Because of Him

Because of Him, I have had the opportunity to have my beautiful family.  Because of Him, my sins are no more.  Because of him, I can repent when I've done wrong.  Because of Him, I may have Eternal Life.

Happy Easter!

Easter Weekend

Spring Branding, a picnic, egg hunts and looking for Easter baskets was on our agenda for the weekend!  Ryan had to work, so he stayed home while the kids and I headed to Grandma and Grandpas to "help" work cows and have some Easter fun.

We dyed some eggs (that nobody in my family will eat, and they have to be VERY cooked for me to eat!)...

our favorite part....mixing the dyes after we're done...

Saturday morning the kids found their Easter baskets that were hidden in Grandma's house...of course Tanner found all of them but his....and when he finally DID find his, we headed outside to the back yard to hunt for eggs!  Uncle Reed was kind enough to scatter them ev.ry.where!

On your mark.....get set...GO!!!

Looks like everyone found a little something!

 As soon as that race finished up, we put our working boots on, and went to work!

We finished up the day with our traditional Family Easter Picnic...complete with hot dog roast in the back yard.  While waiting for Grandpa and everyone to come over for out lunch, my boys found the peeps....and you can see what happened between building an AWESOME teepee fire with one match, and eating a delicious lunch!  Roasting peeps.  Um....I think I'll be buying up all the peeps left over for our summer campouts!  

Following our very full and very fun day, we found Kortlen asleep on the rug by the back door....he slept there for a good hour, while Keetley and I tried to have a nap...then he came and cuddled with us for another hour nap.  Silly, tired babies!

***I need to figure out how to get pictures off my phone....ever since I've gotten a fancy-smancy smart phone, I take entirely too many pictures with it, and there are a lot missing of our day stuck on that device.  It is a tad tricky taking pictures simultaneously with a phone AND a camera.  

Happy Easter!

After finding a little something from the Easter Bunny, we got ready for church....we were dressed and ready over an hour early, so we tried to get a few fun pictures of the boys.  Believe it or not, Tanner and Kortlen's suits are hand-me-downs that they've been wearing for quite some time (Tanner wore that little size 3 one, years ago!) and Taylor was feeling a bit left out....so we remedied that situation.  

We don't really have a great backdrop for pictures in our yard yet, so we borrowed our neighbor's yard.  :)  Her wooden fence and more lush grass was much more presentable than our garage wall or the chain-link fence we're sporting behind our muddy garden.  Maybe for next year's pictures I'll have some tulips and daffodils blooming.   :)

Our hearts are full of gratitude for the sacrifice our Savior made for us, and especially for His Resurrection.  We know that because of Him, we will live with Him again.  

Happy Easter!

Easter {2013} Picnic

Each year, we gather together as a family for an Easter Picnic.  Growing up, we'd go camping in Sage Valley (on our winter range near Nephi, Utah) and more recently, we head to the winter range in Raft River, Idaho. The winter range is where the cattle winter over, usually warmer than my parent's ranch in Chesterfield, with much less snow. It's also where the cows have their calves, and with the warmer weather, it's better for everyone involved.

Enjoy the picture overload!!!

Ryan helping my dad and brother, Clay, move a fence.
Of course, there's always work to be done before playing!

Clay and Mom undoing the wires to be moved.

Homestead.  Beats camping in the dusty dirt, or a tent that's blown away! 

Deseret had spotted a baby bunny the day before....so
we tried to lure it out with some left over carrots from lunch.
A few of us saw baby bunny BEFORE the carrots were strategically
 placed, but that was the end of our bunny adventures.

Pulling out steel fence posts...

Dirt, dirt, and MORE DIRT!  Nothing more entertaining that DIRT. 

 

Our hard working mom!  Love that wind-blown hair do!

Me and my belly.  Baby girl didn't like the bumpy 4-Wheeler rides,
and I promised my Doctor the day before that I wouldn't take any
bumpy truck or ATV rides that would make her come early....at 38 weeks,
 and normally going 'over', I went ahead a risked it.
 In the middle of NOWHERE.  Shhhhh!  Don't tell! 

Later in the afternoon, we all piled in the trucks to drive over to the baby calves, see the lambs, and just overall check on how the herd was doing.

I love these little black and white faces!

"The babysitter".  :) 

Getting some GOOD dirt for our garden...this tote along with 5 grain
bags full of fertilizer.  :)  Can't wait to plant in a few weeks!

Sunset on the hill, baby and mama lambs.

Loved these darling silhouettes

My mom and Clay thought I wanted them to stop the truck every time I needed/wanted to take a picture...truth is, it was a TAD more bumpy than I had anticipated, and baby girl was having a party on my bladder.  LOL!

We arrived safely back to the bunk house, where Stephanie and Katelyn had met up with us.  After a delicious dinner, we bathed the boys (that was a muddy mess!) and enjoyed each other's company late into the night.

Saturday morning proved to be quite an exciting and fun day!  We had to dye hard boiled eggs...

We did a small amount this year...only 4 dozen.  LOL!  

Hey, mom!  

Tyrel and Katelyn

and then headed outside to play...all day long!

Mid morning, my mom's sister, Camille, her husband Gene and oldest daughter Natasha, met up with us.  They had a VERY special surprise for me!!!

♥♥ Star quilt from Natasha, and Blessing Gown from Aunt Camille ♥♥

I have a special story that goes with this beautiful gift, but it warrants its own post.  :)  So stay tuned for that in the next few days!

After a fun Easter Egg Hunt in the house (and no pictures!) we had a little accident that I and my mom may or may not have over-reacted to.  Camille and Gene were getting ready to leave when Stephanie came into the house, a little teary eyed, and a thumb the size of Texas.  It looked to be dislocated, so my mom and I raced to pack the cars so one of us could drive her to the hospital and get it looked at....turned out that it was just swollen and bruised, from being caught in a chain pulling out one of the remaining fence posts.  We're so glad she was blessed to not have an accident worse than just the bruised joint.  It looked WAY worse!!!

So while dad and Stephanie were off getting her thumb looked at, the boys took advantage of the beautiful day and played some more before it was time for us to leave.

Parachute Guys!!!  (super fun in the wind!)

And bubbles.  :) 

LOTS of BUBBLES!

Somewhere in there, we had a picnic....again, no pictures, but it was DELICIOUS!!!

We always have fun at Grandma and Grandpa's, and are looking forward to returning for even more adventures!!!