4th of July

We love the 4th of July!!! This year they had some new things the kids haven't done before like the bubbles. The bubbles started out white and after awhile they were brown from the dirt. We ruined Kylee's pink pair of shorts in this activity.

This is Kylee going way out of her comfort zone and participating in the pie eating contest. Way to go Kylee! Ty is right by her in the gray shirt--he actually just barely won!

This is Ty in a swimming pool trying with his bare hands to catch a fish. This was also new this year at the 4th of July.

Below is Jaimee running her race. She got up to run with her age group of girls and she was the only girl, so they had Jaimee run with the boys. And yep--she beat them all and won. Jakob was very close behind her however.

Summer Fun

Up above is Matt's creativity shining through. He hooked up a big black sled to the 4-wheeler and pulled the kids down the canal.
Abby

Matt and Jaimee getting me set up for a clothesline. I grew up hanging clothes on the line and back then didn't appreciate having to do this chore, but now I can hardly wait to have one of my own.

Kylee being a monkey on her bed. Her and Abby spend more time doing tricks and standing on their head than they do standing on their feet.

Here is Tucker at Regional Wrestling. This was held in Pocatello so we had to take advantage of the closeness of it. He lost 2 and won 1. He was in a pretty tough group. The winner of his weight was a girl from Hawaii. He never had to match up with her--to which we are very thankful.

Hancock Family Reunion 2009

This years Hancock Family Summer Reunion took us camping to the Buffalo Campground in Island Park. We had been watching the weather prior to going and it looked to be rainy. The weather man proved to be pretty accurate. When we got there we had just enough time to park our campers and get somewhat unpacked and then it rained pretty hard so we immediately had to rig up some sort of shelter. Thank goodness for smart husbands and for tarps...and coats!!

This must be the boys side of the table....and the girls side of the table.

Karli, Matt, and Abby trying to keep dry and warm while waiting for Old Faithful.

Megan, Morgan and Kylee trying to do the same thing.

Me, Tucker, Jaimee, and Kylee

Most of the Hancock cousins--Jay and Kristin's family were parking and poor Isaac had a stomach ache.

Abby and Emily replanting dandelions.

Ana, Abby and Emily--they had a great time together being only a few months apart. Thank goodness for their boy cousin Tanner who is the exact same age to help watch over them and keep them in line.

Grandma D and Ty looking a little wet.
My pretty Kylee trying to catch the big one at Henry's Fork--no such luck though.

Tucker--not a lucky day for him either.

Abby and Emily

Helen and Braden, Ty and Tanner. All in all we had a great time and can't wait for next year!!

June 2009

This past spring Ty kept telling Matt that he wanted chickens. We knew a guy in our ward that was moving and had all the supplies and all we'd have to do was take it apart and re-build it at our home. The picture above is Tucker and Ty's work (I think this was a test to see how bad the boys wanted chickens). Matt told them they'd need to dig 4 holes that would need to be about as deep as Ty is tall--if that makes sense. The boys used a shovel and their hands and had their work done in no time at all. Their 4 holes started the mess below.

I have to say that we all LOVE the chickens, in fact, Tucker wanted a chicken cake for his birthday (I will post a picture of that later). We all fight about who's going to check for eggs--it's like a treasure hunt to see how many eggs we will find. We average about 2-3 eggs per day. Our hunting dog Gus has really decreased the population of chickens around here though. We've had 15 chickens and he's taken out 7. We are much more careful now with Gus and we always have to know where he is.

This summer we got to have Tori, Ryanne and Aaron over for awhile while Jayse spent some time in the hospital. This is the three girls addicting Tori to Diner Dash--a game Ryanne and Jaimee couldn't quit playing last December when Ryanne was over at our home while Brian and Chris went to New York.

Ty, Aaron and Tucker sleeping out in the tent. I guess the flash was too bright for Tucker.

Jaimee, Abby and Ryanne

Grandma D's birthday. We fixed her dinner and made her a strawberry rhubarb pie.

My handsome husband celebrating his 38th birthday. We fixed his favorite-- blueberry and cherry cheesecake.

May and June kept us busy with Ty in baseball. This is only his second year and he did very well. He hit a couple of homeruns and tried out pitching, second base, left field, and centerfield.

