Finishing the Year 2 of 2

...continued from previous post:

- Halloween produced a little more involvement from Adam and I this year, as we actually dressed the boys up; Tyson in a Bob the Builder costume and Lincoln in the cutest skunk costume, all compliments of Heidi. She made the skunk costume years ago for her kids and it has been well used. Lincoln didn’t know about the big bulky tail, but it was sure fun to watch him go up to the doors and turn around with a big grin on his face and say, “I got candy.” And then from every door after that he would continue to say with amazement, “ I got some more candy!” Just pure excitement. One of my favorite Halloween ideas was of this headless horseman. This family that we know humored their son who wanted to be a headless horseman. They let him walk up and down the street on the horse and then put it away, so that there wouldn’t be any accidents.
- For Christmas this year we were suppose to travel to Oregon, however my mom had flown to Texas to help Clara with their new little girl, Vaughn was in Iraq, and Lillie and George were on missions, so we decided to stay in Hurricane, which although we missed seeing my family I wasn’t too opposed to staying since taking a long drive to Oregon didn’t sound too appealing at this stage in my pregnancy. Since there was a bed open at the Flat then we stayed the night there so that our boys could wake up to Christmas out there with cousins and Gma & Gpa. It was very enjoyable and I couldn’t resist snapping a picture of the aftermath, this wrapping paper mess is something the Stout’s take great pride in. It’s been a good year and we have been extremely blessed by the Lord. How grateful we are for Jesus Christ and his great example of how we need to be. We are already experiencing changes as Adam was recently called to be the Young Men’s President. For some time now Adam has been talking about needing a place that he can study, ponder, and pray and not have work all around him to tempt him, so for Christmas Susie helped me transform our back bedroom into that type of room. This is the first room in our house that has curtains and pictures and a bookcase and it is amazing the difference that makes. I don’t think I could have done it without Susie’s help. It turned out better than I could have imagined and even though on Christmas day Adam had a few presents here and there to open and a new suit that he had already picked out and had adjustments on, he didn’t get this last surprise until after 10 p.m., when we went home after he played basketball. I had banished him from that back room and he told me that he thought I was building him a gun case and he felt that he was very intuitive about it, but didn’t want to ruin it. Boy was he wrong. It’s nice to have a room in our house that never gets a mess and is always inviting when you want to read, think and just not be disturbed.
-My boys are quick to help with basic chores around the house. I couldn’t resist snapping this picture when one day I heard Lincoln yelping in the kitchen. I came out to find that he was upset about not having any more room on the counter to stack the dishes that he was emptying from the dishwasher. I must say I was quite impressed at his stacking abilities from only standing on the ground.

Finishing the Year 1 of 2

It’s been a long time since I have posted to my blog. It’s not that life has been uneventful all this time as that would be an understatement. Here’s a list of a few of the major events that have happened since my last post to work towards finishing off the year:
- August rolled around and the year mark for us not being able to get pregnant was coming with that. However we have been extremely blessed to have found out that I wouldn’t have to be considered abnormal, but that a home pregnancy test revealed positive.
- After waiting a long time until going to the doctor, I finally scheduled an appointment and went in to my first doctor’s appointment and being as far along as I was I was able to find out that we are going to be parents to another boy. As my cousin pointed out how nice that must be to not have the anticipation of what you are having, but to find out on your first doctor’s visit. We are very excited to add another boy to our family.
- Tyson managed to start an old 175 tractor that had a flat tire and looked like it would take some effort and work to get going. He managed to turn the plow on, which propelled the tractor into the side of my garage. Luckily it didn’t have a lot of power behind it. I ran outside when I heard the noise and didn’t know where it was coming from and coming toward my house was this very scared 4 year old just holding on to the big wheel and screaming. I jumped on and yelled for him to tell me where the key was and he yelled back, “There isn’t one.” Apparently it had been re-wired with a push button start because the key kept getting lost, how convenient for a child. We braced ourselves as we hit the house. Oil started to spew out the side and smoke out the exhaust and it was revving up high. I called my brother-in-law, Stuart, since it was his tractor and had to yell over the top of the noise to get complicated instructions on how to get it turned off. It was a very unpleasant experience and I feel like my boys were being watched over since Lincoln luckily wasn’t there after having stayed the night at Susie’s house and I’m just sure if he had been there he would have been trying to get on the tractor with Tyson and would have been plowed over. I don’t know if I am ready for the scary moments that come with raising boys. I learned from this whole experience that there are many pieces of equipment that my boys are constantly around that I need to learn about, so I am better prepared for the unknown.
- My vacuum broke, so we put money towards completing our central vac that we had already plumbed the house for when we built it, but ran out of money to get the actual vacuum. It’s not as heavy so I can now enlist my boys to help with the vacuuming.
- We made quite a bit of progress on our yard. We began by pouring the cement around the house and a patio area out the back of the sliding door. We are excited about the fire pit we included in that pouring and Adam used it already with his scouts once. We also had a trampoline pit poured and purchased a trampoline to install there. We hauled quite a few loads of mulch from the dump as well as sand from out at the sand dunes on the side of the road. Right now that is where it has ended, is with the piles of mulch and sand, as Adam has become very busy and I need to save more money to keep on going with the sod etc. Hopefully it doesn’t take us another 4 years to make more progress on it.
- My in-laws went on a trip with Monica and her family across the states and while they were gone a bunch of us spearheaded the great task of bucketing up the pile of wheat that was dumped on the meat shop floor (since it was the cleanest slab of concrete around having been poured not too long ago). It was quite the chore especially in the heat of the summer, but one of those tasks that gives a great sense of accomplishment when completed.
- Tyson was willing to take swim lessons this summer and he did very well. Lincoln was too young, however I was quite impressed how well he entertained himself on the grassy area while we waited for Tyson to be done. I think the lessons have helped Tyson out quite a bit.
- Lincoln shut his finger into the door of the backhoe, well actually Adam shut Lincoln’s finger into the door as he was climbing in behind Lincoln and closed the door behind him not looking to see that Lincoln’s hand was still there in his efforts to get all the way in. It was a very disgusting cut. We resisted to take him to get stitches and it has healed up quite nicely, I think even better than stitches would have done.

