Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!

I love Christmas!  It's a wonderful time to celebrate family and the birth of our Savior.  This year Zach was able to take Christmas off from work so we got to enjoy it early in the morning with all of us there!  I was excited to see how Stetzen would like Christmas this year because last year he was too little to get any of it.  I think he liked it, but he still didn't really get what was going on. 

 

I think his CAT Loader and Dump Truck were his favorite toys this year!  He loved getting rides from his dad while sitting in his dump truck.  He also thought it was a great little chair for him!  Santa came through this year for sure!

I also had to post this picture of Stetz.  After his dad had pushed him around the house a dozen times, he still wanted rides.  This is his desperate cry for yet another ride on his dump truck.

In addition to his CAT trucks, Stetz got a nativity set, clothes, a fire truck, and some John Deere tractors.

 

This year I hope Zach liked his presents.  He received a saw-zaw, wolf call, pajamas, and a gun safe.  I think I really surprised him with the wolf call.  He had been looking for one for several months but couldn't find the kind that really brought them in.  I did some research and decided on one and hoped it was what he was looking for, or something as good or better.  It turns out I found the exact one he wanted.  Now he's planning his wolf hunting trip to use his new call.  

 

This year Zach did pretty good!  He bought me speakers for my iPod, a new laptop for church, a comfy robe, and some pajamas.  I thought they were all perfect! 

 

 I love that my two favorite boys are here to share this Christmas with me!  It wouldn't be the same without them here, and I love them both!  I hope they had as wonderful a Christmas as I did!

 

 

After the work opening presents, Stetz needed a bath and a good bottle to relax and enjoy the rest of the day.

Hello Santa

 

This year the youth were in charge of planning the Ward Christmas Party.  Hence, that meant that the leaders were in charge.  The Young Women took charge of the program and we planned the "12 Days of Christmas" theme.  Each auxiliary was given an assignment to fill the McKinnon version of the 12 Days of Christmas as follows:

 

1.  On the first day of Christmas, mine eyes were glad to see, a green, sparkly, decorated tree

     Audience Sings “Oh Christmas Tree”

2.  On the second day of Christmas, mine ears were glad to hear, a Christmas Story.

     Favorite Christmas Story read by Carol

3.  On the third day of Christmas, mine ears were glad to hear, little children singing.

     Primary Sings "O Little Town of Bethlehem"

4.  On the fourth day of Christmas, mine eyes were glad to see, Christmas joy is spreading.

     Young Men Charity skit

5.  On the fifth day of Christmas, mine eyes were glad to see, a star brightly shining.

     Young Women sing “O Holy Night”

6.  On the sixth day of Christmas, mine eyes were glad to see,  all the symbols of Christmas.

     Poem “The True Meaning of Christmas” by Venetia & Doug

7.  On the seventh day of Christmas, mine ears were glad to hear, tickling of the ivories.

     Piano Solo “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” by JaNae

8.  On the eighth day of Christmas, mine eyes were glad to see, one redneck reindeer.

     Music Video, “Leroy the Redneck Reindeer” by Rustyn

9.  On the ninth day of Christmas, mine eyes were glad to see, carolers singing.

     Audience Sing Favorite Carol

10.  On the tenth day of Christmas, mine eyes were glad to see, chipmunks sing & dance.

       Skit by Bishopric

11.  On the eleventh day of Christmas, mine ears were glad to hear, Herald Angels singing.

       Audience Sing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”

12.  On the twelfth day of Christmas, mine eyes were glad to see, Santa Ho-Ho-Ho-Ing!

       Primary Sing “Here Comes Santa Claus”

 

It was a fun program and the audience loved the skit by the Bishopric.  They stood behind a table and put pants on their arms and the young men stood behind them and were their arms.  They sang and danced to a Chipmunk Christmas song, and the whole audience roared in laughter.  I didn't get a picture or video of them, but they looked like this.

 

 

I really hope that I won't be in charge of the program again.  I'm not the creative, funny type to handle that kind of thing.  Hopefully everyone enjoyed the night.

 

After the program, Santa came in and the children went crazy!  They love having Santa come.  Stetzen was on the fence with him again this year.  But, he did love the orange Santa gave him and tried to eat it, skin and all!

