Our trip

Colter and James together. At the time we took this, Kasey wouldn't sit still long enough. James is 5 months and Colter is 6 weeks. The three boys together. James is on the far left, Kasey in the middle and Colter is on the right.

Kasey trying to get James' attention while we were eating dinner.

I think that the most exciting part of our whole break was the trip we took to see my sister and her little family. She decided that she wasn't going to spend a week at home alone with her 2 girls and their new baby.....her husband had to work out of town.....so she went to our parents house. I decided that since I had not yet seen the new baby, that I would also go spend some time there. Of course I couldn't spend the whole week, but we went up Monday morning and left for home Tuesday morning (there was supposed to be a huge storm coming Tuesday night, that of course didn't get here until Wednesday night). We had fun. Our other sister in law was able to come with her 6 month old for the night as well. We left Mom (Gina, Mindy and I) with all the kids and went to Walmart (I know, not the most fun, but it was the best that we could all do). That statement might not seem like a lot, but you have to remember HOW many kids we left mom with. I have 7, Gina has 3 and Mindy has 1.....so we left our mother with 11 kids. Of course in our defense: Amanda and Wyatt were both there to help out. But that would still give them 11 kids aged 15 and under with 3 of them being under a year. We also went to Pizza on the Run and they had some toys for the kids to play with. Unfortunately, my camera went dead so I didn't get many pictures of the kids playing. But I did get one of Kasey and James. Kasey is just a month older than James at 6 months and every time we would get those 2 boys together Kasey would reach out to James and try and play with him or even at times like he was trying to comfort him. The other fun thing that we did was get matching outfits for the 3 youngest cousins: James, Kasey and Colter....all born this year. Then we got some pictures of them together. James for some reason wasn't happy about it and so cried the whole time. Sorry about where the text is on this post, but the pictures weren't moving and I tried everything that I could think of.

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. The kids were excited and the got all the things that they needed more than they wanted, but they didn't show if they were disappointed at all. I let them decorate the tree (other than the lights which I did). This is what we ended up with:

This is a picture of our tree on Christmas morning. The kids were excited, but we were the worst people on the Earth and made them wait until 10 AM before we opened anything. I wasn't about to be doing anything too early that day. They had to wait until James had been fed, then Katherine started complaining that she was starving, so I fed them.....then I told them I wanted a shower.....then they had started watching the movie "How to train your dragon" and Gabe said that we should finish that and then we could do the presents. They never once complained, but they had a great day.This is James in his little outfit that states that this is his first Christmas. I wasn't going to put him in it as it looked a little "girly" but, now looking at the picture it looks just fine.

Band Concert

This year I decided not to take pictures at the band concert....why? Well, for a couple of reasons. Usually I am not sitting in the right spot and then the pictures are always so dark and never turn out. So I didn't take any, but I did take one of her in her concert black dress as it looked really pretty on her:

There is however a story behind this dress. The kids all were supposed to have been fitted for there concert black at the beginning of the year, so when Amanda brought hers home before the concert, I wasn't too concerned. She asked if she could try it on and I agreed. I am grateful that she did....the dress that she was given wouldn't even zip up the back! So as her concert was Tuesday, she took it back Monday and got another one. When she brought it home I cringed. It did zip up but it was WAY to long for her. If I could have, I would have taken the two dresses and used the bodice on the new one with the skirt length from the old to get her the dress. So I got to work and figured out how long it needed to be and then called the expert. I can sew, but this dress was going to be a challenge for me. I couldn't cut anything off the bottom, as it is the school's. They would probably never encounter someone as short as Amanda again, so I was in a pickle. I called my mom to help out with the hem. I needed to take up 5 inches to make it the right length, but because of the style of the dress, it wouldn't go in easily. You see the dress was flared. The closer you get to the waist line, the smaller the circumference of the dress. Since I had to take up 5 inches, maybe you can begin to see my delimma. After consulting with my mom I went to work and put the hem in. I wasn't pleased with the results, only because the hem was now too heavy and bulky and looked funny as she walked.....but there wasn't anything I could do about that. So as long as you don't look too closely at the hem, the dress looks great. But she looks to die for in it. I wish that I had this pattern to make her one that looks just as nice on her.