Swimming and Digging

On Monday Adam had his dad come over to supervisor putting up the fence to replace the one he tore up over the previous weekend. For Family Home Evening that night we met Daniel, Susie, Addie, and Liam over at Susie's friend, Comet's place to swim. It was fun because our husbands were able to be there with us and the kids enjoyed being to play with their dads in the water. Lincoln loved jumping off the edge into Adam's arms. Adam was a little more daring in letting the kids jump in and then pull them out of the water after they went under. I'm sure on this swimming trip that they took in quite a bit more water from it all. He said doing that would teach them to close their mouth, which it seemed like they did start doing that after a while. Comet was in the process of moving, so we will all be sad that she doesn't live where this pool is anymore. On Tuesday Adam started digging the trench for the sprinkler system and did the office work when he got too hot. Tyson hopped into the backhoe with him and shortly after that I found Tyson digging the moving the levers, digging the trench, and dumping the dirt and then repositioning the arm of the backhoe to get another scoop. Adam said that Tyson caught on really quick as to what lever moved what. That means I have to be a little more attentive when he is around equipment like that because he'll think that he knows what to do and go to it. I started Webelos again, which was challenging after having about a 2 month break. The two boys that I had previously had their b-days and moved up to 11 yr old scouts and I miss not having them at den meeting. Adam started the school in Alamo Nevada on Wednesday and so he was gone for a few days there and then went on a 6 hour drive to Natarita Colorado to bid on a church there and then...you got it the 6 hour drive back home. Luckily him and Stuart went together so they could trade off driving. On their way back they picked up a new dump trailer for the Alamo job. It was nice to have him home for the weekend. The boys and I have a very difficult time when Adam is out of town and traveling constantly and it always comes in spurts. I took the boys to a wedding reception Friday night, which Susie and I met up there since both of our husbands were gone.

The Day Long Horse Ride

I can’t say that anything too exciting happened during this past week. We did continue to work on landscaping our yard with Saturday proving the most productive as you can already see a change from work put towards leveling out one section where we will re-install a new metal fence to separate our property and the pasture where some cows graze occasionally. It’s amazing how something completely opens up when you cut down a couple of trees and a mangled fence as well as destroying the tall weeds that could be mistaken for trees. I forgot or didn’t quite realize how big our backyard really was. Apparently with our irrigation we only pay $10/month for unlimited use and it is shut off the beginning of November and then turned back on the end of March. We’ll have our culinary water as backup for those times when the irrigation comes through really muddy from rainstorms in other areas or when they have to turn it off for those same types of reasons. I am just excited to finally have a lawn and a few other things that come with getting rid of the dirt lot to the back of us. I have found that it is nice to have Adam home when anyone comes by (which isn’t that often), but when people do stop by he seems to gain the same embarrassment that I have had for some time and is finally making it a priority to get a plan in place and work to accomplish that goal. I should just invite people over during the times he is home so that that motivation continues. I guess I would kind of be using people, but it is for a very good cause : ) On Friday morning Adam left at 5:30 for a day long horseback ride on a trail up to Kolob. I caught a ride with the wife of someone else on the trip and we drove up to where our ward was having an over night campout by the lake up there. Adam had arrived there at 6 p.m. He hasn’t been on a horse since he was young, so he knew he would be feeling pain for the next couple of days, but did not know that he would feel that pain of soreness right after he was done. We rode back with Adam in the truck and pulled the trailer with the horses back as well. I was kind of glad to have the excuse of getting the horses back, since the boys still have nights where they wake up and aren’t exactly pleasant or reasonable and I am always worried about that when opportunities for camping come up. I didn’t want the ward mad at us because they couldn’t sleep from two crying boys. I asked Adam how the trip was and if he could have just taken the same route on a 4-wheeler and he said, "No Way!" There was things they went up and down that he would never take a 4-wheeler on and he was surprised that horses would go up and down them. He even had a 'Man from Snowy River' experience as you can see from the first pic. The 2nd to the last picture is of a guy in our ward that is a hard core roughing it kind of guy. Adam said that the horses were so tired from the day long ride that only one horse with this 10 yr old girl on it was able to go up that part and the others got off and walked and so that guy grabbed on to his horse's tail to have the horse pull him up (his horse is actually the one that he let Adam use for the ride and Adam was really glad he got that one). Tyson and Lincoln thoroughly enjoyed sitting on Brooke's horse before they were loaded up. If those boys could have a horse they would be in heaven. Saturday evening we went over to the demolition derby at the fair. We left Lincoln with g-ma & g-pa and somehow Tyson talked Adam into letting him come along, which I was looking forward to a date with just Adam, however Tyson was actually a very good boy and easy to please. We watched the fireworks at the end and then sat and waited for a while as the crowd dispersed and clogged the exits. On our way out we found someone from our ward that was distraught as her and her daughter did not have a ride home and her cell phone died and they didn’t know what else to do. We offered them a ride home and ended up taking the daughter as the mom had another option that came up. She hasn’t made the best choices in life and actually does not have custody of her daughter, but her mother takes care of her daughter. I just feel so bad for her and the struggles and pain that she inflicts on herself. Throughout the week Tyson was given the responsibility to feed the neighbor’s cat. He did very well and was so responsible walking over by himself with the food and giving the one scoop and checking the water and then coming back. On Wednesday Adam and I went to the temple. We finally were able to have an individual sealed to his parents, which he has been waiting for since 2008. I found his card caught in the back of a shelf next to the computer not too long ago while cleaning it out and it has been on my mind to get the work done for him. I feel much better now after having done that. Today I taught Tyson’s class and ended up with Lincoln in there as well since he somehow managed to wet his pants through his diaper while sleeping on Adam’s lap during Sunday School.

