5 years...what the heck?

The kissing picture is right after we got engaged September of '05, the 2nd one is of us at the Fouger Family reunion this summer in July almost exactly 5 years later. Yesterday Michael and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. Time surely does fly by. We celebrated by going to Cody for dinner and a movie. Dinner was at the steak house (can't remember the name) and I had an 8oz sirloin steak and black shrimp and a HUGE baked potatoe. It. was. delicous. Michael had a sirloin as well with sauted mushrooms. After our dinner we saw True Grit (it was about time Michael got to pick out the movie). I actually liked it...sorta gruesome, but hey, it was a western! :) Happy Anniversary Michael. Next year Cabo San Lucas, right?? :) Here are some of the reasons I am grateful Michael is my husband:

*He is a great father and has so much patience

*He takes his job as provider seriously and always works hard for us

*He is a fabulous cook and really likes to do it!
*He isn't judgmental

*He is easy going

*He compliments me

*He is humble

*He is crazy about our kiddos

*He loves the gospel

*He listens to me talk and talk about silly things

Happy anniversary Michael!

Trial

Michael and I found out yesterday that some of our Laramie friends lost their 5 year old girl in a skiing accident and the mom is apparently still in critical condition. They have 2 other kids. This family invited us over for homemade mexican food right after we moved into the ward and they were our good friends from then on. We were neighbors so we would watch our kids play at the complex playground together and visit. She talked me into running my first 5K. I watched their little girl (the one that was killed) when they went to the hospital to have their 2nd. They were a blessing to have for neighbors and I am heartbroken that they have to deal with this.

It seems like there has been a lot of tragedies like this lately. I've been following the blog of a young couple whose baby girl fell in a canal and drowned, and then my cousins little girl passed away and now this. It makes me feel weak and vulnerable because you realize all the sudden how fragile life is and that Heavenly Father allows his children to suffer so they can learn. I pray for these families and hope they will find peace in the gospel.

par-TAY!

Last Friday my man turned 4! I thought he was old enough and had enough "Friends" to have a friends party so thats what we did! 3 of our anticipated guests turned up sick at the last minute so we called for some emergency backup! (cousins who were going to come to the family party that night). Good thing they came because they made it a great party. We love all our great friends and cousins.

Stetson loves Mickey mouse club house so that was the "decor" (invitations, table cloth, plates, etc.) and we just played games and decorated cupcakes. The games consisted of the balloon game, which was fun but the balloons kept coming off their ankles, pin the tail on the donkey and Stetson's all time favorite, duck duck goose. The boys all had a blast and I'm glad we did it.

Stetson got great presents and was excited and happy all day. His first party was at the CRC when he got to take cupcakes and share his special day with his friends there, and then it was the friends party and then the family party that evening. Happy birthday big boy! At 4 years, you love:
~to watch Mickey Mouse clubhouse
~eat cereal and fruit snacks
~having your mom read books to you
~going to story time
~going to see grandparents
~having friends over or going to a friends
~playing with cousins
...other fun things
Stetson loves to go to his gma Asays and whenever its time to leave, he asks to "take something home." Not sure where he go it but he is spoiled by his gma Asay who he loves and usually takes fruit snacks
Stetson is getting great at dressing and undressing himself
Stetson loves his family, laughing, learning and doing new things and we love him!

Some stuff

On Monday for FHE we had a lesson about Jesus teaching in the temple and then made Christmas sugar cookies. It was a special night with lots of good memories. Michael very carefully made his own original sugar cookie resembling the "Flying A" (Asay brand) and Kandace not so carefullly grabbed it and rolled it up as soon as Michael put it on the cookie sheet. Hilarious. This girl is crazy. We love her so much..the way she smells, the way her cute tush wiggles when she runs away from us buck naked, the way cries, the way she smiles, all of it. We've been working on potty training for a couple months now. Lets just say I'll never start them this young from now on, but I don't want to turn back now that she's come this far. Ugggh.

Stetson turns 4 tomorrow! He's very excited for the upcoming festivities and I'm excited for the festivities to be over!! :) What a loser mom I am. Good thing I love him so much.
The Christmas season has brought me a lot of joy the last couple years. The meaning and happiness of Christmas has shifted for me over the last few years--after childhood and once the magic sort of goes away, I actually felt sort of empty during Christmas for a few years, because after the presents had been unwrapped and the tree was put away, I just felt like it was over. Now for some reason I've realized that Christ being born is the greatest gift we could ever receive, and better yet, its the gift that keeps giving, all year long. The gift of Jesus Christ comes with forgiveness, hope, peace, and an enabling power that can make me more than I could ever be without him. I am truly grateful for him and for the time of year we have to celebrate his birth and life. I love him and I am grateful that every day I have another chance to be better.

