The Simplot Wagon

Way up on the bluffs above the Simplot Feedyard sits and old wagon. Every December they decorate the wagon with lights, string a VERY VERY long extension cord down the hill, and light it up for all to see.

Randall and the boys went on a little 4 wheeler ride/ hike to check it out last Saturday.
Cooper and Carson had been waiting for at least a week, so they were very excited.  I'm not sure if they were more excited about seeing the wagon, riding the 4-wheeler, or spending some "boy time" with Dad.  Either way, they came back all smiles!

Sweater Dress Girls

The girls and I all matched for church today... sweater dresses!  They are warm and comfy- perfect for this time of year. 

Randall was complaining that he didn't have any pictures of me on his phone to show business associates, so he asked for a photo op after church.  I couldn't turn him down... usually when he tries to take a picture of me it's on a Saturday afternoon after I've been cleaning in my sweat pants all day!

Book Worm

I have to post this before I forget all about it.

Cooper has become a little book worm- which I love.  He is a very good reader, and he's quite proud of that fact, perhaps too proud---he frequently tells us he is the "best reader in his school."  Anyway, sometimes at night he turns on his flashlight and reads instead of going to sleep--- I don't love the grumpy boy he turns into from lack of sleep!

The other night I told him no reading after I turned out the light.  Cooper became upset and yelled out, "I'm never going to stop reading, because it's my destiny!"

Seriously, destiny?  I think his vocabulary is expanding from reading all those chapter books!

A Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Before Halloween, Lainee's little preschool class went on a field trip to our local pumpkin patch- "Quey's Maze."  Carson had been sick the day before, so he was able to tag-along so I could make sure he was really feeling better and well enough to go to school---he was, but he sure had fun with us!  Poor Cooper---I felt bad he was the only one who didn't get to go!

We went on a little hay ride, climbed the straw stack, picked out pumpkins, ate pumpkin cupcakes and drank apple juice, and played in the "corn boat."  Lots of fun!

Spud Harvest 2012

Every year in October I take the kids over to hang out with my family for a day or two while they dig potatoes.  I wasn't sure when I was going to find the time to go this year, but I knew I'd have some very disappointed kids if we didn't make it.  My kids LOVE to go play in the dirt and ride in the tractors and trucks with their uncles and Grandpa Wilcox.   Grandpa was out of commission this year due to a surgery- so we just had to hang out with him at the house.

It was a very quick trip.  I pulled the boys out of school a few hours early on a Friday, and we came home Saturday afternoon.  Even though the trip was fast and furious, the kids still had fun finding potatoes to bring home.  We came home with about 100 pounds--- all gleaned by my kiddos!

 Sorry for the blurry picture- Ashlin was too busy to pose for a picture!

Happy Halloween 2012

The kids had almost a full week packed full of Hallween festivities this year.  Needless to say, when Halloween DAY finally rolled around I was about ready for Halloween to be over.  But I had to remind myself that pretty soon my kids will have outgrown the whole dressing up and trick-or-treating, and I really need to just enjoy this stage!

Lainee and Ashlin dressed up as little witches.  Lainee insisted they be "pretty" and "nice" witches, so, "pretty and nice" witches they were!

Cooper, from the get-go, wanted to be a vampire.  Carson changed his mind a few times.  First, he wanted to be a UPS man, then in was Captain Hook, then he settled on being a vampire just like Cooper.  Cooper wasn't too excited about Carson's decision... he didn't want his little brother to wear the same costume as him.  In the end it all worked out.  And, I'm pretty sure I have the cutest little witches and vampires around!

We did experience some beautiful weather this Hallween.  Our daily temperatures were in the 70's and I don't think it froze a single night all week!  It's much more fun to take your kids trick-or-treating when they don't have to bundle up!

Being a PE Teacher...

Being a PE Teacher for an Elementary School isn't as easy as it looks!  Last spring when our community failed to pass a supplemental levy for our school district, drastic cuts were made.  One of those cuts was elementary PE.  Being the health and nutrition-minded mother that I am, I volunteered to fill in until other arrangements could be made.

