Christmas Time!

We drove back from Minnesota last Sunday and Monday and have finally slowed down enough to post some pictures. We decided this year to decorate for Christmas. We usually don't since we are home only a few days before Christmas and then leave shortly after to go back to MN. But having kids makes celebrating a priority! So we did the full traditional family Christmas. We took snowmobiles to get a tree, decorated it, baked, visited family, while squeezing in unpacking from moving me and Palmer home...busy busy busy. We are so glad we did it all though. We're still enjoying our tree (with my lovely tree skirt and matching stockings)and it feels a lot more like the holidays.

From Duluth to Milwaukee!

Garth's first race was last weekend. He never ceases to amaze me. He had a couple rough qualifiers in the stock class.
In his first qualifier-his goggle strap broke and he had to pull off the track for a new pair (w/out goggles you get disqualified, safety issue). Luckily his mechanic is on top of it and had a spare pair in his backpack. He still managed to pull a 6th place finish out of that one. Then in his final-he had to start in the second row but powered through lap by lap and finished in 3rd, less than a second behind 2nd!
Podium left to right: Dan Ebert (2nd), Tucker Hibbert (1st), Garth (3rd)

In Garth's Open final he had terrible visibility, so wisely chose to play it safe and ended up 8th at the checkered.
Today he's in Milwaukee, WI for round 2 of the AMSOIL circuit. Palmer and I stayed home to cheer from behind the computer screen. Then we'll be on our way back to Idaho for the holidays with family.

Season Kick-Off!

This weekend marks the kick off to what hopes to be a great season of racing. Garth races at the Spirit Mountain ski resort in Duluth, MN this Saturday and Sunday. For live timing and scoring of the races click HERE. It's a live feed of info received from transponders on each racer's sled. Each time the snowmobile crosses the finish line, info is updated.
Watch at these times for Garth
(STANDARD TIME! DON'T FORGET TO MAKE THE NECESSARY TIME ZONE ADJUSTMENTS!)
-Saturday: Pro Stock
Round 1: 3:00pm ST
Round 2: 4:40pm ST
LCQ: 6:00pm ST
FINAL: 7:30pm ST

-Sunday: Pro Open
Round 1: 10:30am-ish ST
Round 2: 12:30pm ST
LCQ: 2:00pm ST
FINAL: 3:00pm ST
or check out the complete race weekend's schedule HERE

There will be at least a couple HEATS in each ROUND so if you don't see Garth #48 in the Pro HEAT you are watching, keep watching, he may be in the next one.

It all sounds a little confusing but if you want to watch/listen and have a question, just call me...It's pretty exciting watching the live timing if you aren't at the race. I've watched it that way before and was on the edge of my seat the whole time!

Other fun links:
Live webcam of race venue: CLICK HERE
Garth's Team's Website: CHRISTIAN BROS RACING

Fighting Sioux!

We went to our first college hockey game last weekend. Palmer loved loved loved it. We had lots of fun too. The stadium was super nice. We were there from 4 until 10:30pm and Palmer was into it the whole time. We might have a future hockey player on our hands...

Salem Sue

Well-we've made the trek to Minnesota for our winter life. We left Driggs and drove up to Cooke City, MT where there was enough snow to ride. Garth and some of his teammates rode for a couple days to break in their sleds (and their bodies!). On our way out of Cooke City, you go through Yellowstone Park. We saw all these animals:
Coyote-

Big Horned Sheep-
Elk-
Bison-
A trip to the hot tub with the boys!-
And in North Dakota, Salem Sue! The biggest Holstein cow in the US?

We coped with the long hours in the car with the IPod. It was a huge change from traveling with Palmer before. Evening is the toughest when it gets dark at 5:00 and Palmer isn't ready to close his eyes-but he can't see to play with toys...so out comes the IPod. We got free podcasts of Sesame Street from ITunes and and AUX cable to plug the sound right into the truck's speakers. Entertainment for hours. And Palmer has a SHORT attention span. It totally does the trick! I highly recommend it.

No trip through ND would be complete without a trip to Space Aliens. It's a restaurant/arcade/extra terrestrial museum of sorts full of artifacts and souvenirs. We played Deal or No Deal and won the max amount of tickets (I didn't take any of the banker's deals and ended up opening my own case!) and bought a bunch of crap w/the tickets. So much fun...

