Labor Day 2009

Labor day was quite eventful this year. We decided late Saturday night to head out camping- so we loaded up the trailer and headed out first thing Sunday morning. Once we got to where we were going to camp for the night we unhooked the trailer and the kids starting exploring and all of the sudden I hear Brock say " I want to go see the bear!" I came out of the trailer and said what are you talking about? Colby tells me that Kaid had found a bear that someone had killed and then tried to cover it up. Colby told the older two boys to drive down to where they could get cell service and call the fish and game. So they did and a few hours later her came the DWR to investigate the bear's death. It was really sad that someone would kill it and then try to cover it up. It was a yearly bear- (I guess that is what they call it) the fish cop said that it had been booted out by it's mom this year. So it really was not that big- I am sure that it was not hurting anyone- they should have left it alone. Oh and by the way it was just right up Payson canyon, less than a mile from girls camp.

The next day we knew that we would get up and eat breakfast and then go cut wood! Well as we were eating our breakfast in walked a bunch of cows....these two just kept staring us down. It was really funny because they did not want to move.

So once we were done eating we headed out to cut wood, this is something we have done for years. Colby use to sell so we were constantly cutting some where but now we just get for ourselves. But he had a goal of cutting 3 truck loads. I told him that he needed to remember that I am a "PRINCESS" and I don't do manual labor. (That is a total joke, I work right next to him when we cut wood, it's just not something that we did when I was growing up) He just laughed and said he would see me there, so Kaid and I drove the first load down to the house and unloaded it and grabbed drinks and went back to get the next load, once we got there Brett, Brock and Colby had more than the one truck load already cut. So the boys loaded the truck up and then Kaid took it down and me and the the two youngest stayed to help Colby get the rest of the wood. We worked hard...Brett and Colby touched each and every piece of wood that we got. Brett is really strong he could lift some of the pieces that where HUGE I told Colby that there was no way that I could have even moved them. Once we were done we had to wait a few minutes for Kaid to get back with the truck we looked over and we saw this: Brock was dead asleep on the ground. He had worked right along side both Colby and Brett all day long. He was wiped out. Once we loaded up the truck we decided it was time to head back home, along the ride Kaid stopped the truck in front of us and came running back to our truck and said did you see that badger? Colby hit reverse and sure enough there was a badger, they asked if they could kill it and Colby told them yes, so of course they got it and brought it home.You can see just how dirty you get from cutting wood, Brett had pine sap on his arm and I think a week later he still has it. All in all it was a nice relaxing time away. Now if I could just talk Colby out of going and getting more wood!?!?!

Erika

School Time Fun!

So with having all boys I did not think I would have the problem of them sneaking out clothes in their backpacks or having another outfit on under what they are wearing to school....But apparently I thought wrong! These ugly shorts are what I have found in Brock's backpack on two different occasions....And then yesterday as we were leaving for school I noticed that Brock's

pants were falling down I told him that he needed to get his belt or have me adjust the waist on them. He started to say I can't find my belt and he stopped mid sentence, I told him to just come over and I would adjust his waistband......Guess what I found when I grabbed his pants! Yep these ugly shorts were on UNDER his clothes and he has this ugly old "football" shirt that he had on under his other shirt. I told him to march himself back in the house and to change his clothes and that he was NOT allowed to wear that outfit to school EVER! He proceeds to tell me that football was starting and that he needed to practice while he was a recess and that he needed to dress the part...Are you serious you can't run around in your shorts or jeans you have to wear the ugliest shorts and an old shirt because that it what you think a football player would wear?!?! He cracks me up, but seriously I would have NEVER thought that I would have to deal with this. I guess that is what paybacks are all about :)!

Erika

Another School Year.

It is really hard for me to write this.... I had a first and a last all in one moment! This is the first day of school for all of my kids and also the LAST first day of school for Kaid! He is a senior! It breaks my heart to think that in a few short months he will be graduating high school! Wow, time flies. As you can tell Brett and Brock were really the only ones that were OK with having their picture taken. I had to do both of these pictures- because we have always done two photos with the kids- up close and a little farther off. As you can see Kaid did get his cast off his nose, he only has to wear it at night for the next 3 weeks.

Brett is now in 8th grade and he could not wait to get back to school and see some of his friends. He has played hard all summer, but Brett really loves school.

Brock is in 3rd grade and has Mrs. Snow. We had to go in and find his class this morning and he was pretty excited. They are getting pretty smart they have split him up from all of his friends :) so he will have to make new ones again this year.

Hopefully they all have a good year, have fun, make new friends, and learn.

Erika

Baseball

Last night we had the baseball team party! It was a lot of fun. And I have been wanting to do a post of how the end of the season went but I did not have photos- so last night I asked on of the moms and she said that she had them on Facebook- so I stole them from her FB page :) Thanks JANA! This is Ben, J'son, Phil, and Brock (he was the stand in for Kaid)
The team ended up doing really well in the tournament and won the entire thing! It was such a great season and tournament. We had fun watching them play and come together as a team.

