Baird Bunch happenings

Life of a Dairy Maid

2012-01-29T16:46:00.000-08:00

All right so I guess I'm not the dairy maid . . . that's Hannah and Mattie. They are such good milkers. They can get more milk from our cow than Russ can. They don't balk at milking even when it's 5:00 am or -20 outside. We really don't know what we would do without them.

However, I'm the one who deals with the milk. We have been getting about 4 gallons a day. We have several people who like to get milk from us and that usually takes care of the extra. But sometimes it backs up on us. I have been learning how to make all kinds of things with the milk. I make my own butter from all the cream (we get nearly a quart of cream per gallon) It is so pretty and so tasty. Here's a picture of a bowl of freshly made butter.

(don't you want to spread that on some homemade bread?)

I've also learned to make yogurt. My niece Sarah had the recipe on her blog that I tried and I have LOVED it! It is so easy and so tasty. My little boys just eat it like crazy. (I unfortunately don't have a picture of it.) However, after straining my yogurt through cheesecloth for a few hours it makes yogurt cheese (very similar to cream cheese). I used this to make a cheese ball. It was very yummy. Of course we needed to have something to eat it on and so I made homemade wheat thins. They turned out surprisingly delicious. Here's a pic:

(mmmmm . . . I'm gonna have to make some more, this makes me hungry!)

I also learned how to make homemade mozzarella cheese. It's surprisingly easy and only takes about 30 minutes.

(pretty cool, eh?)

The next thing I tried was culturing my own buttermilk. My dad was raised in the south and loved to drink buttermilk. I learned to love it from him. I was really hoping that my home-cultured buttermilk would be drinkable. Alas, I don't like it well enough to drink it. However, it makes killer pancakes, biscuits, scones, etc. So I guess I'm happy.

It's fun to learn to do so many new things and to find ways to not waste our abundance of milk.

Kids meet Little Jon

2012-01-20T09:40:00.000-08:00

The kids were so excited to meet their new little nephew. Here are a few pictures:

"Is this cool or what?!!"

All together now . . . "Awwwwwww"

Two sweet boys!

No, no, no. . . don't cry!

I think she likes him!

Little Jon finds someplace safe!

Man, Caleb looks like a natural!

I have a feeling that these two will get to be good friends while Betsy's in Rexburg at school!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T07:55:00.001-08:00

Now don't pass out everyone! I know it's a shock that I actually posted. :-) Here's a look back at 2011. What a year!

First off, in December of 2010, JT just couldn't stop talking about a girl named Lizzy. He wanted to arrange a road trip to see her in Denver (heaven forbid that they wait 2 weeks until they were back in school!). He finally flew out to see her and meet her family around New Years. Well, once school started, things started heating up in their romance. Soon they were engaged and decided to get married over Presidents Day weekend. We couldn't be happier with our beautiful new daughter-in-law Lizzy! We are so proud of Jonathan and Lizzy and what a wonderful job they are doing starting a new life and new family together.

Betsy and David both started college in January and have done very well. They both will get full tuition scholarships because of their GPA. Way to go!

Jonathon Climer graduated with his Masters degree in April. Wow! We are so proud of him. Then Mary Ann and Jonathon and Michael moved to Crestview, Florida.

March through May, Caleb played on the high school soccer team. It kept him VERY busy and VERY sore! It was fun but it's not that nice to watch (or play) soccer games in SV in the spring. (They often practiced and played in snow) He's also working hard on finishing his eagle this year. He got a job at Radio Shack in town and has become the electronics expert of the family.

In an attempt to help the kids earn some money this summer, we did the Woad program (dig weeds for money) and took on a family job to move sprinkler pipes once a day, 6 days a week. It was a BIG job! But the kids were troopers and we ended up earning about $600 over the course of the summer. We didn't get many pictures of this either but Paco came out to help us a couple times when he was visiting and so he got a picture. (Note the stylish pipe moving outfit)

Meanwhile, Hannah was selected to attend a space camp at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. It was for 10 days and was a great experience. We had to make two 12 hour round trips to take her there and pick her up in June. We also had a wedding reception in June for Jonathan and Lizzy in Denver. To just round things off, Russ and I were "pa" and "ma" on a pioneer trek for our stake in June for 4 days. It was kinda crazy!

