Well, our beautiful baby girl got blessed yesterday, and it was a great weekend.  Salem Esther Bundy was finally what Ryan settled on, and we seriously debated over names so long and hard, that I wondered if she would ever get a name.  Part of the problem is that we have too many opinions.  Someone not only disliked, but hated every name that was ever mentioned.  Likewise, some of the kids passionately loved some of the names so much, that they were almost insistent upon certain ones.  Even as Ryan pronounced her name in the blessing, Sage groaned and Jerusha face palmed herself in the forehead.  We prayed about it, Ryan fasted, and we felt that Salem fit her....nice, complete, and peaceful baby.  I am hoping Sags will get used to it.
     We had such a great time with family this weekend.  I don't get anywhere enough time with my family these days, and it is so fun when we are together.  We always have plenty to laugh about.  I love that we can tease each other, and laugh at some of the crazy things we came up with as children.  My parents had no idea what they were signing up for when we were brought into the world....I only regret that there is not more of us.  My parents couldn't come because of tithing settlement, but three out of the four brothers made it.  The Bundy's were way supportive too...Stetsy and Clance had their baby Roper blessed too, and it gave everyone even more reason to come.  I love my family, and I adore the Bundy's.
     We had some interesting times these past few weeks.  One thing that I usually forget, and my mother usually reminds me, is that the two year old of the family usually causes more work than the baby.  This is definitely the case in our situation.  The problem arises that so much time is initially spent nursing the new child...this causes a back log of messes that really need to be cleaned up, and the toddler usually feels somewhat neglected, and so they act up more to some degree.  I love...actually love is not even a strong enough word, I adore my little Mo, but man, he has been a handful lately.  He is still the one that I end up hanging out with in the night.  Baby Salem sleeps wonderfully.  I woke up last week to cookie crumbs scattered all over in my bed....I believe that Mo may be to blame for this.  I HATE any kind of crumbs in my bed....seriously, I cannot stand it.  My kids learn rather early that I can wade through a whole lot of messes, but if it is in my bed...they are in deep double dutch trouble....I tried, that morning to let things slide with the crumbs in my bed, and because it was early, and I was sleepy, I must not have noticed all of the cookie crumbs in the shower too.  I drew myself a gross, soggy, smooshed up cookie bath to start my day.  This had me frowning and sighing big time.  I love my Mo...but really?  Let's respect some boundaries please!
     In the meantime, we are still trying to get settled in a different home.  I love this home, by the way, but Ryan is still bringing boxes back from Cedar City every trip.  I am also starting to get quite concerned about Christy the deer.  Ryan's impressive deer mount has been lovingly named "Christy" by Chlo.  The problem is, there is really nowhere suitable to hang Christy, and I am afraid that abuse is being heaped upon him.  He gets cars driven on him by Mo all the time, and I know this cannot be good.  Hopefully we can get everything in its place soon.
     Mo also caused me a disgusting mess the other morning when he chose to dump a large glass of water in the corn pops cereal bag.  I entered the kitchen in the morning to corn pops scattered from one end of the kitchen to the other.  It was morning, and I am happy and full of energy in the morning, and so I happily started cleaning it up...just for good measure, I went to grab myself a handful of the sunny, happy cereal, and was met with a soggy mess....seriously ruined my bag of corn pops with his water experiments.  Boo Mo!
     We also had a horrible tragedy in the family last week.  Ryan's cousin, Rod Jensen, was hit head on in his car on the way to work one morning, and killed instantly.  It was so sudden, and he was so young.  Sad...we enjoyed seeing everyone at the funeral, and the Jensen family is awesome....many of them double cousins with Ryan.  I had to get after Oak a little bit because he and Bronco were enjoying wrastling around the cemetery.  Oak and Bronco are best buddies, and they just didn't understand the solemn occasion thing.  I guess that is understandable.
     We also had a great Thanksgiving with the Bundy's.  Ryan used the Mikkelsen's smoker and smoked a turkey.  Seriously...some of the best turkey ever.  It was actually almost gone by the time I got myself some dinner.  I sat down to feed the baby, and figured there would be tons...not so, with Ryan's incredible turkey.  We had a great time enjoying all of these little babies that have come to the family.  Hanna is due any day now, and we are excited for her baby to be joining us too.
