Tyler, Tyler, Tyler

We have had an exciting week with pretty good weather! It was a little cooler than it has been, and for that, I am very grateful! Monday we had a Bonneville Volleyball Club Coaches Party at Pizza Pie Café.  Both of us left very full! We had a good time visiting with my parents and the Keck’s.  We sure missed Makayla! We also got Kolt’s phone in the mail this week.  We joke that Kolt’s “indestructible” phone isn’t indestructible when you lose it.  His new idea is to paint his phone hunter orange, so he can find it the next time he loses it.  He’s also promised to leave the phone and wallet in the car when he is walking in the ditches.  We are hoping to have better luck with Round 2 of the “Indestructible” phone!

Kolt has been irrigating a couple of fields this week. He has had a pretty nice schedule with good breaks during the day for lunch and dinner, but usually has to change the water either late at night or sometime during the night.  Over the weekend, Kolt woke up at 2 in the morning to go change water.  I don’t wake up very well with him at that time of night, but on Monday and Tuesday, he changed water at about 9.  I’ve had a pretty good time going out with him.  We visit on the way out to the field, and then I usually fall asleep in the car and all the way home.  

Wednesday, Grandma Lindley got here.  We were excited to attend institute, but missed the first few weeks, so we must’ve missed the memo that they were taking the week off.  We tried 2 different institute classes, but no one was there.  We are excited to try again this week and hope to find a class!

Thursday Tyler had his high school graduation.  Somehow he convinced Kolt not to go to the long graduation, but to just come back for the party afterwards.  We ended up going on a horseback ride with Kolt’s family.  I rode Kate, and I was pretty nervous she might have too much energy for me.  Kolt got on to “ride the rough” off her, and she hardly even moved.  She was great, and I had a very slow, smooth ride.  We took a short ride up Little Kelly and then rushed home for dessert at the house.  We are sure excited for him. 

The highlight of the week was Grandma’s banana cream pie and Portobello mushroom soup, our favorites.  I always enjoy talking to my grandma and listening to her stories.  She always has good advice.  I caught the end of Sister Monson’s funeral Thursday afternoon.  I am amazed at her example and love.  Kolt, my mom and I also watched President Monson’s biography movie on lds.org called On the Lord’s Errand.  It is an excellent movie.  There is so much to learn from President Monson, as well as Sister Monson.  It always amazes me how much President Monson did in the church and how well he fulfilled his callings.  I hope to be able to leave an impact with people like he has.

The week of Tyler continued.  He played in an All-Star Football game at Shelley High School Friday night.  Kolt was able to take a good break from work, and we rode up with Grandma, Mom, and Dad.  He did awesome, and Tyler and Kolt have had a good time talking about it.  We beat the 5^th district 35-28.  It was a really intense game. Saturday morning, Tyler went through the temple.  Kolt’s work has been great for him, and he was able to take a few hours off of work to be there.  We had the whole family in the temple, except Brady who had to work.  After the session, we went to Stockman’s for dinner.  We had a super time talking with family.  We sure love our family and are so grateful families can be together forever.

Saturday Kolt and I had a date night shopping at Wal-Mart and using a Buy-One-Get-One-Free coupon with our gift card at Jamba Juice.  We are pretty good at taking advantage of the all the deals in town.  We are enjoying every minute together before this baby comes because we know he will change our lives very quickly.   We have 6 weeks left until this baby is scheduled to come.  I am getting big enough to start being uncomfortable and sleeping pretty poorly.  My new craving is carrots; I feel like a rabbit, but they are delicious and always settle well.

Sunday morning we watched the video of President Monson.   The song we are singing for choir is How Firm a Foundation.  Kolt and I spent a few minutes at home before choir practice to practice the song.  Kolt gave a great lesson on how reverence invites personal revelation.  I left more motivated to take time to sit in quiet and prepare myself for personal revelation. My mom taught the Relief Society lesson.  She did a great job teaching about Elder Cook’s talk “Can You Feel So Now?”.  We talked about what causes spiritual droughts and how to fix them.  I set a goal to have more regular prayer, so that I can avoid spiritual droughts.  Sunday evening Kolt’s dad made an awesome chicken cordon bleu dinner.  Kolt played football and basketball with his brothers, and Shauna and I had a good visit.  Grandma and Grandpa Staker stopped by too; it was nice to visit with them.  They are excited for their calling to serve up at Darby camp for the summer.

