Uncle TJ Got Married

Thursday night we stayed at my moms to break up the drive a little bit. We left Friday morning and headed for Cedar City. The weather was awful but surprising the kids did really good in the car. Trig threw up twice but he was happy, I would oddly take throw up and happy over clean and crying. We got there Friday night in time for these three to take a little nap while I washed the car seats. Then off to the rehearsal dinner. Josie couldn't wait to swim so we didn't stay long and went back to the hotel to swim. I was excited too cause I bought the kids these new life jackets. Other life jackets strangle their necks and they wont leave them on but these worked wonderful, though the are ugly I highly recommend them.

Saturday we attended the wedding. They got married in a really really old church and it was so pretty. Laurel did all the decorations and it was beautiful. She did so much work I can't even imagine. She did the entire thing in burlap and lace it was so pretty.

 After the wedding we ate a really good dutch oven lunch and visited.

It was no surprise that we had to go swimming again between the wedding and the reception.

Pictures and then the reception. It was so perfect, decorations, refreshments, dancing, and a live band. It was fun. Dean had his sisters tend for a minute while Dean and I left for dinner. We came back in time to watch them cut the cake. I love weddings. 

 A couple of the groomsmen... don't they look happy.

 Lots of dancing...

Congratulations TJ and Ashton we love you both!

finally ditched the binky

 Trig is just over 18 months he only had his binky in bed but I have been wanting to get rid of it for a while. I kept putting if til now; I decided after our trip to Cedar City it had to go. Last night I cut two of them and handed them to him. He popped one in his mouth, took it out and gave me this look like 'Ah is this a joke'. Then he just played with them til he lost interest and ran away. Dean put him to bed last night with a broken one he cried for a while but eventually went to sleep. Nap time went a little better. I thinks its safe to say we are done with the binky and it was a fairly easy transition.

She's my sister...

When I was in high school my brother used to say, "y-o-u-r  m-y  s-i-s-t-e-r" really slow when he was making fun of me. But this is true I really am proud of this sister, she accomplished something amazing. I was lucky enough to participate in her senior project (thanks to a very kind neighbor that completely took over RS night so I could go). Emilee did an Awesome senior project, she put on an interactive Nutrition Workshop for families in the community focusing on nutrition and exercises for children ages 2-5. She and her group did SOOO much work. They partnered with the Tree house Museum, IHC, and others; and applied for grants. They rallied for donations from many local businesses and put together a great show. It was free to enter and there was a raffle with tons of wonderful prizes which I was lucky enough to win a few things myself. The kids had a wonderful time and I was just amazed at how much effort went into this. She is such a good student and really puts her whole heart and mind into the things she does and it shows.

 We started out at Emilee's workshop where you could play nutrition games, eat healthy snacks, learn about portion control, and read cute children books on all things healthy.

 Trig enjoyed his healthy snack so much he ate it all in one bite.

 There was a dental Hygienist station where you could get your teeth checked. Josie was mortified, she told the lady she didn't have any teeth while she was crying covering her mouth.

 These two little helpers made my job real easy bustling through the crowded tree house!

 I love this picture of Taylor and Josie, Taylor is barley lifting her off the ground but Josie enjoys every minute she gets to spend with Taylor, O and they both just love dolls. The next picture is the learning exercise games for all ages.

 Gracie was so sweet to haul this heavy boy around and play with him.

They had so many awesome stations I can't even do it justice. My kids loved playing there and I enjoyed all the great information.
For a few seconds seeing all that Emilee has accomplished almost made me wish I had put more effort into my degree, almost and only for a few seconds. I'm always telling her that C's get degrees, thats how I finished. She never agrees with me and she never gets B's let alone C's and its clearly obvious in her work.

shipping cows day 2

 Dean shipped his cows today and we went down to make a video of them (the video is to sell next years calves).

Josie yelled over and over, "Dad come get me, yet me ride Reggie". He never heard her because he was really far away but I'm pretty sure the guys sorting heifers were getting sick of hearing it. 