At the time, I didn't realize what I was getting myself into.  I taught the younger 3 grades PE twice per week for the last month and a half of school last spring, then when this school year started, my volunteer position evolved into teaching ALL the grades twice per week.  So, I would spend 4 hours of my Wednesday Friday afternoons teaching PE.  And it was exausting!!!  Fortunately we were able to revote on the levy and it passed the 2nd time around.  So a month and a half into the school year, they were able to hire a permanent PE teacher and I have been relieved of my duty in that department.  Now, what am I going to do with my extra 8 hours each week?...

Lainee and Ashlin were my little helpers.  I love this picture of my little girls!

A Trip to the Dentist

Before school started the kids all had dentist appointments.  It was Lainee's first "real" time getting her teeth cleaned, so she was excited.  Our dentist and his assistants are great, and my kids always enjoy going.  For this, I am truly grateful!  I must say, though, somehow it is always easier to find time to schedule appointments for my kids than it is for myself.  Now why is that?....

 

I wish I had pictures of the boys getting their teeth cleaned, but they were "big enough to go without mom," so, I stayed with Lainee.

1st Day of School 2012

So, this post is only a month late...

Carson, age 5, Kindergarten

Cooper, age 7, 2nd grade

 

Carson started Kingergarten this year! And Cooper went into 2nd grade! Holy smokes! Where did the time go!? They were both very excited, although, Carson was a bit disappointed at first that he didn't get beloved Mrs. Best for Kindergarten as we originally thought he would. She took a different position this year, and he has Mrs. Goodman instead. He loves Mrs. Goodman (who was Cooper's 1st grade teacher last year), so after getting over the initial shock and disappointment, all is well.

1st day of school 2012

All my kiddos ready for the day

 

Cooper has Mrs. Dalrymple, who is an excellent teacher. So far, they are both doing very well and learning lots! Cooper came home one day and said, "Mom, I think I'm like the best reader in the school." I asked, "Oh ya, why do you think that?" Cooper replied, "Well, I think it's because I read everyday, and I'm in the highest SIPS group." Gotta love the confidence! I do love that he enjoys reading. It's also very helpful to me that on busy nights I can have Cooper read to Carson and it counts for both of their reading minutes!

They both have fairly large classes for our little community-- abt 23-25 kids, and both their classes have an active and rather rambunctious personality. I was thinking about this the other day, and then I started counting the number of kids in Cooper's class who have younger siblings in Carson's class. I stopped counting at 12!

Carson, with Cooper and 2 of his buddies: Layth and Riley

Carson with his friend Loyd in front of him

 

On another note, our elementary school made AYP for the first time in many years!  Hurray, we are now considered a 4 star school! (Whatever that means :)

Here's to an amazing school year full of learning!

A Trip to San Fran...

Randall was once again invited to attend the Pfizer Feedlots Consultants Summit Conference.  This year the conference was just outside of San Francisco, at The Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay.  I was looking forward to some cooler weather, warm sunshine and bare footed walks on the beach.  Turns out, the weather was quite cold while we were there.  The HIGH temperature while we were there was only 55.  To someone who came from 100 degree dry heat, that felt really cold!

The view from our hotel room.  Gorgeous!   Yes, that is the ocean within a few hundred feet!

 

We did have a great time, though. Randall's sister Maureah and her new husband Scott agreed to come stay with the kids.  We owe them BIG time!  The conference is usually held in the middle of the summer, but this year it was held late August, so Cooper and Carson had already started school.  So, some alone time with my hubby, no meals to fix, no laundry to wash and fold, no cleaning... very relaxing, right?!!!

One morning I took a walk down to the beach.  That is our hotel on top of the cliff there.

Those "black dots" on the rock are sea lions.  There were hundreds of them!

A bit hard to see in the picture, but this is a star fish I found in a tidal pool

Sea urchin I found in a tidal pool not far from the star fish.  It was fun to do a little exploring!