To My Son

Dear Baby Boy,

You are officially 33 weeks grown; that means you only have 7 weeks left until we get to meet you!  Your dad and I are very excited to meet you.  Most of all, I am excited to get you out of my tummy.  You are a little over 4 lbs. this week and already 17 inches long.  Wow! I can’t believe you are inside of my stomach right now.  Your dad and I are so proud of you and how well you have grown.  Every time we go to the doctor, she tells us you are measuring perfectly.  That’s right—my son is perfect already!

I want you to know that I love you very much.  Even though I have been sick for most of the last 7 months, I love you and am so glad you are going to join our family in less than 2 months.  I am mostly over the morning sickness, although this summer heat makes it come back really fast!  I have a hard time getting comfortable at night because you are so wiggly.  You have a special way of jamming your feet up into my ribs and making it very hard to relax.  You are so good to kick for your daddy.  Anytime I tell him to put his hand on my belly, you kick and kick.  He loves feeling that and says he is jealous that I get to be with you all day and not him.

I also am one of the lucky moms who have stretch marks.  I think that’s because you grew so much SO quickly, and you are always moving and stretching me to the max.  We got some awesome ultrasound pictures.  You have the cutest chubby cheeks.  You were so nice to turn toward us and show us your face, but you kept your hands and a foot in between your legs, so we couldn’t see anything that confirmed you were a boy! You better still be a boy—we have all boy clothes now!

I am so nervous to be your mom.  I keep asking your dad if he thinks I am ready to be a mom.  He always replies with the exact same thing, “No, you’re not ready! But in 2 months, you will be.”  I hope he is right.  I can’t wait to be your mommy, and I promise I will do the very best that I can.

I love you.

Mommy

 

 

We've Seen It All This Week

We have had a rainy week! Lucky Kolt has been working outside all week. He has been irrigating this week for Piquet Transport.  I’m still not sure why he needs to irrigate when it rains, but he is doing a good job of it.  Just in one week, he has fell in the ditch and drenched his wallet, ripped open his finger with a piece of metal, potentially broke his arm and got a bruise the size of a softball, and lost his phone in the mountains.  Read on to find out how all this happened!

Monday Kolt took the day off of work to go on a bike ride with Rope and the Ucon Elementary 5^th grade. The elementary schools in the area celebrated National Bike Month by riding their bikes to the Iona Park for lunch.  Rope has been talking about it for weeks; we are still pretty sure he didn’t sleep at all Sunday night.  I wasn’t feeling very well at work, so I slipped over to the park to take some pictures on my way home.  They had a great time and played lots of football at the park.  Kolt had a good time visiting with his Uncle Gerald who was riding with his son Jerry, who is also Rope’s age.  On the way home, Rope rode out in front of a backhoe in the left lane and quickly corrected to the right, taking out Kolt’s front tire.  Kolt flipped over the handle bars, lodging the handle bar in between his legs and caught himself with his hand.  I had a great time laughing when Kolt re-enacted the crash, but he has been in pretty good pain.  He has a huge bruise on the inside of his thigh and thinks his wrist may be broken.  We also got to remember my dad’s crash with our dog Daisy that caused my dad to break his arm.  We may be visiting the doctor this week! Monday night Kolt and my mom went riding up at Little Kelly’s.  Chex and Kate both did really well; Kolt is really excited with his progress.

Tuesday we both had a normal workday.  The heat is making me pretty sick again, and just as I had feared, I am still getting morning sickness in the third trimester! I am pretty happy it is only bad about 3 days a week.  Kolt and I went on a horse ride around Iona.  I wasn’t feeling like getting on a horse, so he saddled up Chex and I rode the bike next to him.  It was probably a funny sight, but I loved riding the bike and felt great after.  Chex was also surprisingly calm with all the cars passing.  He only got worked up when we passed an emu, and he got pretty spooked.

We had a doctor’s appointment this week with Dr. Huggins.  She said the baby is measuring perfectly.  We are now at 33 weeks, and he is as active as ever.  I never go very long without feeling his kick or reposition.  Kolt gets to feel him often.  I realized Wednesday night that I hadn’t felt him very much that day.  I finally sat down and told him that he was worrying his mommy and needed to move a little bit.  Before I even finished, he moved and moved and kept me up until midnight.  I don’t think I’ll be telling this baby to get moving for his mommy again!

