New Baby

Apparently the only time we post is when we have a new baby. It has been fun to look at the pictures and see how much the kids have grown! They're all so fun! Tayo was born a couple weeks ago. He and mommy are doing great.

He is well loved by his older siblings!

 
Oh yeah...mom got a dragon. He likes to climb on her and the kids. Zyla has princess eyes!

 We took a tour of the Wyodak mine. The kids loved the giant trucks.

Introducing....baby Zyla

Mommy and baby are both doing fine. Mommy was in labor for about 1.5 - 2 hours. Zyla was born around 5 pm. She weighed 9 lbs 5 oz and was 21.5 inches tall! She was our biggest baby by about 2 lbs (she was also 2 weeks late) Her siblings love her! Who wouldn't? She's sooo cute!

 She has lots of dark brown hair and dark bluish eyes.

New House

This summer we were finally able to buy a house. We found one in the middle of the black hills on an acre of land. Most of it is grass. We quickly realized we needed to buy a riding lawn mower. The kids love to help daddy mow the lawn. As you can see by Keagan's face, mowing the lawn can be exhausting work.

 One of our favorite family activities is to ride the ATVs around the yard and neighborhood. Since we live in the middle of a national forest, there are ATV trails that connect to our neighborhood. The kids love to go on long rides in the hills after daddy gets home from work. However, Keagan and I learned that you should always take a gas can with you when riding in the hills....Fortunately, the ATV stopped on a main dirt road and someone was nice enough to give us a ride home.

 Here is our dancing Tylita in one of her favorite dresses.

 1st day of school? I don't remember, but they were excited about something!

 Keagan the cook is teaching Ryker the proper technique to flip a pancake. Ryker loves to cook just as much as Keagan. It's fun to have such good helpers!

 Our grass field needed some structure, so we bought some fruit trees. The kiddos are standing in front of a cherry tree. It's kind of a funny looking tree with no branches yet. We had to fence all of the trees because of the deer. We watch them graze through our yard every day. It's kind of fun, but I don't want to feed them my fruit trees!

 Over memorial weekend James and clan came camping with us in the hills. We camped below Hat Mtn. So of course we had to hike to the top.

 Here is a marker on top of the Mtn.

 Here we are on top. Beautiful views from up there!

We took the kiddos to Sheridan lake. Daddy fished, kids played in the sand and water, and mommy sat in a a chair and incubated. It was fun.

Appeasing Methuselah

Earlier this week I received an email from a very elderly, frail, almost-museum worthy man. Ok, we all know who this Methuselah of a man is... Anyway, Methuselah said "you're brother updated his blog recently, what's up with you?" In a not so subtle way he pointed out that he and his much younger wife wanted to see pictures of their grandkids. So I told the ancient one that we would go fishing and post some new pictures...and some ones that have been sitting on our camera since the last ice-age in February. 

Here is the princess in her current favorite dress with curly hair. She likes to ware this dress every time we will allow it. It was Jenni's dress when she was little.

Ryker stud loves to be outdoors, especially if his siblings are outside. Here he is all bundled up ready to play around in the snow.

Cousins came to stay for a weekend. Fortunately they came on a 75 degree day and the first weekend that Reptile Gardens was open. We had a lot of fun! It's nice to have them within a day's drive. Here is most of the cousin clan in the dome at Reptile Gardens. The rest of the clan is hiding out down south near the border. There are parrots, snakes, lizards, quails, and turtles inside the dome. It is so cool!

Tylita has always looked like a porcelain doll, especially when she was a baby. She was sleeping on the couch, so Jenni decorated put some dolls around her to get this picture.

One of Jenni's friends moved to Alabama recently and they didn't want to take all their toys. So Tylita and Keagan inherited some tricycles.

These next pictures were taken on two different trips to Angustora. In the top picture Keagan is throwing rocks onto the ice. Down below Ryker is throwing rocks into the water. It doesn't matter if there is ice or water, little kids will throw rocks!

Methuselah taught me a trick. He said if there are too many people right in your favorite fishing spot, just go sit down right in the middle of everyone and turn the kids loose. Little kids will wander up and down the shoreline and throw rocks in the water, on the beach, at other fisherman and their poles until you have you have your favorite fishing spot to yourself. I haven't used that trick yet, but I might have to this summer!

After a long day of playing at the lake, the boys fell asleep before we hit the paved road. Not Tylita. She has more energy than her mom! She got right to work playing with her dolls all the way home!

Random pictures

 Howdy partner! He was a cute little cowboy for Halloween.

 Ryker Stud likes to sit in things. We have three of these yellow hats, and Ryker has claimed all of them.

 Keagan and Daddy caught some fish along the river. Keagan wanted to show his baby how to fish, so he brought the little boy along.

 Ryker loves the rocking horse!

 Grandpa and family came for turkey day. Kiddos had a lot of fun pestering grandpa and terrorizing the house.

We make cute kiddos!

New project

 My boss said he had a boat that he needed to get rid of. He asked if anyone wanted it, they just needed to haul it off..... ME ME PICK ME!!!!

It's not in that bad of shape, but needs some work and the price was right!

Kittens and deer hunting

 I love this picture of Ryker. He and the kitten have the same look on their faces. Both are looking for something, they just don't know what it is.

 This is the face of a baby that is happy to be out of his car seat and eating a granola bar.

 Jenni took Keagan to the airforce base. He got to play in the airplanes and loved it! He talked about it all day.

 My first whitetail and first deer with a bow. I shot it in evening just before dark and had to go get it the next morning. Keagan was more than happy to go hunting with daddy! He was so excited to be with me. All the way up he kept talking about eating the deer. Then when he helped me clean it out, he said "dad, I don't want to eat that, it looks gross." He was a good helper though. The only bad part about shooting a deer on the second day is the hunt is over. Guess I'll have to find something else to hunt!