A Camping We Will Go

 

After all the trauma of the dogs, we decided to go on a short little camping trip up to Long’s Park.  By far this is my favorite place to stay and fish, not only because someone is almost guaranteed to catch something, but there seems to be fewer mosquitoes around.

 

 

We dropped our puppies off at Nancy’s house (which she thoroughly enjoyed) and headed up the mountain Sunday afternoon.  We took our horse trailer with living quarters to stay in and set up camp rather quickly.  We were bums and didn’t build a fire that night, but it was all fun anyway.  We went for a twilight drive and saw a herd of elk about a mile from our camp.  I've seen a couple of elk here and there but never that many up there.  It was neat to see, but Stetzen started screeching at them and the took off.  When we got back we made some sandwhiches and headed to bed.  

 

Stetzen's lovely hairdo after the sunscreen was applied by Dad.

 

Side note:  I was one that said campers were a big waste of money when tents are just as good.  But, having a baby changes your opinions.  I loved being able to have something to stay in that I knew he wouldn’t freeze or get nasty bugs everywhere. 

 

Waitin for some fishies...

 

Back to camping…The next morning we got up and made breakfast burritos and then headed to the reservoir to do some fishing.  As tradition goes with us, we have a competition when we fish of who will catch the first fish and the most.  I will preface this by saying we tied!  But, if you ask Zach he’ll say he won.  Anyways, we headed towards our usual place, but some little boys were there.  We debated whether or not to stay, but ended up sticking it out until they left.  Once they did, the real fishing began!  I think I had my line out for about 15 minutes when I caught THE first fish.  It wasn’t too bad on size, so I decided to keep it.  Sadly, though, I wasn’t quick enough to get Zach the camera to document it.  A few minutes later Zach caught one, and the race was on. 

 

My Second Fish...

 

In between all of this we were constantly wrestling Stetzen to keep him entertained.  If you didn’t keep an eye on him, he’d be playing with the worms or trying to eat the fish bait or even reeling in your line.  It was a little bit of a struggle to keep him excited about sitting in the chair with you.  As I was holding Stetzen, I felt a tug on my line and frantically asked Zach to reel it in for me, but by the time he got a hold of it, it got away.  Zach threw my line back in for me and recast his.  Not even two seconds after he did, he had a fish on the line.  I would like to think he caught the one I lost, hence beating me in his eyes.  After that, we didn’t have much luck in the fishing department so we went back to camp.

 

The fishing haul

 

 We sat around camp and ate some lunch, and then decided to go for a drive around the mountain.  I guess Zach got bored of having nothing to do, so we ended up driving down to his mom’s house and chilling there for a couple of hours.  When we headed back up, Brands wanted to go fishing so we took him with us and headed back to Long’s Park.  When we got up there the boys were back, so primo fishing spot was taken.  This time the battle was all won by Brands.  He was the first and only person to catch a fish that night. 

 

Here I am looking super stylish...lol

 

When all was said and done, we headed back to camp, started a fire, rambled on about funny nothings, cooked a delish dutch oven dinner, and headed to bed.  The next morning we packed up and headed home.  It was a nice little get away, but I wish we could have stayed a couple more days.  Last summer we didn’t go camping at all, so I wanted to get my fill this summer.  Hopefully we make it back again before the summer’s over.

Puppy Power

On June 7th Lillian had puppies!!  When Brands came over the other day he said he hadn’t seen Lils all day.  I hadn’t either, but I thought it was because she was with Brands or Allen.  We looked around for her and found her under the house.  When Brands peeked under there, he saw Lils and her brand new puppies!  He thought there were four there.  I thought that sounded about right because she wasn’t very big.  I thought she still had a few weeks to go because she wasn’t that big.  The next day I looked under there and counted five puppies.  After a couple more days, I was getting antsy and wanted them out so I could hold them.  I had to get a little creative to dig them out, but when I finally did I came out with a whopping SEVEN puppies!  They were all very cute and I instantly fell in love with them. 

 

After they were a little over a week old, I was getting ready for church when Zach’s dad, Allen came over.  I vaguely heard them chatting while I was getting ready for church.  Just as I was getting Stetzen’s clothes on to go, Zach came back in the house and said he had some bad news for me.  I guess earlier that morning while Allen was doing the chores, Lils got ran over and subsequently died.  At first, I couldn’t believe it had really happened.  I will admit I wasn’t the biggest fan of Lils because she was so rambunctious and full of energy.  She was a little more than I could handle, but she was starting to calm down.  After 30 seconds I started to cry!  Allen and Zach both cried and were devastated because she was a very smart dog and loved to go do chores and had just started to learn how to chase the cows on command. 

