t h e . b o o n i e . l i f e

Oldest and Youngest

2012-01-25T13:22:00.001-07:00

Him: oldest (9 years)

Her: youngest (7 months)

Him: long and slim, slim, slim

Her: compact and chub, wub, wub

Him: loving, fun to tease

Her: loveable, fun to tickle (him too, actually)

them: cuddly, sweet, dang cute

and MINE

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And Happy Birthday to my ever-so-awesome mom-in-law,

who is always willing to try just about anything (and is good at just about everything that she does)!! I hope that you're having a great day in town. Sure love ya!

To Jules:

2012-01-24T23:06:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday today to my sister, Julie!

Jules, you are pretty much awesome. Okay, so totally awesome.

I miss going on Sunday afternoon car rides with you in your red Prelude listening to, who was it, Michael Webb or somebody or other? 'Member when we would try to get ourselves lost on purpose on the Virginia backroads to see if we could find our way back home again and ending up somewhere close to Williamsburg? Remember when I was kicking the dashboard cuz I was laughing so hard?

Remember how I would always sleep in your room, even though I had my own room, because I loved being in there with you?

Thanks for always being nice to me, and letting me tag along with you, and making me feel like a cute little sister and like I was funny.

I love your subtle humor, your giving-ness, your selflessness, your wit. You're one of my favorite people.

I love your guts! :)

I hope that it's been a good one!

Do you sleep like this?

2012-01-23T10:21:00.000-07:00

Weston saw this on his cousin's facebook this morning.

Too funny. I just had to share.

Mostly funny cuz this couple has been us.

Way.

Too.

Many.

Times.

You?

I've been giggling over the "Jazz Hands" one all morning.

It's so Zoe, as is the "Snow Angels".

And that "H" one is so Jiles.

Jamon and Staci

2012-01-22T21:32:00.007-07:00

This is Jamon, and his wife, Staci, and their little king, Liam

(oh, and baby boy bun in the oven!).

Jamon is my Weston's younger brother.

I took some pictures for them when they were up here for Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun taking them. I am just now getting around to editing them.

I have a TON to learn about photography. ! What I learned this time: Make sure that the camera is on the right setting before taking a million pictures, or else they will be grainy (like most of these were). Hahaha.

I get sorta nervous when I take pictures for other people like this, like I've mentioned before. Isn't that dumb? I need to get over it. I love taking pictures and I love the people, I just need more experience.

Thanks for being patient with my (lack of) photo skills, Jamon & Staci, for giving me experience, and for liking the pictures despite their graininess. Ya'll are awesome :) !

Here's a sampling:

Of Late

2012-01-18T14:30:00.000-07:00

Our internet has been down since last Wednesday or Thursday.
Weston fixed it late Monday night (a wire got switched somehow), but I am just now ~~getting~~ taking a moment to blog.

I do not like being without internet.

I like being without television, yes, but not the internet.
No way.

So here's some recent haps with us chaps:

Winter came around today. She started blowing some white our way this morning.

Up until now it has been this kind of winter:

Sunny. Warm-ish for winter. Playing outside lots.

Oh, how I am a fan of a mild winter.

That's pretty much what we've been doing outside.

And inside lots of this sort of thing:

Forts. Stuffed animals. "Hard toys". Wrassling. Making a "hideout" for Baby.

The usual.

Loving the teepee (tepee, tipi - they're all in the dictionary)

made by Grandma!

It has been slept in for quite a few nights now.

The fabric was from something of Weston's (a tent, I think) when he was a kid.

It is much loved! And so super cool!

Thanks, Grandma!

Jiles is being the sweet/busy little Jiles that he is and constantly loving on/wondering about/pushing over his little sister, "Udder". That is what he calls her.

Udder.

Udder?

Where in the world did he get that from? I have no idea.

He can't leave her alone. He is very cute-sometimes-rough with her.

She mainly flinches when he comes around. She tolerates pacifiers being shoved in her mouth tolerably well over, and over, and over, and over again.

She is a gem of a baby.

Soooo content and chill.

All of my babies have been.

Maybe it's from all the chocolate that I eat when I am pregnant with them.

In other news:

Spencer can can.

At least this kind of canning:

That's 105 cans. They entertained him for quite a while over a few days.

Right after I took the above picture I had a horrible thought that if those cans fell, it would do some damage to somebody's body.

They fell, but luckily at random when no one was around.

I told him that he had to clean them up. Then he was entertained for like an hour organizing them on the shelf. Right on.

This is where Zoe hangs a lot:

Here and on the living room rug with her toyies, and on my hip.

Oh yeah, this:

If you come to our back door, please observe the sign.

Miss Kate got her big Christmas present a little late.

We wanted her to pick it out, that's why.

She's asked for a dog, and little else, for the last 3 years.

Little Maisy/Maizie/Mayzee.

However we spell it.

Obviously Kate spells it M-a-z-y. Like Hazy Mazy.

Anyway, she's cute, sweet, fairly obedient, and Kate is in Puppy Heaven.

See:

She stays on the back porch during the day, and in the mudroom at night.

Except last night she stayed outside. She wanted to.

And while we are on the subject of baby animals, the night we got Mazy one of our goats kidded. Super cute.

They're awesome at Yoga. Or, I suppose, they have a little trouble standing up at the beginning.

So that's all for now.
Have a great day

and....

Ten on Ten : : January Twenty Twelve

2012-01-10T22:17:00.002-07:00

10 slices of time

over 10(ish) hours

on the 10th of the month.

i really like doing this, by the way.

i think that you should do it, too.

you should start on february 10, 2012.

yes, yes.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Yeah, New Year!

2012-01-02T11:36:00.004-07:00

We rang in the New Year with the stomach flu. Awesome.

Okay, so not awesome in the slightest.

But let me tell you that it is one way to lose 5 pounds between Christmas and the New Year. I don't recommend it, but it happened over here. All of us got it. Even little Zoe. So, so sad when a little baby gets sick. She wasn't sick for very long, though. It was sort of inevitable considering she was in between sicky me and sicky Kate all day on Friday. Weston was in town with the boys, and then came home with a sicky Spencer. Jiles had it Wednesday night just after my big brother Brian and his girlfriend left (pictures of that coming), Ezra had it the week before, and now Weston feels icky. He was up all night last night, and now is out moving the herd.

Zoe did, however, LOVE the 2 1/2 days of being right next to me napping, or nursing, or talking to me, or just lying there. She is such a content and easy baby! No complaints from her.

Well, unless one of her brothers wants to be near her, or worse, all 3 at the same time. They are not the gentlest or quietest of creatures, yet. We'll get there, er close enough, one of these days maybe. When they all come around it just gets plain crazy and she has no other choice but to cry in for reinforcements.

I don't blame her in the slightest. I do the same. Our boys (okay the oldest girl, too, at times) are a wee bit, uh, energetic. We'll leave it at that.

Okay, so another blessing of the stomach flu, besides, you know, the stomach workout and weight loss (playing Pollyanna's "glad" game here) is feeling so helpless that by the time you feel better, you are ready to conquer the world. Or, at least, conquer your house with Lysol wipes. No, really, I am so ready to clean and organize my home. It's one of my New Year's resolutions: organize! Where's my sister Julie when I need her?! Jules??

And my word theme for the year:

P R E P A R E !

Yes.

To be prepared and ahead of the game.

Seriously I am so not good at this preparing business most of the time I'd say, and it gets me into so much trouble! It is really hard to wing it with a family of 7. Some areas I'm better at preparing and some not so much.

Oh yeah. When Weston came home with a sick Spencer last Friday, he also declared that our Suburban was totaled. It overheated again, even though it's winter, and blew a gasket or something like that. So we can't drive it, which means that we can't go anywhere with more than 3 children right now, which is a problem since we have five.

New car?

Or $2000 more into Black Magic '99 (the suburban)?

HaPPy NeW YeAr!

Christmas '11

2011-12-28T13:55:00.001-07:00

Christmas

was great. We

stayed here at the

ranch. We went up

to Weston's parents' house

for Christmas Eve and then a-

gain for Christmas afternoon and

evening. Weston's 2 youngest brothers,

Tyson and Ammon, and Ammon's wife, L

eslie, and their little boy, Jaxon, were there too.

We had fun singing 'round the piano, playing (or

listening to others playing) instruments, eating, playing,

talking, gaming, movie watching, paper lantern flying, etc.

