Dawn at 6:30 am

In this picture, if you look really closely to the left side of the picture, you can see the Tetons! In the mornings when it is a clear sky, you can see the Tetons really well from where we live.

Everyday there is a beautiful sunrise, and I usually miss it...but today for some reason, I woke up wide awake right at 6:30 am. I was literally ready to start my day (I haven't woke up this early on purpose since I was going to school last Fall Semester at BYU-I and had a class at 8:00 in the morning, so I had to leave the house at 6:30 am, which means I woke up at 5-6am). Anyway, I woke up early, and there was a orange/red glow that was seeping in through our window, so I had to check it out. When I looked out the window, this is what I saw...so of course, I had to get my camera and go outside and get some pictures so I could share them with you! Enjoy!

Finishing Up (Finally)

The sunset last night as we were pulling the trucks in from the field

Adam with his BIG combine...When you see these huge machines out in the field, they look quite small, but when you are next to them, you see how big they really are! This combine probably weighs around 40,000 lbs!

Loading one of our trucks

Adam finishing up with the combine for the night

The grain field at sunset

One of our trucks and the sun setting behind it a couple nights ago

We have been so blessed to have a wonderful grain harvest this year! We have yielded well, not too many breakdowns on the combine, the trucks have run smoothly, and we haven't ran anyone off the road, yet! We are on our last half of our last pivot, and so we have about a day and a half left. It is nice to see and end to so much work and progress. We will be starting hay harvest this next week, so we will be busy again with that, but we are glad to have most of the harvesting done for the year. Only one more crop of hay to finish up with! Yeah! Adam and Morgan are going back to school on the 8th of September, so we are trying to hurry and get as much work done as possible. The fall work (plowing, discing, and planting the ground) will have to happen between the days Adam and Morgan have class, because my mom and I are going to be doing the hay harvesting full time. It will only take a couple more weeks, hopefully, before we are done!

I Love Sundays!!!

Ted, Adam, Morgan, and my mom after dinner. We love eating on the back porch in the fresh air. It seems to make the food taste better too! How do you like Adam's bib? Adam and Morgan are always into mischief or teasing each other. It makes for a lot of fun.

Chrissy was sitting and waiting for us to feed her some of our food all night.

Here is cute little Shasta with her chew toy.

This was the sunset from my mom's backyard last night. The sun is starting to go down so much earlier now. We are all so sad summer is almost to an end.

Sundays are my favorite day of the week. It is a day where I actually get to hang out with Ted all day and relax with the family. I also love going to church and being spiritually edified. This week it was Stake Conference, so we had meetings on Saturday and Sunday, which was great! There was also the Twin Falls Temple Dedication yesterday. We were going to go to that, but I wasn't feeling to good, and Ted was tired, so we slept through it. But, if we would've went, we would have been in church meetings all day, literally!

We also went to Ted's cousin's farewell yesterday. He is going to be such an amazing missionary. He is going on a Spanish-speaking mission, and he can already speak Spanish fluently...in fact he bore his testimony in perfect Spanish yesterday! Wow! Ted is amazed at how fluent he is...he says he sounds like a return missionary, not a future missionary. Anyway, we are going to miss Taylor. He is such a nice young man! Speaking of missionaries, Ted's little brother, Josh, is coming home from his mission in December! We are all so excited for him to get home. He is such a spiritual and uplifting person. We are hoping that Ted's brothers (Adam and Josh) will be roommates at BYU-Idaho together, because they would have so much fun together! Adam already graduated from Utah State last Spring, but he needs two more prerequisite classes to get into graduate school. We are hoping that he will stay close to home for grad school, because we just love having Adam around!

Yesterday, we had a great dutch-oven dinner at my mom's house. If you haven't had some of her dutch-oven cooking, you are missing out! We had BBQ Chicken, Cheesy Potatoes, Fresh-picked Beans and Squash, along with some Peach Cobbler for desert! It was sooo good! We watched the movie, Nim's Island after dinner, and it made a perfect night. We have a lot of fun all being together. Usually, we are all working hard and don't get to really socialize, but this was a good break from work and a good socializing opportunity! Anyway, I hope that every one's weekend was fun too! Now, it is back to work!

I Got Tagged!!!

