Beautiful Knitting

My aunt Joyce (my dad's sister) knitted this beautiful dress and blanket for Madeline. The dress even has little daisy buttons on the back. They are really spectacular. Aunt Joyce also made her a little pink sweater that is going to fit perfect this winter.

Visiting in Rock Springs

On Sunday my mom, Forrest, Madeline and I went to Rock Springs. We did some shopping (Herbergers had a fantastic sale and I got heaps of clothes for the kids...I even bought some for next summer for Madeline!) and then we went to the park to spend some time with my cousin Kathy and her little girl, Shyanne.

Doesn't Shyanne have the most beautiful smile?

Shyanne liked going down the big slide.

Forrest prefers the little one, but he can do it all by himself.

Shyanne is such a cutie! Forrest loves planning with her...I wish we saw them more often!

Fourth of July

The 4th of July is awesome in Lander. We had breakfast and then went to the parade. They throw lots and lots of candy. Forrest was very aggressive when it came to getting candy...he actually growled at some kids. We are going to have to work on that. This picture is Forrest saluting the flag at the beginning of the parade.


After the parade, the whole town goes to the park for a barbeque. After we ate, Forrest played on the playground.



Madeline slept.

After that we went back to the house and had a great steak dinner and set off fireworks. The next day we went to the carnival. Forrest rode on the train with his cousin Allison.



Madeline had another cute outfit that she had to wear the next day for pictures.

Another Forrest Quote

Here is the conversation between Forrest and the barber today.

Barber: "Hi Forrest, what have you been up to?"
Forrest: "Me busy!"
Barber: "Really? What have you been doing?"
Forrest: "Mowing the lawn." (said with an exhausted voice, like we work him to death!)

Yesterday when he got to work he told Grandma Rea. "That grass grow fast. It really long. I need to mow it. AGAIN!" Again, like we work him to death.

Forrest Quotes

Forrest says the funniest things sometimes.

While driving on the highway, we came to an intersection that had rumble strips on the road to warn drivers to slow down. As we drove over them, Forrest asked "What that noise is?" I told him they were rumble strips to tell us to slow down. A few minutes later he starts yelling from the backseat, "Rumble strips, where are you? Where are you, rumble strips? Where aaarrreee yyyooouuu???"

Yesterday Grandma Sherry brought us doughnuts for breakfast, but Bill and Forrest didn't come to get theirs until later. Forrest was eating his doughnut when Bill reached to get one. Forrest said to him, "No Daddy!! No!! After lunch, after lunch Daddy, you have to wait until after lunch!" Bill dutifully was a good example and waited until after lunch to eat his doughnut. Forrest had already eaten his lunch, so he kept munching!

Visiting Family

We went to Colorado the weekend of Jun 27th to visit family. We went to Denver and stopped by my Grandma Criswell's. She is 91 years old and lives in a nice assisted living center. Grandma was very excited to meet her new great-grandbaby. She walked us all over her floor to introduce Madeline to her many friends.

We left Denver and headed up the mountains to my other grandma's house. The 29th of June was her 81st birthday. I planned a big birthday party so the whole family could get together. It was amazing. Everyone was there except Aunt Toni (who lives down the street from Grandma) and Toni's two kids. Kathy was in Nevada with her boyfriend's family and Jeff couldn't leave Rock Springs.

Here is Grandma holding Madeline. Madeline is her 9th and most recent great grandbaby.

This is my cousin Renee with her little boy, Van Alan, who was born in the middle of February.

This is my cousin Rachelle's fiance, Allan, walking with my cousin Cori's two oldest girls Emily (5) and Charlie Anne (almost 4) and my Aunt Greta's little girl, Lacy (almost 5). Allan is a great uncle...he even carried those girls, sometimes two at a time, for a while. Notice their cute dresses...my mom made dresses for all six little girls...these three and Cori's youngest, Breezy, Madeline and Kathy's Shyanne.

This is Aunt Dolly with her newest grandbaby, Nate. He is Jolene's 2nd little boy who was born the end of January. Jolene and her kids live in Tulsa, Oklahoma and came the farthest for the party. A BIG thanks to Aunt Dolly for buying them plane tickets so they could come!

This is my cousin, Ben, Aunt Greta's oldest kid. He is 16 and is a great kid. He was helpful with the little ones AND he played us awesome music from his I-POD. I liked all his music...he had the Beatles, the Grateful Dead, and other classics!

Renee took family pictures of us all and one big picture with everyone. She is going to send me a disk with all the pictures...when she does I will post the big one on here.

Another Tractor Video

I thought this video was hilarious.

Forrest's Lawn Mower

Before my dad left he and my mom bought Forrest his own John Deere riding lawn mower. Daddy and Gramps both have one just like it except his has a trailer!



He was a little unsure how to drive it initially...





...But he caught on quickily. He even gave his cousin Tyler a ride in the trailer...

My Dad

My dad has worked in the oil field my whole life. Actually, it was because I was born that he missed an interview with the international part of a company and ended up interviewing with the Rocky Mountain division which is how we ended up in Rock Springs. He has worked out of town a lot...sometimes in Wyoming, other times in different places in the US (including Alaska!). Starting when I was a senior in high school, he traveled to places outside the US including Nigeria and Azerbaijan. Starting just a few weeks ago he took a "live there" job in Oman. Oman is a small country on the Arabian penninsula; a stone's throw across the water from Iran.

Since he is out of the country and won't be seeing the kids much, I'm going to do my very best to post lots of pictures and videos for him. Hopefully others out there will enjoy the *hopefully* frequent updates from our little family. I may also post some of the pictures that he sends us from Oman because I think you may find them interesting.