     I love this time of year!  I love Christmas, and all of the wonderful spirit that goes with it.  I got my nativity out the other day, and Mo just loves playing with the camels.  I am so glad that I got this set at the DI, because Mo is hard on the camels.  Naturally, the two camels are friends and are trotting all of the house because of Mo.  I noticed that baby Jesus has been glued back together too.  This must have been Mo's contribution last year, and it has been such an insane year, I don't even remember him breaking it.
     Mo informed me that a Monster has given him a cup of lemonade.  It was really a cup of ordinary water that was taken out of the fridge, but hey...I am glad that Mo has a bright imagination.  Thankfully we have a nice, lemonade sharing monster around here. 

     Well, we have had some weeks quickly slip by.  My baby is four weeks old today, and I have enjoyed the wonderful little person that she is.  I am finally at that point that I am not so sore and tired from the birth, and I am just loving rocking her and holding her little warm body.  She is great. 
     Thankfully, Mo has really enjoyed going with Ryan most days, and there hasn't seemed to be much for jealousy where he is concerned.  He loves his little sister and likes holding her and taking care of her.  All of the kids are constantly fighting over who gets to hold her and change her and bathe her etc....truly we love babies around our house.
     Fall has been way gorgeous down here.  I never thought I would survive the summer and all of its heat and flies.  It really was one of the hardest times ever.  It really made me appreciate having a home and a kitchen and all of the little things that I had taken for granted so long.  I am feeling so blessed these days.  My baby is healthy, we have a home, and we have the gospel.
     Last Sunday we had a few mishaps in shrsh that I should take note of.  Chlo is still in the habit of building things out of hymn books.  Usually she makes herself a little bench to sit on.  It does not make a whole lot of sense because she sets it up on the bench, which is way more comfortable than sitting on a bunch of hymn books.  Mo has been especially impossible in shrsh lately.  Last Sunday I was very mortified when he began chucking a wet paper towel around the place.  We were on the front row too, which I hate.  Anyhow, there were three girls singing on the stand.  They were doing a lovely job too.  Mo threw the wet paper towel at them, and gratefully missed, but everyone saw the dumb thing whizz through the air and land on the stand.  I was so embarrassed that I wanted to crawl under Chloee's pile of hymn books.  Today, I got in the chapel first, and I headed straight to the back...much more my style.  Chlo did get a horrible case of the giggles, and Mo moved some chairs to and fro, but we did a little better today.  I don't think that I will have to worry about Mo being able to chuck anything on the stand if we are way in the back.
     Today Mo came out of nursery proudly waving a little paper that he had made.  It had a picture of Adam and Eve with a few animals from the Garden of Eden.  I asked him about Adam and Eve and the lesson.  He claimed that he didn't learn anything about Adam and Eve, but had learned about "Weindeer"  (there was a picture of a deer on the photo with Adam and Eve.)  Whatever Mo...I am sure that this was not the main idea of the lesson.
     Mo has also continued to give us fits in the night.  He often crawls in our bed with cars, and if he cannot be in our bed, he bawls and wants to be.  Whew, it is not going to be easy to get him outta there.  I cannot help but smile when I see him tromp around in his diaper and boots.  He is the cutest little cowboy ever.  He wants to rope and catch cows...those are his desires.
     We had a tragic accident in the family last week.  Rod Jensen, and Donnie Collins were travelling to work in Vegas, when a car crossed the median and hit them head on.  They were all killed instantly.  Wow...what a sudden blow.  We all loved Rod, and his kids were married, but way too young to be without their Dad.  It was all horribly sad and sudden.  We attended his funeral on Saturday and donated melons.  It was really good.  I enjoyed listening to stories about him.  It was a good day and we enjoyed seeing all of the Bundy's and Jensen's.


