Thanksgiving Tea Party

Katelyn's Great-Grandma Wilson had a tradition of having a tea parties with her grandchildren. Since Katelyn is the first great-grand child, she thought she was old enough to take part in one. Anne has a kitty teapot that winds up and plays music that she got from someone as a gift. She has a glass tea set that she had received a long time ago, maybe even when she was a child. She made some cooled tea and Katelyn just drank it up.
"Clink"

She just kept drinking cup after cup of tea and her cookie was gone in no time. She was too cute!

Much Needed update

I've been bad about not taking pictures any more. These are of leaf raking on October 31. I heard from my neighbors that it was supposed to snow the next day, and we still had a lot of leaves on the ground. We had a huge pile and I wanted Katelyn to run through them. She loved it and it was nice enough outside to be in short sleeves. Not too bad for the end of October. So we set out to clean them up before the snow flew, which it didn't.

Kids say the darndest things

Helping to make a smoothie. She's got the technique down pat.

October is half-way gone and I've hardly taken an photos of my big girl. She is becoming such a little person, using more than one word at a time and getting out sentences. I haven't written any of the funny things she's said down, unfortunately. You think you'll never forget them and yet we do.

She copied daddy one day and told the dog, "Tucker, no eat da bee!" He was nipping at a wasp.

Everything she sees, has a mommy, daddy and if it's small, it's a baby. Pictures, movies, every woman is a mommy and every man is a daddy. The kids are babies or "tids"

She gets the cutest smile on her face when she sees something "two-ot" "Mommy Tucker two-ot!" (Tucker is cute), or the baby or whatever she thinks is cute.

"No poop in the water!" has been a common expression around here lately. K has been dealing with some constipation and this was the phrase we could think to tell her where she has to go. So she knows where to go, she just doesn't want to. It has been a challenging last couple of months and hopefully we can overcome this battle.

For some reason and probably because daddy will call me mama, Katelyn has called me "Mama" instead of the usual "Mommy".

"Nep" and "Nes" are "Yep" and "yes" to any question you ask her.

We won the battle over saying "SSSSSnack" instead of "nack". S' are a challenge for us sometimes.

Cock is truck. Where this came from I don't know. She says the t in Tucker but not for truck. So we have something that doesn't sound very nice for a very innocent thing. We had a play date one day with the neighbor and Katelyn didn't want to leave, so her and her hair-pulling buddy, Sam, shared some ravioli and some conversation. When I got back with my supper, Kim asked me what she was saying. "Big cock". Yes, that's a big truck that went by. "Oh, I wasn't too sure." Her daughter says what sounds like "bitches" for peaches. Again, totally innocent and yet it can be funny.

She is the biggest little helper. She loves to cook with me and wants to help with everything. It can be as simple as pouring her instant oatmeal into the bowl along with the water and she's happy. Sitting at the table, she wants to give me and jason a piece of everything when we're done. "Daddy, more?" and she'll hand you more of something. And she asks in the sweetest question voice, "more mommy?"

More words are coming out every day it seems. All of a sudden she surprises us with something new. Looking at a cooking magazine with me, she reaches up and points, "dip" to a bowl of dip. She loves her carrot sticks with dip. If that's the way to get her to eat them, I'm all game, because veggies are a very picky subject around here for her. Another recent favorite snack is "cheese and cackers and everything has to be "in a bow" 'bowl'.



One morning, she pulled all the pillows off her bed and onto the couch for a "woo wee" "Movie". She loves her "woo wees". We go to the library once a week and get 10 new books and 2 movies for the week. It keeps something new for us to read to her or for her to look at. She likes cartoons and watches some on Netflix as well. Some of her requests are Caillou and Word World.

She asks or tells me everyday, "Daddy work?" Yes daddy's at work. Anybody sleeping is "night". We've got her going to sleep on her own again. For a long while we would have to lay with her, but we've got her again going to be by herself. "Mommy pay". Yes mommy will pray. We pray and have a 'tiss' and a 'hug' and 'night night' and we're good to go to sleep.

There was a little look into our recent conversations around here. Our little sponge is just that, a sponge and it's fun to see what will come out next.

Little Melody All Grown Up

October 8th, I spent the evening in Clark, WY attending the wedding of a girl I met 10 yrs ago. Talk about feeling old. She was just 10 yrs old herself and here she was, a 20 yr old woman getting married. I got to see some people we haven't seen in a long time and some marveled at how big Katelyn has grown. There was quite the gathering of children from couples we've known through CWAM at this wedding. Katelyn was one of the few little girls there. The boys have dominated around here. A few of us moms gathered together before hand and discussed what we all had for occupying snacks to keep everyone quiet. Katelyn did wonderful and sat quietly with me the whole ceremony, which was an answer to prayer since she didn't have much of a nap before hand.

