Wedding Bells in St. George

Oh how we love a trip to St. George!  In early May we headed down for our nephew Brandon's wedding and neice Brittney's baby blessing.  The drive down is long, but we stopped in Salt Lake on the way to stay the night.  Of all the hotels in the Salt Lake Valley, we happened to stay at the same one as Travis' sister and her family. 

Travis and his brother are hilarious together, and Jake has somehow become convinced that Mike is a king.  Not sure how that happened, but Mike is on board!  I think he looks like a king, you?  We LOVE getting together with Travis' family, and wish it happened more often.

Proud Great-Grandparents with sweet baby Bronson.

All the Kraupp cousins (minus Blake who was feeling a little camera shy)

Jake is over the moon for his cousin Janessa.  He calls her Bethany because she reminds him of the actress in Soul Surfer.  Bethany was very kind to play along.

The day after the blessing and the wedding, we went swimming at King Mike's.  The kids swam for six hours! Oh, and I walked in on Uncle BJ while he was changing from his swimsuit to his clothes.  He "was in the pool" I still die laughing everytime I think about it! Nice to get to know you a little better Bruce.

Two peas in a pod, 12 years apart

Goodbye Ladies

This year our heard consisted of about 200 hundred mother cows.  They birthed through the winter, and as always provided all kinds of fun and adventure for our family.  I even saw my first live birth!  I think it was also the first birth for Jake, Justin, and Megan.  In early April Travis found a buyer who was interested in purchasing the entire heard.  On April 16th the cowboys gathered and rounded up the cattle to brand and vaccinate and then to be shipped to their new home in Hagerman.  It is one of our favorite days of the year.  Jake and Emma skipped school to take part in the day, I put together the cowboy lunch.  True cowboy kids hang out in the back of the pick up and watch the excitment until they are old enough to participate.  Justin and Megan must not yet be true cowboy kids, because they aren't very good at staying in the back of the truck.  They stayed home with a babysitter--maybe next year kiddos.

Here are the semis arriving to load up our girls.

The branding process. 

About a third of the mommas.

Our handsome and fearless leader.

Jake and his favorite cowboy (next to his dad of course)

At the end of the day the mother cows load up on one truck and their babies on another.  Once they arrive at their destination the babies cry and the mothers search until each one finds the other.  It is an amazing process.  We felt a lot of mixed emotions as we watched the cows load up and drive away.  We love taking care of them, but the opportunity to sell them was too good to pass by and afterall we are in the cattle business, I guess they aren't pets.

All the cattle couldn't ship in one day, so once the first two loads had left Jake to one last opportunity to drive "his" feed truck while our employees threw off the hay.  He has figured out how to reach the gas and nearly sent one of our guys on the ride of his life!

Happy Easter

Easter 2012 will go down in my children's memories as the year mom soft boiled the eggs.  They were great sports about hunting for the eggs and tossing them into the horse pasture.  Way to go Mom!

They will also remember trying to leave after hunting for eggs at Grandma and Grandpa's house, because as Justin tried to get in the car he somehow cut his eye and needed stitches.  He had one heck of a shiner.  The tough little guy never cried once after the blood was gone.  Everyone in the ER came by to meet the toddler who didn't move at the sight of needles.

Grandpa is 65!

On March 29th, Grandpa turned 65.  He fought a good fight to make it to this birthday and it deserved a celebration.  We enlisted Grandma's help, invited a few of his closest friends, and surprised him with a party!  Cancer still sucks, but he is finally on the downhill side of his battle.  He has been blessed with many miracles this year.  We sure love Grandpa and are thankful we were able to celebrate with him.

Parents of the Year

Sometimes as parents we have those moments when we think, "Are we raising good children?" Here is today's indicator:This was written by Jake with his new found love of phonics. Annie was concerned because he spelled it incorrectly. Yes, parents of the year here.

P.S. He only wrote the line through the word once he realized he was in trouble.

Fond Farewell

Monday evening we went to the stake center with Kendall and her family as she was set apart as a missionary. It was a spirit filled and emotional evening.

Right before we left the house, the weight of what was happening settled on Jake. Kendall is truly his best friend. He can't imagine being without her for the next 18 months. He is heartbroken and has carried her picture with him to school, to bed, as he eats, and even to get his hair cut.

After Kendall was set apart it was time for us to say goodbye. Goodbyes are no good. It would be fine if we didn't love her like we do. We are so proud of Kendall, excited for her, confident that she is going to be an amazing missionary....but we miss her so much. She brings so much joy to our family and will continue to bring joy as we share this missionary experience with her.

The Dyson Expert

I'm sure you will be surprised to know that Jake knows what type of vacuum is owned by each of the educators who work with him at the school. He is so pleased with Mrs. K because she owns a Dyson. When we wheeled the Dyson into the school, the secretary needed no introductions and knew just why we were there.

He is displeased with the vacuums the janitors use and has been very anxious to bring his vacuum to school. He wanted to clean his room as well as introduce the Dyson to Mrs. Smith.

After many reminders both to me and to Mrs. Smith, it finally worked out that we were able to go to the school yesterday between 3:20 and 3:50. He vacuumed the entire room, moved the tables to clean under them, used his attachments to clean the blinds and the chairs. His freshly cleaned bin was filthy!

Mrs. Smith thought he was adorable, and he was. She told me she has had many unique interests among her students, but Jake is the first vacuum kid.

Meg figured she would add to the cleanliness and used Clorox wipes on the tables.

Jake is currently saving up for a DC33. He would like to sell hot chocolate in front of the house everyday so he can earn enough. The tooth fairy brought him $5.00 for his front two teeth and he feels his savings is off to a great start.