My 3 Angels

In the last 6 months, I have had three early miscarriages. One in August, then in November and this month, December. My questions are many as to why. But I have had many people tell me, that those babies will always be mine and I was chosen for this trial. I never thought it would be my trial, my first two kids are healthy and their pregnancies a breeze. So then, am I a bad mother? Do I not deserve anymore children. I surely hope that isn't the case even though this trial has tested me in every way possible. My tears come frequently and I have feel lost. But I have to keep faith and hope in Heavenly Father, that He knows what is best for me. We hope that we can trust in the Lord and that the doctors will be able to help us fix the problem soon so we can add to our eternal family. But to my three little angels  I will always love you.

Getting Ready for Christmas

We have been trying to get into the Christmas spirit, which has been a hard thing to do because we are going on our second week of being sick, first sore throats and colds, now ear aches and stomach bug. But we got a beautiful Christmas tree, it is our favorite tree so far that we have had. I have also been having some health issues that we hope can be cleared up soon and we are praying for a happy healthy Christmas, it is and has always been my favorite holiday. This year has been full of trials, but appreciating my blessings has always been the best medicine. Trying to stay positive.

Autumn's 3rd Birthday

Autumn turned 3 on the 20th of November. We are up in Rexburg Idaho for her birthday and she is had a great birthday. She went with Jonathan on a tour of BYU Idaho campus, rode a miniature pony and got some good presents. She wanted a pinkie pie cake for her birthday. And she wanted to go swimming so we all went swimming with Uncle PJ and Aunt Charity. She is so grown up now and independent and smart. We love her so much and she keeps us running! :)

November

Well halloween is over, Autumn was tinker bell and Hunter was a pirate. It took all my will to just dress them up lol. But they had fun going trick or treating. Things have been pretty busy around here still. All the preg checking for the cows is done and so is the weening. Today we are loading up the semi trucks with all our calves. Yup its already that time to take them to market. We will go to La Junta on monday to watch them sell so we are praying for good prices. We have been praying a lot lately lol. We have a lot to be thankful for too. A beautiful family, our house, our cows and ranch, food on our table, church, vehicles that work....all the blessing we have received this year. We are also thankful that we can get a break to go up to Rexburg to see family for Thanksgiving. And Autumn is turning 3 this month!!!! Our sweet girl, so grown up. 3 years have flown by in a blink of an eye. And Hunter is 16 months....whaaaaaaa? My kids are so big now. I love to see how their individual personalities are coming out. Each is so different and special.

Outfitting and Cooking

We are finally done with the outfitting this year. It was successful even though it was dry as a bone. The kids and I went up for three weeks and I cooked for the hunters for the last two. We are very glad to be home for a break to recover. We are exhausted or at least I am. The kids had a lot of fun. We got our draft horse Tank to baby sit them for a while :) I really would like a baby sitter like that more often :)

Projects

While Jonathan is gone with the outfitting business in New Mexico, I have been busy with children and projects. Top picture- I have been making a quiet book for the kids. This particular page is a Word of Wisdom page where the kids can feed the boy his healthy foods. I remember this one was my favorite when I was a kid. Bottom Picture- Feeling festive....or trying to feel festive, I went ahead and made a autumn wreath. It was pretty fun to pick out what I wanted on it. I am going to get the halloween decorations out soon and decorate with the kids.

Projects I want to do, I am going to finish the quiet book, its not even close to being done right now.... I also have yarn and hooks so I want to start making a blanket or relearn how anyways.

Morning Glories

Last Aril and May I planted some morning glory seeds. "guaranteed" to grow fast and tall. They are supposed to crawl up my fence to hide my half grown yard. Alas, 5 months later they are only 2-3 inches tall and I have had 4 little flowers. When we do get a flower it is a momentous occasion and I must document with the camera lol. I do think they are lovely and I will try again next year because I love vining flowers. I don't know if they are cut out for the valley here but hey I got a couple, therefore...a success??