Next we planned a great family reunion where all of our family was together! Yay! Mary Ann and Michael were able to come and stay with us for almost a month before. It was so great to have them and she was able to finish a couple of her independent study classes while we were there to help with the babysitting. Congrats, Mary Ann! Mary Ann was in charge of the reunion and did a fabulous job. Jonathon Climer joined us just in time for the reunion. Unfortunately, I was so busy helping run said reunion, that I didn't get many pictures. (bummer) I was especially bummed that I didn't get a family portrait --frustrated sigh-- I guess I'll just have to wait for the next family wedding . . . Here's one of our many family reunion meals.

We also chose to host 2 Japanese foreign exchange students for a week. It was an amazing experience. It was difficult and busy but we enjoyed it. It was interesting to be on the other side of things on the language situation. (we knew the language and they were struggling) In Mexico, it was just the other way around for us.

In July, we also found out about a house in our ward that would be going to public auction. It was a 5 bedroom house on 10 acres. It had a barn and other outbuildings as well. It was in pretty rough shape but the bones were good and it seemed to really fit into our dreams. We didn't have a lot of $$ to throw at it but decided to give it a try. We were thrilled (and a little frightened) when we won the auction! What an intense experience! So this little baby was all ours . . .

After we finally took possession, we had a LOT of work to do. We ripped up all the carpet upstairs, removed popcorn ceiling, primed and painted throughout, repaired plumbing, laid new carpet and linoleum throughout, cleaned the basement carpet, refinished the deck, removed trees, etc.) And that was just on the house!

We also put a new patio door in the master bedroom and put an east-facing window in the front room.

Caleb liked learning how to use cool new power tools!

Betsy spent her whole break from school helping me remodel the house. I can't even count the number of hours she spent cleaning, scraping, sheetrocking, cleaning, mudding, taping, painting, cleaning, building, holding boards, and did I mention cleaning? She was a life saver! I'll sure miss her when she goes back to school this week.

In August, it was time for the county fair. Mattie had been in 4-H and raised a couple of chickens. She showed them at the fair and got 2nd for her chicken and reserve champion for her showmanship. Way to go Mattie!

Finally it was time to move in to our new house. Unfortunately, move in day also turned into the day that our new milk cow arrived. (We had talked to a guy in Preston about buying a jersey cow from him sometime in the next couple of months. We got a call in the middle of our move in day to say that the cow and calf would arrive in about 1 hour. YIKES! We weren't at all ready. It was plenty exciting!) There's a whole story about frantically building a stanchion and making gates and learning to milk for the first time. But, I'll leave that for another day. I will try to post pictures of Molly and Spot (the cow and calf) when I can. They are on Russ's phone.

Three days after we moved in and got a new milk cow (and while we still didn't have a stove or oven in the house) I left for Florida to see my newest little grandson:

Benjamin Russell Climer!!!

I had a marvelous time in Florida for a week with the Climers. Little Benjamin is a such a sweetie and it was so fun to play with Michael. Jonathon and Mary Ann were ok too! ;-)

The rest of the fall was exciting (going to hunting camp, cutting up and processing 3 elk, cutting and hauling 5 cords of firewood, getting 14 chickens, 5 rabbits, 1 turkey, and 1 barn cat, hauling 10 ton of hay, rewiring the barn, digging up and replacing our well (because it was contaminated), setting up a wood shop in the garage for Russ, learning how to farm, as well as fixing up our "fixer-upper") Whew! I'm tired just thinking of it!

Then in December we got another new grandson:

Jonathan Russell Baird, jr

If this wasn't enough to accomplish in December, Lizzy also graduated with her B.A. in music from BYUI. Way to go Lizzy! You are amazing!

Joshua and Ammon have loved living on our new "farm". A.J. collects the eggs every day and Joshua likes to help milk the cow. They enjoy riding their bikes all over our 10 acres and we all LOVE the swimming hole in the river right next to our house. We hope to have lots of visitors come spend some time with us and play in the country.

All in all, it has been a wonderful, stupendous, fabulous, exciting, blessed year! Thank you 2011. I'm looking forward to 2012!