Cute boy

I just thought that I would group these pictures together as there really isn't a reason behind them, I just took them and they are of one cute boy. The first is one of James having some floor time. I got down right in front of him and actually started to get frustrated because everytime I would get ready to snap a picture....he would roll over! Then later that night I tried to tell Gabe that he could and show him......James wouldn't do it. The drool coming out of his mouth is a nice touch, but it was the best of all the ones that I took.

These next pictures are too cute. Gabe and I were cutting up the rest of our deer one night and the rest of the kids were in bed. James had been hanging out with us in his bouncy seat. I happened to look over at him and saw this:

I thought it was cute the way that he had his fingers in his mouth. And in all honesty, he is asleep, but doesn't look like it with his one eye open. I was very grateful that the camera was close......as right after I took these shots, James took his fingers out and closed his eyes.

Wyatt's Program

Wyatt had a music program the other day. I always hate taking pictures in there because I can never get good ones. This year's program was a little different as it was more of a musical than a program as they had some speaking parts to go along with the music. Wyatt had tried out for a part and got it.....as well as got to learn the jitterbug to dance to one of the songs. They did a great job and it was fun to walk down memory lane a bit.....the theme of the program was Rock and Roll forever. Way to go Wyatt.

Holy Gee, we are 3!

Yes, I know I am behind again on my posts as Katherine's birthday was almost 2 weeks ago, but I don't have as much time as I used to for blogging with a new baby around. So Katherine had her birthday and we actually celebrated for 2 days. Gabe had gone hunting with friends of ours to help them get their elk on her birthday and so the kids and I celebrated with her that day and then we had her cake the next day when Gabe was home for it. She was so excited because her Grandma Sherry and Grandpa Lyle had sent her a package. I was the mean mom and didn't let her open it the night that we got it and not even until much later in the afternoon on her birthday as we still needed to do chores. Once I let her open it, she was over the top excited as they had sent her a pillow pet. The first time she hugged it I heard her wisper to it "I LOVE you pillow pet!" I just love this smile for her. So typical Katherine.

We sang to her when Gabe got home and he showed her how to make "3" with her fingers so that she could now show that she was 3.

Overall I think that she had a wonderful day. We are so blessed to have her in our home. I am in awe at the generosity that she shows and how loving she can be to her brothers and sisters. I never have to ask her for a kiss, she is always willing to give them and does so freely. Love you Katherine!

Hunting 2010

Well, for me this year's hunting season wasn't as fun as it was last year. The main reason is that I had to plan ahead a lot more because of James....and then all that planning wasn't even useful as we ended up taking him with us any way. I guess that I was hoping that I would be able to do like last year and get away for awhile without any children and reconnect with my husband. Well, when Amanda has a licese as well, that is kind of hard to do. We tried and tried several times to go in our immediate area, but were never able to: 1. see the right type of deer for the area we were in or 2. see anything at all.

But we made, I guess you could call it our hail Mary pass, and made a trip to Grandpa Castro's house. This was our last shot at harvesting anything. Grandpa had made some arrangments so that we could hunt some areas where he had seen some deer. We left our house at 4 in order to get there before the morning hunt (which starts at sunrise for you non-hunters). We walked around this area for awhile before coming up to the river bottom. Then we saw the deer. There were probably 4 or 5 does in this river bottom. Since I had James in my front carrier, I couldn't shoot at this time. So Gabe and Amanda got ready to take a shot. Amanda shot and hit a doe.....but we couldn't see where she fell as the brush was pretty thick as you got closer to the river. So we hiked down there, and thanks to Grandpa we also realized that they had started swimming the river to get away. Then we saw what made our hearts sink. The doe that Amanda had shot had also swam across the river. But she must have not quite had the strength to climb out as she was still in the water close to the bank.

