It's Official

Tim, our agent, put the sign up in our yard today...we had our first showing yesterday.  Hopefully it won't take too long to find a buyer. 

Autographs from Friends

Last night I finally went through the backpack full of papers that Ashton brought home from his last day at preschool.  There was some seriously cute papers in there, but this one has to be my favorite of the whole year.  An autograph paper of all the kids in his class.

I just love little kids handwriting.  I can't believe that Ashton is going to be in kindergarten in the fall, in some ways it seems like it has taken forever to get here, but then again wasn't he just born yesterday?

MY man

I LOVE this man.  I am a sucker for a man in uniform, especially MY man.  He works so hard to provide for our family.  He is my best friend.  I don't know what I would do without him.

More From Family Day

Jake's unit had family day on Friday and we had a great time there, this was a new adventure for our family, not family day we have been doing those for as long as I can remember, but family day with an aviation unit.  They had lots of things for the kids to do: the standard bounce house

Searching for mines...

The "mines" were money, my kids walked away with a couple bucks in change.  (probably cause they had an in with the people in charge, this was what Jake was in charge of ;)

They also got to climb inside a black hawk, this is the same one that we got to watch take off after family day was over.  

Then they took on the climbing wall, all three of them.  Good thing Abbie got a little help from Jake.  But there was no way she wasn't going to give it a try if both Lexie and Ashton got to.  

Lexie made it all the way to the top.  She has been able to do that since she was 4 or 5.  

While we were waiting in line for food, the kids talked Jake into letting them pay to try and dunk the general.  I am talking The General.   Big guy in charge.

  He was a good sport and got thoroughly soaked, by my kids included.  

It was a fun way to spend the afternoon, and we got to spend most of that time with Jake, what a bonus for us!  

"That was amazing!"

That was Abbie's comment to Jake after watching this at the family day at the armory.  Sorry it is a little long but I wasn't able to edit it on the computer.

I have to admit that I thought it was pretty cool too. I have never been that close to a helicopter taking off.  Ever.  I guess there are advantages to Jake being in an aviation unit now (though he won't be staying now that we are moving :(

My Little Graduate

My little guy, is growing up.  I can't believe that Ashton had his preschool graduation Monday night.  It was really cute, the kids sang tons of cute little songs that they have been learning this year.  Then each kids was given a certificate by their teacher.

Ashton has had a love/hate relationship with preschool this year, but I think overall he has had a good year.  His teacher, Miss Amber, was wonderful I am really glad that she cared about him so much.  She made sure that he had a good year and learned a lot and most important, had FUN!

Here they are together after the program.

Josh was in the same class as Ashton which was good for both of them.  It was always to funny to see them together because Ashton is always the biggest kid and Josh the smallest.  Here are both the graduates.

Probably the funniest thing that happened during the program was that Josh feel asleep during the sining, and nearly feel out of his chair a few times.  

Notice the girl next to him is asleep too.  

After the program we went to Arctic Circle for shakes.  The kids played in the play place and the adults sat and talked.  

Josh is trying to such his ice cream through a straw..

Ashton enjoying his raspberry cheesecake shake.

Leah, a girl from their class was there too, it was cute to watch them play together.  Leah is Ashton's favorite friend at preschool.

Horse Rides

The highlight of the weekend, if you ask Ashton, was the horse rides Monday morning.  Once again the kids had to "help out" with the chores, while Grandpa Brent snuck away to get the horses from the pasture. 

Abbie and Lexie going for their first rides of the weekend.  Abbie was so excited to get to ride all by herself... of course Grandpa was leading but she didn't seem to remember that.  She says she "rode all by myself!"

Ashton did get to ride solo this time and he did a great job!  I didn't get any pictures of him on all alone,  but here are a couple of him and Abbie together.

Soon after this my camera's battery died.  So I didn't get any more pictures of the horse rides or at my Grandpa Harvey and Grandma Jean's.  But my mom did, time to get the pictures off of her computer. 

More Pictures From Vernal

Sunday after doing the chores and visiting the cemetery we had dinner at my Grandparents house.  The little kids all took turns sitting on Grandpa's lap and I took as many pictures as I could.  How cute is this...

