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We're Back!!

So it's been a long time since our last post and we apologize for slacking off. In all honesty, we have been super busy with a very busy boy! So much has happened in the last two months, and this is our attempt to update you all…we’ll call it our massive post! Pull up a chair, grab a snack or two, and enjoy the latest and greatest of the Ivie family.

In mid November, the Ivie family purchased a small enclosed trailer to store all of our camping gear...yes we have a lot of it! The Ivie family can’t wait for it to warm up so we can hook up to the trailer and camp our little hearts away…look out camping here we come!


Not only was Russ busy with setting up the new trailer, he and our back-door-neighbor built a new vinyl fence in the back yard. The final outcome of this project turned out great considering they were two amateurs!


Thanksgiving this year was with the Larsen family in Holden. Tyler loved his first Thanksgiving meal (there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t eat). Later that day, we celebrated Kael’s 2nd birthday where we had more food, family, and fun. All in all, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and we are so thankful for all that we have!



Our next adventure was our annual trip to the mountains to harvest ourselves a Christmas tree. This is a tradition our little family looks forward to each and every year. It was especially fun this year because Tyler was right there with us the entire time. It was a beautiful day to be out in the forest and after a little hike and some deep searching, we found the perfect tree!





On our way home, we pulled off and spent some time at Fish Lake. I have a feeling our little family will spent many hours here in the future!


Prior to Christmas, we made a trip up north to attempt some last minute Christmas shopping. One of our stops was to Cabela’s. Russ was so excited to show Tyler all the “goods” under Cabela’s roof. In all honesty, Tyler was more interested in the people rather than the showcase of guns and the large display of animals (with the exception of the fish, he loved the fish).


A few days before Christmas, Tyler went to visit Santa Clause for his first time. Tyler’s initial visit with Santa went pretty well…he didn’t throw a fit, just a little curious; until Santa asked him a question, and you can only imagine what happened next…Tyler was not impressed with the jolly old man!



Christmas Eve was spent with the Ivie family in Fillmore. Grandma Leora provided us all with a delicious meal and many wonderful presents. Tyler had a great time opening his presents. He was a little shy at first but quickly caught onto what opening presents is all about. We had such a good time visiting with whole Ivie gang…we definitely don’t get to see each other as much as we’d like to. Our little family wants to thank everyone for being part of our first family Christmas. We love you all so much!


Christmas day was spent in Holden with the Larsen family. This is where Santa delivered a few gifts to Tyler. After all the presents were opened, Grandma Larsen and uncle Maben made a scrumptious breakfast for all of us. Following breakfast all the grandkids suited up for their first sledding adventure with grandma. This was a lot of fun for everyone involved and I’m sure this adventure will continue for years to come! Thank you grandma, grandpa, aunts, uncles, and cousins for making our first family Christmas one to remember! We love you very much!


After two full days of celebrating Christmas with our entire family, this is what happened to our little man while he was eating his lunch…opening presents, eating lots of good food, and playing with family members can be rough on a little man!


Now that the holidays are over, life for the Ivie family is back on track with our daily routine. Russ and I have returned back to work, Tyler back with Miss Cinda and all his friends at daycare, and Reno is extremely glad to have the whole house back to himself during the day…let’s just say he didn’t get a whole lot of rest during the holiday season!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year. We wish you all the best in 2009.

9 Months Old

Our little man is 9 months old!

Tyler's First Haircut

Tyler received his first haircut today! Our good friend Kara is well known for her haircuts. All the boys in the neighborhood get in a line, and Kara cuts their hair on her porch. Since today was such a beautiful day, all the boys lined up to get their monthly haircut. It just so happened that Tyler was in bad need of a haircut, and we couldn't resist. Before we knew it, Tyler was in line for his first haircut.

Here's a picture of Tyler before his haircut...

