Rodeo

So every year we go to the Strawberry Days Rodeo and of course it's not a good rodeo without one good injury. This year Sam was the injured one! You see Jory in the picture above---well, he's from Rexburg so he automatically thinks he's a cowboy and feels that it is responsibility to REPRESEEEEENT! So he shows up in wranglers, boots and a hat every year. Well, as he was on his way down the bleachers he stepped right on Sam's toe! He didn't even realize he'd done it! I'm sure he just couldn't feel it through those 2 inch thick boots he had on. The next thing we know Sam's toe is bleeding all over.....of course Sam doesn't say a word or even complain cause he's a cop and he's tough like that.

















I love the picture below of Ben, Lauren and Kenzie (Lauren's little sister). And let me just say right now that I'm sooooooo sorry that I cut baby Cason out of the picture (Lauren--don't be bitter---I didn't do it on purpose!). Anyway, the reason I love this picture so much is because it's pretty much the last smile on Kinzie's face for the night. Being from California and never being to a rodeo she was a little horrified when the calf-roping began. Don't get me wrong---she's not a PETA member but she was pretty tender-hearted regarding how those cows were treated.
































There's nothing like a good stand off between a bull and a clown! Remind me to tell you all about the time when I was 12 years old and convinced my dad I would be the next world champion barrell racer and he bought me a great new horse and everything.....yeah, as you all already know----that didn't quite happen....but kuddos to my dad for letting me try out a dream! Or you could ask my dad about the time I was in a jr. rodeo and got bucked off a steer, kicked in the head and got a concussion----and then I asked my dad to give me a blessing and he just laughed. He'll deny it but it's true!

Here's a cute picture of Nikki and Brendan and below of Jed kissing on me. Jeez---he's so mushy!

Homemade Rootbeer

A few weeks ago we were out at Jed's parents for dinner and the subject of homemade rootbeer gets brought up. Jed and Lesa and Chad all went on and on about how good the rootbeer was that their mom and grandma use to make! So then they get this GREAT idea to go find the old bottles and pot and capper thing you use to bake the rootbeer out in the barn. So the next thing I know Jed is loading up the truck with all this stuff and we're bringing it home. So for the next two days he cleaned all the old glass bottles (about 75 of them) and then they sat on my kitchen counter for two weeks. Well most of you know I'm a bit of a clean freak and especially an anti-clutter freak so I had completely lost my patience for Jed and his grand idea to make homemade rootbeer at this point. So I did the only sensible thing.......I called his sister Lesa (knowing her same sentimental feelings towards the rootbeer bottles and equipment) and told her that if she didn't come help Jed make the rootbeer this week and get the bottles off my counter I would throw them all away when the garbage man came on Thursday! That's all it took------Lesa was there the next day and the rootbeer was made! Now any of you are welcome to come have a taste of this fine rootbeer but I've been given strict instructions that none of the glass rootbeer bottles are to leave our house! I also have to warn you that my mother-in-law Jeanne and my sister-in-law Marie and I have decided this homemade rootbeer is an aquired taste (meaning we think it has a disgusting flavor from the yeast you put in it)....but we don't say that around Jed or he gets really bitter.

San Antonio

This week I went to visit Jed in San Antonio.....he was there on business, and I was there for fun! While he worked hard all day in his meetings I laid by the pool, worked out and went shopping! Rough life I know. The boots above were outside of a huge mall that was AWESOME! Jed got to Texas on Wednesday but I didn't fly in til Thursday night. Our plane actually landed about 15 mintues after the San Antonio Spurs had won the NBA championship! Needless to say the city was CRAZY! The best part is that as we were landing there were fireworks going off everything. Well, since I was on the plane and didn't realize the Spurs had won I simply thought the fireworks must be just for ME! I thought "that Jed---he really knows how to make me feel special....arranging all these fireworks when I am landing!" You'll see in the picture below I'm congratulating Tony Parker when I arrived.....I know, I know, I'm so sweet.


















Here's a picture of us the first night out on the town. We had gone to dinner with Trey and Justin---Jed's co-workers. They are young, crazy guys who like to have a good time and love to tease me about mutli-level marketing because they know I hate it. They kept trying to convince me to just sign up with them for this latest and greatest MLM that just came out. I finally told them that I would sign up with them as soon as they gave me their home addresses so I could send the missionaries to their house ----that pretty much ended that teasing!