Sarah got me! I am glad that she explained on her blog what this whole "tagged" thing means, because I had no clue. I guess what you do is, write five things about yourself that nobody knows or that is unique to you. Then, you tag five of your friends. So, all you friends out there, be ready, because your name might be at the end of this post and then it is your turn to be "tagged"!

So I am not very good at this stuff (because Ted, Sarah, and Miriam probably already know everything there is to know about me), but I guess I will try and be creative.

I am extremely afraid of the dark! I know that this may come to a bit of surprise to some of you, because we live in the middle of nowhere so it gets pitch black out here at nights, but it is true. When I was little, I enjoyed camping out on our lawn at our house at night, but I would be so scared that I would pull all the zippers into the tent and try to make it impossible for anyone to get in from the outside. To this day, I will not go camping out any further than our yard in a tent because I am so petrified! Oh, and I do have "night-lights" in my house. I have always had one in my bedroom since I was tiny, and I still do now. I think Ted hates it, because he loves the dark, but he bares with me well.


I love the outdoors, but hate the bugs. I love being out in the dirt and working hard, but I absolutely hate the grasshoppers, spiders, flies, bees, etc. that are also outside. I think it would be a perfect world without the insects. When I watched the "Bee Movie", I still didn't have any feelings for those little bees. If it weren't for them pollinating my flowers, I would be out there with the wasp spray all day trying to kill them.


This is something that is a little strange, but it is the way I am...Every since I have gotten married, I am scared to death to talk to any male human being that is within like 10 years of my age. I know this is weird, but I think that part of it is, because I am the type of person that really likes to talk to people and get to know them, and I don't want to give the wrong impression to them that I am interested or like them more than just friends. So, like I have had this friend and we've been friends since I was in high school, and he worked for my family last summer, and he is in my ward, and his family and my family are really close (him and Adam (my bro) are really good friends), and we know each other really well, but I am like too scared to talk to him now. He barely got home from his mission right before Ted and I got married and so I really haven't even said more than "Hi, how are you?" to him since four years ago. He just barely got married, and I can talk to his wife with no problem, but I still have some blockage in my brain that will not allow me to even congratulate him. Anyway, I really hope I get over this soon, because it is something that could effect me once I get kids and they want to play at the neighbors house, but I can't take them because I am too afraid to talk to their friends' Dad. Yikes!!! If any of you have any advice or tips on this one, let me know, please!


I never decided on a major while going to college. This is a strange one, but it really does explain me perfectly. I am one of those people who cannot decide in life as to what I want to do or be. In my childhood, I would always just do what Adam did. Up until I graduated from high school and went to two semesters at college did I kind of decide that I was going to be different from Adam. I am glad that Adam was such a good role model, because otherwise we both could be off the deep end. (Or maybe we are, and just don't know it. If we are, please let me know!) Anyway, after I got into college, I would change my major to the same major that the person I was dating was taking (weird, I know. Ted says it is just because I am so versatile I literally could do anything. Awww, isn't he so cute!). So I went from Ag Business, to Sociology, to Physical Education, to Child Development, to English, to Communications, to Business, and finally to Generals. I decided on Generals after I met and married Ted, because I really just wanted to be done and I had most of my Generals done. Now, I am looking back and wanting to do Home and Family Education. But, I would have to re enroll, and I wouldn't be back into school until the Summer Semester at the earliest, and by then, I am hoping and praying I have a baby either here or on the way.


My greatest life experiences have been with my family (Ted and his family included here). It doesn't matter if I have been working, playing, learning, or just sitting and talking with my family, every moment we have had together I cherish. I never knew how much one person could change so many things in a family until my Dad passed away. I always felt like he was the quiet and unchangeable one, but he taught us so many great life lessons that are already impacting our lives for good. I would just like anyone who is reading this to think of their most favorite memory with their family. Then, give them a call and reminisce. Let them know how much you love and appreciate them. They are one of the main reasons why you are where you are today. So let them know you care, because you never know when that opportunity might not be there.


I "Tag", Miriam Lusk, Katie Smith, Kristin Palmer, Whitney Andersen, & Emily Harding!
Have fun!


P.S. I actually learned a lot about myself by putting these things into words.

Good Times

Here is Adam in "the hot seat", his combine. As you can tell, he loves it up there...but after a whole days worth of driving it, I think he is glad to be done for the night.

