Christmas Letter

‘Twas the week before Christmas at our crazy house, mom said “some sort of Christmas cards I must get out.” So she thought and she thought until it was clear, these were the Christmas cards she came up with this year. An update of this past year she’d give out, to our family and friends who are great no doubt! So here’s a little summary of our life this past year, wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Jake has been busy working as the packaging manager at Cephalon in Salt Lake. One of the perks of his job is the five weeks of vacation he gets, the majority of it spent this year hunting! He has also been working extremely hard trying to finish our house. We are just finishing with phase one: The living room, dining room, kitchen and family room. We will start sometime around Christmas on phase two: redoing where our existing bedrooms are and turning that whole level of the house into our master bedroom, bath, and laundry room.
Alayna has been staying busy taking care of the boys, animals, housework, helping Jake with construction on the house, and is currently serving as second counselor in our ward Relief Society Presidency. . . While currently being three months pregnant! Baby number 3 is due July 6, 2009!
Dalton is going to Preschool at Plain City Elementary this year. He just turned five this month and will be starting Kindergarten next year! I am amazed at what a good memory he has. He is still as rambunctious as ever, but he is also a very sweet and caring little boy. He is growing up way too fast!
Gunnar is 2 and a half and is talking up a storm! He continually amazes me with the things he says. I think his older brother must be tutoring him! Gunnar is still very affectionate (which I love!), but he is also going through the terrible twos right now, which include tantrums and sneakily getting into things he shouldn’t and making huge messes! (which I don’t love so much!) He’s just so dang cute, though!
Both our boys are such a joy to us and we feel so blessed to have them and are looking forward to the new addition to our family next year.
We hope you all are doing well and wish you a wonderful holiday season!
Love,
Jake, Alayna, Dalton, and Gunnar

Dalton's Birthday Party

December is a crazy busy month! Not only do we have the normal Christmas festivities going on but it is also Dalton's birthday, Jake's dad's birthday, and both Doug and Sharell's birthday's are in December. One of my best friends, Dana Staker, (she and I have been friends since we were three) owns a tumbleing gym. She has been coaching tumbleing for over ten years now. I asked her if it would be ok if Dalton had his birthday party at her tumbleing gym. So Dalton got to invite as many friends as Jake and I could cram into our car and truck. We took the kids to the gym and they had a wonderful time! They got to play on the trampolines, build forts out of foam shapes, play with the huge parachute like I remember doing in elementary, swing from ropes hanging from the ceiling: it was the perfect place to take 10 rambunctious boys! Thanks so much Dana for making Dalton's fifth birthday such a fun day for him!

After Dalton's friends party the Weston's had a Soup dinner family home evening night at Rex and Pam's church. It was a lot of fun.
Dalton's family birthday party will be a combined party for Dallas' birthday as well (Dallas' birthday is the fifteenth) on Sunday the 14th, we're having everyone over for Chilli.

Happy Birthday Dalton!

Here's Dalton and Braxton on Dalton's 4th birthday. We had planned on taking the kids sledding, but couldn't find a hill with enough snow so we ended up just taking them to a park to play.

Here's Dalton's 3rd birthday.

Here he is on his second birthday.

Here's Dalton on his first birthday.

Here's Dalton a few hours after he was born. Seems like yesterday. I can't believe he's already five years old! Sure Love you buddy! Happy Birthday!

Oh, by the way. . .

HERE COMES NUMBER THREE!!! DUE JULY 6, 2009!!!
We usually don't tell this early but since Dalton announced it to his entire primary class when I was only about six weeks along, the cat's out of the bag I guess! I went to the doctor last Monday and everything looks good, I'm even a week further along than I thought I was, which is always good news! So I am a little over ten weeks along now.

Merry Christmas!

Here's the boys with Santa at the ward Christmas Party. Gunnar doesn't look exactly thrilled. . . but he's not crying!

What we've been up to

Here's some before and after pictures of the rock hood we just finished.