There was no snow; our first Christmas here at the ranch (in

6 years) to not be white! The whether has been so super mild.

It feels more like March than December. I am so okay with that.

Lots of fun.

All ready for the big day...

Christmas Eve...

Christmas day...

Hope that yours was merry and bright!

Some School Christmas Stuff

2011-12-21T00:05:00.002-07:00

First off, the school and community Christmas Program was last Saturday night. It was really good. Weston played the clarinet, his parents did a piano duet and then a violin and piano duet. Spencer and Kate participated in a musical play which was great, and Ezra and the 2 other kindergarteners did 2 little songs, which were super cute. Actually I was laughing so hard that I was crying. Ezra is so funny. He is quite the drama king, really; a little ham. The 2 girls in kindergarten with Ezra are super tall (they are as tall or taller than Kate), and Ezra is not the tallest 5-year-old. And both of the girls had little heals on their shoes, making Ezra look even shorter.

Here is the Kindergarten class doing their part:

At the end of the program, all of the school kids were on stage singing Silent Night, doing the nativity. Ezra got a really painful look on his face, then started moving his legs back and forth and then it was totally obvious that he had to go to the bathroom. Weston and I were debating whether or not to go get him off the stage in the middle of the song to take him. We know Ezra and know that he waits until the last minute, and then 50% of the time it is too late.

Ezra looked dire, so Weston went up and got him and took him. 3 minutes later Ezra was back on stage singing another song with everyone. Then about another 3 minutes after that he got that painful look on his face again, and then put his hand on his rear! Hello! I was in the front row and motioned for him to come to me. He scooted off the stage with his hand on his rear and then said to me, kind of loud, "I pooped in my pants." Ahhh!!! I was so embarrassed. I had Zoe in one arm and pulled Ezra toward the bathroom where Weston was still standing. He took him into the bathroom and like 5 minutes later Ezra ran back out on stage to finish his part. Holy toledo this boy is a die hard.

Aside from Ezra's bathroom issues in the last 10 minutes of the program, Spencer was starting into an asthma attack and was coughing and sneezing and his teaher came and asked me for an inhaler, which I didn't have. Also one boy got nauseus and went off the stage and the teacher grabbed the trash can and ran him outside, and that boy's brother got a bloody nose. Pretty exciting stuff.

Today was the last day of school this calendar year. They had the Christmas party at school so we got to go to it. Here are a few pictures of it:

All 5 of my littles are in this shot (above). All 3 of my school kids are at their desks. I love that their desks are so close together and that they love having their younger siblings with them.

I love that the school is so sunny and cheery inside. The prisms hanging in the window make rainbows in the classroom.

The view outside (those silver hoop things are part of their miniature greenhouse):

One of the library workers volunteered to hold Zoe for me so that I could take pictures.

Ezra loved loved loved his gift.

It is 12:02 a.m. which means that it is now officially December 21st, 2011, which means that Weston and I have officially been married for...

tEn

(10)

yeArs

(can you believe it?)

Waiting for Willy

2011-12-19T23:00:00.003-07:00

Kate and Strawberry.

Willy, the percheron (a.k.a. giant horse), has been enjoying the nature of the fields and hillsides. And with that nature comes burrs and small sticks and all sorts of natural things that stick on a hairy horse.

Jiles liked it for about 2 seconds.

Grandpa spent probably close to 2 hours grooming Willy and getting him ready for his "debut". He had to look ~~pretty~~ studly for the camera and with bells on his back.

Ezra never wants to get off.

We were going to wait in the house until they were all done with Willy and they called us on the radio, but we couldn't wait. So we waited at the barn instead. Much more fun.

The goats are down there now.

(And OFF of our porches. Hallelujah!)

They should be kidding (as in birthing their offspring, not "joking") next month. Lou Lyn is really getting big, so we think that she will be the first to kid.

Pink bathtub. Sweet.

We played in the barnyard some, too. Those metal things are so irresistible.

"Mommy, hepp!"

Weston looking festive. (And looking a little grossed out about something.)

Getting harnessed and strapped.

Almost ready.

Back in the barnyard. Now in the branding chute.

Thankfully the ground is hard and dry.

Otherwise, we'd have issues.

Hi, Little Sister!

Yay, Willy and the meadowbrook cart are ready!

Everyone hop on!

Wherever you can find a spot.

The bells.

Weston got to drive it, too. He took me for a little spin. Very cool. My favorite thing about riding that way (besides sitting next to my honey): the sweet horsey smell. :)

Jingle Bells -Music Video

2011-12-17T13:35:00.005-07:00

Our church Christmas party was last night. It was a lot of fun. We usually have a nice dinner and dessert, musical numbers of all kinds, the nativity (this year done by the 18-month to 5-year-olds which was oh so sweet), and at the end Santa comes out.

This year the MC had asked families to perform different classic Christmas songs. When the MC asked my mother-in-law if all of us would do one, she asked if we could do a music video instead. So that is just what we did, which I am glad because I would so much rather do this than stand on a stage and sing in front of 150 people. It is way more fun and way less intimidating.

Everyone got a kick out of it when we watched it at church last night. The lip-syncing/instrument playing men got the biggest laughs. People at church said that we should all do videos next year. That would be so cool.

I guess we have been a bit video-happy lately, but they sure make for great memories!

Enjoy.

Ohwehavealotoffun!

Ice Skating and the Drive Home

2011-12-14T23:39:00.005-07:00

ten on ten: December 2011

2011-12-11T23:17:00.002-07:00

10 slices of life

(from yesterday)

a.m. cereal

laundry

sesame street meets jumanji playtime (sorta)

partially frozen creek

traversing the gate

warm chocolate

listening to Christmas playlist

cars on the stairs - sun showing tree's shadow on the wall

Weston home from town - brought dinner: Subway

catalpa tree silhouette

Whitney's Senior Pictures

2011-12-06T18:50:00.001-07:00

This is Whitney.

She is a babe and a half. She is dang smart, funny, athletic, musical, gorgeous, responsible, and yeah, lots more.

She was on the homecoming court this year, she played the piano for the jazz band, and the tuba for the marching band. She is a track star, and plays soccer and basketball, too. And she gets like straight A's (at least I think that she still does). And she climbs trees. Super cool.

Oh yeah, and she is a champ poser for pictures. She is seriously photogenic.

I can brag on this girl Whitney, or Whitdawg as I like to call her, because she is my niece. She's my oldest sister's oldest daughter. She is the oldest grandchild for my parents, and, therefore my first niece.

She made me an aunt.

I was at girl's camp at Pocahontas State Park in Virginia when I found out she was born.

I was 15 years old.
And so, so excited.

My sister and my brother-in-law and little Whitney lived like half an hour away from us, so we would see them lots. Whitney was like my little sister while we all still lived in Virginia. I would drive her around in my VW Bug, she would come to work with me at the zoo and hold monkeys, she would spend the night with me, I would dress her up in my clothes, she would hang out with my friends and I.

And now she is a SENIOR in high school!

What in the world?

She's already getting accepted to colleges.

I know that we all say it, and lots of times, but, seriously, time flies!

This girl can belt it out on her tuba. Her marching band got to compete on Boise State's football field for districts or regionals or whatever it was for high school marching bands, and they swept it; they won it all.

While we were taking pictures, the horses were running around. Then Whitney started playing her tuba and they didn't know what to do. They'd run like crazy, and then stop and stare, and then run again, and stop again.

It was funny, but honestly it made me a bit uneasy because I didn't want to get trampled or kicked; we were right by them. Whitney has no fear, though (really), and loves horses, so it was no big deal to her.

I kept going next to the suburban for safety.

Oh yes! We cannot forget Miss Sadie, my sweet niece, and Whitney's little sister. She was a huge help, especially in making us laugh.

I love these girls.

Here is a really short video of Whitdawg playing her tuba and the horses staring at her:

Getting the Tree

2011-12-05T15:55:00.005-07:00

We're watching The Polar Express over here, for the 3rd time this season.

"But since it's Christmas, I'm going to let you slide."

Last Saturday we went and picked out our Christmas tree. It wasn't like the usual cutting-of-the-Christmas-tree outings, like this one . We drove up our road, like we usually do, up the mountain, but this time only far enough to reach pines. Any pine would do really. As long as it would fit in our house. We didn't have much time, and I was totally happy with not having to go up to the snow line of the mountain. I like snow well enough, and it is fun and festive while picking out Christmas trees, but I really do NOT like driving, or riding, on icy mountain roads. It makes me tense.

