Family Pictures

Plans were made before Christmas to try and take a big family picture as everyone would be together at least before George left on a mission. We were originally going to take it outside in the snow, however a snow storm started sometime in the night and wasn't about to let up when we had planned for the pictures to be taken, so we improvised and went to the high school gym. We didn't have any great cameras there, but I brought mine and had a few snapped with it. At least the picture was taken right? I had someone get one of just us as that isn't always easy to coordinate with Adam's schedule and then of course the boys wanted us to hurry as a gym should be used for basketball and not pictures :) They played for quite some time and had a great time of it as well. My cousin Aaron ventured over from Middleton through the storm to play as well so it was a party.

Christmas Day in Oregon

On Saturday Adam decided that we needed to head to Oregon on Sunday as a storm was going to be coming through our travel path and we would have left sooner, however I was giving a talk in sacrament meeting and could not leave until after it. That is probably the quickest I have ever packed for a long trip, as Susie had packed the boys' bags and I had to try and think of everything we needed to bring to be prepared for a week of vacation (with the boys it is their breathing machine and medicines for their asthma, just in case). We ended up taking the truck and then Daniel and Susie in the 4-runner as the excursion we took before to Oregon looked like it might have a problem on the way and we didn't want to take a chance. We made good time and did well until we got to Burley and found the storm doing what storms do best and the road conditions causing slow traveling. We decided to go all the way through as the possibility of being snowed in for a couple days was haunting us. We picked up Sheldon and Sara Ann in our caravan as they had left earlier, but had slid off the road on the way. The 30-40 mph was fine with me so that our lives were not threatened than what they already were. We were glad to stay for a week and enjoy the time we had with family. My parents had a house full of people as usual, but it always makes for there never being a dull moment. Adam was on top of making sure that we played basketball every day at the school and we took advantage of the opportunity to take Tyson sledding which he was a little skeptical of at first, but after we forced him down with Adam he was hooked after that. He would get to the bottom and roll off the sled and start marching back up to the top of the hill, knowing that his dad was right behind him with his sled to do it again. Family is what life is all about. Lincoln didn't go sledding with us, but him and Addy found Tyson's presents of "tractor backhoes" to be very entertaining.

Santa Came

We went to Adam's aunt Angelyn's house for a Christmas dinner a few weeks before the big day and they had arranged for a Santa to come and distribute some little gifts to each of the kids. Adam was holding Tyson as we were all singing some Christmas songs waiting for Santa to come and when he came, boy did he come. He barreled his red coat and all, down the basement stairs and around the corner he flew quieting the audience of children...all but Tyson. He had Tyson scared to death with a curtling cry/scream that was not to be comforted. The rest of us were in tears laughing at the sight. He was very leery of that white bearded man...until he started handing out little gifts and then Tyson was over his fear and on Santa's lap so he could get his gift even to pose a faint smile for my camera. Lincoln was quite the opposite with Santa, he smiled and enjoyed this jolly man as if they were great friends. It was a wonderful gathering as always is with family.

Thanksgiving Day

We stayed in Hurricane for Thanksgiving this year. Of course there was a good crowd of family in town and it took over 2 hours for all of the adults present to say what they were thankful for. We pretty much sat around all day and also went to RomaAnn's and visited there in the evening. Lincoln and Addy had fun for a short while on the floor and then Marshall and Tyson joined them and having 3 out of 4 looking at the camera was not bad in my opinion. Susie hooked Marshall and Tyson up in their bedroom with stuffed animals and a movie to watch, so I couldn't resist the picture moment, but as you can tell I wasn't able to do it very discreetly since I had to turn the light on in order to get a decent picture, so Tyson wanted the light left on and Marshall wanted it turned off. We went to the stake center and played basketball with anyone that wanted to. I just watched on the side with the little boys. I just love the holidays.