Yesterday was a crazy busy day, as most Saturdays are. Our ward had the Relief Society Christmas breakfast at 9:00, but I needed to be there at 8 to help set up and then help after. It turned out to be really nice. Our Enrichment Committee is amazing! Relief Society has been kindof crazy lately. Our president was diagnosed with Lymphoma cancer about a month ago. She's had two doses of chemo and will be getting four more. The chemo has been really hard on her, like I'm sure it is on everyone who goes through it. So right now the first counselor, secretary, and I are sort of running relief society until she's feeling better. After the breakfast I came home and painted the last of our baseboard and casing for the family room, kitchen, living room, and dining room. We're trying to finish all the finish work on phase one of our construction projects so we can start gutting the existing bedrooms in the next couple of weeks. I finally planted some tulip and daffodil bulbs, I really hope they'll grow! I cut rock for Jake for about an hour or so to help him finish the hood over the stove. Then I took the boys to the ward Christmas party. It was at the stake center combined with the 1st ward, they showed the movie Polar Express and had some train sets for the kids to play with (that's where my boys stayed during the whole movie), then Santa came! Gunnar even sat on his lap without screaming! Gunnar said, "last night (meaning last year) when I saw Santa I was scared and I cried and cried!" I couldn't believe that he could remember last Christmas, he has a good memory! I feel bad Jake couldn't come with us, he really wanted to get that dang hood finished! We're so sick of doing rock we could both scream! After doing the fireplace and the whole outside of the house it is beyond getting old! Only the wood burning fireplace, the front of the bar, and the chimney left to rock then we're difinely retiring from doing rock!

My Elk

Well hopefully this is the last picture of "dead stuff" I will be posting on this blog, at least for this year. This one is different though because it's not something Jake shot, this one is all mine! I drew a state antlerless elk tag this year so the day before our anniversary we went elk hunting. I had sighted in the rifle the day before, a good thing to do before you plan on shooting something. I had drawn this same tag two years ago and we hiked our butts off, through three feet of snow, over like ten mountains, I almost died! And we never did get much of an opportunity at the elk. So this year I wasn't exactly thrilled about this hunt. But the weather was nice, no snow, we were able to spot some elk (thanks to my husbands impressive hunting skills) and we got to where the elk were and made it happen. I shot five times and we found three bullets in the elk. My last shot dropped it. We found out when we got to it that it had hit it in the head. At least it didn't suffer. It sure is good eatin'!

Happy Anniversary Jake!

It was seven years ago today that Jake and I got married! The time has sure flown by. Happy Anniversary Jake! Love you!




We drove Jake's dad's motor bike up to Ben Lomond Peak on August 25, 2001. That's where Jake proposed. We were the only one's up there. We could see all the way from Cache Valley to the Salt Lake Valley. It was really neat. It's cool now to look from our back yard and be able to look up at Ben Lomond Peak.

Halloween Pics!!!

This is the flying witch relay game the kids played at Dalton's party

Here's a group picture of a bunch of the kids at Dalton's party. About eight more kids got here after this picture was taken and I was going to do another group picture but things got to crazy and I didn't get a chance to.

Grandma and Grandpa Weston and all their grandkids (so far...Randy and Ashley's little girl is due any day now) Whitney, Dalton, Lexie, Gunnar, and Riley.

Halloween Pics!!!

Grandma and Grandpa Dalton and their grandkids: Dalton, Gunnar, & Kade

Great Grandma and Grandpa Weston and Dalton and Gunnar

Gunnar, Dalton, and Kade (the little monkey)

Me, Great Grandma Dalton, Dalton & Gunnar


Great Grandma Marlow and Dalton, Gunnar, & Kade

Dalton decided he wanted to be spiderman again this year. It was great since he was spiderman last year! The costume still fit so I figured great, then I don't have to try to find him a new costume. Gunnar was a horse/cowboy that Dalton was a few years ago. It's a really cute costume: It goes on kindof like overalls and the Gunnar's feet were the horse's back legs. Gunnar wasn't to excited to be wearing and didn't wear it too long Halloween night. He did wear it the whole two hours of the boys' Halloween party on Weds. though.
Dalton had been talking about having a Halloween party since July. I didn't say a word about it as Halloween got closer. But a few weeks ago Dalton said, "mom, Halloween is coming soon so we really need to get planning my Halloween party." I said, "oh ya,what should we do to plan?" He said, "first we need to make invitations." So we had his party on Weds. October 29th. We had almost thirty kids here! Dana helped me come up with some fun games and she stayed and helped with the party the whole time. Geana, Crystal, and Lori also stayed and helped. Thanks for all the help guys! I couldn't have done it without you. It ended up being just the perfect amount of adults to be able to divide the kids into groups and take them around to the different games we had set up around the house. They all seemed to have a good time - I know I did!

