ALWAYS A GOOD TIME AT THE RANCH........

This weekend at the Ranch was so much work, but so fun too.
First we got there on Thursday night at about 7 pm. By 1:30AM, we had stripped all the carpet, pad, and tack strip. Picked all the staples out of the carpet, taped off everything and painted. We went to sleep and woke up. By Friday morning at 11, we had put wood floor in and moved our furniture in........

On Saturday the guys went out and got the cows out of the bull pasture and brought them to the house. We ran them through and got all the numbers, vaccinated them, and re ear tagged them. Here is Josh, Justin, Chip

Here is my friend Kim she is wearing Josh's hat. I think she should be a hat model..

After all the hard work was done we took off to the river...

First it was cliff jumping..or rock jumping and you probably have to double click it to see it up close..

Then we had chicken fights...Josh and I won. I think it was all due to my skills. We had a great time and I am so thankful for fun times and friends to be with.....

Here is Justin jumping and Kallie Rae and Hallie Rae (Chip and Kim's little girl)...

MY BABIES ARE GETTING TOOOO BIG...

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL....

We sold our beautiful, favorite, last house ever, house in Vernon in February.

(This is a picture from the back of our meadow of the barn and the back of the house...)

We moved into a spec house we had just finished that hadn't sold yet in Linden. There are great things about the move. And the greatest thing is that Linden School is the greatest school. AND it is about a 2 minute walk from the house...that means no packing up all 4 kids to drive to town. That means no trying to keep the 2 little ones awake on the way home. That means not going through $150 worth of fuel every 4 days!!! That means not spending 2-3 hours of my day on the road!! I love my life right now. (but I miss my great house) O'well it's all worth it, and we are young. We have at least one more house to build left in us. Here are Colton and Kallie this morning ready for school. That is why I chose this song to play on the blog. I can't believe they are getting so big. Josh and I were talking about Colton graduationg in 10 years last night and we were both so sad. I wish I could trap them and keep them little forever...

PS we had a great time at the ranch this weekend ..go here for a few details and I will post about it soon....

THE RODEO.......

We had such a great July 24th... Colton was entered up in the St. Johns Rodeo on Thursday..There is a video below of his Steer ride. He took 2nd place!! And he won $60 dollars. He is so exited. After that we headed to the ranch.

Here is Kallie she spent all day on the pony riding around. She didn't want to enter in the barrels, but after we got there she was so sorry she didn't so she might do Eager days soon..

Cade spent most of the day roping this "girl bull" She was a little girl who I think might have been dropped off at the rodeo by her parents and left, she played with Cade all day, We bought her food and drinks when she asked, and I didn't see her with an adult at all, o'well. She put up with Cade all day. Cade also told us on the way to the rodoe that morning at 7am that he had a sucker in his nose. We didn't pay any attention to him he was in the back of the suburban and who knows what he was thinking. BUT... at 7PM he sneezed and out came a snotty puffy 1/2 inch long sucker stick. Go figure...He had that thing up his nose all day. He was happy roping his girl bull and drinking coke all day, so I guess the sucker stick didn't bother him.

Here is Colton before he rode...

Here is the video...watch the whole thing it is so funny...

WHAT A 2 YEAR OLD WILL DO FOR A COKE......

Last weekend we told Cade that we would give him a coke, his own coke, all to himself. IF he let Josh shave his head. At first he wasn't sure about it.

But then he felt it and really thought it was funny. We think he has a real future as a Rodeo Clown..

And now it was all worth it....1 whole coca cola classic to myself!!!!

This is Milo a new really nice cat at the ranch. He spent the whole day in the back of a horse trailer being pulled around by a toy truck.

Look Out for Joshua D on the Pro Rodeo Circuit...

The Wild Horse Race was the event. If you don't know what this event intales, look on you tube under wild horse race, you will see. But I will give you a brief description:

FIRST...You have a 3 man team...I prefer to highlight number 170...He is looking great and ready for the action, out side the Prescott 4th of July Rodeo. He is entered up in the event for the first time, in what just happens to be one of the most popular rodeos of the year. And he drove his rodeo truck...

