2012

2012 started out to be a wonderful year with Kinsley's arrival in March. I have to say though that we are anxious to put 2012 behind us and have a great 2013. We have had a wild year and have high hopes for the New Year.

 

 

We hope you all have a great Christmas and Best Wishes for a wonderful New Year.

 

 

We are ready for Christmas at our house and have all of our shopping done and gifts wrapped. The kids are really excited for Santa to come. I am glad it is only a week away because I don't think any of our gifts will survive much beyond that with Kinsley re-arranging them every 10 minutes!!

 

We will NEVER forget those we lost this year or all the good times we had. Memories last forever and pictures only keep them closer to our hearts.

 

 

A soon goodbye to 2012 and a warm WELCOME to 2013. Wishing you all the good things in life.

 

 

Love to all,

 

 

Wade, Katie, Ryder and Kinsley

 

 

 



And then...

 How handsome is Ryder? He is all boy and usually wears a cowboy hat everywhere we go, love it.

 I hope that Ryder and Kinsley's relationship stays the same as it is right now. They are good friends and actually play pretty well together. Ryder is just now learning how to defend his property since Kinsley is all over the place. They are truly are the best kids.

 Weaned our calves and took a few photos. They are all sold now and gone, thank heavens. It is nice to have them gone and have the money!

 This picture means nothing to anyone but a mom. Ryder came running out of our room the other night and said he had folded his wash cloths for me. I had to take a picture of what a good job he did, what a good helper, and an amazing, thoughtful kid.

We also had Thanksgiving at our house, just us 4. We had a huge meal and ate lots of good food. It was nice to be home with the kids and Wade on such a great day.

Lots Happening

 Ryder took swimming lessons this fall for the first time. He really did well and had a ton of fun. He ended up being the only one in his class, so he got a lot of one on one time!

I can't remember where we were going in these pictures, but I never miss a chance to snap a picture. I love the picture with Wade and the kids, if Ryder's finger wasn't half way to his nose!

Catching Up, Up, Up....

 I had to snap this shot of Ryder. Can you believe Ryder used to actually fit in this car seat? He isn't getting any heavier, but he is getting so tall, we seem to be buying new pants all the time just because they are so short!

 Do you think Kinsley likes the camera? She is crawling everywhere now, pulling herself up on everything and staying pretty happy. She is now almost 9 months old, I can't believe it!

 Ryder was a dragon for Halloween, have you ever seen a cuter dragon????

 Kinsley was a cupcake, so, so sweet!

And Grandma Susan helped/carved the kids pumpkins. How cute are they?

Conversations with Ryder:

Driving in the car:
Ryder: "I hate that car mom."
Mom: "Oh! Ryder we don't say the "h" word, that is naughty, we don't say that, okay?"
Ryder sitting, pondering......
Ryder: "I don't love that car, mom."
Mom (giggling to myself): "That is much better, thanks for not using the "h" word!"
I guess this is proof that Ryder knows what synonyms are!

Last night:
Mom: "Oh I hate this show."
Ryder: "Mom, we don't love that show, we not say that word!"
And I wonder where he hears things and if he's listening to me!?!

We have lots of Wade and I's wedding pictures in our house so I hear this quite often:
Ryder: "You got married to my dad?"
Mom: "Yep, I did."
Ryder: "You were a princess, mom, a princess."
Oh how I love this boy.

Our movie of choice right now is Lion King:
Ryder: "The Pie-enas are coming mom, drive paster, paster!!!!"
Transalation (you have to know Lion King to understand this one): "The hyenas are coming mom, drive faster, faster!"

A little bit of this, and a little bit of that!

Everybody has to have a super cool pirate hat! Ryder got this for his birthday and loves it dearly!!!

Here is Kinsley enjoying her 2nd day of rice cereal last week.

 Rice cereal is exhausting!

 Ryder blowing out his candle in his awesome pirate hat. Ryder and Lauren played pirate forever after he got the super cool hat for his birthday.

 I love little cowboys in Wranglers, big cowboy hats and a number on their back.

Family is the Best

 Kinsley is hilarious, I love her facial expressions.

 Here's Ryder blowing out his candle (for about the 10th time), but as you can see from the huge piece of spit flying from his mouth, we didn't eat that side of the cake!

 And Great-Grandma Janet..... She brought Ryder the funnest bucket full of candy and string cheese. He promptly took everything out of the bucket and filled it with sand.

 Here's a good pic of my parents.

 And Susan's going to kill me for posting this pic, but how cute! Susan tried to give Kinsley a little bite of cake, but she wasn't too impressed! Kinsley has been eating cereal for the last week. At first she didn't really like it, but now that we have it kind of figured out, I can't shovel it fast enough in to her mouth.

Flying baby........

Thanks to Anita for all the great pictures. I love pictures and love to share them.

Also, a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone that came to Ryder's parties and for all the wonderful gifts, you are all so thoughtful.