Happy New Year everyone!

Prepare to be amazed!

2011-08-09T18:11:00.001-07:00

Yes it is true. I am actually posting on my blog!

Shortly after last September, my computer met its doom. We have been trying on and off to resurrect it but to no avail. So I've been getting by for my email etc. by using Russ's work computer in the evenings or early mornings or using my mom's ancient PC that Caleb inherited from her. Neither were set up for me to blog. But, at long last, we got a new computer!!!!! Yeah!! Russ named it "Shout Hosanna" for me. :-)

A lot has happened over the last 10 months. Thanksgiving, Christmas, a wedding, etc. I may try to get a few pictures loaded and post date a few things to catch up. . . I also may not. :-) It depends on how crazy things are.

Probably the most exciting thing right now is that we've bought a house!!! Well, we've almost bought a house. We close probably next week. It's been a wild ride. We bought it at a real estate auction. Man, that was intense! We got an amazing deal on it and we are pretty stoked. It's been vacant for about a year and is in pretty rough shape. It will take a lot of work to get it whipped into shape. It has a barn, a chicken coop, a shop, and several other outbuildings. It also comes with 10 acres of land. The kids are excited to get a few animals and maybe do 4-H. It ought to be an adventure! I'll include a few pictures of the place.

View from the road

Standing on the back deck and looking east. (See our cute little barn and hayshed!)

View from the back.

Anyway, things ought to be busy around here for awhile!

Jonathan and Lizzy's wedding

2011-02-19T18:55:00.000-08:00

We are so excited to have our new daughter-in-law Lizzy. She and Jonathan had a whirlwind courtship and were married in February.

Here are a couple fun pictures from the wedding:

It seems Lizzy doesn't know exactly what she got herself into!

I'm back!

2010-09-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, so nobody faint but I'm finally going to start blogging again! First our computer died which REALLY made it hard and then our camera died. So ... I haven't been very good. But I'm going to post some stuff now. I will post date things so that it will look like I did a little better than I did! :-)

Some family pictures

2010-08-12T06:33:00.000-07:00

While we had everyone together in August (yay!) we decided to get some family pictures taken. Luckily my nephew Gordon and his wife Coren were in SV. They are VERY good with the camera and agreed to take some photos for us.

Here are a few . . .

All the kids together for the first time in a couple of years. (plus the addition of a sweet little grandson on the left!)

All the guys. This isn't the best picture taken but it just cracks me up. (Notice Joshua is standing on Russ's foot because he doesn't have shoes on and there are "pokies" where they are standing. Michael is trying to get down out of Russ's arms. Everyone's expression is so funny.)

Now Michael's happy because he got away!

I like this picture of all the menfolk walking over to get their picture taken.

Here's the girls' picture.

I'll post more of our pictures later.

Betsy's senior ball

2010-05-30T14:46:00.000-07:00

Betsy was invited to go to senior ball in Provo with her good friend Andrew. She was really excited. We drove down to Provo for the weekend and stayed with Grandma Baird. Then her cousins Mary and Cassie did her hair and make up. Unfortunately my camera died on this trip so I didn't get any pictures! Grrrrrrr! However, Grandma Baird took a few when Andrew came to pick her up so here you go! . . .

Betsy has a slightly evil look here. (I'd watch out Andrew!)

Wedding with our Mexico friends

2010-04-13T07:29:00.000-07:00

So last weekend we were invited to Logan to the wedding of our friend Gamaliel Tellez. When we lived in Mexico, the Tellez's were our next door neighbors. I can't even begin to tell you how much they helped us, befriended us, taught us, loved us, etc. Hermano Felipe and Hermana Minerva were like our kids grandparents away from home. Gama (their son) came to BYU to school and met lovely Tricias from Centerville, UT. The Tellez's came to the US for the wedding.

We went down on Friday for the wedding dinner and then Saturday for the sealing at the temple. Being the super-prepared person that I am, I forgot my camera. :-( Luckily someone that was there posted some pictures on Facebook which I've stolen and put here. (I hope that's ok?!?

Here are Hannah and Mattie standing by the bride and groom.

Joshua REFUSED to look at the camera.

It was a little chilly that day and A.J. walked around the temple with Dad's coat on.