A Return to Virtue

It was my turn to teach Relief Society today. Here's the lesson I taught:

The Relief Society president and we two counselors are in charge of giving the first Sunday lesson every month. So I know that I have to teach every third month. So I’ve had three months to think about what I would teach on. We have no manual and not a whole lot of instruction on what we should base our lessons on. Basically whatever subject we feel inspired to teach on is what we teach. So about three months ago I started praying and thinking about what I should base my lesson on. Several times the word Virtue came to mind. I thought a little about it, but sort of brushed it aside and decided that I would prayerfully and earnestly watch general conference in hopes that one of the talks given would be what I would base my lesson on. So Sunday morning I was watching the first session of conference and Pres. Eyring spoke first. He spoke about becoming more united in the church and having our hearts knit as one. One thing that really stood out to me that he said was, “We see increased conflict between peoples in the world around us. Those divisions and differences could infect us. That is why my message of hope today is that a great day of unity is coming. The Lord Jehovah will return to live with those who have become His people and will find them united, of one heart, unified with Him and with our Heavenly Father.” His whole talk was mesmerizing and the spirit was strong. The fourth speaker was Elaine Dalton the general young women’s president. Guess what her topic was: VIRTUE! My heart started pounding and tears started leaking out my eyes and the spirit manifested to me that this was the lesson I needed to give in Relief Society. But not only was I to give this lesson to the Relief Society sisters but I also needed to invite the Young Women to join us. As soon as the first session was over I immediately called Lisa (our young women's presiden and Jake's aunt) to ask her if she could invite the young women to come be a part of my lesson. Another reason I felt so strongly that the young women should join with us today is something that sister Julie Beck, the general relief society president, said at the general relief society broadcast about a month ago. She spoke about fulfilling the purpose of relief society. She told about how when she was newly married her parents had been her neighbors but they one day announced that they would be moving to another part of the world. She had relied so much on her mother and was heartbroken that she would be so far away. One day before her mother left, Sister Beck sat weeping with her and asked, “Who will be my mother?” Her mother thought carefully, and with the Spirit and power of revelation which comes to women of this kind, she said, “if I never come back, if you never see me again, if I’m never able to teach you another thing, you tie yourself to Relief Society. Relief Society will be your mother.” We have such wonderful sisters in our Relief Society. I want the young women in our ward to be able to see that and feel comfortable with the sisters here in Relief Society. You can look to these women as examples of righteous, virtuous women.
My whole life I’ve heard these are the last days, we’re living in the last dispensation, the second coming will be here soon, we need to be prepared. I’ve felt this more and more the past few months as we’ve began to see a major change in the world around us and the economy. I’ve been thinking about how we can better prepare ourselves for the things that are sure to come. One way we can prepare is by building up our armor by being more virtuous daughter of God. It is time to pick a side. I hope all of us here will chose the Lord’s side. Sister Dalton says in her talk, “now is the time for each of us to arise and unfurl a banner to the world calling for a return to virtue. “

M. Russell Ballard-“The Lord isn’t asking us to load up a hand cart, he’s asking us to fortify our faith! He’s asking us to live a disciples’ life.”

October Ensign Visiting teaching Message: Margaret D. Nadauld, former Young Women general president: “Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. . . We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith.”

The Thirteenth Article of Faith
We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

President Thomas S. Monson has counseled: “You be the one to make a stand for right, even if you stand alone. Have the moral courage to be a light for others to follow. There is no friendship more valuable than your own clear conscience, your own moral cleanliness-and what a glorious feeling it is to know that you stand in your appointed place clean and with the confidence that you are worthy to do so.”

A Return to Virtue
Elaine S. Dalton
Young Women General President


Now is the time for each of us to arise and unfurl a banner to the world calling for a return to virtue.

Last general conference, I was called by President Monson to be the new Young Women general president. As I stood in the presence of a prophet of God and was given this sacred trust, I pledged that I would serve with all my heart, might, mind, and strength. Prior to this calling, I had a small plate inscribed with a motto that read, “I can do hard things.” That little plate bearing that simple motto gave me courage. But now if I could change that motto, it would read: “In the strength of the Lord, I can do all things.”1 It is on that strength that I rely today as I stand at this sacred pulpit.

