Two Hundred Dollars!

Last Wednesday I came home from work and laid Lydia down in the living room next to a bunch of books she had pulled of the book shelf to change her diaper. I was looking at the books thinking how I was going to have to clean them all up when I noticed a $100 dollar bill laying there with the books. All of the sudden I was glad Lydia had pulled the books off the shelf :) Way to go Lydia! I have no idea where the $100 came from but I'm grateful I found it and I immediately thanked my angels. I did call the babysitter just to make sure she hadn't lost it but she said no, it wasn't hers. I assume either Jon or I put money in a book sometime and forgot about it. Or, we bought a book someone had forgotten they had put money in.

Well, a few days later I finally got around to cleaning up those books and found an additional 100 dollars! This time it was smaller bills but still a total of $100. Wow, am I ever lucky! Two hundred dollars fell on my lap all because Lydia made a mess- way to go girl!

A funny side note: that night when I told Jon about the discovery of the 2nd 100 he decided to look through all the books to see if he could find more money. Unfortunately, he wasn't as lucky.

Camping with Grandma and Grandpa DeCoria

The kids and I went camping with Grandma Shauna and Grandpa Fred and Joshua over the weekend. (Jon was off hunting with his buddy). We went to Emigrant Springs which is pretty much inbetween our two houses. The weather was absolutely beautiful! I don't think we could have asked for better weather. Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to let us all sleep in their trailer, which was nice because the nights got pretty cold.

This was Hilgard Jct. State Park. We took a picnic down and walked around there and looked at the Oregon Trail markers.



Hyrum and Joshua had fun playing in the dirt and exploring the many trails around camp.

Lydia loved going for bike rides with Grandpa!



Hyrum and Joshua both visited Fred's Barber Shop while we were up there. We really appreciate Grandpa's willingness to cut the boys' hair. I find it quite interesting that growing up my Mom rarely gave us treats or let us have sugar. Now that she is a Grandma everything has changed. She loves to give treats to the Grandkids! Funny how that works...


We all had a great time going on walks around camp and also several hikes. There are several trails to hike on and lots of beautiful country to see.

Jon's Elk

Jon was sucessful with his bow this year and brought home a beautiful 6 point Elk. Way to go, Jonnie! He's excited about the antlers and I'm excited about the meat. The kids thought the head and antlers were pretty cool. I think Lydia thought it was a live animal, but she still wasn't afraid of it.

Silly Hyrum

Hyrum got a hold of our camera when he was suppose to be in bed one night and took some interesting pictures of himself. Jon discovered the pictures when he was downloading other photos and had quite the laugh. Let me tell you why he had quite the laugh. Back in August, Elise and Marae were here watching our kids while I was gone. One day Marae left her camera sitting on the counter while they were off some where. Jon came home for lunch and discovered Marae's camera. He took some pictures of himself very similar to Hyrum's self photos, which Marae later discovered. Marae posted a few on her blog, I'll have to get her to email me some and I'll add them to this post so you can all see how similar my two boys are. I guess like Father like Son!

Elk Hunting

After spending most of the month of September bowhunting as much as I could and taking a week off of work in early september I was able to stick one. Tony Strasser a fellow Chiropractor and long-time friend from school at Parker in Texas went up
with me on a Tuesday morning. We watched this dude chase off 4 or 5 other bull several times that morning. We tried a few set ups on the smaller bull that were unfruitfull. We headed up to find this dude with his harrom of cows. We did the usual paper, rock, scissors to see who would call, Tony got the honor and bugled this boy into me for a 40 yard shot looking for a fight. What a rush!



Tony showing us how he bugles in a fighting herd bull

Hunt On!

Here's a few pictures of this year's archery season. Jon took Hyrum out with him a time or two, which Hyrum loved. One thing I don't have a picture of is the berries that Jon loves. He claims they're the berries bears eat that give them enough fuel to hibernate all winter. Everytime he'd go out he'd come back with a bag or two full of berries. The kids and I tried them and weren't near as impressed. I guess when you're out there in nature with nothing else to eat they probably taste pretty good.






The weekend before hunting season opened we parked our trailer off a dirt road in a little campground and left it there all month. Our friends, the Stassers, brought their trailer up and left it by ours. This is a picture of Hyrum with the Strasser's girls. Jon loves having a warm trailer to sleep in and to take a warm, scent-free shower in each morning. I don't think he'll ever go back to tent hunting!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Lydia!

Happy 2nd Birthday to our dear sweet Lydia! We are so grateful to have you as part of our family, Lydia, and we enjoy each day with you in our home. We feel extremely blessed to have a such a beautiful happy daughter!


We spent Lydia's birthday at Carl's Jr. because we thought she would enjoy playing on the toys. We're grateful that Grandma and Grandpa Lindsey live close and were able to celebrate Lydia's birthday with us.