The Pig & A Birthday Party

Tippy (Tyler Addy Steele) had her princess birthday party on the 15th which was quite interesting since those at the party were boys, but hey what do they know. I had to drop Tyson off at the party with Susie while I went to put the packaged butchered pig goods in our freezer so they wouldn't spoil. Tyson as you can see found a ball to play with as did Tippy. I got there towards the end and left after Tippy opened presents as Tyson was obsessed with hanging on Stephanie's back and would not stop he was also starting to deal with his asthma and so I needed to get him home for a breathing treatment. I really missed out on most of the time I would have normally spent with Tyson for the day, but the slaughtering of the pig had been scheduled earlier on and since Stephanie was busy with her family and the party arrangements then I needed to be out at the shop to help deal with the pig. We managed to get everything done that we needed to and I spent a good amount of time making sure that we had everything we needed to get the job done. It's a lot of work, as Adam and Caleb can attest since they did the cutting up of all the pork and then helped wrap the sausage a few days later when we got back to finish up the stuff that we had to wait on. Susie was a great help as she took Tyson to Family Dollar to get Tippy a present. She said that Tyson picked out on his own a pink CareBear and a movie. Apparently as they were checking out, Tyson saw a little green tractor that he wanted and after asking the cashier how much it was and Susie not having enough leftover from Tippy's gift, sadly informed Tyson and he pulled a very sad lip hung over look to which the cashier said she would cover the cost and gave it to him. I'm glad that kid doesn't know the damage he could do to many a cashier.

Linky is 7 Months Old

So I'm not the best at documenting milestones for my children, however something is better than nothing. These pictures were taken a week ago documenting Linky's 7 month old mark. I couldn't resist the picture of him falling asleep in his walker as he waited patiently for me to finish office work (actually this is his patient shot as opposed to the unpatient shot earlier). The next picture of him in the 6 month outfit that The Bowns' gave to him when Julene and Stevie stayed one night. I thought it was very stunning on him. Although he didn't get to wear it very often due to his rapid growth. and it still being winter time. Of course we can't get the camera out without having Tyson strategically positioning himself to get in the snapshot. As you can tell in the pictures Linky does very well sitting up and has been doing that for a while. He's a bright boy and we are sure glad we get to have him in our family.

Oregon Trip

This last Thursday we headed to Oregon late in the day. As Adam and I would like to go twice a year at least if possible, we figured that going for George's last home football game was a good reason since we haven't seen very many of his games throughout his high school years. It was senior night and was pretty emotional for him after they ended up losing, however I do have to say that George was giving it his all on every pass that went his way, diving and laying out for anything. He did make a great catch and ran it in for a touchdown towards the end of the game, only to see the other team turn around and run the ball a long ways into the endzone and that was how the game would end. Tyson was asking after the game where Georgie was and so after he finished talking with his friends we snatched a shot of him in his uniform before he changed. It was a bummer that Vaughn left that night on a long trip to Texas for the guard and then George Saturday morning for a leadership training at Seaside. We did take the kids to the trunk or treating at the church, so for everyone that thinks I'm horrible for not getting into the Halloween groove then you'll be happy to know that I put some dog costume on Lincoln and did ask Tyson if he wanted to get dressed up in some giraffe costume, but he must be like me when it comes to dressing up because he did not want to and of course I did not make him. I snuck back inside to help clean up at the church from the chili feed they had and somebody took Tyson around to get candy. And, no I do not have any pictures of the little animals. While at home Tyson took a great liking to Auntie Clara. We caught him climbing on her back and shoulders, playing with her hair, and sitting next to her so quietly. The trip home was long as we left late in the day, but we did make sure to stop and visit Sondra and Spencer (one of Adam's sisters). She lives far from family so we were glad to see them and she fed us some yummy Asian food (don't know how to even begin to pronounce let alone spell it). Tyson took a liking to Daniel's headset and music and kept wanting a turn. The kids did very well considering the long trip that it was. We got back Monday morning at 2:30 and experienced the nightly interruptions from Tyson waking up screaming to Lincoln waking up starving. The boys did take long naps yesterday morning into the afternoon, so that was nice as I tried to catch up on some organizing. We are glad to be home, but do wish that we could have stayed a little while longer in Oregon. Don't forget to vote!

