Whit's Birthday and other June happenings

On June 7, my sweet Whitlee turned one. I can not believe how fast this year went by. She has been such a blessing in our family. She has been the sweetest, easiest baby. I would have a dozen kids if they were all like her. She was such a breeze. It is so funny how different she has been from Dalley. They are complete opposites in every way, right down to their looks. Dalley looks like Dustin completely and Whit looks like me. Dalley is not a mischievous child. We barely needed to baby proof with him. He never got into anything. Whit is already super curious. She is also a big tease and has been since she was old enough to know what she was doing. She has the sweetest smile and gives the sweetest open mouth kisses. She was lucky enough to get two parties. We had one in Panguitch with Dustin's family and one in Hiko with my family. She is one loved and spoiled little girl.

1 year old stats:

She weighs 17.2 pounds

She is 25" tall

She crawls and pulls herself up but doesn't walk

She blows kisses and waves by by

Shes says mama and dada

She is a very good sleeper and loves naps as long as she is in her own bed, she has slept through the night since she was two weeks old.

Her favorite foods are blueberries and raspberries. So far she likes everything I have tried to feed her except hummus and honeydew. 

She is a very friendly baby, she will wave at everyone she sees and she will let anyone hold her.

Also this past June, we signed Dalley up for t-ball. He had a lot of fun, but with two to three games a week, I was glad that it only lasted 5 weeks. My friend Heidi was his coach and she was the best. She is really good at working with little kids. Dalley also got to be on a  team with Heidi's twin boys, Cache and Carter. They are his favorite friends, so he was excited to be on their team. He was a little hot shot. He thought he was so big out there playing. Being a pretty reserved person, it is funny for me to watch my son be completely opposite. He has no issues being in front of people. He also has no issue speaking his mind. If he got hot, he would yell to everyone to hold on while he got a drink. I tried to explain to him that he couldn't leave the field in the middle of the game, but that concept made no sense to him. If he was thirsty, then why wouldn't he get a drink? I loved watching his games. His coach had a swim party at the end of the season and he loved it. Now he is convinced that he needs to sign up for wrestling.

Another weekend in June we went out to Nevada and Dustin saddled up Taco, the miniature horse. It was so funny to watch the boys herd the calves with him. He is a fun little horse to have for the kids. I wanted to get one to have in Circlveille, but Dustin told me we already had too many horses. That is something I never thought he would admit to.

Whit eating her Rainbow cake at my parent's house

Before she got all messy

At her party in Panguitch

Whit and Grandma Dyann, Grandma Dyann got her the cake.

My beautiful, messy baby

Dalley's cute t-ball team, he is the one in the grey jogging pants with the white stripe down the leg.

My handsome husband

Dustin riding Taco, his feet were dragging on the ground

Dalley, ready for his t-ball game

Dalley riding Taco

Dalley and Lukie riding Taco. These two are three years apart in age, but they are still pretty good buddies.

It's been a hot dry summer so far

There has been a lot going on this summer. Weirdly enough I barely have taken any pictures.

The first weekend in June the kids and I went with my parents up North. We headed up Friday after work and stayed in Lehi.We went to my cousin Amber's husband's baptism Saturday morning in Brigham City. Then we headed to my niece Tifnee's baptism in Roy Saturday after noon. then we had a family dinner then headed back to Brigham City to spend the night. On Sunday we went to Amber's son's blessing. Then we headed to Ogden for another family dinner and then headed home. Itwas a lot of running around for one weekend. I am glad that my kids are such good travelers.

The second weekend in June we headed out to Hiko so Dustin could help my dad and so we could haul some bulls to Salina for my dad. We also went so we could leave the kids with my parents since I was going  to girls camp the next week. While we were out there Luke offered Dustin a job helping my dad on the ranch and training horses. He made us an offer we couldn't refuse so Monday Dustin gave two weeks notice to the ranch he had been working at for the last seven years. It made him really happy to be able to quit that job.