Happy Birthday to Aunt Julie....



What a Girl

From the looks of this awesome picture Anita took, Kinsley is believing every word her dad says and from the looks of this picture she has her dad wrapped right around her little, chubby finger!

 This picture of Kinsley and I sums up Ryder's birthday party in one shot. We had the best time and loved getting together with family. Kinsley is seriously the happiest baby ever, I hope it continues. Just look at that smile!

We also want to Congratulate Jon, Haley and Ike Clayson on their new boucing baby boy last night (8/8/2012 at 8:08 pm)

Nox Ray Clayson, 6 lbs, 13 oz and 20 inches

I saw him today and he is adorable, tons of blonde hair and big beautiful eyes. He may give Kinsley a run for her money on the best baby award - he never made a peep, just laid on his mom and looked around the whole time I was there. Congrats to the Clayson's. We love ya.

Also, Congratulations to Todd, Tiffany, Whitney, Lauren and Carly! They are expecting a new baby in January!

Conversations in the car with Ryder are the best:

Ryder: "Mom?"
Mom: "What Ryder?"
Ryder: "You are the best mom ever. I love you so, so much."
Mom: "You are the best son ever, you are my favorite boy in the whole world, love you too."

Mom: "Ryder, you wanna go with dad to the hills or stay home with mom?"
Ryder: "I go to hillos with dad, we taking Mike?" (Ryder's horse)
Mom: "Yep, you bet."
Ryder: "Oh yay, we go for a big ride in the hillos."

Set the Scene: Ryder goes running into the dining room and all I hear is a big crash.
Ryder: "Oh, ouch."
Mom: "What happened?"
Ryder: "I got bucked off in the poop!"
What really happened: He went racing around the corner, hit the wood floor and slipped and fell.

Ryder: "Boeden was being mean to me today."
Mom: "Why, what did he do?"
Ryder: "He said I had to take a nap!"

Best Wishes for a great day - take care.

Happy 3rd Birthday Ryder! And Little Buckaroo Rodeo

Little Buckaroo Rodeo

 Ryder was in the Little Buckaroo Rodeo in Firth last Friday. He did the stick horse race again and as he ran to the first barrel he waived to the crowd like an old pro. It was hilarious. He looked so handsome. He also did the chicken chase, but luckily we did not end up with a chicken.

 Kinsley doesn't look like she is enjoying the rodeo all that much. It could be because her skirt is choking her!!! Can't wait to watch her next year.


    HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY, RYDER!!!!

 We had a family birthday party for Ryder a couple days ago. He got so many nice gifts and we had a great time. He hasn't quit playing since! His birthday is today, the 7th, so we are having a small party with Todd's girls at the park since they weren't able to come to his other party. He has picked McDonald's chicken nuggets for dinner and playing at the playground. He also took donuts to his sitters house and chocolate milk!

When I got him up this morning:
Mom: "Happy Birthday Ryder, it's your big day!"
Ryder: "What big day?" (sleepily)
Mom: "Your birthday!"
Ryder: "I want to go..."
Mom: "Go Where?"
Ryder: "To my birthday"
How cute is that????

After his party on Sunday:
Mom: "Good night, love you"
Ryder: "That was a great birthday, mom."
Mom: "Did you have fun?"
Ryder: "Lots of fun."
Mom's heart melted immediately, what a good kid.

 His birthday theme this year was Cars, so it seemed fitting to have a big Cars cake! Little did I know that the blue frosting turns every single thing it touches a bright blue including fingers, lips and tongues ----- for a very long time!!!

Time flies by so fast. This is a picture of Ryder at his first birthday!! Hope you have a great day Ryder, we love you very much.

Bear Lake Trip

 We had a blast in Bear Lake a couple weekends ago. Shani and I thought this would be a cute photo, but now that I look at it I am wondering why I am the short, fat guy???

 Bear Lake truly is georgeous and the water does look just like the Carribean water I remember.

 Ryder had a blast at North Beach, the water was perfect and he thought is was even more fun to chase Seagulls. He played all day long and all night, he never quit.

 And then you have the happiest baby in the whole world. She thought the beach was fun too. I don't think she cried one time the whole time we were there.

 This is Ryder, Wade and Shani on a jet ski. They had a ton of fun racing around the lake.

And last but not least, Ryder really got into wiping the boat down after we took it out of the water, he was even cleaning the trailer at this point. I sure wish he wanted to clean house this bad!

Bear Lake was our first "family" vacation. I thought it was wonderful to go somewhere that did not involve cattle, horses or hay. We stayed in Montpelier and Wade's parents stayed in Garden City (about 30 miles south of Montpelier). We got to see a lot of new country, which I always love, and got to do whatever we wanted for a few days.

I love these kids...

 I snapped a few photos this morning and wanted to share them. These are the happiest kids in the morning, I am so thankful for that! Ryder is pretty proud of his little sister, he is loving being the big brother.

