ALWAYS SOMETHING NEW!!!

So I have been the worlds worst blogger lately! But a lot of new things have happened that i want to post about. First of all our trip to Texas and Arizona was really fun. We were gone for a whole month. Nate did really good at the rodeo's there. He won Scottsdale, won some at Tucson, and did really good at Houston. He won third. It was a fun time, Clint and Chelsey came to the ones in Arizona so we hung out with Austin there and Nate's parents came to those too. Nate's uncle lives in Arizona so we got to take a day and go visit him and his kids. It was a fun day and we were glad we got to see everyone. In Texas we hung out with a lot of our friends. Chris and Hallie Bradford, Blair and Tawna Burk, Clint and Robyn Robinson, and Ashley and Jake Hannum. It was fun. Great to enjoy the warm weather while it snowed at home!!! Any way on our way home we went to a rodeo in Laughlin Nevada which is about an hour and a half away from Las Vegas, so my whole family came and we all hung out with my brother Ben and his kids in Vegas for a few. That was really fun too. Next was the Dodge National Circut Finals Rodeo. It's the big shin dig in Pocatello. Nate has qualified for that rodeo for the past 8 or so years. That is tough to do because our circut is really tough. He won it in 2004. We were excited that he qualified again this year. So the first night he was kinda long... 11.4, then the next night he sped things up and was 7.8. His total time on two qualified him for the semi-finals. In the semi-finals he was 8.1, which advanced him to the final four.... where he was 8.7 and went on to win it!!!! YEAH!!! We were so excited!!! He won a pretty good chunk of change and a brand new Dodge Truck!!! It was awesome!!! He got a standing O from the crowd... which brought a tear to my eye! He did so good, we are so proud of him!!! It was cool because when he won it they handed him a red envelope that said DODGE on it and inside was a stack of papers with options for our new truck. We picked black with tan interior... and it's pretty much decked out inside... i will post pics when we get it. So all in all it has been an exciting few months!!!! (LIFE IS GOOD!!!!)

Our Trip To Texas and Arizona

TIME FLIES!!!!

WOW!!!! TIME FLIES, I have been meaning to make a post since Christmas.... and as you have probably read, meaning to go private since Thanksgiving...!!! Yeah so we have been a little busy, or should I say a lot busy! Anyway a quick update for now and soon I will post pictures, so as for Christmas, it was great we spent a lot of time with family and enjoyed every minute of it For those of you live where we do, you know the weather was cold and snowy, kinda fun sometimes, butit also gets old. As for New Years, I got strep throat, then Ledge got sick, then Nathan, then just about the rest of the fam. My cousin Cassie got married on January 2nd, it was really nice! Then it was kinda just back to the norm trying to get through the cold month of January. As for February, it's a very busy month.... my birthday, anniversary and valentines day are all in February. Tricky for Nathan but at least he can get it all over with at once! Actually February is always action packed for us because we leave cold Idaho and head to Texas for the whole month!!! It is so fun. In fact the year we got married, we came here and went on a cruise while we were here, pretty fun! I wanted to do that this year but Nathan is too afraid that Ledger would fall into the water..... ha! Also, we are a little limited on time. We have a lot of rodeos to go to, San Antonio, San Angelo, Tuscon, Scottsdale, and Houston. And a few other little ones in between. So that is where we are right now! It's pretty fun, 80 degrees, and a lot of relaxing and hanging out with friends!!!

St. Nicholas Day

I am a little behind on my posts, but i have to start catching up somewhere! These are pictures of St. Nicholas Day, it is a German tradition that my family has followed ever since I was little. We set out our shoes on the night of the sixth with a list to St. Nicholas telling him what we want for Christmas, in turn he leaves us candy and maybe a book or a movie, in Ledger's case some new pacifiers and a new blanket. It is a really fun tradition and I am glad my mom passed it on to us. This tradition is new to Nathan since we have been married, he likes it but does not really get it. He had to leave to go to a rodeo early the night we were supposed to set our shoes out, so he felt bad. Our plan was to just do it the next day since we knew Ledge wouldn't know the difference. The next morning I woke up and went down stairs, I saw my shoes setting on the counter full of candy and a few books and stuff. It was just mine though with a note written that said sorry I had to go, I did St. Nicholas Day for you, but I still don't really get it. I thought it was so cute of him, but i did have to explain the holiday to him a little better. Then we set out our shoes as a family the next night. Ledger did not know quite what to think, I think he wanted to get at those new pacifiers and his new blanket!!!

