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.