Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It was great to get to spend 11 days with my family out in Nevada. Dustin wasn't able to take that much time off so we missed him, but he came for all the main events. I was able to surprise him with a gun that he wanted and it wasn't easy. It took three attempts to get it bought. I must look like the criminal type. Dustin surprised me with a diamond necklace and he got me a Nook Tablet. Dalley had a great time with his new Lightening McQueen bike and of course animals with a truck and trailer. I love the Christmas season and I am always sad when it is over.

*I was too lazy to put these pictures in any type of order.

Dalley with Aunt Haley and Jax outside the temple. We were really happy that she came down to watch the kids until it was their turn to come in.
Dalley uses the Nook more than me. I bought a bunch of books that it will read to him and he loves reading them.

My family with Celeste. I was happy she was able to join us at the temple

The whole family, there is getting to be a lot of us

The kidlets on Christmas Eve, they are all ready to go to Great-Grandma's house for chicken and homemade noodles

Dalley playing up in the corrals. His favorite place to hang out on the ranch. I love this face!

Getting ready to sort some calves

Miss Whitlee in her cute hat

Shawn's family at the temple, Arvella is in a pack on Stina's back.

My cute little Whitlee Jane

Dalley and I tried to do as many Christmas crafts as we could fit in. One night we decorated gingerbread men. He had a blast and he got plenty dirty.

The three most important people in my world.

One of the days our craft was painting each other. Daddy got in on the action but he wouldn't let me post a picture of it.

Dalley and his new ride

Dalley with his cousin, Hunter

Dalley and Ira, best buddies

Cute kids on Christmas Eve

Shawn and I colored masks, I'm the one on the right

The snowman Dalley made with Ira and Aunt Stina

They also made marshmallow snowmen

Two little pirate cousins

Sitting on Santa's lap

An Awesome End to an Awesome Year

This year was a pretty amazing year, filled with a lot more ups than downs. Last fall, when we found out I was pregnant with Whitlee, Dustin decided that he was ready to make the necessary changes in his life so that we could become an eternal family. It was something that I knew I could not force so I have been patiently waiting and I was over joyed when he made up his mind to do it.

In April he became and Elder. He became an Elder the same day that his father passed away. It was very special for him to be able to dedicate his father's grave. Kind of a daunting task for someone so new to it, but he did an amazing job. A couple of weeks later he baptized and confirmed his nephew. He is the only male in his immediate family that could do it and it was special that he could do that for his nephew. It was a very special day for his family.

In August he was able to bless our sweet little Whitlee. He did an amazing job. It has been so fun going on this journey with him and realizing the blessings that we are receiving. The greatest blessing came on December 30 when our family was able to be sealed in the St. George Temple. It was one of the most beautiful experiences I have ever been through. I am so grateful to my heavenly father for helping us get there. I am so thankful for the wonderful man I married. We have had some trying times when I wondered if he would ever realize the importance of these things and our family is so very blessed that he finally did.

It was beautiful to be in the temple with every one of my brothers and my parents. It reminded me of how blessed I am to have been raised in my amazing family. I really do have amazing parents and I am so grateful for them and the way I was raised. My parents are unconditionally supportive and are always there for me. I feel so spoiled and humbled to have people in my life who care about me so much.

A lot of other great things happened this year, including the birth of my angel Whitlee. She really is my saving grace. She is a wonderful baby. She is so good natured and just easy.She is exactly what I needed after all of the stress with Dalley and his medical issues. I wouldn't change a single thing about my Dalley bugs but it is kind of nice to have a healthy baby to balance out the stress. Whitlee helped me gain confidence in my ability to be a mother. Even though I knew there was nothing I did to make Dalley sick, it is hard not to blame myself for his rough time and I constantly worry about how his issues will affect him in the future. Whitlee brings a sense of calm to me. I am so sad with every milestone she passes and I am already missing her being younger. I also look forward to the joy she will bring to our family in the future.