Still Making a Little Progress

On Monday Adam had his younger brother Jared over to help finish cutting up the trees that he had cut down last weekend. Stuart came and dug out the trunks with the backhoe and as usual Tyson and Lincoln enjoyed the commotion. On Friday afternoon Adam hauled a couple loads of gravel to our house so we continue to make progress on our lot. We missed Adam most of the week as he was gone for 3 days to Flagstaff Arizona for a church he was working on there and then on Saturday morning when we are all looking forward to having him around or being able to go with him wherever he goes, he had to go to Brianhead to check on a job there since it had been raining and he wanted to make sure the job was done right. Lincoln was very unhappy when Adam had to leave Saturday morning, that he produced tears and and let us all know by the way he was crying that he was very unhappy. My boys always seem to know when it is about that time of the week (end) and they should be spending time with their dad and they always seem to be pretty disappointed and crabby when it is taken away from them. On Friday I took the boys over to St George to meet up with Susie and Stephanie and their kids at Susie's friend Comet's pool. It was very nice since the pool only goes to 3 ft 6 inches deep and Tyson can walk around in a good area by himself with the water up to his shoulders/neck. We went to 'The Children's Place' and grabbed a few shirts that were on sale afterwards. Lincoln took a very late nap and then we joined Wynn and Phyllis over at Shelley and Cody's for dinner. They were out of town at Lake Powell and Phyllis had been watching the twins (Jace and Jenna) all afternoon over there during their late nap. On Friday I ended up cleaning the house and balancing the company check book and posting a few other invoices and such, since Adam had to go check on that job. It was nice to rotate between my house and the company stuff and have a change of pace as I got each little segment/chore done. I got it all done by the time Adam returned and we bought pizza for dinner and took it to the Flat to share with Wynn and Phyllis and spend the rest of the evening. This morning I started those yummy homemade crescent rolls for dinner later today and finished the last step before letting them rise the 3 hours while we were at church. In between the 2 simple steps of preparing the dough I prepared the lesson for the 12 & 13 yr old class that I was asked to substitute in. With the exception of last week I had substituted 3 weeks in a roll before that and then between this week and then substituting in Tyson's 4 yr old class next week, I am becoming quite the regular substitute of all ages between 4 and 17 years old. It hasn't been too overwhelming since we were able to cancel Webelos for July and are not starting again until a little further into August, so I have enjoyed a little "summer" break with that calling. Some entertaining things from the boys' end is when Lincoln likes to try and penalize you for not doing what he wants by saying "fine I not pwaying wif you" (aka I am not playing with you). He picked that up from playing with Tyson and the twins (Erika and Emily), it's just funnier when he says it, because he will use that phrase for everything. He also likes to shout out of the blue "shut up piggy", which he isn't trying to say anything mean by it, but just likes to say it and I have no idea where he got it...I take that back I think Tyson and Marshall have said some silly phrases like that when they are just spouting out what comes to their head. It is most unpleasant and down right embarrassing to have him say it after the sacrament prayer. Luckily I managed to be quick to cover his mouth because he was talking loud and then I realized what he was saying so I was double glad for my quick reflexes. These pictures I snapped of the boys as we went out to the Flat one afternoon. Lincoln had his hat and Tyson wanted one as well (which is a little too small but still cute).

They Like to Travel

This past week we celebrated with Daniel his birthday with a barbecue at Aunt Roma Ann's house as well as a sprinkler under the trampoline and a slip and slide for the kids. It's always nice to have good reasons to get together and eat food. Earlier we were out at the flat trying to get the chain saw fixed so that we could try to get started on cutting down a couple of trees that are partially dead at our place, but we were unsuccessful. Adam said he use to always be the one to fix the chain saws, but has been out of touch for some time. On Wednesday Adam and Stuart traveled to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, then to Page Arizona, then to Kayenta Arizona, then through Monument Valley and then went by Mexican Hat and up into Height Utah and then down into BullFrog/Lake Powell to measure two roofs and came home through multiple other places for a total of 900 miles and getting home at midnight. We figured he pretty much drove to Oregon and half way back in one day (with a lot of ups and downs and arounds to get where they were going). Talk about crazy travelers. Thursday evening we were just plain tired as the boys had been dealing with a little asthma for Tyson and stomach pains still for Lincoln the day before and hadn't left the house much of the day due to late naps for the boys, so we drove into Hurricane and picked up a pizza and went to the park for dinner. Tyson and Lincoln just ran and played on the playground equipment. They used a lot of energy up, which only put us to bed after midnight with Lincoln holding on as long as he could. When we left the park around 9 p.m. Tyson said, "That's a fun summer park. When can we go back?" On Saturday Heidi and I spent some time trying to make her numbers match from the selling of the wheat in trying to get Wynn his money for the wheat and Angelyn her money for the buckets. After a few hours we were successful and then Heidi did some custom tayloring for me with a few pieces of clothing. Adam spent the morning getting his guys going on the old Hurricane Elementary roof and then had Stuart help him get the chain saw fixed and went to work cutting down one of the trees in our back property. We went with Stuart and Heidi to the temple and then to Texas Roadhouse (not surprising if Adam can put his 2 bits in on where to eat). A good way to finish off the week. I snapped this picture just now since I didn't really have any this past week, which reminded me that Lincoln was bailing off the couch and collided with Tyson's head and ended up with a puffy bruised up eyelid. These two boys as well as their dad sure do love to wrestle. I can tell that Adam is getting them ready for football season by their wrestling moves turning into running tackles and the "Tackle, Touchdown, Sack" words coming back into play. Boys will be boys.