This was the beautiful sunset we got out on the farm.

Here is a picture of the sunset tonight. I love these shots out in the wheat field. As you can tell, I can't get enough of them. Hope you all enjoy!

P.S. I have a funny story...and it is true...Okay, so you know how I have been blabbing on about the the harvest and driving trucks, etc., well, up at the mill, there are these workers who help you to get your truck pulled correctly onto the unloading crate, they make sure you are unloading your truck into the correct bin, they help you unload the trucks, and they really just make sure everything is running smoothly. Well, when we first started to go to the mill, everyone was kind of nervous and didn't know if they should talk to you or not and it was really awkward. Those of you who know my mom, will enjoy this next part...so my mom takes it upon herself (unknowingly) to talk to everyone and make jokes, get to know their names and where they are from, and so on. I think at first everyone was like, "who is this lady?", but now everyone loves her. Whenever they see us bringing a truck in, they literally drop what they are doing and come right over. Then, they talk and laugh, and just have fun. It is nice though, because I think that things can get really busy and stressful up there for them. There are hundreds of trucks that come several times a day to dump grain off, so it keeps them on their toes. Anyway, just one of the great talents of my mom, and what a way to brighten and lighten the day.

Good Times

Here is one of my favorite shots I have gotten so far. Adam is about to unload the wheat into the semi (you can see the unloading auger coming out of the combine on the right). It was one of the last loads of the night.

Here is another one of my favorite shots this harvest...it is Adam and Morgan driving out of the field after a long day of work.

There must have been a fire last night, because this is what the sky looked like. It was really pretty, but you hope that a farmer didn't lose any grain fields from a fire.

Nice truck and trailer huh? I also love the very nice sticker job Ted did on the door of the truck.

Here comes my mom out of the field.

Here is my mom driving the semi out of the field after being loaded by Adam in the combine. You can see the combine out in the field with lots of dust around it. When there is the dust from the wheat, you don't want to breathe it because it makes your nose runny and it also makes you cough...no fun! Trust me, even when you are used to the dust, it still makes you sneeze, etc.

I hope that everyone is not getting sick of seeing my harvest pictures. I am just so excited about showing off all of our hard work to everyone...plus, this is my first full-time harvest, so it is a new experience for me too. I have always been going to school or working, so this harvest is much more eventful and exciting than the ones before. Plus, I love riding in the big truck and dumping the wheat off at the mills. I never knew how hard it was to drive a big truck or semi until now, and let me tell you, it is the hardest thing ever...so if you are driving and see a truck, slow down, move over, or do whatever you can to get out of their way. I know there are a lot of scary truck drivers out there, but if you had to think of all the things they have to think about while driving, you would be a terrible driver too! Trust me, I could never drive a semi in my life! I would probably end up in a wreck on the first trial drive, seriously, and I credit myself as a dang good driver. Anyway, enough of that, I hope you enjoyed the pictures, and I am sure I will be posting more soon!

P.S. Ted and I moved lots of pipe today. He really wanted everyone to know. It is a lot of hard work, especially during the middle of the day when it is the hottest in temperature of the day. But, it was fun hanging out with him during the day, which usually doesn't happen because he is working hard at his store everyday.

Fall Colors

As you can see, I love wheat so much, I decided to get myself some and keep it in the house. Morgan and I found some stray wheat on the ground and collected it up so we could keep some in our homes. It is so pretty and adds a touch of country and the outdoors into the home. I made Ted stop and get his picture taken before he left for work this morning (as you can see, he has his lunch pail in hand). I thought he looked so cute today, and he was wearing very similar colors to the plates and decorations on the table. It is just an all-around great picture I think. He said he felt like a model, because I took a million pictures (the lighting was weird, so each picture turned out very different).

Here is one of our wheat fields. We have been harvesting for almost two weeks now, and it is going really well. My mom and I drive the trucks up to the mill (grainery), and my brother gets to combine all day. It is quite the team effort. Morgan either gets to ride in the combine, drive trucks, or help out some other way on the farm to help keep us going too. We got to move some pipe the other day, and today we will be moving a lot of it, so I am getting myself ready for a hard day of work. I still think moving pipe is better than picking rock though.

