36 Years Old!

These past few days have been just a little busy!!  Friday, the boys and I went with Jared and Myrna to Calgary to pick up Myrna's new kitchen cabinets from Ikea!  It was a long night but lots of fun, and the boys did quite well despite the cold and late night!

Saturday was spent primarily at home, mostly because Jared had a wicked tooth ache and could hardly function unless he popped two tylenol threes every four hours!  We were supposed to go to a Halloween party that night but Jared just didn't think he would be very good company!  Jared did take advantage of his down time to play guitar in his very own music room!  The boys love it when Jared turns his amp up really loud, something comes alive in them!  Calum goes wild and starts dancing and yelling "Let's do this, let's rock and roll!"  He also had the urge to tear all his and Armin's clothes off!  We aren't quite sure what to think of that, but while he is still only four I think we will just shrug it off because of how super cute they are when they do it!!  Emry loves the guitar but isn't that fond of how loud it can get, so her and I painted her nails to look like pumpkins!

Sunday was the Calgary Temple Dedication, and since Emry is eight years old she was able to come with us.  It was so beautiful, I love President Monson so much, I believe we were given a glimpse of the type of person our Saviour was when we got to see President Monson interact with the children at the dedication.  I loved how he wiggled his ears for them and had many of them come and put mortar on the cornerstone of the temple.  What an amazing opportunity for them.

Sunday was an especially busy day!  After the temple dedication we had Jared's birthday dinner, his favourite Chicken Cordon Blue and Chocolate Dessert.  Then Myrna and I had to leave for our Stake Leadership Meeting in Fort Macleod.

Monday was Jared's actual birthday and I think it was a good day for him, despite his still persistent tooth ache.  The boys and I took Jared out for lunch to A&W, or as Calum calls it EIW!!  That evening when Jared came home we carved pumpkins and had french toast for supper and leftover Rootbeer float cupcakes that I had made earlier for him to take to work for his birthday treat!!  We had a blast carving pumpkins, Emry got right in there and cleaned out the gooey guts, and so did Armin!  Calum on the other hand was across the room while the cleaning out stage took place!  Once we started carving them he did come over to the table but was too scared to even touch the pumpkins!  It seems he has always been afraid of the pumpkins!  I found some scary music on my ipod, which was really freaking Emry out, and then Jared howled like a wolf which scared Emry so bad she started to cry!  But for the kid who is terrified of pumpkins the unsuspected wolf howl only made Calum laugh!!  My sister had given us three pumpkins that she had grown in their garden and then Janice Burbank gave us three pumpkins that were grown on her farmland near Barnwell!  We had an abundance of beautiful pumpkins and lots of fun carving them!

The birthday celebrations continued on Tuesday when Buck and Arren came over after the kids were in bed to play cards!  They had brought a game over that a friend's mom had made up and it was so much fun!  It was a fun night of yummy snacks and lots of laughing!

A great few days, and tonight is halloween so another busy day!  The kids costumes are all ready and the sugar high has already started to take effect!  I can't believe October has already come and gone!  Time seems to go by so fast and as the count down to Christmas begins I feel myself getting more and more giddy as each minute passes!  We get to celebrate Christmas in our own home, with a Christmas tree we will go and get from the hills!  An exciting time for sure!

I think I Saw a Mouse!

On Tuesday I was able to take my Mom and Mark to the Temple Open House! It was a really wonderful experience to again be in the temple with one of my parents!

But that is not all the excitement we had that day!! I had left our boys with Myrna for the afternoon and when I transferred the car seats into her Explorer I found a very hard half eaten hamburger under Calum's car seat! That wasn't the grossest thing I found either, under the rock hard hamburger were lots of little mouse turds!! So I assumed there had been a mouse in the van but also assumed that it was now gone and put it out of my mind! Until we happened to be driving through a super busy city of one million people!!

I drove the van to our first stop in Calgary, a second hand store and then my mom took over driving to the very northwest corner of the city where Mark lives and to where the temple is! Well we decided to stop somewhere to have a hot chocolate while we waited for Mark to be done work! As my mon was turning into the mall I looked down and could have sworn I saw a little skinny mouse tail flick as it moved under my purse, right by my feet! Well before I could really even process what I had seen I blurted out, "I think I just saw a mouse!" as I lifted my feet up to the dash! Well, my mom is deathly afraid of mice and I soon realized this what not something a person wanted to hear as they were driving in a super busy city!!! She began to become hysterical and just kept saying what do we do and where do we go? We were in the parking lot of the mini mall, but with our minds both on the mouse running free in the van we couldn't focus on where to go! Finally mom spotted a coffee shop and that is where we parked and jumped out of the van!!

We hung out in the coffee shop for quite awhile trying to decide what to do! It was raining quite hard and we really didn't want to walk anywhere! We tried to think of a place that would sell mouse traps, there was a Petcetera, but we both agreed that they probably wouldn't sell traps...there was a pharmacy, but determined they too wouldn't have any! Then my mom remembered there was a Rona right around the corner!!! But far enough around the corner that we had to drive! So we very carefully got back into the van and drove to Rona!! And there we found exactly what we would need!!