Our babysitter is making the cute bracelets, headbands and bows Kinsley is always wearing. She also makes the cutest shirts and onesies that make the best gifts. If anyone would like to contact her to have her make you something, let me know and I will get you her number.

We would also like to say a huge "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" to Lauren! We love ya, can't wait for your pizza party tonight!

Hope everyone has a great weekend, take care....

All our kids....

 Zoey's pretty expensive to feed, especially since she's started eating cows whole!! Ryder thought this was hilarious, until he really thought she was eating his cows!

 How grown up does Ryder look in this picture, he is so handsome! I can't even remember where we were going, but Ryder looked so grown up it made me sad. I love pictures like this because I don't get them very often anymore, he doesn't stay still long enough to take a picture. He finally got his new bike because he is pretty much potty trained, which is wonderful. It seemed like it took forever, but when it finally clicked he had it made!

 3 months old, can you believe it? Kinsley was heading out to ride for the first time and enjoying every minute. She is a great baby. She rolled over a couple weeks ago and is now starting to grab stuff and shove it in her mouth. She has been sleeping through the night for the last couple weeks, thank goodness. I love this hat.

Kinsley and Ryder riding together, needless to say, Ryder wasn't super excited about letting Kinsley set on his horse, but he managed. I was so proud of Ryder, he rode Mike all by himself for the first time and even got him to trot (with a little help from the crowd) and he could stop him by himself too! It was a super proud moment for me and a sad moment too! My kids are getting so big and growing up so fast!

Congratulations to James and Stephanie on their new son, Mason James, 10 lbs, 7 oz! He is adorable.

We had our annual garage sale last weekend. It was good to get rid of some stuff and good to have it done for the year too! We don't have big plans for the 4th, but I have 5 days off and am really looking forward to being home with the kids.

Hope all is well with everyone, take care and Happy Independence Day!



Great Life

Well I got one new picture up, I'll try some more over the weekend hopefully.

So I haven't posted for a couple weeks, a lot has happened! I went back to work on 5/16, not so fun, I hate leaving the kids, but you have to do what you have to do! Kinsley is now 2 months old, where does time go? She weighs 11 lbs, 2 oz, the doctor said she must be a good eater! She is doing really good, she is the best baby. She gets up once a night and rarely cries, usually only when she has to get dressed! She now loves to take a bath and is coo'ing and smiling constantly. I love this picture of her sitting up like she is so big! Her hair is really starting to thicken up and in the right light it has a faint tint of red!

Then there's Ryder..... He is a pistol. Sadly he has inherited my allergies, so him and I are sniffling and coughing a little more than normal. He finished up his pre-school last week and seems to miss it a little bit. He is somewhat potty trained, thank goodness! Two kids in diapers, whatever! He is getting so big and such a huge personality, you can't get anything by this kid.

The kids are going to Haley's again for daycare, but she moved to Pingree while they build their house, so she is so sweet and meets me in Snake River every morning and night to exchange kids. She is also going to have another baby boy in August, so that will be fun.

Work has been really busy, which is good. It seems like I have just picked up where I left off. Wade is changing jobs, he swears for the last time, and going to work for Bingham County Road and Bridge on 6/4/2012. He is excited and looking forward to a little better year round schedule. We took our cows to the hills last weekend and had a little bit of bad luck, but it all worked itself out and things are looking pretty good for now. We have three or four pairs to shuffle around and then all the cattle will be out on grass, what a huge relief. It is like being out of prison not having the cattle at home to worry about.

My sister-in-law is doing a little better. We still need all your thoughts and prayers! We are excited to hear that our nephew, Brodie is moving back to Idaho, he has been home for the last few weeks and we have really enjoyed having him home again. He will start CNA classes in July and then resume college next fall.

All in all things are going good, I can't complain. I am looking forward to a great summer with Wade and the kids. I realized that I am kind of sad that Ryder is getting so big and Kinsley is growing like a weed. I love my "little" kids! But at the same time, I am super excited to see them ride and learn new things. Wade has every Friday off and I have every other Friday off, so we are planning some fun things this summer, I just hope we have time to get to them.

Well, bye for now...we wish everyone a great summer.

Blog Not Working...

Hi there, sorry for no new pictures, I am having trouble getting my pictures to upload to my blog, sorry! I have some great pictures to share, so it's really frustrating. I will see what I can do this weekend and try to get some posted. Have a great day and a good week.

Just another day

I have very few pictures that actually have me in them, so I am trying to remember to step out from behind the camera and get some photos with my kids, no matter how crazy they are!
Here is Ryder giving a pretend shot to a heifer last Saturday.

Kinsley 4 weeks old.

What a doll.

This is what a 2 1/2 year old looks like after he has branded cattle for 5 hours, and then got in trouble and told to sit on the steps in time out. It only took about 5 minutes for him to fall asleep on the steps in the garage. He stayed there for about 45 minutes until he rolled over and fell off the step! Then he came in and fell asleep again on the couch.