Fresh out of the car excitement.

So our tree this year is, I think anyway, a pokey ponderosa pine. But the kids love it and this is probably the earliest that we have ever gotten a tree. So it's all good.

Masculine Spencer with the blade, and pink gloves.

Here she is. Kate spotted it from across the hill. The best sized one where we were.

Jiles was more than happy to hold "Udder" when my arms got tired.

Need to get ahold of us? Call us at 1-800-I-H8-2-W8:

If that number is busy, then try 1-800-WE-R-Dum (thanks to my twin nephews who wrote that on there. It is from the video that they made for Thanksgiving, which was hilarious, by the way.)

Weston asked if anyone wanted to run home.

Um, yes please. Well, at least part of the way.

Then the big 3 decided that it looked fun and joined me.

This picture sort of reminds me of The Sound of Music when Maria is running backward leading the children in song as they run toward her. Only we are way less green (no green here) and 4 less children.

Our road in our neighborhood.

Now the tree is up and (partially) decorated. The kids love to sit by the window behind the tree and play with the many nativity sets that we have. I remember doing that when I was little.

The Rest of That.

2011-12-03T21:36:00.001-07:00

Here is the rest of Thanksgiving weekend with all of Weston's family at the ranch.

Friday, we went to the hot springs pool. Very nice and very warm. Especially for the guys who played basketball the whole time.

That night after dinner Weston's dad set up the tripod and self timer and we all stood there smiling at the little box while it fired away.

All of us:

Grandma and Grandpa with all of their grandyoung'uns.

standing: Kaleb (7), Olivia (8), Grandma with Liam (17mo.), Ethan (10), Kyle (12), Austin (10), Grandpa with Jaxon (18 mo.), Kate (7), Carter (6)
sitting: Spencer (9), Brigham (4) with Jacob (4 mo.), Jiles, Zoe (5 mo.), Ezra (5), Emma (3)

And some various arrangements:

clockwise from top left: Weston's mom with her 6 sons; Weston's mom with her 5 daughters-in-law; Weston's mom with her 4 granddaughters; Zoe and Jacob - 6 weeks apart; our little family; Olivia with the babies; Zoe; Weston and I

Some after picture wrastling.

On Saturday we competed in a "Top Shot" competition created and carried out by Weston's brother Tyson.

The events were: archery; rubberband shooting; ping pong ball throwing; needle threading; basketball shooting; pistol shooting; rifle shooting; and shotgun shooting. It was really fun.

Tyson, Grandpa, and Weston retrieving arrows out of the target.

Jamon with Liam, Weston, Ammon and Grandpa

Children playing with the scrap wood in the shop while the adults were competing.

Natalie and her stylin' nails. She thread 5 out of 5 needles in 30 seconds.

Me trying my shaking, not-so-threading hand at threading. I threaded 3 out of 5 needles in 30 seconds.

Staci with Liam, Natalie, and Grandpa taking their turn at the rubberband shooting.

Into the barn for the basketball shooting.

Austin in the barn.

I made 3 out of 5 basketball shots in the barn.

Then we got a little distracted by cool dusty sunlight.

It was just so pretty.

This one is my favorite:

Cool illumination. And Austin's face is funny, too.

Hi, Austin ears.

Cuties Natalie and Emma

Ezra climbing down the loft ladder.

And then off to shoot guns.

It was loud.

Natalie and Grandma

Shooting guns is not my favorite. It is plain to see that by the look on my face:

But I did enjoy the rifle and pistol shooting. Just not so much shooting clay pigeons with a shotgun. At least everyone had a laugh at watching me try.

me with the rifle

And the Top Shot shooter goes to....

Cameron!

Way to go, Cam.

Tyson even had an inscribed trophy for the event.

football! which I never did make it out to play (someone had a potty accident and then something else happened and then something else...oh well. maybe another year.).

You know that it has been a fun and productive day when all of the children collapse.

It's 11 pm? Oh, okay, no wonder.

Thanksgiving 2011 part 1

2011-11-30T23:52:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling the need to post about Thanksgiving day while it is still November. I have approximately 26 minutes to do so.

It was great fun with all of Weston's side together. There was 29 of us.

The food was super duper delish. Weston's brother Cameron and his family provided the turkey and ham, which were both home grown. My mom-in-law is an amazing cook, as our all of my sisters-in-law. We all left the table filled to the brim. The kids made cute place cards, too.

This year we voted on the adults eating first while the kids watched a movie. This way the adults could enjoy a quiet, relaxing, hot, beautiful, and all of that delicious Thanksgiving feast. We lingered at the table in conversation after eating - one of my favorites - and after we were done the kids ate. It worked out great.

A little while after dinner some of us went for a hike up the canyon a little bit to the head gate. Grandpa needed to turn the water to the ditch off (from the creek).

Okay, we are making this part 1 because I am too tired to do anything else tonight. See you later for part 2, which includes family pictures. :)

Close to Me - Homemade Music Video

2011-11-28T18:23:00.002-07:00

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving break. So fun! Weston's whole family was together. His 2 parents and their 6 sons, 5 daughters-in-law and 16 grandkids. Pictures coming soon.

In the meantime, here is a video that our family put together. It was an assignment for this Thanksgiving get together. We were supposed to do either a commercial or a music video. It was so fun watching everyone's videos last Saturday night on the big screen with all 29 of us gathered 'round. It was a major laugh out loud time.
Hope you enjoy watching ours.

Peace out and...

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T08:58:00.001-07:00

Here's a little Thanksgiving history Charlie Brown style.

This is America, Charlie Brown: The Mayflower Voyager Part 1

This is America, Charlie Brown: The Mayflower Voyager Part 2

Happy Thanksgiving!

Must We Always Need a Title?

2011-11-21T22:29:00.015-07:00

Sometimes titles come easy, and other times...I got nothing'.

Hi.

How's it going with y'all?

Besides spending too much time on Pinterest, things are pretty normal for us.

Our kind of normal, I suppose.

Things like:

-the children play games, play toys, play piano (and do their chores)

-the rancher works, works, works (and plays here and there)

-the homemaker/mother (me) does homemaker and mother things (you know what that's like)

-it has already snowed and things are still mostly white and it already feels like Winter

-bears are gone for the Winter

-wolves are here for the Winter (4 spotted the other day on this here ranch )

-Carrie wishes that it wouldn't be Winter so daggone soon and that wild animals lived far, far away.

Anyway.

Zoe is 5 months old today. I need to take some pictures of her being 5 months old.

And the kids are out of school (hooray!), and Thanksgiving is this week (hooray, hoorah!).

Weston's whole family (parents, all 5 brothers, and their families) will be here by Wednesday. Love it.

Sad news: My parents don't live at the ranch anymore, as of yesterday. They were here for 7 weeks, and it went by way. too. fast! I LOVED having them here. I miss looking out the window at night and seeing their lights on. I miss the doorbell ringing, and the kids running to the door knowing that it is them. I miss them being over here, even if it was just sitting in my library with a laptop looking for houses and doing all of their other business; I just loves their presence.

My mom helped to get me jump started on some house projects. Plus all that other good stuff that moms and grammies do for you. Very awesome. Thank you, Sary Mue.

Here are some other pictures. They are of last Friday when we had a little snowstorm (about 3 inches):

The kids like to do my exercise videos with me. This morning I was teaching Kate how to jab and cross (punching). We were doing a little boxing video thing. Exercise videos are not my favorite way to exercise. Can't we all just play sports everyday? That is definitely my favorite!

Grammie rolling out ginger cookies. An apple speared and thought about being cored, peeled, and sliced for crisp (but it didn't because I got side-tracked).

Lunch after playing outside in the snow. Warm homemade ham and potato soup (with one of the pig's that we raise), and Grammie's oatmeal cookies.

Strawberry, the goat that keeps getting out, thinks that she needs to be at the table with us.

Outside again.

Inside again.

Since it gets dark so early these days, there is plenty of time for games. I do like that about Winter.

Crosley's cranking out Christmas tunes.

Ezra blowing on his freshly ironed bead things.