Kolt really loves his job.  He is getting way more hours than he expected.  He works about 10-12 hours a day for 6 days of the week.  His co-workers have been great to cover for him when he needs to take days off.  His favorite part is working with Carmen and Zeferino, who are both Mexican.  Some days I think he comes home still speaking Spanish.  He usually comes home completely drenched.  He fell in one day this week and soaked his wallet.  While Kolt was changing waters out in the field, he was trying to clean out a covert that was plugged.  He finally found a piece of metal, but as he pulled it up, the current pulled is out of his hand and gashed his finger.  He is keeping it wrapped up, but he’s thinking about trying super glue.  Looks like we now may be going to the doctor to get stitches and an x-ray if it doesn’t get better! 

Thursday night after work, Kolt went on a ride with his dad, Shauna and Landon up at Little Kelly’s.  Kolt started swinging a rope, but Chex is still not comfortable dragging it yet.  He had a good time visiting with his family.  Somewhere during the ride his phone fell out of his pocket.  They tried riding back along the trail to find it but had no luck.  We now know why Kolt can’t have a smart phone!

Friday we attended Makayla Wilde’s graduation at WWCC.  It was a long drive over to Rock Springs; it rained almost the whole way!  My dad and Tyler convinced us to stop at Broadway Burger for dinner before.  We shared a burger and then each got a shake. The burger was huge and the shake comes out in two different cups, it’s so big! I made my best effort, but Kolt ended up eating most of it!  We ate at 4 and didn’t eat for the rest of the night, we were SO full! We drove by the wild mustang corrals and then around campus.  I enjoyed showing Kolt the places around campus that I spent most of my time.  We sat by Kari, Mandi and Sam at graduation.  Makayla was awesome and was really excited.  We got to talk to Mason Hansen, Hannah Schorr, Nicole Soifua, Larissa Reynolds, Lori Paulson, Coach Reynolds, and several other old friends.  We had a good time staying at Makayla’s house Friday night and visiting until late.  We went to lunch at Bonsai with Makayla and Sam on Saturday.  We also stopped by Murdoch’s and looked at some horse tack.  We dropped off a gift at my cousin, Craig Dalling’s, reception in Green River before we left.  It was good to visit and meet his new wife. On the way home we spoiled ourselves with a square ice cream cone in Swan Valley.

Sunday we had a great Sunday School lesson with our class.  I taught this week about learning from President Monson.  We watched part of the video On the Lord’s Errand.  We talked about learning the lessons our parents teach us and being ready to be an instrument in the Lord’s hands.  We are still hoping they learn something because they are a little noisy!  After church, I made cookie salad for dinner at Natalie’s house.  It was a delicious dinner!

It's Officially Our Summer

We are still celebrating the end of the spring semester.  We received our final grade for the semester last night.  Kolt did very well, and I made it through! We have had several adventures over the past week(s).  We started by going to my friend Candace Clifford’s bridal shower on April 27^th.  Jocelyn put on a great shower.  Kolt and I left as soon as my volleyball tournament ended, and he sat in the car while I hit the end of the party.  We stayed at the Clifford’s Saturday night, and then left early Sunday for Dani Hardy’s farewell.  Dani and I served in the Relief Society presidency together in Rock Springs while I was at Western.  She is the sweetest girl.  She often calls and leaves sweet voicemails and knows just how to make my day.  She spoke very well on Sunday.   We had a nice dinner at her house and then made time to run over to the Leum’s to drop off a gift for Ashlee’s graduation and introduce them to Kolt.  The Leum’s were my adopted parents when I was at Western also.  We had a long drive that afternoon to get home, but Kolt and I really enjoyed the chance to visit.

Candace got married on Wednesday, May 1^st.  Kolt and I left classes a little early to go down to her sealing in the Salt Lake Temple.  We were so glad to meet up perfectly with Mark and Jocelyn.  Kolt had lost his wallet in the arena the night before, so we had to get special permission from the bishop to attend the sealing.  The sealing was beautiful.  Candace looked stunning.  The sealer did an excellent job; this was the first sealing I’ve attended other than my own.  It was so nice to hear the things that were said.  After the sealing, we took pictures outside the temple.  It was a windy May day, but we had fun talking with Jocelyn and Mark.  We then went to a dinner put on by Justin’s parents.  It was delicious.  Kolt and I left a little early to get home sooner, but we were so glad Candace and Justin came to visit with us during dinner.  I am so happy for them and their choice to be married in the temple where they are now sealed together forever.