Last April, two days after general conference, we held our first meeting as a newly sustained presidency. We hiked to the top of Ensign Peak, and as we looked on the valley below, we saw the temple with the angel Moroni shining in the sun. For each of us, it was clear. The vision for our presidency was the temple. And our responsibility was also clear. We must “help prepare each young woman to be worthy to make and keep sacred covenants and receive the ordinances of the temple.”2

The temple is the reason for everything we do in the Church.3 The temple was the reason our pioneer ancestors left their established homes and came west. It was the reason they suffered privation and even death. Temple covenants were the reason that, although babies were buried along the way, those pioneers could sing:

Come, come, ye Saints,
No toil nor labor fear;
But with joy wend your way.4

Some lost everything but came into the valley with everything, really—temple ordinances, sacred covenants, and the promise of eternal life together as families.

Just two days after the Saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young and his associates hiked Ensign Peak. Atop that peak they unfurled a banner—a yellow bandana tied to a walking stick, which symbolized an ensign or standard to the nations.5 The Saints were to be the light, the standard. Last April, atop Ensign Peak, we three women also unfurled a banner which we made from a walking stick and a gold Peruvian shawl. It was our ensign, our standard to the nations—our banner calling for a return to virtue.

Virtue is a prerequisite to entering the Lord’s holy temples and to receiving the Spirit’s guidance. Virtue “is a pattern of thought and behavior based on high moral standards.”6 It encompasses chastity and moral purity. Virtue begins in the heart and in the mind. It is nurtured in the home. It is the accumulation of thousands of small decisions and actions. Virtue is a word we don’t hear often in today’s society, but the Latin root word virtus means strength. Virtuous women and men possess a quiet dignity and inner strength. They are confident because they are worthy to receive and be guided by the Holy Ghost. President Monson has counseled: “You be the one to make a stand for right, even if you stand alone. Have the moral courage to be a light for others to follow. There is no friendship more valuable than your own clear conscience, your own moral cleanliness—and what a glorious feeling it is to know that you stand in your appointed place clean and with the confidence that you are worthy to do so.”7

Could it be that we have been slowly desensitized into thinking that high moral standards are old-fashioned and not relevant or important in today’s society? As Elder Hales has just reminded us, Lehonti in the Book of Mormon was well positioned on the top of a mountain. He and those he led were “fixed in their minds with a determined resolution” that they would not come down from the mount. It only took the deceitful Amalickiah four tries, each one more bold than the previous, to get Lehonti to “come down off from the mount.”8 And then having embraced Amalickiah’s false promises, Lehonti was “poison[ed] by degrees”9 until he died. Not just poisoned, but “by degrees.” Could it be that this may be happening today? Could it be that first we tolerate, then accept, and eventually embrace the vice that surrounds us?10 Could it be that we have been deceived by false role models and persuasive media messages that cause us to forget our divine identity? Are we too being poisoned by degrees? What could be more deceptive than to entice the youth of this noble generation to do nothing or to be busy ever-texting but never coming to a knowledge of the truths contained in a book that was written for you and your day by prophets of God—The Book of Mormon? What could be more deceptive than to entice women, young and old, you and me, to be so involved in ourselves, our looks, our clothes, our body shape and size that we lose sight of our divine identity and our ability to change the world through our virtuous influence? What could be more deceptive than to entice men—young and old, holding the holy priesthood of God—to view seductive pornography and thus focus on flesh instead of faith, to be consumers of vice rather than guardians of virtue? The Book of Mormon relates the story of 2,000 young heroes whose virtue and purity gave them the strength to defend their parents’ covenants and their family’s faith. Their virtue and commitment to be “true at all times” changed the world!11

I truly believe that one virtuous young woman or young man, led by the Spirit, can change the world, but in order to do so, we must return to virtue. We must engage in strict training. As the marathon runner Juma Ikanga said after winning the New York Marathon, “The will to win is nothing without the will to prepare.”12 Now is the time to prepare by exercising more self-discipline. Now is the time to become “more fit for the kingdom.”13 Now is the time to set our course and focus on the finish. A return to virtue must begin individually in our hearts and in our homes.