My Dalley Bugs turned three this year and started pre-school. He grew up a ton after the first week. I am always amazed with the things he comes up with and I get excited every day when I pick him up to hear about what he did at school. He is my little terrorizer and my little lovey. He can destroy my house in five minutes but he is so sweet most of the time I don't mind. He has an amazing imagination and I love to spy on him when he doesn't know I am watching him. He talks and pretends and has a grand old time. He is good to his mommy and is an excellent helper with Whitlee. He loves his daddy and I love the relationship that they have. He is a blessed little boy to have a dad like Dustin. Dalley, Whitlee, and I are Dustin's whole world and he is great father to our kids.

I guess most of all I end this year overcome with gratitude. It is definitely a year worth remembering and it will be a hard one to top. I look forward to 2012 and I look forward to the blessings and challenges it will bring.

Wanna See a Cute Baby?

Miss Whitlee is now 5 months old. I feel like time is flying by. She is a wonderful baby and a joy to have in our family. I am also a partial momma who thinks she is pretty dang cute!!

Halloween 2011

Getting ready to carve pumpkins

My Scooby and cute little horse

Dusitn handed out the candy at trunk or treat

Dalley's friend, Batman

Dalley's friend, Sage

My super excited Scooby Doo at the trunk or treat. He was so excited he was literally bouncing.

Dalley and Gracelyn

Miss Terecea is a fun teacher

Some of Dalley's cute classmates

Playing musical chairs

Donut game at his class party

Proud of his hard work

Hard at work decorating Halloween cupcakes

Dalley with our finished pumpkins

This Halloween was pretty awesome. Last year we were in Samoa for Halloween, so this is the first Halloween where Dalley knew what was going on when we went trick or treating. He kept calling it Trick or hunting which I thought was hilarious. We started out by carving pumpkins and making Halloween cupcakes for Family Home evening a few days before Halloween. Dalley has such a strong gag reflex he couldn't be around the pumpkins until all the guts were disposed of. The smell of pumpkin guts makes him puke. I carved mine and Dustin carved his and Dalley's. It was my job to remove ALL of the pumpkin guts though. Whitlee sat in the bumbo and gave us moral support. After the pumpkins we decorated the Halloween cupcakes I had made. I took a plate to a lady I visit teach and Dustin took the rest to the guys he works with.

I was assigned as a helper on Dalley's preschool Halloween party. It was a lot of fun. I was instructed to make witches out of a pickle an olive and a piece of cheese. I had no idea how to do that so I just got mini cookie cutters and cut the cheese into Halloween shapes and put them on a toothpick with a pickle and an olive. The other moms went to a lot of work to make really cute treats for the kids. We played fun games and Dalley had a good time. He has such a great teacher and it she is also Dustin's aunt.

On Halloween night they had a trunk or treat. We went because it gave us an opportunity to hand out our candy, but after it was over we went door to door. Dustin loves trick or treating because it gives him an opportunity to b.s. with everyone. We averaged about ten minutes at each house. It was a really enjoyable night and we got to visit with a lot of people that we don't get the opportunity to see very often.

Dalley J

Dalley Stats at 3 1/2

• Dalley loves going to school and really enjoyed having dad come eat with him for National school lunch week. He really loves his teachers and all of his friends at school. He is a bit of a ladies man, got that from his daddy.



• Dalley loves everything that daddy loves. He has gotten to chop hay with Dustin a lot this summer and he thinks he is big stuff. He loves riding horses and has very little fear when it comes to riding. He has spent a lot of time at the feedlot this summer and he enjoys going to work with daddy and hanging out with Kade and Josh



• Dalley loves farm toys. I got him a wooden fence for being good at the dentist and he took that thing everywhere with him for a week. He even slept with it.



• He has an awesome imagination. I love to sneak up on him while he is playing and listen to him talk to his toys. I am not sure if any of them talk back to him. he other day he was hauling cows in the living room and I called for him, I heard him say," hold on a minute, I have to go see what my mom wants" I cracked up.