To top it all off, she had just had puppies.  In one day, I became a mom of eight instead of one.  We had to run over to the local farm & ranch supply store and bought all the bottles and powdered milk replacer.  When we first started to bottle feed them, they wouldn’t really drink anything.  I don’t know if it was because they couldn’t figure out how to suck from the bottle or because of the different milk.  We just hoped they’d figure it out soon and survive. 

After a day of trying, they finally figured it out and became little porkers!  It was fun to watch them grow, but being a newborn puppy’s mom was tedious and stinky, literally.  It was a good, sad experience. 

Nutter

Flash

 

Poe

Big Mac

Bandit

Teddy

Patches

Stetzen aka Chick Magnet at 9 Months

 

Goodness!  My little boy is 9 months already!  I'm starting to miss how small my little guy used to be.  Just the other day I was putting up some of his clothes he's grown out of, and I pulled out some of his newborn outfits.  I can't believe he was that small.  His tops are bigger than an entire newborn outfit!  It's crazy!! 

Growth Stats:
Weight:  19 lbs 6 oz
Height:  28.75"

Stetzen had a 9 month check-up at the doctor and it was nice not to have any shots this time!  I think Stetzen loved it more than I did.  When she showed us the growth chart, he was exactly 50% on all the measurements (Weight, Height, Head, & Height-to-Weight).  She made the comment that he was a perfect baby because his measurements were all proportional!  I had a little laugh and thought, "Ya, I do have a perfect baby!" 

At the end of the visit, she asked if he knew how to wave bye yet.  It wasn't something I had thought he should know by now, but apparently it is.  Well, we played with him and showed him how to do it, and waved bye to everyone when they left.  About a two weeks later he figured it out and loves to wave bye now!  It's amazing how fast he picks up on things.  I can definately see why we need to watch what we do and say because in no time he'll be doing and saying everything we do!  It's a scary, yet fun thought!

I also have to add that everywhere we go, Stetzen likes to shmooz everyone there.  I can't seem to go anywhere without someone stopping to see him and talk to him.  He loves every minute of it too!

Here are a few fun shots from the month...

We started feeding Stetzen 3rd foods.  He liked them all except for the meats.  I caught some of his eating in action...his utter love of the meats.

 

I thought this was just cute...I put him in his walker while I went out to change the water.  When I came back in, he was zonked out.  Too cute!

And lastly, we've come to his all-time favorite food!  ICE CREAM!  As you can see from his expression, he can't wait to get more.  He's just like his mom.  We're both lovers of ice cream!

And...the official 9 month photo!  This happens to be one of my favorites!

Happy Anniversary

Today is our anniversary.  It's been three wonderful years filled with love, hard work, a new beautiful baby boy, and the most joy I could have asked for!  It's amazing how much your life can change from one decision.  I'm blessed to be married to my best friend and look forward to spending all eternity with him and our children. 

This year I told Zach in leau of gifts, I'd just like a nice little date night together.  Well, I got my date night and probably the best gift I could imagine...a new washer and dryer!  It's something I've been wanting and I was a giddy little school girl when he showed them to me.  The gift I got Zach seemed a little dumb compared to mine, but he seemed to love it anyway.  This year I gave him a gift basket filled with 10 things I love about him.

Here's a few of the things I included:
I Love that You Comfort Me - New Sheets
I Love that You're Handy - Magnetic Level
I Love You Because You're My Honey Bun - Honey Buns
I Love You Because You're Hot - Hot Tomales
I Love that You're a Worthy Priesthood Holder - Purified Water Bottle
I Love that You Love the Outdoors with Me - Fish Bait

I wish I would have taken a picture of it all, but I didn't.  In all, it was a wonderful day and I'm glad I said yes in 2009!

8 Month Check-In

 

On April 30, Stetzen turned 8 months!  It's amazing how fast time seems to go when you've got a little one around the house.

Growth Stats:
Weight:  18 lbs 8 oz
Height:  28.5 inches

Milestones:
Crawling
First Teeth
Clapping

 I was grateful for the time when he didn't know how to crawl because I could pretty much set him anywhere and know that he wouldn't move too far.  Now he's a crawling beast!  I can't keep him in one spot for more than a minute.  He loves his new found freedom since he's figured out his mobility.

He also got his first teeth in!  He got both his bottom teeth in at the same time.  He did pretty well with them.  He got a little fussy at night, but with some oragel and a binkie, he got through it like a champ!  I've heard so many horror stories about babies getting in their teeth, but he's been a good (dare I say near perfect) baby since he was born.  He's not fussy, sleeps well, and loves to see anyone and everyone!

