Well here in MO we are getting all geared up for Christmas. As you saw last week we have our tree up and it's super pretty :) We also bought a box of chocolates and have been eating at least one a day...

Husband was really good to me this week. He helped me finish all my assignments for Young Women in Excellence by making a BEAUTIFUL program! I could never have done it even half as well and I had a few compliments on it. I have been a bit on the grumpy side the last week or so (probably Christmas stress) and Husband has been so patient and understanding with me. He is such a wonderful man. He has also been helping me get gifts ready for everyone, which he doesn't really have time to do with working, horses, dogs, being a spectacular dad, and getting the explorer up...but he does it anyway.

We now have a cell phone that works on the farm! It is WONDERFUL! If you don't have the new number yet...contact one of our lovely mothers, they both have it and would willingly share.

Baby has 2 VERY visible teeth and they HURT! We are so used to him grabbing our fingers and sticking them in his mouth that it doesn't phase us until he chomps down...

He played with his friend this week. There is a little boy in the ward that is 1 month older than him (they are going to get into all sorts of trouble together, I can feel it). We will call his friend George. They enjoyed playing and chewing on caribeaners together (It is one of his new favorite toys). Well, George's mom and I were doing crafts and had the boys sitting up facing each other about 2 feet away from us. We look over to check on them and here is what we saw:

George's sock being pulled off by Baby, when the sock was half way off Baby bent down and next thing we knew half of George's sock was in Baby's mouth, the other half still on George's foot. We started laughing and Baby stopped or we would've gotten a picture, but a few minutes later he had George's sock all the way off and was chewing on it.

I don't know why (maybe it is to torture me because I don't like feet) but baby has a fascination with socks and toes. Luckily, the toes only extend to sucking on his own. The socks...lets just say it doesn't matter who's it is, what it looks like, or where it is, if it is a sock it WILL be in Baby's mouth.

Last night we visited a baby girl in the ward (1 month younger than Baby) and within a minute of him sitting next to her, the adorable pink sock she was wearing was being pulled off...I love my baby.

Well I think that is all I have for now. Love you all. Here are some pics.

Hey all!

Not much to say this week. Robert is now cutting his 2nd bottom tooth and he is the most wonderful teether! He does not cry, except for 5 minutes a day, and then he is happy and all smiles again. We are so blessed! Here are some pics!

Can you see the tooth?

I thought everyone would like some baby feet :)

He started chewing his shirt while I was editing

We set up Christmas and our tree looks AMAZING!

Husband's favorite part of the tree! (Look below the star)

Close, food, sitting up...

This has been a very productive week. We FINALLY closed on the house!!! YAY!!!

Robert is becoming so big! He is sitting up all on his own and rarely takes nose dives (unless it is for the cat's tail). He is also teething! That is right! Snot, tears and everything else included! It is his bottom front left tooth and his blanky is his teething companion. We have also been trying out random foods, most of which he spits out, but he can actually hold carrots without making a mess and turns out they are his FAVORITE!!! Here is a pic.

Is this what you meant by solid foods mom?   :)

We are closing!!!

Closing is happening on Monday!!! What a blessing! We will own the house before Christmas! We are so excited!

Crazy few weeks

Wow! The last few weeks have been crazy as far as life goes and completely uneventful as far as the mortgage is concerned.

Well, that is if you can call a hurricane uneventful. Yes, we happened to pick a mortgage company on the east coast that lost power and after they finally got back up they said we would most likely close on Mon. Well, Monday was a holiday. Go figure!

As far as life, I have been called to be the first counselor in the Young Women's Presidency. It is a very fun calling and I adore the girls. I have also become good friends with people in the ward and have a social life. We, on occasion, go and help our Bishop's family with his remodeling, that is a blast. They have a book that they have written about their adoptions and I love it! It is one of those books I think everyone should read.

Well I'm not too talkative today, here are some pics.

The past couple weeks have been crazy! I'm sorry for missing the post last week.

Baby has officially started "playing" during bath time. He has been splashing for some time now but yesterday he made it very apparent that he LOVES bath time.

I put him in the bath sitting, supported by my arm, and he grabbed for some toys. I then moved him to laying on his back and all seemed normal...