And a little Little House (book 7) by (battery-operated) candlelight before bed should pretty much round things out and chill everybody out..

Later!

The Gigglin' Giggler Frame

2011-11-14T22:56:00.004-07:00

Hey there.

I'm in the mood for somethin' crafty. How 'bout you?

I get like this here and there. Lately it is more here than there.

Here's a little something...

I saw this like 2 1/2 years ago and knew that someday I wanted to do something similar:

I added the text to this photo back in '09.

Their's is way-the-heck cooler, but whatever.

Small cheap-o house numbers from Home Depot are easier to find than the extra large ones like in the picture above, and since I am a cheapskate, I go for the cheapest of the cheap-o: $1 something each.

To do what I'm doin' with them house #s...

plus wrapping paper (or cloth or whatever to use as the backdrop/matte), and cardboard, and tape (or other adhesive)

First, spray paint the #s...

spray paint + house numbers = a cool print on the drop cloth

and painted numbers

Then cut the cardboard to fit the window's glass.
Then wrap the cardboard with the wrapping paper and tape it (I am so not a perfectionist), and adhere picture to the wrapping paper.

work it...

This reminds me that Kate lost her first tooth tonight.

And just try to get it done, patiently, with astronauts, tigers, and whatever else in full motion all around you.

It's fun.

Really fun.

When the numbers are dry, hot glue them into place wherever you want on the frame like in the photo below.
You just might finish with something sorta like this in 20 minutes or so:

20 minutes or 14 months - one of the two. Yes, it took me 14 months from start (buying numbers) to finish (hanging it on the wall), but who pays attention to little details like that?

That's just how it goes ~~sometimes~~ over here.

Ten on Ten: November

2011-11-10T23:25:00.002-07:00

There are goats on my back porch right now banging on something.

Dang goats.

Can they not stay where they are supposed to?

Oh, and Weston found a rattlesnake in the chicken coop this evening.

It was right next to a laying box where our kids had just checked for eggs.

Luckily it was too cold for it to move.

It is no longer with us, though.

10 pix from today...

Kate was the only on the bus this morning.

Dropping Spencer off at school late. 2 asthma treatments last night.

50 pounds of honey brought by today for "rent" from the bee people who have their hives on the ranch.

A little artsyness at the renters' house, painted by the previous owners.

Chasing the "quack pack."

Technicolor tree.

Ezra is getting this reading thing down.

(Cub) Scouting for food (for the needy).

Some cowboys gathering their lost cattle from our corral.

Our lane.

Family Pix and Thoughts on Living Boonie

2011-11-04T22:55:00.001-06:00

I'd been wanting to get some family pictures taken for the last few months, before it got cold, thought I, but it had never made it to fruition. Last Sunday was showing to be the last day in the 60's, so we gave it a go, as thrown together as anything I do these days. We grabbed my Mom and Dad - Mom to be the photographer and Dad to be the entertainer behind the camera to keep little attention spans at bay, and little faces happy (they make for the best photos, after all, and Dad is pretty much a pro at getting grumpies out, even at a distance). It is a bit of a job taking family pictures, but considering not only the entertainer but also the props it was quite enjoyable.

These fields make for the best pictures. And you can kind of get a look at really how far out we live, with nothing in the background for miles. Our blog is called The Boonie Life for a reason, and that is it.

Have you ever lived out in the boonies, or wondered what it would be like? Or have you ever visited us and wondered how in the world we can live so far out? Or how often we go to the store, or what do we do in the case of an emergency, or do we feel disconnected with the rest of the world, or on we on city water and the sewer system? I have been asked all of those questions.

The store? We go to the store whenever we feel like it, which, truthfully, I hardly ever "feel" like it. It is only about an hour to the "big city" where stores are and everything else is, and it is quite a chore for me to go. Because of the drive, yes, but more so because of my very active 2 1/2-year-old who does not think that he has to sit in a cart, but can roam as he pleases. I'm sure that many of you feel the same way. I'm not really a big shopper anyway (aside from thrifting, of course).

Um, no, we are not on city water or the sewer system. I think that it would be a bit costly to include us in the system.

Disconnected from the rest of the world? Sorta, I guess. But only in ways that I highly prefer. We do not have satellite TV or Dish Network (by choice) and let me tell you that I absolutely LOVE not having it and being "connected" to the world in that sense. I recommend it to everyone. We have a DVD player and VCR for movie watching when we want and we have the internet for our "worldly connection". That is plenty.

That bull in the background so wants to be part of our merry little group.

And we don't have little neighbor kids knocking on the door. (Hooray.) My kids play together more this way and are all each other's best friends. We are all very social, though, and love having friends come over, but it is almost always a whole family that comes and hangs out with our whole family. This is how we like it.

Overall, this boonie living business is pretty grand.

But I have to admit that I haven't always thought so. The first few winters up here were pretty hard for me. Partly because I am not a cold weather fan - I think that I had/have a touch of SAD (seasonal affected disorder) - and partly because we were in a temporary location (actually 4 temporary locations in a row before moving to our house now). I didn't feel like I could "make it my own" (i.e. painting and what not) on any of the places, which really is important for me.

It was also because of social reasons that those first few winters were hard. I had three little ones, ages 3, 2 and 3 weeks old when we first moved here and none of them really talked. Weston would be gone all day and, while I loved my littles, I felt alone. I honestly felt that life was passing me by. I felt like I was going to be spending the rest of my 20's in the middle of nowhere while everyone else was having fun and living life elsewhere. I remember crying a lot. And if you know me you know that I hardly ever cry. One thing that helped me was taking long drives during the day with my little ones while listening to music. It was definitely a challenging time for me. I was constantly bugging Weston about what we were going to "do next" when our 2 years that we committed to at the ranch were over. I did not want to stay any longer than that and I wanted him to have no doubt about it.

My one scheduled thing each week was church on Sundays. Shortly after moving here I was asked to work in the nursery at church with the 18-month-olds to 3-year-olds. They asked me, I said yes, and then I went into the bathroom and cried. I thought, 'Why would they ask me to be secluded in nursery with toddlers when that's how I am all week at home?' I said a short prayer asking the Lord to help me. After I got a hold of my emotions in the bathroom at church that day, I went back to class and the closing song was being sung. It was "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go, Dear Lord." I felt like it was just for me. I sighed, fought more tears, and took it straight to heart, thinking, 'Okay, okay. Nursery, the ranch, whatever it may be, it is in your hands, and I will do your will. I'll be what you want me to be.'

And then the sun came out....

I still have my days here and there where I'd like to go somewhere else and do something else - like the other day when I was driving home and I couldn't even tell that it was Fall because all I could see were sagebrush hills. I so wanted my eastern colorful trees.

But I know that this is the place for me right now. Our Heavenly Father is in control, He sees that big picture of how everything is going to flow, He wants us to be happy, He knows what we can be and what will make us stronger, and He wants us to rely on Him always.

And guess what. He has pretty much been making my dreams come true. He has blessed me immensely and I would be a fool if I didn't see it. Actually, I was a fool for a while because I didn't see it; I was looking at only myself and not at the goodness around me, and at my little girl daydreams that were unfolding directly in front of me. He has not only given me the peaceful, wholesome country lifestyle that I would daydream about as a young girl, and a bunch of colorful trees around me, and a creek, and a warm and comfortable home and all of that, but my family that has always been the center of those daydreams - A faithful, spiritual, excellent father of a handsome husband and 5 darling and healthy and (mostly) obedient innocent children.

Notice what is going on with Ezra's hand and Jiles's sleeve. And if Weston takes one step forward he is destined for Pieville (cow pie).

With the kids being older and bigger now, and more of them, we are busier than ever. Time goes faster and so do we, but I stop and thank the Lord everyday that we can raise our children in this beautiful land around us and away from "the world". It is such a blessing and such a great thing for our little family to live this way, in the boonies. I don't really have much to compare it to, since we have pretty much raised our kids only here, but I am so glad and grateful that we are here.

And do you know what? It really doesn't seem that far out anymore.

Notice Jiles's sleeve now after the run in with Ezra's hand.

Our entertainer and photographer: Pops and Mumsie

"Don't take a picture of me!"

Camp Fire in the Fall

2011-10-29T08:23:00.023-06:00

"I just love the smell of decomposing leaves in the morning."