What can each of us do to begin our return to virtue? The course and the training program will be unique to each of us. I have derived my personal training program from instructions found in the scriptures: “Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly.”14 “Cleave unto [your] covenants.”15 “Stand . . . in holy places.”16 “Lay aside the things of [the] world.”17 “Believe that ye must repent.”18 “Always remember him and keep his commandments.”19 And “If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, . . . seek after these things.”20 Now more than ever before, it is time to respond to Moroni’s call to “awake, and arise” and to “lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing.”21

Recently I attended the blessing of our newest granddaughter. It was a holy sight to me as my husband and our sons, along with many other loved ones, encircled this little infant. She was so elegant all dressed in white—and it didn’t hurt a bit that she was named after her two grandmothers! But the thing that touched me most was the blessing given by her father, our son Zach. He blessed little Annabel Elaine that she would understand her identity as a daughter of God, that she would follow the examples of her mother, grandmothers, and sister, and that she would find great joy as she lived a virtuous life and prepared to make and keep sacred temple covenants. In that sacred moment, I prayed that every young woman might be encircled, strengthened, and protected by righteous priesthood power, not only at the time of birth and blessing but throughout life.

During the solemn assembly last conference when President Uchtdorf called for the sustaining of our new prophet and First Presidency, I watched the entire congregation of priesthood brethren arise and stand. I felt your strength and your priesthood power. You are the guardians of virtue. Then I was overcome with emotion when he said, “Will the young women please arise?” From my seat, I saw all of you arise and stand together. Today there could be no more powerful force for virtue in the world. You must never underestimate the power of your righteous influence.

I testify that a return to virtue is possible because of the Savior’s example and the “infinite virtue of His great atoning sacrifice.”22 I testify that we will be enabled and strengthened not only to do hard things but to do all things. Now is the time for each of us to arise and unfurl a banner to the world calling for a return to virtue. May we so live that we can be instruments in preparing the earth for His Second Coming, “that when he shall appear we shall be like him, . . . purified even as he is pure.”23 In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.


NOTES
1. See Alma 20:4.
2. First Presidency letter, Sept. 25, 1996.
3. See Russell M. Nelson, “Personal Preparation for Temple Blessings,” Liahona, July 2001, 37; Ensign, May 2001, 32.
4. “Come, Come, Ye Saints,” Hymns, no. 30.
5. See Gordon B. Hinckley, “An Ensign to the Nations,” Ensign, Nov. 1989, 52; Boyd K. Packer, “A Defense and a Refuge,” Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2006, 85.
6. Preach My Gospel (2004), 118.
7. Thomas S. Monson, “Examples of Righteousness,” Liahona and Ensign, May 2008, 65.
8. See Alma 47:4–12.
9. Alma 47:18.
10. See Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man, epistle 2, lines 217–20.
11. Alma 53:20; see also Alma 56.
12. Juma Ikangaa, quoted in Michael Sandrock, Running with the Legends: Training and Racing Insights from 21 Great Runners (1966), 415.
13. “More Holiness Give Me,” Hymns, no. 131.
14. D&C 121:45.
15. See D&C 25:13.
16. D&C 45:32.
17. D&C 25:10.
18. Mosiah 4:10.
19. D&C 20:77.
20. Articles of Faith 1:13; see also Romans 8:16; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:22; Jacob 4:6; Alma 37:36; Moroni 10:32.
21. Moroni 10:30–31.
22. “The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles,” Liahona and Ensign, Apr. 2000, 2.
23. Moroni 7:48; emphasis added.