The third week I headed to girls camp. It was up on the Tusher and it was pretty fun. I never really have been too excited about girls camp even when I was a teenager but it turned out to be a good experience. I really appreciated getting to know the other leaders and getting to spend time with the girls.

The fourth weekend in June was the balloon festival in Panguitch. That Friday was also Dustin's last day at Sorensen's Ranch. It was really fun to be able to have him go with us to the Balloon Festival. He usually works on Saturdays so I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that I wouldn't have to take the kids by myself. We went up and took some family pictures in my friend's backyard. After the photo shoot we toured around Panguitch and looked at all of the booths. We had dinner at Dustin's sister's house then headed down to main street to listen to the bands. We ended up running into some good friends of ours from Circleville and spending most of the evening with them. It is funny how you sometimes have to leave town to see your neighbors.

The next weekend after that was the Roger Hatch family reunion. We had an awesome time. We rented both sides of a duplex in Cedar. It was a really nice place and pretty affordable. We were really close to a bunch of parks and we were able to just hang out and spend time together. It is always nice to see family that you don't get to see often enough.

That was our month of June and it flew by with all of the activities we had going. I am hoping that July won't be so busy so that we can slow down and enjoy a bit of it. I love summer but it is way too short around these parts.

Here are a few of the pictures from our little photo shoot.

 Mr. Dalley Bugs

 Dalley and Daddy, best buddies

 My favorite picture of Miss Whit

 My two munchkins. Love them

 Whitlee is turning into a bit of a daddy's girl

Handsome little man

A few pictures

Cute cowboys ready for church

These two love each other

Dustin has been working on getting the water ready on the mountain. Yesterday he asked if we wanted to go with him. He said he was going to Oak Basin which is one of my favorite places especially this time of year. It was absolutely gorgeous. I wish I had a better camera cause my little point and shoot doesn't do this view justice

Dalley said he wanted to have a "little cowboy" photo shoot. He was so cute posing for the pictures

Isn't the background in this picture amazing?

Whit sure loves her daddy!

New Favorite Songs

Mother's Day 2012

I had a pretty nice Mother's Day weekend. I have been needing a bigger place to put Dalley's chickens for awhile and Dustin has been working a lot, so he hasn't been around to do it. So finally I decided I was just going to get the materials and do it myself. I bought everything I needed on Friday and brought it home. Dustin surprised me by coming home early on Saturday and telling me he was going to build it for me for Mother's Day. We did it as a family and had a great time.

Dustin's hand was hurting him because he had a rough week. On Monday he had a bull charge him while on his horse and when he tried to get away his foot got caught in the stirrup and he twisted his ankle pretty badly. Then on Tuesday he got bucked off of one of the colts he has been riding and his entire left side turned black and blue. then on Thursday he was running from a bull and his twisted ankle gave out and he fell and smashed his hand into a heavy duty panel. His hand was severely swollen but because he is a stubborn man he wouldn't get it checked. Finally on Saturday night, after he had spent all day building my chicken coop, he admitted that it might need to be checked out. We took him into Panguitch to the emergency room and sure enough it was broken in two places. They splinted it up and told us to see an orthopedist when the swelling went down.

Sunday we went to church then I made dinner for his entire family. Originally the plan was for Dustin to make dinner but since he was wounded I decided to give him the day off. We had a nice visit then all the nieces and nephews came to our house for awhile. Dalley loves having his cousins around and was pretty proud to show them his new chicken coop. I love my cute little family.

Dalley and Whitlee ready for Church

Working on the coop

Whitlee and Daddy at the dinner

Almost ready for the wire. Dalley did most of the painting. I was surprised at how good of a job he did.

Finished product, now we just need the rest of the chickens

Showing off his splint, he hates it when I take pictures of his injuries

Miss Whit crawling

Enjoying being outside while we worked

Dalley was herding the chickens on his old trike

Carter, Kade, and Charolais

5 Years of Marital Bliss

Last Friday was our fifth anniversary. It has been a fast, wonderful, lovely, challenging and beautiful five years.

