Worth 28 Minutes!

The fall colors are so beautiful, so on Sunday morning I talked Wes into taking a few family pictures. I promised him it would be under 30 minutes and he didn't believe me, all he kept saying is "watch...were going to be late for church"..."it's probably going to rain"...etc...you know all the things husbands say to get out of family pictures. But believe it or not we left the house, took all these pictures and we back inside within 28 Minutes!! I kept my promise. I like how the pictures turned out, but I was hoping for Fall colors, instead I think I like the B&W better, what do you think?

We are Family...A Collection of Pictures from our Easter Egg Hunt!

Let's get it started....

Well it's time to get another thing STARTED......Tye is our first at everything and now we have officially entered the world of Cub Scouts. Wes & I were very disappointed when we found out that they church does not have a scout program because there are not enough boys, so luckily we found a program through school. At first I was really Leary about him joining the pack but Wes took him the first night and I took him on Tuesday, and he was really excited and there are quite a few boys from his class at school. They learned about nutrition and cooking and he had a blast, they learned how to dutch oven tin foil dinners, so tonight he is going to START teaching us how to make them. The problem with Tye is he wants all the badges right now, he looks at his book everyday and STARTS naming every badge he wants. (Let's hope this keeps up until we have his eagle!)
I have to keep Tye busy or he goes crazy, nevertheless we START many different activities throughout the year. Right now he is also in flag football and his doing so well. He's all into "juking" as he calls it. He's always plays Quarterback or Receiver but last game they put him in as running back and he did AWESOME! He even scored a touchdown and a 2 point conversion, his goal for today his to catch a kick off return and run it back for a TD...he's watching too much sports center with his dad! (Maybe a bad habit to START) This is also the first week he hasn't been golfing, that's his new love, he's practicing for when Uncle Travis comes to visit, he's determined to beat him! I've also signed his up for Basketball camp which he will be STARTING on Saturdays in November and the league will START in December. With Tye it's not a matter of what time of the season it is, it's what sport is next. If he could playing everything at once he would. Everyday he's ready to START something new, even last night it was 8:00 and he talked Wes into STARTING a game of Battleship, I watched for minute and realized, he has the energy to START anything any where, any time and any place...I'd love to have his ambition!

(I just had to come back and edit my post because He Did It! Today at his game he finally had his first kick off return for a touchdown, he also threw a 15 yard pass for a touchdown and ran it in for a touchdown, I know I shouldbe more humble but it's so fun to see your children do so well, what a great day!!!!)

All About Me!

This is for all of my single cousins and my beautiful sister who say that their lives are boring and they have nothing to blog about, once they read this they will change their minds, repent and start updating their blogs on at least once a weekly basis. Here are the truthful facts about my current life.
1. I could spend my entire day sweeping and moping my kitchen floor.
2. I broke a 10x13 glass pan this week while I was trying to bake an omelet, the bad part is that I stepped on a huge piece of glass and cut my foot SOOO Bad, it seriously hurts like a mother, in fact I only wore slippers 2 days this week. (I even went to the grocery store in my slippers but it doesn’t matter because I don’t know anyone.) Tye was pretty funny because (well Wes wasn’t home when it happened so I started screaming for Tye to come help me) and after I got the glass & blood picked up Tye said Mom, I’m pretty proud of you for not crying. Everyone that knows me knows I have a 0% pain tolerance.
3. I am in desperate need of a hair cut.
4. I started working again, not because I need to, but I get board and can’t stand daytime TV.
5. Everyone complains that I don’t answer the phone, but what everyone doesn’t realize is that I am on a different time zone, so when everyone calls I’m usually asleep. If you would like to get up a 4 in the morning, I would love to answer all of your phone calls.
6. I totally miss real Mexican food - the kind are old workers use to cook so me, I also miss the fresh salsa.
7. I have been trying to call counselors for my new calling and it’s impossible when you don’t know anyone in the ward.
8. Luckily, I’ve started making new friends. I had a few women from the ward invite me to do some things this week so it looks like my loneliness is coming to an end.
9. I can’t stand Tye’s teacher at school - she just isn’t loving or nice - and it drives me crazy, I'm even thinking about putting Tye in private school.
10. I have a current obsession with muffins - I hope it comes to and end soon so I do not have to go up another pants size.
11. My mom is flying in next week so Wes & I can go to the International Dairy Expo - don’t ask what the heck I’m going to do there, but it’s a free trip so I’ll probably go around and pick up all the free samples. I’m just so happy that my mom is coming, she’s staying for a whole week!!! Thank you Mom!
12. I went shopping this morning with Wes to get the supplies for our new barn, which is almost done -so much for the contractor saying, “Oh I’ll have this done in 3 weeks - “ What ever buddy, Wes is totally annoyed with them. Anyways I found some cute winter boots with fur around the top - they were pretty expensive so I didn’t buy them, but the more I think about it, I deserve them.
13. I am so excited because I love Fall, my new shows start on TV, the weather in unbeatable, the fall colors are incredible and currently the grocery store is selling Pumpkin Muffins, and I'm loving trying new recipies, so far no complaints from the fam!!!
14. I’m putting one of my all time favorite dance songs on my play list so you can dance a little while you read all this nonsense, the title is a Michael Jackson classic - Don’t stop till you get enough, so there are my words for you today - (this song still takes me back 15 years when I use to "jam" at the church dances...)