One afternoon Pfizer arranged for us to go on a deep sea fishing excursion.  (Actually, we could choose from fishing, golfing or wine tasting... we chose fishing.)  They initially told us we would be salmon fishing, but turns out it wasn't quite the right time of year for that.  We mostly fished for Sea Bass.  In reality, we were only a few miles off shore, and we could see our resort for most of the time off in the distance.  The trip out to sea to find a good fishing spot was great.  Randall and I had both taken Dramamine before leaving the hotel, so we were hoping to avoid getting sick.  Once we started the actual fishing, the queasiness started.  I think the looking down at your line while trying to fish, seeing the waves and trying to maintain your balance while holding a large fishing pole is what did both of us in.  The rest of the trip was pure agony.  Randall started puking first.  Once I realized I was really getting sick, I sat down and stuck my head down between my legs.  I managed to avoid vomiting til we started heading back.  Unfortunately, the sea sickness doesn't end when you step onto dry land.  Plus, we still had to ride the bus back to the hotel.  We were told later that if you are prone to getting sea sick, you should start taking Dramamine the night before.  Sure, now you tell us!  Once we made it back to our hotel room, we both fell asleep.  We slept for about 2 hours and woke up right as it was time to go down to dinner.  We debated on what to do, but in the end, decided we were hungry and we didn't want to miss out on a fancy catered meal.  So, we cleaned up and headed to dinner.  We felt much better after that.  But, I'm not sure we'll be going on anymore Deep Sea Fishing excursions anytime soon.

A view of our hotel from the boat

Randall, before getting sick

We also went down into San Francisco to Fisherman's Warf one afternoon.  That was quite an experience.  It was very crowded, and very dirty.  It was neat to see the warf and visit some shops.  And the America's Cup Sailing Competition was just getting underway, so we watched the sailboats for a little while.  Other than that, I don't have that much desire to go back there.  Perhaps another area of San Francisco....

The Ghirardelli Shop- founded in San Fran!

A cool sand creation on the beach near Fisherman's Warf

Randall on the beach at Fisherman's Warf.  You can see some of the sailboats off in the distance.

Fire lit in on the water in front of our hotel one night.

 

Looking forward to next year's trip!

"I Was Hungry"

Lainee has been struggling a bit as of late.  I'm not sure if she is sad that both the boys are in school all day now and unable to play with her, or perhaps she is struggling being the oldest at home for most of the day.  She and Ashlin love to play, but sometimes Lainee is a bit too "mothering" toward Ashlin, and Ashlin does NOT like it, as evidenced by her very loud squeal!

At any rate, tonight as the kids were heading to bed she and Carson were arguing about something.  Lainee leaned over and quickly bit Carson on the arm.  She has never been a biter, so this caught both Randall and I a bit off guard.  Randall pulled her aside and told her that we never bite people.  Why did you bite Carson?  With a very sad face and tears in her eyes, Lainee replied, "Cause I was hungry."

What??  Haha!!!  Randall and I had an extremely hard time not laughing.  Oh my!

Floating the River Family Style

Some friends of our, the Borens, own some rafts; Steve used to be a river guide.  They've kindly invited us to go rafting with them a few times.  Randall and I went rafting down the hoeback (near Jackson Hole) when we were dating, so white water rafting has always been a favorite activity of ours, even though we don't get a chance to go that often.

Randall catching a wave on the board

Most of our group- 3 different families in all

Anyway, on this trip we took the whole family.  We floated a gentle stretch of the Payette River that was perfect for the kids.  We packed a lunch and stopped at Kelly's Whitewater Park to rest, eat lunch and play in the water.  We all had a blast- it was a perfect outing!

Ashlin at 18 months

It's hard to believe that my baby girl is a year and a half old!  She seems to be growing leaps and bounds.  I haven't decided if that's because she's trying to keep up with her older brothers and sister, or trying to get away from them!  At any rate, she's growing up way too fast.