Stomach Pains and Gunny Sack Racing

It sure is nice to have Wynn and Phyllis home from their 3 ½ week trip. We were all excited to see them last Sunday evening. My trips to the flat increased this past week tremendously. On Monday evening we went to Adam’s Grandpa & Grandma’s place referred to as “Grandma’s” for a potluck with the Manwaring family, Adam’s aunt’s family who was having a family reunion there for the week. It was fun to get to meet and get to know more of his cousins, especially ones I’ve never met before. On Tuesday afternoon Tyson started getting pains in his stomach, which after having Phyllis check him out she suggested that we take him to the InstaCare to see if they could figure out what these pains were, since we thought maybe it could be his appendix, which that proved unsuccessful. Wednesday he was fine as I ran errands all day in St. George while trying to gather together a scout uniform for Adam for a scout meeting that night. By Thursday afternoon he started having the pains again, which I just took him home and then Friday I focused on him only spending a short time outside and then coming in to cool off and drink water more, in case the pains were related to the heat. That proved well, but then mid morning Saturday Lincoln started having the same pains, so we have concluded that it must be some type of stomach virus. Also on Saturday Adam helped put the flags up in the morning and since Tyson went with him then Lincoln and I got ready and walked down Center Street to go watch the LaVerkin parade. Lincoln enjoyed picking up candy and it was nice to be at a parade that he could have a chance to pick it up since when we are in Hurricane at their parades there are so many kids to quickly gather it up that by the time my kids catch on to the concept it has vanished. Afterward we met up with Adam and went to the city park for the boys to enjoy the playground and Adam and Tyson to participate in the 3-legged and gunny sack races. Tyson tried the gunny sack race that didn’t really have an age group section and so as I came up in front of him to record it he had tears rolling down his cheeks and had this look like he just wanted to quit since he wasn’t doing very well. Little did he realize that he was ahead of all the little kids that were his age and was only left in the dust by much older kids. It was a pretty funny site to see. Since Lincoln started having those stomach pains we decided to put everyone down for a nap when we got home and took advantage of the time to get some rest ourselves. It was a pretty relaxing day as we spent the evening out at the flat. While Lincoln slept on the couch, Tyson enjoyed riding his bike around that Will had given Lincoln. I had purchased a new tube for it and Adam put it back together for them earlier in the day. Something interesting to see was when Tyson went cruising down the little slope in the driveway and hopped off to follow g-pa over to check the water on a fruit tree and then as g-pa went back over to the pump at the pond Tyson got back on the bike and rode it the rest of the way and parked it right in front of g-pas truck. I watched as he headed over to g-pa and as he approached the door of the truck he quickly turned around and moved the bike into the weeds away from possible destruction. I was impressed at his quick analysis of what could happen if he left it. I substitute taught another primary class on Sunday. This is the third week of substituting a range of ages from Primary to Sunday School.

Swimming

This past week was busy as usual. Adam left at 5:30 Monday morning for the 50 mile Scout hike. His pack weighed about 50 lbs, but when I talked to him on Tuesday he had collected a few more things from some of his boys so he said his weight jumped to 60 or 70 lbs. He hiked out on his own on Wednesday afternoon, since being gone for a whole week during the busiest roofing time would be somewhat of a challenge. A couple other men from the ward hiked in and met up with the group to finish off the week of their hiking. The bishop and his family invited Tyson, Lincoln, and I along with the wife and two children of one of the other leaders gone on the hike, over for Family Home Evening. We had tacos for dinner, a FHE lesson, and then all the kids enjoyed playing/swimming in the pool. I don’t own a swimsuit (since I next to never go swimming) and so I warned the Bishop that Tyson had probably been in a pool about 3 times in his 4 yrs of living and that would not give much experience for judgment in water. As we both tried to point out the diamonds that were in a semi-circle and that after crossing over those would drop you into the deeper part of the pool and then asked Bishop’s daughter Halli to walk that pattern with him, it backfired as to our attempt to help him out as he started to walk towards Halli and instead of turning and following the diamond pattern he walked right off the drop off into the deeper end. All I could do was gasp and Bishop jumped in and reached down and grabbed him. Halli and I were just in shock at what just happened, but Bishop was quick to react (I wonder if he has had to do that before). Tyson was definitely not happy and in fact it was only until the end that he would step back in the water. He spent his time loading and re-loading a water toy and squirting Halli and the Bishop’s wife as well as taking a bucket of water and tried pouring it on them. He tends to have crushes on pretty girls/women. On Tuesday I went with our Webelos to another pool in our ward and we worked on the Aquanaut badge. Tyson and Lincoln did very well to play on the swingset and keep their distance from the pool. On Wednesday evening Shelley and I celebrated Tyson and her twins, Jace & Jenna’s birthdays as Tyson kept asking me when it was going to be his birthday even though his had come and gone. I realized that he has reached the age to notice that it is your birthday when you get to have a cake and be sung to and blow candles out. Susie encouraged me to make this dozer cake that she saw online, but I managed to talk her into putting it together if I bought the stuff for it. So that is what we spent Wednesday afternoon doing and it turned out very well as you can see. Great Job, Susie! Tyson loved it and shared it with Jace. Sorry Jenna, boys’ ruled on this one. On Saturday Daniel and Susie had watched our boys over night and they took the kids to a splash pad/pool at Susie’s friend’s place in St. George. I think Tyson just doubled his pool/water experiences in just this one week. I have registered Tyson for a couple weeks of swim lessons in July, so I am looking forward to having him learn a little more about water and how to act in it. Friday was our Anniversary and so in the afternoon we dropped the kids off at Susie’s and headed to St. George (Hey, this is a big step since this is the first time we have done anything for our anniversary in the 5 yrs we have been married). I had a list of options of things for us to do but no set plans so it was fun to do whatever we felt in the mood for. We went to Shade and I finally used a gift card there that Susie had given me last year for my birthday and I bought a swimsuit (imagine that). We then went to a couples massage that I was able to schedule on our way over to St. George. It was a first real professional massage for both of us. We then went down a couple blocks to Texas Roadhouse (Adam’s favorite place to eat), and then went over one block to Stadium 10 and purchased tickets to Knight and Day, a comical/action movie (not Adam’s favorite), but it was showing in 15 minutes so it worked out great. We then went over two more blocks the other way and got a hotel room at Country Inn & Suites. Saturday morning we had plans to go to the temple, but Adam had this dry cough that seemed to come on after descending on the return hike earlier in the week and didn’t want to be in the temple coughing, so we found a movie on the television in the hotel room and watched it until checkout time. We ate breakfast over at IHOP and then headed home to change into work clothes and go to the flat. It sure is hard to get out of relaxing mode, but it was a break well needed and enjoyed.