This is where we had to make a tough choice. Do we leave her lie, shoot her to put her out and hope that she doesn't fall into the current or just wait it out and see what happens? Well, we knew that we couldn't swim the river for all the obvious reasons....Nov (too cold), too wide and deep. So after consulting with Grandpa Castro we decided that he should go across the bridge (which was just a little ways down stream) and then see if he could get this deer out of the river. We waited and watched on our side of the river so that he would have a reference point and know how much farther he should go. He got right down to her and she wasn't dead! She jumped back out into the river and started swimming farther downstream. Yikes! But we did know that if we would leave her that she wouldn't survive much longer as her hip had been blown away from Amanda's shot. So now we were really focused on getting her up on the bank so we could safely put her down and finishe what we had started. Gabe started throwing rocks down at her to scare her up on the bank. She finally got tired and swam up to the bank and Gabe took his shot to put her down. Then we walked back to the car and drove around to get her. Talk about an exciting start to the day! It was a lot of work to get the doe safely up the hillside and out of the river bottom. But we did. Here is Amanda with her day after we hung it up in Grandpa's carport:

We went back to Grandpa and Grandma's house to take a break. For you non-hunters, deer will come out to eat in the mornings and evenings, but usually bed down for the rest of the day. So it is easier to find them during the morning and evening feeds. By the time we got Amanda's deer taken care of and into the car, the morning hunt was over.

So we still needed to find Gabe and I a deer. Since Amanda had harvested hers, she was still going with us, but now she was babysitter for James. I guess at this point should explain why James was even with us while the other children were with Grandma. I am nursing James and we discovered that although I had breastmilk for him to drink.....he wouldn't take a bottle from anyone but me. So rather than have someone else suffer him crying because he was hungry, we took him with us.

Grandpa knew of a different place where we could get our deer. He had said that he had been watching the field for a few days and there were several head of deer there. So off we went for the evening hunt (about 5 pm). We found the field and my heart started racing as the deer were already there. There were actually two herds...one of white tail and one of mule deer. Since mule deer are bigger, less nervous and easier to put down (Gabe says it takes a lot to get a white-tailed deer to die)...we went for the mule deer. Besides we were also looking for bucks (as that is what this part of the area said) and there was only one white-tailed buck, but 2 mule deer ones. We sat and watched them and tried to plan our best approach. The herds were seperated by a hill and that was to our benefit. The white tailed deer were on the lower field and the mule deer where in the upper field. This was our plan. Come in on the lower field and scare the white-tailed deer off while keeping out of sight of the mule deer. Get closer to them and get a better shot. So we put our plan into action and for a while I thought that we wouldn't get them. The light was fading and the deer wouldn't give us a good shot. They were facing the wrong way and although shooting them in the butt sounds good, it isn't a very effective way to get a deer. Finally they presented us with a good shot. We took it. Gabe's deer went down, but the deer seemed confused as to which way they should go. They just stood there. After Gabe's buck went down, the one that I shot walked over to him as if to say "Hey, what the heck are you doing? Get up we have to go". Then I shot. I hit him, but he didn't drop right away. I remember saying to myself "go down, just go down" as I didn't have any more ammo to shot him with. Finally he fell over and we were done! What an exciting day.

This is Amanda and Grandpa right before we were leaving. Standing in front of all the deer.

This is Gabe with his buck. It is a 3 by 2, but man he is one big dude. I could barely help him drag it off the field. It took 3 guys to hang him up when we got home!

Here is me with my deer. I thought he was just a 2x2, but when I looked at him closer when we got home, he is more like a 3x3. He is really beat up though. Several of his tines are broken off. We think that he was really old, but he too is a brute. They had a ton of fat on them and will be good eating.

Amanda's Birthday

So, I guess the addage: Better late than never- is going to apply here. Her birthday was a month ago. I made her the cake and we had a great time.

My 7 Dwarves

For Halloween this year, I decided that I was tired of having to buy costumes for the kids. I had plenty in the box, but I wanted to do things a little different. I came to the realization that we could do a themed Halloween. So I approached the kids about becoming the 7 Dwarves....I was suprised that they agreed. So I thought about it and decided that I would make their hats out of their favorite color. Then we would go simple (mostly in an effort to save a little money). I put their dwarf name on a shirt that they would wear with their hat. So here are my Dwarfs together for the first and last time on Halloween. We went to our ward trunk-or-treat party and once we got there, I don't think that I saw any of my children, other than Katherine and James, the rest of the night.

"Do you want to see my.......

BODY?" If Jacob asked you this you might be a little afraid, but this is what he wants you to look at:

They traced their bodies at school and then colored them. He was really proud of his "body" and we still have it hanging up on the door.