Below is a picture of the Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio. It is such a fun place!!! We went and had dinner right on the water at a great restaurant called Boudros. They had the best homemade guacamole I've ever had! Not to mention their prime rib was to DIE for! Needless to say we ate WAY too much and could hardly walk down the rest of the Riverwalk---THANK Goodness is started raining so we had an excuse to end out little walk before we both exploded. Although---as soon as we got back to the hotel Jed pretty much puked up his entire dinner which was more traumatizing for me than him because all I could think is "oh great! Now he'll never want to go back to Boudros if we ever come to San Antonio again!"

Baby Season!!!

So I thought I would post some fun pictures of my friends babies. The picture above is the newest member of the group! Chase Victor Cameron. He was born Friday at 9:59pm to Chris and Jen Cameron. He weighed in at 7 pounds 8 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long. If you know Jen and Melissa's family at all you will see that he looks just like the Coates family!! Too cute! We were all pretty worried about Jen because of her health problems but she was a real champ and is doing great after her c-section and blood transfussions. I didn't take any pictures of her last night---even though she looked great---especially for having a baby only 2 hours earlier, I thought I would be nice and wait to take some pictures of her and baby later (mostly out of fear that she would try to get even with me at some point!) Below is the proud papa Chris.
















The other night we had a little bbq at our house with a few of our friends...the Andersons, Moons, and Brutsch's. Well, the Moons have a little 3-month old cutie named Boston and the Brutsch's have a 1-month old cutie named Cason. So Brooke went and put Boston down on his blanket in the living room so she could eat and a few minutes later Ben put Cason down so he could eat. When we walked into the living room after diner this is what we saw (picture below)!!! Ben had put Cason down right next to Boston----mind you we have plenty of room in our living room so they didn't HAVE to be this close together. We all started laughing as Ben said "WHAT? I put them next to eachother so they could get to know eachother and become friends!" Jed and I love it when our friends come over so we get to hold and love on the little cuties!

The Big 3-day Event!!!

So the big 3-day event-----Ashlee's Wedding (Jed's little sister) is over. Jed and I and the rest of the family have been joking/complaining all week about the fact that it lasted 3 days!!!! Thursday night was the wedding reception in Logan. I drove up with Chad and Marie because Jed was out of town. Between traffic and construction it only took us 3 1/2 hours to get there and a mere 3 hours to get back!!! Oh and did I mention that we hit a deer while driving home through Logan Canyon in Marie's Honda Civic. Not such a great memory of the weekend! The picture above is of the happy couple and all the nieces and nephews. See the cute little blond girl to the right of Ashlee---her name is Cambry and let me tell you---getting her to sit still and smile all at the same time pretty much took 10 adults and one crazy camera lady making donald duck noises to make that happen---but hey---the end result was worth it! I also have to mention that Ashlee is holding baby Autumn--she's only 2 weeks old and sooooo sweet. It was a serious fight all weekend as to who got to hold her---the men were the worst about fighting to hold her!!

I love this picture of all the brothers and sisters---don't you think my husband just looks HOT in this picture?! and how about the picture below---what a STUNNING couple!! These pictures were all taken on the second day of festivities....Friday night, which was the reception in Payson.


















Don't you just love this picture of Brocston!! I love his little suit and of course he's got some gum that his FAVORITE Aunt Nalani gave him! He has been able to chew a piece of gum for hours since he was about 18 months old.

And last but not least we have the third day of wedding festivities----the wedding at the SLC temple and the wedding luncheon at Bioggis. The wedding was beautiful and the luncheon was GRUBBIN! Below is a picture of the "Cool Table". Needless to say---we're happy for Ashlee and Will---they're a great couple. We're pretty much all weddinged out for now though!

Let Summer Begin!!

It's officially my favorite time of year----summer!!! To kick of the season right we headed to 7 peaks on Memorial Day (I know, I know, not the most somber and respectful way to spend Memorial day, but hey---I can promise you it was way more exciting than decorating graves.) My second favorite thing of the summer has also began.....So You Think You Can Dance!!!! I LOVE that show! It's good wholesome tv---(except the costumes sometimes.) So tonight we had the first official girls night and went to dinner for Melissa's birthday and then headed back to my house for some serious TV time!