He Did It!

Adam passed his trade and business management tests for his Nevada roofing license on Saturday. We already have the application turned into them so we just have a few more things that need to be done and we will be set to do roofing projects in Nevada. On another good news note, we found out on Friday that we are all set with our Arizona license, so that was exciting news for us as well. To finish off recording about the rest of our week's adventures the boys and I met up with Wynn and Phyllis at Smith's Mesa on Wednesday and finished helping plant tomatoes, corn, and some zuccini. It took us a little longer to get up there than I had planned as I ended up making a lunch that we all shared and enjoyed up there. I snapped a few pictures of these hard working boys. Tyson and Lincoln thoroughly enjoyed packing water in little buckets for grandma and grandpa. Wynn had a good little system rigged up for getting the water out of the tank in the back of his truck since you have to haul it up there in order to water. On Friday the boys and I walked over to the church to help with the cleaning and then we went out the flat that afternoon and I cleaned up the floor of the meat shop so that it would be closer to being ready to put the sealant down. It was a hot day to be out there working but I didn't mind it too much and Gage came to help by picking up the nails with the magnet. At around 6 p.m. I went to the church farm and participated in our stake's peach thinning assignment. Since Adam was in Vegas for most of the week then I had to keep us busy with things to do. On Saturday we watched Stuart and Heidi's kids, which Tyson and Lincoln enjoyed having them here. We drove into Hurricane to Snokaps and enjoyed that treat at a picnic table under a shade tree in the heat of the day. Lincoln went to a birthday party for a little girl from his nursery class and wowed everyone with his dance moves and his conducting ability while singing the Happy Birthday song. He is quite the entertainer. After that we all went out to the flat to kill our pig, skin it, and get it in the freezer (Well, Adam, Ben, and Daniel did all of that and I'll spare us all pictures of it).

It looks like a Building

This past week Adam and I took a quick trip to Las Vegas, but not for a vacation or getaway, but to get our fingerprinting done and turn in our Nevada roofing license application. It was a there and back sort of thing. Phyllis was very kind to watch the kids for us as we knew they would not enjoy the trip one bit. On Friday Adam paid his workers to clean out and organize the shop. Heidi had come out to do some riding lessons for some girls and so Tyson and Addy hopped on for a return ride. I think was still taking a nap during all of this which he would be very upset to have missed it. After taking the pictures of the kids on Di, I came in the house and Susie asked me if I had seen Addy while I was out there. She did not know that Addy had found herself wedged in between the kids on a horse ride. On Saturday we spent the day once again working on the meat shop (The project that seems like it will never end :). Today was quite the day for progress on the project. We sheeted the walls and then continued on in placing the trusses. It was a team effort by Daniel, Ben, Adam, Mark, Zac, Susie, and myself as the wind started to pick up during that part. It really looks like a building now.

Loading Hay

This last week on Monday evening we unloaded the metal break that we hauled all the way from Oregon. I worked on sweeping and cleaning up the shop so that Adam could some how maneuver the piece of equipment into its designated spot, which there is not much option for. It was tricky to get it in through the shop door, but we were successful. On Saturday evening I watched my neighbor's boy while her and the rest of her family went to her graduation. We went out to the flat and helped in loading the bales of hay out of the field. I drove the truck while Josh and Jarom rolled the bales into a line so that it was easier for Ben and Daniel to load the bales on either side of the trailer to Adam and Jared who were stacking on the trailer. Tia kept an eye on Lincoln and Tate in the back of the truck and Tyson hung out on the trailer. I tried to snap some pictures of our load afterwards but it was too dark. On our second trip out to the field I made Tia drive since she had never done it before (neither had I), and we both had a great experience. It was funny because Tate was being such a busy body that while the guys were unloading the first load, Ben put Tate on these big bales that Wynn had there and he was stuck and couldn't go anywhere. We thought it was pretty funny.

Bitter Sweet

Monday and Tuesday I watched my neighbors boy most of the day while she studied and had her class for her Nursing Degree. We worked on getting Adam’s truck cleaned Monday night and then on Tuesday Adam took an overnight trip to Winslow Arizona. The rest of the week was bitter sweet. Susie and I loaded our kids up on Tuesday afternoon in her car and traveled to Sondra’s house in Pleasant Grove where we stayed the night. Her and Spencer were so hospitable to us, feeding us dinner and a yummy crepe dessert and Sondra waking up at 4:45 to make us some sandwiches and a bunch of yummy snacks for our trip as we headed out early to Oregon. Thank you Sondra for those snacks, we didn’t have to stop for any the whole way as they were sufficient to tide us over. We arrived to Oregon only to find everyone gone to school and work and found Thursday to be the same. We celebrated Logan’s birthday with pizza and a cake. On Friday we attended the funeral of a very dear friend to the family, Ruth Oxford. This sweet lady has pretty much been a part of our family since I can remember. I was told from one of my sisters that when my mom was in her car accident and had to receive care at home which involved some enema’s and such that Ruth was there to provide that for her and that when Ruth’s health failed after a tumor caused her to collapse and she was now in that similar situation that my mom returned the care and that is just how the relationship between these two was. When I had some issues after giving birth to Tyson and Lincoln, Ruth would offer her bedroom for us to stay in when we came to visit so that I could have my own bathroom. She has always been a very giving and selfless person. I am glad to see her be able to leave this life from the condition she remained in after her tumor and happy to know that she is with her dear husband (Big George). She is much happier where she is at now and someday it will be a great reunion with both of them. My Mom and sisters MaryJane, Lillie, and Susie sang at the funeral (found out that morning that we were singing) and some close friends to Ruth gave the life sketch and spoke. It was a good service which I was glad to be home for. Originally the main reason for us traveling this past week to Oregon was so that we could listen to my sister Lillie’s farewell talk today. She is leaving on Tuesday with Susie for Provo and will enter the Missionary Training Center (MTC) on Wednesday afternoon where she will begin her missionary training before going to the Olongapo Phillippines mission where she will labor in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ for the remaining of 18 months. She did a great job on her farewell talk and although we didn’t get to see much of her as she was the closest to Ruth and was very much involved in planning the funeral service, I am glad that we made the trip to support her in her decision to serve the people and the Lord. We left right after sacrament meeting as we had to hook on to a gooseneck trailer that we spent most of Saturday loading (as Adam arrived late Friday night with Daniel and the trailer to take home equipment he had purchased from an auction in Nampa the week before) and travel the soon to be long trip back to Southern Utah at a steady 65 mph. (not excited about that). On Saturday evening we did go out to eat in Nyssa at a small dining place to celebrate Susie’s birthday on Friday as we didn’t get to do much to celebrate it then and then Adam and I stopped by Alan and Tami Peterson’s place and had a relaxing, enjoyable visit with them (although we did interrupt their movie they were watching, sorry about that, however it was nice to visit and get a break from our kids).

