Well, it has been way too long.  I regret all of things that I could have posted about because it was a busy and eventful summer.  Very challenging too.  I don't think I have ever dealt with so many physical challenges, but hey....summer is drawing to a close, and things are going quite well now.
     We did get into a house, and that has made a huge difference.  The kids are also in school now (which also was a challenge, but more about that some other time.)  I love the home that we have moved into.  LOVE it!  The Mikkelsen's are a family in the ward that have one son left at home.  He is leaving on his mission to Cancun, Mexico (apparently not just a vacation destination) in December.  His parents are leaving on their mission in February and they are going to Kiev, Russia.  In the meantime, they have moved into their basement and have rented out their upper floors to us.  This is a custom built home and it is very well planned out.  Also his wife is my height, and he built it for her.  I love the tall countertops and cabinets.  I also really enjoyed the A/C in those last few weeks of extreme heat.  August wasn't too bad, but September was sweltering.  We had had it with living in the travel trailer, and are way happy to be in a home.
     This week has come and gone in a whirlwind of melons, homework, and General Conference.  Confernce was wonderful...I loved it.
     With the kids in school, Ryan and I are pretty much left to all of the farm and melon work.  We usually pick first thing in the morning, and now that I am eight and a half months pregnant I am surprised at how much I can still get out and work.  Seriously, the Lord has strengthened my back and body to keep on going.  Ryan always wants me to drive the tractor, so that he can bend over and load the melons, but I am clunky on the tractor and always refuse.  I have also been impressed with how Chlo and Mo somehow keep themselves happy and occupied in the melon field.  One day they did nothing but make mud balls and chuck them around.  They frolic in the deep grass and play in the dirt.  Yesterday, we had some big orders to fill.  Luckily it was a Saturday, and all of the kids, including Arden were there and willing to help.  Cliven also came and helped.  Mo had already stripped out of his clothing after a few water droplets landed on his shirt.  This of course, made me frown but is becoming quite the pattern.  There he was in the October heat with nothing but a diaper.  He has quite the diaper tan at this point.  Anyhow, he found a nice spool of green ribbon in the truck that was leftover from our show steer and fair days.  He insisted on wearing the green ribbon as pants.  I wasn't sure how a green ribbon qualified as pants and assured him that the green ribbon was not going to give him the coverage that pants would provide.  He gave up on me and went to a distracted Ryan, who just tied the "pants" around his waist and went to picking melons.  Mo was way happy with his green pants yesterday.  It reminds me of the night that I told a little tiny Jazzerz to go and get dressed.  She was about Mo's size, and we were playing a nice game of soccer for FHE.  She came out with a whistle around her neck.  Needless to say that Mo's pants didn't last too long.  The more melon he ate as we picked, the ribbon got too tight and Ryan had to cut it off.
     We have also been trying really hard to get Mo to sleep in his own bed.  We are getting better and better at this.  He does end up in with us some nights, though and he is always clutching a few matchbox cars or trucks.  We usually let him go back to sleep and then move him back into his bed.  What we fail to remember is whatever cars or trucks were in his hands when he came in.  It isn't very comfy rolling onto one of his cars.  I was also quite angry at his fire truck a few days ago.  I was being somewhat dorky and dancing around the living room.  I forgot about the fire truck and clompily twisted my ankle on it, and down I went like a wet bag of cement.  Not good.  Luckily my ankle was only sore that day. 
     I was grateful I was able to attend the temple on Fridee night with some of my Cedar City pals.  I also want to try to get in there one more time before the baby comes and attend the baptistery with Jams and Sags.  Hopefully we can make that happen this week.
     We have had some funny things happen as we have moved in.  We removed Ryan's prized deer mount in Cedar so that we could hang it in this home.  Unbeknownst to us, Chlo had named the deer head "Christy" and was happy to see Christy in the home down here.  Apparently, Chlo was rather fond of Christy.  Mo has also been being a puppy a lot lately.  He likes to get out on all fours and sniff around.  He loves to pick the pomegranites that grow around the property at the ranch.  He is way protective of his "womowanites'  don't mess with Mo when he is wanting to partake of "womowanites."
     Sage also had the opportunity to go deer hunting with my Dad and Barry last week.  She drew out on the muzzle loader of all things.  Anyhow, she got a lovely little two point thanks to my Dad and brothers help.  I thought it was quite funny actually.  I have never even shot a deer myself, and yet Sager's first morning out was quite the success.  Luckily, Barry was there to gut it for her, and my Dad even hauled her and the deer down to us.  We have been enjoying the meat ever since.  Now, the pressure is on for Jams.  She drew out for the general hunt which is on the 18th.  This also happens to be my due date too.  We will see how all of that goes.
     All in all the changes this summer have been challenging and good.  I came to appreciate so many things that I always just took for granted.  I love having a kitchen, and a dinner table to take care of my family.  I learned to love clouds, and breezes and evenings when things would cool off a few degrees.  The bugs at the ranch are unbelievable too.  There are these little gnats that are really bad in the melon fields.  The buzz in your eyes and in your ears nonstop.  The flies down there were and are horrible.  Cliven even said, he has never seen flies like we have seen them this year.  I felt like we were just living in a haze of them, always buzzing and landing on me nonstop.  It was really bad when I was trying to get Mo down for a nap.  Anyhow, I am grateful that the extreme heat of summer is now over.  It still gets in the upper 90's, but only for a few hours instead of the whole day and night. 

