When It Rains It Pours

It's been an incredibly dry year this year.  I don't think I ever truly understood how scary a drought can be until now. Living on a ranch and depending entirely upon the moisture Mother Nature gives us to help raise our crops has given me a new outlook. This last Sunday our ward, and entire stake, had a special fast for rain. Monday we got a sprinkle. And a couple other days we've had sprinkles. Today we got the rain we've desperately needed. And when it rains it pours!

You can barely see where I wrote on the picture below, but it's where the creek should be. It's down below that huge pile of wood. It goes through a pipe and under the road. Chris could hear from our house that there was a flash flood down at the creek so he came to check it out and this is what he found. The flood brought so much wood it must have clogged the pipe and the creek overflowed onto the road.

If this was a normal day and I had taken this same picture you wouldn't be able to see any water at all. That's how much water is flooding.

See the water above? Yeah, that's not the creek. :)

This is going to make a lot of work for Chris. Getting rid of the logs and wood and fixing all the fences that washed out but I'm pretty sure this is the one time he won't complain. We are SO grateful for the rain!

Catching Up!

I can't believe it's been nearly two months since I lasted posted here. It's been a super busy summer right from the beginning. It started with a trip to Idaho to say goodbye to my Grandma, then shortly after I got back I headed to Oregon for her funeral. The girls and I were there for two weeks (poor Chris) and had a great time.

I'd really like to just skip straight to now and forget about trying to "catch up" here on my blog, but this is sort of like a journal for me. And also, since I'm a slacker and never back up my computer, this is also where I'll have a few pictures if my computer ever crashes. So here's just a few from May. (June pictures aren't even on my computer yet! That's how far behind I am!)

 The girls have been in a dance class together since September and they had there recital at the end of the May.

They danced to "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and did a fabulous job!

 Grace meets her Great Uncle Lars (a.k.a. The Baron Lars A. Morgan)

 Grace meets great grandpa Morgan

 5 generations.

Saying goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa

 Hanging out with Dad

 Playing in the creek by Grammy's "condo"

 All the Shideler grandchildren together!

 Every Memorial Day weekend Barry's Sister and her family come to visit. Ava has a second cousin her age who is also an Ava. (pictured above)

 Barry and his sister Carol

 Back off girls! He's mine! I know you're digging the irrigating boots too!

Sadie gets a horse

She named him Pinto.

And that was May. June and July to (hopefully) come soon.

Rifle Rendezvous

There isn't a whole lot to do in a small town like Rifle to keep your kids entertained. So when something like a carnival comes to town its a big deal. This past weekend was the annual Rifle Rendezvous. We went twice. First on Friday for just a few quick rides and then again on Saturday. We bought the "special bracelet" on Saturday which allowed the girls unlimited access to any ride they wanted. They were in heaven. We spent 4 hours going on ride after ride and I am happy to say that no one got sunburned, injured, thrown up on, or lost.

I'll spare you the narrative on each picture as they are pretty self explanitory....

 Best friends!

(Ava and Sadie at the two front positions)

 This picture does deserve a little narrative. As most of you know Sadie is a little bit obsessed with horses. She saw these horses at one of the games and of course wanted it badly. Finally I asked the guys what I would have to do to win her the horse. He replied simply "just play two games". Okay, well what does a game cost? "$5" he says. WHAT?! Okay, never mind then. So I tell Sadie sorry we can't have the horse and she immediately starts throwing a fit. I'm trying to be calm and not make a scene (or make a bigger one than Sadie already was, I guess) but she is really hard to calm down and reason with when she starts one of these fits. Finally the guy at the game counter says "HERE. It's on me!" And he gives the horse to Sadie. I still can't decide if he was trying to be nice or just wanted to her shut up. In any case she got the horse and it went on every ride with her after that.

 And we finished off the day with snow cones.

 I haven't done a very good job of taking pictures of Grace but I am holding her more often than not so I just never remember.

Her favorite place....snuggled up on mommy's chest. 

What Ava Wants To Be When She Grows Up

Normally when asked the question "what are you going to be when you grow up?" Ava responds with either "a doctor" or "a police officer".

The other day in the car:

Ava: "When I grow up I'm going to be a momma."
Me: "Really, that's great. That's a good thing to want to be."
Ava: "Then I can hold my baby standing up. And I can let her suck on me!"

Ava has since learned that she actually CAN hold Grace while standing up (I never let her before so she didn't know she could) and now she asks to hold her all the time!  The "sucking" thing is definitely going to have to wait though.

The Big Surprise

The video my mom took when Sally and Krista suprised me with a visit!

Grace is 1 month old!

Easter

It's funny how one you have a new baby and are recovering and extremely tired something as simple as taking a few pictures can seem like a huge task. I'm really sad to say that these pictures are my only easter pictures and I never did get any of the girls in their dresses. Which is too bad because they looked so cute!

The easter bunny visited us on Saturday morning (no pictures of that either) and then Saturday night we had an Easter egg hunt with our cousins (pictures below). Sunday we went to church and had and Easter dinner at Grammy and Papa's house and I never snapped a single picture. I'm pretty sure it was a good Easter for the girls becaues last night in bed Ava asked "is it Easter again tonight?"

 Before our Easter egg hunt we had a pizza party...

 Then there was some trampoline jumping...

 Followed by the Easter egg hunt...

 And the girls showing off their loot.

Trying to get a picture of all four kids was impossible. Of all the ones I snapped this was actually the best.

Happy Easter!

p.s. sorry I didn't get pictures of the girls in their dresses, Dad.

Baby Grace - Newborn Pictures

I know most of you have already seen these on facebook so this is for my dad.