• He calls everyone son. I am not sure where he got it but it makes me laugh. We were heading over the mountain the other day and a cattle truck was having a struggle getting up the steep summit. Dalley looked out the window and said, "Get that bull wagon moving son" . We were on our way home from Salt Lake and we stopped in Levan to go to the bathroom and get Dustin a soda, a lady walked up to Dalley and told him he was cute. He turned to her and said, "Thanks son". The lady laughed and asked him him how old he was. He answered, " I'm five son, how old are you?"



• He also calls people boy a lot. If i say something and he doesn't hear me he will say, "What did you say boy?" I laugh every time so that is probably why he does it



• He is an awesome big brother. He loves his sister and he is very protective of her.

1/3 of a year

Whitlee Jane is now four months old, and just as much a joy as ever. She gets cuter and sweeter every day.

4 month stats:

• Whitlee weighs in at 12lbs 6 oz. She is not gaining very quickly but that is ok since she got a head start.




• Whitlee is still an awesome sleeper. It is so nice to just get her ready for bed and then lay her in her crib and let her put herself to sleep.




• She can take her Binky out of her mouth and put it back in, she is also starting to hold her bottle a bit




• She is getting more interactive. She likes to explore the face of whoever is holding her, especially dad's facial hair.




• She has rolled front to back and is really close to rolling back to front. She spends most of her floor time up on her side, she just needs the extra oomph to get her all the way over.




• She loves her brother. It doesn't matter what Dalley says to her, it makes her laugh. It is harder for anyone else to get her to laugh.




• She has been sleeping all night the last four nights, I do not have high hopes of it lasting though




• We have started her on rice cereal and she is a pretty big fan. She still doesn't eat much, maybe 1/4 tablespoon, but she enjoys what little she eats.




• She is an angel in church. Dustin has 4 mountain grazing permits to gather with very little help, so he has had to miss church a few times lately. She is always an angel in church when I am doing my calling. It also helps that I have a lot of people willing to hold her when I need help.




• She has big beautiful eyes and she is quick to smile with them. I love how they light up when I go in to get her up in the morning or get her up from a nap
  
  
  
  
  

Zoo/Circus

A couple of weeks ago, the kids and I went to Salt Lake with Dustin's mom, his two sisters, and their kids. We had a lot of fun. We headed up Friday at noon at took our time getting there. We stopped whenever we needed to and just had a relaxed trip. We stayed at the Crystal Inn on 5th south. As soon as we got there the kids all wanted to swim, so Haley and Jill took them swimming and I got Whitlee to bed.

Saturday morning we got up and headed to the zoo. Dalley loved the zoo. He especially like the monkeys and the elephants. My favorite is the giraffes. I am always amazed at them. Whitlee was an angel as usual. She hung out in her stroller the whole time and never even made a peep. We rode the carousel and the train. Dalley really like the carousel and surprised me by picking to ride the polar bear. We left the zoo around 2:00. Dalley said he was disappointed because he didn't get to see any wolves or dang coyotes.

Dalley and Whitlee and I went back to the room for a nap while everyone else went shopping. Then we all got ready and headed for the Circus. Dalley LOVED it. He would get so excited. He couldn't sit still he was so excited. He jumped up and down and squealed. He was more entertaining than the circus. He got tired a little bit after intermission and he and I headed back to the room early.

The next morning we got up and took our time heading home. We had to stop at Cabela's so Dalley could see wolves and dang coyotes. We were going to stop in Gunnison so the kids could get their pictures with Mater, but by the time we got there they were all asleep. It was a pretty fun trip and I enjoyed spending time with my kids and Dustin's family.

Dalley and Whitlee napping after a long day at the zoo

Hanging out in the hotel

Ready to go swimming
New Halloween jammies that Haley bought her

Eating at the zoo

Buddies

Belle pushing Dyan at the zoo

How do you measure up, Daisy?

Belle and Jax

Dalley Bug

Jax attacking the gorilla statue

Two cute kids

Beautiful Daisy

Dalley on his polar bear

Jill and her girls at the circus

Dalley was afraid of the clowns so he didn't want to get close enough to them to take a picture. I don't blame him. Up close clowns are kind of scary

At the circus

He isn't opposed to standing close to cute girls

Dalley and Haley with the strong man