Stetzen also learned how to clap his hands this month.  It's so cute to see him starting to figure things out that we do and show him.  He's a smart little boy! 

And....for the official 8 month photo!

Hippity-Hoppity Easter's Here

 

This year we went to Grandma Young’s for Easter.  The Saturday before, Grandma invited us over to die eggs with Grandpa, Brands, and her.  Zach had to work, so it was just Stetzen and me.  I was excited to see what Stetzen would think about the whole ordeal, but he seemed to care less about all the hoopla.  Grandma gave him some eggs to die, but he just wanted to play with them and eat them.  Later that night, we died eggs with Zach.  I think he was the most excited out of all of us to die those eggs, lol.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday morning, Stetzen and I both checked out the goodies the Easter Bunny left us, and to my surprise Zach had left us a wonderful little note that made my day.  The Easter Bunny got Stetzen the On the Farm animal book, Happy Easter Little Critter book, and some new binkies.  To my surprise, that crazy bunny got both Zach and me .22 rifles and candy to last months!

 

 

Later that morning we went to church and then to Grandma’s for an Easter dinner and egg hunt.  Jennifer and her family came down to enjoy the day with us, and it was a lot of fun.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a group of kids so ecstatic to go on an egg hunt as hers were.  Each kid had their own color of eggs they had to find, and Stetzen had BLUE. 

 

 

 

 

Uncle Brands was kind enough to help him figure out the whole thing and made a fashion statement while doing it. Despite his best efforts, I captured his unique style.

 

 

 

At the end of the day when Zach got off work, we all played games at Grandma’s and made homemade ice cream.  Nothing can compare to that!  I think Zach has become the ice cream master since I got one for his birthday.  I can’t complain about that because it’s one of my all-time favorite treats!

7 Months Down, 100 Years to Go

Today Stetzen turned 7 Months!  This little guy is turning out to be one active man.  He has the cutest way of getting around.  He'll arch his back and push with his feet so his head rubs against the carpet as he scoots.  This doesn't really help the bald patch of hair he's got on the back of his head.  And, if this doesn't seem to get him where he wants to go fast enough, he'll roll like a mad man.  I can set him down and in literally two seconds he's across the room playing with something he shouldn't.  I'm getting nervous for when he figures out the crawling thing because I don't think I'll be able to contain the little monster, lol.

Growth Stats:
Weight:  17 pounds
Height:  27 1/2 inches

As you can see, Stetzen has an emense love (which is highly understated!) for baths.  He can be the crankiest boy you ever saw, but if you stick him in the tub he's happy as can be.  It's actually quite nice.  The odd thing about it, is you don't even have to put water in it for him to love it.  Crazy kid!  He's gotten to the point now, where all he wants to do is splash the water, and if you lay him down to wash his hair or take him out, he gets really feisty!  I guess he should have been born with fins!  His dad calls him his little fish.

In April, my sister-in-law Rachel was hosting the monthly scrapbooking party so we went down a night early and stayed in a hotel.  When I booked the place online, it looked pretty good and was priced fairly low.  I now know to just stick with the pricier places, cuz I thought we might get mugged or something down there.  It was sketchy at best.  The pool wasn't the best, which was a bummer because that was the main reason we got a hotel.  I figured since Baby Ted LOVES baths, he'd absolutely love swimming.  Well, the whole affair was a little disappointing because he was a little indifferent to it.  I thought he'd have a lot more fun, but I think he was held back by all the distractions of everyone else swimming there.  But, it's hard to say either way.  We'll have to see what he thinks next time we go. 

Here's his official 7 Month photo!

Renos...Love Em But Hate Em

You'll be amazed what you can get your husband to do for you when you ask him to do a simple home reno.  When we moved to McKinnon, we had to buy a new front door.  In all the time we've been here, it's never been cased right, so I asked Zach to finish up that little project during his long change.  While we were at Home Depot getting the framing and a new threshold, Zach decided the whole kitchen needed fixed.  I couldn't argue with that, so we ended up buying wood for cabinet doors, paint, trim, and new finishings.  I dont' know about you, but I have to say it's about a 100% upgrade! 

The worst part of the whole ordeal is actually doing the work, which is why some of it isn't quite finished yet.  But, we went from hideous wood laminate cabinents to sleek white and from my oh so favorite floral paneling to Mozart blue.  The only thing we have left to do is the pantry cupboard, cupboard drawers by the sink, and the trim. 

Take a look at the before's and after's...

Before

After

Before

After

 Before

After

After

After

(I didn't get a before shot of the door...but it had blinds and we went with curtains)