He looked up at me, sucked his fingers 2 or 3 times, looked at me again, kinda smiled and then... SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! Water went flying! He then stopped, sucked his fingers, looked right at me, smiled one of the slyest smiles I've ever seen and SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! He then giggled. This continued until my arm got tired and I took him out. By this time my arm was drenched, the top right corner of my shirt was soaked, half of my pony tail was wet, I had water in my ear and I didn't even attempt to look at the floor. By looking at me you might have thought I had tried taking a dive in the tub.

Dear people without a deep garden tub,

You need one.

Here are some pics...enjoy! (Sorry there are none of him bathing, I can't take pictures and support him at the same time.)

This is what happens when my camera gets too close to baby. He eats the strap too.

                                Husband has officially succeeded in getting him to eat his foot often.

Crazy 3 Weeks

It has been about 3 weeks since I updated the blog so I have quite a few stories to tell...

Husband, Baby and I all flew out to visit Utah a few weeks ago. That flight was Baby's 6 flight since he came to us 4 months ago. I never once flew before I was 21 and here my child has been on 6 flights! Crazy! Getting back to the blog...While in Utah my husband went to an auto auction and bought us a white '05 Ford Explorer! I have wanted an Explorer since we got married and I was so excited when he told me about it. We only stayed about a day and a half in Utah and then we were off! We got as far as Evanston, WY and as luck would have it, we broke down. I will spare all the details for those who do not completely comprehend car lingo and say that after hours of hard work on Husband's part on Sunday trying to fix it we had no luck! We took it into a shop and they found the part that needed replacing so Husband (being the "Jack of All Trades" that he is) switched out the part and once again we were headed home. Well, we then made it as far as the Little America Hotel and we found that the part had a hole in it again. We then got it towed to Rock Springs. The dealer there figured it out, replaced the part and then...noticed a knock in our engine. There was no knock when we took it in, so that was odd, but oh well, could be just our luck. We rented a car and set up to have the Explorer shipped out to us. The drive from then on was really nice and peaceful. We arrived at a Days Inn in Missouri and stayed there for a few days.

At church that Sunday I had the most wonderful experience! It was confirmed that our feeling to move to Missouri was from the Spirit! Husband had a chance to talk to the bishop and get to know him and the ward a couple weeks previous, but as yet, I had not had the chance to. The bishop called me into his office and we got to chat for a while and then he gave me a calling. It was wonderful! He told me that the lady who felt to place me in her presidency (his daughter) had an experience to tell me about. After talking with him I got a chance to talk with her. She told me that after the bishop had called her and asked her to think about counselors she had a feeling that someone would be moving into the ward. She thought, "That's great! We need new people." But didn't connect it to her calling. Well about a week later her husband (the ward clerk) called to tell her that a new couple moved into the ward. She saw us in church and knew that I was supposed to be called. Isn't that great!?! So many times (in my opinion) people call others that they will be comfortable serving with, so it was nice to know I had been called by the spirit. I have not been set apart yet so I will write later with what my calling is :)    During our conversation she invited us to come stay at her house (the Bishop's house) until we had a more permanent place.

Can I just say that the Bishop's wife is AMAZING!!! I learned SO very much while living with them for only 3 days!

During that time we were told that we would not be able to close for another few weeks...but...we could take possession prior to close!!! We only had to take care of a few stray ends and then we moved in. How great is it and what a blessing to have a home!

We, on inspection of the land, have found quite a few strange things. Some crazy looking fruit called a Osage Orange (picture below), a really old rusted out car, another random fruit, some berries (no idea if they are edible), and a gorgeous stream that is right behind the house! We are so blessed! Well, I've chatted too much. Here are some pictures for you!

Osage Orange

Pics of baby to come soon...forgot my camera...

In my post last week I forgot to mention that we went to see the Laura Ingles Wilder House. It is really cute and cozy.  Almonzo (Laura's husband) made the countertops only about 3.5 ft tall so that they would be perfect for Laura who only stood 4' 10'' or so. We also saw what is referred to as the "rock house." This is the house their daughter had built for them to retire to (it only sits a couple miles away from the original house). It was really modern in it's time. Laura and Almonzo only lived there for a few years and then sold it and moved back into their original house. It then became and outhouse for a rancher and then was purchased by the "Laura Ingles Wilder Foundation" and restored.