    

     We have had some very significant events take place in the last few weeks.  Most important is the birth of our eighth baby.  She has been an incredible addition to our family and we are all crazy about her.  Anyhow, I was supposed to be due on the 18th of October according to our ultrasound expert.  Vickie kept disputing that because she felt I was due on the 27th.  She explained that ultrasound people measure around the circumfrence of the babies head, and their femur bone.  What they don't really consider is genetics, and lets face it...my legs are crazy long.  She figured he was off a bit, and he was.  The baby girl was born on Sunday October 26th.  She still has no name, and we are discussing it often, trying to give her something that is really significant.  Anyhow, she was 6lbs 15 oz.  My last few babies have been quite a bit bigger than that.  She is quite teeny.
     I actually went into labor in the middle of the night, but I always doubt that it is the real thing.  I got up and went to work on a lesson that was needed for my shrsh calling.  I must admit that when labor hits, I panic.  I still panic, even though I have lived through seven other successful deliveries.  I know and am quite aware, that as adults, we have to face our fears.  Labor and delivery petrify me with fear.  Sounds ridiculous, but hey, it is true.  I always do everything in my power to try to stop the labor pains, because I am always scared and nervous.  The labor pains did actually stop for a few hours in the morning.  I went about getting everyone ready for shrsh...trying to convince myself that today was not the day.
     I told Ryan that I wanted a blessing.  I was so nervous that my midwife would not make it to my house in time.  She had a two hour drive, and I was so scared to face any possible complications alone.  We went to the ranch, and Cliven and Ryan gave me a blessing.  I really wanted to hear that the baby would come in a timely manner....timely because Vickie needed TIME to make it.  Ryan said nothing of that sort.  He explained that the birth process was painful by design, and that the baby and I were both fit and strong enough to handle it.  He promised that her body would be strong in the birth process and she would be born healthy and whole.  Ok...I still wanted Vickie to help me.  I guess I kind of knew at that point that the birth would be assisted by Ryan....and that is it.
    I should have listened to my body rationally because the labor pains hit again in sacrament meeting.  We were having ward conference, and we just got a new bishopric.  I was so touched at what the topic was....facing fears, with the help of the Lord.  It was exactly what I needed to hear.  I bawled through most of the speeches until Mo became so unbearable that I had to take him out in the hall.  I was also timing contractions.  They were painful, and coming at sporadic intervals.  Every fifteen minutes, then seven, then five, then fifteen.  They weren't lasting very long either.  I brushed them aside, as nothing.  Ryan and I went in to our class to teach our lesson.  I noticed that I was getting irritable, which again made me notice the sharp pain the contractions had.  I love our class, and love our students tons, but I noticed that I just wanted Ryan to wrap things up.  The pains were consistent...every five minutes.  I finally told Ryan that I was in labor and wanted to go home.  I called my midwife and told her that I was probably in labor...I wanted to get into a warm tub and see if the contractions kept going, but to be on standby.  When we arrived at home the pains got faster and harder.  The bathtub did nothing to relax them away and so I got Vickie on her way.  She also called her closest assistant to me in Hurricane and got her on the road.  I immediately got cleaning the house, because I knew I wouldn't feel like it later.  Ryan helped and also got going on getting the birth pool inflated and filled.  The kids showed up with Arden to get their clothes changed....thank goodness for family.  Arden took them to the ranch for me.  Anyhow, the kids stayed long enough to say a prayer with me.  Mo ended up in the birth tub and had to be removed.
   The pains started piling on each other...there was no break in between and I tried reasoning with the baby to take it easy...slow down.  I was still cleaning Mo and Oak's room but ended up on my hands and knees to try to take pressure off of my back.  I was crawling around cleaning, and feeling like I wanted to scream or die.  I went and flopped in the pool and felt immediate help from the warm water.  Ryan was there wanting to do something to ease my pain.  At that point I was dying from the pressure and knew that the baby was going to be arriving if I would just get the work done.  I finally yelled at Ryan to come because the baby was coming.  She was born in a warm pool of water and into the welcoming hands of her Dad.  We both were elated and crying and excited.  She was perfect and content.  We called Vickie and she was just getting to Mesquite.  She was able to come and take care of everything else, but the birth belonged to us....it was an incredible blessing to share it with the man I love the most.  He took good care of me even though I moaned and complained about the pain.