Husband Tag

Erin tagged me with this cute tag about husbands.
1 )Where did you meet? Jake's brother Doug gave Jake my number so the first time I remember actually meeting Jake is our first date, although our paths crossed several times over the years such as Justin's farewell and Doug's wedding.
2) How long did you date before you got married? Our first Date was July 7th, we got engaged exactly 8 weeks later on Aug. 25, and we were married Nov. 16, so we dated a little over 4 months.
3) How long have you been married? It'll be seven years next month.
4) What is your favorite feature of his? His eyes, they are gorgeous!
5) What is your favorite quality of his? That he can do anything!
6) Does he have a nickname for you? No
7) What is his favorite food? He loves red meat! Steak, ribs, prime rib, he says I don't cook it near enough!
8) What is his favorite sport? Does hunting count as a sport?
9) When and where was your first kiss? I don't remember the exact date, I think it was a Sunday around the end of July. We were standing by the blazer in my parents driveway looking at the stars.
10) What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Just spend time together.
11) Do you have any children? 2 boys.
12) Does he have a hidden talent? There's nothing he can't do. He can teach himself how to do anything. For example, he'd never even ridden a horse before he met me, now he rides like a pro and shoes his own horses.
13) How old is he? 31
14) Who said "I love you" first? He said it first, only because I sort of coerced him into saying it first! He had called my cell phone earlier that day and my sister answered it. We sound a lot a like on the phone so we wanted to see how long it would take him to figure out it wasn't me. He caught on pretty quick so he started being a goofball and teasingly got all mushy with her and told her he loved her. She told me all about it later. So when Jake and I were together that night I tried to get it out of him what he said to her. I was hoping he would really say it. After a few minutes he got real serious and told me he loved me and I told him I love him too!
15) What is his favorite type of music? Everything but rap.
16) What do you admire the most about him? That he can do so much, have so much on his plate yet rarely ever get stressed. I'm the one that stresses! He's usually just calm and rational. He is a great husband and father!
17) Do you think he will read this? Yes.

I tag Candace, Natalie, Alyson, Angela, Jessica, Becky, and anyone else who wants to do this fun tag!

Carving Pumpkins

I love this picture of Dalton and Taylor! Taylor invited him over the other day to carve pumpkins with her family. This picture just says it all!

The Past Seven Years of Halloween Parties!!!

Every October some of our friends (Judd & Shalee Cook and Ed & Britney Hall) throw a murder mystery Halloween party. I look forward to these parties every year. They are so much fun! Here's a quick summary of how the party works: there's a different theme every year, each person is given an envelope prior to the party that tells them the character they are playing for the party and how to dress for the part, then at the party you are given a new envelope telling you where you were and what you were doing when the "murder" took place. The murderer finds out in that envelope that they are the murderer and they are the only one who can lie, everyone else has to stick to their "script." The object of the game is to try to figure out who the murderer is. It's hilarious! One of my favorite memories was from probably about five years ago. The theme was "awesome eighties" we all had to dress in hilarious eighties clothes and Jake carried a boom-box on his shoulder and we walked into the party with it blaring Bon Jovi's "living on a prayer!" Then Ben Hale entertained us with a guitar solo & vocal performance of "every rose has it's thorns!" It was priceless! This years party is this Saturday. The theme is "Sixties Hippies." These pics are from last year's party.

Jake, Shane, Dad, and Bill's Elk hunting pics

Bill, Dad, Shane, and Jake with their four 2008 Wyoming Bulls. Three from this past week and Jake's from the archery hunt (last month's post.)



Dad and his bull.

Shane packing out his elk.

Shane packing out his elk with some help from Freckles.

Sick little boy

Gunnar woke up this morning wining from his bed. Then I hear him say, "my tummy hurts!" I run in and pick him up just as he starts coughing and gagging. I hurried and ran him into the bathroom just in time for him to puke in the toilet! Poor little guy! He's pale and fevered just like Dalton was on Weds. It's so hard when little kids get sick. At least both boys weren't sick at the same time, and at least their daddy's home to help me deal with it. Jake and I decided to go to church in shifts today. He and Dalton are at sacrament right now, then Jake will come home so I can conduct in Relief Society. Poor Gunnar is now crashed out on the floor. I hope he gets feeling better soon.

Cake Anyone?

Last weekend all Jake's family got together to reshingle Grandma and Grandpa's roof. I was in charge of bringing a dessert. The boys and I made a Halloween cake and Dalton wanted to put candy on it. So here's a picture of the cake they made. They were so proud of it.

Soccer

Help! I'm caught in the spider web!

One of the few times Dalton listened to his coach.

Practice before the game

Gunnar watching from the sidelines wearing his Daddy's hat.
ARRR Matey! I'm a pirate!
Today was Dalton's last soccer game until spring. He has been hilarious to watch to say the least. His first game he was on fire and scored four out the five goals his team scored. But since that first game I don't know what has happened. I don't know if he's just lost interest or something but he gets out on the field and he just kindof lally gags, or pretends the net is a spider web and gets stuck in it, or pretends he's a transformer and falls down into a tight ball to transform! It's quite entertaining!
In case you're wondering I'm feeling much better since my last post. The mighty hunters got home last night. . .with three nice bull elk! So all four of them filled their tags, they are ecstatic. I'll post some pics soon.
This afternoon we set up a meat processing shop in Shane and Geana's garage and got Shane's elk all turned into burger, Dallas' deer all cut up, and Jake's antelope and one quarter of his elk made into burger. The other three quarters of Jake's elk got completely frozen to the inside of our freezer! While we were processing everything else Jake, Shane, and Cody came over and were able to pry the rest of the elk out of the freezer with a crow bar. Now we just have to let it thaw out and we can finish it up and be done with dead stuff for a little while! I told Jake he has to at least give me and the boys the amount of days he's been hunting. So no more hunting for at least 30 days!

