The baby!!

This is my new little munchkin!!! About an inch tall already!!! I have been really sick with this one and my mom came out here to Cody to help me with the other two little munchkins!! I am feeling alot better and now that I got a picture of this new little baby it makes me even more excited!! I am due on June 19th!! Just about 2 1/2 weeks after Kates 6th birthday!!
Kate says its a girl, Tagg says its a boy!!! I am just excited either way!! I have one of each so I have stuff for both!!
Tagg keeps asking me to take off my shirt so he can see the baby!! Its funny the way kids think!!!

Jakes Hunt

Bringing the elk down!!

Jake got to go on an awesome hunt last week!! They went up to the Thorofare on horseback for a week! He loved it!! I think he would live up there if he could! He went with 3 other guys who have never been up there before. It is a really remote place where not alot of people go without guides. But of course for all of those who know Jake......He was born to do this kind of stuff!!

I was home worried sick about him getting ate by a grizzly bear!! The kids missed him alot but were excited to see if dad got his elk!!

The first ride into the wilderness was in snow!! The morning they left it was raining at our house which means up there SNOW!! There are a couple of narrow cliffs next to the trail and those I am sure were fun on the wet slick snow! They made it into camp and for the first couple of days Jake and Chase had pretty cold wet feet!!!

Then their horses ran off twice they saw a black bear the day before the hunt opened, shot an elk, spent two hours trying to hang the elk on a meat pole 30 feet in the air, at some yummy Carmel made by chases wife, hiked to the top of some amazing mountains to look at the view and scan for animals, saw a grizzly bear that came to close for comfort, ate yucky dehydrated mac and cheese pretty much the whole trip, snored, snuggled and just had a whole bunch of fun for the week!!!

Tagg spent the whole week trying to find his dad on the map!!

Starting out heading up the trail

The first day of hunting!!

The grizzly bear they saw!

The elk Jake shot, (that is not Jake it is Joe but this is the best picture of the elk!

Chase enjoying the view

Scouting for potential kills!

Jake and chase ....who knows what they are doing

Jake with his Elk!!!

The trip back home!!

Going out for a drive with the dogs!

We love going on drives with our family!! The kids just love being outside and hiking around. This Sunday drive took us on a small dirt road on the mountains east of our house!! We took the dogs with us to give them some exercise! It was a little chilly that day but it turned out really fun.
I am not used to telling my 5 year old to make sure she has her shoes on before we get in the truck to go for our drives, but for some reason this time Kate did not put on her shoes! So sadly she had to stay in the truck with me while Tagg and Dad got out to go for a little hike!


Jake and Tagg

Tagg following after Jake

Coming back with the dogs

Ginger doing what she does best

Happy Birthday Jake!!

Happy b-day babe!!! Jake turns 29 today!!! Jake is such an amazing dad and husband and i just wanted to give him the best birthday! We started off the day by sneaking up on him in bed and yelling happy birthday!! Then after Kate got out of school we went and got Dads favorite treats and took it to him at the dealership! Then when he came home from work we rode the horses and then went in to eat some cake!

Jake is just getting ready for a huge hunt that he will be gone for over a week. They have to take the horses in because that is the only way to get in there!! So I thought what a better way to start off his hunt than a cake with a bunch of dead animals on it!! He loved it and is hoping that is exactly how his hunt is going to turn out!

We love you so much and hope you had a perfect birthday!!

The cake with all the animals on it

a close up of the elk he is hoping to shoot next week

The kids with daddy's birthday balloons

Everybody helping dad blow out all his many many candles!! It looks like a forest fire with all those flames!!

Salsa

I made my first batch of Salsa!! It turned out so good!!! It took me all day to make it but it was worth it!! My Father in law Flint gave me a whole bunch of tomatoes from his garden and I got my Aunt Lyns recipe and ran with it!!! I split up the batch and made regular salsa, Lime salsa and extra hot salsa!!! I was really proud of the way it turned out!! Thanks everyone for all the recipes and tomatoes and advice!!!