This last weekend we went on a showboat called the "Branson Belle."  It was really fun and the show was great! There was a comedian/magician, an aerial violinist, a live band and a boy band (I forgot their name).  The food was pretty yummy as well. Husband and I have learned, however, that we get sea sick...so we probably won't be going on cruises anytime soon...lol.

The current mouse score is as follows:

Glue board: 1
Cat: 2

But...we have yet to catch Mighty Mouse. He has evaded glue boards, plug in sound things and the cat...

We are hoping to close (finally) on the 17th...pray for us please...

Robert has a new found love for his toes...but he has not started eating them yet ;)

I found out that the city we are staying in has a library...it closes at 5:30 though, so it is pretty useless to me.

I am starting to feel more comfortable in the ward and have even gained a friend to go "exploring the city" with. She has a baby 1 month older than ours and so we should have a lot of fun once we finally get moved into the house :)

I have learned the average amount of kids per couple in the ward is 5...no wonder I feel like I fit in! Oh and husband feels right at home since he learned that the bishop drives his family to church in a school bus! (He has been trying convince me we need one since we first got married. :)

Well...I think that is all...here are some pics...love you!!!

The "Rock House"

Yes...Daddy does need Baby's help navigating   :)

Baby loves falling asleep like this...

We saw our first live possum last Thursday...thump...well...it was alive...

We were on a drive back from grocery shopping on Saturday and we passed something on the center line of the road. I asked Husband if he saw it move and he said, "Yes. It was a turtle. Did you want a turtle?" And that is how we ended up with a new member of the family named George.

We tried sweet potato pie for the first time...can you say YUMMY!!! Why do they not have this in Utah!?!

We also bought Baby a new standing toy which he loves and it makes it so I don't have to hold him standing all the time :)  2 birds with one stone!

Also, I promised people that I would type up the Mouse Chronicles...and have yet to do so...I will take the time to do it now...

...we moved into a temporary house for the first few weeks of us living here in MO. The first morning we woke up to a mouse in front of our toilet which our lovely Kitty had killed. She is such a good cat...sometimes. The next morning there was evidence of another mouse on our countertop so we decided to give our cat a few more days to catch it. Well a week went by and there was STILL evidence of a mouse on my counters...we got fed up waiting for our Kitty to do her job and so we got some of those sound things that are supposed to keep mice away. We had them for 3 days and NOTHING! Stupid mouse was STILL living and STILL playing on my countertop. So I called the company and asked them what was going on and why they weren't working. They told me that they are preventative and that they keep mice away, but they don't get rid of them (especially if the mouse is a dominant MALE mouse)  ...well that helps a lot...

...so Husband and I bought some glue boards. We put 2 on the countertop, 1 on the stove, 1 buy the dog/cat food, 2 the room we are sleeping in (1 by the head of our bed, 1 in the corner). The night we put them out we woke up to the noise of something moving next to our bed, we assumed a mouse had been caught and we could take care of it in the morning so we went back to sleep. Morning came and we looked in the box...NOTHING! So we checked the rest of the traps...didn't we put out 6? We could only find 5...one of the ones on the countertop was GONE, nowhere to be found. Well, I searched for it and finally found it at the foot of our bed...empty...lovely. Somehow a mouse had gotten caught...moved the trap off the countertop, down the hallway and into our room...then escaped...all I could say is this that mouse better be armed and FAT or I would be disappointed when we caught him.

The next day we found the trap on the stove moved and...empty...except for the tufts of fur caught in the trap...yay.

...2 weeks after we purchased these glue boards we finally caught a mouse...a skinny...furry mouse...Husband is convinced it is not the Mighty Mouse that keeps getting out of traps...we will see...

Love you all! Here are the promised pics :)

And just in case you miss seeing his fingers and toes...

Week 3

I haven't been feeling well, sorry this is a day late...

