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.

A Surprise Visit, Finally a Date, and a Blessing

This last week had a few good days of enjoyable weather and the other days consisted of a cold north wind that made it pretty miserable for getting anything outside of the indoors done. One highlight of the week was having my dear friends (practically family), Ty, Kaly, Raleigh, and Kysa Shippen blow in on Thursday night and stay over during their spring break California return trip. The kids enjoyed playing together and I enjoyed Ty and Kaly's visit as well as them getting to meet and know Adam more. Kaly had made it to our wedding and when I visited them two summers ago Adam was unable to come with me due to work, so it was good to finally have Adam and Ty meet. Ty gifted a Skyline Grizzlies basketball shirt to Adam as we found out that to be the name of Ty's b-ball team name in Idaho where he coaches and Adam's company name for roofing. All in all it was great to meet up even though it was short. Saturday Adam and I were finally able to get away for a few hours on a date since our last lousy excuse for a date was to Stake conference and then who knows before that time. Yes, we don't make time enough to spend just the two of us together. We tried to go to a friend's basketball game over in St. George, but showed up at the time he told us only to find out that it was all over having started two hours earlier than informed. I told Adam I wanted to see what this new store 'Shoe Carnival' had to offer the area and so we went there and it just so happened that they were having their Grand Opening so we splurged and purchased a new pair of basketball shoes for Adam as he has had his current ones for three years and they are pretty worn (these new ones have a little higher support for his ankles as he managed to sprang them both last month). He has also worn holes in his work shoes and so he can now switch the old basketball shoes to semi new work ones. We then took advantage of the buy one get one half off and purchased a pair of running shoes for me. They didn't really have women's basketball shoes in and so I'm just going to keep my current shoes for the court and use these new ones for outside since the current ones I have can't be worn very long when just walking since the heels are worn to the plastic frame and give my heels blisters. So it was a productive date. Sunday I went to choir practice in the morning and then we headed to Enterprise for Canon's blessing (Adam's niece Anna is holding him in the pic). There was a good family turnout as Adam had a few siblings in town with their families for butchering their pigs. (The third pic is of Emily, Erika, Tyson, and Samuel sitting on this cute little furniture that Monterrey has and the fourth pic is of Savannah with Sophia as she had bought the Jordan outfit for Soph on sale and it was too cute especially when Soph gives you the peace sign whenever you say, "Say Cheese". That's the connection she has made with taking pictures).

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 :)

Elder Ben Comes Home!

Ben came home last night and it was a great reunion. I snapped a few shots of the handsome return missionary. It was great to see the excitement of the kids as they kept saying, "Uncle Ben, Uncle Ben!" and were caught up in the excitement of the adults but really they didn't know who or what the excitement was all about, but they were on that bench jumping up and down with great energy. I say that because even after Ben came into the building the kids were still over there shouting out towards the airplane, "Uncle Ben, Uncle Ben!" So the first picture is of the twins and Tyson. Heidi's shadow is in the background. Ben sure does look happy, but after seeing him come home from being released as a missionary it brought me back to memories of the feeling of some kind of displacement after officially being released and having to take of a missionary tag that identified you as a representative of Jesus Christ for 18 months/2 years. Its a challenging transition to go through. It was funny to see him old baby Addy and just love on her and say, "I haven't been able to hold a baby for two years." and then hug her some more. Good thing there were plenty of babies born while he was away so he could love on them when he returned. I snapped another picture of the twins, Tyson, and Sequoia. They were all so cute.

Blogging Again

Surprising that I still know how to post one of these. I'm planning on recapping on a few months back, but I'll be doing that when I can find more time, but as for now I'm just going to pick up where I left off. My camera broke for a while so I was without it, which is kind of a bummer since we have missed quite a few months since Lincoln was born. I have some catching up to do on pictures with him, but I managed to snap a few from last night to this morning. We went out to the flat yesterday to help Adam with office stuff and then my mother-in-law, Phyllis, had asked me to program some of her children's phone numbers into her new house phone so she would have them at her fingertips. It is kind of funny that the phone only had 10 slots for numbers, we had to do some figuring as to which numbers Phyllis already knows and the ones she needed saved since she has 16 kids, she was well over the limit. Not too many people have to worry about that when buying a new phone:)

On the way out to the flat I was telling Tyson that he would not get to ride the backhoe with Adam unless he went potty in his potty (yes, it is that time). He replied, "No potty mom" and of course I returned the reply, "No potty then No backhoe!" Tyson responded, "I potty." I knew I would get my way when the backhoe was involved. Sure enough we took his potty out of the car and he went and then straight to the backhoe for his reward. Adam was good to go along with the reward. We had to get home for the kids to eat lunch and then Tyson and I walked Scierra, the neighbor girl to school. It's funny everytime we have taken Scierra, after we drop her off, Tyson will ask a few times the rest of the day, "Where's Scierra?" I best get back to getting housework done. Adam's brother, Ben comes home from his mission today, so another Stout boy will be available for any good young lady to sweep off his feet :) These pictures are of Tyson and Lincoln in the tub last night and then early this morning after Adam was about to head to work, he managed to have Lincoln and then Tyson wanting him, so I couldn't help but snap a picture of Adam being in great demand by his boys.

