City Slickers

The week after Christmas we went up to Portage to visit Grandpa Gunnell.  The kids always love going to the farm but this day was especially fun.  I have never enjoyed myself more there.  A day on the farm usually consists of tractor rides, four wheeler rides and recently, horse rides.  Plus, there's always a trip down into the field to feed the cows.  That's not really very eventful because everyone just watches while Grandpa and Dad load the truck with hay and then drive through the field pitching it off the back of the truck to the cows.  But this trip was special, Grandpa needed to tag some new calves (7 to be exact) that had been born just a few days earlier.  Who knew that could be so entertaining?

Anyone that's a mother understands the "mother bear" instinct and cows are no different.  Those new moms did not want anyone messing with their new babies. Before going down to the field all the kids (mine, the cousins, the in-law grandkids) were told to be quiet during this expedition because the mother cows were already going to be anxious and unpredictable and we didn't want to aggravate the situation with too much noise. The kids were totally willing to obey because being in a herd of large animals makes most of them a little uneasy anyway but they didn't expect to see a red neck rodeo and it's hard not to laugh at that.


JayDee and his nephew Jordan were in charge of catching the calves and tagging them while Grandpa tried to separate the mothers from their calves.  The trouble was those mommas weren't about to let their babies out of their sight or away from their side. It became even more difficult after the first calf was caught and tagged because the other mothers were watching and it was like you could see them say "No way are you doing that to my baby!" JayDee and Jordan totally got their workout that day.  They were running all over the place trying to catch the calves and not be trampled by the mothers or other cows. Hilarious! 


I happened to catch the best tagging on video because I was trying to figure out how to use that feature on my new iPhone.  A little background:  When they caught a calf they would put it up on the flatbed of the truck to tag it so there would be more distance from the mother. All the kids were also on the flatbed, which proved to be a popular place during this particular tagging.

 Sorry for the poor cameraman-ship it was my first video and in my defense, I was trying to get a better angle when the cow made her move. Then everything was in disarray. So obviously, I couldn't stop laughing, but if you notice there is not a peep from behind me in the kid section other than a tiny "I'm scared." Those kids really took the be quiet suggestion from Grandpa to heart.

 Yeah, hardly room for all of us plus a calf and a cow.

After the tagging adventures, and laughing until I cried, we next went over to the hay stacks to unstick a stuck cow. Grandpa had been told it was bull wedged in the stacks but after moving 6 stacks of hay to get it out we found out it was just a greedy cow that had pushed its way in to eat more.

Here's Grandpa moving the hay

Here's the poor dear causing all the trouble.

Waiting for the cow extraction

So we had crazy mother cows, men running all over the place, calf wrestling, muddy four wheeler rides, and a cow stuck in a hay stack. And it just wouldn't be a day at the farm without a little horse riding.  Isaac loves being on the horses and I love watching him because he looks so small on top of such a big animal. So I'll leave you with another video of my little cowboy taking a ride.

Phew!

I don't know where December went but it's gone!  I don't think I've ever experienced a month that has gone by so fast as December 2011.  Even my children made multiple comments about how fast Christmas came this year.  I never thought Christmas came fast EVER as a child.  And now here it is January 2012!  Wow.

I spent most of my December at the elementary school substitute teaching.  I have never been asked to sub so often but December was my lucky month I guess.  The teachers started asking if I had my own room by the end because I was there almost every day.  It was kind of bittersweet.  I loved being in a classroom (I actually realized this year how much I miss teaching) and the extra income has been a blessing, but I also started feeling really guilty about leaving my baby home with the neighbors. Don't get me wrong, I have an awesome babysitter this year but I never thought I'd have to use her so much.  I miss my Isaac time and knowing that I've got all day to do my mommy duties.  Scrunching all those mommy duties into a few hours after school is really hard when you're not used to it.  Needless to say, I was ecstatic when Christmas break finally arrived.  

Christmas.  Ahhhhh...what a wonderful holiday.  I really looked forward to it this year.  This year was the first year that all my children got their #1 Christmas wishes.  Every year when they make their lists and after I have gone through them and vetoed the ones that they will never get, I ask them to number the remainders in order of what they want the very most.  Remember that my kids only get 3 gifts.  One from Santa (in the believing years) and 2 from Mom and Dad.  Okay, I guess they actually get 4 because there is always pajamas on Christmas Eve.