Life is too Short

Life is too short and too precious to waste. I feel like a waster sometimes. I waste the energy and time on stupid things that don't matter when I should be focused on what I have and living life to its fullest. You never know how special life is til its gone. So I want to be one of those climb every mountain and and cross every sea kind of person. Before I can move on with life I need to appreciate the kids I have now and the situation we are in. It didn't quite hit me til just a day ago. Then I looked at the wall saying in my living room "Be kind to Yourself, Live for the Moment, count your Blessings" Things go wrong sometimes for who knows what reason, but I can't let that kind of stuff control my life and my attitude and especially my personality. Heavenly Father gives us trials. I have a few to work out but it does give me comfort knowing he does not give us what we can't handle. I am thankful for the trials He gives me because I know I will be a better person for it through all the pain, tears, and stress He will give me a rainbow :)

Top picture- we got some awesome corn crop this year
Middle picture- Jonathan and my trip to Blue lake
Bottom picture-Me on my new horse Gilligan, I LOVE this horse. He is awesome :)

Hunter's 1st Birthday Early Party

s

Today the 31st is Hunters actual birthday, these pictures are from an early party we had last sunday. I made a lego block cake which was a hit and was sooo fun to make. He got to eat it with his hands and get all messy. But he was a lot more delicate than his sister Autumn for her first birthday while eating cake. Tonight he gets to have more cake and open another present so I will add more pictures later. Anyways, the party was fun and he got some cool gifts. Thanks to all who came and made it special for our little boy.

Sprinkler

I know I post a lot. But its mostly for my mom and family cuz I know they like to see the kids and whats happening in our lives. Anyways, we played in the sprinkler today because it was soo hot. The kids loved it so I think we will be doing this a lot more often.

Late Anniversary Trip

Yesterday Jonathan and I had the opportunity to go salmon fishing at blue mesa as a late anniversary trip. It was so much fun! Jonathan's friend Ryan took us out on one of his boats and it was the best day ever! We each got to catch and take home ten fish. I never got motion sick, which was awesome cuz we were out on the boat for  5 hours. I smiled so much, the old guys on the other boats around us were like  watching me and kept saying "The lady caught another fish, look at her just smiling so much!" It was kind of embarrassing cuz I couldn't help it. And by the end of the day my smile was kind of sore :)

Family Vacation

A couple days ago we went on a mini family vacation. We wanted to go to the Mesa Verde to see the cave dwellings. But something happened. So here is our story.
First we went to Lake San Crystabol, we stopped to fish for a couple minutes. It was very pretty but no bites. Then Jonathan saw a "shortcut" to Silverton. He didn't want to go through Montrose so we took his "shortcut" which turned out to be Cinnamon Pass. It turned out to be a 4 wheel drive must road. We are lucky we brought our truck. It took us a couple hours or more to get over. The road was very narrow and bumpy. There were HUGE cliffs that we were driving on the edge of and I am VERY scared of heights. Plus we had to pass quite a few jeeps and 4 wheelers. We made it to the summit of 12,640 feet above the timber line. We saw some beautiful rugged country. Jonathan said it was the most intense road he has ever been on and the scariest. My stomach was so knotted up from being scared that I felt sick for hours after we were off that road. Let me tell you it is not for the faint hearted that road. There were switch backs on the mountains that we had to back up 3 or 4 times with our truck to get around because it was such a sharp and steep turn. I had to get out and walk to calm down cuz I was freaking out. The kids loved it though and Jonathan was a picture taking freak. I would only go back on that road again if I didn't have the kids and I was on a four wheeler and I was the one driving. There were some crazy old people driving fast and by the edge. I told Jonathan, "If I were that old, I guess I wouldn't care about dying either." ANYWAYS.......we made it off that pass and got onto the MILLION DOLLAR highway, ugh.....the turns made me carsick and the road is still so narrow they can't put guard rails on the side so we were STIll driving on a cliff (thus my knotted stomach for hours).  We FINALLY made it to Telluride where we wanted to go to the original True Grits restaurant. It was okay but we like our one in Alamosa better.
We talked about it and decided that we were not going to the Cave Dwelling on this trip because we would have to go back on the crazy Million Dollar highway. It was an interesting day, I am glad to say that I got to go see those roads but it will be a while before Jonathan can drag me back there and I will be fighting and screaming the whole way :)

We spent the night in Montrose at a holiday inn and got up the next morning all refreshed. We headed to Gunnison and met Jonathan's friend Ryan at Blue Mesa Resivour.  He took us out on his boat which was really cool. Hunter screamed the whole time because he had to wear a life jacket. But Autumn loved it! After that we went and got some lunch, then we walked around Gunnison and visited some cool shops with some awesome stuff. We got some "souvenirs" to remember our "mini vacation". Then we got some icecream because we were all very hot by then.