More Birds?

We have had lots of birds in our lives lately. We had the bird's nest on our front door. Thankfully they decided to move away. And sadly we won't have any more like that unless we get another wreath. They totally wrecked the other one and it had to go to the trash when they moved out.

We have had the geese in the vacant lots playing in the water. We had our little goose that we tried to save and it didn't make it (see the post on that one). But this time it was chickens.

Amanda's friend had a class the first part of the school year where they hatched chicken eggs. Her friend was unable to keep hers and offered them to Amanda. Amanda accepted and asked Gabe's boss if we would be able to put them in with their chickens. After getting the needed permission we brought these little ones home.

Those of you who have been around chickens know the dilemma that we were facing after we saw these little ones. First of all they are too small to put in with full grown hens and a rooster. Second of all the chickens that are there are all the same----white. Chickens are creatures that don't like things that are different. They remind me a lot of people. When someone is different we pick at that difference. Chickens are more brutal about it. They will not only pick at it, but they will pick at it until they kill the offending one. So now you know our second problem. If we were to put these little ones into the hen house, they wouldn't live to see their first year. They are so different than all that are there that they would be picked on until they were dead. Thankfully we had a solution. We have other friends who have chickens that were willing to take these ones. I was grateful for that, as these ones for a while were living in a box on my kitchen counter.

So the moral of this story is that we cannot keep birds around our house. There must be somethign that prevents us from having a bird, which in my opinion isn't a bad thing.

Moving out

This is my first experience of having children tell me that they are leaving home. I went upstairs one evening to find these at the top of the stairs:

I asked what was going on and was told that Mariah and Bethany wanted to move out. I asked them where they would go. They told me that the would go to Kelli's house (our neighbor). I told them that Kelli didn't have enough room for them. So they answered that they would build a house next door to Kelli and live there. Thankfully, Gabe was able to talk some sense into the girls and they decided that they would stay here instead.

Jacob's Self Portrait???

So every parent probably has encountered this dilemma on occasion. You pick up your camera and go to take a picture only to find that your memory card is full. As I type this I wonder what we ever did before digital cameras with this problem other than take the film to have it developed and find these self portraits instead of those other pictures. Now with the memory cards and digital cameras you can look at the pictures and discover those little helpers in action before you spend the money to have the pictures developed.

I am not entirely sure that he took these himself. I think that he may have had help----in the form of 2 sisters (if not more). But I decided to save these as they are a true reflection of the happy boy that I have.

Homecoming 2010

This year was a hard one for me. For Homecoming this year I had to decide if I was going to be a teenager and yell and shout for all I was worth......or the adult who just stood off to the sidelines and cheered but moderately. I was also torn between my alma mater and my new hometown. This was the first year that this really made a difference as my eldest daughter entered the ranks of high school as a freshman. We the parade was fun....but what was even better was the fact that I was able to get some good pictures of Amanda as she was marching with the band for the very first time. For those who have been band mothers, you know how hard it is to get pictures as it seems that you are always sitting on the wrong side of the auditorium or on the wrong side of the street as they are marching. This time I was on the right side and in the right place! The band actually stopped right in front of where I was sitting and I had time to snap several pictures before they continued on their way. I think that after this year I won't have such a hard time being torn between my alma mater and this school. I now have a reason to be proud to be a Wolverine! I will always hold a special place in my heart for the blue and gold, but red and white are my new colors.

Here is just a general picture of the band. I think that I am always going to be a sucker for a marching band in uniform like this.

This is the one of Amanda. She is the short one that is the second from the left playing the clarinet. Doesn't she look so cute in her uniform?

Meat in our freezer.

*****Note to those who are weak of stomach the pictures in this post may or may not be suitable for you.********

It is very satisfying for us as a family to know that you are doing something to help yourself be more self-sustaining. Gabe put in with some friends of ours for antelope this year and drew the tag. This was his first year of hunting antelope (and may be his last as he doesn't like the fact that you almost have to chase the animals down). We were lucky that he was able to find and shoot one too. We went from having this hanging in the barn:

To this sitting in our fridge waiting to be packaged:

We finally packaged it and ended up with 30 pounds of antelope burger in the freezer. We have enjoyed it more than I had thought we would. I had always been told that antelope would taste really gamey and that all it was good for was to be made into jerky. We actually made a roast of the backstraps and they were tasty! The burger is really tasty too.