On Saturday we went to a cattle auction. It was an interesting, but fun, experience. As you walk in the front doors of the auction house you will notice a little family diner on your right and a cashier desk on your left. In the middle is a set on double doors that lead to the half stadium. There are probably 10 rows up and we sat on the 9th. As you look down you will see a small corral, the floor of which doubles as a scale for the cows. About 11 cows weighing 500ish lbs each could fit on the scale at one time. There were some screens telling us how many cows were on the scale, what the total weight was, and what the average weight was, it was rather interesting and we plan to go again once we are settled in our humble abode  :)    Husband has finally settled on doing a cattle ranch (our bishop is a rather successful cattle rancher and could give him much advice on the subject).

Speaking of which...we have been going to church in our projected ward and are very much pleased with it. But first I must tell you about the ward house...

...we got the address and after we typed it in to Mapquest we found out it was 1 hr 45 min away from our current abode...luckily that means it was only 45 min away from our soon-to-be little nest...

...we started off and after driving for what seemed like 2 hrs (oh wait! It WAS 2 hours) we were supposed to have arrived at our destination...we were in a little town and of course we were looking for a steeple of some sort when driving down the road I saw to my left 2 men in white shirts and ties...and was that a sign in the window reading "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints?!?"...What a wonderful site!!! Turns out our church house happens to be a former furniture building...crazy! It is super cozy with no walls that completely reach the ceiling and 1/3 of the walls are temp walls that get rearranged between each meeting. It was definitely a new experience for me...but all the people are so warm and amazing and they quickly let me know that there is a new chuch building being constructed that we will go to. They say it will hold 3 wards and a little family history center...so I imagine it is probably as big as our stake centers back home...They also informed me that they used to meet in the high school gym, so this was definitely an improvement :)

Our bishop introduced him self with a smile and pointing to his family said, "See that family over there? The multi-colored one? Ya, They're mine." He said it with such fondness that I could not help but ask how many kids he had, to which he replied 25. Yes, 25. I grew so much admiration for this man in about a mili-second! He was not going to think I was crazy for my want of 12 children! How happy!

At church, during Sunday School, we sat on the same row of foldable chairs as another young couple that has a baby only about a month older than Baby. At one point during the lesson, Baby was standing on Husbands lap and he was (we believe) involved in quite the staring contest. It lasted about 5 minutes and was super cute :)

Gee...this has been longer than intended and yet I'm not finished...

Baby attended his first ever football game tonight. Yes...I realize we were sitting in Applebees watching the game on a flatscreen, but it is the only way to get BYU games out here. He even went in a "Y" onzie that a girl in my previous ward made for him :) I will post pics as soon as I'm feeling better...

Week 2

Can I just say, there is nothing that quite compares to the 6 AM donkey EE-AAW that we wake up to every morning?  Yes my dear family and friends, this is him...

Not sure what his name is or why he puts us through this ever day, but...I can't get mad at him because he is just so cute.

We found out this week that the house we are buying appraised for our offer and, henceforth, financing will go through! We are so excited!!! This is also really good news because our realtor just told us the lady that we are buying the house from is already moving out :)  (we were glad to hear all of her hard work moving out is not in vain).  Other than that there is not really anything new to announce...

No, wait! Robert loves eating his elephant.  That is worth announcing :)

Oh! And we are going to a livestock auction this Saturday!  I think these auctions are going to replace the auto auction that we miss so very much. But the good news is these auctions happen every Saturday instead of once a quarter :)  I'll keep ya posted on how it goes. Love you all!!!

Week 1

A week and a half ago we arrived in MO safely thanks to prayers from friends and family.  The only trouble we had was a burned out tail light on the trailer which cost us a couple hours, but Uhaul was good enough to send somone out to fix it. We got in at about 5 AM Sunday morning and passed out at the hotel. We had set alarms to go to church, snoozed them a few dozen times and when we finally got out of bed we had 5 minutes to be at a church meeting that was an hour away...oops.

Our first week here, we got the key to our temporary house (yes, house, not hotel or apartment) on Monday (such a blessing) and Husband started his first day at work. He is in New Hire training and is enjoying it as much as you possibly can, if you catch my drift.  We unloaded the Uhaul (or I should say Husband unloaded the Uhaul) Tuesday night and delivered it Wednesday to the storage facility. I met a really nice antiques dealer that day as well. Nothing else exciting happened until Saturday when Husband took us to the state fair...