Will it never end!?

There's been so much going on lately. I've been putting off blogging because I've been feeling pretty low and I don't want to sound depressed or something. But I am SO SICK OF HUNTING SEASON!!! My husband has been gone 30 out of the last 45 days. That means he's been home only 15 days and the majority of those have been spent at work. Is it so wrong to actually want to see my husband once in a while? I feel like I am right on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I am so sick of doing all the mom and dad stuff around here. I've been dealing with a sick horse for almost two weeks now. The week after my dad's horse died they took Guy and Freckles hunting again and when they brought the horses back Guy just kindof layed around a lot. When he was standing he just kind of stayed and grazed in one spot in the pasture. Jake and I went out to check on him and his front legs were so stiff he couldn't even move. Jake was leaving the next day for his antelope hunt so he just left me to deal with it. I called the vet and he came out the next night and said that he had foundered due to too much stress to the feet. A few days before they had taken him hunting the neighbor kid shoed him because Jake didn't have enough time to and he said when he was trimming him he thinks he hit a blister or something cuz his foot started bleeding like crazy. We think he may have got a bruise or blister from when we packed out Jake's elk and he climbed that really steep rocky mountain by himself. So all that combined with trailoring him four hours and then riding him ten miles every day up hunting was just too much. So that Saturday I was having a baby shower at my house for my sister-in-law, Ashley, and I was trying to finish up getting ready for that. My dad came over and helped me build a stall for Guy in the barn cuz the vet said we needed to get him out of the pasture ASAP. It was POURING rain and I went through two pairs of clothes soaked to the bone. We finally got the stall done and then we had to build a bridge across the new irrigation ditch Jake had dug in front of the pasture. We've been just jumping the horses across it, but there's no way Guy could've jumped it if he couldn't even walk. So we got a bridge built and then I was praying like crazy we could even get him to walk from the far end of the pasture, across the bridge, and into the barn. Casey came over and helped me and my dad and with a lot of silent prayers we were able to get him into the barn. That night we had the baby shower, and it turned out great, Jake and Dalton got home with an antelope and then he left the following Monday for France. You should see inside my freezer right now: there is the four quarters of Jake's elk (hooves and all because it was one in the morning and I was to tired to try to saw the legs of the dang thing so I decided to leave it for Jake to deal with), there is a deer from the muzzle loader deer hunt this year, and now there is an antelope. Since Guy foundered I've been muckin out his stall twice a day and giving him bute twice a day. I was supposed to take him to the vet yesterday to be x-rayed to see how bad off his legs are. Geana watched the boys for me so I could take Guy in to the vet without the boys. When I went to my parents to get the horse trailer and the hitch to put on the truck, I had the truck backed up perfectly to the trailer (it only took about 5 tries) and when I went to lower the trailer onto the hitch I realized the ball was too big for the trailer! So I called my mom (my dad's gone hunting) and she said she thought they had a smaller ball in at their shop. So I drove all the way out there put on the new ball, called the vet and had to reschedule the appointment for tomorrow, almost jack knifed the trailer cuz I can't back it worth crap, had to fill all the trailer tires (one was almost flat) up with the compressor at home cuz the one at Chevron wasn't working, decided to pick up the kids in the green truck cuz I almost had the other one jack knifed, the green truck wouldn't run, so I had to pick up the kids on the four wheeler! See what I mean about doing all the dad jobs around here! Uughhh! So that all happened yesterday so I thought today would have to be a way better day. Apparently not! It was Alyson's turn to take the kids to school and my turn to watch Kaitlynn and CJ while Dalton and Taylor were at school. Well about 45 minutes after they had left for school there was a knock at the door and it was Joyce, Jake's mom. She had Dalton in the car and said that the school had called her (apparently they had tried to call me but I didn't hear the phone) because Dalton had thrown up at school and was really sick. So I brought Dalton in and he said he didn't feel good and he was really pale. He has a fever and I guess he threw up all over the table at school! Poor little guy! So he's been feeling pretty crummy all day. I was supposed to watch my visiting teaching partner's kids this afternoon so I called Geana and she said that she could watch them, so I called Jordan to let her know what was going on cuz that's the last thing she needs is her kids puking too. I sure hope Alyson's kids don't come down with it too. Both Dalton and Gunnar took long naps this afternoon so while they were napping I cleaned out Guy's stall and put in fresh wood shavings, brushed him down, and picked out his feet. He's doing a ton better! Laura came over and watched the boys tonight so I could go to my relief society presidency meeting. I finally got the boys to go to sleep about a half hour ago and now I'm just trying to wind down and destress. This whole blogging thing is very therapeutic for me! And I'm sure it's a heck of a lot cheaper than Prozac or therapy!