 Usually there is always one or more of my kids that doesn't get exactly  what they wanted due to price (I could get a similar thing for cheaper) or something that they needed more took precedence.  This year however was not that year.  I was looking forward to present opening time almost as much as my kids were just so I could see there faces when they opened their gifts. I was not disappointed. Although I did have to wait until after church to see those excited faces.  

Yep, we made them wait.  We had a discussion with them about how Christmas was on Sunday this year and although they get up early enough to have time to open presents AND get ready for church we thought it was the perfect opportunity to put Christ first.  The amazing thing was that we didn't get any objections.  Seriously.  The children that usually start complaining the second we say it's time to read scriptures didn't complain about having to wait to open their presents.  It was truly a Christmas miracle. So on Christmas morning, we let them go through their stockings but they didn't open one present.  We got ready for church, ate breakfast and headed out.  We had a nice Christmas program and I told JayDee that maybe the Catholic church was really on to something with their Christmas Mass.  I think we should have a church meeting every Christmas regardless of what day it falls on.  It was the perfect beginning to the day. 

After church, we all got back into our pajamas and opened those presents.  Here everyone's number ones:

 

 Ethan got the Skylander video game 

I had a moral dilemma with this one. I really do not love video games but I just couldn't say no to that face. 

Emma got an American Girl Doll

I had a moral dilemma with this one too.  The price of this doll is just about enough to give a frugal mother a heart attack but Emma has never asked for anything specific ever.  Every Christmas and birthday she could never tell us what she wanted so we'd just get her things we thought she'd like or need, but this year she asked.  And she never changed her mind so I knew she really meant it.  She wanted a "My American Girl" doll which is not one that has a book or any historical  significance, they are the ones that you can choose to look like you.  She was in love at first look!

Here they are dressed to impress in their matching outfits.

All Hannah wanted this year was a Rapunzel doll.

As you can tell from this picture she not only got the doll but a matching dress up dress and nightgown (thanks Grandma for the nightgown).  She was in tangled bliss.  

Isaac was by far the easiest (as usual).  He really didn't ask for anything but got a bunch of stuff that made him really happy.  He got a remote controlled car, a dinosaur set (pictured here) that came with a triceratops family (his favorite dinosaur) and a scooter.  He was a happy camper.

As for JayDee and I, well we didn't get much.  We are saving all our dollars for a trip to Holland in the spring and we weren't supposed to get each other anything.  But I had a gift card to Cabela's and couldn't let it go to waste, especially when they were having a killer sale on something JayDee has wanted for a long time so I couldn't pass it up.

A chaise lounge patio/camping chair. 

He knew I had bought something for him so he thought he had to get me something.  All I wanted was a license plate face plate from USU.  He added the down vest.

After presents we packed it up and headed to Grandma and Grandpa Taggart's house to wait for Elder Taggart to call from Italy.  We waited for quite a while before the call came, almost long enough for a nap.....

but not quite.  Just when you get comfortable, right?  Poor JayDee and Bryan had to sit up and pay attention when Chase finally called.  

It was really good to talk to Chase.  He sounded in much better spirits than the letters we had been getting.  He's been gone almost a year and has a new companion and new area and feels a lot better about the language.  My dad asked him to bear his testimony to us in Italian and it was really neat.  What a great day!

Other fun we had during December:

Christmas program and parties at school

 and preschool

Gunnell Family party

Taggart Family party

Yeah, I made those scarves. 
I think they turned out fairly well for scarves that aren't crocheted. :) 

First tooth in, first tooth out.

Yay, Hannah! 

2011 was a good year.  We're looking forward to all the good to come in 2012.

I'm Ready

Almost two weeks ago, our little neighborhood got a shake down.  No, I'm not talking about the massive wind storm that hit our area yesterday and was the cause of much destruction.  I'm talking about arriving at church Sunday, Nov. 20th to find the entire Stake Presidency on the stand and being informed that our Bishopric was being released and that we were being invited to a meeting at the Stake Center later that evening to find out who would be called in their stead.  Well you can't live here and not know that when your Bishopric is released and they don't just take care of that right then in your very own ward that something bigger is at play.  In this case, ward realignments.  I had a bit of a heads up on this from a friend in another ward that informed me of the meeting just 2 days prior.  She had someone in the know on the stake level.  But it didn't change the effect such news would have on me.  All it did was make the anxious nervousness last for 3 days rather than 3 hours.  