Paradise City

Paradise City is our boys new favorite song. Last week the boys came off the bus singing the chours to the song, which is "Take me down to paradise city where the grass is green and the girls are pretty...." They sing it CONSTANTLY, it's almost annoying (they won't sing at church, but they will sing this song...I give up)

Anyway, I decided to get on playlist and let them actually listen to the song. I pulled it up so they could hear, Tate just sat there for a minute, then started bouncing his head around, (starting to really rock out with the song), but then turned to me and said. Mom, the singers are horrible, but the words are PhEnOmEnAl! Needless to say that I'm glad a song from the 80's is popular on the Wisconsin school bus, that means in 10 years they might actually be playing songs from this decade. At least it's Guns & Roses, Right???

Busted!

I totally lost track of time, Wes just came in the door and said aren't you ready? It's 7:14, my kids aren't even awake yet, we have 10 minutes to get everyone out the door, take them to school and make our 8:00 meeting... Wes looked at me, then the computer and said "Oh, brother, please don't tell me your blogging..." Opps.....Busted!

Exhausted

What a week, I'm so tired! Yesterday was the day of our Open House at Wes's work. It turned out fabulous, but I'm so tired. I love throwing parties, and this was even greater because I was given a great budget! Everyone was so shocked that I could throw such an "event" together in such a short amount of time. What they don't understand is that I have thrown so many ward parties with such a small budget that I;m almost an expert. It's amazing what kind of party you can have when you can actually spend money! I would upload some pictures, but I still haven't even unloaded Wes's truck from last night. (Susan Wise, remember these days?) The party was nice, I ordered a 30x50 white tent, with all round table and chairs. I had a Fall theme, so my center pieces were floral wreaths with sun flowers and in the center I went to a local pumpkin patch and bought over 25 pumpkins and put in the middle. It really looked festive. Around the tent I had about 20 different arrangements of mums also decorated with pumpkins. I'm usually not a mum fan, but the falls colors looked incredible. A nice part, is that all the food was catered in. (Unlike Morman ward parties where you end up with 6 different types of jello salad with who knows what thrown in to spice it up!) It was just nice to have all the food brought 30 minutes before your party and then cleaned up when it was over. We had a great turn out and Wes's boss couldn't have been more happy, so I'm so glad it all turned out so well.

This will be the first year that Wes's & I won't be throwing our usual Fall Halloween party, we have no one to invite! (except our animals) It's o.k., I hope by next year we'll be back on schedule - or at least have some friends here in Wisconsin. We have been here for 5 weeks and really the time has gone by so fast.

I'm lucky it's Friday because every Friday Wes picks up the boys from school and takes them golfing. Tye is turning into the best little golfer, he loves it. Tate on the other hand loves the little black pencil that they give him to keep score. He is such a funny boy. Even yesterday at the party I rented a bunch of golf carts to give people tours of the ranch. Tye of course was trying to figure out which golf cart went the fastest and Tate found a stick and was running around pretending to load cows on a truck and using his stick as a "poker" to load the cows. His imagination is out of this world. The other half of the time he was on the fence pretending to ride his horse...he is something else. He is so happy in his own little world.

