Jaci loves to sing

Last T-Ball pics and Grandparent's Visit

We need to catch up a bit. I'll cheat and use a slideshow. The kids had fun with the Grandma Paula and Aunt Jenna and Krissa. They came up to see Brayden's last t-ball game. They also went to Virginia City - an old ghost town not far from here that has been renovated complete with a train. They had a lot of fun!

Grandpa and Grandma Hegsted Come to Visit

We were excited to have my parents and sisters up for the day. They came to visit Tuesday night and we had dinner at Famous Dave's in Bozeman (always a favorite of mine). After dinner they came back to our house to play and visit. The kids put Grandpa to work. Today, Dad and I went to work while everyone else played. They drove down to Virginia City and had a lot of fun. They rode the train, had ice cream and a picnic, and saw some old-western history. Thanks for coming up and playing. We had a ton of fun!

Training wheels follow-up w/ Jaci

I thought I would add this one too. Jace was cute trying the ramp with her trike. She is a determined little girl.

Look Ma, no training wheels!

The boys got brave this week and tried the neighbors little bike that doesn't have training wheels. After Dylan figured it out, I took the training wheels off his own bike and he was off. Brayden couldn't be out done. So Brayden proceeded to try on his own and finally figured it out. Unfortunately, they did it all on their own so no cute pics of me running behind them with arms stretched to the sky celebrating as ride off into the sunset. I am proud of them either way! They are still trying to master the bike jump though. You'll notice Jace has to keep up with her brothers too.

Brayden's Spring Concert

The Three Forks Elementary put on their annual spring concert this last Monday night (5/11). All the grades from K-5th performed few songs they had learned over the school year. It was fun. The kids were very proud of their work. Watching the video back, Brayden tells me who in the video he can't hear singing. Everyone's a critic!

May 8th Temple Trip

We took a temple trip to Billings this past Friday. We found out that some friends were staying at a hotel with a pool and a slide. So we got a reservation and headed over there right after work. Once we got there the kids had to get to the pool as fast as possible. The kids took some time to get used to swimming. By the end of the night, Dylan was paddling around the pool and swimming from side-to-side. I took Jaci on the slide. She told me know the whold way up. After we made it down she said "again daddy". She finally got brave enough to go down by herself while I caught her at the bottom.

The next morning, I went to the temple with John Blanchard and Brandt Peterson. We enjoyed our session and then took our turn with the kids. It was a good experience planning a temple trip. We took the temple for granted in IF. It feels good to plan time to travel to Billings and sacrifice more of our time to visit the temple. We hope to make a good habit of going every month.

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.