Shaylee Marie Mitchell
July 30th 3:34am 7lbs 3oz 20.5 inches

Shane and Haileys little girl finally arrived. Hailey had a LONG labor and ended up having a c-section. It got a little intense at the end Hailey ended up having to be put to sleep and no one was allowed in the OR.
Everything turned out good though and mom and baby are healthy. Sore but healthy.
Shaylee looks like Shaner. She's a cutie...with tons of brown curly hair. Oh so fun!! Almost makes me want a girl...almost.
Congrats Shane and Hailey!

I love this picture! This was at my grandma's in ND. Hudson is FiLtHy!!!! Oh I love having little boys around!

I love this picture! This was at my grandma's in ND. Hudson is FiLtHy!!!! Oh I love having little boys around!

These are some pics around my grandparents farm in North Dakota. I love it there. It is so peaceful and quiet. I didn't get pictures taken of everything I had planned to but here's a few for you all to enjoy.



My Grandma is an amazing gardner. I love her flower beds and her fish pond. Her vegetable garden is amazing. It's like a small field. I think she said she had planted something like 40 pepper plants. Someday I want to be out there to help harvest and can.

There are a gazillion mosquitos in ND. That's a real number, I know because there really was that many mosquitos. We were spraying each other left and right with bug spray and had bug coils burning all the time. I counted 27 bug bites on Karter's legs. He had atleast twice that amount on his entire body.
One good thing came from all the bugs though...there was an abundance of frogs! They were everywhere. My boys had so much fun catching them. If they were grouchy or bored you could just suggest they go catch a frog and they were up and ready to go.



My cousin Jeffrey was great with the kids. He was always up for some frog catching. Karter and Hudson loved him!!


I was told that Karter was caught with a frog in his mouth. Umm....GROSS!!! Glad I missed that one.

Grandma has a fish pond that my kids couldn't leave alone. They loved it! They were always asking if they could go out and feed the fish.



Have you ever tried to take a pic of six kids under four?! Ya it's not an easy thing. These are all of the great grandkids minus one, my brother Seths daughter.

Hudson was so cute holding Bristol. He did great for a few minutes and then he was ready to get rid of her.

This is an "almost" family pic. We were missing quite a few this night but it was the best we got on this trip. Darn!

This is what Hud did while everyone else played woofle ball.





Finally he got a turn to bat.

The first full day we were in ND was the fourth of July. We went to a parade in a cute little town named Fort Ransom. It is seriously cute! I didn't take any pics so you'll just have to take my word for it.
Karter and my cousins little girl Alexis were fast friends. They got along so well and kept each other occupied. It was great! We told them if they waved at the floats they would throw them candy. Their arms were moving!

They hit the jackpot! It was like Halloween.

We had a barbecue that evening at my Uncle Scotts and Aunt Jackie's. Jackie is a fabulous cook and I consumed way too much food...way too much!! The cousins and a few uncles all played woofle(is that how you spell that) ball. It was too funny.

It was so fun to be able to see all the new kiddos that have joined the family. My grandparents have seven great-grandkids with one on the way. This is "Baby Addi". She is a little darling!!

After the games ended they pulled out the fireworks. Hudson and I called it a night and left since Big Bubba is super scared of fireworks. Just before we left for ND my dad lit some fireworks off with Karter, Maddy and Hudson. I was sitting in the living room and heard one go off then I heard Hudson let out a blood curdling scream and then I saw a flash of red running down the hall. It was so funny!! He was scared to death. He didn't stop until he was in the very back of the house. His little short legs sure can move. (The pic is my sis in law Marissa and my niece Precies.)

A few weeks ago we were able to go on a family vacation to North Dakota. My dad is from there and all of his family still lives there. I always look forward to being able to go out and see all of my family.
It had been atleast six years since Karl and I had been there so we were super excited. My dad came from California and we loaded up his car and our car and hit the road for a 950ish mile road trip (one way) with nine people three of which were under four and one that was pregnant (not me). Yikes!! The ride in our car was great! My kids are wonderful travelers. It does help that some genius decided to put TV's in cars. :)
I was blessed with fabulous grandparents who would drive to Idaho every summer to pick us up and take us home with them. We had so much fun and were able to establish wonderful memories with all of our family there.
One tradition my Grandma had was to stop at the same spot every trip and take our picture. We always called it the Badlands but I think the sign said it's the Painted Canyon.
You can watch my brothers and I grow up in those pictures. It's funny how when we were younger all we could think was how much we wanted to get to our destination and do we really need another picture here. Now those pictures mean something to me and bring back so many memories.
I imagine we probably made that trip every year for at least 10 years.
So...of course we had to stop on our way and take the same picture. It is something I will always do with my family whenever we drive there.

It is beautiful there. You can see for miles. When we were younger we would often be able to spot a buffalo or a herd of wild horses. The only animal life we saw this time was a few chipmunks. They sure are cute though!

Grandpa did happen to find some evidence of a buffalo though. Karter was quite interested in it. What little boy wouldn't want to check out a pile of buffalo poop.

I LOVE this picture. So sweet.

The whole group. We aren't looking to shabby for being in the car for a day and a half.

We arrived home from vacation today. We had so much fun! We went to North Dakota to see my dad's side of the family. But while I was there I drank way to much of this...

and ate way to many of these... (thanks Grandma! They were delish!!)

So when I stepped on this...

I found...

extra pounds had snuck their way home with me. Darn them!!
I have lots of pics to come of our trip but you may not hear from me for a while as I plan on experiencing some major withdrawals over the next few days and I know I won't be able to walk once my friends find out I'm home and make me go exercise.
Boo to loosing weight being so much harder than gaining it!!