Imaginary Friends

We spent today with a brand new puppy. His name is Charley. He was so cute, Felicity held him all day and took him for many walks. She even taught him how to jump and roll over and sit and to heel and even skip. Charley is a good dog. He learned all of this today!!

Felicity just loves her little puppy. Who ever thought a tiny little magnet on the end of a string could be so much fun?

Transcontinental Rail Road Ride

This is J.W.'s first Post!!

My buddy Justus and I decided to go ride the old Transcontinental Railroad trail here in Utah. We were looking for something close and not still covered in snow. The trail is mostly the old railroad grade that was finished here in Utah at Promontory on May 10th, 1869. This is the Golden Spike location. The trail has historic information along the way and goes through a couple of ghost town cemeteries.

We made it a overnighter and rode from Golden Spike Historic site to Lucin, Utah. Then we turned south for Wendover, Nevada. That's where the Bonneville Salt Flats are.

We gassed up and started back home. We rode until 11:30 at night and camped for the night. We cooked our tinfoil dinners and went to sleep, at least I tried. The ground was very hard and Justus is a pretty good snorer. The next morning we woke up at about 7:30, broke camp and had breakfast and headed back to the truck. We got there at about 1:00 pm.

We stopped and took in all the info and sites along the way. In all we rode 16 hrs or so including stops and for 290 miles!

The trail is mostly flat rail road grade and is super easy riding but here is the amazing thing.
On the first day Justus stopped and had a flat, not a big deal we had a flat kit and even a small DC compressor. We had it fixed in probably ten minutes or so and started again. After about 3 miles Justus had a flat again in the same tire. What are the chances? We fixed it up and started again. Maybe 5 miles later Justus has another flat same tire, but this time there is a old rail spike sticking out of his tire. Justus is pretty pissed by now and were starting to think we might run out of plugs for the tire. Then it donned on me, that stinking spike must have been sucked up in the tire from the first flat! Then it punctured the tire two times from the inside out. Not a single flat after that for the rest of the ride. So if you ever decide to ride a railroad grade bring a flat kit and spin the tire after fixing to see if the little bugger is still in there.

We saw some antelope, rabbits, lizards, hornytoads, several birds, and one other person on the trail. There was a ton of sun and the temp was great! The views were awesome and it was fun to think about the old trains working their way along the very grade we were riding. We visited two cemeteries and three places were towns used to be. There are signed along the grade giving mileage from SFO and a brief history of the location. Most of the ride is in the complete middle of nowhere the closest to anything we ever got was about 10 miles from highway 30 for about 5 miles of the grade, excluding Wendover.

It was a complete blast and I can't wait for the next trip!

Sammie's School Play "UTAH!"

Sammie has been studying Utah history in school this year. She performed in the 4th grade play Utah. Sammie has been looking forward to performing in this play ever since she was in 1st grade.


She played the part of a Spanish Explorer and a Mormon Pioneer. She did so awesome! She smiled all the time and did all the actions to the songs just right and sang so well. I am so proud of you Sammie.

Grandma Hancey made the bonnett and apron for her pioneer costume. Gma & Gpa Hancey even came up to see her perform! It was so great of them. Thank you.

Stuff & Things

Has it really been that long since I posted???? Whew, time flies! Every minute felt like a day when I was pregnant and now time is just zipping by. SLOW DOWN!!!

Well I'll start with the latest and go backwards.

Dillon, J.W.'s youngest brother, is living with us. He is a pretty nice kid so it is not as bad as I was expecting it to be.

Sammie is working really hard and anxious about her upcoming school play, "Utah"

Felicity turned 3 and is the funniest thing ever. I will post some pictures of her.

Luke was blessed. J.W. gave him a beautiful blessing and most of my family was here and it was wonderful! We had a really nice day. I will post some pics too.

I started working again. I work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I don't know how I ended up working 3 evenings, oh yes, I said yes at different times and then realized it was 3 nights a week! It sounds worse than it is because 2 of the days are only for 1 hour but I teach so add another hour for lesson prep.

