Fall 2010

I feel like this fall has been a roller coaster of emotion and stuff for us. We have a lot on our plates, as ussual, and never seem to get balanced out. We aren't unlike any other family I'm sure. This has been my favorite picture of the season so far.

I feel completely blessed to have these two amazing people in my life.

The best part of Hailee's Halloween was definately handing candy out to the kids. She loved waiting for them at Grandpa Layne's, and had to be dragged out to do her own trick-or-treating!

This is Hailee's Halloween costume. She HAD to be Belle. Well, due to time and everything the best I could do was a little big. It was still really cute, and she LOVED wearing it. It was a great time, even if her costume was two sizes too big!

When she wasn't working on the tractors, she was picking the flowers.

She and old Duke doing a little bonding while Dad feeds the cows.

She has gotten very animated this fall. She is both vocal and theatrical with her performances. Many of them are entertaining and fun, a few have been a little too much.

She got this fabulous pumpkin and loved everything about it! She carved a Dora on it with a little help!

During our Harvest Vacation we went and helping Curt drill grain. She loved getting dirty in the field. She still draws maps on the ground and thinks everything Radio-ish is amazing!

Hailee is always writing down notes and drawing pictures. She loves little tablets and pens, just like her dad. She can draw circles, H's, and rainbows. She tries drawing people, but gets frustrated and wants help.

One of Hailee's H's. If you get the chance to check out my classroom after Hailee has been helping, I have a gazillion of these babies up and down my boards.

During Harvest it was so warm and so Hailee and I washed the car and ate Push-Ups. It was WAY nice! It was a nice treat!

This is part of Hailee's theatrical side. She was modeling her fall swimwear for me. She is a complete babe! I feel spoiled atleast 10 times every day!

Our little baby!

So sad to see how very little I have updated this blog in the last several months. I can't believe it, but then I look at how crazy my life has been. It really does make sense. We were very excited to see this little guy again today! He is doing so well! I wish we could have gotten a better picture, but he wasn't very cooperative! This is a typical profile. We got a video of him yawning and chewing on his thumb. Fun! Fun!

This is one of the better shots. He has a hand on his cheek and one up on his forehead. It is a little smuggy, but I still think he is adorable!!! I can't wait to hold this little angle for real! Neither can his big sister. She tells everyone about her baby brother.

Even though our lives our so crazy and uncertain right now, our family is so constant.

We are so lucky!

IF you really want to know...

Our life is absolutely crazy on a normal basis, but as of August it has been beyond crazy. To start things off let me remind you that I am pregnant and thus highly hormonal and moody.

We are swamped at the Inn with new visitors all the time. We are meeting tons of wonderful people from around the world and mostly from the Grand USA. This keeps us all busy with early morning breakfasts, afternoon check-ins, and LOTS of cleaning. Curt is also constantly out working on the farm. He has had a busy summer getting equipment going, figuring out watering, chasing cows, and doing hay. I have hardly seen him in during daylight, which has made for too many late nights. In between the farm and the inn, I have tried to entertain Hailee with swimming, going to the park, and playing outside with all the animals. This was all working out until I realized school was creeping in....

I made the change this year to teach 5th grade instead of 6th. This meant I moved from our highschool to our middle school. It was a GREAT decision and I am excited to be working with great educators. Well they have been doing construction on our elementary school: remodeling the office, and adding on 4 classrooms. I was lucky enough to get one of the new classrooms. It is a great space, and I can't wait for the kids to come, but I wasn't able to get in until this past Monday. I have been spending a great deal of time in the school going through a bunch of stuff and moving over to the new room. My mom has helped a lot. I think it will all be ready in time, but I am not going to say it has been fun or easy.

Few! So if you want the summary:

Curt and I are,

• Working a farm
• Running a bed and breakfast
• Starting up for a new school year
• Chasing a 2 year old
• Growing a new baby
• Trying to run our home (too often gets put on the back burner)

I am certainly hoping things calm down a little before we get this new baby here. Someday I'll get back to blogging better.