Getting our ducks in a row

There is a canal not very far from our house. Last winter we had several ducks that decided it would make a great place to spend the winter. The kids loved driving by and seeing if the ducks were still there. Just this year we saw that some more ducks were getting ready to spend a while there. I haven't seen them lately (I hope my taking pictures didn't scare them off) but seeing them again prompted us to make these ducks. I also had the kids make them because they were driving me crazy and I realized that I needed to get my ducks in a row and find things for them to do so they weren't bored out of their minds and watching a ton of TV either.

I feel like this is one of those "Where's Waldo?" pictures....but the ducks are there under the tree.Jacob and Katherine showing off the ducks that they made. Very proud of Jacob as he cut out all the stuff himself.

Are you ready for this?

Today, I sent Jacob off to his first day of preschool........

and was left with these at home:

It was a hard day for him. He was really excited this morning and couldn't wait for me to take him to school. Then we got there and everything melted. He didn't want to go into the building, he didn't want to hang his backpack up, he didn't want to do anything. I felt really bad because I made him do those things.....then I helped him to his seat, said good bye and left him there crying. Now don't get me wrong, I tried to comfort him and tell him that things would be okay, but he wasn't listening and nothing I said made a difference. He is the type of person that if things don't go his way, he throws a fit. So I left him to throw his fit, and before I started to cry myself. I knew that this transition would be hard for him, but I also knew that this would be a great way for him to get used to going to school before he started kindergarten next year. He is a smart boy, he just needs the socialization that school can provide for him. I hope that he had a good day at school as he is still there while I am posting this. I know that Katherine has sure been missing him and in some ways I think that she would have stayed there at school a whole lot easier than Jacob did. It is going to be weird having just 2 at home during the morning, but I think I will get used to it. I will have plenty of time with just 2 at home as Katherine won't be able to start preschool until she is 4 1/2 and that will be in 2 more years. So we will see how the year goes. Hopefully the days will get easier and he won't be so emotional about it.

Update on James

I have been posting a lot on the things that we do with James, but now I am going to post an update on how big he is getting. We took him to the doctors yesterday. He now weighs 9 lbs and 8 oz and is 20 1/2 inches long. So in the month that we have been enjoying him he had gained a pound and some and grown an inch. Way to go James, keep up the good work!

Balloons

It is fun living where we live. Every summer our town has a balloon ralley. This year the ralley was right around my due date for James and so we missed it....not entirely as the field where they take off is just up the hill from our house and the path that they fly usually takes them right over our house, so we can see them from our front porch. However, most people don't know that we have a balloonist that lives full time in our area. He will occasionally just take the balloon up whenever he has the right conditions. The first day of school (Aug 24th) must have been one of those days. After all the kids got off to their various schools, I happened to look out the back door and saw this:

. Now Jacob loves these balloons and he is always saying something crazy when he sees them. Today, I don't remember exactly what he said, but at one time he told me that we needed to get a ladder and that we would be able to get up there to them and fly with them. So we had an eventful day on the first day of school.

Kisses

I don't know what it is about a new baby that makes you do it, but I think that we are all guilty of it a lot (I know that I am)....and that is kissing the baby. I know that I have found myself kissing other people's infants (especially the newer they are) and not just my own. James will just have to get used to the fact that everyone wants to kiss him, and not just once or twice.....but as in the cases of Katherine and Jacob---often, the more the better. Jacob however, has been very specific when he gives James a kiss. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, he has a purpose for every kiss that he gives James. Sometimes it is frustrating for me, as he wants to give James a kiss before I feed him (his Feeding Kisses) or wants to give him a kiss just as he is falling asleep (his Resttime Kiss). But they are so cute. He will usually give the kiss and then tell me what it was for, or sometimes he will ask me if he can give James a ______(fill in the blank) Kiss. But it just isn't Jacob that gives James kisses. I am beginning to have to tell the kids that James has had enough kisses and that they need to leave him alone for a minute (otherwise they would constantly be giving him kisses). I think that they love this new brother. What do you think?