Today I'm going to clean my house, (because it's a serious mess) probably read everyone blogs, have Wes take me out to lunch, and hopefully find a new pedicure spot. I haven't had one since I left AZ, I'm going to have to tip pretty good to who ever has to work on me feet. (No comments Karry, although you should post a comment about the first time I got a pedicure, even though it's embarrassing it's a pretty funny story, it makes me laugh thinking about it).

I forget to mention this Bishop came by last night for a visit...you can all imagine what came. We are all ready talking in church on Sunday so now it's time to be put to work. Wes and I were teasing each other on what we were going to get as callings, but both of us were wrong. I'm excited, a little humbled, pleased, and thankful. I'm going to be the Young Women's President and Wes will be teaching the 13 & 14 Sunday school class. We haven't been sustained or set apart, but since no one in Wisconsin reads this blog, I figured it's o.k. Maybe they won't sustain us and we'll get off the hook, but it usually doesn't work that way. I haven't even thought about talking in church on Sunday so I need to do some serious work on my talk today. I hope everyone has a great weekend - I'm going to relax!!!

P.S. I'm so tired that when I did the spell check the whole entire screen was yellow - I need a massage and a pedicure!

One Chance

I asked Tate to go outside this morning and unchain the dog. He looked at me and said "It's cold outside." I said "So...go unchain the dog." He said "I'm going to give you one chance, you can either be a good mom or a bad mom, what's its going to be?" Needless to say, I unchained the dog myself...

Our new Puppy

Since Taylor does not have any friends out here in the country, she spends most of her time with me or playing with our new puppy Molly. However Sunday night Wes & I were laying in bed and as usual she crawled up to "Nuggle". Pretty soon she started crawling around, barking and pretending she was a puppy. I was watching T.V., so not paying too much attention to her when pretty soon she crawled up right to my face, looked me straight in the eyes, gave me the most serious face, and then licked me! Yes you read it right, she full blown LICKED me! I said "Taylor, that's gross!" She said "No it's not, that's how puppies KISS" then started laughing hysterically. I have to admit, it was pretty funny and I started laughing too. I've got to get this girl some friends before any more bad habits arise!

Last Year's Halloween Photo Shoot

Enjoying the Ride

My friend Tara has this quote on her blog and I love it..

"Most putts don’t drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is like an old-time rail journey--delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride." Pres. Gordon B. Hinkley

I have to admit, if I would have known how many phone calls I would have gotten by writing mylast blog, I would have wrote weeks ago, just to talk to you all! But I never regret having those days, I always realize in the end that I have everything in life that really matters. The gospel, my sweet husband, beautiful children, fabulous freinds, wonderful family and in the end, all I could hope for.

O.K. I've been serious enough...now for a catch up. On Friday after I had been in the house all day and realized that I go crazy if I have to stay in the house and have nothing to do I put Taylor in Suburban and headed to Sams Club. I have to say I usually drive my Volvo 85% of the time, thanks to the current gas prices, but going to Sams requires the Denali. I took an old country road instead of the freeway and it is BEAUTIFUL here, the fall colors are just starting to turn and after living in AZ for the past two years this place looks like a paradise. Suggestion - never go to Sams Club on a Day your not thinking very well - it's a dent in the pocketbook. Halloween is coming, I loved walking through the Halloween isle, buying trick or treat candy, (which I bought plenty and then realized who in the world is going to come trick or treating at our house - we have no neighbors, the only friends my kids have our animals, moles, frogs, horses, lots of cows and our dog molly- I don't think they'll be ringing the doorbell!!!) The funniest part was when we got to the costumes - Taylor would have won the indy 500 for as fast and she got out of the cart when she saw the collection of Princess Dresses. I wish I would have had a video camera. She was seriously picking up each dress, dancing around with it and then throwing it into the cart. I probably sat there for 20 minutes, just let her talk to herself and let her believe that I was actually going to buy ALL those dresses. There was a lot of tears shed when I made her only pick one. (but I got the tears to stop with a promise for Icee when we left.) I am going to try and talk my kids into being Batman, Superman and Wonderwomen for Halloween. Every year Tye is some sort of Ninja person - he has been the blue stealth ninja- the ice man ninja etc...I'm hoping to break that mold this year, but he's so stubborn he'll probably won't give in. Tate on the other hand has been a little of everything, Darth Vader and last year he was a gladiator - that costume was incredible - (Nikki I'm saving it for Jake - it's great) Taylor of course has been Snow White, and Cinderella - this year I'm going to push for Wonder Women, but in all reality I'm sure Belle or "Sleepy Booty" as Taylor calls her may win.