 

 

Petey Boy

 

Here is the latest edition to our family of pets!  It's Petey.  I really do love the markings and look of this stud colt.  Among the list of colors of horses I'd like, I wanted a sorrel horse with 4 white socks and a white diamond on its head.  Petey pretty much sums all that up!  Now all I need is a creamy red dunn, and I've got all the ponies I want! 

 

Ever since I found out that the Hickey's sell colts every year, I have to take a peek at all of them each fall.  This year, I, along with Zach's dad, were able to convince Zach to buy yet another colt for the ranch.  I've decided that instead of raising cows, I would like to have a horse ranch to breed and break out colts.  Of course, Zach would have to do all the riding, but I could play with all the cute babies and do their ground work!  But, if we did that, I think we'd just be horse poor.  I do like the idea of "collecting" them though! 

 

Nothing beats having a horse that will walk straight to you from the field every time he sees you!  That's my goal with all these new horses.  Mr. Darcy is starting to do that now, just like Fred and Stumpy do.  I'm glad I picked him out.  I think he's going to be the nicest of the four colts we bought a couple of years ago!

Howl-O-Ween!

 

This year Halloween was quite fun.  After that horrible day when you realize you're too old to Trick-or-Treat Halloween just never seemed to be as fun.  When Stetzen came around, it changed things up and Halloween's excitement returned.  We were a little late in getting things kicked off.  I had planned on taking Stetzen to a pumpkin patch, but between Zach's schedule and trips we never made it, so we opted for the Wal-Mart specials. 

Stetzen loves to be involved in EVERYTHING we do, so why not helping his dad draw and cut his pumpkin?  We ended up carving pumpkins the night before Halloween.  Zach was working days, so Stetzen and I cleaned out the pumpkins before he got home, and then we got down to working our magic. 



As you can see, Stetzen is very excited about his wolf.

 

Once we finished, Stetzen had to show off his masterpieces (completed with the help of Zach and I).

 

The next day, our ward held a Trunk-or-Treat party.  They had dinner, carnival games, and, of course, Trunk-or-Treating.  I wanted to go with a theme this year, so I chose Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  Stetzen was my little Oompa Loompa, I was Veruca Salt, and Zach was Mike Teevee.  I had planned on Brandon being Wonka and his parents on dressing up with us, but it never panned out.  So we were a few characters short.  For the trunk, I decorated it as Wonka's Factory.  It didn't turn out quite as I liked, but we ended up winning the Best Trunk Award...YAY!

 

When we got to the party, everyone kept asking me what Stetzen and I were supposed to be.  I was floored that no one 1) knew what an Oompa Loompa was, and 2) had seen the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movie.  Major culture shock!  Not even Stetzen's Grandma Nancy had seen the movie.  Zach had to work on Halloween too, so it was only Ted and me to represent.  
 

 

After the dinner, Grandma Nancy took Ted around to do all of the games.  He went around the cake walk, bowled, and tried the fishing pond.  Of all of them, he really loved the fishing pond.  He won a couple of scary sling spiders (which he LOVED) and some stickers.
  

 

 

When it came time to Trunk-or-Treat, he was ready for bed!  How sad is that?  We made the rounds with Brands, and of all the candy he got, his favorite was a cookie he got from Nella Rae.  Overall, I think he had fun and enjoyed all the attention he got.
 

 

 

When we got home, we did a little photo op with Zach, took a bath to wash out his cool green hair, and went to bed.  I hope he had a fun night because I did especially since Zach and I could ration his candy haul (the biggest perk of a parent's Halloween!).

Baby, I Look Good!

 

This weekend, Stetzen and I went down to Rupert to go to the annual craft fair.  It's a tradition and one I don't like to miss.  The booths were all amazing, and I was tempted to buy hundreds of dollars of crafts, but managed to get out without buying a thing.  I think sometimes that I'm a too much of a tightwad, lol.  After the event, my mom, Kate, and I went to King's to pick up some things and the fun really began.  All I can say is that my little guy is the cutest boy model ever!  We found some hats and tried them on and had a ball.  I should have bought the Davey Crockett hat.  It was definitely the cutest and funniest.