Weekend at the Ranch

So, I'm combining this first picture with those from the Ranch. Adam had gone with Stuart to do a roofing job at the south rim of the Grand Canyon and didn't get home until late, so I left the kids at the flat with Phyllis while I went to mutual and she had Ben bring them home. This is how Tyson arrived in the car...wiped out. He has a very difficult time staying awake in a moving vehicle.
These other three pictures are from East Zion. Tyson sure is funny to watch. I couldn't keep myself from laughing as I watched him run from where the guys were at the zip line to the house to retrieve the two little shovels Heidi has. His short legs would be going so fast and then his arms looked funny as they would be swinging back and forth about as far out as his legs. I grabbed my camera and managed to snap this backside shot of him in his haste with the shovels (he figured out how to carry them both all by himself, smart kid), to take to one of the twins (he usually only says Emily's name). Then after he was almost there I managed to get the side view. You can see the excitement on his face. I don't think this kid could ever have a miserable time at the ranch...I guess I should say these kids, huh! That would be Adam on his umpteenth time on the zip line and he just runs up with great excitement, comes down with a grin on his face, and is laughing at the end. Don't know if I've ever seen this Big Kid so happy! And yes, he did talk me into going, which I just kept responding, "I don't know why it is so important that I go down this silly thing that is liable to hurt you." But he was just so excited, so I couldn't reject his plea. Aren't the colors beautiful up there this time of year? A great place to go, especially for boys.

Domestic Day

This morning I decided to take Tyson to story time at the library, as well as return his two tractor books and let him check out a few more. He didn't want to have much of anything to do with the story time, the activity they had planned outside, and pretty much wanted to just pick out books from off the shelves. After trying to encourage and help him along I finally gave in to letting him pick whichever books he wanted, checking them out and leaving. We headed to Susie's so he could show her his new books, but no one was there, so he wanted to go to grandma's and grandpa's. After arriving out there and planning to visit for a short time, we ended up staying as I made some butter from the other 4 whipping cream containers that Phyllis had, but didn't have time to do anything with. I had her take a picture of me being so domestic. I also helped Phyllis with peeling and de-coring some green apples for her to bottle into pie filling. I did have a little apple peeler/de-corer contraption to help. Wynn was out on the tractor spreading fertilizer over a field that he is preparing for planting wheat, so I ran Tyson out towards the end so he could ride with grandpa and snapped a picture of them when they returned. I stayed until 6:20 tonight and then left the kids with Phyllis while I headed to Lin's to finish off some food storage purchases from their last day of the case lot sale. Phyllis had asked me to pick up some more lemon juice for canning the pie filling and when I asked the guy there where to find it he said that you aren't going to find any anywhere around as apparently something happened to the lemon crops and they were told to not expect any anytime soon. He mentioned that he had seen 3 bottles towards the back of the top shelve and when we went to see they were still there so I snatched the last of the soon to be sought after lemon juices. I could sell them for a high price to a very needy lemon juice consumer huh! After quickly getting what I wanted I had to get to mutual. Adam had left around 5:30 this morning with Stuart to the Grand Canyon to help him finish a job and didn't get home until 9:30 tonight, so it was nice of Phyllis to watch the kids and to have Ben bring them home. I am so blessed to have wonderful family nearby that are always great help when I am in a bind. I couldn't ask for better in-laws. Oh, the picture of Lincoln is of him yesterday after I returned from going down the hall real quick and found him having decided to get out of his bouncer and kneeling into it. This was the better footage than when I had to quickly bathe Tyson from a poopy pullup and came back to find Lincoln having somehow ejected himself from the bouncer and on the way to lying on his back knocking over his breakfast off of Tyson's stool. He wasn't too happy on that one. Growing up fast! He turned 6 months on Sunday.

