Christmas Morning

The presents under the tree...

The stockings......

The excited little girl (we are in the process of moving, hence the boxes)...
The aftermath.....

Christmas morning can be so hard for a little girl....

And Christmas night... getting comfy in Troops Bumbo

The winning photo of the season...

Christmas morning was so fun. Zanna had a blast opening her presents and playing with her fun new toys. She got a cute little food set, a tea set, an apron specially crafted by her mother, a dolly and some clothing.

After opening presents at our house we went to my Parents house to open presents and have our annual Christmas breakfast of Eggs Benedict. SO DELICIOUS!! This has been a tradition for as long as I can remember. Started by my Grandma Ruth.

We then headed to Jathan's parents, opened presents and had some delicious hot cocoa.

It was a great Christmas and so fun to celebrate the season with our two little ones.

Christmas Time!

Christmas time was MAGIC for Zanna this year!

She absoluetly adored seeing all of the Christmas lights and all of the Christmas Trees.

I could not keep her hands off of the decorations.

Her favorite stuffed animal was a cute little snowman Grandma Alta gave us.

She took him to bed with her every night.

As we would drive from place to place in the evenings Zanna would say "Hi tisole lights. (tisole=Christmas... ha ha)

She made Jathan say hi to them too. If he missed even one house... ONE house, she would say "Daddy! Hi tisole lights" Which he then had to say as well.

Here she is playing by our Christmas trees.

We spent Christmas Eve day with my family at Carolynn and Corby's house.

My parents handed out our super cute Christmas jamies.

We drew names with all of my siblings and did a "Home Made" Christmas.

It was really fun to see the gifts everyone made for eachother.

Jathan... always pulling a funny face.

My Happy little man! He is the smiliest little guy and I LOVE it!!


Troop and his ladies! Avery and Grace.

Zanna opening her present from Great Grandma and Grandpa Latimer

She LOVED Gus Gus, the mouse that came with this cinderella barbi. She is giving him a little kiss.

Here are all the home made gifts. I made Jared a belt with his name engraved in it. Western style. Christian made Amanda a frame with pictures of all of her children signing I LOVE YOU! Hannah made Corby a leather and beaded bracelet. Joshua made Carolynn a chest with glass knobs. Jathan welded Christian a bike stand for two bikes. Mikelle mad Joshua a collage of pictures of him and his kiddos. Carolynn made Melissa a shirt with a beaded flour. Amanda made Jathan a barnwood picture frame with a picture beautiful pic of Hebgen Lake. Gretchen made me a frame with pictures of my little family. Jared made Gretchen a barnwood frame with a picture of Huckleberry bushes. Corby made Mikelle a picture book of Mikelle with all of our family and Melissa made Hannah a jewlery box with cute glass knobs.

Then we went to the Garretts and had a delicious Christmas Eve meal of Crab and Steak!

Afterwards we exchanged gifts and opened our Christmas Jamies.

The girls had Zebra jamies, so cute.

The boys got comfy fleece jamies.

Zanna would not stay away from this gingerbread house Meagan made.

I don't blame her. It looks delicious.

Troop hanging out under the tree. This wrapping paper kept him busy for a while!

Zanna with Gus Gus again.

A beautiful Christmas Tree.

Milli is a professional decorator and the hals were decked!

And more fun pictures.

The Buffalo Hunt

For those of you who don't know... Jathan put my name in for the Buffalo hunt (I had no clue) and I drew out.

I was a little less than excited considering I was 6 months pregnant when we found out we would be going on this hunt.

These once in a life time tags are quite expensive... we drew out in April in the middle of finals so Jathan was not going to work because of his huge school load.

We got on KSL and sold a horse, a goat, our scout and Jathan's RC Racer...

We were then able to afford our bills.... it was CRAZY!

I had a bit of anxiety getting ready for this hunt. I was just so nervous about my little troop and was not sure how this was going to play out. But everything went very smoothly, thanks to all the help we had! My mom and dad came, my Mom helped with little troop, he went all over the mountain with us! Ray and Aaron came to help but Aaron was sick so Ray spotted solo. Brad and Rebecca came and Reba watched my little Zanna. Brad and Dusty were the best little spotters out there! Dusty sat up on a ridge forEVER!!! and found me a nice large bachelor bull. And Jathan was the best hunting coach you could ask for!

So this was the ride up to the tippy top of the ridge where Dusty spotted the bull. That was a LONG ride!

It was the most crazy terrain. So rocky and rugged and there were burnt trees everywhere.

