A few firsts for my little Trooper!

At 5 months, Troop gets a few firsts....

His first haircut!

and his bottom two teeth!!

Here is a before shot of his hair cut. His hair was getting a little funny. He had a very thick tuft of hair right at the front of his head. He was also strutting long locks that curled around his ears. Yes it was high time this little stud received a hair cut.

Can you see the curls around his ears. They were adorable and cute in a very comical way.

Jathan the professional stylist.... or he looks professional in a very straight way :)

I think he was getting a little bit of hair in his eyes because he kept rubbing them. Poor little guy!

Did I say Professional?? Oops... definitely not!

When Jathan thought he was all done he combed his hair forward and then thought otherwise!!

Can you believe all of this hair came off of my 5 month old baby??

What a little stud! I can not get over his new do. It is so dang cute. It makes his eyes look so big and sparkly!



After a long day... looking handsome as ever. He is all tuckered out. I mean really, it has got to be hard being that cute :)

A Cabin New Year

Zanna, Troop and I headed to Montana for the new year!

Jathan stayed home to bring home the bacon :(. We missed him!! But had such a great time.

One of the many reasons I love going to the cabin is my little girl gets to run about with her cousins playing to her hearts content. This trip she may have had a little too much fun though...

She got into things EVERYWHERE!!

Poured fabric softener onto the carpet and onto a chair. Poured one of my eye shadows all over the carpet. Smeared my mascara all over the back of a couch. Poured detergent all over the floor of my parents room... luckily it was powder detergent and not liquid. Christian caught her in the act of squeezing mustard into the sour cream. Carolynn found a bottle of Clorox in the middle of the room (thank heavens for child proof caps) that could have been very bad! The list goes on.... I mean when they say terrible two's they don't exaggerate! This child is resourceful! She is quick as can be and can get to pretty much anything.

Well other than all the crazy things Zanna got into it was a fabulous trip!

Here she is strutting her snow clothing..

We headed out to go sledding (is that mascara under my eyes from the day before?? Yeah pretty sure it is!)

Zanna froze her buns off so that did not last long. I am pretty sure it was 2 degrees outside.

Cameron, Bergen and Troop hanging out on the couch in their jammies. One of the fabulous things about the cabin in the winter... jammies all day long! (nice new bright blue couch eh?? All the furniture at the cabin is hand me down's from the family)

Zanna... trying to figure out which wall needs a little extra color!! ;)

Mikelle is always doing fun things with the kids. Below she has Andlein and Bergen preforming acrobats on her hands and feet.

Zanna is loving the show... and getting an idea...

there she goes....

A little help from Andelin and Voila!!!

Mikelle and Bergy

Jamming out on the piano!

I am starting to realize that I need to start taking pictures of more than just my children. We were there with so much family and I didn't take pictures of hardly anyone!

We brought in the new year by playing card games around the table... Pretty exciting eh??... I wouldn't have it any other way!!

CHEERS TO 2010!!!!!

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.