He is now 11

Eleven years ago today I was heavily sedated and unaware that this amazing little boy had just come into my life. Lucky for him his dad was right there taking good care of both of us. I think this is why they have such a strong bond. I am convinced that those first few hours and days are so crucial for our babies. Today I am so grateful for him and the boy he is becoming. He has grown so much just in the last few weeks and so have I. Zeak's first love is team roping. So the other night Dan said lets throw Zeak a surprise party and have his friends and family come to the barn roping. I was game. I wasn't sure if we would have support from some of our family and friends but decided that didn't matter what mattered was Zeak! So the plans began. Dan did the inviting and I arranged the food. Then the task of keeping it a secret began. The surprising part was that Jake and Kaci were in on it to. The surprise was good until after school. Dan got off work early and loaded the horses and gear up and headed to the arena. Zeak came home and started asking questions that Dan and I hadn't rehearsed. Still Justin and I were keeping him at bay. By the time 6:00 came he had figured it out but was playing along. When I pulled into the arena he said, "mom why is my horse in there saddled?" "Mom, why is grandma Lou here?" At that point what do you say? SURPRISE!!! He was so surprised and ran to give his dad a big hug.
Zeak and Shane blowing out their candles. Shane is Zeak's old but forever team roping partner. They are 4 years and 1 day apart which makes team roping together hard for the time being. But still they have a great friendship and common bond. I am sure they will rope together in the future. Shane's birthday is today the 27th. Happy Birthday Shane!

As you can see we had a lot of family and friends come and help surprise Zeak for his birthday. Thanks to all of you for being apart of Zeak's life you are all very special to him and to us.

This is how we give cowboy birthday spankin's over a barrel. After dinner and spankin's we resumed the roping which had a different turn of events. Take note of the balloons in the top photo. Before dinner and during dinner none of the horses seemed to notice or mind the balloons. However, after dinner Zeak had a little mishap with them and then all of the horses were aware and frightened of the balloons. So they were cut down and retired to the truck. Zeak was sitting by the fence waiting his turn and adjusting his rope. He ended up catching the balloons and pulling them into his horse which resulted in Zeak landing with his fist in his ribcage and a hard belly flop on the arena floor. Unlike water where you receive a sting the dirt had no give and took all of his air away. I was worried he had broke a rib or something but am happy to report he is fine this morning other than his pride which might take a few more days to heal. Happy Birthday Zeak hope it was a fun day and fun surprise. Just remember how much we love you and how many other people love you as well! Love, Mom

Blue & Gold

Tonight was our Blue & Gold banquet. This will be Zeak's last Blue and Gold. It is hard to believe that he is finished with cub scouts. I remember our first Pack meeting where I kept looking at Dan wondering what on earth I was doing there. I thought it was soooo weird. I have to say I still think the cheers or weird, but I see the value of scouting and the things it can teach the boys. It gives them some basic life skills and helps them prepare for the future. We have had some great leaders who have been dedicated to their callings. I am grateful for all of them and the time they have taken to teach Zeak I know he is not the easiest kid to teach. Tonight I received a compliment from his scout leader which made my month. (It has been a rough one and at times I wondered if Zeak would make it to his eleventh Birthday!) She said when Zeak first came in he was chatty and obnoxious but he has matured and been a huge help the last few months. She said she was really going to miss him. Way to go Zeak! You really do have a great heart and so much good in you keep it up.
Zeak earned his Weeblos and his arrow of light next month they with advance him to scouts and do the arrow of light ceremony. With the dinner and everything they wanted to wait until next month. This year is Cub Scouts 100th birthday. So we sang Happy birthday to Cub Scouts and to Zeak.

Zeak's last Flag Ceremony in Cub Scouts

Wishing we were back in Sunny St George

We had a great weekend in St George! Friday was really late and really cold but after that it warmed up and was beautiful! The boys did great. Kathryn and Jeff were so awesome to take care of us and our horses. We had a fun Valentine dinner with great friends and the kids love being with friends and hanging out. We love our life! (We will take the snow just so that we will have water to drink and play in this summer!)

Racheal and Kaci hanging out! Kaci Loves Racheal and was so excited to spend 4 whole days with her. Racheal is the only one Kaci will ride with anytime any where. Thanks Rach for being so cute with my kids and such a great role model your awesome!

