Haying and Wyoming

Now that my parents have officially moved to Lyman, we are getting to spend a lot of time there and our kids are turning into awesome ranch hands. David and I decided that we want to make time spent here a priority and so we are planning to come twice a month and spend Sunday night-Monday evening with my parents. We've already loved the time that we have spent and are looking forward to lots and lots of Wyoming days in our future.

Not only do we love spending time with my parents and exploring the ranch - but there is a LOT of work to be done right now. A lot of work on the ranch and a lot of work inside the house. 

The past couple of years, Lydia has been coming with my dad and helping with Hay Season. She's a great tractor driver and hay raker. This year Austin got to join in on the fun (and by fun I mean work). My dad taught Lydia and Austin how to be a raking team - one going in front and one coming behind - and those kids worked and worked and worked. They made a huge impact and their help was invaluable. Caleb and Lucy were the "water team" and they drove around with me in the ranger to give water and snacks to those out in the field. It took several days to get it all taken care of, but it went really well. I value the opportunity for these kids to work hard, like real work, and I'm grateful for the patience and kindness of my dad as he teaches them and pushes them. 

It was a team effort! 

When we came back two weeks later, my dad took the kids to tend water and check on the cows. There was also plenty of time to play outside. 

Earlier this month we stopped at Walmart on our way to Wyoming and there just happened to be cowboy boots and flannel shirts. It makes me unreasonably happy that they are outfitted with boots and ranch shirts. I forced them to let me take these pictures and although it wasn't painless, it was worth it because look how great this ranch crew looks. 

As I said, there has been a lot of work to do - on the ranch (haying and water and cows) and also in the house. My parents are completely remodeling the interior of the house and over the days that we visited this month we tore out kitchen cabinets, hammered out sheetrock, prepped some wiring, and started refinishing the bathroom cabinet. It is looking SO good! I love it. (It will look even better when the walls aren't painted pink anymore, even though you know we loved Grandma's pink bathroom. 

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was so wonderful. Lydia let us sleep in until 7:30ish and then we got up to make breakfast for everyone. When breakfast was almost ready the three of us, Lydia, David, and I, went and woke everyone up. (Mainly Melissa and Jacob - everyone else started stirring as soon as they smelled the bacon.) After a yummy meal of Dorothy's  Sourdough pancakes, comliments of Grandma and Grandpa Knowles, we headed down to open presents.

Our pretty bright eyed baby in her Christmas pajamas.

 

We started with our stockings. David and I got some delicious treats (I even got my own box of raspberry sticks, which are my favorite). Lydia loved her stocking. She got some little rice rusks, a baby spoon, some food, and a little toy.

 

I saw this little stocking in Target and knew I had to have it. It is so sweet, it makes me smile every time I see it. It was so fun to celebrate Christmas with Lydia. Everything was a first for her - her first stocking, her first present, her first Christmas morning.

Lydia was in heaven. She loved all of the pretty presents and especially all of the bows. We helped her unwrap her presents - but for the most part she just enjoyed chewing on the ribbons. We spent much of the time trying to keep her from eating the wrapping paper (which she really really really wanted to do.)

All of us with our gifts on Christmas morning.

 

Ribbons, ribbons, ribbons....

Oh, and Tags. Don't forget those tags.

 

My family is so funny. This year as we were wrapping presents - the goal became placing the tags where they were nearly invisible to the eye. We would just cut out a piece of scrap paper and line it up with the wrapping paper to write the tag on. For example:

Can you see the litlte tree tag in the first photo?

My little brother Jacob knows us so well. He drew our name this year and we ended up with a bag of Spicy Nacho Doritos, a bottle of Cherry Dr. Pepper, a wooden "P" letter (hooray!), and a family size bottle of Hidden Valley Ranch. We laughed and laughed. There were lots of HVR jokes and such. We are well on our way to becoming spokespeople for Hidden Valley Ranch - we even get bottles of it for Christmas! All I will say is: "HVR! HVR! There's a Hidden Valley Ranch party in my mouth!" Thanks Baker, we loved your gift!

Some more pictures:

 

Lydia is such a little stander girl. The whole time we were opening presents, she was trying to pull herself up to standing on the boxes. She was so good the whole morning. We all made out like bandits: Things for our new house like extension cords, stud finders, levels and other tools for David, new makeup, jewelry, and lots of fun things for me, and loads of toys and clothes for Lydia. We are so blessed!  

It was the perfect First Christmas morning as a three person family.

Ranch

I have a whole list of posts to blog about (like Black Friday, and our house, and Christmas decorations), but today I thought that I would finally post this little gem that has been hanging out in blogger draft world for far too long. 

I give you, our little Ranch baby. 

No, she doesn't actually eat it yet - but someday she will. And, if she is anything like her parents 

she. will. love. it. 

 For those of you wondering why in the world I would post seven hundred pictures of my baby with a Hidden Valley Ranch bottle, or why I would be taking pictures of that in the first place... go back and read THIS post about how we number our Ranch bottles in hopes of someday becoming spokespeople for Hidden Valley. Rich and famous, here we come. One bottle of ranch at a time.

(p.s. Yes, we really have gone through 19 bottles of Hidden Valley Ranch since we have been married. Don't judge.)