We weren't sure how Tyler would handle this new experience, especially since he's never even been around a set of clippers. To our suprise, Tyler never moved a muscle. I think he loved all the attention he was getting while he was in the chair and honestly I think he thought he was pretty cool!




In the end, our little man received his first buzz!

Tyler looks pretty dang cute!

Thanks Kara – you did a great job!

8 Months Old

Our little Tyler is 8 months old today! It's hard to believe he's growing up so fast.

Tyler has six teeth (four on the top and two on the bottom). Russ says Tyler's teeth look like Michael Strahan's (notice the gap).

He loves to eat anything and everything.

Our little man is pretty mobile these days. He can roll around with the best...we call him our "little steam roller"! Aside from rolling, he has also learned how to crawl...well it's his creative crawl! Tyler can grab the carpet and pull himself forward. Maybe it's his take on an army crawl! The funny part is, he gets his face involved when he moves forward. Hopefully he doesn't get a carpet burn! As of late, Tyler has also learned how to crawl backwards. He is so tricky!

Tyler is the sweetest little guy around. He is such a joy to have in our home, and he makes parenthood worth it. Tyler brings so much joy and excitement into our lives. Everyday Tyler has a something new to show us, and we love it! Happy 8 Months Tyler...we love you!

Happy Halloween!

This year was Tyler's first Halloween. It was a full day of food, family, friends, and fun!

Tyler's first experience with carving pumpkins was a hoot. Let's just say he loved every minute of it! After posing with the pumpkins that were about to be carved, Tyler was ready for the next big event.



He didn't hesitate with getting the "guts" out from the pumpkins. He dove right in and started to go to work!



Like we've mentioned before, Tyler loves to put everything in his mouth. I guess there's no exception with pumpkin guts. He thought they were pretty tasty!!



Here's a picture of the final product...Tyler and Reno sitting next to their pumpkins out on the front porch.



Tyler was able to go into work with me on Halloween; it was such a treat to have him there! Every year, the Forest Service has a Halloween luncheon and trick-or-treats for all the employees and their families. We invited Penni, Tucker and Dalli to attend the festivities, and boy did we have a lot of fun. The kids were able to trick-or-treat around the office, watch Hocus Pocus, eat good food, and make new friends with all the ghosts and goblins. Tyler was also able to see a few of his grown-up friends!



Tyler was a cute little mouse this year for Halloween. He loved to wear his costume as long as we were outside...it was a little too warm to wear inside. Take look at our cute little mouse...





To complete Tyler's costume, we included Reno. You guessed it; Reno was a piece of cheese!





After the Halloween party at the Forest Service, our little family when to Millard County to visit all the grandparents. After our visits, we went to the Holden Ward Halloween Party. This was a special treat for me because this is how I celebrated Halloween as a child. It was great to see the tradition is still alive! We were able to see a bunch of our hometown friends and yes we even won a plate of homemade candy! At the end of the day, the Ivie's could say "We had a great Halloween".

Pumpkin Patch

Last week we made our first trip to the local pumpkin patch as a family. We’re a little embarrassed it took us so long to get there, but we finally made it and boy did we have fun. While we were there, Tyler experienced a lot of “first time adventures”. To begin, we took a tractor pulled hay ride out to the pumpkin patch. We’re pretty sure this was Tyler’s favorite!



While we were on the hay ride, Tyler decided to snack on a handful of straw (Tyler is at the stage where everything has to go in his mouth).



Once we were in the middle of the field,we were able to walk around and pick out the pumpkins of our choice. We quickly realized the pumpkin patch had been hit pretty hard with cold weather and lots and lots of people, but this didn’t stop us at all. After a little searching, we found the perfect pumpkins.


We had such a good time while we were at the pumpkin patch…this will definitely be a tradition in our family!

Buck Hunt 2008

The deer hunt has always been and still is a special time of year for me. For me it is a time of tradition and an opportunity to enjoy our public lands. I enjoy the opportunity to harvest an animal, but that is just a small piece of the overall experience.