Lisa's baby, Matthew wasn't quite sure if he liked my grandparents at first but he did warm up after a while. 

(He may have been bribed by one of Grandma's delicious rolls...)

Grandma always takes the time to make these rolls when we are there, everyone loves them so much we can eat a whole batch in a day.  And lucky me, Grandma gave me the recipe so we can have them whenever we want to remember our trips to Vernal.

Here are a few more random pictures from the weekend

Abbie wanted a ride in the tractor, this would have to do

Abbie helping make a flower arrangement for the cemetery and

watering the flowers

 Ashton, Josh and Braelee coming up with the rules of the chase game they were playing.

Heather, Matthew, Abbie and Lexie at the cemetery.  

Lexie and Abbie on the four wheeler.  I think Lexie had more fun riding it than the horses this time.  That is until she lost her watch somewhere in the hay field.  

A Day on the Farm

We went to Vernal for the weekend.  What a fun trip, I am so glad that we went.  We stayed at my Grandpa and Grandma Taylor's house (aka the farm/ranch).  My kids always look forward to going to Vernal because it means seeing cousins and riding horses.  Well on this trip, my Grandpa Lyle told my kids that if they wanted to ride horses on Monday they had to earn their rides by "helping out" with the chores, wink wink. You couldn't wipe the grins off their faces (I just wish that they were that excited to do their chores around our house!)  We started out by feeding the cows 

can I just say I don't know who thought that giving a 3, 5 and 11 year old their own pitch forks was a good idea.  Luckily no one got hurt.

I love that Abbie is trying to get the cows to each it right from her hand.  

Then we needed to feed the two bum calves...  both these little gals were twins (two different sets) and the moms could feed both babies so they get special milk in a special bottle.  This means lots of extra work for my Grandma, but she always has a soft spot for the little calves.  

 This one is about a month old.

 Are you sure this is work?

Apparently Abbie has a soft spot for the calves too.  How sweet is that?

And this little gal (the calf, not Lexie) is about a week old.  And Lexie enjoyed it as much as the other kids, but she was sick of my trying to get a good picture in the barn.  At this point the bottle was empty and she had had enough of mom.

After the calves were fed we took a trip to the cemetery to see my sister's grave.  

We spent quite a while there, talking and remembering my sweet sister.  

On the way back to my grandparents house, we passed the horse pasture and had to stop off and feed the horses.  Just feeding them wasn't good enough for my kids, but it was Sunday so there would be no actual riding.  They had to settle for a little bareback standing around while the horses ate. 

Abbie would have crawled right into the tire if we would have let her.

I think that this was Ashton first time ever being on a horse bareback.  I'm not sure he knew what to expect, but he still wanted on the back of both.  

This is my horse, my Grandpa gave him to me when I was 13.  That means he is 22.  That is really old for a horse.  I remember thinking that it was cool that Lexie got to ride "my" horse, but now all of my kids have been able to ride him.  I never dreamed that would happen, horses normally just don't live that long.  Here are pictures from years long gone...

That is me, Bo and his mama.  

And all ready to ride, two years later.  

Not that he is really mine anymore, or for the last 16 years even... since we moved to Salt Lake.  At least my Grandpa has been able to use him on the cattle ranch.  

I am a little sad though, my Grandpa told me that he is officially retiring him with kid horse status.  He has arthritis in his front feet now and can't go on cattle drives on the mountain because he comes up lame the next day, and for many days after that.  Although being deemed "kid horse" is a good thing because it means that he is dependable and trustworthy enough that he can be trusted with little kids, it is still sad that his best days are behind him.  My Grandpa says that he has earned his keep though and will pasture him at the house, no glue factory for him (thank goodness).  Not all horses get to say that.  

When we left after just a few minutes, Abbie was upset she said, "we didn't get to ride around, that wasn't a horse ride."  It was hard to explain to her that we would indeed get to ride. just the next day.  We did get to ride, and do lots of other stuff.  Which will have to wait for another day.  I need my sleep.