Here are some things we love about Ashlin at this age:
*She is beginning to talk up a storm! And I don't mean just a few words here and there, lots of words and even sentences!  When I took her in for her 18 month check-up, the Dr. asked me if she was starting to say a few words.  I laughed and told him some if the things she was saying.  He replied, "Well, she is a bit advanced with her speech then isn't she!"  She reminds me of my little sisters.  The were talking in sentences by this age as well.
*If she can't see me, she runs around the house yelling, "Mommy! Wer aaaaarr you?" (Where are you?)
*She loves to play "princess" dress up with Lainee. Lainee will put on one of her princess dresses, put a tutu on Ashlin, them they will walk around the house holding hands and play with their toy kitchen.
*She loves to snuggle up in her crib with her little "baby" (doll) and her pink fleece blanket with the satin edge.
*She loves her bed! She goes down for naps and bedtime so easily. She usually goes right to sleep, but every once in a while she'll just lay in there and play with and talk to her baby and stuffed animals. Sometimes I think she just wants a break and a safe place where her siblings can't torture her!
*She gives the best hugs!  If you ask her to squeeze you tight, she will put her little arms around your neck and squeeze.  I love it!
*She is AWESOME at picking up trash and putting it in the garbage.  I wish the other kids would do a little better in that department!
*Sometimes I let Lainee and Ashlin watch Dora so I can get a few things done without being interrupted.  Ashlin now calls Dora "backpack." ('cause on the show they sing, "backpack, backpack.")

And there you have it... a few things that we love about our little Ashlin.

4th of July Camping Trip

This year we met up with our friends the Haderlies (Paul, Joni, Sam and Sophie) and went camping near Iron Bog Lake.  We had a fabulous time riding horses, fishing and hangin out with our friends.  The kids played and played and played, and we all came home filthy dirty.

It rained on us one day, and for the first time in a long while, I was cold.  When we left the temp was over 100, and we came back to 100 + temps again.  So the cooler mountain air was quite refreshing.

On day 2, after the rain let up, we rode horse up to Iron Bog Lake.  It was a bit steep in a few spots, but the kids all did great.  Cooper and Carson each rode their own horse, Lainee rode with me, and Ashlin rode with Randall.  The lake was beautiful.  Paul and Randall caught a few fish, and the kids ran around in the mud. 

On day 3 after Mitch and his girls Claire and Kate joined us, we rode to Brockie Lake.  It was a longer ride, so we left earlier in the day and packed a lunch.  The kids enjoyed fishing, and although Carson didn't catch a fish, Cooper and several of the other kids caught several!  We had a bit of a mishap on the way back.  The ironic thing is that it occurred AFTER we had come down all the steep terrain and thought we were in the clear.  Claire had a bloody nose, so Mitch got off his horse to help her.  Mitch had been leading the pack horse, so he handed it off to Randall.  The pack horse wasn't very fond of any of our horses, and started trying to kick at Randall's horse.  Randall's horse then kicked back, and got lead rope under his tail, then bucked a little and off went Randall and Ashlin.  Even though Ashlin didn't fall very far, she banged her head on a rock and had a nice goose egg on her forehead as well as a couple of scrapes.  It scared us all, and we were concerned that she hit her head.  Randall and Paul were able to give Ashlin a priesthood blessing, and after that we all felt at peace.  As soon as we arrived back at camp, Ashlin was up and running around and jabbering just like nothing ever happened.

All right.  Get ready for a photo overload!

Cooper and Carson wanted to ride around while we were setting up camp.  When we helped them saddle up, we told them to please go slow.  A few minutes later Carson went over top his horse.  He cried a little, not because he was hurt, though.  When I reminded the boys that they were supposed to go slow, they replied, "We were going slow.  We just were having a little horse race."  Ha ha.  That sounds real slow!

 The girls taking their turn on the horses.

 Sophie and Lainee enjoying some yogurt.

 Yes, that is snow Lainee is playing in... hence the coat!

Randall showing off the itty bitty fish he caught at Iron Bog Lake

 Iron Bog Lake.  It was beautiful!

 The trail riders

Lainee and I on Chex.  See what happens when you try to smile for the camera?  Your horse thinks it is time to eat!

Lainee kept on insisting that she ride Chex "all by myself."  She was quite proud!

 The boys sleeping in the horse trailer.  I had to take a picture, cause they were snuggled up to each other :)

 Eating breakfast.  Yum!  Carson, Cooper, Claire and Kate.

 Brockie Lake.  See the snow!??  This is July.  Yes, we are up high!

 Carson fishing at Brockie Lake.  It was a bit cold when the wind was blowing.

One of the fish Cooper caught at Brockie Lake

 If you look closesly, you can see Ashlin's bump on her forehead.

Playing in the creek on Day 4.  So not ready to go home!

All in all we had a fun trip and hope to be able to do it again next year!