 



 

 

The Bambi Killer pt. 2

  

Once again, we made the trek up to Horse Creek  to go elk hunting.  Much to my dismay, it was cold, rainy, and miserable outside!  I like to go hunting with Zach, but not when the weather is that crappy.  Nevertheless, I survived and enjoyed it somewhat.  Not only did we go, but his mom and dad, Brands, and Josh & Kayla.  They made up for all the bad weather because I had someone to chill with while the boys were gone.

 

 

In an attempt to rid himself as "The Bambi Killer," Zach was determined to get nothing other than Mega Bull.  The first morning they went up Zach saw and shot at a huge bull, but missed.  He boasts about his shooting skills and emphasizes that he never misses.  His excuse for missing was that he really didn't try to shoot him.  But I would say that he tried and failed miserably.  He got harassed about it the rest of the trip.

 

 

Over the next couple days, the weather got worse and we pretty much got rained out.  After being drenched up on the mountain on the second day, they decided to go to Pinedale to wash their clothes and went out for dinner.  It was a nice brake from the cold and mud. 

 

 

By the end of it all, Zach, Brands, and their dad all shot elk.  Brands again turned out to be the mega hunter, with a good sized 6 point.  Both Zach and his dad shot 5 points, of which his dad shot the bigger, but not by much.  This trip did not help Zach's cause in ridding himself of being "The Bambi Killer," so the name still holds!

While the boys were gone, Stetzen was determined to have as much fun as he could.  He absolutely loved being outside and being able to run all over the campsite.  He was obsessed with walking down the dirt trail to the main road.  On one of his mad dashes, he tripped over a rock and face planted it right into the dirt.  At first he just had this look of complete shock, then came the crying.  I rushed over to make sure he was okay, and couldn't help but laugh at the dirty mess I came to rescue.  He only cried for about 30 sec so I had to get a pic of the drama.



He also loves the horses and always wants to play with them, so when Zach got back from the mountain, he got his ride on trusty Rocky.  He loved it and didn't want to get off.  I definitely think we have a true cowboy on our hands. 

All in all, we all had a good time, but were more than ready to get home. 

Zach couldn't help but get a pic with Brands' elk.

Goodbye Goldilocks

I finally broke down and decided to cut Ted's hair.  His cousin Caige is a couple months older and has yet to have his hair cut.  The poor kid is rocking a mullet.  I got a few comments about Ted becoming mullet number two, so I decided...off with his hair!

 



 

Here is the infamous before shot. It's time to say goodbye to the mini mullet buddy!  From the picture you'd think he was saying, "You'll never get my hair!  Not if it's the last thing I do you crazy person!"  Believe me, if I had a choice, I'd keep his curls.  It's sad to see your little man to outgrow his baby days and become a toddler. 

 

 

This picture doesn't do him justice, but he really did have cute curls on the back of his hair and I miss them terribly!

 



 

As for the haircutting experience, he did pretty well. I was worried that he'd grab the clippers and cut himself. I always picture those hazard signs with the stick figure people mutilating themselves when it comes to things like this, so to prevent a fingerless child I gave him a dum dum sucker. It worked wonderfully and he enjoyed the whole event!

 

  I let Zach do the honors of cutting while I documented the whole ordeal.  I should have been a little more prepared and got a nice before and after shot, but Stetzen's photo patience is limited.  But, it's forever engraved in the blog world so it'll be ok.  I can't get over the cute faces he made while we cut his hair.  I had a hard time staying behind the camera to take pictures because it was too funny.

 

After ten minutes of cutting we have the proud new toddler owning his newly cut do.  I think he lost a lot of his baby look, which is so sad, but this momma is going to roll with the punches and embrace her handsome little boy!  He looks so darn cute.  Once it was cut, I think he looks a lot like his cousin Wyatt.  I never thought he looked like any of them before, but it's amazing how much a haircut can change your appearance!  

Bambi Killer

 

The hunting season this year was shorter than most. Good for me, bad for Zach! Lately Zach has been obsessed with crossbows and compound bows. Pamida, the local home goods store, was going out of business and had a crossbow on clearance. Of course, Zach had to buy one. From the moment we brought it home, he was bragging about how he was going to be THE MEGA HUNTER because he could sneak up on any deer, including mega buck, and put it down in one shot.

Well, after two or three attempts of trying to be sneaky and the deer clearly being much smarter, he failed to even get close enough to get a shot off. He claimed he didn't have time to shoot one with the bow after that and moved on to his trusted gun.