Among other things, I have been dreaming of going somewhere like this. Michael and I went here for our honeymoon and I'd love to go back. I don't even need to go there, just somewhere warm. I spent the first 12 years of my life in California and we spent all our summer days swimming and playing in the sun. I remember getting out of the water and finding a dry spot on the cement around the pool and just laying there listening to the splashing water and kids' voices with the heat of the sun shining on my back to warm/dry me. Life was good. Oh to be a kid again. I miss it. However, I remember that during the winter months in SR I wished we could have snow because then it would be a "Real" Christmas. When I woke up with frost on the grass and roofs it sort of looked like snow and I would pretend that it was.

My little shepherd

Stetson got to be a shepherd last night for our ward Christmas party. He was very excited about it and talked about it the whole way there. He's usually on board for anything we throw at him and gets excited about it--sort of like when I told him he was going to be the UPS man. He was so excited and talked about it NON STOP (still asks almost every day what I'm going to be for Halloween next year) even though he didn't even know what the UPS man was. :)
We are loving the Christmas season and the chance we have to rejoice in the birth of our Savior.

November

Well November is almost gone and its gime to document it. Its unbelievable how fast time is going. I remember thinking how Halloween seemed so far away and now Christmas is the next holiday. My superstar bball player nephews (a.k.a. Cannon & Cole) started their season and we have loved watching them play. They are truly gifted and I wish I could have gotten more of the Simmons' skills. :) The weather has all the sudden turned FRIGID!! It came as a shock and I wasn't ready for it. I'll never be ready for it. I don't like Wyoming winters. There, I said it.
We had a great Thanksgiving yesterday. We had 1:00 round one with Asay's, then we got to go to Brenda's mom and dad's for 4:00 round two. I know I'm blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful people among many other things. I was thinking of things I'm grateful for and realized that one thing I've always taken for granted is being surrouned by family all the time. Some people live in loneliness and I realize I've been blessed.
Today was the traditional "day after Thanksgiving work cows with Asays" day where Stan's brother Clark comes and they all preg test the cows and then we have a great big delicous lunch prepared by Jan.
Stetson & Kandace have loved playing with cousins but I'm ready to get back to a more normal routine where I'm actually home long enough to do some things around the house and the kids can get their naps.
Tonight me, Leanne Winterholler, Jaran & Shan Baker, Cannon & Erin played vball in the annual turkey tournament. We lost our first game, won our second. Its so fun to play volleyball again.

viewer discretion advised

Some exciting (to us) stuff has happened. Last week Stetson said his "k" sound is perfect clarity and mom was so excited she took a picture to document it. The CRC is so wonderful and has had such a good influence on him. He puts his finger on his neck when he says the sound because thats how they teach him at the CRC. AND, just when I say I'm glad my husband isn't a hunter, guess what? Yeah he goes and gets a buck. Well I'm totally o.k. with it. He had fun and we got some meat out of it. I'll need all your good vension recipes. We cut/marinated jerkey that night and I baked/dried it in the oven the next day. Didn't turn out quite as we expected but we're learning and we'll get better at it.

Story time

Before Stetson was even 1, I started taking him to Story Time when we lived in Laramie. Partly because other moms invited me and partly because I thought good moms took their kids to story time, and I wanted to be in that category. So I took him and it seemed silly to be there at times. He'd run under the chairs, under the tables and sometimes distract the other kids, but we kept going and pretty soon he started to like it. I remember when I was pregnant with Kandace, we went EVERY time because I knew these were my last days with him alone and I wanted to give him lots of extra attention and fun things to do. I remember it being less than pleasant to drag me and my fat belly (and Stetson) to the library every week in the frigid Laramie winter.

Well now I look forward to story time as much as he does. Not to listen to the stories, but because I LOVE children's books. We check out 6 or 7 books every time and I love coming home and reading them. I can't wait to see what they'll be about. Children's books are fun because they take us away from reality for a couple minutes as we read about exciting places, different people and fun messages. I spotted "You are Special" last time and snagged it because I knew it was a good one. I cried when I read the last part. The story is about a little Wemmick boy who has dots on him because the towns people put them on him. The wemmick feels bad and goes to the woodcarver, Eli, and Eli tells him "Remember," Eli said as the Wemmick walked out the door, "you are special because I made you. And I don't make mistakes." I LOVE THAT! I felt a little more confident that day because I remembered that Heavenly Father made me and that it doesn't matter what others think of me, because Heavenly Father loves me, and he doesn't care what others think, and either should I.

The day before Halloween

Since Halloween is on Sunday this year, we had most of our festivities today. It was a WONDERFUL day. Michael has had the last 4 days off so its been nice to have extra help and to just have him here. I LOVE HIM! The first event was lunch at pizza hut with gma Dorothy, gma & gpa Asay, Jared & Jacob. We were celebrating the end of the beet harvest, which is definitely worth celebrating. After lunch, we did some errand at Pamida and took Jacob home with us and he helped Michael pull the tarp off our garden so we can burn it and till it up. Jacob is the man! After that, Stan & Jan took the kiddos to their house and Michael and I raked leaves and I carved a pumkin. by myself. :) After that we went to Stan & Jan's, got the kids dressed, collected our first round of candy and started off for somesome trick-or-treating!!

