two too cute boys!

Tried to get some cute pictures of the boys for calebs fathers day present but my battery was really dead and Ryan was grouchy! But I did get a couple of them....

Here Ryan is Ticked....

This is his grouchy face (and if anyone has a cuter grouchy face I haven't seen it!)

This is Lukes idea of the perfect picture, he loves to pose for a picture!

Rock Hounds

We had a nice picnic with some pretty fun company while helping them look for 'pretty rocks'. The boys had a great time and so did the dogs, so long as someone kept throwing the stick in the water!

Noftsger Hill Inn & Happy 8 years to us!

For our anniversary we found this cute bed and breakfast in globe (of all places!) It used to be an academy in the early 1900's I believe and it was so neat! We slept in one of the class rooms and they all have chalk boards still in them and people write on them when they stay in that room it was really neat! And in the morning we had the most delicious breakfast EVER! I totally want to go back and see what all the other rooms look like!

I think our bedroom (not including the bathroom) is bigger than our whole house!

Gila Valley Temple open house

I was lucky enough to get to go see the temple open house 2 times! The boys and I went with my parents and then Caleb and I went down for our anniversary to go see it.

We got stopped for blasting or something both times! But Luke and grandpa didn't mind! Not sure what they were looking at but it was cute.

Me and my boys in front of the temple

This is what I LOVE about traveling with Grandma! She knows how to keep boys happy for the long drive!

Easter

The easter bunny stopped by our house this year. He also stopped by grandmas house too and so between conference sessions all the grand kids got to find them (and the easter bunny hides them HARD at grandmas!)

This was a cleaver idea that I did NOT come up with but I thought it was too cute not to try. The night before easter we planted some special jellybeans and in the morning these easter lollipops had sprouted! Luke was pretty impressed ;)

Packard Grandkid Pictures

Ok so this is the second time we have had the very talented Tiana Hunt come and take pictures, once was for our family pictures when Ryan was just tiny and now that Orin is going to be heading off to Idaho for school soon my mom wanted pictures. And this is what we got with 10 kids! And let me tell you it was NOT easy! It was freezing cold,the day before and the day after were atleast 10 degrees warmer!

This was the favorite

can you find 10 cuter kids out there?

Hide and seek, can you see all 10?

tallest to smallest!

Riley, Tyrel, Aften, Egan, Luke, Paydon, Blake, Ali, Ryan and Sadie

I have Tianas number if anyone is interested! She is so much fun to work with and SO affordable!

Cate Cousins

It seems like we havent been to the valley in forever and then we go like 3 times in 6 weeks! Crazy! The boys sure had fun getting to play with some of their cousins.

Layton, Ryan, Luke, Abby

(calebs older bros kids)

Ryan and Grandma Cate

cheezy smile!

Ryan and Daniel

(calebs cousins little boy. I TRIED to smuggle him home but she wouldn't let me)

Ryan and Danny

2 of the lovingest boys i have ever seen!

While we were there the last time we went to the Game and Fish Expo. It was really cool and I forgot to get my camera out of the car dang it! But while we were there the boys got to pet an 19 foot python, (yes I touched it and GROSS!) and they also got to pet an alligator! It was SO awesome! I loved touching it I had no idea it would feel like it did.

We had planed to go see the easter pagent but found out it was only in spanish that weekend, bummer. So we just spent time with Calebs parents and a few friends who happened to be visiting. It was good to visit with old friends and we got to go to the airport to pick up a friend of Calebs dads who I had never met but he was awesome and had a great time with my boys (and watching airplanes!)

I also had some time to realize that either I am the crappiest mom on the face of the earth, or that it is really easy to over look the sweet simple things in life and dwell on clean house or uneaten food. I hope I always can appreciate the cute little boys I have and never let a day go by that I don't take the time to watch them play, be silly, make a mess and just be BOYS!

St. Patricks Day

I have to admit, as I have before, I love to dress up my boys! And I love to do silly things to make memories with them. Like green eggs and sausage (we didn't have any ham!)



And green mashed potatoes and corned beef (YUM!)

I have no picture of green anything for dinner because some husband, who shall remain nameless, got tired of green food.....and hid the green food coloring. I was not happy.