I was doing laundry the other day, and for some reason, the dryer was taking forever! I could do three loads of wash easily in the time it took for one load of clothes to dry. So, I decided I would use our old-fashioned clothes line in our yard to dry the clothes. I was very glad I did, because the clothes smelled so good (like fresh air mixed in with a sweet scent of lavender), and I was able to get a lot more wash done than usual.

This was the beautiful sunset that we got the other night. I have always been amazed at how the sunsets are so astonishing out here, but they just seem to get better and better every time. Sometimes I wonder if it is just because we are in harvest and after being out in the sun all day, it is nice to get a little color instead of just brightness in the sky.

Charlie pics

This is little Charlie. He is so cute huh? I am so glad we have email and cameras now-a-days so we can be thousands of miles away and still be able to see each other and share precious moments in time. Don't you love the tractor blanket?

Date night!

Charlie Craig Ames

Brian and Emily's baby, Charlie

Ted, me, Morgan, and Adam at the game. Fun times!

GOOOO CHUCKAR'S!!!

Chuckar's game...We won!

Ted, me, Adam, and Morgan got a date night out to the ballgame this last Saturday. It was a lot of fun! We don't get to hang out much outside of a working situation, so this was a nice change for all of us. We (my mom, Adam, Morgan, Ted and me) also went to Utah yesterday to pick up some furniture for Adam and Morgan that my sister Karen was keeping for us from our house down in Utah. We ate dinner with Karen and Craig and enjoyed their company. After we finished eating, we got a surprise visit from my brother Jim and his wife Nancy. So it was a lot of fun seeing all of them too! We also went to Ted's sister, Charity's house. She just had a new baby this last week on Thursday morning at 12:06, so we went to visit and give her some baby stuff. The baby's name is Colton. He is so cute! I can't believe how tiny babies are when they are first born. It is kind of funny, because my nephew and his wife just had a baby this week too on Wednesday night at 10:00. They live in New York, so we can't really go and see them, but their baby's name is Charlie, and in his pictures he looks so cute too! So, Ted and I had a nephew and great nephew born only a couple hours apart...which is quite a unique event. Anyway, we are both really happy for them and we are glad things went well! I will have to post pictures from Charity's house when we get them. Tonight, we have the missionaries coming over for dinner, so I am cleaning the house like crazy! I haven't had anytime to clean because I have been so busy helping out with harvest, so I had best get going! Talk to you later!

Busy Week!!!

Ted went with my mom and I to dump a load of grain. So, I had to get a picture of him out being a farmer, since we don't have any to prove his hard work out there. The wheat we have been harvesting the last couple days has been the wheat that he has watered and taken care of all summer. He has done an amazing job, because we are yielding really well! Way to go Ted! He is quite the farmer boy! Maybe we will convert him yet!

Is it just me, or does Smokey have a Mo/Fro hock??? here? I think he had been licking his paw and then rubbing it on his face, and then gave himself a new hair-do! I love it! He must be trying to fit in with all those "cool kids" who do this at school!

Okay, so I got a box shipped to me from Bath & Body Works (because they had an awesome sale, so I had to get some great deals online), and as soon as I got the stuff out of the box, and then put the box by the back door, so I could put it in the garbage, Smokey runs over to the box and jumps in it. I seriously could not get him out of it...then he fell asleep in the box (as you can see here). I just couldn't stop laughing at how funny and cute he looked, so I snapped a picture before he woke up...I thought this was just too cute! Whoever says animals don't have feelings or any personality, is so wrong!!! This cat has enough personality for a whole person!

Ted and me wearing our cool 3-D glasses for the movie "Journey to the Center of the Earth"

Ted and me at the movies! (Our once every couple months "Date Night", Oh how we love them)