Here's a picture of the bride and groom and Gama's family and friends. We just loved getting to see Hermano Felipe and Hermana Minerva. We have missed them!

Spring? Break

2010-04-06T07:54:00.000-07:00

Well, for spring break this year we had to just stay in SV (work/school commitments). So we decided to make it a fun "stay"-cation.

We started out with the kids getting the tramp set up. They had to dig snow out for the legs to get down to the ground. Whenever they jump, they end up about frozen but they love it!

Here's a little clip of them jumping on the tramp. Notice that they have to wear socks and mittens to keep from freezing! Brrrrr.....

On Tuesday we went snow camping with the family. Russ's scouts had built snow caves and slept in them and so we took advantage of that and went up to camp in them too. It was pretty cold but the kids did great!

On the way up. The little boys are so excited!

Russ inspecting the caves to make sure they'll work.

Joshua is excited to climb in!

A.J. was such a trooper!

Mattie

Betsy always makes things fun!

Warming up in the car before dinner.

A.J. roasting some marshmallows. He thought it was pretty fun. On the edge of the fire pit you can see about how deep the snow is in SV still.

At this point, my camera ran out of battery and so I didn't get any other pics. Oh well.

We went home the next day and spent the rest of that day washing and drying camping gear! The other events for our spring break were a trip to Idaho for a visit to Sarah and Hyrum and a temple trip. It was great!

All in all, we had a great spring break even if there wasn't much "spring" in it!

Way behind on posting!

2010-01-21T09:36:00.000-08:00

I got way behind on posting over the holidays. I've posted stuff and dated it as if I had posted it on time (sneaky, I know). So there's more stuff here than at first appears!

MLK holiday

2010-01-21T09:32:00.000-08:00

The kids had the long weekend because of the MLK holiday. We spent Monday sledding on the dry farms above Grandma's house. Caleb brought his snowmobile to drag everyone up to the top of the hill. It was great fun but COLD.

The kids waiting for a ride up the hill. You can see that we don't have a lot of snow yet. The weeds are still poking through in a lot of places.

It's great to have a snowmobile to take us to the top!

The view across the valley from the dry farm.

Back to "normal"

2010-01-11T09:22:00.000-08:00

Well the holidays are over, the company has gone home and so life is settling back to normal.

Maybe normal feels more like catatonic!

(Betsy insists that this was comfortable. . . I've heard that Bairds can sleep anywhere and now I believe!)

We've all been struggling with sickness (probably the RSV that Michael had) and so it's made for a slow start.

Betsy ended up with a sinus infection and A.J. with an ear infection.

The weather has been pretty cold and foggy. It makes you want to stay indoors but it is very beautiful. . . We certainly live in a winter wonderland!

The Climers came to visit!

2009-12-31T09:06:00.000-08:00

A few days after Christmas (after we came home from Bear Lake) Mary Ann, Jonathon, and Michael came to visit for a week. It turned out to be quite a week. The first day here, Mary Ann got the stomach flu. The next 2 days, Jonathon had it. Then after that, Michael got a bad cold. He just kept getting sicker and sicker. Jonathon had to fly home for school but Mary Ann had arranged to stay a few more days with us. The day before she was to fly home, Michael was acting pretty sick and we decided to take him in to the doctor. We thought that he perhaps had an ear infection or something. After evaluating him, the doctor told us that he had RSV and needed to be hospitalized. So, Mary Ann missed her flight back and spent 3 days in the hospital with little Michael. Luckily, he improved quickly and she was able to fly back to Ohio on Saturday. All in all, it was a fairly stressful visit. We still loved getting to see them and had some good times while they were here.

Michael with Aunt Hannah.

Here's a fun game of Catch Phrase that we had going

Michael wasn't too sure about all of his uncles and aunts but was pretty patient. Here Ammon is pushing Michael around in a box.

This is the day that we took him in to the doctor. You can see that he doesn't feel very good.

Christmas in Bear Lake

2009-12-29T08:07:00.000-08:00

Russ's brother Ron had someone offer to let us stay in their cabin for the week of Christmas. Our kids love to be with his kids and so we said "heck yeah!" We got there on Monday night and celebrated Christmas a few days early so that we'd have time to play with our Christmas stuff before we had to go home. (We had to check out of the cabin on Dec 26)

So here is the Christmas morning nativity:

And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them . . .