She's Crafty

I've decided this year to decorate for Christmas so I made our stockings and a tree skirt. It was a LOT of work. Way more than I thought it would be. It took me 12 hours with help from my mom for the last 8. My little sister Rachel helped by keeping the machines threaded and feeding us (among other things).
Garth even stopped by and helped trim and iron...but mostly kept Palmer happy and occupied. It was a family effort for sure. Here is the finished tree skirt:
The bigger stockings are for me and Garth (mine is the stocking on the right with the beaded trim), the elf stockings are for Palmer and his baby brother on the way and the smallest one was a sample my mom made up first to make sure no step was left out...we're using it for Duke (our dog).

The pictures don't do them justice. They turned out so pretty!

Hunting season is finally over!

I get my husband back. This past season Garth was hunting any chance he got. Morning and night. Before work and after. It paid off for him though. Here is a picture of his big 6x7 bull elk.

The Doctor Said...

It's going to be a...BOY! I haven't blogged much about my pregnancy-so here's a little update. I am due April 28th (Palmer will have just turned 2!). I had my level 2 ultrasound today, at only 15 weeks rather than the typical 20 weeks (because of my previous pregnancy turning high risk in the last few days and early delivery), and the doctor reassured me that my chances of getting preeclampsia again are low. A 1 in 5 chance. Which sounds a lot better when said-4 out of 5 chances are-I'll have a 'normal' pregnancy. I love getting an ultrasound. They looked so closely at every little detail and can even see arteries and the way the blood is flowing! How fun for my son to have a brother! ...and soon I will have 2 wild boys running around!!

Halloween

Halloween was so much fun this year. We didn't do too much-just my mom's house and Garth's grandma's to show off Palmer's cute costume. Then trick-or-treating at one friend's house then our night was over. Seeing Palmer in his dinosaur costume was the best part though. He never complained or wanted it off. He got all the candy he could ever need and got to eat all he asked for. He was definately buzzing off all the sugar. It WAS Halloween after all...

Here's Palmer in his car seat with a blue mouth already from a dum-dum.

Here is Garth with his Grandma Phyllis (and Palmer of course). Her house is always decorated for the holidays. Palmer loves his great grandma!

Ball...

Yesterday at my mom's house Palmer said, "Ball."!! He was referring to the golf balls my sister Rachel was washing and decorating. Palmer is 18 months old and doesn't talk. At all. He has said "Dada" (of course) for a couple months but nothing else. Just a lot of grunting and whining. We were so proud and very surprised! He loves throwing balls, especially for Duke (our dog). So it only makes sense that his first (real) word would be ball...

This video is from today at our house.

Halloween Party

On Saturday, Palmer and I went to a Halloween Party at my best girl friend, Beth's house. She is an amazing cook and made 3 delicious soups. Then we carved pumpkins-Palmer dove right in watching the other kids for cues on what to do. I haven't carved the outside, yet, but we gutted it out and cooked the seeds (my favorite!). The we (well Beth) made carmel apples and we dipped them in whatever toppings we wanted. Nerds, oreos, chocolate malt balls, M&M's, pistachios with craisins and ginger...whatever we wanted. Beth's carmel put Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory to shame. Seriously. We're looking forward to Halloween this Saturday and trick or treating with Palmer.
I apologize for the sideways filming. I had to to get Palmer and his pumpkin together.

New Mommy Wagon!

Yesterday we got a new addition to the family! It helps with accommodating our coming baby addition as well! Love it love it love it! But we traded in the ole reliable Civic. It broke my heart a little. Why do I get so attached to inanimate objects?? It's a 2009 Toyota Highlander. It's hard to tell from the pictures but it's greenish. It seats 7 total with a third row. It is AWD and drives great. We bought it from Hertz in IF. They were easy to deal with and gave us a great deal on our trade in.

New Snocross Schedule for '09-'10 season

There is going to be a race in Sandy, UT on Jan 9th! I especially mention this because it's kind of our 'local' race and is closest to our family and friends out West. As I get more information on this race, I'll post it.

Nov 27th‐29th AMSOIL Duluth National Spirit Mountain, Duluth, MN

Dec 19th & 20th Potawatomi National* Milwaukee Mile, Milwaukee, WI

Jan 9th Western Nationals* Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, UT

Jan 23rd & 24th Air Force National Canterbury Park, Shakopee, MN

Feb 5th & 6th Eastern Nationals Finger Lakes Gaming & Casino, Farmington, NY

Feb 13th & 14th New England Nationals* Rockingham Park, Salem, NH

Feb 20th & 21st Canadian Nationals* Hiawatha Horsepark, Sarnia, ON, CA

March 6th & 7th Hayward 300 LCO Casino, Hayward, WI

March 19th‐21st Nielsen Enterprises Grand Finale Grand Geneva Resort, Lake Geneva, WI

The Mighty Hunter

Garth is obsessed with hunting. OBSESSED. He talks about it all year. He gets tags to hunt black bears, deer, and elk. So here he is with his big mule deer. So proud. It's still in the velvet, meaning his antlers are still fuzzy. Garth worked really hard to get this deer. He shot it with his bow. He also wanted me to add that it grosses around 220 B&C. (That's the score for the measurement of the antlers which is great especially since it was shot with a bow!)

