Happy New Year!!

Wow, 2012 is here!!! I can not believe how the last 3 months have gone by so quickly!! We had a great Christmas, mostly just hung with our families and enjoyed the Christmas spirit and each other. The kids enjoyed their presents, Presley said it was "The best Christmas ever!"

New Year's was quiet, just games and food with friends.

And now the beginning of a whole new year. No big plans right now, the weather hasn't been co-operating, and we have VERY little snow, and warm temperatures. It feels like April rather than January. Sledding hasn't really been an option yet. Which means we will probably get all our snow in May!! Let's hope that's not the case.

At the beginning of this year, I am so grateful for a beautiful sweet family. We are all healthy, and have so much to be grateful for. We live in a beautiful place, and enjoy freedom and safety here. I am grateful for all we have and hope that this year brings the same health and happiness we now enjoy.

Happy New Year to all of you and may you all be blessed with health and happiness as well!!

Grandpa

Our family lost our dear grandpa/great grandpa on November 30, 2011. He died in Ashton with many of his loved ones on this side of the veil and I am sure many from the other side were there to welcome him home.

His funeral was on Saturday, December 3rd. It was a lovely funeral, and many friends and family were able to attend. It was so nice to have our whole family together even though it was for a sad event. We all wore red as that was grandpas favorite color. In fact it was about the ONLY color he would wear. Especially toward the end of his life.

Grandpa loved life. He was a hard worker but also found time to play and have a good time as well. He loved anything outdoors, golf, fishing, riding horses, hunting, just about anything outdoors!

Some of my memories of grandpa are of working in the potato cellar and pulling boards with my sister brother and cousins. Somehow we sure made it a fun time! I also remember many family dinners at grandma and grandpas house where all of the cousins and aunts and uncles were gathered for a huge meal whether it was super bowl Sunday, Thanksgiving, Christmas or just a normal day. Grandma always had tons of food and we all had so much fun. I will always remember grandpas loud boisterous voice and he loved to tease and sound gruff, but we knew he loved us. He had a nickname for everyone he knew well. My name was MaggyMagoo and he called me that everywhere we went even until he passed away. I have never heard him call me Megan ever. When the doctors would ask who brought him to his appointment, he would say Maggy Magoo! Grandpa loved Christmas. He was probably up before any of us kids just waiting for the call that they could come down and watch us open our gifts. Then when David and I had our own kids, Grandpa and Grandma would come and watch them open their presents. That is something I will always treasure. Grandpa always spoiled us too, we always had lots of gifts from him and Grandma. In fact I think he enjoyed the Christmas shopping more than Grandma did! I have many more memories, but those are my favorite.

I was very blessed to have been able to help take care of Grandpa his last summer here. I will always be so grateful that I was here to help him plant beautiful flowers in his yard one last time and watch baseball and bake his favorite, apple pie, for him. We went berry picking, and spent a little time at the farmers market. I come from great stock, and can't wait for the day when we will all be together again. I am so grateful to know that we WILL be together again someday!

November

November for our family started off with a trip to the hospital for Presley who had to have her appendix taken out on the 1st of November. She came into our bedroom about 4 a.m. Tuesday morning and said her stomache hurt. I told her to go back to bed she had just eaten too much candy the night before from trick-or-treating. She came back a while later still hurting and wanting medicine or something to help her feel better and I basically told her the same thing and so on until about 7 I asked her to show me where it hurt exactly. She pointed to the lower right side and I began to wonder if thats what it was. A bit later she had a hard time walking and steadily refused to walk so we took her to aunt Nichole who affirmed that it was probably appendicitis and sent us to the surgeon on call, Dr. Coray. He took her appendix out about 530 that evening and after a night in the hospital we were able to go home Wednesday evening. Presley is doing better and still taking it slow but went back to school yesterday. She was a toughy though and didn't cry once. Not even when they were poking her with needles!! She was a trooper. Her eyes started to water a bit when she asked me if she would have to stay the night in the hospital and I said yes. She quickly recovered when I said either David or I would stay with her the whole time. Poor thing thought we were just gonna drop her and run! I stayed with her that night and we had the best nurses the whole time.

The boys have been wrestling and doing an amazing job!! Both have won almost all of their matches and the ones they have lost have been really good matches and we are so proud of them!! They both got their report cards and Bryer has straight A's and Chet all A's one B and one C in math. He takes after me there I guess and we will have to work on that a bit to get it up. But they are doing so well and their teachers all had wonderful things to say about both of them at perent teacher conference. They are such great kids!!!

