A Day at the Museum

We also ventured over to Bozeman on a Saturday afternoon to visit the Museum of the Rockies at Montana State University. Montana is a very active place for finding dinosaur fossils, which is the focus of this museum. They have tons of bones of Triceratops and T-Rexes. They had a Montana history section and a hands-on section for the kids. It was a lot of fun. We got a season pass for the family, so we will be making a few return trips.






The last one is the kids with "Big Mike" the greeter outside the entrance.

Feeding the Neighbors

I don't know where we have been on this blog, but we have been slacking. We are loving Montana. Behind our house is a large field with 3 horses. One night during dinner about a month ago, I noticed they were close to the fence. I went out and fed them a couple of carrots and man were they excited. The kids grabbed some more carrots and came running out. We also fed them apples on a separate day. They have since become our buddies.

Evolution of My Bruised Knee!

It's kinda neat to keep track of the bruising. Each day it looks a little worse. It doesn't hurt as bad as it looks. I only took one hydrocodone that the dr prescribed me this whole week and that was on the first night. Thanks for all of the well-wishes from the comments on the last post!

Wednesday, March 18th


Thursday, March 19th


Saturday, March 21st

Safety Man goes down!

So much for setting a good, safe example for my employees. On Tuesday afternoon (3/17), I had a little accident. Our nailing machines that build the pallets have a set of rollers that are about 2/5' off of the ground that the stack of pallets rolls onto when they are complete. Well, me being the past safety manager and all, I decided to step up on the rollers on pull a bad pallet out of a stack that had just come out. The plan was to set it on some lumber nearer by and closer to the operator. That didn't happen.

As I carried the pallet and took a few steps, out of no where I fell through the rollers. Apparently there is a roller missing toward the end that I hadn't noticed was gone and I stepped right through the hole. I ended up forcing my in between two rollers that are narrower than my fat knee. Needless to say, I was in a lot of pain and feared that I had torn something in my knee. My good neighbor, Dave Boyd, took me to Belgrade Urgent Care. The assessment was just a sprain and some bad, deep bruising. It appears I have gotten off lucky this time. Here's what it looks like.

Announcement, Announcement......

We would like to let all our friends and family know that we are expecting baby #4 at the end of September. We couldn't be more happier and all the kids are hoping that it is another girl, which would be fine as long as she is a little bit more mellow than her crazy sister. I just went to the doctor and heard the heartbeat and everything is going great. I am just about at the end of my 1st trimester and glad to be almost done. I have been a lot more tired this time around, but I think its just been crazy with moving and getting everything settled here in Montana. We will keep you updated and let you know what we are having in about 8 weeks.

Happy Birthday Justin & Brayden!!!!

I just wanted to say "Happy Birthday" to my wonderful husband and let him know that I would not be able to do the things I do without him. He is my rock, my support and the love of my life and I hope that he has a great birthday and knows that we are one lucky family to have him as the head of our great family. (by the way, he is turning 29:)

I also would like to wish my oldest son, Brayden a happy 6th birthday!!! I took rainbow cupcakes to his class today and the neighbors that we made friends with came over for some batman cake and ice cream. Where has the time gone since he was born just a few short years ago? I feel so old to have a 6 year old, but I would not change anything different about the few short years that he has been in our family. He really is so friendly and always makes friends with everyone. He cares about everyone and is so concerned about other people. He is always so eager to learn and is so good at it too.

Happy Birthday to my 2 best boys, Justin & Brayden

We're finally settled.....

Well, at least for a little while. We made it up here to Montana with many neighbors and ward friends to help us unload the uhaul and trailed. IT was pretty fast. Justin's stuck around for a few more hours and helped unpack and put things away the best they could....I really didn't even know where to put half the stuff, anyways.
We are lucky to have 3 neighbors across the street that are members and have children that are the same ages as my kids. We attended our new ward and it was great to meet all these new people. I got invited to go to girls night out with a few of the ladies to hang out and watch a chick flick. However, the ward boundaries are pretty big, so it took us 20 minutes to get there. Crazy, huh?
We have also been so busy traveling to Utah to be a part of my twin sisters baby blessing, Kaden. Who is so adorable and cute:)
We are here till Wednesday, then were off to Colorado to surprise my dad for his 60th birthday.....Happy Birthday, Daddy. We will be there for 5 days, travel back to Montana....then back to Idaho for Justin's cousin wedding.
I am sure that our ward thought we were an active family, but it appears that were not. I really just want to stay home and stop traveling, but we made these plans months ago and they seem to folow one right after another.
If you want our address just leave us a comment with your email and I'll send it to you...by the way, we don't have mailboxes, just a p.o. box since we live in such a tiny, little town, oh, how cute:)

Our new journey begins.....