Bidding Online

The main event this week was Adam bidding online for some metal break equipment, a few heavy duty tables, and some heavy duty finger racks. He was pretty successful on his bidding and came away with what he wanted. Tarek and Vaughn were kind enough to pick the stuff up for us as we hadn’t planned on going to Oregon until next week for Lillie’s farewell. Adam spent some time on some injectors on his ’95 truck and then on Saturday I had to assist my Webelos on their Day Hike while Adam took the boys with him to Smiths Mesa to check on the cows.

Meat Shop Progress

This past week we went to the flat to help grind the meat and make hamburger from the cow they killed last week. It took all of the afternoon and evening to grind and package it all. Wynn and Phyllis gave us some to take home which was nice to build our meat supply up a little more, since we had a little left that my brother-in-law had given us. Thursday and Friday Adam was sick at home in bed. I worked all week to get my house ready for the pest control guy to come on Friday. It’s interesting how it takes me so long to get my house ready for him to come and then he comes and is in and out in 15 minutes and then it almost takes me another week to get my house back together. I always have a greater feeling of security from pests after it is all over. On Saturday we worked all day on the meat shop continuing to frame up the sides of the shop. The picture is proof of the status of it. Mark and Adam were there the whole time with a few family members showing up towards the end to install the west wall and finish up a few things. After that tiring task Adam and I headed over to St. George to attend a reception of the daughter of one of the architects that he does work for. It was nice to go do something with just the two of us even if it was to a reception that we only knew the father of the bride. Take what you can get.

Our Lincoln Turns 2

Monday was Lincoln’s birthday. I can’t believe that he is 2. Lincoln was given a tower of rice krispie cupcakes that started to fall while we waited for Adam to come in from helping with the cow. Lincoln was a little confused at us singing to him, but loved the attention. He shared one of his toys with Addy. They were so cute lying on the floor on their tummies driving little cars and a tractor around. As I mentioned earlier about the cow, we went out to the flat for Family Home Evening, in which the activity was for Adam and his brothers to kill one of Wynn’s cows that was barren. The brothers were discussing how she didn’t look barren to them and looked somewhat pregnant, but Wynn was just sure that that was not the case. After killing her my nephew Zac came in the house and told us all that the cow was pregnant and we were thinking how horrible that was and then my niece came in later and corrected the confusion that she really wasn’t pregnant, so we were glad to hear that cleared up. Tuesday night apparently Larry (the family dog) was in a fight with some Husky dogs, I don’t know if you could say he was technically in a fight, but more that he was getting picked on and having to defend himself. I asked Phyllis about it on Wednesday and she said the following is what happened:
She found Larry on the back lawn/driveway area with 2 Husky dogs on top of him having pinned him on his back with him, “fighting for his life, for what it was worth” (I just loved how she put that last part). She came running in the house yelling that they were killing Larry. Daniel, Tim, Jimmy, and Jared were downstairs playing video games, so Daniel ran up the stairs and out the door to handle the situation and after kicking the dog and it not doing much then he grabbed it and threw it off of Larry with that dog turning to bite him in the process, but missing. Daniel told Tim to kick it which he did with great force and Phyllis had to tell him to stop. In trying to find Larry outside in the dark they were unsuccessful, but after coming in the house they found him under the table bleeding in a few places. The police came out shortly after Daniel and Tim found one dog down by the pond and resisted to shoot it when Phyllis told them not to. The animal control said they knew who the dogs belonged to and the owners came out searching for the other dog. So Larry lives again for others to tell another story about.
Wednesday I escorted my two little boys down the road to the top of the field in front of the flat where g-pa was doing the water. Tyson was determined that he wanted to help g-pa with the water so he dragged a big shovel all the way there and tried to copy what g-pa was doing. Lincoln was right in tow with one of g-ma’s hand trowels ready to do the same. Lincoln was prepared to start marching back to the house when we were done, but realized the offer to ride in the back of g-pa’s truck was much more inviting. These boys are farmers that is for sure. I know I have to make sure to keep an eye on them more as Tyson recently climbed in the backhoe, started it, popped it into gear, and released the emergency brake. As soon as Adam had realized that the backhoe was moving he went running from the upper part of the driveway towards the backhoe only to find that Tyson had popped it into neutral. He pays attention way too much as to how machinery is ran, which worries me. When the boys wanted to use the forklift to hoist up the cow to hang it over night they couldn’t find the key. We asked Tyson about it and he said it was in his new pants at home. When I got home I checked in all of his dirty pants and couldn’t find it. I noticed that my ring was missing on Wednesday when I was walking down the road with the boys. After looking in the bathroom when I got home and any other possible place that I could have set it I began to get very worried that it was lost and decided to pray about. During my prayer the thought came into my head to ask Tyson, which I approached him about after he woke up. I said, “Tyson, mommy lost her ring and is very sad about it, do you know where it could be?” He got off the bed and walked to my closet, lifted up Adam’s boot and there it was on the carpet. I remarked, “I wonder how that got there!” I then thought that since we were on a roll then maybe he would know where the forklift key was, so I asked him about that. He said, “It’s in my yellow pants!” (which I swear the kid does not own any yellow pants) I went to transfer the laundry and at the bottom of the machine was a single key. I asked Adam if that was it and then took it to Tyson so he could return it to Adam and see his excitement for getting it back. So, beware my child is obsessed with keys and just about any machine on wheels.