Oh and by the way

I'm pregnant! Hence the new baby ticker on my page!

Finally...

I have the Internet again. I have felt so out of touch without it.

In August, we enjoyed a visit from Garth's sister Darcie and her two kids-Cooper and Zoie. We picked huckleberries and raspberries and made jam. That was a first for me. I've never canned anything before. It was so much fun spending time with her. She is amazing. Her kids are so much fun-Palmer loved the company.

Here is Darcie and our beautiful raspberries.
Zoie

Cooper

We also celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary. We went to Salt Lake and stayed in a beautiful room, ate sushi for dinner and shopped at IKEA (my favorite) and Cabela's (Garth's favorite). My mom watched Palmer so it was just the two of us.

Garth and I at dinner

Our view from the hotel. The weather was perfect.

Our garden is amazing...

Not to brag but our garden is beautiful. It's growing like crazy. We are growing carrots, peas, onions, broccoli, Swiss chard, spinach, red leaf lettuce, head lettuce, beets, tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, zucchini, yellow squash, and corn. YUM!

Teton County Fair

We went to the county fair on the 24th. We watched my sister, Rachel, and Garth's sister, Mindy, show their pigs for the 4-H auction.

Here we are w/my cousin Mike in the background. We took a couple pics trying to get Palmer to look and he is making a funny face in all of them. We had no idea. Haa haa-love it!

Here is Garth with the giant 1200 lb pig! This picture doesn't do him justice. He was HUGE!!

Palmer and his balloon. He was inseparable from it for days. Until, sadly, he popped it.


We checked out the petting zoo and the goat helped himself to Palmer's snack tray and all his cheerios.

Palmer walks!

At 15 months today-Palmer has been walking for about a week. He is totally a walker now though-no more crawling. He's still a little wobbly but is adorable toddling around the house. Now that his hands are free from crawling he usually carries something in each hand with him around the house. In other words-he can make the house twice as messy, twice as fast. I guess it's time to teach him how to clean up his toys after he's done playing right? Wish me luck with that...

Sorry about the sideways film job. Now I know better. But you get the picture.

Porter Park

Porter Park is this amazing park in Rexburg that has a darling little splash park within. My friend w/her 3 kids and my oldest bro w/his little man met up and we let the kids play. It was so nice to cool off on a hot summer day (which I love and can't get enough of!). Anytime anyone ever wants to go-let me know we'll meet you there!

Boise

After visiting friends in Rupert, Palmer and I headed to Boise for 4 days to visit my brother Robert, and his wife Rebekah. We haven't seen each other for quite a while and we took the opportunity to catch up and spend some QT together before he was off to Southwest Asia for the air force for 6 months! We are so proud of him.

Boise is an awesome town. I would love to live there someday...

Here is Rebekah and Palmer in her backyard. She got him this really cute dog that blows bubbles that he was totally fascinated with:

Uncle Robert (my bro) with Palmer playing the xylophone at an awesome splash park in Meridian:

Rachel, Me and Palmer, Robert, Rebekah, and our mom-Beth at dinner the night before Robert left for the Air Force: Robert at the airport with his massive luggage at 4:30am!

At the airport saying goodbye.

L to R: Me, Palmer, My mom-Beth, Rachel, Robert, Rebekah, her mom, sister Deborah and husband.

I also got to see my good friend Rheanne who lives in Boise and we went to the zoo.

Palmer on a baby tiger:

Rheanne and Palmer going down the giraffe slide:

Palmer and I hatching out of an egg...

Rupert

Last weekend we spent some time in Rupert, ID catching up with some good friends of ours. They have a beautiful spot on the Snake River.

Here is Meisha and Palmer on the hammock:

Palmer playing in their awesome sandy beach:

Garth wake surfing:

Meisha taking Palmer for a ride-Palmer was up for anything and everything!

We had so much fun. Garth rode his road bike and dirt bike while I hung out at the river oasis. Not pictured (shame on me) are the wonderful Urban family and Mark Melehes. They were such wonderful hosts and showed us a great time. We hope to go again soon...