Area 76 Hunt

Puttin' Food on The Table

I thought Ray would use this for his blog post but he didn't so I thought I should brag for him. Ray, his brothers, his dad, his cousin, and his "Uncle" Tom (not really his uncle but that's what they call him) have been putting in as a group for the area 76 hunt. They finally drew this year after 7 years worth of points. I was excited for him he deserves a bug bull! But at the same time was NOT looking forward to being a bachelorette for a entire week. At least when he hunts around here I see him some through out week. I knew this time it would be the full week. I survived!!! The boys were VERY good for me. I am glad Ray had the chance to go and spend some time with his family. He works so hard for me and the boys, it's good for him to have some time off and be able to do something he enjoys. After listening to his stories it sounds like he worked harder up there than he does when he is actually working at work. As you can see he ended up with a pretty nice bull. They were 7 for 7. (7 tags, 7 bulls) Cole killed his the last 45 minutes of the last day of the hunt. Leave it to Cole to wait till the last minute. Ray said everyone was so excited when Cole killed. He said there were bigger bulls killed but everyone was the most excited for Cole. I was pretty happy for Ray but even happier for him to get home. Good Job everyone on a successful hunt.

I have to laugh at this picture. I love how they all "strike a pose," maybe all the Smith Boys and Preston should take up modeling. I have been giving them a hard time about this picture since I first seen it. They had their own little photo shoot up there.

Remember Remember

Here is my monthly reminder to all the girls the mean so much to me in my life!!

Helping out

I just want to start off by saying ha ha to all you non-believers out there that thought this would never happen. I just needed some time and a good subject, so now I have one my wife. I got home from hunting and told Lori that I was going to go to N.M to help Carl move the cows to a different pasture on Saturday. She must of really missed me because she said if I could get a babysitter she would go help since we would be short on riders. Well this brought me much excitement since I love nothing more than riding horses with my wife. So I picked up my phone and called mom who said she would be happy to help out. So come Saturday we got up loaded the horses and were off. We were a little late after dropping off kids and I think Poppy was a little anxious since he was waiting in the truck when we arrived. We got started and She was a natural. I have to admit I was a little worried if she could handle the ride because she had not rode that far in a long time but she did excellent I never had to worry about her at all Carl and I both left her to get cows and she kept the herd moving all by herself even through tall grass where they wanted to stop. Lori I am so proud of you. You did an awesome job but beware now that I know you can do it ya just might get more riding than you want!!!

Good Times...Good Friends...Good Cause

I am sure a lot of you know I have been on a soap box since June about Breast Cancer awareness. I had a little scare in June that opened my eyes, and now I preach to everyone about yearly physicals and self exams. So when Candace called me and let me know about this walk that was going on Saturday I was gung-ho to do it. There needs to be a lot more of these in the valley to make people aware of the importance of getting checked and reality that is could happen here to anyone. So I have decided to do a post once a month as a reminder. I am going to simple post a picture of a the Pink Ribbon to remind everyone to do your monthly self exams. They are very important. I love the saying "Know Your Boobies" so if something is found you are able to communicate with you Dr about when it appeared and changes in it. I thought it would be neat to do like the nine news buddy check with in our family but I don't know where to start in getting that organized. So I had the bright idea of the blog post. Most of my family, friends and people I love read it so I thought this would work lovely. That's my goal and I plan to start it now in October and do it on or around the same day every month. It will just be the pink ribbon, so let it be a reminder to self exam each month.
The four of us had a wonderful time Saturday morning!(at least I did) Thanks dad for keeping my older boys! We went and walked the Stephanie Miner walk for Breast Cancer. We had a lot of good conversation, some good laughs and made a good memory to add to our little books of life. I am so thankful for these three wonderful people in my life. We are all becoming close and I love it. We were not always close and don't think any of us really know why but let the past be the past, right. I think and refer to Tiff all the time as one of my sisters. She is more of a sister to me than some. I am pretty sure any of us could hear anything from and other and not be offended (at least I could) I should try it out and see if I can offend any of them. LOL Serious girls I love all three of you! You have all helped me through some rough times at one point or another and I want to thank you for always having an ear to hear me and a shoulder for me to cry on. Love you crazy people. We need to play us a girls night soon!