On the 4^th, I had my last volleyball tournament at Snake River High School.  I had such a fun time with the girls; they have improved so much and always had so much energy.  I will definitely miss these girls, but am glad I will have the chance to follow them in the next few years.

We are excited that Kolt’s niece Paisley is home from the NICU.  She seems to be doing very well and just keeps growing and growing.  She is in the 2^nd percentile for weight and head size and just keeps trucking along.  I think her parents and grandparents love having her home.

Kolt got called to be the Institute Vice President for the Idaho State University-IF Campus.  He is quite excited to start.  We had a really nice dinner for the ASISU Awards night.  It was nice to visit with Brother Toone, who is now moving up to the Institute Area President.  Brother Seedall is now the new Institute President.  We are excited to start the summer semester with him.  We also had a great BBQ at Freeman Park on Saturday.  I practiced my cooking skills and made macaroni salad.  The highlight of the BBQ was almost attending it twice; Kolt and I got the date mixed up and tried to go Friday night first.  When we found out it was on Saturday, we went back home and picked up Tyler for a date night at Winger’s.  We are enjoying every minute we can with him before he leaves on June 12^th. 

I got called to teach the 12-year old Sunday school with Kolt.  His partner, Malin Reynolds, got moved to a new position.  Kolt does a really good job teaching.  I decided I would help by bringing the treats and handouts.  It’s only been one week, but the Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars were a hit.  We taught about Learning from the Living Prophets this week.  The handout was the 14 Fundamentals of Following the Prophet.  I love how much emphasis it puts on following our current latter day prophet.

I have been working hard to clean out our office to make room for the baby.  I have sure held on to a lot of things.  We had a fun time cleaning out some old boxes of school work.  Kolt and I laughed and laughed as we read a couple of 4^th grade writing assignments.  I wrote about my favorite dog Daisy and how annoying it is when she scratches on the door.  I also wrote about my favorite place in the world, Uncle Corey and Aunt Janis’s house.  I described every floor of the house and then talked about playing with my cousins.  I even mentioned the time Buddy ate my sock.  What a simple life we lived when we were younger! I enjoyed the flash from the past!

On Thursday, I took my last final at 7:30 AM at Pocatello.  I stayed the day at the school until Natalie and my mom came down with Tyler.  He threw the shot put at ISU for District Track and then played tennis at Century High School.  He qualified for State in both.  We are so excited for him.  He is doing very well; I especially love watching him play tennis.

We got some awesome ultrasound pictures at Mountain View last Monday.  The baby was in the perfect place with his head down.  He was so well-behaved that he even turned his face towards the ultrasound machine.  We got lots of good shots of his face.  The ultrasound tech told us he is definitely bald.  He was going to confirm gender, but our little boy had his hands and a foot between his legs.  Guess he’s a modest kid already! We are so excited to meet him and his cute chubby cheeks!

 

 

 

Reader's Digest Version

Where have the last 3 months gone?  Here's the Reader's Digest Version of the past couple months...

School has officially finished for the semester.  Kolt and I finished our last finals this week and are very happy to finish the year.  The best part of school being over is that I’m finally getting around to writing a family letter again.  Kolt says the family “letter” is going to have to be a family “novel” to catch us up for the past few months, so sorry for the length! I’m trying to cover everything we have been doing the past few months.
 

The week before Easter was spring break for us!  We spent the week off up at Gaylen and Susan Stucki’s house.  Gaylen and Susan were out of town for the week, so Kolt and I stayed at the house and calved.  We had 8 calves over the week including a set of twins.  Kolt and I had a great time staying there for the week.  I worked at the Post Register every week.  Kolt fed and watched the calves and rode the horses that he is breaking.  He rode Ike from his house up to Gaylen’s to stay there for the week.  The 3 mile ride hardly fazed Ike at all.  We enjoyed staying just down the road from Kolt’s parents for the week.  We had a great time visiting with Kolt’s Aunt Kolleen on Monday night. 