And there came wise men from the east (or upstairs as the case may be) . . .

Gathered at the stable.

I often wonder about the reverence of this nativity. But we always have a good time. . .

Sledding at Bear Lake

2009-12-28T08:37:00.000-08:00

We found a great spot for sledding while we were at the cabin. We just went on the road up above the cabin. We hardly ever saw any cars and so the kids just sledded on the road. They were able to go almost 1.5 miles down the road. They really got going pretty fast. We would follow behind with the van and pick them up and take them back to the top. It was WAY fun!

Ron and Joshua getting ready for the ride down.

The crew (Joshua, Betsy, Ammon, Hannah, Mattie, Jenna) ready for take-off.

On the ride back to the top.

Sledding makes a guy tired!

Hanging out in the cabin

2009-12-26T08:21:00.000-08:00

The cabin was so fun. There was lots of time to just hang out, play games, visit etc.

The brothers just chillin'.

Ethan gave me some pop! He's my favorite cousin. (at least today!)

Mattie playing cards.

Jenna, Betsy, and Hannah in the middle of a game.

Our Charlie Brown Christmas tree at the cabin with the gifts spread around it.

December happenings

2009-12-21T07:53:00.000-08:00

So, I got behind on posting. Things were so crazy busy in December, with concerts, programs, plays, service, santa's workshop, etc that I just didn't have time to post. So here's a catch up.

Here's Betsy all gussied up for her Treble Tones Christmas concert. It was a great concert!

I only got one picture of the many Santa's workshop projects that we did. :-( Here's a picture of Mattie making Dad some bags to hold the jumper cables, etc in the car. She sewed them by herself and did a great job!

My kids in Ohio

2009-11-10T06:46:00.000-08:00

"these leaf thingies don't taste very good!"

My handsome grandson!

What a good lookin family, eh?

More pics of my missionaries

2009-11-10T06:34:00.001-08:00

We've gotten a couple of pictures of our missionaries and they just look so good! Thought I'd share them here. . .

JT loves this family that has 6 kids. He says they remind him of home!

This is in front of the Oaxaca temple. David is with 3 other ZL's that all came into the mission about the same time that he did. He got to see them at ZL conference. I don't know if David is blushing in this picture or if he is sunburned. He sure looks red!

Halloween!

2009-10-31T20:54:00.000-07:00

A frightening witch!

A.J. the wizard. . .He doesn't like the beard

A detective

Crazy hair (her school wouldn't let them wear costumes to school)

A bunch of grapes! (for trunk or treat)

A French artist

Yarg! (a pirate)

Hunting Camp 2009

2009-10-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

Well we just got back from another great time at hunting camp.

The weather was great, the company superb, and laughs constant!

Joshua, Mattie, and A.J. "helping" Uncle Den start a fire.

My niece Liz came up and we had a great time!

I love this picture of Uncle Den helping Joshua look through the scope of his gun.

And now . . . "Under the Big Top" (also know as the cook tent)

Russ warming up by the stove.

The setup for the killer card game!

Can you say "The heart of hunting camp?"

We just have to store the beauty and fun in our hearts and wait for next year.

Food Storage!

2009-10-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

The grocery store in town had a case lot sale and I was able to beef up our food storage. It feels so much better to have this food in the basement. (We also got 600 lbs of potatoes from Uncle Val that we put in the root cellar.)

Now winter can come and we'll be more ready! :-)

Canning Apples

2009-10-12T14:43:00.000-07:00

We picked all of Grandma C.'s apples and last weekend we got them bottled. We made about 50 quarts of applesauce and 20 quarts of apple pie filling. Thank you Grandma!

Joshua is helping Dad turn the grinder.

Mattie was on "wash apples" duty.

A.J. liked running the apple peeler.

Hannah is big enough that she could quarter the apples.

Here's Joshua on the peeler.

Here's a little video clip of the boys helping Russ. (took the clip with the camera tipped and now I can't figure out how to rotate the video. I guess you'll just have to tip your head. Sorry)

Making GIANT bubbles

2009-09-12T15:05:00.000-07:00

Aunt Marty gave us this bubble wand and Caleb has been getting good at making giant bubbles. It's pretty cool.