All my cut up veggies that smelled so good
My onions getting ready to be chopped to bits

My Salsa cooking into goodness!!

All the chips Jake got to try the salsa with

The finished product

Kates first day of school!!

Kate is loving school. She has already had her first week go by so fast!!! She is learning so much and is so excited to tell me about her day! She has Mrs. Wood is her teacher and she is a very fun teacher. I am so happy that Kate is loving this new experience in her life! It makes me so excited as a Mom knowing that she is ready for new things in life. We love her so much and know that she will do very well in school!!

Kate on her first day of school. She was so excited to pick out her new clothes for school.

Kate on her back to school night! She loved getting to see where she was going to sit!

Fishing in the Shoshone River

We have so much fun as a family when we go outdoors!!! We love all the fun places up here in Cody!! There is just so much to do we never get bored!! While Jake was fishing in the River and the kids were playing with the rocks, sticks and mud I was sitting there taking it all in!! I forgot my book so I was just watching everybody do the things they love!! I got to watch my little ones play and was noticing there bouncing feet along the rocks! I got a little sad when I realized that there feet will never be as little as they are now!! They are just so cute and time is just flying by and my little babies are not so little anymore!!

Kates cute little feet

Taggs cute little feet

Kids playing by the river

Kate posing for the camera

The beautiful island we were on in the river!

Jake carrying us all across the river

Jake helping Kate cross the river

Jake trying to catch a nice fish

Kate playing by the water

Cute Kids

Tagg relaxing on the porch with his Popsicle on a hot summers day!!!


Kate in the pasture with the tall grass

New Trailer and New Horse

When I was in Utah we decided to get bo and bring him back up so we could have a horse to ride!! Jake was so excited to have a horse up here!!! Flint and Anette were just so awesome that they drove me back up to Wyoming so I did not have to pull the trailer myself. Flint drove my truck with the trailer on it which was a huge relief to me!!! It was wonderful to have them help me so much on the drive!! Thank you!!
My dad found a horse trailer for us down there and pick it up! Well he thought that it looked a little rough so he fixed it up for us!!! He worked so hard and it looks so awesome!!! Its perfect!! He painted it to match our truck!!! It was awesome and just what we needed! Thank you so much Dad for all your hard work!!! We love it!!!

My hottie riding Bo

The girls on the fence watching Jake ride

The kids Getting ready to brush Bo after we are done riding him.

The new trailer!!! Doesn't it match our truck perfectly?

Jake and Bo in his new home

Bo looking at his new home!! He is a good strong beautiful horse!!

Bo in the trailer after his long 8 hour drive from Utah!!

Our trip to Utah!

We went to Utah in July for the last time before Kate goes to school in August! Me and the kids were there for 2 weeks while Jake stayed home and worked! We had so much fun visiting family and friends! It just makes me cry to see all the cousins getting so big!! I miss being there to hold all my nieces and nephews all the time! The kids just love playing with all of them and they love playing with aunt Kelsey!!
We did so many things we went to the water park, the zoo, bike riding, watched a house being moved down the street, finished my quilt, played with cousins, took Aunt Kelsey to Volleyball camp, went to papas work, and just had fun outside!!

Laila playing in the water

Tagg trying to decide if he likes the water

Kate posing for her picture

The quilt I finished thanks to the huge help my mom gave me

Grandpa riding the bikes with the grand kids!!

Tagg ridding the scooter

Tagg and Har.vey happy at the zoo as long as they had something to eat!!

Tagg being camera shy (Shocker)

(not so baby anymore) Baby Grey

Kate ridding the train

Kate and her lion on the merry-go-round

The house they were moving down the street! The kids loved seeing it come down Grandmas and Papa Leethams street! It was moved from across the street from Grandma and Grandpa Stephens house!!