Oh Canada!!!

We went to the Canadian Finals Rodeo the beginning of November. This is the first year that Nate has qualified, they have only been letting Americans in for the past three years. It was an amazing experience and Nate did really great. It was a great way to end his year. The finals were held in Edmonton, Alberta. We left on a Monday and drove all day, then stopped just after the border, then drove again the next day and arrived at about two in the afternoon. They put us up in the Edmonton Coast Plaza hotel, which was very nice. The finals consist of six rounds, starting on Wednesday and ending on Sunday. With back to back performances on Saturday. So including driving and everything, we were there for about nine days. It was a blast. We hung out a lot with our friends Matt and Ali Shi0zawa. He qualified too. We had the chance to visit their huge mall in West Edmonton a few times, and it was amazing. I will post all of the pictures. Ledger did really good on the drive and sitting through rodeo. He is pretty used to going to rodeos, but this time it was a little more complicated, I sat all by myself each night which is different cause I usually sit by my friends, other contestants wives, or my family. Nate's parents were planning on coming, but with his dads health they decided against it. We were sad! So each night I would try and have everything all ready so I wouldn't have to get out of my seat. The roping was down a ways, like the sixth or seventh event... so he roped at about nine thirty every night and the rodeo started at seven. Each night when Nate backed in the box to rope they would announce that he was a new daddy in June to a baby boy named Ledger, so all the people in my section eventually caught on to who we were. When they would say that Ledge would be so GROUCHY, squealing... after he had been patient the whole rodeo. I thought it was funny that he could be so good every night clear up until that point. Ha Ha, he is so funny! All in all Nate did good at the rodeo, a great little year end bonus, and the Canadian Finals had us all singing, "OH CANADA" the whole way home!!!!
By the way i have not made a post forever, and I was planning on going private by Thanksgiving... but now it is almost Christmas and I am sure it will be a while before I really do, so please still if you want an invite leave me your e-mail address, I would love for anyone who wants to to keep looking!!!!

This was after the last round, we were really happy Nate had just won the round... it sure made the drive home a lot more fun!!!

Nate and Ledger getting ready for round four.... I tried to color coordinate!! Ha Ha..

This was at dinner after the third round of the rodeo, it was at a restaurant called The Keg..... so good, a great steakhouse, we went here almost every night after the rodeo, with Matt and Ali.

It had a petting zoo, pretty funny, chickens, sheep and everything, kinda made me think of the fair!!!

It had over 100 sit down restaurants and two food courts.

They had like a sea world marine center, where they had a sea lion show, it was really cute!

Water slides at the water park, they also had bungee jumping, and a complete kid playground, so fun!!!

This is the water park in the mall, this is the wave pool. When you walked into the water it was like 90 degrees!

Ledge and Cosmo, the amusement park is called Galaxy Land.

A good picture of some of the amusement park, pretty cool!!!

Ledge and I in the amusement park at the mall, he is a little too short for all the rides, maybe next year!!!

Ledge and his daddy on tough enough to wear pink night, for those of you not familiar with rodeo, this is a tribute to breast cancer that they usually do at every major rodeo. A percentage of the money raised goes toward breast cancer research. So it is pretty cool. But yes, Ledge did get called a girl a few times that night!!! Oh well, it was for a good cause!!!

Nate in the opening ceremonies, the grand entry!

Ledge at the hotel, right after we got there, posing for some photos!!!

Better Safe Than Sorry!!!

