone and we are now waiting for it to fill back up with water. It still has a long way to go to be full so we don't have fish in it, yet. But we do have a couple of turtles...and Keeton loves to race the remote control boats with mama or daddy.

There are lots of new trails to explore and have fun on, most of them made by my cousin Greg (thanks!!!). We had fun this past week with Gran and even got her to go on a ride on the four wheeler. I drove I don't think she would have enjoy it with Andy driving. We did stop on one trail for a photo opt with Gran and even got her to climb a tree with Keeton. What a wonderful Grandmother and sweet picture!!!!

Papa got us a BIG hammock, I think it's made for 4.  Here is Keeton with 4 of his cousins: Jon Phillip, Ben, Sam and Jon...they're all in there.

We have a skeet thrower for practice and my cousin Jeff put up two deer feeders and a deer blind.  Opening day of dove season, Jeff and Uncle Al did a little hunting.

Keeton got his own four wheeler for his birthday and loves it.  He tries to ride it just like daddy rides his.  It's really cute to watch.  His cousin Jon Phillip looks cool on it, too.

We have a good old tire swing and a cute horse swing (cousin Sam is on the swing).

Keeton loves working with Daddy and the ranch.



Here they are watering the first "Kelsey" tree.  It's a live oak and if you ask Keeton why it's a live oak, he'll tell you because "she's alive in our hearts".  Also, you'll notice there's a live oak tree in the middle of the Kelsey Marie Ranch gate.

This is our second little live oak "Kelsey" tree, given in loving memory of our sweet Kelsey girl by our friends The Smiths and The Mills (Thank You!!!!).  The boys had fun "helping" dig the hole.   

This is the latest tree planted at the ranch but this live oak is call the "Keeton" tree and is planted across the road from the Kelsey tree, both are in front of the cabin.

After playing hard and working hard  Keeton likes to rest a while and he finds all kinds of places to "rest" at the ranch.

Well, we hoped you like the virtual tour of the ranch and hope you can see it in person soon.  We miss our sweet baby girl but the Kelsey Marie Ranch is a wonderful reminder of the blessings that God has given us, especially the life of our sweet precious baby girl.

The Up Family

A Year Ago Today

Today would have been our sweet Kelsey Girl's 1st birthday, so today was a special day of remembering our baby girl.  Keeton and I, spent the morning/lunch with some wonderful friends at Chuck E Cheese.  Keeton hasn't been but has been wanting to go all summer, so he had so much fun (until we had to leave, he didn't want to).  I had some special time talking and sharing with friends about Kelsey.  Andy had been in Salt Lake City and we had planned on meeting at Kelsey's graveside tonight and then to dinner, but Andy's flight was delayed.  So, Keeton and I went to put some flowers out there, but he fell asleep on the way out there.  So, it was just a very sweet time between me, Kelsey and God.... and it was perfect!!! 

Andy and I received so many cards and emails today, with sweet thoughts and lots of prayers lifted up for us.  Thank you all!!!   Overall, today was a wonderful day, I just wished our little Kelsey could be with us to share it.  There's so much I'm leaving out but hopefully I can share again soon.

Thank you God for blessing us with the life of our Sweet Kelsey Girl!!!!

I know Long Time No Blog

The Up Family has been busy at the Kelsey Marie Ranch the last couple of months.  God has blessed us with this wonderful get-a-way and fun distraction, while at the same time fondly remembering out sweet little girl.  The Ranch has come a long way with the lots of work and help from hard working family and friends.  THANKS everyone who has helped so far.  We've had lots of people come visit and play and we've has small events like b-days, but our first big event will be Memorial Weekend.  We've invited our Gateway Family to come to the Kelsey Marie Ranch, and the Up Family is really looking forward to that!!!

Since it's been so long since I've posted anything, there is so many things I want to share with everyone, I don't know where to begin.  So, I've promised my self I would try to share a little something every day (or so) instead of trying to do it all at once.  There are many things that remind me of my sweet Kelsey and I'm grateful for all of them, but because it's Springtime I think my most favorite right now are flowers, specifically, Gerber Daisies.  Every time I see them I think of Kelsey with that BIG Gerber Daisy she wore on her head the last several days we had with her.  One of her nurses, Libby got it for her because she thought it looked like Kelsey, and so now Gerber Daisies are my favorite.  For Mothers Day I told Andy I just want a bouquet of Gerber Daises.  When he went to get them he said they were only going to be about $11 something so he added another bouquet of flowers to make it more.  But I told him I didn't care how much they were I would have been happy with just the daises!!  Then I added, well if there that cheap you could get them for me every month.  We'll see....

More stories to come about Mother's day and all the sweet things that remind me of Kelsey over the next several weeks or how every long it takes.

Thanks for continuing to think of us and pray!!!

Patti


Here are a couple of my favorite pics of late....

This is the latest pic of our "base camp".  It looks a lot different with everything so green.

Here's our big little man Keeton in the bluebonnets at the ranch.

Here's a reminder pic of our sweet Kelsey girl with her Gerber Daisy bow.