It was a late night, the game was an 8:00pm start and they last typically 2 hours, and then they handed out shirts for the team. Colby was really happy and enjoyed being able to coach them. Hopefully they will come back next year and be an even stronger team!

It was bittersweet Kaid has played with alot of these guys for years and there were a couple that are graduated now and won't be back next year, and do to a schedule change the tournament was played a week later than it was scheduled so Kaid did not get to play in the tournament (he was working graveyards for cherry's) Oh well maybe next year.

Erika

Kaid's Surgery

Here is the before surgery photo and the after surgery photo. Kaid had surgery on Monday to repair his nose. Once the doctor got in there was more damage than he expected so the surgery was longer and they had to do a lot more than they originally planned on doing. They said that he will be in a cast for awhile- we really won't know much more until he goes back to the doctor on Tuesday. So for now he keeps taking his pain meds and is getting very good at the PS2! Good thing it's summer and friends can come over and visit him.

This was while he was in the holding area waiting to head into the operating room. This was 10 days after the break- you can still see just how swollen his nose is.

A Sad Goodbye

The past few weeks have been pretty emotional around our house. We have had to say goodbye to two of our horses. We have been keeping our horses on some property in Elk Ridge for years now, and there were some issues that came up with the land and so we needed to move the horses. We have been looking to buy a house with land but have not really found the right place. So we decided that the best thing to do was to sell the horses until we get a place of our own. So about 1 ago we sold Sierra- I will get a photo of her on here. We have had Sierra since she was old enough to leave her mom. It was heartbreaking- But Colby did it while we were at ball games and so she was just gone one day. But on Saturday it was Smokey's turn to go- we loaded her in the trailer and meet the guy at Cabela's it was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. We got Smokey right after Brett got burned, she was his therapy. He LOVED riding her and would spend hour upon hour with her. It was good for both of them. Brett did 4H with her and did very well. She helped build his confidence back up and he was more of the old Brett.

I was doing alright on the ride up, but when we got her out of the trailer it hit me like a ton of bricks. I started to cry, Brock said that he did not want to sell her and he was crying. The new owner came and they had two boys about the same ages as Brett and Brock, they were so excited to have a new horse, hopefully they will love her and take good care of her.

We are now down to one horse "Joe" that we need to sell and then we will sell the horse trailer.... It is hard to loose a pet - especially when your not ready to say goodbye.

Erika

Summertime Chores.

OK, so I am sure that none of you have this issue....Summertime chores. It seems like I can leave a list of chores for the kids to do and by 9:15 am I am getting calls asking if they can go and do this or this! So I will ask are your chores done and of course the answer is "YES" so I will let them go. Well once I get home I usually tend to get upset because not only is the work not done but the house is usually a disaster. So after one day where things just seemed like I might have to run away and not come back, Colby told the kids that the next day he wanted a DETAILED report of what each kid did throughout the day.......Minute by minute! I was cleaning out my purse and found this and just wanted to remember just how cute it was.

If you notice Brock wrote his name next to each thing because he was wanting to make sure that he got the credit for each thing he did. He wrote the start and finish time and the chore and then the total time of each task. I think one of my favorites is the one near the bottom of this list * Clean kitchen it took him 1 minute. He actually had 2 1/2 pages of things that he had done throughout the day. All the boys actually did a list like this and I do have to say that since Colby had them do this, they seem to make sure that they do better. The joys of summer.
Erika

Cousins

Wow, life has been BUSY! We have been finishing up baseball seasons and trying to finish up the remodel on the kitchen....

This past weekend we got to tend Payton and Cameron Bryce while Bryce and Michelle ran to St. George for the night. It was a lot of fun having the cousins over and letting them get to know each other.

On Saturday Brett got home from a week of scout camp, he was greeted by Cam, Brock and Payton. We decided that we would go down to the farm so that Payton and Cam could ride the horses. Brett decided that he was going to ride Smokey bareback, he was riding around the arena and having a fun time and all of the sudden there be came a problem, I was laughing so hard I asked him if he needed help I thought that he said no so I decided that I would grab a picture of him.

Once I grabbed the photo I again asked him he if needed help- this time he yelled "YES, I told you that the first time you asked" Oops! Sorry, he did a really good job of hopping with the horse as she was walking around the arena.

Once he got off the horse he put the saddle back on her and let Payton and Cameron Bryce have a turn. Payton got on the horse and sat there- then said that she was done. Cameron Bryce on the other hand loved it. He wanted to ride all by himself and not have anyone lead Smokey. I told him next time he could do that.

Once we were done riding the horses Brett brought over a new puppy and asked if he could keep it, being the good mother that I am, I told him of course we could keep it as long as it stayed at Merrill's place - he did not think I was funny! We had a great weekend, and hope Bryce and Michelle had a good anniversary.

Erika