Dustin I both work a lot and we haven't had much time alone since Dalley came along. I convinced him to go on a little overnight trip to get away. He said it had to be a less than two hour drive so my choices were very limited. When I was trying to think of where to go I remembered a B&B that I lived next door to in college. It is a beautiful huge old house. I walked by it every day in college and always wanted to go in. So I made a reservation there. I loved it. It was gorgeous on the inside. They have all of their rooms listed online so I got to take a virtual tour of each room to decide which one we wanted to stay in. I decided on the English room. It had a claw foot tub in the bedroom and a balcony with a breathtaking view.

Friday night we dropped the kids off with Dustin's sister Haley. I was a bundle of nerves cause they had never spent the night with her before, but they did great. We headed to Cedar and checked into our room. Then went to Milts for dinner. Then we did a little late night shopping and headed back.

I loved the B&B experience, but Dustin said it was like staying at a weird relatives house. It was not something he would have ever wanted to do, so I am very thankful he was such a good sport. He didn't complain once, even when they didn't have anything for breakfast that he liked.

It was really nice to have a special time for us and it is something I think we need to do a little more of, more often than every five years! I love Dustin so much and I am so thankful for him. He is a bit rough around the edges. I tease him that when we met he was barely house broke. It works for us though. He has a lot to put up with being married to me and he takes it in stride. He is a wonderful father and he is endlessly supportive of me and my crazy work and church schedules. I think he secretly likes it when I have to work long hours, cause he likes the alone time with the kids. that way they can eat ice cream and stay up late and I can't nag him about it. I sure am thankful that this rough and tough cowboy came into my life.

This is our engagement photo from five years ago

This is us today. We sure aged a lot in the last five years!

Who Turned Four? This kid did!

On February 28th my little munchkin butt turned four. I can not believe how fast time flies. Everyone tells you time flies, but I didn't really understand it until I experienced it myself. It really seems like it hasn't been that long since we brought our little miracle home. I am still amazed every day that we had a big part in creating a person. That seems like such a huge deal.

I am amazed at how wonderful this kid is. He is such a blessing to our family.

He is an awesome helper to me and his dad.

He is an awesome big brother. He loves helping with his sister.

He loves to do the dishes. I bribed him to clean his room this morning by telling him if he would clean then I would let him help with the dishes.

He really enjoys school and is lucky to have amazing teachers.

He loves everything cowboy. He loves to go with his dad to check cows and to help Papa on the ranch. He even got chased by a mother cow when he was helping my dad feed her calf. It made him a little nervous but he still went out the next day to feed the calf again. My favorite story was at Christmas. He was playing in my mom's kitchen with his cousin and best buddy Ira. They were taking turns branding and vaccinating each other. It was too cute. He does a lot of branding around my house to. His helpers are Daddy, Kade, Wyatt, and Josh. He has quite the imagination.

He loves hunting, especially chasing raccoons and shooting coyotes. We went on a walk to the calf barn today. The calf barn is about 1/8 of a mile from our house but it took us an hour and a half to walk there and back because he had to stop and check about 50 raccoon traps. He must be a really good trapper because he caught a bobcat in one of them.

He is such a sweet boy and I am glad to be his momma.

For his birthday I took the day off. I put him on the bus then went to his school and did a party with his class. We decorated paper bags for treat bags then we broke the pinata. After school he got to go play with his best friend, Kazlee, while her mom did my hair. That night some of Dustin's family came over for tacos and presents. Haley brought punching balloons and everyone had a great time. He was a tuckered out little boy by bed time.

Grandma Dyann playing with a balloon

Dalley was so funny when he punched his balloon, he had to hold his left hand out stiff at his side. He also had to have his mouth wide open.

I took the easy route on his cake

Miss Belle with her balloon

The Dukester

Whitlee LOVES her big four year old brother

Aunt Haley with her balloon

Daddy and Whitlee

Dalley's Best Fried Kazlee taking a whack at the pinata

Miss (Aunt) Teresa giving Dalley his birthday crown

Dalley taking a whack at it

The invitations to Dalley's party