Consolidation

Ok so Snowflake has wanted to consolidate with Taylor for a while now, not sure why. The flyer I got in the mail talked about how much Snowflake wanted to help Taylor out and blah blah blah, they are such good helpful loving people....yeah so I was wondering why I was seeing all these signs all over Taylor saying no to consolidation! So asked a couple people, one of which is my VERY outspoken land lord...Now why doesn't Taylor want this 'help' that is being thrown at them? Kinda wierd if you ask me....I smell a rat, not sure what it is, but something is going unsaid cause last I heard last night was that the count in taylor was 900 + for not consolidating and 200 something to consolidate! (total reverse in Snowflake). Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Snowflake but I tell you what, the politics in Snowflake would be looking a good tar and feathering in the face if the pioneers who settled this valley were here to witness this mess! But, I am with Taylor on the vote for this, and I am SO glad it didn't go through. I think we are doing just fine being neighbors and sharing what needs to be shared. My thoughts on life.....

fun in the snow

She is a dumb dog but atleast we found something she is good for!

poor ryan had the coldest hands!

Bikers Soar for Wildlife

This year the bike run was on Valentines day and we were lucky enough to be able to make the trip to the valley so Caleb could make the run! He has been able to ride all but the first year but we still attended, he just didn't have a bike! It is a lot of fun, and One day, I would really like to make the run with him, It is just hard because we have 2 boys and it is on a sunday so thats alot of work for someone! Anyway, they had a blast it was 80 degrees and BEAUTIFUL!

getting ready to leave the house....boys wanted to go too!

Caleb and his Dad

My Valentine and me, this was our valentines date apparently

One of the vendors was nice enough to give Ryan one of her balloons, it kept him busy for quite a while until he laid it on the rocks and laid on top of it and it poped!

Ryan and his Cousin Abby, cute little girl!

I was such a slacker with the camera this trip, I got to go clear over to queen creek to visit a friend it was so much fun to get to see her and her sweet kiddos who we haven't seen since last year when we came for the bike run!

I should probably stop doing that because it makes me miss her so much after I leave!

Who doesn't LOVE a wood burning stove?!?!

Lady dog LOVES the stove, she will lay in front of it and get so hot she is panting but won't move...she is a smart one ;)

In our house this is the ONLY sorce of heat. Its actually kinda nice, we don't have any utilities besides electricity and we can keep the house as warm as we want!

both boys LOVE to help get the fire going. Here is ryan blowing the fire


and these are the bellows that Caleb made. He is pretty handy, I'm thinkin about keeping him around :)

Cute little story about the artwork on the bellows. Caleb had to draw them out on the wood before he cut it and while he went to go get his saw Luke and Ryan decided that since Daddy drew on the wood, they had to do what he did too! Daddy wasn't too happy but to this day he has not sanded it down or painted it. I think it gives them character!

Oh! And with a wood stove comes the tremendous blessing of a CHAINSAW! Caleb has wanted one for a while, even thought he thought it was super funny when we first moved up here he would hear people bragging about how big their saws were and how much wood their truck can carry.....now he is one of them! We were really blessed to get a really good deal on this saw and have gotten free wood cutting permits for ceder (which lots of people don't like to burn but I LOVE IT! It smells so good!) And we have had lots of 'memories' going out cutting wood already!



Oh and this is for the last post, both boys love the bed in the kitchen!

The Cates move to TAYLOR?!?!!!

For Christmas (or rather new years) I got the best thing EVER! Some friends of my parents have a little house known as 'the cabin' that they rent out to family and friends. It just so happened that Caleb was working on cleaning up a fire in the home of the guy that was renting the cabin so we called and asked if they had anyone lined up for it after he moved out and lucky for us there wasn't! He had actually already moved out when we had called about it but hadn't told the owners yet....So for new years we got to move in! It is such a cute little house. Its only one bedroom but that one bedroom is HUGE! Anyway, we love it so much! We really appreciated the friends that opened their home to us for a couple of months while we figured out what we were doing after our house sold but it is REALLY nice to have our own space, our own schedual and our own dogs to deal with! No more dog poop in the house!

The side of the house, the window you see is the kitchen the part by the ladder is the living room and bathroom

This is the backyard. Luke is in LOVE with the 'treehouse with no tree'

our living room as you walk into the house....as you can see with the toys all over the floor, it is very lived in!

Kitchen, and yes you can see Ryan sleeps in the kitchen. His bed was too big to fit through the door of the bedroom and we were just too tired to take it apart and put it back together so there it has stayed.....but he actually loves it. When I cook dinner he wants in his bed so he can watch and when I cook breakfast in the morning he just rolls around in his bed and jabbers at me!

The view from my kitchen sink, not so fond of the laundry in the kitchen but it works!

Another view from my kitchen sink.....little stinker :)