This November month of giving thanks I will say that I am TRULY thankful for my amazing family! All the kids were so concerned for Presley when she was sick and so gentle with her when she came home. They just showed such love and I am so grateful for that. I am so thankful for a beautiful clean hospital and doctors and nurses that are so well trained. We are so blessed to live here where we have those blessings. We are so blessed to have kids who are healthy in body and mind. David and I are both healthy and I am so thankful for that as well! THe list goes on and on and I could list a million that I take for granted each day, but I will save that for a different day!!

Hopefully the rest of November will be a little more uneventful!!

Catching up

Ok, so I probably won't win any best blogger awards anytime soon. I can't believe it's been a whole summer and most of a fall since my last entry! Time flies! I will just sum up what I can remember of the summer. We had a great family reunion in June at Cortney's house in Burley. Went to the City of rocks, ate lots of great food, and just enjoyed lots of family time! I was a girls camp leader for our ward's awesome young women at Darby Girls camp. Had a blast with my other camp leaders and all the young women!! We did some camping this summer, not as much as we would have liked, but more than the last few summers! We love to camp in our family!!! Summer was short and we never got too hot which was awesome! I hate any temps over 85. I spent a lot of time this summer taking care of my grandparents in their home. What a wonderful opportunity that has been!! Entertaining, a little frustrating at times, but overall, wonderful experience. I have wonderful roots. I have thoroughly loved getting to know them a little better and loved having my kids get to know them too! School started in August, Bryer in 8th grade, Chet in 6th, and Presley in 1st grade. Next year, I will have one in high school, (yikes!!) and only one at home!! So crazy! I also ran in the Grand Teton Relay on a team of 12 from Ashton to Jackson. Sooo fun!! It was hard but what a sense of accomplishment and I cant wait to run next year again!! Fall has been absolutely beautiful as it always is in this beautiful valley, and relatively warm. Bryer shot his first bull elk yesterday and was so excited as were all of us!! Bryer and Chet both started wrestling and have thier first meet on Thursday in Challis! We are going to leave early and drive through Salmon and see a few friends first and I am soooo excited! I miss Salmon so much. Well that's a very vague quick summary of the last several months, but maybe I will get better! DOn't count on it but you never know!!!

Quick Note

I haven't posted in a while so i figured I would quickly run through the latest. We are fighting winter still snow on the ground almost every morning. YUCK! So ready to havea little spring weather. I would kill for even 50 degrees!

The kids are getting ready for school to be out and me too I must say. Presley is getting to be a pretty good reader and is doing great in kindergarten but is getting excited to be a first grader! Bryer and Chet are also doing well in school and just finished up spring wrestling. Chet has really improved and is enjoying wrestling more than he used to.

Bryer just turned 13 in march. Yikes! Kind of scary to have a teenager!! He is going to be moving pipe this summer for uncle Gary and is excited to make his own money.

Dawson is just doing his thing and is probably the happiest kid around. He loves everyone and is just a generally happy kid. He is my sweet heart!

Caleigh is just as cute as can be and of course rules the house. Terrible two's are very trying but the sweet moments kind of cancel out the terrible ones. We are so excited for summer to get here eventually so we can enjoy the outdoors.

I am missing Salmon weather, activities, and so many good friends, but it is alson nice to be back in Teton Valley again.

Its Been a While!

It has been a while since I have had a chance to post so here is a little update. Our bowling alley sold so we moved back to Tetonia over Christmas break. We miss Salmon so much but it is nice to be back by family and old friends. The kids were excited to meet up with thier old friends again. They both snowboarded for winter sports and love it. Presley made new friends and is doing so well in school as well as started violin lessons. All three boys are doing wrestling and enjoy that. It's Dawson's first year and he is so cute out there on the mat! Caleigh is going on her 5th day of going in the potty with only one accident!! Yay!! I HATE potty training!!! We bribed her and she is doing so well!!

So last night at bedtime the kids were asking if a guy from the area who has been missing had been found yet, and I said no and we talked about strangers. I said to Dawson, "Do you know what to do if someone you don't know comes up and asks you if you want to some candy or to see something in his car?" and he says, "Yes thank you!!" He was just as polite as could be and was not turning away free candy. We had a little laugh over that but hopefully got the point across after about strangers.