These are pictures of Lydia with her new baby doll. The baby sucks on the pacifier and cries when you take it out. It also came with a carseat, diaper bag, change of clothes, and a bottle. She loves babies and is such a cute little mommy! (Hopefully this baby will teach Lydia that only baby's have pacifiers and she'll want to give hers up....)

The following pictures are some I took of Lydia at home on her birthday. I just thought she looked cute :)

Mom's Vacation

I left for Florida Tuesday morning (26th) at 6am and came home Sunday evening the 31st. Almost 6 whole days all by myself! At first I was a little overwhelmed with the feelings of being all alone, but as the week progressed it became more comfortable. I attended a Practice Growth Accelerator course through Professional Enhancement Systems (they're tied with Ulan- the nutrition response testing Jon does). The course actually takes 8-9 days to complete so I'll need to go back sometime and finish. There are different modules in the course like basic study skills, communications, personal integrity, ups and downs, tone scale, etc. It's sort of like school. We have manuals we study out of and essays to write and then we partner up quite a bit and do drills. I didn't feel like anything I learned was really new to me only a different avenue of looking at what I already know. I enjoyed seeing if from a different perspective and I enjoyed working on fine-tuning my skills in different areas. I do feel like I have added new skills to my belt and I am more confident in certain aspects of life. There were a few new things I learned in the basic study skills course that will help me to be a better student and to be able to better help my children with school.

Unfortunately, I did not have the camera with me to take pictures of the beautiful beach. Typically I would leave my hotel about 8:30am and attend class until 5:00pm. Then I'd get some dinner to go and take it to the beach and eat. I'd stay there until the sunset, which is beautiful, and then head back to my hotel. I'd get back to the hotel about 8:30 shower, watch a little TV, read and go to bed. I had a pretty stress-free routine :) Big thanks to Aunt Marae and Aunt Elise for watching our kids while I was gone!! They are wonderful and Hyrum and Lydia LOVE them!!! Grandma and Grandpa Lindsey also watched them for a day or so while Jon went hunting. Family is the BEST!

Hyrum's 1st day of Kindergarten

Lydia insisted on being in the photo with Hyrum. She is her brother's shadow most of the time.

Hyrum infront of the door to the school. You'll notice Hyrum's clothes are part of the Fruitland School District uniform policy. They are only allow kahki or black pants/shorts; orange, black, white or grey solid colored colared shirts. There's a few other guidelines that go with such as no logos.

The 1st couple days the Kindergarteners meet in the cafeteria for treats and milk (juice for Hyrum) before school starts. I've had a few reservations about Hyrum starting school. Mainly the fact that he'll be exposed to things we don't agree with in our home. Like processed snacks (AKA partially hydrogenated sugar coming in the apperance of food), the push of pasteurized and homogenized milk (it's amazing how prominent "dairy" is in schools), and vaccinations. I'm sure there are many others that will come up, but for now in Kindergarten those are the biggies for me. It's not like we're perfect in our home as far as eating, but at least I'm aware of everything my kids are consuming and the junk food isn't on a daily basis. This whole school thing may be a little tough, but those of you who know me know that I'm not afraid to voice my opinion:)

Spring Creek

Hunting season brings about a need for pre-hunting season (AKA "souting season"). It appears that it must last for at least two or three weeks according to Jon. Thankfully, archery scouting season is beautiful camping weather so the kids and I don't mind at all that we must take the trailer and go to the mountains. Spring Creek campground is one of my favorite places to be when Jon is going to be spending most of his time out looking for animals. There is a really nice nature hike that the kids and I enjoy and Hyrum was big enough this year to hike the entire trail with me. The campground also offers nice shade during the day when the temperature gets a little warm.



Jon thought he'd try to watch the Olympics, but no such luck! Not enough reception.


Card playing is a favorite in our family. Hyrum learned how to play Uno this year and he frequently beats Jon and I.




These thimble berries are abundant in the campgourd and they ripen overnight. We snacked on these as often as we could. It is amazing the potency and flavor of wild berries verses conventional berries. Hyrum was always so sweet to share what he picked with all of us. One evening the kids and I picked quite a few while we were waiting for Jon to get back and Hyrum saved several his for his Dad. I, on the other hand, was picking and eating--no saving was going on :) Hyrum is such a sweet boy!


These are pictures of the kids and I on our hike. There's a loop trail and then an upper trail. We don't usually do the upper trail b/c it's pretty steep and hot, but Hyrum had been begging so we did it. Hyrum hiked all the way to the top without even whining. I was so proud of him!






I had to add this photo b/c Jon and I thought it looked hilarious of the kids running. Hyrum is chasing Lydia who's sporting only a T-shirt and diaper. They sure had fun running around playing.