Antelope Hunt

It seems like the hunting never ends! Jake drew a Wyoming antelope tag this year. He's been so busy elk hunting that he's ran out of time and his antelope hunt ends in a few days. He only had Friday night and Saturday to try to get an antelope. Bryce and his little boy, Ben, went with Jake and Dalton. As you can see they had a successful hunt and a good time.

Tribute to Sassy

This is a picture of my Dad and Sassy about two years ago packing out an elk.

Now for the sad part of the day. My dad is up hunting with Jake, Shane, Bill, and Cody. They took all the horses with them. Well my mom called and she was all upset and my dad had called her and said that Sassy, my parent's horse, wasn't doing too well and he took her to a vet in a little town by where they were hunting and she had to be put down. I'm so sad! She was such a good horse! I guess her small intestine got bound up and she got toxic shock and she would've died within an hour after the vet saw her, she was so bad off. My dad feels awful! The vet told him it wasn't his fault, this just sometimes happens to older horses. My dad said even though she was probably in a ton of pain she gave him her all and took him an hour up the mountain before he even realized something was wrong with her. She was such a sweet horse, I can't believe she's dead! I just rode her a week ago. We took her up to get Jake's elk and she was just fine, I don't understand how this could happen so fast! I'm so sad! I'm crying as I type this and look at pictures of her. She was such a good horse. She will be greatly missed:(

What I've been up to lately

This is the type of stuff I've been doing lately . . . CANNING!!! It's sort of a love hate relationship, I love to hate it! Just kidding, sort of. So two days ago Geana came over and helped me bottle tomatos from Dallas and Joyce's garden. I have the best in-laws! So nice of them to let me use stuff from their garden since Jake and I didn't do a garden this year. With the construction we've had going on there was no way we could have done a garden this year. So Geana and I did tomatos ALL DAY Weds. while the kids played and ran around unsupervised doing who knows what. What's a mom to do while there's food to be preserved and stored for the winter?! No, the kids were actually pretty good Weds. (I think that's because Dalton was at preschool for two and a half hours of the day!) And we managed to get 48 quarts of tomatos bottled and every single one sealed! Thanks Geana for your help, I really appreciate it:) Canning is so much better with someone to help and chat with:)
Then today Alyson and I made salsa. HOLY COW! It's been awhile since I've done salsa. It is a very lengthy involved process! My feet ache so bad! The kids were a little more rambunctious today: Only one broken bottle, a broken porcelain figure, and a broken wall decor- but at least nobody got hurt! But what else are two four year olds and two two-year olds to do while their moms aren't giving them enough attention? They'll definitely figure out ways to get that attention that's for sure! We finally ended up getting 25 pints of salsa, all of which sealed:), and we are all alive and in one piece! Thanks for your help with the salsa Alyson, couldn't have done it without you:)
After we did salsa we made some spaghetti sauce with the leftover tomatos and peppers and Geana and her boys came over and we all had spaghetti dinner. The plan was that after dinner us three father-less for the weekend families would have a fun movie night, but I had to run to help set up quilts for a big stake relief society activity tomorrow. I didn't think I'd be too long so Geana and Alyson said they'd hold down the fort while I was gone. Well, I sort of missed the movie night. But they said that was ok and the kids were good, so we'll have to have another movie night sometime soon. Hopefully this time I'll actually be able to be there:)
I'm so grateful to have such good friends!