To montana that is!!! Yes, we are being transferred with Justin's work to go live in Three Forks, Montana. Many of you know that Justin has been traveling there for quite some time and the distance between him there and me at home has now come to an end and we will all be together everyday, YEAH!!! We leave the 31st of this month and are desprately trying to pack and clean and do it in an orderly fashion, but it is not easy.
We did find a house to rent about a 1/4 mile from the plant, in fact, I can hear the plant running when I step outside the front door.
So, a little bit of knowledge about Three Forks, MT. The population is nearly 2,000. There are 7 different churches and 6 bars. The LDS ward is smaller than our ward here -- there are 50 kids in the primary there compared to 50 in our nursery alone here. The school is a k-12 all in one and the kindergarten kids go all day! WE did find a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house that is on a quite street. We already met one of the families, the Baczuk's, Aaron and Mindi and I know that we will get along great and so will our kids.
This is a lot for us to take on, but we are hoping for the best in Challenger to succeed to continue to grow and prosper.
We also want to let all our neighbors and friends here in IF know that we will never forget you and we hope to remain in contact. Please know that you made us better people and we are sad to leave, but we will visit often. Don't be shy, if you're driving through Montana, stop by and visit. Our home will always be open to visitors.

Merry Christmas to all!

Tonight Brayden had his first school Christmas program. The place was jam packed. I couldn't believe they didn't think about how many parents, grandparents, and siblings would pack the gym. Each grade had a musical number. Luckily, this year, Brayden was just in kindergarten which was first so we were able to get up and leave after his part. They did awesome and sang so loud. You can tell he had some fun!

Visiting Kirtland.....and the Church Sites

While we were in Ohio, we had a few extra days after the Bronco game to visit parts of Kirtland and learn more about the beginnings of the church. WE stopped at the Johnson Farm and got a tour of their home and what impact the Prophet Joseph Smith and his wife had on their family. We went into the original town of Kirtland where the first temple was being built, but missed going into it since they close at 4:00 and we were about 15 minutes too late. The Kirtland Temple is owned and operated by the Church of Christ. We also walked into the town of Kirtland where N.K. Whitney had his store and sold many goods to the people and walked into their home that housed the School of the Prophets and was a small place for Emma Smith to call home for about 18 months. What a spiritual experience to be there where the Prophet Joseph Smith stood and received revelation of the Book of Mormon and was able to bring the gospel back on this earth.
While we were there, we were able to look up Justin's great, great grandpa Lorenzo Dow Young, brother to Brigham Young and find that he helped in the construction of the Kirtland Temple. How awesome that we have pioneer heritage in the early days of the church.
The original Johnson Farm where so many historical events happened in bringing forth the gospel and translating the Book of Mormon.

The fireplace that Sister Johnson used which was filled with many children in their home. Their family was quite wealthy back then and they enjoyed the conveniences of having 2 fireplaces in their home with many windows throughout their whole house.

The original store of Newel K. Whitney, which housed the Bishops Store house, the School of the Prophets and was also a home to Emma and Joseph for about 18 months. Justin great, great grandpa purchased goods in this store at one time during the 1830's.

An original piece of furniture that was engraved by N.K.Whitney. He brought the chair from New York and then moved it to Kirtland, Ohio where it still stands.

Denver Broncos vs. Cleveland Browns

Our annual Denver Broncos game was on a Thursday this year, Nov. 6th. This year we had the opportunity to watch a Bronco game in Cleveland, Ohio; which worked out great since my Uncle lives there and we were able to stay in their awesome home for 3 days. Our flight over there was delayed and we didn't get into Akron, Ohio Airport until after midnight and then drove another hour to their home. It was very fun and relaxing to not have to worry about our kids and know that they were having fun at their Grandma and Grandpa Hegsted's house back in Idaho. So, to make this a long story short, Broncos scored first and were on the board, but not for long and it wasn't until the 4th qtr. that they came back to win it 27-24. Yahoo!!!! We were jumping for joy and very excited that we were in a suite to not be around all the other Cleveland Browns fans that just might have beat us up. Thank you for my dad for allowing us to be a part of such a great tradition and we were glad that we were able to make the journey to Ohio to see my Uncle and Aunt and their family, and have a nice mini vacation from our children, whom we missed a ton in just 3 days.

All the guys hanging out in the suite watching the game from the goal line!! What a view!.

Justin standing in the lower bowl of the Cleveland Browns stadium.

Justin and I before the game at my aunt & uncle's house. GO BRONCOS!!!

Super Heroes to the Rescue!

For Halloween this year, the theme was super heroes. Brayden was Batman, Dylan was Superman, and Jaci was Wumba Woman. It was so much fun to get their costumes. As many of you know, I go and get professional pics done every year with my kids. Here are some of them.......

Brayden, the "Black Knight" Batman was ready to face all the villains in Gotham and were going to destroy them all.

Dylan, "Superman" is stronger, faster and braver than any other super heroes and were flying all over the world ridding the world of all the bad guys and monsters.

Jaci, "Miss Wumba Women" is stronger than any batman, and superman and an fight all the bad guys no matter who they are and what special powers they might possess.

All 3 Super Heroes put together and you got a big bunch of super-fanatic heroes that are always willing to save their mom and dad from all the "bad guys" in the whole wide world!
Halloween was tons of fun this year with Jaci Lyn running around from house to house following her brothers to get as much candy as she could. The weather was awesome and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect night-weather wise that is.
We had pizza and salad with homemade glazed doughnuts from Mckenzie. After about an hour or so of trick-or-treating, we went out to Rigby to get treats from Grate Grandma Shirley. It was fun to have the kids pass out candy and indulge on Grandma Greats chocolate sheet cake.
The kids ended up with a ton of candy and Dylan over indulged just a little too much!!(he woke up that night with a tummy ache and ended up with throwing-up everything. I think he learned his lesson on eating too much candy.)