Catch up!

So things has still been busy, but they are slowing down! We have sold all our cattle that we will sell this year, and what a great cattle price year it has been. We are thankful for the good prices and great grass year. Our cows got snowed in at our fall field in the hills over the November 12th weekend. Wade and 7 friends/brother-in-law headed up behind a snow plow on November 15th, loaded the cows and brought them home! It was a little nerve racking for a few days knowing the cows were stuck up there, but they are home, fat and happy. We pregged dad & mom's cows with ours yesterday (see pics below). It was a gorgeous day, we all walked around in sweatshirts!

Wade is switching jobs on December 12th, he will work for the State of Idaho in their road department. We are excited to have a schedule, and not too many late nights and weekends.

My job is going good, just starting to get busy for the 2012 loan season.

Our due date for Baby #2 is still March 24th, just under four months! Things are going well and I am finally realizing that each pregnancy is totally different. I have felt completely helpless during this pregnancy, but with Ryder I never missed a beat. We had our ultrasound, but did not find out what it is, we want it to be a surprise again! My gut feeling is that it is a girl, but that is all it is..... a feeling.

We had an awesome Thanksgiving. Wade's family came to our house for dinner and then we had my family over for leftovers on Friday. It was really fun to stay home on a holiday, now that we have some room to have guests. Now I am decorating for Christmas and loving it. I love this time of year. I didn't go early Black Friday shopping, but Shantelle and I did go shopping around 10 am on Friday for a few hours. I bought me a new DSLR camera, which I have been saving for forever. I have only played with it for a few minutes and I am already super excited about it! Instead of going shopping early, I took advantage of the same prices on the internet. I bought Whitney, Lauren and Carly's gifts online Thursday night. My favorite part of Christmas is watching people open the gifts we have got them. I am almost done with my shopping, with just a few odds n' ends to go. I can't wait to get the tree up and get some gifts wrapped.

I do need to ask each of you to keep my Grandma June in your thoughts, as she was admitted back into the hospital for the fourth time in four months.

From our house to yours, take care this holiday season and we hope you have great holidays.
Wade, Katie, Ryder and Baby #2

More...

11/26/2011: Ryder and Grandma Susan resting after working cows.
Ryder showing off his syringe he has been giving shots with. (No needle!)

Wayne and Todd taking a break too!

Fall Roundup: This is what a two year old looks like after riding for 3 hours!

More...

10/31/2011: Ryder and Wade carving Ryder's first pumpkin! I am afraid he has my phobia of stuff getting on his hands - he wasn't a huge fan of cleaning the pumpkin.

Ryder riding Mike at our house, has a great time on him.

Ryder and Grandpa Wayne riding the 4 wheeler to check cows.

I love this picture of Ryder looking through the fence at Mike. It's even better when I crop the alligator out of the bottom. He loves his boots, chaps and cowboy hat!

Catching up - I will try to be better!

11/26/2011: Lauren & Ryder helping preg cows on their "stick" horses! It was such a great day, the weather was gorgeous and the kids had a great time.

Ryder all ready to preg cows - what a handsome guy!

10/31/2011: Of course Ryder was Mickey Mouse for Halloween. It was the only costume we could get him to put on! He was a good sport. He and Ike Trick or Treated to their school and then to my office, then we went to all the grandma's, needless to say, he got a lot of candy.

10/6/2011: Here is Ryder and Wade after riding for 2 or 3 hours - Ryder is pooped, but the minute I took him off the horse he cried so we left him on!

Sorry, Sorry, Sorry

Wow, I am such a slacker - where does time go? In my defense we did have computer and internet troubles for at least a month this summer, but still not a great excuse since it has been 4 months since I have posted. Well, we better get started, lots to catch up on:

Things have been really good, Wade is working crazy hours at work, so it has been hard to have any type of home life, but Ryder and I have kept busy with housework, yard work and chasing him around. Ryder turned two on August 7th, we had a great birthday party for him at our house. He got spoiled as usual. He was also in the Little Buckaroo Rodeo for the first time on August 6th, he was in the Grand Entry and in the Stick Horse Race. We have really been enjoying living in Firth. For the rodeo we went to the community breakfast, the parade and then to the rodeo. Ryder's babysitter, Haley has also started preschool with her son (Ike) and Ryder. She is so amazing, I am so thankful that she takes the time to do these types of things with Ryder. They are learning letters, colors and shapes. They also paint, color, do crafts and have workbooks that they fill out. Ryder is really enjoying it. Haley is also going to start taking both of them to a preschool type thing that the State of Idaho does in Blackfoot. We found out about it through Ryder's case workers, and they are happy to invite Ike too, so they will start that on 9/14. They have play time, story time, craft time, singing and tons more, I am so happy to have Ryder involved in all of this.

We also went back to Primary Children's on August 25th and to our surprise Ryder passed his hearing test in both ears. Keep in mind that he has never passed a hearing test in his right ear, we were thrilled to say the least. Both tubes are still in his ears and look great. We will go back in 6 months for another checkup.

And we should also mention that we are expecting our second baby March 17th. We are super excited and looking forward to having another little one to make us laugh!