Please take note that Chari is using smile #3 in this photo----she's pretty much perfected it now! Oh also take note that I chopped about 4 inches off my hair---although it's looking a little ratty in this picture because I've been participating in my third favorite thing of the summer.......driving the Jeep topless!! (I feel I must clarify that the Jeep is topless----not me---don't have a heart attack Jed!)

As un update......Jen is due in two weeks--and having a boy and Lani is due in about 8 weeks--and having a girl!

City Slickers

With Sam and Jed both out of town this week Carrie and I decided to hang out and have some fun taking the boys to experience the farm for the first time. It was hilarious! First of all we loaded up Carson and Parker and headed to Spanish Fork. After going to the butcher to pick up our beef that we just had butchered (if you want to smell something DISGUSTING just going to a slaughter house!) After that we headed to the farm to see the cows, sheep and horses. You should have seen the look at Carson's face when I told him he could ride in the back of the truck! He was in heaven. Parker wasn't so sure at first and was quite enjoying himself from the view of his seat with the window down. He LOVED the baby lambs and the horses and by the time we got to the field and through the gate he was ready to be in the back with Carson. We drove right into the middle of the cows! The first time one of the cows let out a big ole beller the boys about wet their pants......and of course Carrie and I were laughing hysterically! Not the simple little "moooo" that kids think cows make! After the farm we headed to CPK with Cody for dinner and Parker had to tell Cody about the cows at least a couple times----too cute. So I think the City Slickers Sweet boys enjoyed their first experience at the farm.

Things that make me happy..... and things that make me not so happy!

So I've had a crazy couple of weeks and thought that instead of going into full details I would pretty much sum everything up in four pictures. Let's start with what's made me happy the last couple of weeks.......First of all Jed got to come home for 4 days!!! That's the first time he's been home for more than 12 hours in about two months! YAHOOO!!! The second thing to make me happy is that Sarah and Marcy came to visit for a few days while attending Women's Conference at BYU. I was too apostate to join them.......actually Women's Conference is the busiest time of year at our hotel. You might ask why that is.......let me explain........it's pretty much because we have 100 rooms at our hotel but about 1,000 guests staying........how is that possible you might ask??........well, do the math......you have 1,000 cheap women staying in one hotel so if you figure that out---that means you have 10 women crammed into one room and they have the nerve to get totally mad when you don't have 5 roll away beds to put in each room!!! So let's just say that Women's Conference isn't such a spiritual experience for me. So back to Sarah and Marcy, it was super fun to have them here! We had a blast chatting, eating, eating, eating, and chatting some more. Oh and of course we managed to work in a trip to the MAC counter! I told them they are we should make a tradition of them coming and staying at the casa de Baadsgaard every year for Women's Conference. Oh, one more thing that has made me happy is my tulips FINALLY came up and aren't they sooooo purdy!

































Now how about a few things that made me not so happy the past few weeks.....First and foremost is that we had 3 tenants move in and out in one weekend and Jed was out of town so I got to play landlord all by myself!!! It wouldn't have been so bad but one apartment had to be painted and one apartment was left a WRECK!!! Above is just a few pictures of the apartment that wasn't cleaned. I hired my sister-in-law Karlee to clean the place and it took her 8 hours with me helping her about 3 of those hours to get it done. The tubs alone took her 2 hours and about 6 magic erasers!! DISGUSTING!!! With the help of Jed's brother Chad and his wife Marie and his dad we were able to get the place painted and cleaned and ready to be moved in! I'm so grateful for Jed's family.......I would have been a mess without them!!!

Deep in the Heart of Texas!!

So this past week Jed had to go to Texas for business and since one of my other favorite people in the world happens to live there (Karmen) I decided it would be in my best interest to head there for the weekend! Oh-----and also the fac that they have GREAT shopping there. I love the picture above of Lily (Karmen's little girl)--she was talking to her Dad on the phone and just keep yelling "DADDY! HI! DADDY! HI!" (she got her soft dainty voice from her mom---HA! HA) She was a real trooper and hung in there as we drug her all around Dallas for two days!
