Lincoln the Crib Jumper

Monday evening we had Family Home Evening with just Lincoln since Tyson fell asleep on the way home from the flat. Lincoln enjoyed the one on one attention. After putting him to bed we heard a thump and the door open a short time later. Out comes Lincoln down the hall. My baby is a crib jumper and door opener. This is just not right. Thinking that he had lucked out before doing something similar like barreling out of the crib and hurting himself and then only crying at the door because he could not open it, I thought this was the same thing but after putting him back in his crib I only found him back out in the hallway again. I guess I should sum it up that he fell asleep on my lap. On Tuesday the boys and I, my nephews Josh and Johnny all rode with Adam to Salina early in the morning to take some cows to the auction there. Stuart and Heidi drove one truck and trailer while we were in another. I enjoyed the trip. Tyson seemed a little disturbed that we were selling Grandpa’s cows and bull and made sure to remind Stuart that he needed to sell and buy a bull. We had no intentions of buying cows this trip so that evening when Tyson said the prayer for dinner he made sure to put in, “please help us to buy more cows and get a bull for Grandpa!” I was laughing about that afterwards, however Adam was laughing that during the prayer Lincoln apparently had his arms folded and eyes shut but could not resist his food so he would lean forward and grab a bite of a roll with his eyes still shut and then peek to look for his cup of milk and after getting a hold of it close his eyes again while he grabbed a sip. Adam said that was the funniest thing he had seen in a long time. We just love our two boys. Of course when it was time for bed I put Lincoln in his crib and sure enough he was out in the hall reminding me that he could crib jump and open his door. I then put him in Tyson’s bed and locked his door from the inside, which only made him cry in there for a long time. When I went in to calm him down I was so curious as to how he gets out of the crib that I asked him to show me, which he did and now that is the funniest/smartest thing I have seen in a long time. He does it like he’s been doing it for months. There’s hardly a struggle. I guess it is time to break down the crib and get him a toddler bed. My baby is not so much one anymore. On Friday Heidi let the little kids ride the horses around for a little bit before brushing them down and putting them away. Tyson and Emily are on Sippy and then Erika and Lincoln are on Di (short for Diamond). It was cute to watch Lincoln clench his arms around Erika and her being such a big girl taking him around the farm. These kids just love the horses. Saturday morning we went to Lizzy’s baptism, which was great! She is so grown up. We had donuts out on the lawn afterwards and Susie snapped this picture of these cute boys (Gage is in the middle). We went out to the flat afterwards and changed into work clothes and spent the rest of the morning tearing apart trusses to get 2x4s to get working on the north wall of the meat shop, which was a success. The wind started to pick up in the afternoon so after eating a late lunch Stuart, Adam, Heidi, the kids, and I took Wynn’s cows up on Smith’s Mesa. We enjoyed watching the 2 baby calves romping around in their new open range. We got back late and called it a night.
Today, Lincoln’s nursery teacher told Adam that she was amazed at how good Linky was at shooting a basketball. She was impressed with his form and such. It really is amazing to watch him as he sets a stance, crouches down, extends and releases the ball in one motion and even flips his wrist. I know that he has been very observant of when Adam is shooting the ball at the short beam to our hallway.

Conference Weekend

Monday was such a nice day and I really didn’t want to stay in the house and do my normal Monday morning routine, so I talked Adam to taking me with him out to the flat. I started peeling pears to bottle, but caught a ride with Adam back to our house to spend some time cleaning. Adam took the boys and his dad up to Smiths’ Mesa to plant some peach trees. I really wanted to go with them so I could continue to enjoy the beautiful day, but knew I needed to stop pampering myself at some point. They picked me up on the way back. We cleaned off the cement meat shop pad for Family Home Evening.
Thursday we watched the twins from 9-2:30, which Tyson enjoyed having them over and playing all day. They were all funny to watch. One of the twins brought this cute little pink hat to which Tyson took a liking to and was wearing around while they were outside. He looks very funny in it, but boy could he pass for a girl. When the hat became an item to quarrel over I decided to go through my slip pickings of hats that we have collected for Tyson (because he never cares to wear them) and found enough for the other three kids to wear so this picture moment could not be passed up. I realized I should have taken a picture of Tyson with that pink hat as it was a funny sight.
Friday morning, after the boys woke up, Adam and I dropped them off at Susie’s while on our way to the temple. I’ve been helping my visiting teachee with the temple work for her husband and her that they have been working on and we finally completed names of children that needed to be sealed to their parents, so that is what we did. Adam had to remove some pieces of tile from a church building for an architect that he does work for, so we went and did that (while in our church clothes) afterwards. Imagine two people dressed in church clothes with one dropping pieces of tile off of a church building on a Friday in broad daylight…an interesting sight I’m sure.
Saturday morning Adam went out to the shop early in the morning to finish working on his truck and the boys were not up yet, so he came back before the 1st session of conference and we watched it at home. We went out to the flat right after so that Adam could continue his finishing up of his truck before the 2nd session, which we watched out at the flat. Abby was so nice to straighten my hair for me during that time since I only had time before the 1st session to take a shower and wash it. I was wishing I had a lot more hair at that point so that Abby could just play with it and take a really long time to straighten it…in other words it felt really good. After that we hid eggs for the little kids to find. This picture is of Lincoln, Gage, and Tyson enjoying their loot. Mark showed up with a truck load of bread to be unloaded for the animals and I snapped some pictures of the little kids helping out. They really enjoy throwing loaves of bread out of a truck. In the one picture Lincoln really gave me a cheeser when I said, "Cheese!" We had an informal dinner since the Priesthood session was at 6 p.m. and there wasn’t much time for a sit down one. While the men were gone the women visited in the kitchen. I don’t know that the word “relax” can really be used in a sentence with women. We stayed out there visiting until late. This morning we went to Stuart and Heidi’s to watch both sessions of conference. I only made Tyson sit on my lap through two different portions of conference. We will take it a little at a time. Heidi made some yummy homemade pizza in between sessions while I put the chicken pasta salad together for the dinner at the flat afterwards. I always enjoy conference and feel that there are many basics that I need to improve and better myself and our family on and am very grateful for the instruction and reminders.

