Family Fishing

I love going fishing with the fam! We've gone more this year than in the past few years and the kids have had so much fun. We have been going to Sandwash Reservoir northwest of here which is the reservoir that we get our irrigation water from. It has been crazy to watch it get lower and lower. I should have taken some before and after pictures because we will go one week and go back the next week and it will have dropped 10 feet or more! All we seem to be able to catch is little bass. Some almost smaller than the bait we catch them on but we've caught a few really nice ones. It definitely keeps the kids entertained, especially because we catch 30ish fish a trip. Here's a montage of fishing trips this summer.

Jason, the kids, and Nick

Wyatt loves catching fish! The problem is, if you start catching fish, he will come in right next to you and crowd you out! We end up walking clear in the heck down the shore line because of this. At least he's happy.

These are a couple of self shots. It's seems to be the only way to be included in our pictures. When we look back and reminisce, I'd like to know I was there.

My new favorite thing that Weston does! Grabs his toes and usually tries to eat them.

Owen caught a crawdad.

Mr. Crawdad

Millie is dad's fishing buddy! She fishes with her Barbie pole and then reels in the fish dad catches, too.

One of the bigger fish we've caught.

Back to School

I love my boys but I'm not afraid to admit that the first day of school was not a sad day for me. I've had heck this summer trying to keep them entertained and busy! It's amazing how you have all these plans before they get out for summer vacation, to keep them learning and reading and improving and going places that not only entertain but educate and keep them active, and then you find yourself letting them veg out in front of the tv way to often because you just don't have the patience and/or energy,etc to deal with it. Having a baby right before school let out did not help this situation. Oh, I am pathetic! Oh well, summer vacation is over and now that school is back, the structure has returned and we're back on our schedule and I'm not so lax anymore. I really needed that and the kids did too!

I love the boys in blue! I really like the back drop of the garden fence and sunflowers too but it would have been better if the weeds that are taller than them weren't there. I let things get a little wild this summer!

Owen, Wyatt and Jake

Waiting for the bus

They came home from their first day happy with lots of stories about new friends and teachers. Funny though, how when you ask kids what they did at school the first thing they tell you about is lunch (apparently, Wyatt has choices between 3 different entrees now and he had pizza; big surprise there). Wyatt loves his new social studies/science teacher and is excited to hit the books for his honors reading class. We'll see how his honors math class goes (sorry Wy, mama won't be much help with this class' homework!).
Owen (who also had pizza for lunch) was sad to not be in the same class as his two best friends but he's already making new friends and his teacher seems to be great. He's busy with football again and loves being a line backer. He seems to be on a good little team this year and I'm excited to watch him play.

Trip to Idaho

The kids love going to grandma's and grandpa's!

Millie, her bestest friend ever Jessa, and so-cute-want-to-pinch-his-cheeks-constantly McKay

Suzanna is a sweetie and has the softest hair. I could have sat there and 'pet' her all day!

Taylor with a mouth full of food.

Pompa and Judy came to visit. So good to see them! I don't know why the hall is THE place to congregate but it just is. I guess that way people can't avoid joining in if they want to get to anywhere else in the house.

Pompa and Layla

Judy and Weston

The cool dudes! Wyatt took this picture (and many others I didn't know about)

So much fun in Idaho!! Wish it wasn't quite so far away! I love my family and it was so fun bonding with sisters/sister-in-laws while the men folk were on their excursion in Glacier (I will never be able to look at certain sister/sister-in-laws the same way again, though). Now that I know Weston does well on the 6+ hour drive, maybe I'll do it more often when Jason has to work and it's just me and the kids.
Jessica's baby shower was over-the-top cute! (Note to self: have Stephanie plan all of these kind of events in the future because she has sooo many fabulous ideas and is amazing!) Jess is one of the cutest pregnant people ever and, frankly, it's not at all fair! When have I ever been 'cute' when I'm pregnant? I'm so excited to see their baby girl at the end of the year. Pretty sure they will create some very beautiful children since they are two beautiful people.
I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone again this coming Tuesday at Brady's wedding. I just don't see them enough anymore :(

Ballard Ward Campout

The boys and their tepee

Millie and Lily

Wyatt, Owen, Brandon Kettle and the Mathison's grandsons

 We live near some beautiful places. Can't wait to explore them all and go camping more. We went to the Ballard Ward campout on Friday evening up Uintah Canyon. Millie was feeling much better and had been on antibiotics for strep throat long enough to not be contagious anymore so everybody got to go. Not as many people there as I thought there would be but got Max to go and had fun. The boys helped build a tepee and fence and bridge which kept them busy and well entertained. Millie had lots of little friends to play with and played so cute with Lily, Nile Mathison's granddaughter. Wish his grandkids were in our ward. It was our first time camping with Weston. He loved looking around at everything and slept great that night (wish I would have). We need a new mattress or some sort of mattress topper in our camper. Any suggestions?
Came home Saturday and, after doing chores, went up to Rock Creek to have a BBQ with Jason's boss, Gary, and other guys he works with.  It's up past Altamont and Mountain Home, about an hour away. What a beautiful canyon with steep walls, picture perfect river and ponds, and gorgeous camp sites with lots of big trees.
Very different feeling than at the ward campout. Being active LDS members and non-drinkers puts us in the minority. Have I ever mentioned that I abhor the smell of beer or any alcohol for that matter?! Well,I have my reasons, but at least Gary and Shelly are very nice and we enjoyed talking to Billy, a guy Jason works with a lot, who is a Jehovah's Witness. Reminds me that there are good people everywhere and in every religion and I can't judge them just because they have beliefs and values that differ from my own. Not going to lie though, some of the guys that work for GS are a bit odd. Like Rhett. Honestly, who names their dog Barbara? Especially a boy dog. Apparently he was named after Barbara Bush. Um, yeah. I couldn't look at that poor dog or Rhett with a straight face for the rest of the evening :)