Friday night we ditched the kids and headed to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Jed was in heaven---not because I was there but because it's his favorite restaurant! And finally below I had to include a shot of my latest purchases. And some say I have a purse obsession---whatever! I guess you could say it was a sucessful trip---or at least I hope so! wink! wink!

Spring Sing

So this week I made the treck out to Mona (by Nephi for those of you who have never been there) to see my niece Kylee in her school Spring Sing!! I have to admit it was pretty stinkin cute. Kylee was the only kindergartner to have a speaking part and she did awesome! Her class sang Do Re Mi from the Sound of Music. Doesn't she look so cute in her pink dress!















Below are a couple of random shots of the boys doing the concert. Carter is being a stinker and trying to act like I'm not his favorite aunt! (actually if truth be told I think Marie is really his favorite aunt). I love the picture of Kade below----as some of you know he has more energy than any kid I know so to get a picture of him sitting still is a real treat. How about his blue eyes----arent' the gorgeous!!!

A Whole New View!!

So I feel this pressure to hurry and update my blog before anyone else in the family can because all of our updates will pretty much be the same. So I've decided to not post the "normal" wedding pictures of Kami's wedding but more of my version of the weekend.

Rather than standing OUTSIDE of the temple when they came out I was standing INSIDE of the temple so I could hand Kami her boquet--thus the picture from behind---I bet you've never seen that before! Below is a great picture of Quinn eating goldfish to keep him happy---how about the view up his nose---or better yet---the cheesey grin on Jed's face behind him.

Next we have Quinn running----which is pretty much what he did the ENTIRE time we were trying to take a nice loving family picture and Austin is for some reason stricking a pose.

Next is Karmen (the florist) taking over for Cody (the photographer) so he could be in the picture. Karmen flew up from Texas to do the flowers---which is a whole other story---basically I wish I would have taken more pictures of the flower "process"----or should I say "flower competition" between Jed and Karmen which finally ended at 2am. Yes, that's right folks.....Jed not only knows how to drive a tractor but he can also make a mean flower arrangment---I'm not kidding! This will probably be my last blog entry because he is going to be sooooo mad when he reads this and finds out that I let everyone know that he has quite the flower arranging talent.

Here we have the wedding luncheon at the Bell's. Of course I had to take a picture of the "Cool" table. It looks like Chris is really wanting to tell Aunt Jana and Carrie something. Good times.

I can't quite remember what we were doing here but i'm guessing Cody told us to give our sexiest look. Kami should really consider moving to Vegas to be an Elvis impersonator and Maile is looking a little high if you ask me....but ME---I look dead sexy in this pose!

This is what I'll refer to as the "morning after" hair. Maile had put so many bobbypins in my hair the night before and I was way to tired to take them out before I went to bed. I hate to tell you all this but I drove Jed to the airport with this Medusala hair, greeted a realtor at the other house and pretty much kept this hairdo until about 5:30pm on Sunday until I finally forced myself to shower.

Conference Weekend

I love conference weekend----church from the luxury from your living room, girls night out while the men go to Preisthood session and breakfast on Sunday inbetween sessions with all the friends....and some great talks from the big guys in SLC! Above you'll see us enjoying some grub at Pizza Factory---I love their bread twists. Of course after that we headed to the mall for a little shopping and didn't make it past Nordstroms--shocker. I should have taken some pictures of the new purchases. Below is a picture of Lani and Jen in all their pregnant glory! Jen has 2 more months and Lani has 4 more looooong months (that's how she says it).

These are probably my favorite pictures of the weekend! It's Chari showing us her different smiles. The first smile is from her childhood---she said she use to do this smile because she had bad teeth before she got braces. The second smile is the smile she's used for about the last 10 years. BUT--most recently she's trying out a NEW smile which is photo #3----it's more of a FULL smile without so much gums and lots more of her purty teeth! I'm a fan of her NEW smile--what do y'all think. Please post your vote and I'll let her know the results.

So these last two pictures are of our activities on Sunday while trying to listen. Above is a picture of Melissa painting all the prego ladies toenails because they just can't quite reach them anymore and hello----we are entering flip-flop season! Below is me and BFF Rylee decorating marshmallow easter eggs. Hey---two hours is a long time to listen for a little girl and I felt it was my duty to help her be entertained! All I have to say is good thing I tivo'd all the sessions because my attention span wasn't so great on Sunday.