What a Makeover!!!

Can you Believe it! I love it, however I can not take any credit -Darcy at Graphically Designing designed my new blog - what do you think? I'm so excited and happy to have something so fun. Everyone needs to check out Darcy's work... www.graphicallydesigning.com ... She is so talented and fun to work with, I can not thank her enough!!!!! I just wish she could do something like this with my body....

Finding Yourself

O.k. to understand the emotional mess I am in you have to go to my playlist and listen to the song by Brad Paisley called Find Yourself. That song rings too close to heart so many times in my life. I go through this every time we move. I remember going through this when we left Ogden to move to Cedar, Cedar City to Move to Shelley, Moving from Shelley to Arizona, and now Arizona to Green Bay. The first couple weeks I'm usually so busy unpacking, putting a new house together and all the work in finding new schools, wards etc... Then after about 5 weeks I start realizing that I'm not going back to where we left, I no longer have friends, I'm totally homesick for family and I'm back to square one. It is so hard. I wonder why life has taken so many turns for Wes and I, and I also wonder when it will all stop and I'll actually have a place to call home for more than a year and a half. Then, I think about the friends we have made in the many places that we have lived and it's been worth it. We are so lucky to have so many dear Friends. I just hope that I'll be O.k. in Green Bay, and we'll find what we were sent here to do so we can come back west, come back closer to home.

P.S. There cutting down the corn fields - I love the corn fields, we are surrounded by them, and it is so beautiful, and now they are disappearing. I don't mean to be so dreary, but it's raining, I have a cold, I have no one to complain to, Taylor has the flu, and there cutting down my corn fields...the one thing about this place that I love!!!!
P.S.S. I don't want you all to write back and say I make friends so easy...I have all the friends and family I need, I just need to win the lottery so that I can make a compound and have everyone I love footsteps from my door...plus I could wear my robe and rollers all the time, and save a lot of money not buying clothes. Plus you would all understand why are trees grow so fast, becuase my boys don't like to come inside to use the bathroom. The boys got off the school bus a few days ago and went straight to the tree, they are only footsteps from the house, but no - they use a tree. I think it's a Davis thing....were all girls on the Rathje side.
P.S.S.S. I must thank my sweet husband for taking all the kids to school this morning so that I could sit here and cry and not have to explain to them why Mommy's sad, and then watch them start crying and then also make Wes go through the agony of trying to figure out what's wrong with me....I can just cry, get it over with, and be smiling again before everyone walks through the door. Please tell me I'm not the only one who does this!

Oh Taylor...

I have to admit having the boys in school has drastically decreased the noise level in our home. However having Miss Taylor around does not decrease the excitement. We have now moved little Taylor's world into the space connecting our dining room and kitchen. I thought Taylor would love having her own room, but she can't stand to be in there alone. Since she has to be doing what I'm doing, we have moved her kitchen, Precious (her baby), her horses and her computer into her own little area. Since I spend 80% of my time in the kitchen, she is always right here with me. Her latest thing is that she is the Mommy and I am Sissy - she'll call me Sissy and If I don't answer yes mommy, she throws a fit and tells me we have to practice again. The other day I was taking a bath and she walked in and said "Sissy we have to go to the store, I said O.K. Mommy, she walked away, then stuck her head back in the door and said "And I'm driving!!!"

