For Christmas...

So if you know where I live, you know that I don't get cell phone reception.. Yep that is right! NO CELL PHONE RECEPTION! How do I even live? Comfortably if you must know... Anywhoo... I have decided that I want a smart phone. One with a really cool camera.. One that has more mega pixels than my actual camera that doesn't want to take pictures anymore. One that might cost me 600.00 dollars, but it takes way more than just pictures!

By the way.. My camera.. My nice Cannon that I bought 5 years ago did cost me a big whooping 600.00 dollars...  I hate it!

How can it be???

How is it that it has been nearly a YEAR since I have blogged last? I feel like I am neglecting my duties as a human being!

Life is always busy! My camera isn't working.. Blogs are NO fun without pictures.. But I will blog about things that are going on currently..

My garden is amazing! If you need to see pictures, go to my facebook. Today the girls and I harvested potatoes and lettuce. I have tuns of squash and tomatoes, but the tomatoes aren't turning red yet. I'm getting a bit worried, but I know it will happen soon!

School is in full swing and the kids love it! The elementary kids all have a new teacher and he is pretty cool. He has a great family so that makes it even more awesome!

Summer 4H was great! Kylah and Morgan both participated. They did so good in all of the competitions they had!

Fall 4H is getting started here this month. The twins will be learning to rope this year and that is super exciting!

Sam is a little sewer and has become really good and crochet. I'm hoping a blanket will be under the Christmas tree for me..

Em is awesome! The boys are all amazing!

I love my family!

Giving Thanks!

I must say that this was the most laid back Thanksgiving we have ever had. It was just US! Me and my little family, minus Samantha. (she had to go into town)
There was no hurry to get the food done and no trying to make sure we were all primed and proper.
It was just a nice, slow holiday!

I'm so grateful for my amazing family! My husband is so awesome and is the most patient, kind, loving, spiritual being I have ever met. I'm a so blessed to have him in my life!

My children are my world and I'm grateful for them and all they bring to me. They make me laugh, cry, giggle, smile, frown and love more than I ever thought could be possible.

My parents are so amazing and I love them! I'm grateful for them and the love they have for me and my family!

My in-laws are great and they have been so welcoming. I love them!

My grandparents have been a blessing to me. I wouldn't be who I am without their hands in my life!

I am grateful for where I live. It is the most amazing place to be. I love that I learn everyday out here. Being in the country is such a gift.

I'm grateful to all of my friends and family who love and help me everyday.


During the holiday I didn't take any pictures of my feast, or my own kids... But I did have the amazing opportunity to take family pictures for our good friends the Reils. I'm still working on getting them all prettied up, but here is a little sneak peak...

If you look close enough both Chris and John are smiling.. That didn't happen in very many pictures...

Now we are onto Christmas time and I am SO excited. More excited than I have been in years!
This Saturday we are going to cut our tree... I'm also going to put lights up outside this year. I'm super thrilled...

Projects...

#1 Gathering wood for the winter! I'm amazed at how much I love to have a wood burning stove. I'm also amazed at how much I miss a furnace. These last couple of weeks, I wake up and instantly put on wool socks. It is getting cold here. 

#2 Roof!  Our roof is leaky. Months ago we had a huge wind storm and it blew a lot of our shingles off of our kitchen. El has been working on it and it is a hard task to do by himself. We are grateful to his Dad for picking up all of the materials for us in town and we are grateful to Nate Daily for showing up one day out of the blue and using his family vacation time to help out! Seriously so awesome... BUT we are still working on it weeks later. Anyone want to come help? ;)

#3 Fencing the yard...  I'm looking to get Kylah a horse, so I'm getting ready to fence the backyard completely. It will be good for her to have her own horse. She is really a natural when it comes to any animal. She really loves horses. I'm so glad! For years my Christmas list looked like this: 

#1 Horse

#2 Pony

#3 Dollies

You get the picture. I loved horses. Always wanted one. Maybe one day I'll get myself one. But for now, I will get one for my children... 

#4 Fixing the chicken coops. It has to be done before winter...  BLAH!

The more I look at this list, the more I want to do something fun. What fun projects are you doing? I'd like to know so I can live vicariously through you! 

Summer wrap up...

