Oh the county fairs!

I love this time of year! Ok let me clarify, I hate the hot weather, but I love going to the fair! The Cache county fair is nice and its fun to get out and we did, but its not like the Cassia county fair, because that is home and what I grew up with.


Any way we went to the Cache County fair and it was SO hot! The girls did really well though. We walked around and bought a few things here and there. Than we took Bailey over to the pony rides. I was on a horse when I was about 3, not alone, but I have grown up with horses and I love riding. Anyway my dad has a couple horses and one of their names is Poco, Bailey calls him Gato, which is cat in Spanish! Anyway as soon as she saw the pony's she wanted to ride them and kept calling them Papa's Gato. So for $3.00 she got to sit on a horse and go in a circle three times. It was kind of a rip off, but she LOVED it! I can't wait until my dad gets back and can take her for all the rides she wants and do it for free! After the ride we went and got dinner and than headed home.


The next weekend we went home for the Cassia County Fair. I haven't missed a fair since my mission and even though it wasn't the same because hardly any of my family was there we didn't miss it. Usually all of my brothers and sisters come home for the fair, I go to the Fat Stock Sale with my dad, and we all go to the rodeo together on Saturday night. Not this year. Anyway we got into town on Friday night and, my sister-in-law, Brenda kept Hinkley while we took Bailey into the fair to see all the animals. When we got there a couple of Turkey's were getting washed, she was totally fascinated! She wouldn't touch the lambs, loved the goats, liked the bunnies, and had a great time! Ben and I also saw some friends, its always good to go home.


On Saturday Todd and Brenda took Bailey to the fat stock sale while Ben, Hinkley, and I finished getting ready. We met up with them and Brenda kept Hinkley again while Ben and I took Bailey and Shaydon (Scott and Sommers son) over to the carnival to ride on the rides. Talk about a rip off! It cost us $6.00 for the two of them to ride one single ride. They only got to ride a few rides because unfortunately neither one of them was tall enough to ride any of the others. But we bought them hats, they were together and they had a great time. We had lunch with Todd and Brenda and then traded Bailey for Hinkley and went to Twin to pick up Scott.

We had a great time the doughnuts and scones were amazing as usual and it is so fun to have Bailey old enough to have and enjoy new experiences. We missed the rest of the family that couldn't be there it wasn't the same with out you!

Tick Tock

Well, I'm another year older! My birthday was a couple of weeks ago and I can't believe how fast this last year went. I have been so blessed to have had another wonderful year with so many blessings. My biggest blessing is of course that I was able to carry Hinkley for a full 9 months, that she was born healthy, and that she is a beautiful baby! I'm so grateful to have spent another year of my life with Benjamin, he is everything to me. I'm so blessed to be Bailey's mother. She doesn't say "I love you" she says "you to" and I love it when she randomly says "you to" to me! And I'm so grateful to my family and for their support, love, and the example of my parents. My parents mission hasn't been easy for me, but my life from the very beginning was touched my missionary work and I have such a testimony of the gospel that even though I hate them being away I know that they are doing what the Lord wants and needs them to do.


Ok enough being emotional! So the day before my birthday Lyndsie and Brenda came to Logan. Lou had to take care of some arrangements for school and attend some classes so they were able to be here with me. Ben usually tries to take a half a day off for my birthday, but wasn't able to this year so it was really nice to have the company. Brenda helped me start to hang all of my decorations, I really struggle at decorating, so it was nice to have her help.


I got two cakes, like I really needed 2, because Brenda bought one and Ben bought one. Brenda's was a cute water melon cake with 2 plastic ants on it and Bailey about had a melt down. She kept saying "EWWW Bug" and they had her almost in tears! Of course Bailey had to help me blow out the candles and was a little excited we had a hard time lighting them because she kept blowing on our matches. We had pizza and both cakes and it was nice to be with family since the parental units are M.I.A.

Ben got me a gift certificate for a massage! I can hardly wait to use it! He tried to be here as much as he could, he also got me a mirror that I wanted, a movie, and chocolate, some itunes songs, and his cake was a Cold Stone cake, I get one once a year and love them.


Also Hinkley will be four months old this week! I'm really having stress that my baby is growing up so fast!!! She is sitting in her bumbo and enjoys it, she is taking and yelling more and more, she is starting to roll, and has grown out of her new born clothes! I still rock her to sleep and I just try not to cry about how fast she is changing! She is such a happy baby and such a blessing to me. Bailey tries to get Hinkley to play with her, hold toys, wear hats, etc. Bailey has been such a sweet heart with her and is still very possessive of her. In fact she and I argue about whose baby Hinkley is!