She also has to help me cook what ever I am cooking. On Sunday she was actually in Tate's room playing horses with him and I had to make cupcakes for this thing for church. Wes& I were in the kitchen and I said Watch This. I plugged in the hand mixer and turned it on and sure enough you'd a thought a fire alarm went off, here comes Taylor full blast, pitter patter little feet yelling "I help you Mommy..I helpYou" This time it didn't go so well. I put her on the counter by the sink becuase she has helping me put the water in the cake mix. I went to the fridge to get the eggs and when I came back and looked in the bowl, Taylor had added more water....however she didn't use water from the tap, she had reached down and scouped up some water that the dirty dishes were in, so there were soap bubbles in the cake mix. I made a mistake and quickly yelled at her, and that is one thing you can not do to Taylor - she is so sensative. She started crying and felt so bad, but I felt worse, why do I yell.... instead of realizing it's just a stupid 1.00 cake mix - and that she was just trying to help, I sometimes loose track of what's really important. Trust me, it's only about the 100th time I have made that mistake, but luckily she forgave me and we made two more batches of cupcakes. Children forgive so much easier than adults -

But I can't help but thinking "Oh Taylor...what would my life be without you...."

The Ice House

The Ice house is a little ice cream parlor close to our house. It's actually really nice, and decorated super cute. A couple nights ago we decided to go get some ice cream. What is neat about the ice house is that the front of the store there are tables chairs etc...and then in back of the store there is a drive thru. They also have this fabulous porch off to the side with a bunch of lounge chairs and horse bouncy things - as you can imagine - were always outside so Wes can ride the horse bouncy things (J/K - are kids love them).

Well we arrive order as usual, We head outside and Wes and I start visiting while the kids run around and play. About 10 minutes later the lady that served us poked her head out the side window and said can you come inside for a minute. I walked inside, and she said - "Your kids came through the drive thru and there trying to buy more ice cream"... I stood on my toes, looked over the counter and sure enough there are my kids standing at the back window, ordering more ice cream. The funny part was when they saw they saw me they just started laughing and Tye started waving my wallet in the air - they had stole it from my purse!!!! All I could do was laugh...they are creative.

What was so ironic is that after I told them no more ice cream they sat on the curb of the drive thru trying to come up with ideas to get people to buy them ice cream. They were thinking of starting a band with Taylor singing. I just kept thinking - O.K. they are my kids because when I was little Mom use to make me sit in the car while she went into the grocery store. We had a station wagon that had a back window that would roll down. What Mom didn't know is that I would hang out that window and Sing and as people would walk by and make Karry say "Throw Money...Throw Money...hoping we would get enough money to go buy some candy"

It's funny how life turns on you.... It's great that I haven't lost my sense of humor - with my kids how could I!!!!

Our new Boy at School....

I can't belive Tate's at school! Yesturday was his frist day and he did fabulous! He was so excited, and he looked so cute!!! He wore his new clothes and finally I let him wear his new Vans - Which we have been saving for a month. He loves them because they came with 2 sets of laces! His teacher is Mrs Pennings and she seems to be a good teacher. He came home, opened his new Batman backpack and pulled out a puppet of a racoon and said "Meet Chester", then he sang me a little song they learned about kissing! It's darling, Tate kissed me hand and said, when ever you need a kiss you just touch your face with that hand and it's a kiss from me! He is so tender and loving! I love this little boy!!!!

Please tell me I'm not alone!