We had Mark set the trap for us, and while we were at the restaurant we hoped we would catch it! No luck...but then I was thinking and trying hard to convince my mom that I probably didn't see a mouse but was just paranoid because of the mouse poop! So off to the temple we went!!! Only after the tour as we got back in the van we looked at the trap to see, and sure enough inside was a little mouse!!!

Moving Bulls

Saturday we decided to take the bulls out of the cow herd.  Jared drove the truck and trailer through the water hub and got it all set up and then he took off on the quad to the opposite corner of the field to round up the bulls.  Dave was out to help so I gladly left the rounding up to them, instead I played around the bales with five little kids, Leah, Emry, Lily Calum and Armin!  We had fun taking pictures and exploring!

When we saw the guys coming over the hill with Junior I had all the kids get into the truck so the bull wouldn't hear them and then get spooked.  I hid myself behind the trailer door holding it open and then throwing it closed so Junior wouldn't back himself out.  Rounding Junior up and walking him through the field to the water hub, getting him in the trailer and taking him back to the home quarter only took about 45 minutes total!!  Getting the big one, or as Jared calls him, Cassanova, out was a whole different story!  While Dave drove the trailer with Junior back home Jared and I headed back out to the opposite corner of the field on the little quad!  Once we got to Cassanova I hopped off and with my poking stick I made myself look nice and big and started to walk toward the big bull!  Jared and I work quite well together and without him having to tell me I would stay on the opposite side of the bull that he was on and together we would guide him toward the water!  Well, this would really only work in a perfect world and if the bull wasn't super stubborn!  I am sure Jared and I walked back and forth with Cassanova at least five times, we would get him near the trail head and instead of going down it, he would keep going until we would come to the fence and then he would turn around and back we would go to basically where we started!  At one point the only progress we were making toward the water is when we would walk toward the bull and he would back up about 5 steps, by then we were to the point that if he went the whole way backwards we would let him!!  After doing this for awhile Cassanova put his head down almost looking like he was going to charge at us, but we stood our ground until complete and utter shock took over...of all the things he could do he decided to lay down!  We were hoping to wear him out but not in this way!!  So we got him up and tried again, finally he started to make his way down the trail in the actual direction we wanted and then there came a fork in the trail and this silly stubborn animal decided to take the fork, which we were hoping also led to the water, but it didn't, and again we were back to where we started!  After two hours we finally got him up to the water!  One positive though, it took us less time to get him to the water then it took us to him out of the neighbours heifers!!  Despite the agaonizing hours it took to get him in the water hub, loaded and deposited back home, it was a successful day!  I really enjoy working with the cows especially with Jared by my side!  I admire the love he has for the cows and the patience he possesses especially when there is still a long list of things to that still need to be done!

I helped Jared tow in his little Nissan, his calf tagging truck, and the sun shinning through the window with the fluff of the cat tails floating all around was so beautiful!

Much to Be Thankful For

Yesterday we celebrated Thanksgiving with family and friends!  It was a terrific day with super yummy food contributed by all who came!  Originally we were going to have dinner at my sister's house but she was hobbling around since getting the pins and screws out of her ankles, so I offered our house!  And thanks to everyone pitching in, I couldn't have been more thankful!

Buck's sister, Jessica, and her beau JW (or Auntie Jess, as my kids too call her!), brought the turkey, stuffing, a ham, and my favourite, mashed turnips and apples.  Arren brought mashed potatoes and hash brown casserole.  My mom brought a lettuce salad, a jello salad and punch.  And I made sweet potatoes and cupcakes!  We had so much food, fun and laughs!  Our house was full of giggles from the ten kids, my neices and nephews Maryssa and Owen, Lily and Gilbert, Adam and Melodie's kids, Hayley, Dantae Lynn and Damian, plus our three kids!  They all got along exceptionally well, Damian, Calum and Armin played lego while Gilbert and Owen played video games, and all the girls went outside to explore!  When they came in the kids made a craft, a ritz cracker turkey with a hershey kiss body and candy corn feathers (thanks to Adam and Melodie for finding the super hard to find candy corn!)  The adults sat and visited around the table while the girls would take turns cleaning up!  I love our house for that, even if the girls are doing dishes and the guys are chatting we can all still be involved in each others conversations!  It was so much fun!

Dantae Lynn and Lily

Hayley and Damian

The example turkey that I made!

Adam, JW, Arren, Buck and Jared having fun chit chatting!

Dantae sat for quite awhile making her candy turkey's.

Lily the goof ball!