Thank you to everyone who has been apart of my life this past year! It has been a crazy year, but a good one.

Family Time!

A couple weeks ago my brother Scott blessed his baby, Slater. Slater was born a month after Hinkley and is such a cute little boy. We wanted to be there for the blessing and so we headed back to Idaho. We spent the first night at my brother Todd's house, we had to drop off the dogs and by the time we got there I had spent enough time in the car. My sister-in-law Brenda had made the girls the cutest skirts, hair accessories and bought them onezies to match. Thanks Brenda!

On Saturday my brother-in-law, Dave, ran, swam, and biked the Spud Man. Congratulations Dave for finishing the Spud Man! After he was done we all had an amazing breakfast at Todd's then we loaded up the girls and headed on to my brother Eric's house.


We hung out for awhile there and than we all got ready and went swimming. Wendy and her family were staying with Scott and they all came swimming too. Bailey was a little nervous about the water, but after awhile she was pushing Ben away. Thanks Yvonne for those amazing floaties!

On Sunday Scott blessed Slater and did a great job. All five of us were there and it was hard not to miss my parents when we are all together! After the blessing we went to Scott's house for an amazing luncheon. Sommers and Scott had worked hard to make it really nice. Mom called to say hello to everyone while we were together and it was great to hear from her.


We tried to leave soon after we ate and I was SO not looking forward to the 5 1/2 hour drive back to Logan. We had to stop midway and pick up the dogs and Todd and Brenda fed us and sent us on our way. It was a great weekend, I loved being with everyone and I loved getting out of the car after that long drive!

The Browns VS The Yard

So when we bought our old house 4 years ago we had to do all the landscaping, which we did. It wasn't easy, fun, or cheap! So afterwards Ben promised me that if we ever moved (because he told me that we were going to be in the last house for at least 10 years, and we weren't even in it 4) and the landscaping had to be done that we were going to pay to have it ALL done. Well he lied! This is a picture of what we had to deal with. The dirt was pushed back the legal amount from the house and we had to do the rest. We were told we would need a 7 foot retaining wall! If my kids were to fall off of that they would seriously injure themselves. We weren't told about our landscaping issues until the house was well underway so all we could do was deal with it!


In March my brother Todd came down with a semi hauling a loader to move dirt around to see what he could do for us. Thank heavens for Todd and that he loves my kids. He wasn't happy with the landscaping issue and knew that it wasn't kid friendly. He spent two days leveling and moving dirt and when he was done we only had to have a 3 foot retaining wall! He saved us a ton of money and I'm sure several trips to the ER.


So since we moved in, at the begining of May, we have been dealing with a LOT of dirt! We have worked with landscape people designing plans for sprinkler systems, curbing, fences, top soil, sod, and everything else that goes with a yard. For Memorial day we had some of Ben's family here helping to install the sprinkler system, which we later learned had been designed wrong! The guy had measured the yard wrong which totally screwed up everything! He admitted he had done it wrong, but said he didn't have time to fix it and we were basically on our own!


Ben worked on the yard constanly! We had a ton of help from our neighbors, especially Tyler. Tyler helped Ben in our yard every night even nights when Ben worked late Tyler came over and worked with out Ben even being here! We really appreciate Tyler paying a landscape company to do ALL of his yard so he could help us with ours!


So two weekends ago we were finally to the point of laying sod! Yea for us! So we called all of our family and anyone who was silly enough to say that they would help us. Ben had his older brother Daniel here with two of his boys, his brother Jacob, sister Suzy, and his sister Kat, to watch our girls. Ben learned from Tyler's landscape guy that we would need to install a pump to boost our water pressue that would cost us over $1000! So we bought one here and had Jacob install it and saved us a ton of money. Thanks Jacob. Jacob also worked on the sprinklers to make sure that all the grass would get water and so by the time we were done he was soaking wet!


I called my nephew Jason, who offered to help. He ended up coming from Sandy with my sister Wendy, her husband, Jason's wife, my nephew Logan, and my neice Lexie, who also helped watch the girls. It was a party! We laid over 13 thousand square feet of sod and were done before noon. We were a little short so we ordered some more and finished the sod last week.

A huge thank you to everyone! We couldn't have done it with out all of your help. I thought the sod would take us all day. Thanks again it took almost 3 months but we finally won the war against the yard!