Pesky Pest Control

Yesterday I cleaned all day long to prepare for the Pest Control guy to come and spray, only to have the scheduled hours between 2-4 to pass and calling to find out if he had forgotten and then getting a call from his wife around 5:30 informing me that their work truck was in the shop and she thought he would have called me. I wasn’t the happiest and when she wanted to just schedule it for Monday morning, I informed her that it would be fine but that I had my house torn apart specifically for him to come. It kind of dampened my attitude for the evening. I told Adam that I needed to get out of the house as I had been slaving away in it all day long and was going to go insane. We ended up taking the boys to Phyllis’ and then using the 2 gift certificates to JBs that Monica had given me back when I helped with the peach canning. We enjoyed the time alone, especially me to enjoy a cooked meal that was actually warm when I ate it, as with feeding the boys food isn’t quite the temperature it is meant to be when I get around to eating it. Phyllis said the boys were great for her, which was nice plus Tyson didn’t cry when we left without him. After driving home, Ben brought over his date, Tia and we all watched Hoodwinked. I finished cleaning by doing the dishes during it all. Ben stayed the night and watched the kids this morning as Adam and I attended the 6 am session at the temple. We then headed over to Wal-Mart to get some diapers and milk and I was glad to still find the sale my neighbor had told me about on Campbell’s Cream of Chicken and Mushroom cans, so I stocked up for food storage on that. While heading out of the parking lot I called Ben and asked him to get the boys ready for Jarem’s baptism as it looked like we weren’t going to make it back in time. After arriving at the church and not finding very many cars there we found out that the baptism was changed to 9:30, which made everyone who was rushing through the door after 9 am on time. Ben managed the two boys just fine and we are glad he was willing to do that. After the baptism we went out to the flat and since it was a blustery cold and windy day it was a great day for football. I spent a good amount of time changing diapers, bathing Lincoln in grandma’s sink after relieving some constipation pressure, and then rinsing off Tyson in the tub after Phyllis gave him a haircut. I also spent time throughout the day shelling Phyllis’ pecans that she had cracked and by the time we left that evening I managed to finish the whole bowl. We went over to the Steele’s to have cake and ice cream for Gage’s birthday. I never thought I would say this, but at the end of today I found myself not caring much for football at all, though we are glad the Cougars won. The picture I included here is from one morning earlier this week, when I found Tyson giggling and Lincoln chewing on his toes. I managed to snap a picture of the attach right as Lincoln looked up at me. He sure enjoyed Tyson's big toe.

Rainy Saturday

Today was quite nice as it was rainy and overcast all day long. It's rare to get that around here so you enjoy it when it comes. Perfect day for having the windows opened and watching general conference, along with starting a fire in between and eating some yummy vegetable cheese soup that Phyllis made. Soup tops off a rainy day. It was funny because Adam prepped this fire with most of the junk from a dump truck and odds and ends lying around the flat. He thought it was too wet to start, but Phyllis and I encouraged him to get some gasoline and help it along. When it was burning alot of black smoke Adam had 2 different people drive up making sure everything was okay. I told Phyllis it is nice that people are concerned and watch out for them. This fire came about as Adam needed that dump truck to drive over behind the cow fences and transport dirt to the new location of the meat shop that him and his brothers will be building along with financing from other siblings. It's going to be a great place for butchering, canning, and any other major projects like that that have previously been done in the shop and Phyllis' kitchen.
As for this other picture it is one I took in September one morning after I had gone for the phone and when I returned I couldn't find even a little space for me to squeeze back into my spot on the bed as my boys took over what little space that was left. Lincoln does not sleep with us at all and quite often Tyson ends up in our bed sometime in the night from whatever it is that wakes him up, but I'll feed Lincoln his bottle in our bed during some early morning hours when I'm not quite ready to get out of bed. So after not finding any room to lay back down then I went for the camera to document the intrusion. How cute and innocent they are. Love my boys!

A Beautiful Sealing

Today Cody and Shelley were sealed for time and all eternity in the St. George temple. I especially enjoyed this sealing than others I have attended because their twins, Jenna and Jace were sealed to them as well. Circumstances beyond their control prevented them from being sealed in the beginning and after having to wait a year and twins later it all came together for them and what a joyous time. The phrase that comes to my mind is, "Truth will prevail!" All of the adults and the twins in the front in this first picture attended the sealing. All 14 of the 16 Stout children were in attendance the other two being the youngest ones. Afterward it was a great opportunity for Wynn and Phyllis to have pictures taken with their children as it became apparent that this may possibly be the last time for a long time to have them all together. The first family picture is by age and as you can tell the ones on each end are the youngest. (We tried to get Jared to at least put on a suit jacket, but he would not have it). The next picture is another family picture that allowed me to get a little closer shot with them all bunched together instead of in a long line. Then all of the women and then all of the men. What a beautiful sight. I kind of wondered what the tourists on the other side of the visitor center's windows thought, if only they knew :)

Lincoln and Addy Picture Attack

Today was Uncle Ben's homecoming, so as I put on Lincoln's sailor outfit my mom had given Tyson a few years ago, I called Susie and told her to put Addy's sailor dress on her, so here are the pictures we took after we had dinner at the flat. I thought their facial expressions were funny along with some looks that were similar. It was a nice day outside so a few of us sat out on the grass enjoying it.