New Calling

About 3 weeks ago I was called and asked to meet with my Bishop. I knew that was coming I was getting close to a year with no calling. I did appreciate the break with a new baby it was quite nice. Anyway I meet with him one night, he asked me if I would except the call to be the Second Sunday teacher in Relief Society. I am sure I had the deer in headlights look on my face. I FEARFULLY excepted the calling. I came home called one of my VERY good friends that had just gotten released from this very calling found out a lot of good information, and started preparing my lesson which I gave today. Even though this calling has stretched me FAR out of my comfort zone I am already very thankful for the time it has made me take to not only read the lessons but to truly study and pray for the guidance to present the lesson in a pleasing manner. I have spent a lot of time on my knees asking for guidance and comfort because I was so scared. I am one of those that likes to sit in the back and go unnoticed I NEVER speak up when someone else is giving the lesson it's always scared me to death I even hate reading scriptures in church. Plus with these braces I can't hardly talk I have too much extra junk in my mouth so that makes me uncomfortable. I guess as long as I don't get up there and have junk stuck in my teeth I'll be ok. Bishop set me apart for this calling the Sunday before General Conference, it really put my mind at ease. In that setting apart blessing he said some very thoughtful and wonderful things. I have never had a setting apart quite like that one. It meant so much to me. I knew after that this was a calling from my Heavenly Father. I had a feeling when they released Mindy that I was going to end of there and sure enough here I am. I asked Bishop today if he had issues with me he wanted to talk about because on top of this calling he asked me to speak in church on the 25th. I have been in that ward for 9 years and have NEVER had to talk in church. I guess I have learned one of two things: not to get too comfortable or that not all Bishop's can be paid off so they'll to let ya fall through the cracks. Ok I never paid any past Bishops off I was just LUCKY!

!!Koda Like Me!!

So I had to come home and post this. Candace has been potty training Bryson for the past week. Well as most boys have to he's learned about his "Boy Hood" is how I will refer to it. Today at dad's house I was changing Dakota. Bryson was standing there and he and I were in deep conversation about something. All of a sudden he gets so excited and started pointing to his "Boy Hood" and says to me VERY excited, " Koda like me Koda like me." and giggled thought it was the coolest thing that Dakota had some "Boy Hood" too. So I had to ask him is Brooklyn (hope I spelled that correctly sorry Ray if I didn't) any way I get this puzzled look from him and he says NO!! Like Aunt L0u Lou was some kind of fool to think such a thing. I wanted to make sure he was meaning what we thought me was meaning and not just happened that way. Well sure enough that's what me meant. It was a good laugh. I will use that against him the first time he brings a girl around. Love you Bryson you are such a sweet yet naughty little boy!! (what is it with the second child? Why are they so naughty and ornery?)

Sleeping Habits

I said in the previous post I would post about this. Logan is a tough kid when it comes to sleep. I think he hates to slow down long enough to go to sleep. When I was pregnant with Dakota, Logan was in our bed all the time. (not sure how I got pregnant with Dakota. Sorry too much info.) We would let him get to sleep and Ray would pick him up to take him to his bed and his little blue eyes would pop open and say NO DADDY I want to sleep in mommy's bed. Me being pregnant didn't care as long he slept. I was too tired to care. We finally broke him of that. Next he had to sleep in Ray's chair and loved it. You could take him to his bed after he was asleep and by morning he was back in daddy's chair with his monkey blanket and baby horse. No one could even sit in that chair if he was tired. It was war if he was tired. So we finally got him going to sleep in his own bed. And sleeping. One night he had a bad dream, I could hear him crying and talking about something I don't even remember what it was but I could tell he was scared. By the time I got to him he was getting up sobbing. So me being a softy told him "you had a bad dream you better come sleep with mommy." So now the little mess comes into my room about 5 AM every morning and pushes on me so I will move over. If I tell him to go back to his bed he looks at me with a sad little face and says "I haved a bad dream." So I am guilty I gave him that idea and now he has bad dreams all the time. What am I going to do with this kid? He is defiantly SMITH they are so hard headed. I do love when he comes in there in the morning and loves on his mommy. He really is a sweet little boy. Naughty but sweet!