This season I had several goals. The first, enjoy a hunt with my favorite hunting partner, my wife Jill. Second, enjoy the season with family. Third, harvest an animal and have a picture take with my boy and the buck.

All of my goals were met. Jill was a trooper; she made it to the area after an arduous two hour hike. We spent a lot of time with our family. I was able to harvest a nice young buck and had a picture taken with my boy.

The buck that I chose to harvest was a nice young buck. I was able to make a single off hand shot at 167 yards that cleanly anchored my harvest. My independent attitude forced me to refuse any assistance in the field dressing or the pack out. I was able to pack the entire animal out in a single trip. The challenge and work involved adds to the experience, gives me an appreciation for the animal, and makes the memories more fond.

Rub A Dub Dub...Tyler's In The Tub!

He Ain’t No Cow Dog

Reno spends a lot of his time riding in the truck and on the four-wheeler through the mountains and valleys of central Utah. Ever since his youth he has had a fascination with cattle. At first sight of a critter of the bovine genus he stiffens up, gets a mohawk, and becomes aggressive. Jill and I have discouraged this sort of behavior. As a result of the yearly and expensive trips to the veterinarian to mend Reno’s self inflicted wounds we have not encouraged Reno pursue his dream of becoming a cow dog.

As temperatures become cool, leaves begin to change, and hunters make their way up the mountains strings of cattle make their way for the valley to winter. Some of these cattle rest and wait to be sorted and claimed at the Saw Dust Pits west of our home. This location is the same area that Reno and I go for a nightly run.

Reno rides on the four-wheeler until we reach the Saw Dust Pits and then he jumps off and runs behind for nearly a mile and a half. Reno has run hundreds of miles on these roads. He has run them so much that he has figured out shortcuts that take him cross country. This night his decision to take the shortcut answered me many questions of the character and demeanor of ol’ Reno.

I looked over my shoulder and no Reno. I was not alarmed because Reno often detoured this portion of the course. I proceeded to the dike on the east side of the Saw Dust Pits and found Reno running at full throttle cross country to try and meet up with me on the four-wheeler. As I proceeded southbound and Reno eastbound I noticed not one, but three bovine standing in a small depression adjacent to a culvert chewing their cud. I froze! It wasn’t clear to me exactly what was going to take place. As the guardian of this dog should I wave my arms into the air, whistle, and chase the herd off and pick Reno up like a hard ground ball up the third base line? Should I just stand back and let Reno fulfill his dream of becoming a cow dog? Because of the lack of trust that I have for bovine I chose the latter.

As Reno topped the depression his eyes locked on the small herd. His four legs locked up like the disc brakes on a new Ford pick up. The hair of his back stood up and formed the familiar mohawk, his back arched like that of a Halloween cat, and his tail stiffened and pointed forward. He stood in this position for sometime like that of a pointer over a covey of quail. What was to Reno going to do next? Was he just sizing up the herd deciding which way to push them? Was he waiting for my command to let the ol’ girls have a piece of Reno?

He began to pace while remaining in this awkward position. He growled a bit just to remind the bovine ladies of his position on the food chain. Then it happened… One of the ladies took a casual step toward him. He let out a sound that I am unable to describe. He then fell out of the awkward cat like position, switched his tail position to folded tightly beneath his torso, and sprinted to the north at a speed that resulted in a rooster tail of dust. After nearly 25 yards he looked over his shoulder to make sure of my health and location. He noticed that I had not moved. He stopped, caught his breath, then very cautiously, giving the bovine an extremely wide birth made his way back to me on the four-wheeler. He ran the rest of the route, but stayed on the east side (left side) of the four-wheeler. This kept the four-wheeler and I between he and the bovine. He ran so close to the tires of the four-wheeler that I was nervous that he may become pulled beneath and suffer injury. As our run concluded I picked him up, sat him on the four-wheeler for the ride home, and told him that he ain’t no cow dog. He didn’t argue.