Last weekend I met my bowling team from Salmon in Twin and had such a great time seeing them again!! I even bowled my first 200 game ever!! It was so awesome! I stopped and saw Cortney's beautiful new home and visited them a little bit too. Had a great weekend.

The weekend before last, we went to Sun Valley to listen to my cousin David speak in church. He just got home from a mission in Connecticut, and it was so good to see and hear him speak. He served an awesome mission!! He has grown and learned so much. A lot of family was there and it was great to see everyone I hadn't seen in a long time! I have such amazing family!! So blessed!

Forgot

I just posted, but forgot to mention the funniest things Dawson has been saying lately. The other day he goes, "Mom, I know everything you know." Really..... Now he says it at least once a day. He also came up and told me, "Mom, I have more friends than Gerald." Gerald is one of the kids who works the machines in the back on league nights. TOO funny! He also lately has had some imaginary friends who to him are NOT imaginary. One is Airplane. And he talks about Airplane quite often. The other was Sally. She doesn't get mentioned very often. Anyways, forgot to blog that in my earlier post!

Halloween and Such

So I am totally slackin on the Blog! And trying to type with Caleigh's help so bear with me here! The last few months have been so busy with school, Dawson's birthday, Chet was in football, Bryer is now in wrestling, Halloween, scouts, etc. etc. I am posting pictures of all the above.
I was put in as young womens president in September so that doesn't keep me nearly busy enough......... NOT! So added on top of everything else...... We are a pretty busy family.
Bryer got his first deer, a buck and was so excited.
All the kids except for Caleigh are in gymnastics and Presley is also in ballet. They are all doing awesome! The boys also started youth league bowling yesterday.
David was able to take a day this week and go fishing, he caught two nice ones. One to mount and the other to eat! Yum! I do love fish I guess that comes from a long line of fisherman, Dad Grandpa and so on! I wish David had more time to go so we could stock our freezer with fish.
This monthe we are looking forward to Presley's 6th birthay. CAN"T believe she will be 6! Also one of my 2 favorite holiday's THANKSGIVING! Yay, I love Thanksgiving! My other favorite holiday is Christmas and coming up so quickly! But not to rush, I am so Thankful this month for all we have and we do have so much! We were able to rent a nice home that we fit into with our family of 7. It has really been a blessing to me to have more room and clean water and all the things that go along with a home! We are all healthy and are lucky to have each other. The bowling alley is doing well and we are able to have the things we need. We live in a beautiful state and are so blessed with all the freedoms we enjoy and usually take for granted. David and I both have wonderful families that we get to see more often than some. Wow that is just skimming the surface, but I wanted to touch on some things that I have been thinking of lately.
Anyhow, hope everyone reading this is having as wonderful a fall as we are! We really have been spoiled with beautiful colors and perfect temps! LOVE it!

August

We are trying to get a few last things done before school starts and summer is officially over. David and I just got back from a few days in Montana for our 13th anniverssary. We dropped the kids at Mitch and Bonnie's on Thursday night and headed in to Yellowstone. We got there about 11 and spent the next hour trying to find a motel. They were all booked except for one that was $190. We declined the offer and decided we could handle a night in the car. We drove into the park and pulled off by the river and tried to sleep. We had switche Bonnie outfits so she would have more room to meet us Sunday with the kids. Her car is nice but not the best for sleeping in..... We were up and going by 6 which gave us a ton of time Friday to just enjoy each other and different sights of Yellowstone, and over to Livingston. The nest few days we just drove to different sights and places and had so much fun. I missed the kids like crazy and would love to take them back to different places in the next few weeks. They had a blast with Nana and Papa who took them camping, and school shopping and to aunt Nancy's for much needed hair cuts! Thanks in-laws for taking such good care of our kids!!!!

School starts in 8 days and we are going to try to get to the river a few times as the pool just closed for the season and finish up school shopping. Pres can't wait and had so much fun school shopping with nana and papa, "It was like a fashion show mom!" she said of trying on clothes and buying a lot at once. The boys had fun shopping but are less than thrilled about starting school.

We had a great weekend and are just gearing up reality after a sweet weekend!

Summer stuff

Hey all! We are trying to hurry and enjoy what is left of our summer. We have been trying to hit the pool as much as we can which the kids LOVE. Dawson is our fish, he has yet to have a lesson, but the kid is under water swimming more than he is up! It is so funny he loves it!! We are so lucky to have the pool so close. We have also been to the river a couple of times. Our friends live right on the river so we have been down playing in their backyard and swimming there as well. SO FUN!!! The weather has actually been awesome this summer not too dreadfully hot!! I hate the heat and anything above 90 makes me crazy, so this has been a great summer weather wise so far.