Here's a movie showing him doing it.

Last Hurrah of the Summer

2009-08-31T11:59:00.000-07:00

For our family vacation this year, we went on a backpacking trip to Bailey Lake in Greys River on Aug 20-22. We tried something new and borrowed my aunt's pack goats to help carry gear since we have so many little kids. That made for a very memorable trip! We were late getting to the trailhead (big surprise there!) and so we started our hike (of about 5 miles) about 4 o'clock. We had loaded the goats too heavy and tried to hike too fast with them and after about a mile or so, they turned around and headed back to the car! Russ dropped his pack and ran back to catch them but whenever he tried to head up trail, they would just lie down. We unloaded 3 sleeping bags form Caleb's pack so that he could run back and unload the goats. So Betsy and I carried our packs on our backs and sleeping bags in our hands. Plus we were trying to nurse A.J. and Joshua up the trail. (Our baby carrier broke and so Hannah couldn't carry A.J!) Two year olds don't like to go very fast. Finally Betsy just put A.J. on her shoulders (while still carrying her pack) and Hannah and I carried the sleeping bags. Needless to say it was rather a long walk into camp. We got to our camping spot at the lake about 7:30. We dropped our packs and decided that we'd get things set up while Dad and Caleb got the goats into camp. Unfortunately, we soon realized that the goats were carrying the tents, the ground cloths, the food, the cooking gear, and even the matches. (I was really kicking myself on that one. I had no business not having at least a few matches in my own pack) So, all we could really do was gather and break wood. We did that and got a fire laid and then waited . . . and waited . . . and waited. Finally just at dark, Dad, Betsy, and Caleb got into camp. (Betsy had dropped her pack when she got to camp and gone back to see if she could help) We were mighty glad to see them! Betsy was just dropping in her tracks but she was surely a rock for me. So, dinner was pretty late that night and we just put out the ground cloths and sleeping bags and slept under the stars. It was a beautiful night. Unfortunately, we hadn't been able to level the ground under us before we put down the beds and so it wasn't the most comfortable night. The next day dawned beautiful and we had all kinds of fun that day. There was a rope swing that went out over the lake that the kids loved playing on and there was a raft that the kids could float on. We leveled the ground under our beds and sleeping was much nicer Friday night. Going home on Saturday went much better with the goats and all in all it turned out to be a wonderful trip. I got home pretty stiff and sore and walked like a cripple for a day or two but I'm feeling great now.

Getting the goats ready to go.

Buddy and Hans saddled and ready to pack!

Heading up the trail!

Big sisters are so much help!

What our trail looked like. Pretty country, eh?

Our motley crew as they head off.

I think I can, I think I can . . . :-)

The view from our beds in the morning.

Morning camp, goats and all.

Can't you just taste those cinnamon rolls?

Um, Mom, is Buddy supposed to be eating the paper plate?

(If we left the pack pocket with the paper plates unzipped, Buddy would steal one and eat it.)

And I thought it was hard to have the kids fight!

(Buddy and Hans would literally smack heads in the morning)

Buddy likes the camera. (Don't eat it please!)

Remember what I said about big sisters?

Floating on the raft.

Joshua swinging on the rope swing out over the lake.

What a great vacation!

Riding bikes

2009-08-30T19:24:00.001-07:00

It's such great weather that the kids just got out and rode their bikes. We know that our time for such activities is getting limited so we are trying to soak it up while we can!

Notice how A.J. rides his "bike". Betsy decided to join him and ride her "bike" too! :-)

Try for family picture

2009-08-30T15:28:00.001-07:00

I liked my school pictures so well that I decided to try to do a family picture. So. . . they are a LOT harder!

We only came away with two (marginally) usable ones:

We started losing the kid about this point as the following picture shows:

So I tried changing to just get a picture of the kids. That turned out semi-ok . . .

Until the kids had finally totally had it!

It was truly a "hair-raising" experience. (At least for the photographer!)

School Pictures

2009-08-25T08:30:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd try my hand at taking our school pix this year. I think they turned out ok. (if I do say so myself)

Betsy

My sweet A.J.

