11 months

Our Sammers is 11 months old today! I can't believe he's almost a year old.



Here's what he's been up to...


Last weekend was our antler hunting trip! Caleb dreamed about antler hunting the two or three nights before we left so I knew he was REALLY excited. It's something he grew up doing quite a bit so I was excited too. We drove up to Montana Wednesday afternoon and got there that evening. Thursday morning I milked the cows with Mom Baker for one last time... then they loaded them into the horse trailer and we took them to Orifino with us to the family that was buying them. Side note... Caleb's parents are getting rid of lots of stuff and animals in preparation for their move to Utah. They've been doing a lot of remodeling in their house and they hope to have their house on the market within a month. They want to be closer to their kids, and 6 of them are in Utah now, so it just makes sense to go there. They plan on going on a mission within the next 2 year which is so exciting! Anyway... I put Sam down for a nap and then we took off. We "hunted" in Orifino, ID Thursday afternoon, all day Friday, and Saturday morning. We stayed in a hotel in town. The mountains there are BEAUTIFUL! We saw lots of deer (white tail and mule deer -- I'm proud to say I now know the difference!), antelope, elk, grouse, wild turkeys, a porcupine, squirrels, and lots of other birds.Antler hunting is basically just hiking around the mountains looking for antlers on the ground that the deer have shed. Orofino is where Caleb's Dad grew up and where Caleb and his family lived for a couple years when he was younger. Friday afternoon Caleb and I were ready to go back to Montana... we hadn't found many antlers and we missed Sam a LOT. But Caleb's Dad really wanted to stay so we didn't have much of a choice. :) It was a lot of fun though and nice to be out in nature and go down memory lane a bit with Caleb and his Dad. I didn't find any antlers, Caleb found two, and Dad Baker found two. Better luck next year hopefully! We got really nice boots for our trip. We'd been wanting to get some anyway for self reliance purposes and so Caleb can go on scout campouts in the winter and stuff like that. As is typical of us we shopped around a ton before making a decision. We got really good deals on-line in the end and we both loved our boots. :) Sam did surprisingly well without us, maybe better than we did without him! The dogs kept him happy -- he would chase scooby and peppy all around the house. And he loved the horses out the window. Caleb's Mom was convinced he knew how to say horse b/c whenever he'd see them he'd say "hos, hos." But since we've been home he's been saying that a lot, when he doesn't see a horse, so I'm not sure if horse is actually his first word or not. We appreciated so much Caleb's Mom taking care of Sam. Anna went to prom Saturday night and we got to meet her date Sunday morning -- she brought him to church. After church the missionaries came over for dinner and a discussion with Anna's date and this other friend of the family named Berry who is investigating the church. The Bakers have inspired me to be a better missionary!! We thought we'd kind of enjoy a short break from caring for Sam but we really didn't! Family, and especially kids, is really what makes us happy, not cool getaways or fancy boots. :)
Other highlights of the past couple weeks...
We've enjoyed keeping up on the March Madness tournament! BYU has made it to the Sweet 16 and will play Florida State tonight and we're going to the Chatterton's house (our bishop) to watch it. Go Cougs!
Missy's dryer was having issues so we switched ours out with hers and Caleb's still trying to figure this one out. When something does go wrong with one of our renters/appliances we are just grateful it doesn't happen more often!!
We had a fun FHE with our other renters, the Cabreras, on Monday. We played some Mario board game on the Wii which was really fun and Yoshi (Caleb) killed us all!
Last night was our ward temple night and Amanda and Erik Jones watched Sam for us. We trade babysitting with them which works out so well. I'm so glad Sam has grown out of the stage where he screams the whole time if we leave him. He does pretty well now. We had a ward chapel session before the endowment session and the temple President spoke and gave such a powerful talk on the Savior. We got to be the witness couple which was neat. The only other time we've gotten to do that is once when we were first married. Jonathan Whiting, a guy Caleb grew up with in Stevensville happened to be in the same session so that was fun too.
A couple weekends ago Laura and I had a craft day. I did a dry erase board using a frame and fabric, and she did a really cute pillow to match her bedspread. She brought a cake with her too, so we of course decorated it for the game that night!

The Preparing for Your Mission fireside for the young men and their parents was two Sundays ago and it went great. It was a bummer that more of the boys didn't come but I know it was great for the boys and parents that did come. Caleb and Dan Stevens spent a lot of time preparing for it and it was a relief for Caleb when it was done!

Sam can stand for up to about 5 seconds at a time and he is making all sorts of new noises. He still talks with so much emotion and puckers his lips while talking when he gets really into it. :)

Til next week!