Santas visit

Santa came to our house to visit the kids!! They were scared of him at first but warmed up at the end! They were so excited that he came to visit them!! He brought them a little present and they loved it. Kate even got brave enough and drew him a picture to take home to his elves!!

Tagg and Santa

Kate drawing santa a picture

Chase, Tagg, santa, Jake and Kate

Kate not liking santa at first

Kate and chase

Elk hunt

I went elk hunting for the first time this fall with Jake, Chase Whitlock and Tagg. We went up Carter mountain hiking and looking for elk. We went up there a couple of time but never got anything. We saw lots of tracks and stuff but never saw any of the animals that made them!
It was alot of fun to do something with Jake that he likes. Its not something I want to do all the time but it was fun spending time with him up in the beautiful mountains.
Tagg enjoyed being out there too!! He loves doing stuff with Jake and Chase. Kate was in school so she was not able to come with us this time!

Tagg fell asleep on the hike

Tagg and chase

Tagg

Jake Tagg and Lindsay watching for elk

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!