This Fall has been different. At least I think that it has. It seems like the leaves are all changing at different times. Some trees have already turned and fallen and some trees are still really green. It doesn't seem like it is normally like that. I wonder why. And, in my humble opinion, it doesn't make for the prettiest Fall ever.

"Really, mom, jumping on fallen black walnut leaves, and an occasional stick and black walnut, is as good as a foot massage."

Our black walnut tree is dying. SO so SO so sad! It is the tree in our backyard that has the field hockey stick hanging from it, and has the trampoline under it. Weston has already cut down part of it. So sad will be the day when it all has to come down. I am quite partial to trees in general, but especially to really cool ones that are in my yard that provide so much entertainment and shade and beauty. A cool tree dying is one thing, but a cool tree dying in the desert where there are so few cool trees in the first place is a sad thing indeed.

"Yipee!" and "Howdy."

Last night we had a little camp fire thing.

"I just LOVE moving rocking chairs that match my shirt."

It started out to be a fire to just burn branches and stuff.

"Can I burn this one, Daddy? I do believe that the fire is at its peak temperature for adding such material."

"Now, children, if you hold the stick like so, it illuminates the most interesting connection with the sun itself."

"...yes, and a flibbertigibbet, or even a will-o'-the-wisp. Don't you think?"

Grover becomes like a deer in headlights when he is faced with fire.

"Look, guys! I found just the thing to throw on the fire to create the best toxic fumes ever: an old inter tube. It'll create the blackest smoke in the world and a really great smell!"

"Really? That's how you solve the problem? That's really how you find the word that it means?"
"Yes, and it is also how you keep a wave upon the sand and how you hold a moonbeam in your hand."
"Ah-ha!"

"Mom, look what happened when I mixed some sand that I ground from a rock and some lye that I mixed up with last week's ashes. Well, I had to shape it a bit in the hot fire, too, of course, but I am really quite pleased with the outcome."

After a while we all got hungry and decided it would be in our best interest to break out some grub.

Nothing beats homemade biscuits.
Really, not even these. These seem to leave a bit of a film on the roof of one's mouth.

Weston is a seasoned dutch-oven-on-the-camp-fire cooker.

Chopped taters, home grown sausage, a little oil, onions, and good ol' salt and pepper +
some hot coals = som'in tasty good.

"So, mom, are dem really the healthiest for us when dem are burnt black as carbon, like you said?"

"Hey, hon, check it out: we should submit our biscuit recipe to Southern Living magazine. It would totally be published. Just look at this masterpiece!"

Grover, embarrassed by his ceaseless stare, moves in to drown his woes in butter and grape jelly."

"What am I looking at?"

"Camp fires at Weston and Carrie's house are totally the bomb! I think that I shall stay here forever."

Me and Kate Plus 8

2011-10-20T23:54:00.003-06:00

Not the Gosselin bunch.
(Sorry, if you were expecting them.)
Nope. Around here it's just me and my Kate, and then 8 others, including Weston and our other 4, plus 3 more kiddos thrown in there.

Jiles (2), Ezra (5), Savannah (6), Kate (7), Timmy (8), Shirley (9), Spencer (8)
(missing Miss Zoe (4 mo.), who was taking a nap)

Weston and I have had 8 kids for the last 6 days.

Some friends of our just had their 11th child. Their baby was a month early (at 8 lbs 8 oz) and needs to be in the NICU for awhile because his lungs aren't yet fully developed. So we are watching their 3 kids that go to school with our kids while they are still with their baby.

It's been fun pretending that they are all ours. I've always wanted a big family.

It has been fun, and busy, and a bit crazy at times.

Definitely never boring.

Including making lunches for a third of the school everyday
(our school only has 18 students),

and the tooth fairy visiting 3 times to 3 different kids in only two nights.

(One of the visits was to Shirley, who told me that the tooth fairy always brings her a dollar. I told her that she might want to wait until she was back at home to put her tooth under her pillow. She put it under her pillow at our house that night anyway. The tooth fairy brought her a quarter. Man, what a cheapskate that tooth fairy is to us!)

The kids pretty much play like crazy outside most of the time.

One day they searched for caterpillars forever. There were lots and lots and lots in the haystack.

They are the kinds that turn into moths, though, and not butterflies. Darn it.

They found like 68 or something like that. They made them a nice home.

Bath time is interesting with 8 little ones. The water gets really good and brown, and cold, by the time the last child leaves it. Jiles likes to bathe (and sleep and just about everything else) with his cowboy hat on.

Playgrounds are pretty far and few between around here, so we improvise. It is a bit slobbered on, being that it is a cow feeder and all, but it is nothing that can't be washed off by nice cold dirty bath water.

The above picture is of Savannah. She is 6 years old and is so cute. She is so happy and loves to laugh and loves babies and loves to dress up and fix her hair. Unfortunately, she also gets "distracted by scissors", as she likes to put it. Notice the bangs here, and we shall compare them with a picture a little farther down. Also notice her teeth.

Jiles likes to study gross things, like cow scat, up close.

Dreamy Kate.

Down by the banks where the hanky panks

to wash off the slobber from that cow feeder jank.

Singing oop op flip flip

twiddly dee

and kerrr plop.

So, basically, they play outside until those bugs come out that make things look all magical (like in the picture below)...

...and until the sun gets really low in the sky...

...and then drops altogether and it's dinner time, then bath time, then cram in piano practice and homework, then bed time.

Oh yeah, and sometimes, like last Saturday, we get random flocks of a thousand sheep going down our road.

It's always fun to pretend that it is our very own parade, just a lot quieter.

Pretty much all you can hear are the padding of feet and the occasional bell.

Peruvian sheep herders are always with the sheep, living off not much more than potatoes and onions (we had 5 over for dinner last year - 3 men and 2 of their wives, who didn't speak a lick of English and cleaned my whole kitchen after dinner).

Wooly bums.

Alright, enough of the sheep.

Back to the kids.

The youngest of all...

Bedtime is ~~fun~~ entertaining. After everyone is in jammies and has their teeth brushed, Weston takes the 4 boys into the boys' room and reads Eragon to them, and I take the 4 girls into the girls' room and we pick out what they are going to wear, and paint their nails, and put their hair in rag curlers. Savannah, the 6-year-old, is most into all of this, and her sister, Shirley, is next (they are 2 of 6 sisters). Zoe usually kicks in her crib and Kate usually reads Charlotte's Web on her bed while the rest of us go through her clothes to figure out what they are going to wear the next day. It is fun.

Oh, and remember Savannah's teeth and hair before?

Bangs to her eye brows and one tooth on the bottom missing?

Well here she is now...

....after the scissor "distraction", and a quarter richer.

And here are the curls the morning after sleeping with the rags in all night...

It has pretty much been a party.

my birfday and juicering

2011-10-09T23:38:00.000-06:00

The last time I blogged I was 32. Now I am 33.

Really quickly about age: I have always liked the age that I am; I have never wished to be younger or older. I think that I say that every year, but it is true.

My lovely napkin card from my dear old dad and mom. Living boonie = improvisation. Love it.

Gifty time. Spencer cannot stand to NOT assist in the opening of a gift, and I cannot stand to NOT give advice on how to use my camera.

Did I mention that both sets of grandparents live right by us right now? We are in our own little piece of heaven!

My birthday, as well as 3 other days of the week last week, was dedicated to the juicing of grapes.

Double time.

Total yield: 224 quarts of delicious and nutritious grape juice, plus 3 1/2 gallons of thicker/pulpy juice to make 9 batches of grape jelly, plus a yummy smelling house. And I tell you, the weather was perfect. Warm and nice on the day we picked and refrigerator cool and rainy for the days we ran the hot juicers.

.................................................................................................................................................................

My sister, Holly, came over today with her fam and a nutritious and delicious dinner (a belated birthday dinner for me). So yummy! I took some senior pix of my 17-year-old niece, too, around the ranch a little with my cute and funny 13-year-old niece as both her and my assistant. It was fun. Like always I took a ton of pix. I'll have to share some later.

hi.