     Since then, I have had a ton of help from good family and people from the community.  My mom came and stayed and ran all of the many kid errands for me.  Wow...I didn't want to be chasing around town.  Family and friends helped me on Halloween, and so Ryan and I could spend some time together on his birthday.  It has been great.
     Mo has been pretty good, but pretty demanding through the whole thing.  He goes with Ryan everywhere, but insists that I hang out with him in the night.  The baby sleeps really well, and usually just gets up once to nurse, but Mo?  Oh no, he wants mom and wants her now...and for a long time.  He also insists that I play horses and cars with him if we are together that day.  He will tell me to put the baby down so  that I can pretend with him.  The other night, I heated up a roast for dinner...I was disappointed in my family because this was the third time I had reheated this roast and no one was excited about it.  They started heating up frozen pizzas and I frowned.  Mo ate his plate of roast and potatoes with zest until I noticed that he was just taking his potatoes and smooshing it into the eye sockets of the spooky skull that I had sitting on the counter top for Halloween.  He and Chlo like to be lions, and frogs, and puppies sometimes.  He is hilarious really.  He desperately wants to rope cows though, and I frequently get hit in the head with his rope.  Ryan needs to spend some time teaching him how to rope.  It is obviously in his blood.

     Another week and a half flown by!  We are so busy that the days just slip through my fingers.  We are settling into life down here in Nevada.  Most of my kids are enjoying it a ton better than our life in Utah.  I am loving having a place to call home, and I am still trying to remember not to get too spoiled.  I took so many blessings for granted, and want to always be grateful for the things that I have.  I love, this house a ton.
     The kids are settled into school, and I take Mo and Chlo down to sell and pick melons every day.  I have never been a "working mom" and yet this is the closest thing to that I have ever been.  I really hate that I am not at home when my children walk through the door from school, and yet most evenings are spent all together in the rows and rows of Bundy melons.  We probably spend more time together now than we ever have.  I wish I could say that we are always getting along in the rows of melons, but this would be a lie.  The kids get fighting about the dumbest stuff.  All of the older ones have learned how to operate the skid loader and of course they all think that they are the best operator.  I must admit that Jazzerz operating skills leave a bit to be desired, but hey, I don't even know how to turn the engine on.  I have no room to talk.  They fight about who is helping, and who isn't, and who is digging around in the dirt instead.  Rooshkie wants to take melon breaks pretty much non-stop, and Oak usually finds some reason why he needs to make a run to the ranch house.  Overall though, it has been great.  I love working together.
     Mo's little imagination is starting to run wild.  I love watching him grow.  He is really quite hilarious.  He is a different animal every time I turn around.  My least favorite of these is when he chooses to be a frog.  The frog has a tendency to use me as a spring board.  I have told him and told him that my large and pregnant bump is really not to be used to spring from, but he does not seem to get it.  He is a donkey quite often too.  When he chooses to be a lion, he insists that we shoot him with an imaginary gun so that he can tip over in a dramatic fashion.  He will whisper "shoot me..." it is then expected that a loud gun shot cracks and he tips to one side or the other.  He also seems to think that he is a good hair dresser.  The other morning he motioned for Jazzerz to bring her comb so that he could fix her hair.  I cannot say that he does a good job.  Anyhow, Jazz is a good sport to allow him to mess with her hair at all.
     Chlo and Mo were playing a game of "brains" the other day when they somehow bumped into each other, and Mo split his head open.  Brains is a game that is played when they chase each other around and yell "brains" at other just for grossed out laughs and spookiness, I guess.  It gets pretty wild.  I am glad that he and Chloee play pretty good together these days for the most part. 
     Chlo has also learned how to drive a truck.  She ended up driving the truck in the hay field the other day for the men as they gathered the hay.  She informed her dad, after this task was complete, that he doesn't ever have to drive again.  She would like to be his chauffeur.  I umm don't think so Chlo.  I am surprised that you are even able to reach the pedals enough to drive in the hay field...sorry.