About a week later, his brother Brands and his dad came over to the place to hunt some deer. Well, two fairly large bucks happened to be grazing on the fields and Brands managed to get a shot off and killed a fairly large buck.  It was an 8x8 and ranked third in the Wyoming Trucks Big Buck Contest, Non-Typical Category.

Zach vowed he'd get a larger one, and scoured the place to find the other buck. He never found him, so he ended up taking what he thought to be comparable to Brands'. When we went to go see the deer, a 4x5.  It was much smaller, but would have been a nice buck in a year or two.

From that day, Zach got a new nickname as "The Bambi Killer." He absolutely hates it, but it's funny!

The Ladies' Man

 

Stetzen is becoming quite the ladies' man.  Every time we go to the store or anywhere outside the house he turns his flirt on.  Last week while shopping at Wal-Mart he said hi to everyone we saw.  He looks at them with this sweet little smile and is so excited to say hi, and oh does the charm work.  If you're ever having a bad day, let me know and we'll come say hello because he can make anyone smile.  He definitely has the cutest little personality growing.  No wonder children are God's choicest beings!  They truly show the best that we, as a people, can be.

And to you Brands, you have some major competition so you better get your game on! 

Man I'm Getting Old...LOL

This year I turned a whopping 26.  I'm beginning to feel a little old.  It seems like I just barely graduated from college, but here I am three years later with a husband and an energetic 1 year old!  It's amazing how fast time goes this days.  That's something that my parents used to always say, and I thought that was just old people talk.  Now look who's the old person!

This year for my birthday, we kept it pretty simple and low key.  Zach worked a grave the night before and when he came home that morning, he brought me a cheesecake platter (YUM!) and a movie.  How sweet! 

After he got some sleep, we went out and rounded up some cows for his dad, then went into town to celebrate at Don Pedro's with his mom, dad, and brother Brands.  Most of you will have no clue what this place is, but it's probably got the best Mexican food you can find.  I love it! 

All in all, it was a good day, and I loved spending it with my family!  Here's to another 70 years baby!

(Sorry for the lack of pictures, I never seem to remember to take any for my birthday.  I'll have to enlist Zach to manage that responsibility I guess!)

It's Picture Time...Say Cheese!

 

 I can finally say we have some "official" family pictures.  I've been wanting them for a while now, and finally got around to taking them.  It was an interesting experience because I took all the pictures, yes even with me in them.  Last Christmas Zach got me a remote for my camera that lets me set up the shot and then take the picture from anywhere I want.  It's a lot nicer than trying to run back and forth from the camera to get into the shot.  Can I say I LOVE my Nikon! 



My Favorite Shot of Ted!

 

 It was a little tricky trying to get Stetzen to cooperate, though.  He does alright when there's someone behind the camera giving him funny faces and making him smile, but when we're all in front of the camera, it was hard to get him to even look in the right direction.  Finally, I got him to see the red light on my camera when I pushed my clicker and got a couple of him actually looking at the camera.  Needless to say, it only took about 20 tries.

 

 

All in all, I think they turned out pretty good.  The only regret I have okay, the only two regrets, are 1) I wish I would have picked a better coordinating outfit for Stetzen and Zach and 2) I was banking on the fact the leaves had turned in the area I wanted to go.  The leaves had changed around the area so I assumed that farther down the road, by farther I mean a 10-15 minute drive, they would be the same.  I should never assume anything!  I always tend to be wrong when I do.  To comment on the first regret...the groupings worked good between Zach and me and Stetzen and me, but there were too many plaids going on when you put the boys, yes I mean boys, together.  

This is my favorite group shot of us :)

 

By the time I took this shot, Ted was finished taking pictures.  His tolerance of the camera only lasts about 5 minutes, and I think by the time we got to this one, it'd been around 30.  Poor kid, he's always going to be trailed by a camera, lol.

My Favorite Couple Shot!



I'm hoping that one day in the future I'll be confident enough to take pictures professionally.  I like to do it, but I'm absolutely petrified of messing up and not getting the photos people want.  For now my poor family will have to be my test subjects.  As far as Zach goes, he'd rather be trampled by a horse than get his picture taken, but I managed to get him to say yes to this little adventure.  I guess that just shows who runs my household!