It was a BLAST! It is such a big deal here compared to the one in Utah, which should not have been surprising to me, but alas, I was blown away with shock. Here is what blew me away...try to stay in your seat...
John Deere tractors pulling carts around with people in them, and it only cost 50 cents a person to ride!
Insane amount of rides
Multiple "big name" country artists performing
Pig races (yes, you did read that correctly)
Budweiser Clidesdeils (the tack these horses have...crazy beautiful!)
The most amazing ice cream I've ever eaten
1/2 lb hamburgers (yes i did eat one...in one sitting)
 A whole section dedicated to John Deere tractors
Pony pulling events
6th generation circus performers
$5 camel rides (SO tempting)
Bull riding events every night!

I know...so much to do...and we did almost all of it in 9 hours! We will definitely be attending again next year! (Even if it does take 2 hours to get there)

Here are some pics...

The Beginning....

So...I have decided to start a blog :)   I want to be able to keep ya'll informed on our life and travels here in MO. First things first...I am going to very vague on names because of all the fraudsters out there (you can thank my mother and husband for the fear of fraudsters, but hey, I guess after you work in fraud for a few years...it happens). So for everyone's info I will be Wife/Mommy, my husband will be Husband/Daddy, Son will remain Baby...up until we have other additions and then I will have to be more creative :).  Buddy will remain himself, ditto for Kitty.

I know everyone has their own theories and opinions on why we have moved out here, and I would like to debunk them all :)  Let's start from the beginning...because that is the best place to start. I have always loved horses and have always wanted a large family (6 children at least...moving to 12 because husband is fortunate enough to provide for that many), facts that I'm sure everyone has always known lol. Husband has always loved the east/humidity and has taken me back a couple of times, both times I had a strong feeling I would eventually end up here. He also has always wanted horses/ a farm...hence why I married him :) (horse lovers must stick together of course).

Now for the events that led up to the move and left everyone very uninformed and confused, both of which I apologize for. As all of you know we had our house up for sale last year and nothing happened. We then decided a few months later that we were going to stay in our little West city forever and just add on to the house. Once we made that decision, a realtor came to us and told us our zip code was HOT! so we let the realtor put our house on the market again, 4 days later it was under contract...can you say rug pulled out from under us! We started looking for a house that would meet our requirements...big...lots of land (so we could grow our own food + food for horses, hence fulfilling all my dreams and most of Husband's). Utah does not have anything under 300,000 (which is a super low estimate) that can meet those, so we started looking out of state. We found a 4 bed 2 bath house that we can add on to whenever we want and however we want (no building codes to comply with) that has 40 acres, plenty of land to self sustain, that is only 45 minutes away from a large city that Husband can work in so that we do not have to rely completely on the farm. All of our dreams were met so Husband looked for a job, came here to interview and got a job comparable in EVERY way to the one he had in Utah, things were all falling in to place so fast! How could it not be meant to be!?! By the time we found out that Chase wanted Husband here in a week, we did not have time to let everyone know that we had a job, a future place to live (that had an accepted offer) and were moving out of state.

We were kind of stuck between a rock and a hard spot...Sound CRAZY...by telling people we found a house out of state, but didn't have a job or temp place to go...OR wait and then not have enought time to explain all the details. We banked on the fact that it would sound SO much better to move out of state with a job, house, and temp living, but not explain every detail. We did not want everyone to worry, but it created more worry than expected, for that I apologize. Had we had more time we would have been able to have a real going away party, but as it was, we only had time for immediate family things.

Our travels here to this wonderful state began with a bunch of help from friends and family whom I would personally like to thank. We really couldn't have done it without all of you :)  Baby was a joy to travel with. He ate, slept, made his diaper dirty and continued on like that for most of the trip...with a few wonderful smiles mixed in :)  I can not say the same for the dog or the cat...but hey, they tried i guess.

So if I think I've chatted enough...here are some pics of Baby...hope you enjoy!