We have been picking raspberries at our house as well as a friends house so I am also trying to get freezer jam done. YUMMY!

Let's see Bryer left on Tuesday for scout camp, they are in the bighorn crags mountains (not sure where that's at for sure) and that's been a challenge for me because though he has been away from me for more than a few days, it has never been without a way to talk to him anytime I wanted! We had a huge wind/rain/thunder/lightening storm yesterday afternoon here and I really started to worry for him. He is in good hands though as the leaders are all great capable guys. Still....... it's been hard to have him gone. Ok so I am feeling a little like grandma Robson a little on the worry wart side! Only a little though right?! Oh well he is my baby!!! He will be home tomarrow. Can't wait!

School starts on the 30th so we will try to get as much done before then as we can. Our 13th anniversary is coming up on the 23rd and we are going to try and get away for a few days, not sure where yet.

Almost done with co-ed softball yay! It gets old after a while.

I am missing going hucklberrying (sp?) in Tetonia a ton! My body must be programmed for hucklberries this time of year cuz I sure am craving them! Hope you Valley people are getting lots! There are pretty much NONE in Salmon.

Caleigh is talking a ton now and it is so cute to hear her yell Bya, Det, Peyeeeee, Da, mom, dad, bear (our dog). She is too funny! Her favorite thing is to ride the horse. The boys saddle the horses almost every day and ride around and she screams when we take her off she LOVES it. She is growing much to fast for me. I hate it. But she sure is cute! I'm just sayin'! I got lucky there cause all my kids are pretty darn great!!

Chet is also growing up faster than I keep up with, he will be in Jr. high this year cause the 5th grade is in the middle school. WEIRD!! He can also play football this year which he wants to do, but I'm not sold on the idea because he is so skinny! We will have to start on some protien shakes or something! Too bad I don't have that problem!

Let's see I think that's it for today, sorry about my novel today maybe I should blog more often so my posts wouldn't be so long........ Hope everyone is enjoying the last month or so of your summer!!

If you want some awesome inspiration, read my cousin David's missionary blog. HE ROCKS! He is the best missionary ever and I love reading his letters! Hope my kids turn out that great!

Busy busy busy

What a busy few weeks our family has had! Let's see, we started off with Father's day with Mitch and Bonnie, follwed by Chet's 10th birthday. He had friends meet at the pool to swim and then have cupcakes. Then the next day Carie brought Brinley and Kolbi to stay for a few days. The kids had a blast with them! They are the sweetest girls and we loved having them here. I think thier parents were the only ones glad to have them home!! I drove them home Friday early as the boys had baseball tournaments in St. Anthony that weekend. We were able to stay with our good friends Mark and Jenny that night and had fun there. The boys played well and it was a good weekend. Last week Chet and Presley had swimming lessons and then we went back up to Tetonia for another ball tournament in the Valley. Tasha is here from Texas for a few weeks and we were able to see lots of family over the weekend as all of my sisters and brother were up and grandpa and grandma also came over for a dutch oven dinner. After the dinner we went to see Glenn Beck speak at the Huntsman springs golf course. He was just amazing! We were sitting right up front and there were tons of people there. He just really brought the feeling of how America was, what our forefathers had in mind and fought for and what we need to fight for as Americans. It just gave me more meaning for my fourth of July. We then were treated to an amazing fire works display. The music and shorts clips of video underneath the fire works was just so cool! What a great fourth!!! We will probably be up there again this weekend for the Beard reunion and then hopefully have some time off from running for a while! We will see I guess. Happy Independance day all and may God bless America!

May

I am thinking that May is getting to be as busy as the month of December! I have posted some pictures of the things that have been going on, but to name a few things, Presley had kindergarten registration, her dance recital, and she and Caleigh got booster and immunization shots. Bryer and Chet have been busy with baseball, scouts, and end of school things. They both made the all star teams for baseball, Bryer for majors, Chet for minors, so that was exciting! We will be traveling to St. Anthony and Teton so they will get to play against some old friends. They have one here in Salmon over fathers day weekend and Bryer had a tournament Friday and Saturday in Darby. His team lost their first, won their second and lost their third game. The weather was crappy Friday but sunny for Saturday and we all got a little bit red. Chet had tournaments here in salmon to end his regular season and then will start practices for all stars this week. Let's see I started work at Bertrams a few nights a week for some money, and throw in a few kittens to take care of mice around here and trying to plant and get a garden to grow with nonstop rain and we have had a very busy month!

