The Ballard Bulletin

The last year

2010-11-12T20:35:00.000-08:00

We have had much to celebrate this year. It has been a real joy to watch Seth grow and learn. We also prepared for a new baby to come into our family. Rafe Scott Ballard was born on his Great Grandfather Hyrum's birthday, October 17th. He weighed 7lbs. 7oz. and was 20 inches long. He is a handsome little baby boy! We had to build a shed to store all the the extra stuff since we are running out of space in our tiny little house. Dad spent way too much time thinking about archery and mule deer. Mom spent way too much time stressing over Seth puking!!! ;) We spent some time working out of town in Park Valley, UT. Being gone so much made it hard to keep up in our garden. Seth loved to go outside and eat strawberries out of the garden everyday. He is a 2 year old HANDFUL but is a lot of fun. He loves to wrestle with our dog Beau and also loves to yell out his name at the top of his lungs. It is hard to coordinate jumping on the trampoline and yelling at the dog at the same time. Rafe is a fussy baby and loves to scream at the top of his lungs also. Now that he is almost 4 weeks old I have figured out a few tricks to make him happy. We had to go to Toys R Us and get Seth a few things to keep him busy now that he doesn't have my undivided attention. (Hopefully it works) He was the cutest ghost for Halloween. He still doesn't quite understand Halloween though. Mom and Dad are already looking forward to a time when we can leave the boys with a sitter and maybe have just enough time to hit the drive through at McD's!!!! hahahahaha! Its been a wonderful year and I promise to try harder to post more often in the future. P.S. Facebook sucks so if you want an update on out family this is where to look! :)

Seth loves the leaves

His work of art

Sam's pumpkin

Seth was Casper for Halloween

Forget the candy and just give me a Happy Meal

Seth and Rafe

Carving pumpkins with some friends

This is what happens when Seth gets markers!

He loves his new baby brother!

Seth and Granny Venna

Rafe Scott with Uncle Scott

Cousin Eve and Rafe

Getting ready to leave the Hospital

Rafe Scott Ballard

Brooke, Grandpa Jeff, and Rafe

Grandpa Jeff holding Rafe

Me telling my parents the good news

Tears of JOY!!!!!

Seth practicing for the new baby

Seth in his new swing last spring

Getting ready to help mommy mow the grass

Cute little Wrangler butt!!

Seth with Daddy's wild rag on

Fun Birthday, Halloween, and other pictures

2009-11-23T17:49:00.000-08:00

Seth and Sam reading the paper

Seth's 1st horse ride

He loves riding

Grandma Dessa, Grandpa Jeff, Uncle Joel, Aunt Ashley, Lea,

Sam, Seth, and I all went for a ride on our ATV's out in Osino. What a fun day!!

Seth's hair is a little wind blown

Seth loves the colorful pumkins

Cute little Cowboy

Seth loves his dad!

Seth in Sam's Cowboy boots.

He thought this was so funny!

Seth and mom!

Halloween

Too much fun!

Seth in his rodeo clown costume that I made

come on bull!

Since Seth was a rodeo clown we made Sam a real clown

hahahhaha!

Seth's 1st birthday party at Grandma Dessa's

Venna made Seth a clown cake just like the one she made for

Sam when he was little!

Soooooo cute!

Birthday boy

The day after the party. We were all exhausted!

Sam and Grandma Rosie after Seth's party

Seth loved his cake

He loves to feed himself

Cute

The party was a lot of fun. Seth enjoyed being

the center of attention!

peek-a-boo

Seth with his cousins that came to the party

The cake was so much fun. Thanks Granny Venna!

Catching you all up on this summer!

2009-08-23T22:11:00.000-07:00

the orchard before
the front yard before

the orchard after

orchard after

front yard after

front yard after
Seth eating a graham cracker

what a mess

having so much fun

an artist

how cute

fell asleep in his bumbo chair

cake I made for the 4th

Sam's idea of roasting marshmallows

(its a pitchfork)

Sam and Aaron

Sam's antelope

happy hunter

Quincy, Sam, Braxton, Rich

Seth watching the campfire

Seth in the backpack

Seth eating green beans

As Granny Venna would say " Just Darling"

so handsome

he loves his daddy

ladybug on his hat

having fun outside

Seth and mom

Static hair and funny face

tastes everything

my little man

cute in camo

John Deer boots from Uncle Marc and Aunt Becky

into everything

my little monster

loves his cousin Liz

happy boy

more graham cracker pics

Sam's new dog Beau

Sleepy boy

Our little cowboy

It has been a long time since I have posted. Forgive me everyone. We have been pretty busy this summer. We were both in weddings, Sam shot an antelope, Seth started crawling, he now has 4 teeth and is getting 2 more, we got a new puppy and named him Beau, we have done a ton of yard work and it is really starting to pay off. Seth is awesome and is getting so big. Here are some pictures of everything! ENJOY!!!