Ty has been so cute with Tanner this summer. He holds his hand and plays with him whenever he gets a chance. This picture shows Ty trying to persuade Tanner to eat his lunch at the gravel pit. His Mom and Dad tell us that Tanner is a picky eater so any help is much appreciated.

This is my boy Ty thrilled to finally get to operate the riding lawn mower like his older brother and sister. He couldn't stop grinning--even with a popsicle in his mouth! I'm sure the newness will wear off all too soon.

This is one of our favorite places to go in the summer when it's hot (and little or no mosquitoes). Matt put this swing in 5 or 6 years ago at the gravel pit. Our little 4 year old Abby decided to be brave this year and try it. She loves it and squeals and squeals as you can hear on this little video clip. This is the first year Matt has really thrown the kids in the air as high as he can despite my gasps.

May in a Nutshell

May brought to an end my preschool. We had a great year. Abby is my girl in yellow, my neice Ana is the other girl and my nephew Benson is the one in the black shirt. It was fun seeing them twice a week. We made a lot of memories.

At our elementary, it's tradition to have a great big field day at the end of the school year where the kids compete in running and jumping events. Ty made it to the finals in the jumping contest and he tied for 1st place with 3 other boys.

This is Ty pitching his first game ever. He has only played one year baseball and then this year. He kept asking the coach if he could pitch and finally at one of the games Ty walks out on the pitchers mound. I told Tucker "oh, Ty is just going to pitch a few balls until the pitcher comes out on the mound." Well, no other pitcher came because the coach told Ty he could pitch. He did pretty good for never having pitched before and I must say I was pretty nervous.

Another baseball story this month about Ty was that when he'd get in a game and up to bat he'd just stand there and either strike out or walk. Well, at home and at the pitching machine we'd see a different Ty--he could hit the ball. So finally I told Ty if he'd just get one hit I'd give him $5. It only took him one game and he got a hit. Then at the next game he got 2 homeruns. Bribery works at the Hancock home!

A week ago Jaimee ran in conference track. I have never been so nervous in all my life. Preliminaries were on a Thursday and she had to place 1st in her heat or get one of the next best 4 times to make it to the finals. After so much work on the hurdles, staying late after practice, icing her shins every night sometimes twice a night, wrapping her legs everyday, having the coaches rub her shins until they bruised, and taking as much Ibuprofen as I'd let her, her hard work paid off. She placed 1st and made it to finals the next day.

Below is the "finals" in the 100 hurdles. Amazingly, 4 out of the 8 girls that made it to finals were from Rigby. She places 2nd right behind one of her teammates. It was an awesome race!!!! Jaimee is in lane 3.

She also made it to finals in the 100 and ends up placing 6th overall in that race. Her medley got 4th and her 4x100 relay got 7th (Jaimee and another girl had a terrible hand-off--the baton flies up in the air and Jaimee catches it between her arm and her side and then takes off running. Her coach said she was ready for the Olympics because in the Olympics they throw it in the air, but they don't catch the baton like she did).

Eliza Shippen, Jaimee, Cienna Madsen, Hailey Stone and Brittany Hayes. All of them except Brittany ran in her 4X100 relay.

This is our shy little Kylee running in the 50 meter dash at the schools field day. She surprised us all and got 1st in the finals. She was so excited!!! She's the cute one in orange.

Abby turns 4

On May 3, our baby girl turned 4. She wanted us to try out the triple barrel curling iron on her hair. It makes her look way too old, but also very adorable.

Abby and her Grandma D.

Abby in her chair that Grandma and Pockey gave her.

She wanted a princess crown cake. This was my first time of ever trying out fondant. I'm not even sure how to spell it. She was pleased with it and we had a great family party that night for her.

Tucker takes 4th at State Wrestling Tournament

We headed to Boise on May 1 for the state wrestling tournament for Tucker. Ty was burned out of wrestling and was starting baseball so he didn't want to wrestle. We stayed at Ben and Helen's in Parma. Tucker did so well!!! He wrestled Novice 75 and pulled a 4th place at state. It was actually a long, long tournament. We waited 4 hours before he even wrestled his first match because they messed up Tucker's bracket. Then we waited another 2 hours for his second match. After that it was pretty regular with matches about every 30 minutes. I thought he did awesome. He wants to wrestle at regionals in June in Pocatello--yeah, a place closer to home!! (Tucker is on the far right)