First stop at great gma Asays, then Verda Von Delight, then gma Dorothy's. We were sad to miss gpa Simmons and Brenda this year because they were at state volleyball in Casper. After that we dropped Michael and Kandace off and Stetson and I went by ourselves to finish off our night. It was way more fun than I anticipated. It has been SUCH a joy to experience holidays with Steston. Its indescribable to watch his reactions and interpretations of things from year to year, and I think this year he finally "GOT IT." He ran from house to house (everyone thought he was such a cute "Mr. Brown" said trick-or-treat without cues from mom and just ate it up. HaPpY hAlLoWeEn!!

Halloween cookies and carnivals!

This is definitely a picture overload because we got our new camera and I'm excited about it. This was the day (10.29.10) after the bucking incident so it was a little hard to scrape up the energy to make Halloween cookies with Setetson but I'd told the CRC that I'd bring some, so we did it anyway and it was fun. Stetson had lots of fun decorating them, especially with my cool frosting gun. After Stetson's party at the CRC, we got ready for the Halloween carnival in Cowley. After we got to Cowley and realized it wasn't until TOMORROW night (whoops) we decided to take the kids to the carnival in Lovell for Headstart. They had a big blow-up bouncy thing that Stetson loved and other booths that he got prizes at. After the carnival we got an $8.99 large pizza at Pizza on the Run then went to the Lovell vs. Burns football game.

Buckin bronco

This was a day of surprises. We got our new camera, so I've been taking pics like crazy, I subbed for a couple hours in the afternoon at the elementary in Lovell and when I came home Michael invited me to go "help" (I use that term loosely) him and Jared help bring a bull in that got lose. We let Stetson ride with Michael for a while and that was fun until Michael decided to get off and lead the horse for a while. So Stetson is riding the horse alone, which is no big deal (we thought) and then the horse started dancing around and Stetson started sliding off and screaming. I did pretty good 'til right at the end right before Michael was able to rescue him off the horse. YIKES!! After that Stan and Jan came and got Stetson, Michael and Jared and I went on our way to get the bull. The scenery was BEAUTIFUL especially during this time of year and I was glad to be there. A few times along the ride Jared & Michael told me to stay put so I wouldn't get in the way and the horse I was on hated it because he wanted to be where the other horses were, so it was hard to keep him in one place. Well we were on the home stretch and Jared & Michael once again told me to stay by a gate and wait while they got the bull. Once again, the horse wanted to be where his buddies were and he was very obviously getting more fed up with the dumb girl riding on his back. I tried my hardest, but the horse kept dancing around, whipping his head here and there and finally he bucked me OFF. OUCH! I was SO sore that evening and night. Right after it happened Stan came and took my horse and I drove the ranger home. When I got back to Asay's I tried to hold it together but when I took Stetson to the potty while we were there I just sat on the tub and cried like a baby. That night Stan & Jan took Stetson to the trunk or treat for their ward party and Stetson told everyone his mom was crying in the bathroom. One guy said "Well get used to it, thats just what girls do." LOL Well I feel lots better now and I'm thankful for my great husband who takes care of his sissy wife with no complaints (most of the time).

Grandma Asay was in the Halloween spirit!

baby girl in the tub

After I took Kandace out of the tub I got her dried off and dressed and ran to the family room for a sec and when I went back to the tub she had climbed back in. Awesome.

Here's a little update for our journal:

Since Michael has become a certified med tech, his hours have been cut down to about 36ish hours a week, so I've been subbing on his off days.I have mixed feelings abot it. Its good for me to get out the house once or twice a week and do something different. I like feeling like I'm a part of something outside the home I guess and the extra money will come in handy. I subbed at the HS/MS last week on brown and gold day. I had an old vball lady grizz shirt that was brown and gold that I'd been saving for something, I didn't know what, so I wore it and felt pretty cool about myself. I was still feeling like I could pass for a high schooler until Michael burst my bubble and said I definitely could NOT still pass for a high schooler. Anwyay, it was fun to be a part of the festivities and to see some of my nephews who I LOVE!! Can't believe my oldest nephew will be a freshmen next year. What is HAPPENING??? LOL

Tuesday I subbed for the preschoolers which was SO fun. I love that age and it was fun to get a feel for what Stetson will be doing next year. My little nephew Adam was in one of the classes so that was fun.

I'm still taking my online classes (the 2nd one started this week) and its getting old. I'm really having to force myself to do the homework. I don't know how I took 21 credits when I was a real college student (I guess I didn't have 2 kids then, either:) I'm doing my 6th observation today of the PE class at LES. Gma Dorothy watches the kids and they LOVE it.

The fall weather has been BEAUTIFUL!~ I don't remember October ever being like this, but I'll take it. My flowers are still blooming and pretty so thats been fun to enjoy that.

We're excited for Halloween and all the upcoming festivities. Stetson is at the PERFECT age and is excited about everything. He's being the UPS man and we told him thats what he'd be like a month ago while we were waiting for his costume to arrive in the mail. He'd ask about it every day and we'd have the whole conversation over again, so when it arrived you can imagine his enthusiasm. Love moments like that.