I had made gingerbread cupcakes with a pumpkin cream cheese frosting, which I thought were exceptional, except I had over cooked them a little so to fix that in a pinch I decided to just cut off the bottom of each of the cupcakes...the part that was the most overcooked!  They quickly got nicknamed the bottomless cupcakes!!  I also made an apple butter vanilla cupcake with a vanilla frosting and garnished with a sprinkle of cinnamon!  I love making cupcakes, just as much as I love eating them!!  Jared had set up an archary station for the kids and the girls did check it out but by the time Emry asked to have Jared come out and show them the sun had set!  But I think they all had fun despite the missed opportunity!

I was happy we celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday, we may not have had Jared with us any other day because of all the work he is busy with...Saturday we had a sick calf with bad feet who really was having a hard time standing to get milk from his mom.  So Jared and Emry rounded the calf up and loaded him into the trailer to take him to the vet.  Jared said Emry was such a big help and a real natural when it came to wrangling cattle...the calf was in the water hub but as Jared and Emry backed the trailer in, his mom realized what was happening and came tearing over to her calf and riled him up and together they took off to the farthest corner of the field.  I got a phone call asking if I would come and get them so they could get the quad.  They were going to miss the vet appointment if they couldn't get the little guy in.  Once they got back down there with the quad they were able to separate the mom and her calf from the rest of the herd, and while Jared walked behind the cow and her calf Emry drove her quad to prevent them from straying off course!  Jared was so proud of her and so thankful for her help, he couldn't have done it on his own, and she just naturally knew what to do, he didn't give her any direction!  They got the calf loaded and then off to Nanton they went, where they found out not much at all!  The vet said it could be a couple of things but both resulting in his feet falling off.  One diagnosis was selenium poisoning from gorging himself on the mineral Jared puts out to keep the cows healthy, or the other diagnosis could be ergot, which is generally due to too much grain...which our cows haven't had!  So Jared is treating this calf daily with an antibiotic and hopefully it will help him, and if not, we will at least have some good eating!!  And even after the adventure of getting the calf to the vet and home again, Jared even made it to his Priesthood Meeting, which he thoroughly enjoyed!  A good way to end an already good day!  Today if it isn't too wet, Jared is going to try and haul more bales home.  Never a dull moment here on the farm!

We were also happy to have friends celebrate thanksgiving with us yesterday...Adam and his wife Melodie and their three children joined us for dinner!  Adam has been doing a lot of the finishing work in our house and he getting close to being done before he moves onto Myrna's house, he really does do exceptional work!

The beautiful Thanksgiving sunset!

As everyone was getting ready to leave Buck got a phone call from my mom who had already left saying there was a fire over in the direction of their farms.  A few minutes later he got another phone call from my mom, a lot more frantic, saying it was most definitely at her farm.  From the road she couldn't tell if it was her house or not.  Thankfully JW is apart of the Vulcan fire department and he quickly took action and called it in.  Everyone left in quite a hurry after that, including Jared to see if he could help out in any way.  With the house empty and quiet I was too anxious to just sit and wait to hear, so the kids and I piled into the car and were only going to drive to Alston Road to see just exactly how bad it was.  As we were driving we could see that it was in fact a big fire, and Emry was terrified. Just before we turned onto Alston Road Arren called me and told me the fire was not at the house but in the field just east of the bins, so not far from the shop and the house.  She said the fire was quite close to the lane way so it probably wasn't wise to come up to the house.  We stayed parked at the intersection to let the two fire trucks by before we turned onto Alston Road and parked just past my mom's lane approach to let the other fire trucks know where to turn.  In total there were about seven trucks there from three different stations, Vulcan, Champion and Carmangay.  They were quickly able to get the fire under control and eventually put out.  They did a wonderful job and responded super quick, thank goodness for the exceptional volunteers in our little communities!  The verdict of how the fire actually started is not yet in, but last night Buck was thinking it could have been the fencer that is attached to the post behind the row of bins.  There was very little structural damage done, just a few fence repairs.  So despite the little bit of adrenaline rush last night we truly have much to be thankful for...family, friends, good neighbours and dedicated volunteers!

What a day to celebrate the blessings we have been given.  I have so much thanks in my heart...
first of all, for my truly loving and devoted husband, a man who lets me be my own person and yet guides and directs me on the right path, a man who has a sense of humour and makes me laugh on a daily basis, a man who says I love you even in front of the guys at work when we finish a conversation on the phone, a man who can find the joy in everything we do even when its dealing with our super energetic children!  Second of all I am so thankful for our children, and the innocence they possess, I am thankful for the joy they bring to my life and the smile they bring to my face every time I look at them.  I am also thankful for extended family, my mom and Jared's mom and for all the help they are to us and for the wonderful examples they are.  I am thankful for my dad and for the love and support he gives to me each day, I always look forward to his phone calls, they always come at a time when I seem to need them the most!  I am extremely thankful for the gospel in my life and for the peace and security I feel from it each and everyday.  I am thankful for all the rest of my family too, and for the love I feel from each of them.  There is so much to be thankful for and to list it all I would truly be typing forever!