The ceremony was simple and yet beautiful. The church itself was quite pretty standing alone looking into Clark's Fork Canyon from the sanctuary. The front was covered in river rock and the chandeliers were resin deer sheds. It was a pretty, rustic setting for a wedding.

Her colors were teal and brown. Her bridesmaid made her dress and had brown and teal boots that someone else and myself were kind of admiring. Most of the family and some guests got the memo that some of us must have missed in the mail, on wearing the wedding colors as our attire. Oh well, we still looked smashing :)


There ceremony was officiated by a long time friend of ours, Ron Kingston, who did a great job and was choked up at the thought of little melody also getting married.


Saying their vows.


Having a moment to have communion together as husband and wife.


Having a prayer said.


Having their very first kiss!


The new Mr. & Mrs. Longwell!

The reception was short and sweet. Her dad, Jim said a few words and played a song for Melody, "I loved her first" and she had a little dance with him. It was choking for me just thinking about that being Katelyn one day. It was a tender moment.

We were on our way home after blowing bubbles on the newlyweds and seeing them off in one of their decorated cars. Their honeymoon plans were somewhat unique. They went to Red Lodge for their wedding night and then they were going to high tail it to Banff, AB but their sleeping accommodations were on an air mattress in the back of the truck. When I asked Melody about their honeymoon plans, she said that Jon was being "practical". I asked if she brought her flannel pajamas. "Oh yeah, I brought all my under armor under clothing." Well girl, I hope you stayed warm :)

"She Thinks We're Just Fishing"

I love that song by Trace Atkins. She thinks they're just fishing but doesn't realize the bonding that's going on between a father and his daughter.

A couple of weeks ago, Jason thought we should take Katelyn to the local fishing pond. Basically it's a big cement pond in town that they stock with fish. It's not the cleanest fishing spot and you might not want to eat the fish you catch, but it's easy to get to.
Very serious face equals fish, right?

And sometimes it was Daddy who was more into it than the prodigy.
Her first catch!

We didn't stay long but I think it was fun for her and just fun for us watching her.

"I He-ope"

Sometimes trying to spell what you hear just isn't as cute as hearing it from that sweet little mouth it comes out of. This is a common phrase I hear throughout the day. I have a little helper in my K and I love it. Sometimes it's more help than what I would like, but I don't want to discourage her. She helps with taking the groceries out of the cart in the check out, sometimes with making the bed or cooking. This girl loves to cook. "I cook, mommy I cook". It can be as simple as opening the package of instant oatmeal and dumping it and the water in the bowl.

She is a Daddy's girl too! She loves to help her Daddy do whatever it is he is doing. Yesterday was an errand day for Jason and I got him to take Katelyn along. It's not fair that I always have to take her and he just goes, so it was his turn to have a Daddy/daughter day. It left me a lot of time to clean and cut up a batch of salsa. They stopped to talk to someone and K got to pet their kitties and horses and puppies, much to her excitement. They checked out Jason's future patrol car, which needs a lot of work before it's in working order. They ended their date with lunch at Mickey D's for a cheeseburger. I was just happy to see them spend some quality time together. She is at such a fun stage.

This was from a couple of weeks ago, when she thought she had to help mow the lawn. It was a very windy day as you can tell by her hair.

Horseless

My dear Emma is no longer part of our family. As of September 19th, she now belongs to another family that is just in love with her, which is good to hear. I will still look at the pen that was her home for so many years, as I drive by our friends place. We sold Jason's horse this past spring and knew that we weren't doing Emma justice by not having used her much in the last 2 years since we've had Katelyn. It's harder when you don't live on the same place as your horses and you have small children. It's been especially hard this summer with jason working shift work and having no time to go out and do anything. So, we decided a while ago that we needed to say goodbye and get out of a winter burden of feeding something we weren't using to the fullest. Plus, with feed going up this year, it was another expense.

Katelyn has just gotten to the age where she loves to ride too. The past 2 weeks, we've had to go out every night to doctor Emma since she cut her foot on some barbwire. We got Katelyn to sit on her back, grab hair and hang on. She loved the short rides she would get from the pen to the barn and back and Emma did good with her. Of course we were right beside her holding K and leading Emma.

