May Flowers - With Busy, Busy Bees!!

READY, SET, GO!!!!!!

KICKIN' BACK!

We feel like we've been pulled just about every single which way this month. It's all been for good causes and we wouldn't do it any differently. We were glad that we could be there for so many special moments this month but we are TIRED!!!! We'll have just a few weeks to recoup and then we'll be diving head first into first crop. Time to rest up and get the house clean so that it can at least be functional through our busier days and nights when I really will be too tired to care! Haha!!!
Mother's Day weekend we ran up to Salt Lake so that we could see all my siblings and be able to talk to my brother when he called from his mission. It was so good to see every one. There was great food (as there ALWAYS is) and of course plenty of laughs and games. Dani got to meet her Aunt Jessika (my sister) for the first time as she had just returned from her mission a few weeks earlier. It was great to visit my family. Now that we're older I love every opportunity that we have to get together! A full house at my parent's is some of the best times in the world!!
Chloe, Dani's cousin from Travis' side of the family came up to Salt Lake and spent a day with us. Roni, her mom, picked her up that afternoon. Dani loves having little friends to play with!!


The following weekend we were back up in Salt Lake for Jessika's homecoming talk. She did GREAT!!! It was wonderful to have time to visit with all of the Bates family that was able to make it. We got some cute pictures of Dani with her Aunt Jessie! Welcome home Jess!!!



Saturday the 21st was D.J. and Whitney's wedding!!!! They are so cute together and we were so happy that we could spend the day celebrating with them.
They put on a great party for their reception. We hope they had a good time cause we did! ;) I achieved a personal best - dancing the entire extended version of "Boot Scootin' Boogy" while holding Dani on my hip!!! Definitely earned that cake! :) Travis and I also got in a few swing dances which was a lot of fun. We really miss dancing. Too bad there's no where to go anymore.

Travis' and Dani's first daddy daughter dance.

Justin, Jacque and Rachel came and stayed with us the weekend of the wedding. We had some great meals (thanks for always bringing a great recipe with you when you come down!) and some really fun times. The two girls played really well together. No pulling hair, biting, kicking. ;) Good thing they are both really good girls!

The final weekend in May held just one more trip. This one was last minute up to Salt Lake on Sunday night and back Monday morning. We got some hand-me-down furniture. (Thanks Tom and Natalie!!) It was a quick, quick trip but it's always good to visit with friends!!!

When we got home with the new furniture we rearragned all the furniture and had a lot of cleaning to do! How cute is our little helper??! :)

That should basically wrap up our month. We got a TON of rain!!! A lot of days indoors. We're looking forward to Summer, sunscreen and more time in the park!!!

Hope things are going well for all of you too! :)

April Showers

Spring is finally here!!!

We had a lot of snow showers in April. The snow usually melted fairly quickly, but if it is cold enough to snow it's not really warm enough to go outside and play... We spent a lot of time indoors until the last week when the weather finally started to turn around. YAY!!!!


Travis has been busy graveling wheel tracks and hauling manure from the dairy getting all the fields ready to go. In just the last week or so we've started to turn on sprinklers and pivots and I really wanted to get some pictures of Dani out in the field before we did.

I've scattered this blog post with some of my favorites.

Dani is getting four molars all at once!!! :( Poor girl has been very swollen and for a week or so we weren't sure if we were ever going to be able to sleep through the night ever again. We were so grateful for the blessing of having the power of the Preisthood in our home through this more challenging time. They haven't come all the way in yet but we are enjoying the break and hopefully they will break through completely very soon.

Travis and I had the opportunity to speak in our ward on Easter Sunday. We weren't quite prepared for how quickly it sneaked up on us but still found the time we needed to prepare our talks.

We also had the opportunity to go to the temple this month to support Travis' sister in her decision to take out her endowments. D.J.'s fiance, Whitney, offered to watch Dani and her cousins so that we could all go. Dani did so well!! She doesn't have babysitters very often so I was very nervous about it (unnecessarily of course)! Whitney knows kids love chocolate - they were fast friends! :)

After we spoke on Sunday we went out to Beryl to spend the day with Travis' parents and some of his siblings that were there. We had a wonderful afternoon.

May holds a lot of fun and exciting adventures so stay tuned... :)

TWINS!!! (for a week)

Natalie, a very good friend of mine, had surgery in April and in order to heal properly she couldn't sit. In order to make sure that she had every opportunity to heal correctly Dani and I headed to Salt Lake for a week to help Natalie around the house.

Natalie has a little girl, Jaycee, that is just a week and a half younger than Dani. They got along SO WELL!!!! It really made what could have been a very challenging situation so much fun!!!

Natalie and I got to watch movies and A LOT of "Friends." The girls fought and played just like sisters, too their naps around the same time and soaked the bathroom floor at bath time!

There were a lot of people that helped out with meals and running to the store for us while we were up there which limited my responsibility and challenges. I am so grateful to all of them! Thank you so so so much to everyone who helped out!!!