~GIRLS WEEKEND~

In the middle of October Belinda, Shelli, and I went to the Lion King in Las Vegas. I LOVED IT! It was seriously so good! I highly recommend it to everyone! The costumes were so amazing, the music was awesome, our seats were great, we were right on the end of an aisle, and the cast came right down beside us. It was TOTALLY COOL!

Here we are waiting for the show to start!

We went to the new mall in Vegas and did some shopping. And then we ate at the CPK! LOVE IT!

I know this isn't the best picture, but I don't know if it was my camera or the guy taking the picture.. either way here we are right outside the theater!

This picture is for Shelli, her favorite Aunt is named Ann so we thought that this was totally appropriate!

~THE MIGHTY DUCK HUNTERS~

The duck hunt opened the first weekend in October, so Thomas has been spending his time shooting a LOT of ducks. The opening weekend he goes will all his cousins to Strawberry. Lately he has been hunting in Idaho on my dad's property. I don't even really see him when we go there cause he leaves around 6:30 or 7:00 and then comes home for a few hours and sleeps, and then goes back out until dark. One weekend his friend Brandon and his cousin Ty came up with us. Lets just say they shot a LOT of ducks. Luckily my dads hired help really likes duck meat, so they don't go to waste. I went on one drive with them, I will NEVER go again. It makes me to sad to see the ducks flying around just living their life and then BANG their dead.

This was one night when they came home and all of them looked liked a boy on Christmas morning. Their eyes were big when they came in the house and asked me to take the picture... There's just a little over their limit I think!

Thomas actually has made something that he calls "The Vortex" I don't have any pictures of it, but what it is, is a pull that has one duck on each end, that is ran by a motor and then the ducks look like they are flying. So then it brings the ducks in so they can shoot them. It's TOTALLY COOL!

Brad Paisley

Thomas and I went to Brad Paisley with some of our friends Max and Jenni!

It was SOOOOOOO much fun! I love all his music, and not to mention Dierks Bentley was with him! It was at USANA and we lucked out. If any of you have been to a concert at USANA then you know that the line usually raps all around the parking lot to get in. But Jenni and I thought it we would be slick and slide right up in the front of the line as they opened the gates! So we got some good seats on the lawn. What a good night it was!

Holly Homemaker....

Okay so I know you all might fall off your chair for a couple of reasons

1. I'm updating our blog... FINALLY

2. I canned these pears!

Yes I know if you know me at all this is going to be very shocking. I for one have never done anything like this, I have always just got things like this giving to me from my mom, sisters, and Thomas's mom! This year however, I learned how to can pears... I know please pull your chin off the floor! It was fun and it honestly didn't take long at all. Thomas's mom was nice enough to teach me how to do this! Thanks Belinda!

Messing around with my camera...

This was only about half of what we did that day!

Here's Belinda waiting for the next batch to be done! What a fun day!

~Our 1st Anniversary~

Thomas and I celebrated our one year anniversary on August 1st. I can't believe it has already been a year. It just seems like yesterday we were busting our butts laying 3 acres of sod trying to get my parents yard ready for the big day! Our first year has been a lot of fun! People always say "if you can make it through the first year you will be fine..." I must say this first year has been really easy...(knock on wood) To celebrate this year we went to Park City to do some shopping at the outlets, which neither of us bought one thing. Then Thomas had gotten us a room at the Little America down town, we ate at Ruby River, and went to a movie... Over all it was a good day! Here are a few pic's of our wedding day and one of our engagement picture.

I know I haven't posted anything for a long time so... Here is what we did in July.....

We went to Fish Lake with Thomas's family, it was a lot of fun.

Fish Lake

July 24, 2009

Here is everyone around the campfire. We had a great time!

Ryan and Shelli. Ryan brought his guitar and was playing some music, until Thomas took it over....

Thomas taking his turn on the guitar... he sang a song called "Lucky in the Layton" if you don't know what the Layton, it's our camp trailer.. He pretty much had everyone peeing their pants!

Ryan and Thomas thought it was cool that they found this rotted out log filled with ants... I'm not kidding you this thing probably had over 1,000 ants in it, and they decided to burn it... needless to say there were ants everywhere..... Nice pants Ry!