School Starts!

Yesterday I sent all of these to school:

And now I am left with only these at home:

Need I say more? Besides how can one resist that smile of Katherine's. It was hard to send them all back to school, but it had to be done. It is really quiet around here while they are there, but I think that it will make the older kids appreciate their sibling a bit more when they get home. In a couple of weeks Jacob will also be starting school. He will head to Head Start where he will have the same teachers that Mariah had 2 years ago. We are looking forward to that as he really needs that extra stimulation. All I can say is that as much as I love my children, I am thankful for this break from having all of them at home....sometimes that can get a bit overwhelming.

My boys

I have been so busy these last few weeks that I haven't even thought of taking a picture like this until the opportunity presented it this morning. I was in my room getting James dressed and Wyatt was there anxious to help as well as Jacob. After I got him dressed Jacob wanted to hold him, so I gave in. Then Wyatt was right there too helping. I didn't have the camera. I actually had to send Wyatt to the car to get the camera. Luckily by the time he got back James was still pretty content and I got these pictures. These boys are so in love with their little brother. Every morning the first time that they see me they say the same thing....."Where's James?". Not Good morning mom, or anything like that but "Where's James?". They always want to hold him. Wyatt is wanting to change diapers and I have let him a couple of times. Jacob is always giving kisses....but they aren't just normal kisses. He will say, let me give James his nap kiss or his right before eating kiss. I have found Jacob several times standing (or sitting) next to James and singing him a song so he can go to sleep. I am sure that eventually the novetly of James will wear off, but for now, I love seeing these three together. I hope that they will always be great friends and help each other out.

We are growing!

Okay so first off, I have to apoligize to my brother and sister in law for spelling Kacey's name wrong in the last post....did it without thinking and then when I looked at it published, couldn't figure out what was wrong, but knew that something wasn't right. So M and E: I am really sorry.
Now to the good stuff. We took Bethany back to Casper yesterday for her check up with the endocrinologist. We love the fact that we don't have to travel much farther than Casper. But more than that we are loving the results that we are getting. As of yesterday Bethany has grown 2 inches and gained 3 pounds since we last saw them in Feb. That means since we have started the meds we have grown 4 inches and gained 5 pounds!!! Horray! For once we can be glad for weight gain. We are continuing the meds and we will meet again in Feb to check up on her progress. And I can offically state that I know she is growing as I can look at her and see that she is taller.

How Special

This last Sunday we have had a very special opportunity. We were able to head to Thermopolis to attend church with my older brother. While we were there we were able to witness (at least the kids and I) the blessing of their new baby Kayce. As part of that we were able to gather most of the siblings together. Of all 7 of us only one was missing. It was even more special because we were able to bless our sweet James on the same day. Since we have friends and ward family members that we wanted to help in this special event we waited until later in the afternoon and blessed James in our living room. For me, as a mother, it is very touching for me to hand that new baby to Gabe and watch as he takes it in his arms and pronouces the name and gives the baby a blessing. It was unique for us to have this one done in our own home. I am so proud of Gabe. He did a wonderful job on the blessing and it was very touching. It was really nice to have my family there to support us too. This was the first time my oldest brother has been able to come to one of my children's blessings......he just lives too far away to make this trip very often. We are thankful for the gospel in our lives and for the chance that we have to bring such special spirits into our home. Let's hope that we can learn from James the lessons that we need to while teaching him the things that we need to. Welcome to our family James....We love you so much.

James with his daddy, just after the blessing.

James with cousin Lindsey just before the blessing. Lindsey wanted to hold him, so I let her hold him while I got him dressed in his "tux". This is the same blessing outfit that Wyatt and Jacob both wore. We are grateful to Grandma Sherry for finding it for us.

James with Katherine and daddy, just after everyone had left. Katherine wouldn't let him go even though he needed to be fed. I think that she felt like someone was going to walk away with her baby brother.

Speechless....

I really don't know what to say, other than Jacob did it. I was busy feeding James and it got too quiet. I sent Amanda to check and this is what she found. We were very fortunate that Gabe's Aunt June was still at her beauty salon to help us fix it. Other than that I will let the pictures speak for themselves.