Mattie

Caleb

Hannah

Joshua (ahhhh. . .)

Here's my other boy!

2009-08-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

We got a hilarious letter from David today. He sent us pictures with it and so I was very happy! I'll quote his letter about the following pictures:

Today, my companion cut my hair and I cut his. I did a really good job, but he on the other hand did not. He just basically shaved me. When the president saw me he asked "did a donkey bite you or what?". It was funny.

Oh p.s. We made peach cobbler too... mm mm good!

It makes me SO happy to see pictures of my sons on their missions. I'll be smiling all day!

(I sure miss him too!)

Here's my boy!

2009-08-16T07:02:00.000-07:00

Got this great picture in an email from a lady in Jonathan's ward. I thought he looked SO good! He just looks like he's happy, healthy, and glowing. I'm SO proud of him!

(I miss him, too! :-)

(Funny side note: JT had sent copies of these pictures home to me in a box with some shoes that we needed to return to Mr. Mac. I knew the box held the shoes and so I didn't even open it but just put a letter to Mr. Mac on top and sent it right on to them. They must have thought it was interesting to get pictures in the shoes! :-)

Bear Lake!

2009-08-02T06:42:00.000-07:00

We went to Bear Lake with Carol's family and Ron's family. It was so beautiful and we had a great time. Grandma C. even went with us and watched over the proceedings.

Here's Carol and Grandma when we were getting set up.

A.J. loves the sand!

Joshua is SO cute.

Betsy, Ethan, Mattie and A.J. playing in the water.

Ron building a castle with Olivia.

(Notice the large sand walrus in the background. It was there when we got there and was really good. We decided we needed to do better than that . . .)

We made . . . . A turtle!

Can't wait to go camping!

2009-07-30T06:09:00.000-07:00

Carol (my sister) and her family came to town from Kansas. We have a tradition to go camping together when we get together in the summer. Ron (Russ's brother) came to town the same week. So we ALL went camping together. It was so fun! It had all the ingredients of a good camp: friends (cousins), a hill to climb, a great campfire, sleeping in a tent, and of course a creek to play in.

Here's a picture of our camp.

This picture is grainy because I took it by the campfire at night. It's Natalie (Carol's daughter) holding Mattie (mine) and Olivia (Ron's). Everyone mixed together and had so much fun!

Are we having fun yet? (Carol, Laura, and Leslie)

I think Joshua is having a good time (I could be wrong though . . .)

If A.J. has a stick, he's happy! (he calls them his bikes and rides them like a stick horse)

Big cousins (Jenna) are so much fun!

And now for the CAMPFIRE!

In the evening, we had a great campfire with stories, jokes, singing, laughing, smoke inhalation, etc. Basically it amounted to "love".

Uncle Ron telling a funny story.

What's a campfire without roasting marshmallows for s'mores?

(Ethan enjoying his and Caleb getting ready to roast)

Can you say "fluffy bunny"? A game where you put marshmallows in your mouth and try to say "fluffy bunny". The one who gets the most in and can say it, wins! (Mostly it ends in giggles)

(Ethan, Adam, and Caleb. Betsy isn't interested)

Here's another picture of us singing and laughing around the fire.

Playing in the creek.

Oh what fun!

Oh yeah, we got the Tramp!

2009-07-27T10:46:00.000-07:00

We went to Idaho Falls and spent some of the woad money on a tramp. Here are the kids enjoying it with the sprinkler underneath.

Russ and Caleb's 25-mile backpacking trip

2009-07-10T10:22:00.000-07:00

Russ and Caleb and their scout troop went on their 25 mile backpack trip. After a few challenging starts (broken packs and bad trails) they took off.

Here's a picture of the guys as they took off. . .

. . . Now things get interesting with packs on! :-)

Here's breakfast cooking on the campfire

And the chef!

They really saw some beautiful country. Here is a picture of Russ's pack with some of the pretty scenery behind.

Devon is up in the tree gathering firewood.

They hit the end of the trail! Yeah! It was a really good camp.