 Tirg Moo'ed at each calf that ran by him.

 That is the meanest brand inspector ever. I have actually never talked to him but he looks so scary. It weird that he walks with a cane because he was climbing fences all day.

 Waiting to load the heifers before they took the steers up.

 weighing the steers

 manning the post

 This year the cattle contractor brought his own portable scales so they didn't have to drive back and forth getting a light weight and a loaded weight on the semis.

 I'm not sure if this picture shows that Dean was working harder than that guy with his beating stick or just that he has more of a temper.

 there were 5 semis but they were never together

 binging the stragglers

HELGA

When Stan heard that Blue dog died he brought Helga to us. We didn't want Helga because she is Jed's dog (and because her name is awful, really awful). Jed is on a mission and will want Helga back when he gets home. Basically we just didn't want someone else's dog in case something happened to it. Around our house dogs die, they just do; its a bad deal. Jed trained Helga to be a pretty good cow dog. We had her one week and she got stepped on by a cow. Her back leg came out of socket in the worst way, a way that it wont go back in. The vet tried to help her but basically said he can't. So she is wounded for life, go us. Aside from that we actually love Helga. I'm not sure why but I have a soft spot for her. Maybe because I love Jed and maybe because Helga is so good to my kids. They love her. Josie talks about Helga being sad every time we pull out of the driveway because she will miss us. Then when we pull back in she says, "We are home Helga". Today Josie said she needed to go out side to babysit Helga for a while. So she did. 

Pumpkin Patch

 My friend Andrea invited us to go to the pumpkin patch to pick out some pumpkins. Josie took it very seriously and when she found the one she didn't let go of it for two days. She took it to Jenna's house and accidentally forgot it in the fridge; thank goodness. I was getting sick of babysitting it. We were going to carve pumpkins but Leann and Jade came over and painted pumpkins with the kids. They seemed happy with that so we will wait and carve next year.

Shipping Cows

 Dean shipped some calves last Saturday. I went to take some pictures but they weren't really doing anything cool.

 That is the brand inspector there working the tail end of the shoot. I'm pretty sure he is going way beyond his call of duty.

Clearly this horse would "SOONER" sleep then work. Classic picture huh dad?

Dean came and got Josie to help him tie up all the loose ends of the day. According to Josie they rode all the horses back to the barn, and helped the calf with a broken back.

Josie took this picture the week before when TJ was up helping ship Lawrence's cows I just think its cute and she really is getting good at taking pictures.

Friend Halloween Party

My friends threw a Halloween party a week or two before Halloween. It was so fun to visit with everyone and see them dressed up. I took a bunch of pictures but I had my camera on a wrong setting and they were all blurry. I switched settings at the end and got this one of my crazy neighbor Brian as Nacho Libra. Brian won the costume prize for the adults, which was obvious because anytime chubby guys were tight pants they win. And Trig won the kids costume prize, which is also obvious because he looked to dang cute. I just wish I had better pictures. Dean dressed up as Obama and I was a pregnant skeleton, but the pregnant part is true. 

Halloween 2012

We had a fun Halloween. I tried to get Dean to take off work so we could play all day as a family. He thinks he did, but he didn't; he only kind of did. He came down and stayed the night with us in Utah, he woke up early and went to work some cows he has at a feed lot in Tremonton, so our morning was shot. Luckily Alyson let Trig nap at her house so the rest of us could go to lunch and shopping. We came back and picked up Trig then headed to see Grandpa Virg. He was adorable as always, he had a hard time remembering what we were talking about, but Dean was so sweet to answer all of his questions over and over, I left more in love with both of them. Next we stopped at Alyson's for a picture and then headed Trick or Treating. Our kids only lasted three houses and they were done, it was perfect. Trig just wanted to eat the candy instead of go get more, and Josie didn't want to meet any more strangers. Then we were off to grandma great's party, that is always a fun tradition. We had a full day!