We have decided to make our blog private. We've been thinking about it for awhile now, and finally we really are! Since we use this blog more for a journal/scrapbook, we include a lot of personal information on it that, sadly now a days, should not be available to everyone in the world. We would love to have everyone be able to keep looking at it and keep "tabs" on us! I know when I'm "blog hopping" I love to look at other's blogs, and hate when I get that "PRIVATE" window that pops up, but like I said, better safe than sorry! I know there are a lot of people who look at our blog and don't leave comments(and that's okay cuz I do it too), but I need you to give me your email address in a comment if you would like me to send you an invite to continue looking at our blog...not everyone at once, now....:):):) Please leave it as soon as possible, I want to have it changed to private by Thanksgiving! By the way I copied and pasted this whole post from my sister-in-law, Ashley! Thanks Ash!!! I like the way she worded it, we have been talking a lot about the dangers of blogging lately. I want everyone to still be able to look at our blog but like she said it is better to be safe than sorry!!!

Saturday Night... Still Partying!!!

My Family Played How To Host A Murder, 50's theme. It turned out really fun, although the game itself was a little confusing! After we got done with our game we decided to play another one that is just called murder. It's not a board game it's just a game where you have a narrator, everyone closes their eyes and then the narrator picks two murders and two cops. Then you have to try and hide your identity and as a group identify the murders. It was really fun, we stayed up playing till about two in the morning. So all and all Halloween was a success!!!

My Brother Clint was a brainy guy that actually built bombs. And there is Nate and Ledge again. I think in this picture they are both watching T.V. They sure are not looking at the camera!!

Katie, Jared's wife, who has since this picture had her baby, was supposed to be the nerd. Or smart girl named Pris. Jared was the sheriff. His costume was awesome... a little piece of paper that was cut like a star that said sheriff. Just kidding!!!

This is my sister Kaethe and her husband Scott. She was a Dancer and he was an athlete. He and I were supposed to be best friends in the game.

This is Chelsey, Clint's wife and my sister Sarah. Chelsey was the sister to the guy that died in the game and Sarah was a wild girl raised on the wrong side of the tracks. Funny! Her husband Dan was here too, somehow I failed to get a picture, he was dressed as the cool guy in a sweet leather jacket. He played in a band.

I Nate had to dress like a businessman, someone who invested in Ford. His was easy all he had to do was wear that sweater vest that I bought him to wear for real. This is the only time he has ever worn it. I guess no matter how hard I try, I can't dress him.... But at least I can Ledger!!! Ha Ha!!! Oh and also Ledger got sick of his costume fast and so he ended up wearing his Halloween PJ'S. I love PJ'S on babies.... SOOOO CUTE!!!

My family played How To Host A Murder. It turned out really fun. The theme was 50's. We all had certain parts to dress up as, my character was named Evelyn. I was supposed to dress like a cheer leader. Thanks to Chelsey I got this uniform.

Later that night my family had our Halloween party, here are some of the kids in different costumes. Olivia, Tenlee (she is a hairdresser, funny), Izzy, Dexter, Deegan, Dunkan, Ledger (he was a little hot), Brecker, and Austin. That picture is missing Desmond and Oakley, and Ryker, who were there, but not in the picture, and Brooke and Zack, my brother Ben's two. They live in Vegas, so we don't get the chance to see them all the time, but actually we still see them quite a bit. We love them!!!

So our festivities were far from over on Saturday. First Ledger and I woke up and went to work, then went to Nathans' sister Amber's baby shower. It was at Grandma and Grandpa Baldwins house again. We ate breakfast, talked and watched Amber open her gifts. She got a lot of cute things.... Now we just need to see them on her new baby!!! We just hung out there that day for a while and talked after the shower it was a lot of fun.

Halloween Day

Our game was so much fun that the adults decided to try it too. It was Marie, Ashley, Megan and Jill, in this round. It was pretty funny to watch. The adults also played a mummy game that night too. We had to wrap our spouse up using only one roll of toilet paper. Well Megan Erickson got so dizzy she almost fell down. Someone got it on video... I sure hope they post it cause it was hilarious. Everyone was laughing so hard we were crying.

Mallory and Stockton playing our game.