2011-10-03T22:29:00.001-06:00

still here.still alive.

living life.doing stuff.

like always.

didn't mean to not post for 3 weeks. it just happened that way.

we've been canning, and taking trips to california, and doing laundry, and playing, and canning some more, and going to school, and chopping wood, and changing diapers, and trying to figure out how to keep my oldest from having so many asthma attacks, and loving each other, and breaking up fights, and cleaning house, and feeding chickens and goats, and all of that other life stuff that we all do everyday.

it's great.life's great.

i want to add blogging to that list again. cuz i like blogging.

we went to a sweet produce stand in the country where those of us who didn't grow a garden this year can load up on fruits and veggies like those that did do a garden this year. (we're every other year gardeners it seems like. we either have a baby or a garden. this year: baby.) we got lots of green peppers and tomatoes and onions and jalepeno peppers for salsa. and we got 10 dozen ears of corn.

they also had a field of zinnias that were so pretty. they were in the same place that the sunflowers were in last year.

10 dozen corn = lots of schucking/husking (what do you call it?)

the kids like to eat them raw.

and back at the ranch over these last few weeks (presented in a rather random fashion)...

canning = eating lots of cold cereal...

ezra goes to Kindergarten 2 days one week and 3 days the other week. he loves it, but i love having him at home. i crave homeschooling. if only our school wasn't so awesome. haha. i do some schooling at home anyway, because i like it that much...

hanging laundry is a little trickier these days with 2 very dependent littles...

i tried using the dryer because it was getting so hard to hang out a load, but it doesn't dry. so my hanging out clothes because i like to so much has become hanging out clothes because that is how they have to get dry now...

kate, the girl that does not like to get her hair fixed, asked me to curl her hair! big time shocker.

she is also the girl that does not like to get her picture taken unless she is in the mood (as demonstrated in the photo below where she was not in the mood)...

jiles's hair gets longer...

he couldn't find his boots one day, so he put on some flip flops...

(ouch)

kate writes stories, or reads every night before bed...

she also started piano lessons...

weston has been busy chopping wood whenever he is not doing ranch stuff, getting us ready for a cold winter...

the bugs have been really bad this year, and i heard someone say that when the bugs are really bad, it's going to be a hard winter. is that true?

weston has also been getting the hay stacked and stocked in the hay shelters...

we all gathered around to watch, even zoe this time...

spencer's cleats are his school shoes these days...

jiles is like a faithful ranch dog. he sits on the 4-wheeler waiting for the rancher to come along, and every time an engine starts up he feels like he has to be going along...

grandma gives cute little grandkids horsey rides...

we have 2 new neighbors...

well temporarily.

my ma and pa are staying right next to us in the ranch guest house. love.

they just sold their house and are in the process of getting another one.

and i cut jiles's hair!...

it was so long and knotty and o.o.c. not the best job, but you try cutting a crazy active 2-year-old's hair. it's hard.

we hit the vineyard today and picked basically 2 truck loads (well grandparents picked most of them while i chased jiles half the time) sleep time now. everyone else is. asleep, that is. gotta wake up and get going on juicing.

fun season.

Ten on Ten: September 2011 & A Video

2011-09-10T23:51:00.008-06:00

10 on Ten.
Ten on 10.

10 pix
day 10
10 hours

10:15 am
Rancher and oldest boy milk Mrs. Miagi, the goat, on the new stand that they built.

11:06 am
Check Grandma and Grandpa's garden. Picked maters and beans.

12:34 pm
Basketball-ing it up in the garage with the Rancher and Chillins.

1:22 pm
Fb instant message with the Rancher who was 15 feet away around the corner; his first time ever im-ing. We posted on each other's fb "wall" at almost the exact same second, not knowing that the other was on. We are so the same person sometimes - and so tech-y sometimes.

2:40 pm
Need more milk for tomorrow. Separate Cookie, the milk cow, from her 4 orphan calves (Mrs. Miagi only gave 3 cups).

4:02 pm
Snackin'. Peanut butter and honey mix for some, and green smoothies for others, and both for one.

5:27 pm
Crazy storm all of a sudden. We all watch from the front porch. Spencer patriotically rescues the flag.

7:20 pm
Post bath movie - Robin Hood (the best Disney cartoon EVER, in my opinion).

8:06 pm
Rancher's done with Cookie. I strain the goods.

9:58 pm
(Okay, so it is a little longer than 10 hours.)
Chillins sleeping, Rancher watching a movie, I finish up our Summer video (below) and work on Primary singing time for tomorrow; I'm teaching a new song.
It sounds like this:
I will go; I will do the things the Lord commands. I know the Lord provides a way; he wants me to obey.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Watch this

A bits-of-Summer video that I finished today:

Sleepy Heads

2011-09-05T00:03:00.009-06:00

Last night Zoe slept for 9 hours!

I put her to bed at 10:30 and she didn't wake up until 7:30. I woke up and looked over at her and she was wide awake and staring at me. She wasn't fussing; she was just staring. She is such an easy baby, oh my goodness; she sleeps a ton and hardly ever complains. And she is starting to get smily and stuff. So sweet and cute.

So she slept through the night and so did the other kids. Which is seriously and ridiculously unheard of around here. I only woke up once because I heard someone coughing, but then I went right back to sleep and didn't wake up until 7:30. Ahhhh.... refreshing.

Usually every night we have at least one child who wakes up. At least 1? Okay, so more like 2 or 3 children - all of the boys. Thursday night, everyone got up in the night, which meant that I was up 5 times. Spencer had to go to the bathroom and was scared, Kate fell off of the bed, Ezra couldn't breathe because his nose was stuffy, Jiles just wanted to be with us, and Zoe was hungry. Needless to say I was wiped in the morning and did NOT want to get out of bed when the time came; I felt like I had been up all night.

We have started doing a sticker chart as an incentive for the kids to STAY IN THEIR BED. Yes, it is that bad that we need to have an incentive. If everyone stays in their bed then everyone gets 2 stickers. It is amazing what children will do for stickers.

I used to not mind when they would come in and cuddle with us in the night; I would welcome it even. But it has gotten O.O.C. (out of control).

The rule is now that they can't come in until it is light, unless they are sick. Scared? Curl up with a sibling. Does that sound mean?

Okay, enough rattling on from me. I'm tired and I really am rattling, and fading. I am ready to close my eyes and I hope that they can stay closed until like 8 tomorrow, since tomorrow is Labor Day. Wouldn't that be dreamy?

Most likely we will look like this by 7 a.m.:

Nighty night,

and....

Utahr.

2011-09-01T21:16:00.003-06:00

So, back to our Utah trip. We had a great time. It was short (well, until the drive home that is) and really fun. I have 2 sisters there, and Weston has 2 brothers and his grandmother there, plus cousins on both sides, so there are lots of family to see and hang with.

We drove down Thursday night and stayed with Weston's brother Jamon and his family.

On Friday we wanted to take our kids to the BYU campus. First we passed by the Missionary Training Center and went to see the Provo Temple.

Missionaries in training taking a walk; the Provo Temple

Then we went to campus. We went to the Bean Museum to see all of the stuffed animals. They have so many in there. The kids loved it.

"Horton"; Good big brother Spencer keeping track of Jiles; Ezra checking out the sweet liger; looking down to the 1st floor at "Horton"

We even got to see animals like the ones that came in our yard a couple of months ago: a black bear (like the one that was on our back porch looking in our kitchen french doors); and a bobcat (like the one that attacked our cat right in front of my eyes about 20 feet from our back porch).

Next we went bowling at the Wilkinson Center on campus. Totally fun and they had great music: mostly U2. Our kids have some pretty cool bowling techniques. Ezra likes to throw it like he's doing a chest pass.

Kate's throws would send the ball towards the pins soooper slowly; yeah, look at that form!

Can you tell who won? Haha!! I'll give credit to Weston for one of my strikes that he got for me while I was on the phone.

After bowling it was lunch time. Jamon had invited us to come to his work for lunch. Staci, Jamon's wife, met us there with there little boy. That was fun; I felt like I was going to IKEA. Everything was so hip and modern. I also felt like I was still on a college campus. His work has like 2000 employees, who I swear are all fresh out of college. The cafeteria was super nice, had yummy food and a live band (like one that you would see in a college battle of the bands), and, much to Weston's delight, a ping pong table.

Weston, Jamon, and Spencer in the caf; Spencer's candid shots: Ezra's head, Staci, Zoe and I while eating; Jamon, behind the "iron" curtain, playing Weston in some pong.

The whole front entry way was glass, and on the way out, Ezra, who I think was spacing a little, smacked right into one of the glass walls thinking that he was walking through a doorway. It gave Staci and I a good laugh.

