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!

Super Slackin!

So I have really been slacking with my blog! BOO to me! I really had high hopes for me being better.. SO, today I will start to try again! 

Life is good. Living in the desert is great! We are really loving it especially me! The last couple of months have been really beautiful and lovely! The things that make it the best are my kids, husband and all of the baby critters that are around! So, here are some pictures! Enjoy!!!!! 

 Kylah and Helam at the Pinewood Derby

 Deer in the morning

 One of the cutest little calf's I've ever seen!

 Korban the serious and Gannon the goof!

 Elk on the ridge

 Emer and the apple!

 Me and my favorite person!

 ELK!!!!!  I have awesome video of them too...

 Kylah and her curls!

 Kylah on one of our walkabouts...  Korban and puppies...

 Morgan!

 Thor

 Astrid with muddy paws

 Getting ready to cross the stream on one of our walkabouts...

Kylah trying to convince the puppies to cross... 

2012...

So I have been busy! Christmas time flew bye, along with the New Year and 5 birthdays and the birth of puppies! December is such a busy month for me! I'm grateful it is all over.

So here is the run down...

Samantha turned 14! 14...  She is now taller than I am and probably weighs less than Helam. Not really, but holy cow, this girl is a bean poll!

El turned 36. This makes him older than me!!! Okay he is always older than I am... But his maturity level sometimes is younger than me.

Emer turned 9. She is such a little spitfire and most of the time makes me want to take up drinking, but she is amazing!

This is the stack we got from all of the grandparents. This is much more than we were able to get the kids. I would say the grandparents all went overboard! But thank you to all of them for the wonderful gifts!

I turned 33. At least I think that is what I turned. Yep, I just did the math and I am 33. NO, I'm 34. CRAP! I just lost a year of my life!

Our amazing dog Sheba had two puppies! Astrid (the white one) and Thor (the brown one). I really can't believe she only had two. It boggles my mind! But they are SO cute and today they are 3 days old. They are also the fattest puppies I have ever seen!

Helam doesn't like to smile for the camera anymore, so this is as good as it gets! He turned 3 yesterday..  It was a very hard day for me. I cried alot and El had to pull me out of my slump more times than one.

We handmade gifts this year, and the boys each got a homemade rubber band rifle. They are pretty cool and we haven't had any black eyes with them yet!

Here is a random cow..  They are everywhere, and I LOVE IT!

Hopefully I won't be such a looser at blogging anymore. Sometimes I think it is harder than it really is.
Here is to a happy 2012. I am looking forward to all of the greatness it is going to bring.

The muggin of the cows...

So this past Saturday we had the pleasure of going to our Branch Presidents ranch to help them brand, tag, medicate and castrate their cows. It was such an amazing time! I have never before been part of something like this and I must say that I LOVED IT!!!!  I was down in the cow crap helping hold the cows down and helping tag them. I got chased by cows and bulls. It was amazing! One of the really funny parts was watching El tackle a yearling calf that wouldn’t go down. I thought to myself, WOW my husband should have been a football player!

It was really cold and the fog was crazy, but watching the cowboys and cowgirl rope the calfs/cow was awesome. My next goal is to learn how to rope. Then maybe one day I will be able to be that cowgirl who gets to rope… 

I asked Morgan if she would take pictures of us and she was very willing. So this is what she came up with before the batteries died…

YEP.. NOT one of El and I in with the cows.. Too funny! Overall it was such a great day. We were so happy to be able to help out. I hope we get to do it all again in the future!