Baby Bump.

I can't tell you how much we adore our two year old. She is by far our greatest accomplishment and blessing. We can't imagine producing similar quality product, but my friends it is happening!

Check out our belly bump at 12 weeks. We had a doctor's apt. today and Hailee wanted a turn after me. It was an extremely adorable moment. She got up there, showed her belly, and asked, "lotion, on me?." We were able to find a strong heartbeat and can't wait for baby 2, due the end of January!!!!

We are BUSY!

WE have been so busy! Curt is always busy working away, ussually dark to dark, with a short lunch break. I am sure over time I will get used to this, but it has yet to happen.....

Summer is fun especially when we have so many fun people and things around us. Curt's sisters came up for a while this summer to play on the farm. We had tons of long days, full of work and play. A lot gets done with helping hands. So much thanks to Cheri, Mike, Christina, Curtis, Nic and Trudy, AJ, Lori, Jack, Jase, Evan, and many more. This has been an exciting summer and we have appreciated all the help and company!

We have spent some time working with and enjoying the horses.

We have ate yummy food, esspecially ice cream!

We clean a lot, esspecially with ALL of our special guests we have had this summer. It has been SOOOO Crazy!

We celebrated AJ's 22nd birthday!!!!!!

We went to a family reunion or two and played with Great Grandparents!

We ate lots of barbques with interesting conversations. We even learned a bit of German!

We took lots of pictures. Check out our matching shirts from Aunt Cheri...super fun!

We watched The Stegelmeier Old Faithful! (If I told you, we might have to kill you!)

We FINISHED THE DECK!!! Wahoo!!!! I am so grateful and proud of the people who put in time and energy on this deck. I think it looks awesome!

Stegelmeier Oldfaithful Observation Deck.

We froze our booties off at the 4th of July parade with some great people!

We were patriotic in our sweatshirts and coats!

We played and played with the sweetest little baby! We think all babies should be as cute and fun as Baby Trudy!

We have enjoyed the extra time with Uncle AJ as he has been staying with us and helping out around the place!

We threw the ball around and walked a couple of great labs. More than a couple naps were taken together as well!

We met up with some cousins at the park and played like crazy!

We were spoiled by AWESOME Aunts!

We had fun getting to know eachother and eating PIZZA!

Fun Boys.

We went on a few rides!

Some on horses, others using horse power.

And some just on a lonely saddle.

But to be honest not a thing was lonely about this summer. We have had a great time!

Brand New!

This morning I had to wake up early to make breakfast for the guests. I was pretty lucky because it just so happened that I was able to watch this little guy take his first steps. He is a friendly colt with a pretty protective mommy (aren't we all).
We spent a good part of the morning watching him play around. He even started trotting a bit!

I am really glad that we were able to be here when he decided to show up. We are still waiting on one more. I think it will be neat if it is a girl, then we have both. This guy looks a lot like his dad, but his mom was a Paint as well. It will be interesting to see if the next one, who's mother is a dark Sorrell, will be a paint as well.

Well if anyone wants to see a few animals or just wants to meet this little guy,

come on out!

We are pretty active around here with animals these days!

Oh and he needs a name by the way.

First Boise.

Hailee and I made a trip down to Boise to visit my mom last week. My step-sister Christine came with us and spent the week.

We went to the Discovery Center, which was a little too big for Hailee, but she did a lot of fun things there. Her favorite was the big bubble machine!

We had a blast going to the zoo, where we fed the giraffes, rode on a boat, listened to the monkeys, and fed the sheep and goats.

Curt and AJ came over for the weekend and to pick us up. We all went to Roaring Springs on a beautiful sunny and oh too windy day. It really wasn't too bad, but Hailee was cold and VERY tired. She played a little and went down a few slides. Curt and AJ hit all the big slides and had a great time!