That afternoon we met up with my sister, Wendy, and her family at their pool. That was so fun! That was only our 2nd time going to the pool this summer (we don't get to the pool much thanks to our boonie living). There were 2 really fun swirling slides that were really pretty high. So fun!

Ezra, the puppy; Andy and Wendy; Staci and Liam; Cousin Zac taking Jiles on the "slow" slide

That night (Friday night) we went over to Wendy's house for some Friday night pizza. My sister, Julie, and her family came over, too. Yay, love them!

Julie and Drew; Jules with Zoe

Saturday we headed to Weston's brother Ammon's house. We ate some quick grub at their house and then left to go to their fun rec center and pool. So fun! Huge slide, playground in the kiddy section, and a pirate ship in a different kiddy section. Afterward we got some more grub, and then the girls went shopping, and then the guys went to play at a ping pong club.

Leslie, Ammon, and Jaxon

Sunday, after church with A & L, we headed to Salt Lake City to go to Temple Square and to see Weston's grandmother.

Temple Square was really neat. The kids hadn't been there for... a long time; they don't remember it. I sure like that place. Did you know that there are 44 languages that are/can be spoken there? That's a lot.

Clockwise from left: on the roof of the LDS Conference Center;by the reflection pool; staging a picture like one on our wedding day in that exact spot (except without kids) ; inside the Conference Center (it can seat 21,200)

My favorite family picture right now.

Weston's grandmother (Grandma Great to our kids) lives just a few blocks from Temple Square. She is an amazing lady! She is 92 years old and doing awesome! She still travels the world, literally. She is somewhere on the Atlantic right now. Iceland maybe? It was really great to see her. I hope that we weren't too much for her (our kids are pretty dern active).

It was a great trip and a much needed vacation for our family. Even the breaking down twice on the way home part was sorta fun. At least it provided us with some great memories. (I don't, however, like the fact that I still feel like the car is going to break down every time I go somewhere.) Oh, the fun.

Jiles speaks his own language.

2011-08-30T10:04:00.007-06:00

I LOVE this blue-eyed boy.

How could you not?

He is a doll.

He is happy almost all the time.

He gives hugs and kisses liberally to just about everyone.

And he has his own language.

It is called Jilesese.

And it is dang adorable.

And dang hilarious.

And he has the cutest stratchy/throaty voice.

Here are a few vocabulary words in Jilesese (spelled as phonetically as possible):

Daddy (his favorite word) = "Dah-yay"

Zoe (his next most used word) = "Udder"

Ezra = "Eder"

Mommy = "Bobby" (lately. It is usually "MOM!!" or just plain ole' "Mommy")

I would like to jump on the trampoline = "Wee!"

I would like a drink of water please = "Mo"

I would like to go with Daddy please. = "Dah-yay me!"

Daddy went out to work. = "Dah-yay woi."
Do you know where my other boot is? = "Mm boo ah?"

And here is a 39 second real life sampling for you. This is when we were in one of the hotels last week and the kids were having fun talking to each other on the 2 phones that were in our room. Jiles was talking to Spencer across the room here. We all got a kick out of it (except for Zoe who was not amused at her temporary neglect.) See if you can understand any of it. If you can then you are doing better than me.

....

He gets in his own little world and talks like this to himself and to his toys for hours. It is so cute to listen to!

Love you, Ji Guy!!

august.

2011-08-29T00:28:00.000-06:00

Black-eyed Susans: One good thing about August.

Just in case you were wondering, we made it home from our Utah trip fine. I mean, you know, after 2 breakdowns. We finally made it home late Tuesday afternoon. It only took us 49 hours to make a 6 hour drive. Crazy trip.

I just saw lightning. And it is August. A dangerous combination.

It is not my favorite month.

I used to love it. It used to mean hot, summer, beaches, no school, freedom, playing.

But here in Idaho, out in the high desert, I do NOT like it. Now, to me, though it still means hot, August also means dry, dry, dry, yellow and brown fields, skeleton weed, rattle snakes, blooming sagebrush, allergies, asthma, sneezing, itchy eyes, and, my least favorite, lightning storms with no rain. It's FIRE season.

It is really coming now: LOTS of lightning. It is southwest and west of us, which means that it is probably coming our way. Weston and I were watching from the front porch, and he started talking about our "game plan". It makes me so nervous. I'm sure that I won't be sleeping much. I never do when it is like this. I wake up sniffing, that is trying to see if I smell fire, and then I walk around the house looking out every window praying that I only see darkness.

Natural disasters are freaky. Weston and I were glued to the computer yesterday watching for hurricane updates. I was on facebook a ton looking at my Virginia and other East Coaster people's statuses. Lots of power outages and downed trees and rain and wind. One guy died in my home county from a tree falling.

Today in church the opening song was Be Still, My Soul. I thought it was a perfect song for the hurricane happenings (and earthquake and tornados that also happened in the same week on the east coast), most specifically the second verse.

Be still, my soul:

The Lord doth undertake to guide the future as he has the past.

Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;

All now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul:

The waves and winds still know His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

I keep thinking I smell something burning and it makes my blood run cold. I hate that feeling.

Oh, and Weston's game plan: Go to sleep and wake up in the morning to see where the fires are.

I add in: Pray.

What more can you do?

Haha! And just as I am about to click "PUBLISH POST", I smell RAIN!!! Sure enough. It's not a whole lot, but we'll take it!

Stuck

2011-08-23T11:37:00.004-06:00

Stuck.

It's the word on Sesame Street today.

My kids are watching it here from the hotel.

A different hotel from the last post.

First breakdown:
Here's the story on that.
And here are some pictures of that:

The kids' favorite thing at the first hotel was the phones. There were 2 and they could talk to each other.

Second breakdown:

We got loaded into our car with the new radiator yesterday morning and headed back on our trip back home. But about 45 minutes into the trip, Weston leaned forward with a worried look on his face.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"We're overheating again."

We broke down AGAIN!

Something with the hoses this time.

A cop came along and PUSHED us up the hill.

The kids thought it was awesome.

We cruised down hill to the Flying J. The ONLY thing at that exit.

We were there for SIX hours trying to find a tow truck that could take all 7 of us to the next town where there was a mechanic. We tried to entertain ourselves. There was nothing around us but big rigs and cars and rocks. No shade, no grass. The kids did fairly well, considering the circumstances.

One tow truck came, but would not take us because he wouldn't let us double buckle our kids or hold them on our laps because of his insurance.

So we waited for 3 more hours in the heat at that place to find another one.

We got a guy that towed a van to us and then switched it with our suburban, so that we could drive the van to his mechanic shop.

Weston was on the phone A LOT.

The kids loved the van and tried to think of reasons that we should get one.

We stayed the night here in Burley.

As I was writing this, Weston called and said that the car was done.
We are actually just checking out of the hotel now.

Cross your fingers that we don't break down again.

Weston adds, "If you're going to break down do it in Brigham City and not Burley. The mechanic was terrible."

And we pretty much went over our budget for this trip by 5x.

But we won't forget it. Not for a while anyway.

Brokedown Palace

2011-08-22T00:05:00.004-06:00

Hi there.

We went to Utah.

That is, we are in Utah.

We came down last Thursday. We had a good trip down entering ourselves for hours with photo booth on my laptop, hence all of the wacko pictures.

We had LOADS of brilliant fun.

I'll post about that later (well, probably...no guarantees on that).

It was a much needed getaway for our little family.

However, on our way home today I heard a strange sound, and then Weston heard it, and then our car started smoking.

BREAKIN' DOWN.

Break it down.

Luckily there was an exit right then and we took it. No stores or really anything except for some kind of shop.

I thought that we might have been on fire and made everyone get out a.s.a.p. ("Whatever that means. Probably 'act swiftly awesome pachyderm' - Horton) and grabbed some valuables. Weston thought that I was overreacting. So I was, but only in hindsight. I wasn't risking it.

We weren't on fire.

And Weston says that the picture above is, "very attractive."

I'm not sure, but I think that he was being sarcastic.

The radiator had cracked, so all of the water went out and the engine overheated.

Thank goodness for cell phones and for Ammons who can look up mechanic shops.
We put water in and puttered our way to Auto Zone two exits away.

The radiator needed replacing. So now here we be in a hotel room in Brigham City, Utah.

An extension to our vacation.