Here are the kids having a donut eating contest,(McKoy, Jace, Sophie, and Brecken). Nathan and I were in charge of this game at the carnival. It turned out to be really fun!!! We had other games, like a ring toss, and a cake walk. Then the kids went door-to-door to each bedroom to trick-or-treat. If you have ever been to Grandma and Grandpa Baldwins new house you know they have plenty of doors to trick-or-treat at! The night ended with a witch pinata that Nathan brought to surprise the kids with. It was really funny though because since there are so many kids they all only got one hit at her, she was kinda small.

Ok, these are the Baldwin cousins... yeah there are a lot... this is everyone except Nikki Sue and Bruce's oldest three and Ashley and Nichols' two. (left to right, top to bottom) Bailee, Conner, Spencer, Carter, Jace, Kenadee, Jaden, Ledger, McKoy, Stockton, Mallory, Chase, McKenna, Sophie, Sydney, Addison, and the one you can't see Brecken, oh and I think Emma and Trey are hiding in there somewhere...

This was at our ward trunk-or-treat. The caterpillar is Ledger, the Bumblebee is Ella, (my cousin that I work with Amanda's little girl, she is one). They were looking at me, I was trying to make them smile... I think I was scaring them...

This was my hideous costume... A polygamist... SAD!!! It was really weird because I had to run a few errands that day and people did not know what to think. I am not sure if they knew I was in costume. I kinda got treated funny. I told Nathan I hope i don't treat people different just because they dress different and have a uni brow...

After work we ran out to the Wapello Elementary School carnival. We usually go every year to see the older cousins costumes. Dunkan was a biker, Dexter was a ISU super fan, and Olivia was a vampire. I didn't get a picture of them but here are the rest of the kids. Elvis (aka- Deegan, 4), Batman ( Brecker, 3) Super woman ( Izzy, 5) Ledger 4 1/2 months, Buzz Light year ( Ryker, 17 months) Raggedy Ann ( Tenlee, 5) Donald Duck (Desmond, 5 1/2 months) Kitty cat (Oakley, 2)

This was Friday morning. Ledger was a football player and I was a polygamist. We dressed up like this for work, because we didn't want our other costumes to get all hairy. The chances of that happening in the salon are pretty good!!!

The Three Buddies!!!

Ledger is so lucky to have a boy cousin born on both sides just one month ahead of him. The top picture is his cousin Desmond, he was born, May 9. He is my sister Sarah's youngest. The bottom picture is his cousin Chase, he was born May 2. He is Nathans' sister Marie's youngest. (In case you are wondering, Chase had that helmet because his head needed a little molding... and he is thinking about signing on with BYU too, they want him bad, but he might be too nice...) Ledger was born June 10. So it will be so fun to have a cousin on each side to be his buddy. It will also be fun to see them go through all the stages together, like if you can tell by the slobber on their shirts, they are all teething!!! In fact Ledger already has two teeth... Desmond and Chase don't yet... but it is also nice that these guys have babies the same age as mine, because then they can reassure me that it is fine. I ask them new questions every day and it is so nice that they can help me, I am sure my pediatrician is grateful becausethey have saved me a few calls to him!!!! Ledger is a pretty big boy, at his four month appointment he weighed 16 lbs 9 0z (90%) and was 27 1/2 inches long (over 100%). But he was almost nine lbs. when he was born!!!

Starting Young

As most of you know rodeo is a pretty big part of our lives. Nathan actually does it for a living. He is very good, and has accomplished a lot with it. We are really proud of him! It has been really fun for our family to travel together.We have so many fun memories, we look forward to making many more memories with Ledger. The top picture was taken at Waco Texas about two weeks ago. Sometimes Nathan tells people he hopes Ledger becomes a golfer, or does something other than rodeo, but by the looks of it I think it is already too late. In fact, the first thing the doctor said when she delivered him was, "wow he has big hands, I think he will make a great calf roper." So from day one it has pretty much been in the cards for him. He already looks up to his dad now so I'm sure if he has the choice to go golfing or roping the choice will be pretty obvious.