Train trip to Temple square

The weekend before Christmas we all rode the train down to SLC to see the lights and hit the LDS muceum. Cody's girlfriend, Josie, came along.
Hugh really had fun seeing everything without the crushing crowds that we experienced last year. Love that smile.
Liam loves seeing the square as well...but it was definatley cold!
The train ride was fun even though we had to run to catch the train down to SLC.
Josie fits right in and was trying to help Cody perfect his smile in this shot. Like that girl!

Always catching up....

So the last time Brenton came home from Colorado he decided to take the boys 'Christmas' shopping and comes home with not only mutiple nerf guns but with ammo and ammo holders! I will figure out how to post video so one can see what it is like to live with these silly boys. That is Liam that Brenton is pinning down in the corner of the kitchen.
Hugh figured out that protective gear might be appropriate after the first round of 'play'. That kid is amazing! Liam is more tactical, he kept popping out of corners and screaming down the hallway.

The next day Cody and the younger boys had an epic the battle that lasted for a long time, I was finding missing ammo for days!

Awhile Back...

Early in October we took a field trip to the Hyrum power plant and played around. It was cold but quite fun. The leaves were amazing and the playground was so much fun, especially the old fashioned merry go round!


The swings were also quite fun.
There is a super cool tree that we took a few pictures by.

Family Pictures!!!

Poor Brenton just loves having pictures taken...can't you tell? Seriously we are so blessed to have had a neighbor volunteer to take our family pictures so that I could get my Christmas cards and a big project done. These were all taken just north of our house.
Such a fun group of kids, I could not figure out how to get the goats into the picture or they would have been there I am sure.
Not sure what was going on here but it was the clearest picture I took with the fancy camera that I am still learning to work. Of course Moira is already a pro with it.
We had a hard time getting all the dogs to cooperate this year but they are still cute. I had hoped for more/better shots but the day was pretty overcast but it was our only option as Brenton is back to Colorado again for at least two weeks. That is Liam's hat on the post....will put more pictures up tomorrow.

What Mom has been up to....

Grandma testing out the new table. She is the best.
I spent last night putting together Grandma Barbara's waterbed and then we filled it with water after the condo maintenance man helped us with some plumbing issues. He was great!
This is what the garage looked like AFTER we unloaded a grundle of boxes! So we have lots left to do!
This is the cool table and chairs that I built today! I was proud of myself and then I got back to work moving furniture and what not.

Sunday Snowman!

We woke up Sunday morning to some sweet powdery snow perfect for a few little snowmen. Hugh hopped right out of bed and went straight to work. He was quite bummed when the snow melted during church.

The first two snowballs ere too big for Hugh to lift.
Happy, toothless munchkin!

Hugh had to enlist Liam to lift the snowballs and to stab the wood thru for the arms. Happy times....but we are glad it warmed up today so Cody could start working on goat feeders.

Couples Family Party

Brenton's mom and dad put on a great dinner for all the married couples each year, this year Brenton had to be in CO so it was not the same.
After dinner we have questions that we answer for money and then there is an auction for random (but often cool)things.
Wyatt was also without his spouse but the the football game made him feel better. Dave did have a spouse with him but....there was a game on .

Back to 'real' life.....

This was Moira's display at Young Women in Excellence earlier this week. She has really taken to photography and has a nature picture to correlate with each value.

This afternoon we moved the dregs of the old haystack and Moira worked on her truck skills with Hugh's supervision. He did not like it when she had to muscle it thru the mud!
The neighbor's cows were the happy recipients of said dregs from the haystack, it was a bit to 'yuck' for the pampered goats!
Hugh was reliving an "I Love Lucy" episode and wanted to stomp the hay like grapes. What smart kids to help their mother!
Hugh seeking nourishment (pop tart?) before all that work, don't you love the short t-shirt? Well off to start sewing holiday baby blankets, we picked up the first batch of flannel today. I will post about that at a later date. Happy life!!!

More Pictures!

Yep, we had fun riding in the truck but man that wind chill can be painful! We took all the pictures on our place or down the road a bit at Brance's corral. I could not resist including the picture of my "dream" truck, you know the kind that runs and is paid for! We are so blessed to live where we do, even with some of our recent challenges I don't think I would go anywhere else except a big spread in Montana, Oklahoma or anywhere with more livestock than people. Fielding is starting to get a bit overpopulated it seems. Love to all especially sweet husband!!!!

Today!

Ok so too much has happened to truly update this blog and in fact I am considering starting over what with all the format changes. But for now my main purpose is to post some pictures for my dear hubby who is hard at work on a jobsite in Colorado. We miss him tons but are hoping to get lots done so that he comes home to happy and calm in a few weeks. So we went and took some pictures yesterday but had to quit when we lost the light, I am hoping to take a few more later this weekend. These kids are great fun to take pictures of and I don't think I will ever tire of just being with them, enjoy the photos!

Yes, it has been some time since I put anything here but do not fear it is not due to lack of possible content! The top photo is one of my "baby's" senior pictures, when did my chubby little man become a good looking cowboy? Beyond pleased with what that boy is doing with his life, but he will always be a whippersnapper to me. Then we next have the baby on the other end of the line, Hugh man! He is deeply committed to his Lego engineering projects at the moment. He will get up in the night to 'check' his collection with a flashlight or he will use the light on his alarm clock! Still a whippersnapper and he still lets me get a good snuggle in now and then. The princess whippersnapper and her goat friends are next in the photo gallery. The two pigmys and Mighty Thor the Nigerian dwarf like to stand on the dear and they even fight over the good spots. Ah, Brenton sniff testing the gluten free breads Cody made for his Agriscience/FFA project...they were beyond grouse. I am so glad that the real makers of gluten free breads have developed better ideas than to just switch flours out. However he did win so the race for Nationals is on! My last whippersnapper is showing how bad the breads were in his picture as well. Liam is great! Well that covers everyone except my darling doggies, cantankerous cat, and the two bum lambs who are pretty sure we are trying to starve them to death since we cut back on their snack bottle (they are getting hat as well!). Life is good here on the wanna be a farm/ranch acre!