Grandma Belinda helping Addilyn with something!

Addilyn showing me how dirty her hands were!

Shelli, Girls and Clay enjoying the fire!

Ryan and Thomas roasting some mallows!

Rockport...

Max is one of Thomas's good friend and he invited us to go jet-skiing at Rockport with him and his family, we had a lot of fun.

Thomas and I overlooking Rockport. It was so pretty up there!

Max, Brenden (his dad), and Jocelyn (his sister)

Max and Jenni. These guys are so much fun to be around! Thanks again.

Brenden bought this fun new toy, it is a wind surf, and Thomas wanted to try it out. Brenden giving him some instructions.

And he is off! There wasn't a lot of wind, but Thomas still thought it was pretty cool!

Here we are on the jet-ski.

All us girls! Jenni, Jocelyn, and Me.

Thomas just getting back to the beach.

Max and Thomas on their adventures!

We took some lunch up with us and hung out for a while.

At the end of the day, the boys got into some trouble however. Max and Thomas were loading the jet-ski's and apparently Max sprayed Thomas and the police thought he was too close. So when they pulled out of the water they were there to meet them with a lovely ticket.

Here is Max with his ticket. He still doesn't know how much he is going to have to pay. I felt bad for him, but we had some fun! One day Thomas and I will have a boat, so we will be able to return the favor!

The Last Few Months....

So I haven't taken my camera hardly anywhere lately, so I got these pictures from my sister. (thanks Jen) So this post is a little random. Here we go!

We spent the 4th of July in Idaho this year. We had tons of fun.. We went to the drive in with the whole fam!

This was some of the kids first drive in experience! It was fun watching how excited they all got!

We attended the Idaho Falls Parade, and watched Haylie my niece, which is a honeybee this year. It's crazy that she is going to be in high school, it makes me feel so old! We also went and watched the Idaho Falls fireworks, which never let me down!

The kids played in a big blow up water toy that Hollie and Jay have, Thomas decided to try out the slip and slide, He was almost as long as the whole thing.

We spent Memorial day in Idaho as well. We did the traditional breakfast at Mom and Dad, went to the gun salute at the cemetery. When we got back to my parents the guys played some ball, and Thomas was a little to aggressive, and was told he couldn't play anymore... (they were just giving him a bad time) If you look close Thomas's face is pretty funny.

Derek and I are pretty good buds, and we always have to get a pic together! We are pretty cool I must add!

Here we are around the fire pit on memorial day!

This summer has flown by so fast, we have had some fun. Thomas has been going to school summer semester, and he has been doing great at staying focused and getting all his homework done! We both start school again on August 26. We have almost been married for a year now, time really does go by fast when you are having fun!

TOOTSIE

Well I just realized I never really posted anything more about our dog. So we have had her for about 3 months now, and it has been an interesting experience. So far, I have enjoyed most of being a dog owner. However I so far have had to scrub our carpets about 100 times or more, (good thing we are living in a rental.) buy new black flip flops, This I WAS NOT happy about because I got those flip flops in Hawaii and they were my favorite. (If anyone goes there feel free to grab me some Locals and I'll pay you back.) Thomas would say I've spent way to much money on the dog. I have always said I would NEVER dress my dog up... well lets just say I saw one dress, and couldn't resist. Over all the dog owning experience is alright, but would be better if she would have come already trained and house broke. Here are a few pic's of Tootsie.

Here is Tootsie in her way cute dress & bows!

She was really little here! She sleeps like this.

This is what I came home to from work one day! Thomas really loves Tootsie.

This is her finally full grown.

Her first Hair cut. Thomas and his mom cut her hair one day because her hair makes her so hot!

SICK OF THIS BACKGROUND.....

So I apparently at one point in my blogging life knew how to change these darn backgrounds, and now I have been playing around with this for about a week trying to figure out how in the heck to change it... I liked this background, and now I CANNOT stand it any longer... So if any of you fellow bloggers out there could tell me how to do that, that would be great!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I know it has been forever, since I have blogged about anything other than my dad, (which is doing a lot better, he was even out on the tractor over the weekend of the 4th!) but I have some blogs coming up.. I just need to get some pictures from my sister..... I have forgotten my camera that last few times we've been to Idaho. The updates should be coming with in the next few days!!!!