NEXT...there are 8 teams of 3. Each team has 1 wild bronc horse. The team has 3 jobs. man #1-holds onto the rope on the broncs halter. man #2 is called MUGGER...(Josh). man #3 has to saddle the horse while the mugger holds/contains the horse by trying to hold him still with his bare hands. Then the rider has to get on the bronc, and ride him to the other end of the arena, trying to "steer: the bucking hourse in between the fence and a barrel. All 8 teams and their broncs are let out at the same time, so it is basically mass confusion...Here they are getting ready...

Here is the action...Josh held the horse like it was no body's business...then the rider went to the end, the horse was bucking so hard that the rider couldn't get him on the correct side of the barrel. They took 2nd, because of that, but they were by far the fastest...Josh is the one holding the horses head.

He had a great time, and has had many offers to be on others teams, they were all so impressed that it was his first time, they didn't even believe him...I think he really has a future... Look for the 3 man team of Clint Lilly, Brady Peters, and Josh Smart, at the upcoming summer rodeos. THey will be an UNSTOPPABLE team...

Josh's Crazy Nicknames For Us...

This subject has come up alot lately, and since my camera has been broken, I thought I would blog about it, using some older pic's...

OUR NICKNAMES... We will start with me since I was the one named first, my name was MISTY DAWN NEAL, but....when Josh and I started dating 12 years ago, for no apparent reason he started calling me LaRae and I have been Larae ever since. I have looked into this extensively, and there is no ryme or reason for the name. No ex-girlfriends were named LaRae or anything, but this is what I am called. Now, some friends call me that and if you ask my 2 year old what my real name is he will say "LALAY". I think it's cute.

Next is COLTON JOSHUA SMART... he got the nickname Smoker, I don't even remember why, except his little friend Daisy Peters always called him "Moksers" and somehow from that Josh called him Smoker... He now answeres to Smoke and Smoker Joe...GO figure.

Next, there is the light of my life..KALLIE RAE SMART. Josh called her SUE, or SISTER SUE, since the day we brought her home...I call her Sue La Rue.

This guy is a whole other story.
His name is CADE EMMETT SMART. From about 3 weeks old, Josh started calling him TUD. It has stuck. I rememner when we moved into the Vernon Ward about a year ago, he was always playing or getting babysat at the Hunsakers, another family in the ward. There was a little girl named Holly, about 4 then. I came to pick up Tuddy one day and she said "oh man Sister Smart...does Ted have to leave so soon?" It was so funny. We have had friends over and I have told Colton to go find Cade and they have said "who's Cade?" We just explain that Tud is just a nickname for Cade.. The name TOTALLY fits him.

Our newest addition now 7 1/2 months is
KHLOE LARAE SMART...(notice the middle name, Josh insisted on it) This is BIRDIE. Looked just like a little baby Bird, she was soo skinny with the skinny, just born baby legs, and would look like a bird trying to get the worm from her mama when she would get ready to nurse. Cade calls her "Birdie Girl". Except when he's mad. Then he says..."aww man birds, why you mess with my stuff ike at"... Yesterday we had our neighbors over for dinner, and she called Khloe Birdie. Cade quickly said her name is K H L O E.

We love Josh and we are so thankful to have such a great daddy and honey. We all love our nicknames and think it is fun to have them. Josh is in Prescott right now at the rodeo being a contestant...I'll blog as soon as I get the pictures back...

SO SORRY THE CAMERA IS BROKEN.....

We are so sorry for not updating our blog. THe camera broke after josh's 30th surprise bday party....and school has been out for the summer. We have been having a splendid summer...Swimming and staying at Dave and Annettes. Ranching, Maddie died. A mountain Lion ate her. If you want the details, you'll have to ask Cade and he'll explain the whole story.
We are now landscaping our yard, and hanging out. Ibought a new camera but haven't been home long enough to hook it up. I'll do it next week. look at Lindsay and Matts blog, and scroll down to see Colton cliff jumping and this cool video we made for my nephew in Argentina (baby Gabe)... it was all my idea. But... Matt and Lindsay executed it (you can get there from my blog)