The Eastern Idaho State Fair starts today, so we took Ryder to the parade, now he's napping, then we will go to Shantelle's Birthday Party (Happy Birthday, Shantelle!) and then Wade and I are taking her to the fair.

Ryder has become a horse lover. He rode in the hills to check cows with Wade for the first time last weekend. He was so excited and had to tell me all about it. He is talking up a storm and we are loving it. Kids say the darndest things.....

Well, that is all for now. I hope everyone is doing well and has a great long weekend.

Happy Easter!

Whitney and Lauren came over for a kid day at our house. Whit and Lauren decorated their own bags with paint and Ryder decorated greeting cards. We had a lot of fun. We painted, ate pizza and watched some TV. And it was good for Ryder to have to share his toys.
Ryder and Bill were shooting with Ryder's new pistol and rifle G & G Wallace gave him for Easter.

Here is Ryder playing with the egg coloring box, while I am actually coloring the eggs.

Ryder is getting ready to go hunt eggs at the Firth football field. The kids had a great time and the city of Firth did a wonderful job.

Look out Easter Eggs, this boy is on a mission!

Hope everyone had a great Easter, I know we did for sure!

Take care and remember.....

(I stole this off a billboard in town)

Live up to your expectations before you worry about everyone else's

Okay so that isn't exactly what it said, I added a little, but it's still a great saying.

My Oh My......

So there's a perfectly good explanation for why I haven't blogged for over two months: New job for Wade, selling old house, moving in to new house, calving season, work drama and MOVING!!! Let me just say that moving is for the birds, seriously it is the most over rated thing you'll ever do. We should have our old house sold tomorrow, but I don't want to consider it SOLD until all the paperwork is done tomorrow afternoon! Keep your fingers crossed that nothing falls through! Anyways, Wade is working at CAL Ranch in Idaho Falls, good job, crappy hours, but we are thankful for a job for him. We moved in to our new house two weeks ago. We are loving it, I just wish everything was unpacked! I would like to say a huge THANK YOU to our families, Donald and Ladd for helping us clean, move and watching Ryder during the move, we couldn't have done it without you. I also want to thank Susan for being the head painter at the new house and to my mom for being the head carpet shampoo-er! I also have to thank my mom for spending so much time cleaning at our old house trying to get it ready to sell and trying to keep me from having a nervous break down! You both were great and we appreciate you very much. So we took Ryder to the rodeo at the Holt Arena last Friday, he was really excited about it all the way through the first event and then he wanted to run up and down the tunnel for the rest of the rodeo! We knew he wouldn't be totally entertained for the whole rodeo, so it was no big deal. It was worth seeing his reaction during the bareback riding! We did have a small scare about a week ago when the baby sitter called and said Ryder was bleeding from his good ear, we took him to a specialist and found out that it was an infection/reaction to the tube in his ear. We got the bleeding stopped after 12 hours and now he is doing great.

I want to say a huge Congratulations to my cousin Erica, she got married about two weeks ago and deserves all the happiness in the world, she is a great person. Here is Ryder going to the rodeo. I remember buying this shirt for him and thinking he would never get big enough to wear it, and look at him now - he is growing up so fast.

He looked so handsome it almost made me cry! Here is Todd, Wade, Donald and Brodie risking their lives to hang up Wade's moose, thanks to all of them, it was a big job to get that dead animal hung on our wall!

Here is Ryder during our cleaning process at the new house. This picture says it all..... We were all exhausted after cleaning for two days!

We do have a new address, I will send out an email with it because I am paranoid to put it on or blog!!

I am going to go out on a limb here and "preach" for just a minute. A friend/hair stylist of mine gave me some CD's to listen to, they are like self-help CD's on communication. These CD's are great and really make you stop and think. One of them talks about being negative, whether it is by saying negative things or thinking negative thoughts. It challenges you to not say anything negative for a week. Sounds pretty simple huh? TRY IT. You will find that it is really difficult to not say anything negative whether it is about the weather, the jerk that tailgaited you to work or about yourself. TRY IT!! One thing you will quickly realize is that you are a lot more negative than you ever thought you were. So here it is, I challenge all of you to go a full week, heck let's try 48 hours without saying anything negative. Good Luck, once you make it to 48 hours, try 72 and then shoot for a week. This one little change that made a huge difference in my life at home and at work! I have to admit I did really good at it for about three months and then for some reason, maybe stress, I don't know, I completely fell off the saying nothing negative bandwagon. Well I am climbing right back on and cinching my seatbelt up tight, because I really believe in the power of this, I have felt and seen the difference it made in my life and I want that difference again!!

Well I am tired and ready for bed, take care, be safe and always remember that:

There is always something to be thankful for.

More Pics

Ryder has become very attached to his felt hat. He has just realized in the last week or so that everyone wears a black hat, so now he loves wearing his, even with his PJ's!

Introducing Carlie Grace Christiansen, born January 20, 2011. Congrats to Todd, Tiff, Whit and Lauren on your soooooo cute addition! Her double chin is the cutest.

Here is Ryder all dressed up in his Christmas clothes.

And here is Ryder with Papa Bill, just realizing everyone should wear a black hat!!!