So, the baby bull calf is doing well and has officially been named Jefe (pronounced hef-ay) which is spanish for 'boss'. This is a picture of him playing in the back yard. He has a pen right outside the fence but Jason thought he would like a little room to run and kick for a bit. He's cute and follows us around like we're his mama. When we feed him he circles us, rubbing up against us in between sucking on the bottle. When he wants more he kind of rams us, often right between our legs, with his head like he would against his mom's udder. Yes, Jason has to be very careful! haha Funny moments I should have had my camera for :) Jake and Jefe get along good and Jake likes to lick him off after feedings. We found out today that he is now ours, officially. Steve Secrest came home from Hawaii and said keep him since he would be dead if it weren't for us anyway and it would be a good project for the kids. I've always told Jason I wanted a cute, little black baby. He finally gave me one, just not exactly what I had in mind! HA! Jefe, our black angus bull calf.

Baby Blessing, Birthday, BBQ, Bread&Butter Pickles, and Bull Calf

My B button is getting a good workout today!
Yesterday we blessed Weston at church. We got Max to come which was the first time since we've lived here! In Weston's blessing, he was blessed to grow healthy and strong, to be instrumental in bringing others to the knowledge of the gospel, to be a good example to his brothers and sister, to be patient with his parents as they help him learn and grow, and to always be able to discern right from wrong with the aid of the Holy Spirit. It was a nice blessing.

Baby boy not so happy! He had just woken up.

It was also Jason's 36th Birthday on Sunday! Wow, we are getting old!! We set up a birthday/baby blessing BBQ in Max's backyard and had some awesome burgers with fresh corn on the cob, watermelon and oven fries. Can I just say, our yukon gold potatoes freshly dug out of the garden, cut up into fry size, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with just garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper are too fabulous for words!! (need to remember 425 for about 40 minutes; nice and crispy:) Wish I had pictures from the BBQ but I was out of batteries for my camera, dang it all!!
On Friday, I harvested a bunch of stuff from my garden and had enough cucumbers for a big batch of Bread and Butter Pickles. YUM! Jason introduced these to me when we were first married. I've always hated sweet pickles and thought bread and butter pickles were basically the same thing. Turned out I was wrong. These are more mustardy than sweet and have great flavor. My recipe is from the Ball canning book and doesn't seem to use as much sugar as I've seen a lot of other recipes use which I definitely prefer.
This is a pretty quick and easy canning project and I very much recommend it if you have a bunch of cucumbers. Note: Only use about 1 large white onion and not as many as the actual recipe recommends or else you seem to end up with a bottle of onions and only a few pickles. It is so hard to wait at least a couple weeks to let the pickles get good flavor! I want to open a bottle now! *sigh*

Beautiful cucumbers and onions from my garden ready to pickle!

On Saturday we got up early and went to Salt Lake City to get some school shopping done. I hate school shopping. We stopped and saw Pearl, Jason's mom, and she met the baby for the first time. We also went to the Living Planet Aquarium which is no Sea World but fun.
On the way home, when we were driving past our neighbors, the Secrest's house. Jason noticed one of their cows out in his field had just given birth to twins. We knew the Secrest's were in Hawaii for a couple weeks and Jason was worried the cow wouldn't take one of the babies, which I guess often happens when cows have twins. Jason has a soft spot for baby cows I have discovered. He used to raise them with his dad and grandpa when he was a kid.
On Sunday morning, on the way to church we saw that one calf was sure enough all alone laying in the middle of the field and the mamma and other calf was gone with the rest of the herd. After sacrament meeting and Weston's blessing Jason left to go get the calf before it dehydrated and died. He and his dad warmed up some whole milk, found a sheep nipple over at Leah's and force fed the bull calf. He didn't seem to like the bottle.

Poor, sweet, abandoned bull calf!

Yes, that is a Mountain Dew bottle. The only bottle we could fit the nipple on.

The kids were thrilled to come home from church to a new pet. haha! They all have different names for him. Millie calls him Softy, Wyatt calls him Half Pint and Owen calls him Buster. I don't mind right now because who knows if we will even be able to keep him. We'll talk to Steve when he gets home but bottle feeding a baby calf is not all fun and games. We finally found a calf bottle and nipple and the bull calf is sucking it down now but we have to feed him multiple times a day. I just figured out one baby and now I've got another!

1 dog, 20 some-odd chickens, 6 pigs, 3 full grown cows and now a bull calf. Are we officially a farm yet??!! What could possibly be next?

AARRRGGG!! A Thumb Sucker!

OH NO!! My baby's turning into a thumb sucker!! I've never had one of them before! What do I do? (Notice the discarded binkie)

Weston

Truth be told, I cried when I found out I was pregnant with Weston. I just didn't feel prepared. I was out of the baby stage; I was done with diapers; I was content and thought I was ready for what was next in the mommy stages.
Now, I can't believe I felt like that. I can't believe we thought we were done. I am so in love!!! My little Westy is the sweetest, funnest, cuddliest thing ever! He is my happiness when I am sad or frustrated. He is my comfort when I feel overwhelmed. He is my sanity when I'm going crazy.
I'm with him 24/7 and yet, still I find myself constantly checking on him when he's sleeping. Laying by him and just watching him snooze. I think I miss him while he sleeps.
Thank you for being my baby, Weston. Stay small and sweet and squishy a little longer. Time, please go slowly :)