Laurel & Everyday Life & A Football Game

It was so nice to see Laurel the worker (as Fish calls her) today for lunch. She brought her mom and sister and brother in law too! We were able to see pictures of friends & workers where she labors in Israel.

I've been "Fall Cleaning" my house. No drawer is safe. Today I brought my chiminea in from the deck. I am trying to SLOWLY prepare myself and our yard for winter. It just seems that summer/fall went way too fast.

PS Note the bow and arrows taking over my kitchen table. It seems that my husband has decided to store his bow there until he has another chance to use it.

We went to a football game on Saturday. The weather was beautiful, and we saw lots of friends and family. Hazen was quite content if Amelia shared her popcorn with him.

Fish and Amelia loved jumping up and down swinging their pompoms. Today Fish told me "why don't you be the lady with the pompoms, and I'll be the football player." I never ever wanted to be a cheerleader in highschool. I always preferred to be the one playing the sport instead of cheering for it. But when a sweet little boy informed me that I was going to be his cheerleader...
I didn't mind a bit.

Fish loved watching the marching band. I think it may have been his favorite part of the football game.

We have been doing some fall projects around the ranch too. The boys helped Daddy pull electric wire fence holders. (Can you tell I really don't know the exact name for those white things below?!?)

Anyway we picked a bunch up. ;)

Helping Dad...

I think these pictures with the Aspen trees surrounding the guys are lovely. But anyone who knows me would not be surprised!

Checking Daddy's elk out.

Good Job Daddy.

Riding on Dad's horse...

The boys wanted one last look before Daddy took the elk to be processed.

A Random Fact About Me

Darcie just posted a hilarious post. Check it out if you get a chance. Her blog is called The Story of Us. You can find it in my blog roll.
So here goes a random fact about me. That you may or may not want to know!
I once (with my best friend) ate an entire gallon of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in pursuit of trying to find a chunk of cookie dough. For some reason this particular box did not have one piece of cookie dough in it! We were quite shocked when we realized that we had empited the box trying to find a piece of cookie dough. And there you have it. Now go and buy a box of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream at once, and I hope for your sake that it has a few pieces of cookie dough in it.

At the Park & Other things

I took the boys to the park yesterday. We decided to sit on a few seats, and Fish informed me that we were at "convention." He then said "Convention Worker where is the spanking room for my kid?" :)

Also I am going through a Jane Austin phase...notice my new blog look! It reminds me of the colors of that time period. Sometimes I like to pretend that I am Elizabeth Bennett in Pride & Prejudice. Maybe I should not admit that. I mean I am a serious mother of almost 3 children...but you can't take the pretend out of this girl no matter how old I get. I am trying to read Pride & Prejudice again for about the 80th time. I wonder how far I will actually make it this time.
Wish me luck!

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The boys and I decided to join Chris when he went to drag his elk off of the mtn with his horse Jasper. It was great to leave early, and hike around a little bit. It was a crisp fall day, and we enjoyed seeing Dad's elk.

Our First Snow & Hunting Of Coarse

Chris guided two hunters today. They had their antelope by 11Am. Then Chris stalked and killed an elk this evening with his bow!

I love this picture. You can see the lovely fall colors in my tree, and Fischer's little head with his hunter's orange hat peeking through!

The boys enjoying the first snow of the year on Monday.

The boys had to run out in the snow on Monday morning barefoot. They didn't believe me that it was really cold.

After the boys decided that it was too cold to play outside, we headed downstairs to make a fort out of their "new" bunk bed. Shane gave it to us, and it really is a little boys perfect fort/firehouse/hunting camp play area.
PS I was washing the boys sheets that morning. I do allow them to have sheets and blankets when they sleep. :)

Toothpicks & Suckers & Shipping...What a week!

This week we had lots of men around that liked to use toothpicks after their meal. Sometimes they even sat around while chit chatting, and chewed on the toothpicks. Fischer and Hazen did not miss this, and wanted a toothpick too. We wouldn't let them have a real one for the obvious reasons.
Well, Lloyd (the man who leased the grass this year) gave the boys Tootsie Pop Suckers or Dots throughout shipping. Fischer looked at me today while Lloyd and his daughter were packing up to leave, and told me that he had a "sucker stick toothpick." They do not miss a thing, and if they cannot have the real thing then they will make it up!!!



The trucks were all lined up, and ready to go today. This was our last day of shipping!

I cooked lunch every other day, and dinner for the two that stayed with us for four days. I thought I better take a picture of my kitchen all ready before the crew came in to eat.

Can you see Mr. Thumbsucker tucked away inside the skidster? His brother is sitting in there too.

Here is Mr. Thumbsucker on Daddy's horse too. He was pretty content to sit up there, and watch all of the action.

Chris sorting yearling heifers for the semis. The semis have little compartments and only a certain number of yearlings will fit in each one. I heard the count to be something like this 7-23-24...and there were more numbers but I got lost.

The inside of a semi. Hazen and I thought we better check it out since it was just sitting there.

The heifers being weighed as quickly as possible.

We are having some beautiful fall days. Our deck was perfect for everyone to eat a meal and chit chat.

A Semi Truck Driver stopped and let the boys take a quick picture in front of his semi.

Fish watching Shane, Doc and Daddy sort heifers.

Get your honkers ready!!! We were able to hear lots of semis honking at us during shipping.

The boys were ready to take their honkers out when the semi rounded the corner of the shed.

Chris chit chatting with Doc. He is sure a neat man, and has lots of interesting stories. It was fun to have him and Shane stay with us. I could hear the guys laughing way after the kids and I went to bed.

The boys joining in with the roping fun!

It just isn't fun if it is all work and no play! They guys decided to rope Doc's dummy after the yearlings were shipped for the day.

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There is a pretty funny story behind this picture. I met my dearest and oldest friend (since we were seven years old) at the elementary school in town. She is the 3rd grade teacher this year. I even subbed for her once this year! She had an extra pregnancy test, and I asked if I could have one. She was setting up her classroom for the beginning of school, and it worked perfect to meet her there. The boys were with me, and were easily distracted by lots of 3rd grade toys and books. I ran to the elementary bathroom...the whole time laughing to myself that I was ACTUALLY taking a pregnancy test in the bathroom of the elementary school. :) Don't worry there was no one there except for a few janitors cleaning the floors for the beginning of school.
It was postitive! HOORAY. She took my picture when I returned to her classroom. And then we laughed, hugged and played with the boys and her newest baby girl Addilyn. She is only a couple of months old. I just think it is pretty amazing to think that Jen and I met in first grade, and now 20 years later we are sharing our years together when we are all grown up and dealing with "grown-up" things.

A Book I've Made...

I have finally finished my "book" about our family. It is 20 pages long, and I plan to send it to Shutterfly to have it printed. I really love how it turned out. And if you haven't noticed already...YES we are expecting again. I had my first ultrasound last week and everything looked great. We won't know the sex until before Thanksgiving. I'm sorry to all of my blogger friends. I haven't been a very good blogger lately, but I am starting to feel better. I plan to comment on all of your blogs more. :) I'm also going to be better about keeping up with the Mom Picture Challenge.
Here is my title page of my "book"
Hope you enjoy!
Also is it the rancherswifeslife or therancherwifeslife?
This is what I think about right before bedtime???? Help!

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They boys and I went fishing with Dad last week. There were lots of little prickles everywhere so Chris and I each carried a little boy. :)