NOT ALREADY!!!

Dakota is about 10 1/2 months old and starting to walk a lot. I honestly thought he would be walking at 10 months so I am grateful that he waited. He has been pulling himself up to things for over a month now. He would be brave and take a few steps then sit down. He walks along the furniture A LOT and is getting pretty brave when he gets to the end of the couch he takes off on his own. He has gotten to where he will take 5 or 6 steps on his own and puts his arms out to balance when he knows he's going to fall. He can stop and get his balance and take a few more steps so I am sure by the end of the week he will be walking pretty good. He is my little mess. I need to post pictures of some of his messes. He will crawl into every room of the house and tip the trash can over and leave it sometimes play in it. If I am folding laundry he thinks he has to turn the basket over and throw clothes all over. He loves to crawl into his big brothers room and dump their tubs full of cars and animals. He goes into his room and dumps his dirty clothes. The other night I was filling my sugar bowl up and he got into the cabinet and dumped an entire box of spaghetti out on the floor and played in it. He loves to go behind the wood stove which is going to be awful this winter! He loves to play under the computer desk in the trash. Just tonight I was bringing in groceries from the car and found him in the bathroom, he had taken everything out of the trash can and put it in the toilet (good thing I had just taken the trash out so there was not a lot in it) He loves to play in the fridge, if he sees the door open his head is down and crawling at full speed. If you close it before he gets there he does protest! Anyway I am sure you get the picture. He is going to be a hand full. I love him to pieces. He has been a good baby for the most part. Poor little guy is on his second round of med's for an ear infection. Hope this round will do it but he's still pulling on them and he's been on it since Wednesday. Not looking good. He's a happy little guy. Sleeps through the night which is awesome because Logan still gets up. ( I will have to do a post on that.) The down side of him sleeping through the night he's wide awake at 6 AM and that stinks I could sleep 30 more minutes if he would. He is a sweet little thing, already gives kisses which I love. He kisses me a thousand times a day and I love it. I am always kissing him. The time is going by too fast. I am so thankful that I am able to be home with my boys. They grow up too fast and I know I take them for granted but I am trying to be a better mom. I do miss working sometimes but I have a lot of time to do that when they are grown. I love my little mess. He was walked the earliest. Guess I am going to have to hold him more. Chance was 12 months old and I think Logan was about 13 1/2 months old. I know he was over a year old and it was so nice. I guess Dakota thinks he's got things to do. I wish all three of them would slow down they are growing too fast!

Parent Teacher Conference

We had parent teacher conference this past week. Chance is doing well, his teacher had no worries about him other than the fact that he likes to talk... no matter who he's sitting by. We have been working on this for a couple of weeks now. I talked to her one night after school and she let me know she was having a hard time keeping him quiet. He has been grounded, lost his bike, (which he loves) had to come home and do nothing after school but homework. I don't know what else to do. I remember my mom getting the same report about me from Jack Guymon. I guess that is a part of me that he has. He is doing better about it she said. The kid has been moved all over that classroom and nothing seems to help. I guess she is just going to have to sit him all alone but I am sure he would talk to himself. We love Chance and are so thankful that he loves school and does really well with it. Good Job Buddy keep up the good work.

Taking Over

So I guess it's time for me to take our blog back over. I was on strike as you remember for some sweet someone being critical. Ray failed to meet my challenge, (so sorry honey your time has expired.) The down side of ME WINNING, I have a list of things I have been wanting to post. He is away hunting so maybe, (hopefully) he will have a "Ray" post to do when he gets home. He left with high hopes to kill a monster bull and we all hope he does, he's been waiting for a long time to get a big bull. He was so cute before he left! It was hard for him to leave me and the boys for a week but I could tell he was so excited.