Recap on Preparations for Christmas and Christmas

So I didn't take too many pictures over the Christmas holiday, but I think I snapped some shots of some of the main events that took place around here before Christmas day came. On the 15th we did manage to take the time early in the morning to go up to Smith's Mesa and hunt for a better tree than what we had. It was the kind of tree that you just giggled and laughed at every time you sat down in front of it, all because you just couldn't help it when you saw it. Anyway the hunt was kind of fun as I don't think I have ever been on a Christmas tree hunt before. It is not exactly as I would have imagined it to be though. I would have thought us to have to get bundled up in snow gear and trudge through feet of snow to find one. This hunt consisted of driving in the warm truck (no complaints there) and looking out the window as we drove up the winding dirt road, noticing a tree that could be a possibility but then driving by it and realizing the gaping hole on the other side of it or that it was two trees forming the perfect tree. After arriving up on top of the Mesa on to the Stout family property and driving back in a ways, then getting out and walking around through sage brush and a few patches of snow, then we pulled out the DeWalt saw, not those old fashioned saws, and cut it down. It took about 2 hours for the excursion and we were able to get it back to the house and set it up, then head out to the flat for the next event of helping to cut up a cow.

As you can see from our tree hunt and the cow experience, Tarek was visiting for the weekend and joined in on the fun. This picture was the only one I could find to post that hopefully wouldn't disgust anyone as I still cannot stomach the scene that takes place in the beginning process and had to send Crystal down to get a few pictures of the guys during their bonding time. I am improving as I actually helped wrap and label the meat, but during the Tyson pregnancy I exchanged some babysitting for Heidi's twins while she did my part. There's just something about the scene and the smell while being pregnant that is pretty much unbearable.

As for Christmas eve we gathered out at the flat with all the family that were in town and joined together for the traditional dinner meal, that was really yummy, attempted the chimes to Christmas songs and did improve by the end, and this year Phyllis had the returned missionaries share any experiences they could remember during Christmas time on the missions that testified of Jesus Christ. Of course we had to pull out the donkey head used for the manger scene in memory of Ben, as he was the donkey every year and is spending his last Christmas serving a faithful mission in Eugene, Oregon. So I took out the camera just to take this picture for you Ben.

Christmas morning was cold, but as usual it was not a white Christmas here. We woke up early and headed out to the flat with our gifts for each other and those we had for Christmas this year in the family. These pictures are of Tyson in his "Where's Waldo" pajamas and Adam after eating breakfast. Even though it was a pretty mellow morning due to the youngest being Tyson and Marshall not really knowing what we were doing and the next youngest from them being Jared, who is now a chilled Young Man, it was still very nice and we all were able to sit on couches. The little things we are grateful for. It was fun to see what everyone gave to each other and to have the time to relate the gift giving and joy to the most precious and best gift of all in our lives, the birth and life of Jesus Christ. What a blessing!

The rest of the week posed some challenges with working on roofs, especially those in the mountains, so Adam had an extended vacation, which I tried to let him enjoy in doing whatever he wanted. This last picture is one that I came upon while checking on Tyson "Where's Waldo" and just when I thought I was going to have to make the rounds again to locate him, I found him safely secure holding Adam's head in his lap and as you can tell from the picture it was like a search for "Waldo" in Phyllis and Wynn's room as there were many people gathered watching a country western. And of course it's always good when brothers get together. How Stuart, Adam, and Sheldon managed to squeeze onto that bed with Sara Ann about to fall off the other side is a wonder, but still a good picture moment.

It's Been a Long Time...

...since my last posting. Alot has happened but a few noteworthy events to recap as well as events that I have a few photos to include are us taking a trip to Oregon the beginning of September, Shelley (Adam's sister) getting married, and Monica (another of Adam's sisters delivering a little boy, and Adam and I expecting another little one in April (hence my excuse for not staying caught up on our blog. I have miserable nausea).

To begin with the Oregon trip, we had a good time even though I had nausea set in right before, but my dad planned a grandchildren treasure hunt to search for all of their birthday presents that a ficticious pirate named Bodo Tom meaning "Dumb Tom" stole. It was a great adventure ranging from the huge fish (that was referred to as the flying fish to hit Bodo Tom), to the many dollar store gifts found buried next to the X marks the spot, to the shovels and cardboard map to assist in finding and retrieving the buried treasure. Then we sang Happy Birthday to everyone as we each enjoyed a cupcake. I snapped a few pictures of Tyson with his treasure hunting helmet on, Will and Keili having located the loot, and Shayla and Kendra (Ryan and Deanne's girl) sporting their sunglasses from the hunt and ready to enjoy the cupcakes. Mike and MaryJane had their new baby Kaitlyn Jane blessed that weekend so I was able to snap a picture of her and the boys enjoyed playing some basketball with cousins and target shooting. One of Adam's older sisters, Shelley, married Cody Goodfellow the end of September. Adam and some of his crew sheathed and installed metal on a new gazebo that Cody had constructed. They finished just in time for it to be decorated and Susie and I went with them that morning to help set everything up for the wedding and reception. We ended up with enough time to go home and put together the vegetables that we volunteered to bring then get ready and head back for the wedding. It was a fun time and most of the family was there. I didn't take any pictures there but I did snap this one last night after they had just arrived back from their honeymoon and Cody had returned from the Priesthood session of Conference as well as a picture of the men that went in their sharp church attire (except a couple of the younger ones in the back they had their ties and shirts coming off the minute they walked through the door).

Monica, another of Adam's older sisters, found that her water had broke the Saturday morning after the wedding. Luckily her husband hadn't left for the ranch yet, but it came as a surprise to everyone as she was a month early and had never delivered early before. A couple of good things that came from him coming early were that Monica's husband, Doug was going to be heading out of the town the following week for a few days to go deep sea fishing. He was still able to go as Monica stayed here in Southern Utah. This was the other good thing as if Jacob had been born up north in the Salt Lake area he would have had to stay on oxygen for a while longer as the elevation change would make it difficult for his immature lungs to function properly, so being born in Southern Utah made it possible for him to be released from the hospital without being hooked up to oxygen. He is surrounded by children so hopefully he doesn't catch anything as we are heading into the Fall/Winter season. I think that about covers some major events. I do have to comment that Tyson is funner and funner every day. We love this boy in our lives.