Here it is September. Yep. Not one post published this entire summer. I'm lame. BUT for your viewing pleasure here are some pictures and little stories to go with them.

In June or maybe it was July my mom and my grandma came out to visit us. We decided to go to the Crystal Ball caves that are over in Gandy. They were pretty cool. The kids seemed to have a great time. The most exciting part of the trip is when we were done with the cave we were walking back down to our cars on a trail head and my Grams decided to fall down the mountain. Crazy girl...  Anyways, she had a fun stint in the hospital for a couple of days and got lots of stitches, but overall she did well for falling down a mountain!

Kylah competed in her first 4H competition. She was so nervous, but she did really well. Here she is with Daisy. Kylah is loving 4H and right now she is working on her working ranch horse 4h training. I can't wait to see how she does there!

 YUMMY! Ellie loves popsicles!

 Gannon, Sam and Breck..

Athena enjoying the tire swing..

My sister Crystal and her family came out and visited with us the last part of July. That was a great trip! We wend on 4 wheeler adventures. I crashed and banged my leg up pretty bad, but no biggie!!!!  It was so great to see my sister Crystal. I'm grateful that her hubby likes us enough to visit us..

The hummingbirds love the feeder. I just love to watch them fight over who owns it. Don't they know its me???

These are from Kylahs final show in August. She is riding Bummer. The other horse that she had been working with Daisy, got a bummed leg so she had to start to ride Bummer. He is a great horse. You can tell that she is getting her confidence a bit...

I was finally able to get pictures of the wild horses that are around here... They are so awesome!

 Our Family in front of our church building. 

Korban turned 8 in July, so this was a special time for all of us. He was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. El did a great job and Korbans blessing was amazing! After this last shot was taken, El couldn't get the plug out so Korban swam around in the font until El could get it to work. He really thought that was pretty cool.

We went on an adventure up to Mallory Cave. The kids had a fun time. Well all except Helam. He fell into a cactus and that wasn't much fun. But the kids sure loved it!

Here is Kylah and Morgan dissecting their snake... YUCK.. but it was a great achievement for them.

Warm Springs

   A couple of weeks ago I started to go a bit stir crazy! The weather has teased us quite a bit out here and I just wanted to get out and explore! Boy o boy do I choose the wrong times to explore, but this was a well worth trip. El and I packed up all of the kids and our friend Angie met us down the way and we headed off to warm springs... What a great trip, other than the cold 41 degrees and a storm decided to blow in on us after being there for about a half hour, but it was SO worth it! The kids had a blast and so did El. Me, well I'm not one to get in the water to often so I took lots and LOTS of pictures! So with out further adieu here are some of the hundreds! 

With these ones here, I forbade anyone to get into the water before I took some scenic pics...  I really like how they turned out...  So beautiful! 

Here are all the "kids"... El was a trooper being in the water! It is a good thing it is warm.... Or I think it would have been a NO GO.. 

El showed the kids where the under water cave starts. They all decided to go into the first little cavern. I am so claustrophobic that I would never be able to go in there, but the kids all liked it and it is good that our kids have a "cool" parent who shows them cool stuff...  El tells me that there are many other caverns under there, but I'm not going to see for myself. Also, there are parts that you have to swim under the water for a bit to get to. UM.. NO THANKS!

I can't wait to take our kids back and anyone else who wants to come for that matter.... Come on over and visit us and I'll take you to this treasure!

Naughty!

Look at how cute my puppies were...  This was just a couple of days after they opened their eyes. If I would have know how naughty they would become I would have given them to the circus!!!  Okay maybe not, but woozers! These dogs are nuisances!

 This is their first adventure outside... They loved it!

the might THOR! 

 Also, look at how FAT they are.. O MY! With only two babies Sheba had plenty of milk to fatten them up! The crazy thing is, they would still fight while eating. I can't imagine having more than two puppies!

tubby Astrid

Here they are now.. 3 months old. They love to come in the house and chase the cat. Poor pumpkin hates them! I have tried to take many pictures of them but they all turn out blurry because they can't hold still for more than a minute! Both of them have also taken up to chasing and killing my chickens. After much heartache from the loss of 4 of my hens I sought counsel from my Branch President who is a pretty amazing guy and has been dealing with critters forever, and since we haven't had any problems with them chasing or killing chickens! Thank goodness!