We started for the alligator farm and the kids and I took a nap. Then we woke up and had made it to the alligator farm. Autumn got to hold the baby alligator and she got a certificate of bravery for holding it and the alligator "signed" it by chomping the paper with its teeth. We saw snakes, toads, turtles and lots of gators!! I was nervous the whole time because they are sooo ugly and scary and I watch the discovery channel about people getting eatin by them lol, but it was fun and towards the end, the gators where "roaring" which sounded so cool. By then we were hungry, so we left and went to our True Grits in Alamosa and ate dinner. It was a fun vacation and we loved everything we got to do and see. We can't wait to do it all again :) minus the crazy roads.....

Garden

We finally weeded today and got some help too! It goes a lot faster when there is more than one :) Everything is growing nicely. If it looks sparse on the left side besides the pumpkins, its cuz it is mostly carrots and bell peppers which are hard to see. Anyways we are pleased with how it is looking. Autumn's garden has lots of beans in it and if we can keep the ants away from them they should give us some beans to can this year.

4th of July

For breakfast on the 4th we made red and blue pancakes with whipped cream in the middle for the red white and blue effect. Then we went to del nort and saw some reindeer and elk. Autumn loved that. She called the 15 year old bull elk they had there "Autumn's Elk"Then we went to lunch with Matt and Jennifer and their family. After that we came home and bucked bales with the missionaries, Papa Bush and Uncle Ethan. Then I cut into our flag cake. It took a lot of cake and 3 days to make this cake. It turned out really cool and was very patriotic. I am pleased with how it turned out. The red part was especially good because I put strawberries in it. And there were blueberries in the blue part. The kids loved it. It started to rain so we figured we weren't going to go watch the fireworks at the fair grounds. So we put them to bed. Then we saw the fireworks starting anyways. So Jonathan and I watched the show out the windows. It was a good fourth of July.

Plants and Such

My morning glories are starting their third and fourth leaves (finally). It seriously took about a month or more to get them to this stage. And my rose bushes are alive. I have spent a lot of time trying to make our place look respectable and it isn't easy being so busy and having constant wars with weeds. I didn't even know my rose bushes were alive. What a pleasant surprise to find a lovely pink rose showing off this morning. I have spent hours weeding our lawn and trying to get our zoysia grass plugs to thrive. Most are a live but are extremely slow to spread. I went ahead and over seeded everything so I hope in a week or two it will all look a little greener. Our garden looks good too. I would put a picture up but I weeded it 5 days ago and it already needs it again. Our corn, peas, pumpkins and beans all look really good and so do our carrots. Over all I am pleased with how things are looking. In a couple more months things should really look good I hope. I am craving a lush green lawn but I can wait til next year I guess. It is fun to worry over growing things :)

Walkin Boy

This last camping trip up to the mountains Hunter learned to walk. He is only 10 and half months old so that is impressive. He keeps getting better and better and walks longer every day. He LOVES to carry things around. Walking will keep him occupied for a little while, then on to running. I am in love with this little guy he follows me everywhere when we are at home. He loves it when I pick him up and dance with him. And he loves to "wrestle" Autumn. And he is so ticklish. I hardly have to touch him and he just giggles and giggles. On the tough side, he is getting stubborn and he throws nice fits when he doesn't get what he wants. He is getting some top teeth soon I think which is hard for him since my kids do not teeth well. Anyways they grow up so fast. Autumn especially since she is so tall for her age and learns quickly. I can't think about them growing up so fast much because I get all depressed. But I will enjoy them in every stage and soak it all in.

Fathers Day 2012

For Fathers Day we went to platoro again and went fishing. The weather was a lot nicer this time and we caught fish!! We caught fish in the evening and then ate some soup, chili and chips. We slept in our tent and early the next morning (this morning actually :)) we went down to try for some more fish. Jonathan and I were not having much luck. We were not even paying attention to Autumn. Jonathan gave her a pole, bobber and some fish eggs on a hook. I let her have ten feet of string so she could put the bobber in the water. I went to go talk to Jonathan a little ways down the shore and we heard some splashing. And there was Autumn, reeling in a fish! All by herself! I ran to go help her but she had it on shore by the time I got to her and she was saying "Lookie!!! I got a fish!" She is a natural outdoorswoman. She has a good eye for stuff too. When we drove back home she spotted a deer and some ducks before we could see them. We had so much fun and we can't wait to do it again.

My fishing pole story: After we fished in the evening we hid our poles by the water so we didn't have to pack them so far and we knew we would be the first by the water in the morning. But this morning when we went down we were missing my pole. Jonathan had left a fly and hook 6 inches in the water from the shore. And a fish decided to be very brave and take the fly and my pole! It was pretty funny. Luckily, my pole broke the day before and wasn't working very good so we were not too terribly sad. We just never thought a fish would go for that fly soo close to shore.