On Thursday during our week off, we drove down to Provo at about 12 with Tyler and my mom.  We stopped by Uncle Corey and Aunt Janis’s house and visited with Megan and her new baby Blake.  He is so cute and made me so excited to have a boy! We even got to walk to the park and watch my cousin Brady play tennis.  After tennis, we drove to BYU and watched the Men’s Volleyball game.  They won in 4.  It was Kolt’s first BYU game; he was pretty amazed at how big they were and how hard they hit.  We drove back late that night to check on cows.  I stayed up all the way until Blackfoot, and then I crashed.  Thank goodness Kolt was awake!

We celebrated Easter on Saturday at Aunt Karla’s annual Easter party.  We had a great lunch and then started the festivities.  The highlight of the day is the adult Easter egg hunt.   Neither Kolt nor I got the golden egg, but we got a good handful of candy! Brand was nice enough to come hold my bag after about 30 seconds.  It’s a lot of work hunting for eggs!

Work at the Post Register has been good.  Our ad layout specialist got a new job in Provo starting in April, so I took on the ticket entry portion of her job.  It made work a little busier over the past month, but it has been good for me to put in the hours and came at a good time for me.  My boss is very good about letting me do homework while I am there and always makes sure I am caught up on my classwork.  We have now hired a new girl Beth, and so things have been much slower now.  I got to switch desks a couple weeks ago.  My boss thinks this desk will give me more room for the baby this summer.  She keeps reminding me to bring him in with me when I come back to work.  I’ve heard she loves holding them in her office.  I think this little boy will be spoiled.  I do love my new desk though.  There is much more space, and it’s quite a bit quieter.

We enjoyed listening to General Conference last month.  I challenged myself to write down a few questions before listening and found that all the talks were directed towards me.  It’s amazing how quickly you find answers when you pin point exactly what you want to know.  I have been quite overwhelmed about being a parent, but conference helped me understand that by simply doing gospel things, we can be great parents.   Attending the temple, regular prayer and scripture study, and listening to the Spirit have become my new goals.

My awesome sister-in-law offered to throw me a baby shower.  She only requested that we have it in April before her baby was due.  Of course, I picked the day her little girl was born! Paisley Pearl Harris was born on April 20^th.  Talk about horrible timing! Or perfect timing! I’m so grateful for my amazing mother-in-law who put everything together just perfectly! I had an awesome baby shower and have so much support.  I am so grateful for all my friends and family who support me.  We played a few baby games and had some yummy treats! That night, we visited Miss Paisley.  She has been in the NICU for almost 3 weeks.  She just keeps making progress.  We are so happy for Shauna and Landon and are excited to get Miss Pearl home!

Kolt has really loved riding horses this spring.  He put a lot of thought into buying a horse.  My parents needed someone to eat down their pasture, and Kolt really enjoys working with horses.  He has been looking for the right horse for months and finally picked one out a few weeks ago.  We bought a 5-year old sorrel gelding named Chex.  He has been ridden, but not much in the past year.  He has quite a temper and is a little flighty, but Kolt is sure that will be gone after he is done with him this summer.  We are hoping to make a lot of progress on him this summer and then re-sell him before winter.  The day after we picked him up in Burley, we went for a horseback ride.  I couldn’t stand to be left behind this time, so I asked Kolt if we could borrow his dad’s horse.  He was super mellow and did exactly what I needed.  It was a very smooth ride! Chex did great also.  He had a couple of moments where he wanted to buck, but then settled right down.  Rope was nice enough to take a picture of us too!  Since our ride, Kolt has trimmed him, buttered him up with grain, and washed him.  He is coming right along!

I also finished the women’s volleyball league up in Rexburg.  Our team won! I had an awesome time playing and was excited when they wanted me to set.  I also played on a team in Jackson, WY.  It was so good to see Candace, Jocelyn, and Makayla! I just don’t see them enough!

Our baby is growing perfectly! We are now 31 weeks along and only have 2 months left! I am started to look very pregnant or as Rope says “about ready to pop”! I’ve been feeling a lot better.  I still have moments of morning sickness but am doing better at fighting it.  I have had a lot of back pain and am learning that I have limits and can’t do everything I want to do.  Kolt has to help me do a lot of things I would rather just do myself, but now can’t.  Sleeping is starting to be a chore with frequent bathroom breaks and lots of switching sides to get comfortable.  I am getting very anxious for July!