Making money on Woad

2009-07-05T10:11:00.000-07:00

Here in Wyoming, they have a weed control program. They are trying to get on top of a noxious weed call "Dyers Woad". The program will pay a certain amount per pound to kids 5-16 who pull/dig the weed and bring it in to the Weed and Pest office. They have to show at least 3 inches of root on each stem. Anyway, Caleb, Hannah, Betsy, and Mattie worked on the program with some of their friends. They worked really hard for the week that the program was available and earned $350. This is a picture of their friends as they dug the weed. The kids decided that rather than divide up the money they would use it for some family fun gift. They've got their hopes set on a trampoline.

I'm happy when I'm camping . . .

2009-07-02T20:41:00.000-07:00

My nephew Gordon and his family came on vacation from Texas. We had talked to them before they came and decided that it would be really fun to go camping with them. Their kids match up in age with our youngest 4. So, we headed up to 3-bull flat in Greys River. It looked a little stormy as we took off but we weren't worried. (suspenseful music here)

When we got there it was getting pretty cloudy so we really scampered to get the tents up.

Of course as soon as we got the tents pitched, the storm blew over and it got nice and clear. (happy applause and cheering)

We enjoyed eating dinner and sitting around the campfire.

About bedtime we could hear some thunder way off behind the mountains. Coren asked me if I thought it would rain and I said "Naw, I don't think we are going to get any rain." (famous last words!) About forty five minutes later, the clouds opened up and dumped on us. It rained for about 3 hours!

We didn't have sufficient rain flies on 2 of our tents and Gordon had a tarp sticking out from the edge of his tent that funneled water under his tent. To make a long story short, we got VERY wet!

It was pretty wet the next morning but was so beautiful and misty. We saw several deer and the kids had a great time. All in all, it was a pretty good time.

We all got home tired and wet and had to dry a lot of gear but we made good memories!

It's so fun to have a horse!

2009-06-10T20:35:00.000-07:00

Uncle Bill has been great to let us keep his horse Ginger in the pasture next to us. The kids love riding her.

This shows Hannah the first time she rode. (she now rides without Betsy leading.) Hannah can even saddle Ginger by herself.

It has been SO much fun.

Hiking Sprague canyon

2009-06-02T09:40:00.000-07:00

Well, the snow finally has left. (hooray!) Russ, Hannah, and Mattie have been hiking Sprague Canyon for exercise. Russ is doing backpacking with his scouts this summer and has to be prepared to do a 50-miler by August. He has been hiking with Aunt Marge's pack goats to get them in shape too. He's hoping to take them in August so that he doesn't have to carry so much weight on his own back! :-)

The weather is still pretty cool and rainy but everything is SOOOO green and beautiful.

Here's the "Alm Uncle" with Hans and Buddy (the goats).

I think Mattie is having fun . . .

until they found the dead moose!

Later Hannah and Mattie went back and hiked the canyon themselves (several times) They happened on a family of skunks and took these pictures. I'm relieved that they didn't get sprayed since they got this close! (yikes!)

Beautiful Star Valley in June

2009-06-01T10:05:00.000-07:00

Here are some beautiful pictures of the valley in June. You can see the heavy clouds that have given us daily rain.

(Notice the deer near the fence)

Griddle Time

2009-04-20T09:15:00.000-07:00

Russ was making fried rice on the griddle for dinner. We have the griddle set up in our basement by the food storage and it's handy for cooking things that take a lot of pan space. Grandma happened to stop by just before dinner and so we invited her to stay. Mmmmmm!

Riding the Bus . . .

2009-03-23T08:24:00.000-07:00

Since the kids ride the bus every day I thought it would be cool to see what they see.

Betsy and Mattie sitting by each other on the bus. It's fun that all the kids ride together at least in the morning.

It's pretty snowy around here in March.

Mattie hiding behind the seat.

Ice skating in January!

2009-02-23T09:34:00.000-08:00

Well, I've finally given in and started a blog. I don't guarantee that I'll be very good at it but at least we will give it a try!

These are some pictures from ice skating. There is a nice rink here in Afton which is free. We borrowed some skates and went skating. It was really cold but the sun was shining and it was pretty!

It was a first time skating for some of the kids.

2009-02-23T07:32:00.000-08:00

Hannah got to go skiing with her school class. Here she is at lunch break with some of her friends.