This was not even to the top of the ridge yet. That Mountain was SO HIGH!

So here he is! My big bad Buffalo. I have never hunted before and I was really nervous. It was such a crazy feeling, it was exciting and exhilarating sneaking along the ridge of the mountain. We were about 240 yards away from the Bull and the guys got me all ready to shoot. He was facing us so we had to wait for him to turn his head so there would be a larger area for me to shoot at. Once he turned his head they gave me the go ahead. I steadied the gun, aimed and shot.... HOLLY CRAP! He was down with in like three seconds... I felt so bad I wanted to cry... but then I was so happy I got him in one shot... so many mixed emotions.

He is a huge beautiful creature. And I look like a regular ol hunter. Jathan offered a very nice prayer for the Buffalo.

Me and my Pappy! I was so happy he could be there with me.

The crew! Dusty is in all the Camo on the left. He was an amazing help! He knows those Mountains like the back of his hand.

My dad getting the horses ready to take the Buffalo off the mountain. Dusty took me back to the truck where my mom was tending Troop on the 4wheeler. Then he headed back up the mountain to help. They had to use the horses to get the Buffalo to the 4wheelers, then the 4 wheelers took the buffalo to the truck which then took the buffalo to camp. That was a six hour endeavour for all these men.

Before I headed off the mountain Dusty spotted some super large bucks. Here we are checking them out.


Another shot of Mi Papa up on the mountain.

Dusty on the 4 wheeler.

Brad on the 4wheeler, heading up to help us out (when I say us... I don't mean me... I got to go back to camp with my little 3 month old baby while the men did all the dirty work!). He was spotting in another area when we called him in on the radio to let him know I got one.

Zanna and Andelyn playing in the creek along our camp. This creek had area's with quick sand... We had to watch them closely. They had a lovely time wandering around our camp. Zanna had a bit of a rough trip. She decided to put on the grumpiest pants she could find and about drove me to pulling my hair out.

Jathan put a line of Buffalo blood across his forehead. This is a Navajo ceremonial action.

Check out all this meat. We have about 250 lbs of Buffalo meat now.... where on earth am I going to keep it all??

The Dad's!

Jathan, Brad and Ella.

Me and my little Trooper! I absolutely love this little guy. He did so fabulous. He slept in my sleeping bag with me every night and didn't make a peep (other than to eat)! He really was a Gem! I don't think many three month old baby's can say they have been on a Buffalo hunt... well mostly because they can't talk... te he!

Me and my honey and Raisin!

Zanna playing about the mountain with her trusty wheel barrell.

My Mom and Reba in deep intellectual conversation.

Grandma taking Zanna on a little bareback ride. Zanna LOVES the horses. She always wants to be riding or petting one.

Cute little friends.

It sure felt great to get home and get me and my kiddos bathed and sleep in our warm, clean beds.

We truly had a great time. Everything went so smoothly and I was very grateful we got our Buffalo on the second day there since Jathan had to get back to school the next day.

I can't believe I shot a Buffalo.... It was a good experience and I feel like I accomplished something great. Especially since we will use every part of that Buffalo. The meat, the fur will be a rug, and many other parts will be used for Jathan's family's dancing. I don't know that I will want to hunt many more animals... but now I know I can which can if I ever need to.

Flashback Halloween

This Halloween was so DIFFERENT.
I am usually so stoked to get all dressed up and get the little ones dressed up.
But instead we went shooting (getting ready for the buffalo hunt) which took up five hours of our day, but it was super fun!
Then I ran errands like a mad woman...
Got home at about 8:30 and then just hung out with my little family.
So since I was so boring this year I decided to post pictures of a Halloween when I was a little more fun!
Here are some photos of when my hilariously funny friend Hillary got us all some awesome costumes and transformed us into amazingly good looking lumberjacks... ha ha!

Me, Jarica, Hillary, Anne Marie and Katie

Katie (Left) actually made a really good looking man... in a pretty sort of way. She also resembled the lead singer of Foo Fighters. I slightly resembles a perv.... And Jerica's (middle) eyes crack me up!

Hillary (Left) looked like a cute little leprechaun and Anne Marie (Right) looked like someone from the Bible.

One of he highlights of this Halloween was dancing up on some of the ladies dressed in lingerie at the parties... so funny!

Amazing!

We may have forgotten we were dressed as boys as we were hitting on this dude. ;) And I am packing some serious junk in the trunk!!

Taking off the beards! They itched like the dickens!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN...

And now onto November... May it be filled with 70 degree weather!