I'm totally cool with it.

Or maybe it was the picture above that he called, "very attractive."

Whatever.

The Auto Zone guy hooked us up with a good mechanic and Weston went over to his house to get it fixed. He's back and it has a new radiator.
We'll try it out after our "free" breakfast and swimming in the morning.

(It is sort of funny how they call it free after we payed however much for the room. Totally not free when viewed from that angle.)

The pictures are switched, I mean backward, I mean it is like a mirror. It looks like I am driving, but I was just the wee passenger. As if I would do that crazy wacko dorky stuff while driving a vehicle. Nope, not me.

Whoa, pretty freaky.

Below is a photo booth video. It might make you dizzy, or frustrated, or just plain bugged at all the extra noise that comes from it.

That's my disclaimer.

Weston wants me to say that this is our Australia trip (that we have never taken. Just because it is mirrored and looks like he is driving on the wrong side of the car.)

........

And bonus points go to who can tell me, WITHOUT googling or looking it up, who sings the song that is the title of this post.

Zoe's Blessing Day

2011-08-15T14:35:00.001-06:00

Last Sunday, August 7, Weston blessed Zoe at church.

During the last few months that I was pregnant with Zoe, I kept thinking of the moment when Weston would be holding her in her little white gown and say, "Zoe Charlotte" when blessing her. I thought about it so many times. I guess I was trying her name out. We were pretty positive on the first name since the day that we told the kids that we were having a girl and Kate rejoicingly threw her arms up and shouted, "Zoe!" I love the name Charlotte and that it sounds southern. Since I'm from the south and miss it so much I was pushing for that, as a little piece of my growing up years.

So when it finally came to fruition, and he said her name holding her in her little white gown, it was like I had been there before, in a way. At least the part where he said her name. It was a beautiful blessing.

Both Weston's parents and my parents were there, along with 2 of my sisters and their children - Holly with her 5 and Wendy with her 7. Neither of their husbands could come, though. There were 25 of us. After church everyone came over to our house.

Everyone except for my sis, Wendy, who was taking the picture and her 2 littlest who were right next to her.

Lucky Zoe with both of her grandfathers, Grandpa and Grandad.

It is awesome that we have both sets of grandparents so close to us. I never knew either one of my grandfathers and both of my grandmothers lived in the west (we were in the east) and they both died when I was in high school. How blessed we are.

Holly is a saint and told me not to worry about the food at all. She brought everything up and took over! So awesome! She is a most excellent cook, too, by the way.

2 of my sisters, Wendy and Holly, and my 2 moms, fixing the grub.

2 handsome men

How does that always end up on her eyes? She was asleep though, so she didn't care.

Wendy's oldest, Natalie (14) and Holly's 2nd oldest, Sadie (13)

Come on in. The door is always open. No really, it is. We need a spring-loaded door that will shut on its own.

Wendy, with her 7, were already up from Utah for the week - nice timing.

Cousin Livy holding Zoe.

Holly

I love this picture. My 2 favorite men!

Holly's oldest, Whitney (17), is the oldest grandchild on my side.

The two 2-year-olds, Jiles and Wendy's Ellie. They are 19 days apart.

Sweet Zoe

Wendy's angel boy, Ammon (5), loved the sprinkler.

Wendy's Landon (9) and Brian (13) talk lacrosse with Weston's dad.

Told you Ammon loved the sprinkler. So cute.

Sister apple throwing contest challenged by Weston (who else).

3 of the 4 sisters. We missed you, Julie girl!

Brian, Zac, Ezra, Landon, Kate and Spencer wanted to try their hand at separating Cookie from her 4 calves.

Ellie likes to talk to her shadow.

Wendy's Zac (11) and Ezra - the inseparable pair.

It was a good day and a good reason to get together:

all for this little lady:

Weston's mom made this blessing gown for him when he was a baby. Spencer and Kate also wore it for their blessings. I love that.

Ten on Ten: August 2011

2011-08-12T00:21:00.001-06:00

10 pix

over 10 hours

(taken) on the 10th day of the month

(and once again not posted on the 10th day, but sometime ~~shortly~~ thereafter).

Ready,

GO.

11:36 AM

My sister, Wendy, and her teeny, Natalie, hang out a load of laundry for me (including a shirt of Wendy's that Jiles "blessed"), while a bunch of our little kids try to chase uncooperative chickens out of a bush.

(P.S. Wendy's laundry hanging techniques are just like our mom's.)

12:03 PM

Wendy begins her ride with 5 of her 7 littles. She was shortly joined by one more of hers and then joined by me and my 5 on my 4-wheeler (Zoe in the Snugli) for a sneezing good time through tall grass, and a stop and quick climb on a hay stack.

1:33 PM

Head off for town in our suburban with Wendy and her crew eating our dust behind us in their suburban.

photo by Spencer

2:45 PM

Almost to Grammie's house to drop off the oldest 4, while 7-week-old Zoe and I head to the big city for my 6-week appointment.

3:59 PM

Zoe poses with the midwife who delivered her.

4:55 PM

Me, Zoe, and my growling tummy stop for a chicken taco. I tried to eat it in my hot suburban while nursing Zoe, but ended up just dripping black bean juice on her blanket, which looked like poop and not black bean juice.

6:16 PM

In the dressing room at Plato's Closet (am I too old to shop there?) I nursed Zoe again in between trying on clothes. None of those clothes in the photo fit me, by the way. I almost didn't get one of the shirts off. I did get some cute things, though.

6:42 PM

Spent way too long between Cafe Rio and Plato's Closet. Headed back to Grammie's.

8:08 PM

After saying goodbye to Wendy and her kids and Grammie, the kids and I headed off for home, trying to make it before it got too dark.

8:58 PM

Halfway home the sun sank out of sight. And 5 babies (yes, my wee ones, you will always be to me) slipped into slumber as we listened to Lady and the Tramp, again.

Rodeo

2011-08-05T17:45:00.003-06:00

The little town next to us is where we go to church. It is also where we go to the rodeo.

It is teeny tiny, in comparison to most rodeos, I suppose, but so is the town in comparison to most towns.

The kids love it.

I must confess, though, that it is not my favorite thing. I am not a cowgirl. But I do like seeing the little ones dressed in their rootin' tootin' cowpoke gear. I like the rodeo more every year I think, and try to get into more, at least for the kids' sake.

First there are kids' games: chase the chicken; feed sack races; egg toss...

Chase the chicken gets pretty intense.

Yee-haw, eh?

Spencer with his Indiana Jones hat (and pocket knife in his pocket) in the egg toss.

Go, Ezra!

Kate would rather watch from the side.

When the rodeo events begin there is a whole lotta watching. Watching barrel racing, calf roping, steer riding, mutton bustin'...

Hot, sticky, ice cream face Jiles.

Callen and Kate

Some of the little cowpokes.

As soon as the sun drops behind that mountain things are going to get waaaaay cooler.

Watching the mutton bustin'.

3-year-old Clancy lasted about .03 seconds. But, man, is he brave! That's his dad on the right opening the gate.

Spencer's buddy, Cole, is about to try his hand on the steer's back.

That's going to hurt. Johnny was limping at church the next day.

If you're wondering where our family was during all of the riding and participating and stuff, the answer is watching, eating, and sitting on the fence. Except for little Ezra who totally busted a mutton. (And wanted to bust it again and again.)

I got him on film (er, SD card). Check him oouut!

Oh Baby, Baby!

2011-08-02T23:05:00.001-06:00

Miss Zoe Charlotte is six weeks old today. And, boy, is she getting rolly polly.

She's a little over 10 pounds now. Not bad. I never have a problem fattening my babies up.

In celebration of her turning 6 weeks old, I started P90X. Whew, I am majorly O.O.S. (out of shape!). P90X's sales pitch is "get absolutely ripped in 90 days or your money back". Well, we'll have to see about that.

My middle 3 joined me in the workout. Funny stuff. At the end, Ezra asked me, "Am I stronger now?" "Absolutely!"

Back to the subject of the post. Here are a few pictures that we took today.

Kate helped me stage and the boys helped spot her when she would fall over.

It is amazing how fast little babies chub up. She is so different from her last little photo session.

Congratulations to Weston's brother, Daron, and his family - Jamee and Olivia and Carter and Brigham!

They have a new son/baby brother today!

We can't wait to see his little face!