I took my camera and the kids to the hospital today. They have such a beautiful area to take pictures. The kids were very cooperative...with their little kiddie treats, smarties. I felt like i was training a puppy, with every good behavior or big smile they got a smartie. ah haha !!!

LOTS HAS HAPPENED IN THE PAST FEW WEEKS...HERE ARE SOME HIGHLIGHTS!

My nephew's 1st birthday...he aparently loves crowns.

I am taking a cake decorating class with some of my sister's and this is how awesome we are!!

I thought I was the best at ruffles...until we started asking people...1 and 2 year olds and it turns out Jenilynn is the best. It felt good to be the best for a few moments at least. :)

Jusitn and our goat Nickel. He is so good at putting this goat out to pasture. Fearless!

Oh and we have 11 kittens...they are now old enough to wander around the garage so Gary has put them in an "enclosure". What are garage's for anyway? cars? vans? nah! cats and goats!!

Hill Air Force Museum....we had a blast! I was suprised that we had a good time without a bunch of kids to keep my kids occupied. Justin and Lindsy really enjoyed all the simulators and all the big planes and helicopters that are EVERYWHERE! we even ate our lunch under an airplane and Justin thought that was great.

Grandma, Lindsy, and Billy

Justin just did something that is vile but because he did it all by himself he was so proud!! He made his lunch all by himself today....

white bread, miracle whip, apricot jam, cheese, ham, and grahmcrackers. I kept asking him if he wanted something differnt but he was positive that it was yummy and he ate it all. Way to go my stubborn boy!

My attempt to publish from microsoft word....failed. and it's midnight so i hope this makes sense.

EASTER SUPRISES!

We had a great easter week! our most exciting discovery was that we more than doubled our animal count! Gary brought home a male baby goat that he is excited will grow big and procreate with one of our other goats....we are statistically barren here on the Westergard farmayard and so he was brining fresh blood into the mix. The next morning we wake up and go out to the bard and realize tha tone of our bloated goats just gave birth to TRIPLETS!! They are so cute!! Also both of our cats are pregnant again since we did not get them spayed in time..well one of them had their kittens today. This MORE THAN DOUBLES my animal count!! Good Grief!!



The Westergard Easter party was great!! we dyed eggs and visited. Lindsy thought that she would try some blue dye and so spooned a few mouthfuls in, she was proud of the color of her tongue.

LIndsy is in a gymnastics class and she loves to show off how she can do butterflies (stretching) and horsie kicks.

It was gary's 33rd Larry bird birthday this year so we all wore shirts that I made....NEVER going to sew again... it's all about the fusing and GLUE now!! :)

Lucy had her bithday and we went to her house and played. We also got to to ride horses which was awesome!! Justin wouldn't go to bed that night until we called and found out that his horses name had been Roho!

In the rough outdoors I feel like a homesteader
Gary had quite an experience tonight that he described as a “blogging moment”. I realized how involved Gary is in the blogging world when he makes statements like that. I will attempt to describe this event in my own words; I hope to do it justice.
Gary and I came home from a date tonight (first one in months it was great). I took the kids in the house to get ready for bed and he stayed outside to do chores and take care of the animals. I had Lindsy asleep with Justin on the way but Gary was still outside. Justin and I were on the bed reading a book when we hear 3 REALLY loud noises outside, that scared the heck out of us. We went to the back door to see what Gary had done; Gary was already running up the steps breathless and smiling. He had just won a battle and the adrenalin was pumping…
Gary was going to feed the cats in the shed when he realized he was not alone in the shed. Two beady eyes were looking at him and then it started to growl and hiss. A RACOON!!! They shared a moment, he drew his weapon, they looked each other in the eye and the raccoon ran away…fear had overcome him (the raccoon I mean). And yes it is sad my husband did have a weapon on him and had the option to shoot at will. Gary spent the next 40 minutes in a battle of wits with this raccoon trying to eradicate it from his precious shed. He sent his trusty dog in…who cowered and refused to flush out the vermin. He grabbed his shot gun, which he deemed safer than a handgun, less likely to shoot yourself in the foot. He called Blake to “get his stupid trap and dog down here...it might work better than my dumb dog”. He attempted to use a pitch fork which just made holes in the poor creature and made Gary use words like “okay this is personal” and “@#@!!$%”. Gary FINALLY flushed the raccoon out the door and ran after it with his shotgun. The dumb thing stopped in the doorway and Gary nearly tripped over it. He didn’t like being so close to a raccoon so he pulled a “chuck Norris” jump shot spin in the air and shot the raccoon. We then took this picture to document the event. What a great night in the country.

Holy cow I think I'm done



There are days when you are tired and want to go to bed early...then there are those days when you realize it would be better if you'd never woken up that day. Last Wednesday was that day for me. I have listed a few of the MANY issues I had this day.

1. Justin had a bloody nose on his way to toddler school....due to picking too vigorously. It's gross but it is worse becuase i wasn't driving, it was up to my friends husband to wipe the blood from Jusitn's face, coat, and pants. gross!