I tried to prepare myself as best I could.  I tried to prepare my presidency as best I could.  I knew that there would be changes and a very real likelyhood that one or more of us would not be in the same ward after that evenings meeting.  
I was right.  Our ward was one of the largest (if not the largest) ward in the stake.  Our ward membership was around the 510 mark.  We were averaging about 365 people in attendance at our sacrament meetings while there were other wards in the stake whose total ward membership was 273.  That's not people attending but members in total.  We were huge.  And not only were we huge we were attending church in the smallest building in the stake boundaries.  So needless to say, our ward caused all the hub-bub.  We found out at the meeting that my family would now be in a different ward.  They took 2 different sections of our ward and put them in 2 different wards.  With the acquisition of our ward parts, the other wards had to do some adjusting too and the ripple effect took place in 4 wards in the stake.

As emotional as these kind of changes can be, this wonderful neighborhood took it in stride.  There were tears and some frustration but after the initial shock everyone is making the best of this small trial of faith.  I wasn't upset with the change.  I have many friends in my new ward and a good friend of ours was made bishop.  It was almost like coming home.  Unfortunately, I couldn't shake the feeling that others in our new ward kept looking at us like we were the enemy because we came from the ward that caused all the change.  Those feelings have blown over but it was weird for the first week.  

The hardest part for me was being abruptly released as Primary President.  If you remember my post from a year and half ago,  you may remember that I wasn't terribly excited about moving from YW to primary.  But like all things spiritual, I came to really love those I served.  Those sweet children really had a hold on my heart and I felt like I had abandoned them.  I knew it wasn't my fault but it still felt like everything was left hanging.  Which I guess it was.  It always takes time to fill openings that are left from boundary changes.  The good news is that my 2 counselors both remain in the Country Creek Ward to keep things going and moving in the right direction.  I have loved serving with them and couldn't be happier that they will both still be serving in primary.  What lucky kids to have more time with Kenzie and Ali!  My primary is in very capable hands, probably even better than when it was in my own hands.

This year has been great in our primary.  I was going to make an end of year post about all the fun things we've done this year but I'm going to do it a little early because I'm not there any more.  The theme for 2011 was "I Know The Scriptures Are True."  So we implemented a lot of scripture based activities.  One thing we started was the scripture treat jar.  Every week if the kids brought their scriptures to church they would get to put a treat into our scripture treat jar.  When the jar was full we would make them a treat and bring it to church the following week.  The fun thing was that we never had the same treat twice and we changed the jar to fit whatever treat we were filling it with.  For example: we started with a small jelly jar and used chocolate chips to fill it.  When it was full they got chocolate chip cookies.  Next we moved to mini marshmallows.  Mini marshmallows are significantly bigger than chocolate chips so we had a much bigger jar.  When it was full they got rice krispy treats.  Our biggest jar was actually a big vase because the treat was Hershey Kisses.  They loved that one.  I never got a picture of any of our jars but I did get pictures of our other fun things.

 This is our scripture chain.  If a child read their scriptures that week, either individually or with their family, they got to write their name on a chain link and add it to our primary chain.  We loved this.  It was a great visual to see that chain grow every week.  Some weeks it grew immensely and other weeks very little.  Each of those links represent a child that experienced the scriptures and increased their testimony by reading the word of God.  Our goal was to get the chain around the room by the end of the year.  That goal was smashed by August so we had a party to celebrate.  Then we challenged them to keep reading and see if they could get it around the room again by the end of the year.  Right now it's just past the half way mark.  It just makes my heart happy to see.

But my very favorite thing we did this year was our Scripture Hero board.

Every one of my primary kids are represented here (even the ones that moved in mid year).  We took their picture and put it on the body of our scripture hero guy and every week one child in Jr. primary and one in Sr. primary would get to stand up and tell about their scripture hero, someone that can be read about in the scriptures who is someone we can look up to.  They needed to share who their hero was, why they think they are a hero and share a scripture that tells about them.  We then would write the name of their hero on a shield and they would get to go put it on their hero picture at the back of the room. This, by far, was my favorite thing every week.  I looked forward to this more than anything else.  The good news is that although I'm not in this ward any more,we still share a building so I can go in the primary room whenever I want and see this board filled before the end of the year.
Here's a close up of one of our cute heroes. 