My brother-in-law Jeff is awesome. He came Friday night and volunteered to take Kaci home to play with Kaitlyn. I was so grateful since it was sooooo cold and soooo late. 1:00 pm when they finally called the rodeo. Kaci loves to spend time with her "friends" ( cousins.)
Jr Boys division winners. What I love about Little Britches is everyone is a winner. Everyone received a prize. Zeak had some awesome runs he had a 10 sec in flags and won 2nd and 3rd in the team roping. He placed 6th in goats 2 days which gives him points for nationals. He also placed in the ribbon roping. One more good rodeo and we should be qualified for Nationals. best part of the weekend is he found a team roping partner for Nationals. He is so excited.
Aunt Kathryn got up early Sunday morning and made us all heart shaped french toast for Valentines. My kids thought it was great except for Kaci who got up on the wrong side of the bed. It took us a while to convince her to eat it when she finally did she ate two. Cole spent the night with us and he ate 4. Thanks Aunt Kathryn your the best.
Jake had a great weekend I didn't get to see him all weekend and he even took himself to barrel race on Saturday and Dan and I both missed it! :( I am still having heart ache over the deal. Thanks to Troy Fackrell for helping him all weekend. It is good to have such awesome friends who take care of our kids.

Jake doing goats. RUN buddy RUN!

Awesome run boys. 11 secs.

Zeak can concentrate! Love this Photo!

Getting Organized!

So the pictures went in opposite order but oh well. After almost 2 years Dan made some time to finish a few projects and start a few more. My goal this year is to get organized.

I can officially say that my storage room went from utter chaos to organized in a short amount of time. For family night last week we got all of the kids to help us go through boxes and totes and clean everything out. Then we moved the shelves so they were functional and organized. This allow me to organize my food storage and 2 year supply. I was so glad to see what we have way to much of and what we don't have enough of. Now to just keep on top of it.
My fridge has had no handles and opened the wrong way for 2 years now. It drove my friends crazy when they came to my house. Yep, that was on the honey do list. My kids keep trying to open the fridge the wrong way now and I must confess I have even done it a time or two.
WE put in a hard wood floor and couldn't get mouldings to match it so Dan finally bought a table saw and the wood and made his own. My floor is officially finished. I love it. The top picture is my favorite. My husband loves to stash money and I have know about this since before I married him. He use to tuck it in different slots in his wallet. Now he hides it in our house. Well he was going through a box of hats and throwing a bunch of them away. The kids were trying them on hoping to get a new hat out of the deal. Dan tried on a hat then threw it to Zeak this went on for a while and all of the sudden Dan said, "hey look what I found." He had stashed money in this hat and then put it on his desk as a decoration forgeting all about it for at least 3 years. So let me just say it pays to get organized at our house.

If I don't practice everyday. . .

Yesterday morning while I was getting Kaci Fae ready for dancing she finally let me do her hair and she loved it. It looks so cute when she lets me do it. So I had to hurry and take a picture. I am glad I did because she came home singing the cutest song.

I will practice everyday

because that is what my tap shoes say

if I don't practice everyday

my shoes will run away

clippty clop clippty clop

clippty clop clop clop

they'll run away and never stop

Oh I want my tap shoes to stay

so I will practice everyday.

Family Night

Look at that fOrm lucky for him the bumpers were up. :)

Jakers got lucky more than once. He even got a strike.

Zeak tried so hard and wanted a strike so bad. He was getting it at the end he just needed to relax and not try so hard.
Me and Fae took turns and she did awesome. She was even great to let me bowl by my self sometimes. I did get a strike the first one I bowled on my own. If it hadn't been for me sharing with Fae I would have beat Dan for sure. After we were done Dan admitted to the kids that I was truly a better bowler than him.
The kids at a great time. They all loved it! Jake wants to know if we can have family home evening more often. (I guess to him a lesson isn't family home evening) It was a fun memory and making memories are one of the most important thing parents can do for their kids. It must have been good because when Tina picked the kids up for school the boys were so excited to tell the girls what they did for family home evening last night. I guess we will have to have bowling family night more often.

Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?

Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?