2. While at school Justin went tubing during the outside play time and his face and the icy snow met and he had two bloody wounds on his face when he ran into the school. He couldn't feel anything until he started to warm up and once that happened he insisted on bandaids. This resulted in one on the forehead and another over his lip which made it iimpossible to eat or talk normally...but it made it feel better mom ( i couldn't stop laughing at this!)

3. Right after school we headed over to the pediatrician for our well baby checks. So I show up with a bruised and bloodied Justin who i haven't had time to clean up or change his clothes...blood drips everywhere! Okay so it looks like I did this to my son, what kind of mother am I?!?

4. Justin is no longer an infant who I can hold down when it comes to shot time. He had to get two immunizations and I could barely hold down the snarling, screaming, crying, scratching, kicking formerly sweet son of mine. I ended up body slamming him down on the table and the MA leaned against his legs while she shot him. After it was done Jusitn just looked at me like I betrayed him, it was made better only slightly when i bought him the frosty.

5. Cub scouts at 4:30pm

6. Before i left for scouts I wanted to start dinner as much asIi could, so I made the sauce for a new recipe I was going to try for the noodle bowl I was making. the recipe called for a pepper, I got the one that looks like a jalepeno but a little smaller because i didn't need a lot. I minced it, added it to the sauce, and continued with my prep. I finished the sauce, cleaned up and then it happened.......(pause for dramatic effect) I wiped my eye with my CLEAN hands..or so I thought. the pepper that I had cut up previously left oil on my hands and I put it in my eye. I was sure that I put a seed in my eye with the pain that started at this point. AAHHH!! I ran to my bathroom screaming and started splashing cold water in my eye, trying my hardest to open it. I was yelling for Justin to bring me my phone. He was a little freaked out by how much crying, sobbing, and yelling was going on. He found my phone and then curled up on my bed to watch cartoons while I died. I called my sister who googled the situation, she told me to keep doing water and then to try putting milk in my eye, neither of us thought that sounded very smart to put milk in your eye. I then called my cousin Kristin and asked what her husband did when he got pepper sprayed in his eye. She looked up the situtaion on line as well and was a great resourse. bottom line: when you have pepper in your eye put cold water on and in your eyes and DEAL WITH IT it will not go away until it dissapates and goes away. it only takes about 45 minutes to make it bearable. I compare it to having a baby. It hurts so much and with such intensity but you know some how it will have to end you're just not sure when. This cleared up for me just in time for me to go to cub scouts. I gave them all a lecture on pepper spraying people...don't even joke about it, it's not funny!



That's my day. I came home later and Gary had thrown away all that sauce and made chicken and potatoes. I love my husband and kids they make my life so very eventful!

WINTERFEST HOFF FESTIVAL!!

Grandma and Grandpa are in Germany so we decided to go and experience some of their culture with this winter festival held at the fairgrounds. We met up with the Haggards and had a great time watching all the old people in their lederhosen and derndle's (with their funny little hats that look like Grandpa's), rotcol, spetzle, and PLENTY of yodling. I am realizing that i haven't got a clue how to spell any German word, thanks a lot Herr Jessop from 7th grade. Winerschnizel yum yum!!!Lindsy was shoveling in the spetzle, she wouldn't even let me eat off her plate. Such a passionate woman about her food!This was unfair...Haggards bought some yummy cakes and I didn't, I just drooled over them. :) it was such a fun day to hang out and play with family!

Our Holiday!
We had a great time visiting with family and friends. For Christmas eve we all went to Grandma and Grandpa Popcorn's house. it was fun to eat good food, laugh with our family, sing songs, watch grandpa play the cornet, play games, and OPEN PRESENTS!!!! yay! justin and lindsy had such a blast with their cousins running around in new jamies and "helping' everyone open their presents. It was such a special and fun night. This is Lindsy saying "cheese!"

This was grandma's great idea to make nativities with stickers, we had floating camels and wise men ha ha ha! the kiddos and adults loved it.

Christmas Day we went to Westergard's again and had breakfast at the cabin. The traditional breakfast of cherizo egg, french toast, and omelets. This year Boyd brought extra cherizo just to be sure we had enough...it is very traumatic for this family if we run out or forget this ingredient. :)After that we went to Heidi's house and played with more cousins. Well worth the drive as usual! New years was spent doing karaoke at Julie's and we had a party with Yuri. She spoiled all the nieces and nephews with her beautiful bags and purses. I can't believe how talented Yuri is to design those many bags, you are so creative!!Gary was over an hour late coming to this party because he had to go out and shoot a duck, then his truck got stuck in the mud and he had to get a tractor to pull him out....if i had a nickel for every time i heard that story.....oh wait this is actually a common story in my house sadly.
Gary and Maren at family night. what is in your mouth gary??

After Christmas Gary and I took the kids to temple square and the spaghetti factory. This used to be a tradition for my family to go here every year and since we have gotten old our family doesn't go anymore, so it was a great tradition to start with my little family. lindsy thought it was great, justin did too. we sat in the train and justin yelled at almost everyone who walked past us, and high fived strangers.

I hope your christmas was as fun and special as ours was. I really look forward to teaching my kids about Christ. The many nativities that we have at our house provides so many opportunities to talk about Jesus and the angels and why he came to earth. Every day their knowledge can increase and their testimonies can grow, and so can mine. We are truly blessed. Merry Christmas!