 Just and FYI: There was a surprising lack of Jesus scripture heroes. Most of our cute primary kids really thought about this and came up with different great heroes.

What a great experience our family has had in the Country Creek Ward.  We have loved it so much.  Which is funny because 4 1/2 years ago we did this boundary rearranging thing also and I was devastated by the outcome.  I didn't want to be in this ward.  But it has turned out to be the best ward we have ever in been in.  I guess I should say "so far" because we have a lot of life ahead of us.  Some of the best people I know, I have been privileged to know through this ward.  But I'm ready.  I'm ready to move forward.  I'm ready for new experiences and to make new friends.  I'm ready to put full trust in the Lord and go where he wants me to go.  We're not moving, we're still around, we'll still be seeing all the people we know and love and so it's really not about losing friends but increasing our circle of friends.  And who doesn't need as many friends as they can get?

As Promised

The rest of our awesome October went something like this:

October 26th

Field trip with Isaac's preschool to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden.  Wish I had remembered my camera because those darn kids are super cute.  

That night, a sweet Girl's Night with my mom and sisters to the So You Think You Can Dance Concert.  AMAZING!

Some of my favorites...

I L-O-V-E Tadd 

Also love tap dancing but these guys were

too fast to get an action shot .

Seriously? Who moves like this?

And of course....Melanie.

Enough said.

 

October 27th

Ethan's 11th birthday!
What a good kid we have in Ethan.  He is growing up so fast and in only one year he will have the priesthood and that is kind of freaking me out a little.  

We didn't do anything terribly exciting for Ethan's special day.  We just loved him lots and got the one thing he asked for for his birthday and that was the 3D Twister remote control car.  He was sooooo happy.  And after seeing this thing move I was pretty impressed too.  It's small but super fast and can do all kinds of tricks and when it flips over it still goes.  Here it is in action.  

Keep in mind these pictures were taken while the car was in low gear.  The instructions suggested that you get the hang of steering the car in low gear because it's more difficult the faster it goes.  Come to think of it I don't know if Ethan has even tried high gear yet...I can't imagine it.  Low gear is FAST.

Some stats about Ethan at 11.

*I have no idea how much Ethan weighs or how tall he is but I can say that he is only 3/4 a head shorter than me.  Around here that is pretty tall but, in case anyone is wondering, it's  pretty short everywhere else. He's one of the smallest kids in his class.  We're hoping puberty is good to him.

*Ethan is in the 5th grade and enjoys school even though it does not come easily to him.

*He loves Yu-Gi-Oh.  (Mom does not)

*He loves soccer and plays it at every recess at school.  Added bonus:  He made the only goal during last recess playing against the 6th graders to win...on his birthday.

*He favorite food is rice with butter and salt and pepper.

*He is the by far the most helpful of all my children.

*He has had a job mowing Grandma and Grandpa's lawn for 3 years and has more money in the bank than me. 

October 28th

Halloween parade at school.

I have no idea why I keep trying to take pictures of this event every year because I can never get my kids to slow down long enough to snap a picture without it being blurry.  Just chalk it up to me being a good mom? :)

 

October 29th

Family pictures at Memory Grove in Salt Lake.

No pictures yet but I'm sure they're going to be great! 

Can't wait to see them.

October 30th

Primary Program in sacrament meeting.   Always a little stressful for me and I don't know why because it doesn't matter how it really goes, everyone loves it regardless. This year was no exception.  Those sweet primary children of mine had me in tears by the end.

It was also pumpkin carving day.  It was lovely weather and we had lots of fun.  The kids each took a turn with the camera and these are some of the shots we ended up with.

Loving me some finger in this one.

And my personal favorite...

can you tell Isaac took this one?

Right at eye level. 

 

October 31st

Halloween!  We finally made it!

The kids didn't have school so they played the day away and waited patiently for night to fall to go trick-or-treating.

We had easy costumes this year.  Hallelujah!

From left to right:  Buzz Lightyear, Ballerina, 

Snow Princess and Detective

  

Something's wrong here, my bucket is empty.

It was Dad's turn to stay home and pass out the candy.

He hates getting up and down to open the door so he decided to camp out in the driveway to make his life easier.   The weather was so nice JayDee told me he almost got too hot sitting next to the fire. 

We had a lot of fun this October.  It was kind of a whirlwind but we loved it all.