I haven't lost the prego weight yet. It really ticks me off. I am going to the gym but it is not working yet. I have a session with a trainer tomorrow so we will see how that goes. I hate that so many of the girls around me have kids and then 2 weeks later are back in their size 2 jeans!!!! I can never be friends with them. Just kidding. Sort of.

Life is good! I have the most fantastic hubby in the world and he is so good about helping out with the kids and treating me nice. I just have to remember not to wake him at night or he is up and will not go back to sleep. Last night I asked him to get Luke at 4 am after getting up with him every hour and then he never went back to sleep.

J.W. is obsessed with his latest project. He wants to put mantles around the see-through fireplace and build cabinets on the side and an entertainment type center for the top for a TV to sit on. He is completely obsessing about it. He looks at sites online for hours and hours to find the wood and is thinking up plans over and over on how to build it. It is consuming him!!! I am not complaining though, I know he will end up with a fantastic result. He is amazing at what he can create. I just love the quirkiness about him dreaming up the plans forever and ever and ever. He's the best.

Felicity -ese

My baby girl turns three this week and I am just reflecting on how adorable and funny she is. Her language skills are growing every day but dang, she says the funniest and cutest things.

Yesterday we were making rice crispy treats (sidenote - she LOVES to cook. Sammie's friends were over and Felicity really wanted to play with them but the big meanies had other plans so I was just trying to keep her busy). I used some big chocolate marshmallows and put them in the microwave. I took them out for her to stir up and she looked inside and nearly jumped off the counter! "OOOOH, That's freakin me out! That's freakin me out!, Get it away!" The marshmallows had expanded and puffed up really big and because they were chocolate they really did look kinda creepy. She thought it looked like a "big creepy turtle". Needless to say we threw those creepy marshmallows in the garbage and started over with just the small regular white ones. Problem solved.

I love the way she says certain words. She is growing up so quickly that she has outgrown a lot of them but these are my favs:

Woowee: Movie
Lewkey: Luke
Singers: Fingers
Sunny: Funny
Sishy: Fishy
Sossill: Fossil
Sork: Fork
Gwatchy: scratchy
Gix it: Fix it
Color Boops: Pink Cowgirl Boots (this is my fav)

REE REE Important: Really, really important
Fff FFf Sire Truck: She can say the "F" sound now, just hasn't quite put it with the other letters yet.
I can't ba leed my eyes!
Your Makin Me Ungry!: Angry
You have to practice gentle MaMa - when I am fixing her hair

Wookee wants her binky. J.W. tells her every time - HIS binkie Luke's a boy! So now she says Wookee a boy wants his binkie!!



J.W. and the girls were sitting down already in the restaurant and I was coming from home and met them there. I go to their booth and Felicity jumps up "Would you like to join us?"


Since she is turning 3 we really have tried to get rid of the binkie. She loves that thing more than life itself and I swear she would have it on her first date if she could. But, after some strong encouragement for weeks she decided she wanted to be a big girl and throw it in the garbage! Yeah!!!! Well, that was two weeks ago. The first couple days my adorable, fun loving, sweet little ball of energy turned into a terrible two, royal pain in the butt, brat, little less sweet.



When she is being so sad and miserable without it and begging for it I almost give in and give it to her. Afterall what is it really hurting? It makes her happy and comfortable. It is just socially unacceptable. Do I really care what other people think? Yeah, kinda.



I caved and she can have the bikie while she is in bed. Now she is almost not asking for it during the day. But guess what? She sneaks up into her bed with her binkie and takes a nap now all by herself!!! This from my little girl who would not sleep a wink for the first 2 years unless I was holding her and would never take a nap unless she fell asleep in the car or I layed down with her! I really can't believe it. It's a good thing I guess because she really does much better with a nap. If she doesn't have a nap you can almost guarantee at about 5:30 or 6 a major meltdown!