We know enough people that have horses that I don't think we'll have a problem finding something for Katelyn to get on occasionally. One day, if God chooses to bless us with some acreage, maybe we'll get some more ponies.

Corn on the Cob

Had our first taste of corn on the cob and cucumbers the other day. Katelyn isn't too enthused eating it off the cob because it gets stuck in her teeth and that doesn't not sit will with her. So for both our sanity, I cut it off for her. Cucumbers, we've got to dip in ranch to make them go down.

Sobering

Jason started with the police department on July 18th. August 3rd rocked the whole department. Sergent Michael Chretien was coming home from camping with his family, when his trailer started to fishtail on the highway. Losing control, the truck and trailer flipped landing on the driver side killing Mike. His wife and 3 kids were hurt but not badly. That afternoon, our hearts sank to hear of the news. Mike had been in charge of the training program for the new recruits. Jason got to spend some time with him and did a couple of ride-alongs with Mike before he was even hired.

3 weeks into this new vocation, Jason makes the front page of the Powell Tribune as an honorary pall bearer at a police funeral. Mike was cremated, so for the procession, the whole force were pall bearers. Because he and Reece (on the left) are the rookies, they were at the end of the line. This was the front page picture.

A police funeral is unlike any other. Other agencies in the state, send up representatives to attend the funeral. Unfortunately the first week in August had a couple of other officer funerals. Some of our guys headed to southern Wyoming to attend a Sheriff's funeral who drowned while trying to save a girl in a flooded river. That happened on a Monday. The next day in Rapid City, SD there was a deadly shooting of two cops and one badly injured. Then Wednesday, we get the news of Mike. Just not a good way to start off a week.

There were probably up to 30 different departments represented there, plus the ambulance and dispatchers. The local sheriff's department helped out our guys a lot the day of the funeral. Their dispatcher came to take over so the girls could attend and their patrols were out so the guys could all attend. There was a processional of all the duty cars which was lead by Mike's car with a wreath on it, that wound around town and ended at the ceremony site. That's a long processional when you add all of the out of town cars too. (Jason is in the middle and back. He doesn't have a car yet, but drove an officer's that was out of town and unable to make it)

The ceremony was very somber. Many still in shock and disbelief that this was happening. The gospel message was presented by his friend who happens to be a pastor and friend of ours. That was probably the hardest part for us, we didn't know where Mike stood with God. From what others have said, he was asking a lot of questions, but we don't know if he believed. Somehow, that just puts a damper on a celebration of a life.

Because Mike had also been in the military, after we moved outside, a 21 gun salute was given as well as playing of taps and a flag presentation to his wife. Then the police department added the police element. They did what is called a Last Transaction. The dispatcher calls Mike's number over the radios. When on duty they have to respond, but of course there was no response. He was called again and then the news of his death was announced. "Your job is done. Thank you for serving your community and your country. Rest in peace" It is a very emotional thing to hear. That radio is a cop's life line to his where abouts and his safety. For a dispatcher, you never want to hear silence on the other end.

They then loaded up all the cars and drove to a reception for officers and families. It was a chance for me and Reece's wife to meet the other wives. We've been told that this department is a pretty tight family that we have entered into. It will be fun getting to know more of them, hopefully, in an off duty way.

Rock Thrower

One Sunday after church, we drove up to the east entrance of Yellowstone, for a birthday wiener roast with some friends. The North Fork River was finally lower and clear enough for the guys to try their hand at fishing. The run off from the mountains has been a long process making the rivers chocolate brown for too long into the fishing season. The day was hot, the water was cold and the hot dogs were sizzling.

Katelyn loves throwing rocks in the water. When our friends picked the spot, they had her in mind. There were some small pools of water she could trudge through and not get swept away with the river. The bank in spots were shallow and she stayed close to us. After the first couple of walks through the water, the pants were soaked, so off with them and she went around in her pull-up.

This girl has feet of steel. That or she doesn't think about it. She walked faster on those river rocks than I could. I looked like an old woman. I was looking for the sand to stay on but not my girl. Into the water with her. This is what I would hear, "Hum, mummy, Hum!" ("Come" is "Hum" sometimes) She walked and threw rocks the whole time we were there, with a short break for some food, of course.
A couple people brought their dogs along. As I was making a video, I was told later that one of them hiked his leg up on me. I didn't feel anything so he must have missed or wasn't as close as they thought. The rest of them got a good laugh out of it though. I couldn't hear them yelling at me because of the river. Oh well. I'll boot the dog next time.