This week has seriously, been the busiest week ever! We have been harvesting all week, and there have been a couple repairs that have taken us some time, but for the most part, the combine has been in the field and the trucks have been on the road. On top of it all, we have been blessed to have Ted's little sister down this week (which I mentioned in my last post, was a lot of fun). We even found a little time to go school shopping...which is exhausting in and of itself! I was only in the mall with her for a couple hours, but for some reason, it felt like we were in a busy prison with lots of people rushing around trying to beat you to the next store...(we went to the IF Mall). I was disappointed in our shopping experience this year, because everything was so picked over, there was hardly anything we liked in any of the stores, and all the on-sale stuff was almost all gone, and the rest of it wasn't worth looking at. Anyway, we got her a couple of shirts and they were so cute on her! I also showed her how to do some online shopping so she could get a better selection of stores and clothing at better prices. I think she was pretty excited about that. Last night, Ted's Dad stopped by and stayed the night with us on his way home from Malad. He has been working down there and just got a day or two off before a really busy next week, so it was nice having him here for a night. We also had a wedding reception of one of my friends from high school to go to last night. That was way cool, because I got to see some old friends from high school. All of you know how that goes...it is awkward , fun, and crazy all mixed together. I saw one of my friends, Ashley, and she is so cute and sweet! I swear, she couldn't give me enough compliments, and it was a little embarrassing (in a good way though). Her and her husband are so cute together, and she is working on her master's degree down at Utah State! Go Ashley (she is such a great achiever)!!! I also saw another one of my friends, Katy. She is on baby number three! It is so crazy that she can have that many kids and be my age! I think she must be a wonder-woman, because she looked beautiful and poised under all the pressure of being a mom at such a young age with so many kids! Anyway, Ted and I also got one night out this week, which was much needed from all the craziness of family, friends, and work. We went to the movie, "Journey to the Center of the Earth". We loved it! It was in 3-D, so we got to wear these cool glasses, and it felt like you were in the movie. It is by far a must-see movie! We recommend it to everyone! The acting and special-effects were amazing! I think we might go see it again, and then definitely buy it when it comes out on DVD! Well, I have went on and on, and now I need to go get ready for a baseball game. Adam and Morgan got me and Ted tickets to a Chuckar's Game up in IF tonight, so we are going to get a night out on the town with the newlyweds! Yeah! Love you all, and hope all is going well!

The Time is Now...

Adam and Morgan in the combine cutting the grain! This is where it all comes from folks!

Driving the truck back to the field to be refilled with grain after dumping it off at the grainery

Me after unloading one of our trucks at the grainery

Ted's lil' sis, Lissa, has been staying with us for the last couple of days, so she has been getting a lot of harvest time in, and it has been great! She is such a trooper! We wake up so early, and work hard during the day until we can't go anymore...which is until around the time the sun is way past going down...and she has never complained once!

Starting to get the trailer ready to unload the grain

Adam opening the bin to unload the grain from the grain trailer

Dumping our load of grain at the grainery...Lots of Wheaties here!

The sunset after a long hard day of work...what a great reward!

We start our days with servicing the combine, by putting oil on the chains, and greasing the grease certs, combining, and filling the trucks full of wheat. Then, we drive the trucks to the grainery and unload them. This is done several times a day. During the time the trucks are being filled, we do other things, like pick the garden, move pipe, check the farms, check picots, and do other repairs that needs to be done on the farm. It is a lot of work and makes for a long day, but you sleep amazingly at night!

The Blessings of Living in the Country (you get to grow your own food, and get to see the sunset every night)

These are some of the peas we have gotten out of our garden. We still have a couple more pickings before they are done. We still have tons more beans coming too. We just got our first zucchini and my mom made delicious zucchini bread (yum)! The garden is doing great this year! I am so excited to keep having the fresh produce that we have grown!

My mom and her Recon 4-Wheeler (as you can see, the wind was blowing way bad after the storm passed)

The sunset

The rainbow

Ted and me with the sunset and the beautiful rainbow that showed up after the rainstorm

I thought this sunset was amazing with the equipment in the picture

Yesterday, we were really busy with trying to get the combine ready for harvest this coming week. What you have to do is grease it, oil it, and put chain lube on the chains. There is so many places to grease!!! We used the owner's manual to find all the places to grease and oil it...there were so many that were hidden and it took us about 2-3 hours to get it all finished up. It is the first time that Adam and I have worked together on servicing equipment, and it was a lot of fun! You learn how to work together really well, really quickly. Now we are going to be starting harvest, so it is good-bye to everyone for the next month and a half to two months...so sorry if I don't keep in touch very well for the next little while. I think that wheat harvest will take 2-3 weeks and then we go right back into our 3rd crop of hay harvest. We also got a rain storm that came in right before the sunset and it made for a breathtaking sunset, as you can see. The rainbow was a bonus too!