     It has been so long since I had anything to do with the business world.  I am sure that Chlo and Mo hinder business a bit with my melon customers.  Almost all of my customers are snow birds that live in Mesquite.  I am seriously kind of jealous when I hear where some of these people are from because many of them live in a beautiful area all summer, and then come down for our mild winters...seriously the best of both worlds.  Anyhow, their cars are usually new, spic and span, and they usually pack boxes in their pristine trunks so that the melons don't roll around and get ruined.  What makes me frown, is when I go around to help them load their melons, and Chlo and Mo have crawled in their trunk, and are hiding in their boxes.  This cannot be good for business, even though most of them get a kick out of it.  It makes me frown....especially when they are looking particularly grubby, which is just something that happens at the ranch.  They eat melon, then they roll around in the dust, and the results are not always pretty.  Anyhow, I have been amazed at little Chlo and how much she pitches in now that her siblings are gone most of the day.  She can really pack some heavy melons, and she is always right there to help.  Nice little Chlo.
    

     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.

     Another week, and this one hotter than the last.  I am getting used to it though, and I find at the end of the day, I appreciate the little things way more these days.  A breeze, a cloud, ice water, all of these things make life enjoyable.  The other day, I woke up to clouds, and I seriously got so excited.  I loved having a break in the dry heat.
     We have been squashing bugs in the mornings, and then the kids bottle feed the calves.  My girls have also plowed fields, and helped haul hay.  Oak has been busy helping Grandpa fix water lines on the mountain.  All of these experiences we wouldn't be having if we would have just stayed in Cedar.
     We had to go to Cedar for a few things.  I believe that I mentioned Chlo's pet moth "Feathers," anyhow, her pet moth was not in her jar.  This upset Chlo immensly.  I am not sure if the moth was ever really in the jar.  All I ever saw was grass...anyhow, Chlo was convinced that we had had a break in.  Yep, someone broke in, and took nothing besides Chlo's beloved pet moth.  This crime was about more than Chlo could deal with.  She wanted me to deal harshly with the guilty culprits.  I tried to convince Chlo that Feathers was loosely flying free, rather than captive to some evil moth thief.  Poor Chlo gets so attached to her pets.
     We attended a baptism on Fridee night.  This was a gal that Arden. And I gave a Book of Mormon to, back at stand off time.  I was so excited that she had met good friends and sought out the missionaries.  She looked like a new woman.  The spirit totally transforms people.  She was beautiful before, but the spirit had enhanced her beauty, and she looked all lit up.  It was an incredible experience.  Unfortunately, the kids didn't cooperate too well.
      First of all, I would like to say that this building that she got baptized in was awesome.  It was two stories and elegant in every way.  It was a new institute building.  Anyhow, the little kids were intrigued with exploring all of it's exciting possibilities.  Mo was creating all kinds of fear within himself.  Part of the building was dark and he was wanting to warn all within the sound of his voice about all of the possible monster possibilities.  He was shouting to his dad about the monsters because I am sure he wanted his dad to come and rid the place of the monsters.  Needless to say, it was not very reverent.
     It was also apparent that Chlo had been rolling around in the grass somewhere.  She was looking a little haggard at best.  I finally let them just roam around so that I could listen a little to the baptism.  I just checked on them frequently.  At one point, they were rolling around under the tables in the foyer. Naughty aughty to say the least.  In spite of them, I was so thrilled at the light and beauty that had overcome this young woman.  To be involved in her baptism, even in a tiny way was such a blessing, and made me so happy.  We have had so many blessings as a family lately.
     We have also had some people that produce "Sister Wives" interested in possibly doing a reality show.  They came to a dinner with the family the other night.  I don't know what they thought, but a few funny things happened that evening.  Bailey's baby jumped in a pot of water and tipped it over.  Katie's baby guy fell off of the teeter totter airplane, and split his head open.  It was sad.  Cliven glued his head back together.  That would have worked out fine and good, but he rubbed the glue, and then his eye.  Yep, he glued his eye shut.  Not good.  It was fixed, but we were all pretty nervous about him for a minute.  Another sad tale; one of the new puppies got his head stuck in a mason jar.  This took some work to save the pup.  Luckily, Stetsy is great at that stuff.  Also, Jazz was ticking one of the bulls off and he was pawing around ready to charge.  Luckily Stetsy once again came to the rescue.  This happened while they were bottle feeding calves.  Yep, interesting evening as always.  Yep, another busy week at the ranch.