Oil, Bread, and Basketball

This last week didn’t have too many eventful things happen if you don’t consider your child playing in oil and covering his face and clothes with it being one of them. I lose my cool when buckets of oil get left around and for some reason my boys always find them and decide to play in them. At least this time I went to the flat prepared as I had dressed my boys in their shop clothes. It’s funny because how many children do you know who say the following, “Mom, I need my oil shirt?” It’s not like these shirts are difficult to find. So in this picture of Lincoln I should point out that most of what is on his shirt is what was there before, it’s just his face that looks the worst of it. Susie came over with her friend Hailey/Comet, and we made homemade bread. Comet was surprised that we really meant homemade bread as we ground our wheat, used fresh honey and such. I can probably count on one hand how many times I’ve made bread so I’m not exactly a professional and it was a first for Susie so I think it turned out quite well for our inexperience. Adam, had 3 days of OSHA training this last week which he was not too much of a fan of since the classes went from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day and he is not use to spending his days that way. On Thursday evening I took the boys with me to our ward’s Pinewood Derby. I wish I had taken my camera with me as it was quite the scene when the cars would go racing down the track and Tyson, Lincoln, and another little boy about their age, would make very excited gleeful screeches. The Cubmaster said that next time he was going to invite the whole primary as watching my little boys was the best out of the whole event. It was very entertaining. On Friday evening Adam had a church basketball game over in St. George, so we all went over as a family. It is pretty much a family event as Tyson and Lincoln have to get their basketball clothes on and take their basketballs with them. During timeouts they get on the court and try hard to make a basket, so they entertain everyone in the process. After the game we stopped at DQ and grabbed dinner to bring home and eat. So this picture shows my boys after their game. On Saturday we went to the temple in the evening and that was nice to finally make it back there after about 1 ½ months of it just not working out. Phyllis’ stepmom passed away this past week so many of Adam’s siblings went to Las Vegas for the funeral. Tyson had been dealing with a mild case of asthma which required the breathing treatments so I didn’t feel up to going, but Adam had planned to go for the funeral and decided at the last minute on Saturday morning to stay. We did the chores while Wynn and Phyllis were gone. The boys and I collected the eggs which is always fun to walk around the farm and find the places that the chickens lay them (the usual places as well as some new ones) so it is like having and Easter egg hunt every day. My eye caught a brand new baby calf (about 3 days old) in the cow pen. It was very cute, but I didn’t have my camera with me, so I’ll have to snap a picture later and post it.

Tyson the Trash Boy

On Thursday we walked out to get the trash can and Tyson has become quite the helper and rolled it all the way back to the house by himself. I snapped a picture to show how big he has become. Two weeks ago my goal was to get a mirror hung above our gas fireplace, which I still need to accomplish because every time I have asked Adam to help he doesn’t have the tools with him that he needs to do it. This last week my goal was to clean/wash all of the filters and such to my shop vac and vacuum. That worked its way to the top of my list when I went to vacuum up some invading ants through some window caulking that had cracked in the back room and only found a cloud of dust coming out of the vacuum. When I decided that the time was present to clean all the filters I found out that one of my boys must have released a clip where the filter was, which was causing the consistent cloud of dust. It’s just another one of those things that gets pushed aside and only gets done when it no longer functions properly, which is always at the most inconvenient times. It just held me back a little while longer before I could go out to the flat on Saturday. On Saturday Adam and Daniel transported loads of cow manure to the lower part of Wynn’s land, with the really old dump truck and Cody’s nicer dump truck, while Mark loaded them up with the backhoe and Wynn spread it around more with his tractor and later that evening Stuart used the bigger tractor to plow the field. Adam said that when he had let the cows out of one corral that even though there was green grass all around them they made a b-line towards a plastic sack and ate it. Dumb cows! At church today there was a girl who sang a hymn and Tyson turned to me and said with excitement, “Mom, it’s Lillie.” Even though she had the long blonde curly hair like Lillie I had to assure him that it was not her. Phyllis has been feeling some flu like symptoms all weekend so we gathered at Cody and Shelley’s house on Sunday afternoon for dinner. We enjoyed sitting out on their lawn in beautiful weather and listening to their waterfall. It made for a great environment to visit and relax. It was enjoyable to visit with Uncle Mark and Aunt Michelle Steele who came into town to visit Caleb and Stephanie and so they all joined us for dinner. We headed over to Stuart and Heidi’s house around 6:30 p.m. to celebrate Lizzy’s 8th birthday. She plans to get baptized in April. Emily, one of the twins, came crying to me because she could not find Tyson and Erika. I took her on a hunt for them as well as Lincoln’s missing boot, from when Heidi had watched them earlier in the week. She was good to stick with my more thorough search for Tyson and Erika as they would not have been found under clothes or under the bed and such, but I figured it would make it more fun in anticipation of finding them and I would accomplish searching for the boot. After heading down the stairs and searching a few places there I informed Emily that the kids were outside in the sandbox. I then opened the furnace room and to my surprise right there on the floor as you walk in was the missing boot. It was an exciting hunt which had great success for both of us. The evening was an enjoyable time spent with family.