The latest

So just a quick post, the weather has been awesome and between the sun and the rain we are looking pretty green here in Salmon!! It is so nice to see some color finally!!! We will be moving to a different rental next week. AHhh I hate moving! But can't wait because there is a huge garden spot all ready to till and plant! Can't wait to plant corn and things I've never been able to plant it Tetonia!! Hopefully weather cooperating I can plant next week! That's much more fun than moving! The kids have been sick throwing up all week so that has definately not been fun! So far David and I have avoided it but the week isn't over yet so we will see! The boys are busy playing baseball and we are just finishing up the leagues. So it is crazy at the Beard household!

Wrestling

The boys wrestled at Challis last night and did so well! Chet got third and Bryer second. It was really fun to watch them they are both doing awesome and Chet is really improving and getting into it!! If he loses the other guy has to work pretty hard to get him, and he is so cute when he wins. He is a really good sport win or loss I love it! We were going to go to Mackey today but got home so late last night and Chet wasn't feeling that great, David either so we passed it up, but they have a match here in Salmon next Saturday. Tanner and Trey were at Challis with the Hill boys and they all did so well too! Little Trey is so cute out there! Just a smilin the whole time! So cute. I guess I am a lone ranger today and tomarrow, David took the kids up to the Beard's for Mitch's birthday, so I am here workin' and holdin' down the fort. Not complaining though, it's kinda nice to have a break from the kids and hubby even though I love and miss them so much when they are gone. The weather has been so great and so springy, I love it!! David got a job here in Salmon that will carry us through the summer and keep him hopping in the winters as well. We are so greatful to have work though as it is hard to come by these days. Now the trick is to find a house as we had planned on being in Tetonia again this summer, and the river guides move into the house we are renting now in June. Hope to find something we can be in pretty permanantly and then we will just rent our house that is not likely to sell. Just hope we can find renters!!

What's going on?

I really am over due for an update on this blog! Can't believe February is almost over! Let's see, so Caleigh turned one on the 26th of Jan. She had a fun day, she walked, cut her first 2 teeth, and had birthday cake and presents all in one day! She really went for it! She is so sweet and growing so fast. She now walks everywhere and is starting to try and run. I guess it's more of a fast side step because she is afraid of falling and it's so cute! She has a very high pitched scream right now that she uses to voice her opinion, let you know what she wants, lets you know she is happy, etc. It's all in that scream. Very annoying and having a hard time with how to break that one. Very inconvenient when in a very quiet sacrament meeting and she decides she wants anything or sees anything interesting. We spend a lot of time in the hall. It will be nice when she can talk rather than scream. She has started to nod yes and shake no so that's a start! The boys are wrestling and have their first meet Friday. Bryer is doing hunters safety this week. He also has mastered the round-off back handspring and can also do round-off double back handspring on the spring floor. Presley is still enjoying dance and gymnastics as well as preschool. She keeps saying "Can't I just go everyday?!" All too soon she will be doing just that, and I am not sure I'm ready to have her in school full time yet. All the kids are growing and time is flying. It's really feeling like spring here and it is so nice, well, except for the rotten mud of course!

Fun with Friends

A week ago today we went to Island Park with Carie and Rory, Jeremy and Jessica, and Eric and Anna. We had such a blast! We rented a cabin and went snowmobiling, got in the hot tub, ate a ton of great food and just had a great time. Mitch and Bonnie babysat and watched the bowling alley for us and we just had a great "date" weekend. It was so nice to just reconnect a little bit and enjoy the company of great friends!! We are so blessed to have wonderful family and friends. The weather was great and we had lots of fresh powder. I haven't been on the snowmobile for several years and it was so fun. Can't wait to do it again. Caleigh and I just celebrated our birthdays as well so it has been an eventful week! Caleigh had a great day and loved when we sang to her. She was very dainty with her cake and hardly made a mess, which is not nearly as entertaining as if she would have dug in and gotten all messy!! She started walking and cut two teeth that day as well. She just really went for it on her birthday!!! The boys start wrestling this week and Presley is learning her dances for the big recital in May, we are so busy but enjoying life and our awesome kids!!!