It is only 9:56 Wisconsin time and this has been my day so far.
1. Woke up 5:00 started cleaning house from the night before.
2. I heard the boys waking up so I find them in the bathroom, both of them using the toilet at the same time - which spells disaster. Tate is rubbing his eyes and not even paying attention and Tye is yawning rocking back and forth. I'll let you imagine what the seat looks like. Karry - you would pass out.
3. Tye and Tate SERIOUSLY think they are going to win $10,000 from GoGart yogurt wrapper. Everyday they talk about what they are going to buy etc...(Although last night I did ask them if they won if would they buy me anything - Tate said he'd buy me a new dress, thanks Tate) However this morning as I started picking up the house I started noticing how many gogart wrappers I found, then I kept finding more and more, and worse I found ones that had only been open and not eaten and then worse I found ones that had been open and stepped on - I was livid. I have yogurt all over my house - this household is no longer participating in the gogart sweepstakes, or any other sweepstakes that just cause me more work!!!
4. We are getting are drive way chip sealed so at 5:00 this morning I had to help Wes back up the horse trailer so that the construction workers could come. I told him, wait here, I'm going to put the trash outside so you can take it to work. We live so far out in the country that we don't have trash service - Gasp all you want, I know it sucks. But what really sucks is that Wes forgot the trash and our new Puppy Molly found it. When I went outside to take Tye to school - Trash everywhere. Lucky me, well it doesn't stop there because Wes found a dead mole on our front porch and it was in one of those sacks that the dog spread all over and when Taylor was picking up the trash she came across the mole - she screamed like crazy and now she won't walk on the grass because there"oles" in it.
5. Things got a little quiet while I was doing laundry - silence in this house spells D A N G E R! Sure enough, Taylor was in my makeup, had all of tate's horses lined up and she "was making them pretty" I was irate because she was using my expensive make up and Tate started crying because they "were boy horses...and now there ruined" it has been morning.
6. One last laugh, I was inside folding laundry and Tate came running in and said you've got to see what's in Molly's fish tank. Two hints, Molly is our Puppy, and second as far as I know Dogs don't have fish tanks. I was thinking "Tate what in the hell are you talking about" - (Sorry it's been a rough morning) anyway when I finally get outside we find a dead spider in Molly Water bowl - so if you ever need another word for water bowl - try fish tank!!!

I'm off to clean the toilet.....Lucky Me!
P.S. Taylor just said "Mom are you laughing at that computer again" - Judas!! (She is totally Wes's Daughter)
P.S.S. - I'm not attaching any picture, because you can only imagine how pretty i look after what I've gone through this morning- I'm still in my yellow robe, left over make up and hair in a knot in the back of my head! Maybe I should try on Sissy Princess dress to top it all off!

Tye's Baptism

Tye & I finally got all the Thank you notes from his baptim finished -now I'll be calling most of you to get your addresses! But below is a slide show of some of the pictures I took. It was such a great day for our family, mostly because everyone we truly love was with us! Thank you all so much for coming - it meant so much to us!

Pictures from Tye's Baptism

This is my Tate!

Yesturday Taylor had a big spill - she fell down the entire staircase...Tate heard all the noise and came up from the basement and said "What's all the racket?" I told him, Sissy just fell down the stairs, he looked at me and said "Oh, I just thought you were jogging!"

Tye's at School!

For weeks I have been dreaming about the day Tye would be back in school, and yet this morning as we took him for his first day of school I kept thinking about how much I am going to miss him. Tye is smart, strong willed, determined, full of energy, loves to tease and strives for success he is also so competitive. He's so naturally athletic (like his dad), and he's so mature for his age, (like his Mom j/k) he is very kind hearted, but HAS to be busy. If he's not busy he has the power to drive me completely in sane, he knows every button to push to get me livid! While I have been counting down the days for him to go back to school, this morning as I said goodbye to him, tears streamed down my face. I tried to hide them, but Tye said - "Mom, I'm going to be OK," The reality is, I know he will be be O.k.- it's me I worry about.

He woke up at 6:15 - (school does not start until 8) took a bath, requested eggs, bacon and french toast for breakfast, (which he ended up not eating because he was too nervous) picked out the new clothes he wanted to wear, wore his new shoes, combed his hair, we packed his lunch and out the door. He was funny because he ran back into the house and when he got in the truck you could smell Wes's cologne - he is so particular on how he looks at what he wears, but he is so handsome! I love that little boy - he's just not that little anymore. Wes gave him a Father's Blessing and we talked to him about being kind, respectful..the usual, and off he went.

What am I going to do when he leaves for college, goes on a mission or even gets married, I can't even imagine - that boy will always be my baby!!!! I think I have already said 5 prayers for him today, and yet in all reality I forget who's son he really is - I'm just glad he's mine for now. I wonder if Heavenly Father hurts this bad every time he sends one of his sons or daughters to earth - Tye gets off the bus at 3:46 and I'm going to be waiting!

I figured it Out!

Now you can post comments, I'm getting better every day, my next step is to create a playlist - I'm an official blogger!

Karry - awesome "Monkey" E-mail!

Disco Ma & Pa

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