The latest on dad.....

This again is copied form one of my sister's blog, who copied for another sister's blog.... It's a lot to write about, so here it is... (thanks Natalie and Hollie)

My dad was released from the hospital on Tuesday, June 9th. Since then, my mom has become his full time nurse- helping him with everything from eating, getting up, bathroom, etc. His right hand is broken and has pins in it and his left side is practically debilitated right now with all the pain. He will be going to lots of therapy for his hand, is still a little beat up on his face- but got most of his stitches out, and his left side is painfully sore(with 7 broken ribs and a broken scapula) . He can get up and down really slowly and has been glad to be at home. He is still weak, but improving everyday. It's a miracle that he is still alive and still has full use of his brain and all his organs.

It has been difficult to see him in so much pain and hard to watch him endure this trial. It is hard to watch your parents suffer. He has said that this is the most difficult thing he has ever had to overcome and has been humbling to become so dependent. I have never seen my dad in a condition even close to what he's in right now and he's been through some crap in his day. A few years ago (the night Jus & I got engaged to be exact), he was in a farm accident where a jack slipped and a loader fell on his hand, cutting the tips off of two of his fingers. It was like, he went to the hospital, got stitched up, came home, put a grocery bag over his bandaged hand (minus two finger tips) and went out to work. Never missed a beat- never dwelled on it, never felt sorry for himself, never let it hold him back. This accident has come with a lot more suffering and he won't be out of the woods for awhile. It will at least be another couple of months until the ribs are just a little healed. He's got a long road ahead.

We, as a family, have so much appreciated everyone's thoughts, prayers, cards, gifts, food and phone calls from our neighbors, community and friends. Thanks to each one of you who has been so caring and considerate of all of us! We're once again reminded of our blessings, despite the trial. It really could have been so much worse.

Pray for Don. ..

Okay so I copied this right off my sister's blog, I thought this was better than what I could write.  She is there and knows more information than I do. The accident happened on Wednesday. Thomas and I are headed up to Idaho tomorrow to see him, and hopefully be able to help out a little bit. 

Tonight my dad, Don, was in a critical motorcycle accident. He was going to change water (flood irrigating) and a neighbors dog jumped out and it made my dad wreck pretty bad. My dad was not (and never does) wearing a helmet.

He was taken by ambulance to the ER and has been in surgery for about 4 hours. These are the injuries we know of so far from the CAT scans and MRI's.

~Broken right hand/fractured knuckles- they are placing rods in the right hand.

~Broken shoulder blade-they can't do anything for this, has to heal on its own.

~Broken nose and open wounds on nose

~Punctures and gashes in his head and face- he got extensive road rash. A plastic surgeon was called in and has been working on him. Will most likely have scarring. They were cleaning out all the gravel and other stuff out of wounds.

~Fluid on his lungs

~Punctured one lung

~Broken ribs- he broke every single rib on his left side, some ribs had several fractures

~Caused his whole left rib cage to collapse on the left side

Once he is done with surgery, he will be moved to the Intensive Care Unit and will be sedated for probably 4-5 days. He has a breathing tube (ventilator) inserted and they have to have him still for a few days to get the fluid off the lungs. They say that things could possibly get worse before they get better. He will have quite a bit of pain and it will be a long healing process- at least all summer. For a farmer in his busiest season, that's not going to be good news to him.

It's still early, so in these next few days we'll find out more on progress/complications and such. The Dr. did say that for a motorcycle accident and for not wearing a helmet it is a miracle that this is all that we're dealing with. There has been no brain trauma found at all- we are so grateful for that miracle. Why do we underestimate the miracles we receive? HUGE Blessing!

I tell you what- this just hasn't been our year. It's amazing how quickly things can happen. Life is definitely fragile. I know I've got a pretty good prayer circle surrounding this blog, so include my dad please. He is the rock of our family, the hardest worker I've ever know and has a can-do attitude. Please pray for a good recovery. My dad is not the type that enjoys sitting around-especially when there's work to do.

So far, it sounds like things are going to be okay, but these next few days are going to be up in the air a bit. They say the biggest risk he's facing right now is getting pneumonia. All things considered, we're once again grateful for what it is and what it wasn't.

Pray for Don!