1st Day of School!

 The first day of school is today!~  Tayden is a middle school aged boy, the big 5th grade and he is excited, nervous, scared, and well truthfully he said "ah man school starts today?  I don't want to go!"
Tucker is a 3rd grader and he got up dressed and said, "I am ready for school and can't wait to go to Mrs. Lindbergs class!!"  Hope the best for the year and it is fun to see a new fresh start!!!

 Way to please your mother Tucker!

The brace came off Thursday the 20th and found out yesterday the braces are coming off next week! Whoo Hooo!!!!!

we hope!!!

Yes I figured out how to upload photo off of kindle!!!we are waiting on dr. To see if brace gets to come off?

Week of family time!?

So Tayden has wanted some coon hounds, or beagles so he can rabbit hunt, or take a dog and go hunting by himself.    We found some beagles and he purchased one with the money from the fair....  it can't burn a hole in his pocket!!!  Welcome in the dog world Ms. Kitty and puppy Rachet!!

 We have had some quality family time in the truck to retrieve both dogs and we are hoping they will run a beagle..  Have hunted some however not the best yet?  New hobby here we come!

Rachet is a 4 month old puppy and he is cute, however I have been warned not to baby him, he is not a lap dog he is a rabbit dog!

We also sheared the sheep last week and great job Tucker for stomping the wool.  A little heritage for those of you that don't know our family... Grandpa Harold was a sheep shearer and everytime we shear we think about wow.... he did that for living it is hard work!

July 2015

So we have had a successful fair with the help of friends to show and family to help with animals to get them there!  However July wasn't our best month.  We began with Tayden and the accident, then we made it through the fair with only a few mental melt downs!  The Tuesday after the fair Tayden woke up and ran into the bedroom.  The dog of 5 years had been hit by a car and was in the driveway.  He said, " Dad Casey is dead!"  after a what?  Are you sure I got up and looked, sure enough!  We also lost Brandon's grandpa who married his grandma 21 years ago!  We were glad to see August and hope the doctor appointment next week, beginning of the school years, and the ending of summer treat us a little better!!! We spent yesterday getting a new hobby...  we have a beagle for rabbit hunting!

D.C Fair 2015

 Tayden did monster cookies, container garden, and green beans for the 4-H building this year!! He recieved 2 purples and a blue and also the Horticulture Award!!!

 Kaylee Snyder was a very helpful friend/4-Her/ person and offered to show all 6 lambs Thursday night at the sheep show!! She did a great job worked hard sweated a lot and we again are very thankful that she offered to help!!

 Tucker showed his bottle calf Zoe on Thursday night and won the 2nd grade class!!! Way to go Tucker

 On Wednesday they dress their calf up for the costume parade and Tucker loves Despicable Me, therefore we dressed him up as a minion!

Tucker also helped with the lambs at home daily, the walked them and we walked them and we (tucker and I) did most of it toward the end because the 4-H er is out of commission!  Thanks Tucker for the awesome help and thanks for working your tail off to be helpful!

On Friday it is the calf show and Tayden has showed Nancy and washed her, and combed her, and worked with her 2 times a day for along time.  He loves her and it might have been the biggest struggle that he didn't get to show her!  Thanks Justin for showing her and Tayden will be eager for next year!!  He also showed his cow/calf  77 and her calf and he got 3rd with them!!

July 3 & 4 pictures

 This was first picture in the doctor office after a little pain medicine via shot in leg.

To this momma, this is the most scary/overwhelming/ wow he is hurt---  picture of the entire accident!! Poor kid!

 Saturday morning after a bath and brushing of the teeth!!!

 We get to go home, but Tayden spent his 4th of July in Des Moines and he is 10!!!

The proud parents to be leaving with only a brace after all the scary 24 hours we had!! We love you bug and hope you realize how lucky you are!

July 3, 2015....continued

So... we take the ambulance to Des Moines Mercy Hospital and at this time it is 7 pm.  Tayden or myself had nothing to eat or drink and didn't see any end in site and that was the least of my worry!  Tayden was a trooper in the ambulance and didn't say anything until he said " is that us"  we heard sirens in Des Moines when we were traveling.  They pulled up to the shed and wheeled him into Trauma E.R. room 3 and man that was amazing they did all new tests records and all.  Dr. McCleron was the trauma doctor and he checked him out and said, Mom...."he has 2 broken vertebrae that should heal fine, he is healthy and young, he has a small hole in his lung that will probably be healed by morning.  no surgery is needed!"  I sighed relief and asked the nurse what the next step was and they said you will be moved to a room upstair on the 3rd floor and we will continue to monitor him!  about 9:30 Brandon, Nikki, and Ash and Jordan came into visit us in the E.R.  I was relieved to have support or at least someone else to listen to the details and directions.  We then waited about an hour and we were wheeled upstairs to his room.  Brandon and I went after McDonalds and grandma nikki stayed with Tayden.  We ate, brandon and I showered (he worked all day until the phone call that we were headed in the ambulance-  record timing to go home chore, get clothes and be in Des Moines at 9:30)  Tayden rested and we laid down to rest until about 5 am.  they did x ray of chest and hole was gone lung was healthy.  The spine doctor- Dr. Gachinani came in and checked his neck, tightened his brace told us 6 weeks of this and he will see us again.  The nurse pushed and used her magic to get us released first so we left the hospital around 2:00 to come home!!! July 4, 2015 Tayden was dismissed from Mercy Medical Hospital in a neck brace with a few scratches!!! What a lucky boy/family we are !

July 3, 2015

The boys did swimming lessons for 2 weeks this summer and Tayden had several fair projects.  A breeding heifer, 3 market lambs, 3 breeding ewes, a cow/calf pair, and some projects in the 4-H building.  We have worked on them hard and daily since summer school was out the 12 of June.  He is all boy and loves to be outside.  Tucker, Tayden and I would get up, chore and start our daily routine, well the 2 weeks of summer school we had to be left by 7:15 or 7:45!  thanks to aunt Lindsay our mornings were a little later some days.  We also had the smith girls as helpers in the morning and then transported them to swimming lessons and back to Denny's!!! 
July 3 was the last day and we had a little work to do before going to the pool with Aunt Lindsay and kiddos!  I was trying to finish 20 minutes of brush cutting and take the tractor back to dad!  I get started and about 5 minutes into the task both kids are running over the hill at me waving their arms!  I didn't panic instead though, "they are stuck/" great now what? 
WRONG
Tayden climbs the tractor steps as I am shutting it off to hear the problem and he starts in "I flipped the ranger and it is on its side, i am ok, but the ranger is going to be hurt, i will pay for it mom i am so sorry!  Mom I am sorry and hurt and oh my neck hurts a little and mommy what are we going to do and hugging me and mommy i am sorry and....  I calm him and ask Tucker if he is okay and he says yep but now what?  I calming say....we need to walk to the Ranger and see what happened.  I call my mom and dad because I know they are home and tell them the situation and ask for them to come help.  They show up and we get to the ranger, the neighbor has seen the ranger and called Brandon, well Brandon called me... he knew what was going on and knew kids were on ranger. 
Mom, Dad, neighbor and I flip the ranger back over and decide whether Tayden is hurt or not a few scrapes, scratches and says his neck hurts..... so at 1:00 we go to the doctor and drop Tucker off at the pool thinking we will be done about 2:00 and will pick him up.  WRONG... a CT scan at 4:30 shows a broken C6, and C7 in his vertebrae and a punctured lung!  We decide on Des Moines and we rode in the ambulance about 7:30 to Des Moines.