 Ryan and Ammon fixing a couple's car by the reunion

    


 

     Well, we had a fantastic Bundy reunion this year.  Just the absolute best.  It was and always is difficult to get out there, but once we got there it was nice and cool, and just great.  We had some troubles on the way out there.  The truck started to overheat as we were climbing the steep hill out of Hurricane.  I immediately switched off the air conditioning, and flipped the heater on.  This trick I can attribute back to my Cheston Slater days.  We spent quite some time trying not to overheat in his old Dodge Dart and I remember him flipping the heater on.  Ryan is savvy to all of that stuff, but he was impressed at my grease gal knowledge.
     Anyhow, we ended up at a gas station/restaurant.  This was an expensive and chaotic dinner.  Mo kept making the door alarm go off by going in and out over and over.  He loved this, but it made me feel quite sheepish, and frustrated.  Oak, and Rooshkie were squabbling over fry sauce amounts, and onion rings.  After Ryan got the truck fixed up, we headed out and we didn't have any more problems.
     We had a great first night sleeping out under the stars.  The kids slept in the horse trailer and we woke up so excited, for the reunion to begin.
     The roping contest and opening ceremonies were great and typical.  I kept having to remove Mo from roping contest because he wanted to somehow be involved, but really, he was just in the way.  He didn't care either way about this.  He just wanted to be involved.
     Our first issues with the weather happened that afternoon.  Well, before the rain even hit, our bed, which was made up neatly, but still out in the open, got sprayed by the water truck.  Nice.  Then the rains hit in the afternoon, and I have not ever seen it rain so hard at the reunion.  Ryan and I were kind of regretting our no tent policy.  We threw everything in the horse trailer, but Ryan had only tarped the top.  The rain was pouring in on the sides, and the floor was filling with water and getting
everything all wet.  I kind of started to panic.  My kids kept going out in the rain, coming in the horse trailer soaked and freezing, and then going back out in it.  I started lecturing on hypothermia.  They had soaked my coat and my hoody and I was freezing.  I kept telling myself that Ryan would figure out a way to take care of us.  He of course did.  He flipped the tarps around on the horse trailer and made a nice tent out of it.  When the rain slacked off a little, he built a huge fire and started drying coats and sleeping bags etc.  By the end of the evening, everyone had a dry bed.  Ryan always figures out how to take care of us.  He's a great husband and dad.

     Mo was driving me bonkers that evening.  That night was the night of the dance with the deejay.  It is a ragin good time.  Everyone dancing  together is such a blast.  The problem is Mo wanted me to dance with him the whole evening.  I am large with child anyway,  add Mo boy to the mix, and I was really weighed down.  I couldn't do the "Cotton Eye Joe" or the "Cupid Shuffle"with a sleepy Mo in tow. He kind of put a damper on my dancing feet.
     That night and the next night, I was grateful for the shelter.  I literally felt like we were in sardine can, with us stacked in the trailer all in a row.  But, we were dry and it rained a lot up there.
     Testimony meeting was great, and I enjoyed the family thoroughly.  Mo got in trouble a few times for being a big bully, but it was a great year overall
     The ride home was really scary.  It was slick and we kept sliding all over the road and the trailer would start jack knifing to the side.  I uttered prayer after prayer, and I am convinced that this is the only reason we made it home.
     Jams was having issues with her braces and so we had to go to Cedar...this was kind of a complication.  Anyhow we had to scramble to get the girls packed up for girls camp.  Ryan also informed me that he had purchased a car...what???  He wanted a car that was small and got good gas mileage for all of his quick trips to speaking assignments.  Because we had the horse trailer, he informed me that his mechanic would be dropping off the car.
     Because he has been traveling so often to speaking assignments, he really needed a little car that gets good gas mileage....I had images in my mind of a sleek little cool car.  That isn't totally what came driving into my driveway that afternoon...the best way to describe it?  It is a total Grandma car...Total Grandma.  I love Grandma's don't get me wrong, but for once I would like to be kind of hip and cool.  Not gonna happen in this car, but it is an old Cadillac, and it feels like gliding on a couch.  Anyhow, I picked up the new (old) car and headed south with it. I lovingly named the car "Berneice." Ryan took Jazzerz on his next Phoenix speaking assignment, and we dealt with  the heat, the weeds, and the squash bugs once again.  I totally enjoyed the reunion.  It was great.