It was nice for the kids to be back in school this week.  Oak, especially was excited to go back.  I know that the kids are behind and have some catching up to do.  Sager assigned parts to her play.  Jerusha got the part of one of the wicked stepsisters, and Rooshkie's best friend Emily got the part of Cinderella.  It all ought to be interesting.  Sage and her friends scripted this play, and got it approved by the principal.  Luckily, they are only practicing one day a week at this point. 
     Mo was extremely testy this week.  I am assuming that he is cutting teeth or something because he was way cranky.  He did seem to find delight in doing naughty and messy things, but these things have a tendency to make me frown.  For example, I tried to have a nice shower on one occasion, and I came out to find that he had emptied all of the ashes from the wood burning stove in a large heap on the floor.  He seemed rather pleased with what he had done, and heaven knows why Oak just watched him do it.  I realize that halting such activities is ultimately my responsibility, but Oak is old enough to realize that the results of ashes all over the kitchen are not good.  I cleaned it up, but have noticed a thin sheen of ash on most surfaces all week.  Sometimes it takes weeks to recover from some of Mo's activities.  He also dumped drawers from my jewelry box into the sink.  This was also a tedious task to clean up. 
     We ended up going to the ranch this past weekend.  The BLM are planning on gathering my father in law's cattle in a month and the sheriff wanted to meet with Cliven.  We are all hoping and praying that the sheriff will stop the illegal gather, but he has said that he is not going to.  All of the sheriffs of the past have stopped it.  Ryan wanted to be there with his Dad when the sheriff came by.  Ryan also has a horse that he wanted to spend some time on.  He purchased this horse a few weeks ago, and every time Ryan has tried to ride him, he tries to buck him off.  We bought it so that Ryan could rope cows at the ranch off of it, and we were told that he was "ranch broke" whatever that means.  Anyhow, Ryan was able to ride him quite a bit this weekend and he actually did really good down there.  Maybe he just needed some wide open space who knows?
     When we arrived on Friday it was raining.  It actually poured down rain that whole day.  The rain did not hinder Chlo, Oak, and Braxton from frolicking around on the haystack and in the grain hill.  It was also kind of funny because Ryan and Cliven had been working in the rain all day.  They had been irrigating some fields and were up to their knees in mud.  When the sheriff and his deputies arrived, they were in their spanking clean uniforms, with shine-y black shoes.  They ended up having to tromp around in the mud to meet with Cliven....welcome to the ranch world I guess.
     I had to laugh at Bailey too, because Braxton came in at one point and sprawled himself out on the couch beside his mom.  She took one whiff of him and told him in no uncertain terms that he stunk really bad.  I started laughing and asked her what he smelled like.  She explained that he smelled like wet hay and grain.  Nope, you cannot keep the kids away from the haystack with a little rain.  This trip, they actually built a steep slide out of hay bales and slid down them over and over again.  It looked like kind of a rough ride to me, but hey, whatever keeps them happy.  I decided that my number one criteria for a new home is not a huge kitchen, or plenty of bathrooms.  It is a spot for a haystack.  I want it figured into the cost of the loan....let's buy a load of hay and the kids will be happy forever.  When we went to put Chlo in the bathtub this morning she had her clothes and underwear chock full of hay and grain.  Poor Chlo, I cannot imagine that her hay and grain clothes were very comfortable to sleep in.  Her Dad had also bought her a humongous ice cream cone on the way home from the ranch last night.  When she got up this morning it looked like she had fallen asleep with it, or bathed in it possibly.
     Sassy was being her usual frolick-y self.  She chased us around everywhere begging constantly for a bottle.  The puppies are big enough now that they were hopping on and scratching Mo all over.  He got a little upset about this a few times.  I was also informed by Stetsy that I posted the wrong picture of the infamous big dummy.  I will definitely have to set this straight.  She claims that there is a picture of him on Arden's wall on facebook.  I am going to see if Sags can get it off there for me and we will post the real picture of him.  He looks way bigger and way more intimidating than the bull I posted...I can only imagine that Big Dummy scares the pants off of the golfers when he shows up.
     Rooshkie got stuck in the tree at one point.  She and Oak had been getting in the tree and climbing ridiculously higher and higher in it.  I made Oak get out of it at one point because he was getting way high and it was pouring down rain.  I figured that he was going to slip and fall.  Rooshkie got up there and got singing loudly.  She sang and sang until she noticed that she couldn't get down.  I wasn't sure how to help her because there was no way that I could even begin to climb the tree.  It was seriously going to take a crane.  I told her to try to figure it out and went in the house.  Ryan came in at that point and I asked him to go talk her out of the tree.  He said that he would get to it but didn't get out there immediately.  Rooshkie was pretty mad and scared by the time he went out there to help her, but he did explain to her how to get down.  She was pretty mad at me, but hey, I couldn't imagine climbing up there after her.  She should've just kept singing.
     We had to get home because I had to give a lesson in Rooshkie's class.  Mo threw a fit this morning when I was trying to get him dressed for Shrsh.  Apparently he wanted his dad to get him ready.  He yelled at me, called me Jazzerz and told me to go away.  Jazzerz huh?  He calls all the older girls that try to mother him Jazzerz.  I guess that is what I have been reduced to in his eyes.  Ryan finally did come in and get him dressed which pleased him just fine.  Chlo kept having the desire to hop on one foot back and forth and back and forth across the front row where we were sitting.  She was also having issues with keeping her dress down again...I swear she just needs a good pair of bloomers.  The lesson went well in Rooshkie's class.  We told the story of Abraham when he was younger.  He is a powerful example of keeping covenants and loving his family in spite of their shortcomings...I mean come on, his Dad tried to have him sacrificed and he continues to pray for him anyway.  What a guy.  We kind of got into a little bit of trouble in singing time.  One of the girls in the class brought a whole bunch of elastics so that they could weave some bracelets in singing time.  I actually thought that this was a stellar idea.  Hey, the girls were still singing and participating, and yet they were sitting still as they kept their hands busy.  I even jumped in and worked on Rooshkie's bracelet a little.  Finally the song leader got irritated and yelled about us making bracelets.  It just goes to show that maybe I still need to grow up a little still.  I thought that the bracelets they were creating were just lovely.  Rooshkie and Jazz got chosen to participate in a choir for stake conference which is coming up in two weeks.  Sounds like a good plan if Jazz can behave.  She got giggle goofing in sacrament again.  Boo boo to you Jazz.
    

 Arden and the real Big Dummy

 Bean and her slide

 Stetsy and Wazz

 Oak on the slide

 Jazz on the slide

 Bailey and cute Jaylee

 Grandpa and Rooshkie

 Grandpa resting his head on a ....horse, nice.

 more of the slide

 sliding bean

Rooshkie attempting to surf down the haystack with Oak and Braxton in the background.