2009-04-22T11:47:00.000-07:00

Seth and I went to Keaton's baseball game. Keaton did awesome. It was a lot of fun to watch him. He hit the ball clear into the outfield every time he was up to bat. He even slid into home plate. They are soooo cute out there in their little uniforms. Seth got to wear some of his summer clothes because it was around 80 degrees. Granny Venna sent him a cute little yellow duck for Easter and he just loves to hug and kiss it. (probably because it is so soft.) Aunt Jill passed down a cute little frog outfit. It was so funny to put it on him. He looked so cute. It will be the last time that he wears it though because he is growing so fast :( I realized that there aren't many pictures of Seth and me on the blog so I put some up. Most of the time I am the one with the camera so I am not in a lot of the pics. I told Sam he has to start being better about taking pictures of us! Everyone was writing to me saying that all of the pictures were of Sam and Seth... so we will try to do better and mix it up a little. Aunt Ashley let us borrow Lea's little toy mat. Seth loves it. When he is not trying to stuff the toys in his mouth he is trying to grab his feet. He is so much fun!

2009-04-02T10:51:00.001-07:00

Stupid Gallbladder!

2009-04-02T09:35:00.000-07:00

You may have heard about my recent visit to the hospital. On Monday the 16th of March I had a huge gallbladder attack and ended up in the emergency room in Fallon. They did an ultrasound and my gallbladder was full of stones. After they got me feeling pretty good on pain meds they sent me home and told me to meet with the surgeon ASAP because it needed to come out. Then the very next day I had another attack. Becky had to come get me and take me back to the emergency room. The radiologist looked at my labs and ultrasound and informed me that 3 stones got out of my gallbladder and into my common bile duct. This is very bad because they were blocking the opening to my pancreas. They were afraid that I would develop pancreatitis so they had to ship me to St. Marys in Reno by ambulance. They don't have the technology in Fallon to do the surgery to remove the stones from the duct so that is why I had to go to Reno. In Reno they did and MRCP which is kind of like an MRI on me to see exactly what was in the duct. Then they performed an ERCP on me. This is a surgery where they stick a tube down my throat with a camera on the end and go into my stomach. Then they cut into my Bile duct and remove the stones. This procedure can also cause pancreatitis so they had to make sure everything went O.K. with this surgery before they went in for the second surgery to remove my gallbladder. Everything went well though so then on the same day I finally went in for the last surgery and had my gallbladder removed. In total I ended up being in the hospital for 6 days. The hardest part was being away from Seth though. He got to come stay with me for one day at the hospital. The other days Becky and my Mom watched him. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family. I want to say thank you to all of you who prayed for me, fasted, and also for all of the concerned phone calls. I am doing great now and am so excited to be home to take care of my little family.

2009-02-23T18:21:00.000-08:00

2009-02-09T14:27:00.001-08:00

2009-01-03T14:31:00.000-08:00

Sam and my brothers went coyote hunting!

Kelsey Rose was blessed on the same day as Seth

Kelsey and her Dad

Seth in his blessing outfit that Grandma Katie made

Seth's Blessing day

Dad giving Seth a bath

Seth pulling Sam's hair while they play together

Seth in the outfit Uncle Joel and Aunt Ashley

gave to him

Super Seth

Sam and Seth sleeping together

Mom, Seth, and Ethel

Dad and Seth

Home for Christmas

2008-12-30T17:29:00.000-08:00

These are some pics from our trip home at Christmas time. My sister Adrienne was able to hold our new son and we had a great time visiting with her and her family over the Holiday! It was fun to have our families get together. We Blessed Seth and his cousin Kelsey on the 27th of Dec. and then had a luncheon afterwards with everyone from Sam's, Mine, and Jill's families. It was really awesome. Bart and Jamie Hyde gave Seth his first Christmas outfit and I couldn't resist getting a few pics of him in it! (He is SOOOOO cute!) Seth's hands look just like little carbon copies of his daddy's hands. Sam loves Seth so much. It is great to see them together. The other pics are of Seth looking at the book we got for him for Christmas. It lights up and sings, he seems to really like it. Then there is Ethel in Seth's car seat.(She does all she can to make sure she isn't forgotten)

Seth Hyrum Ballard

2008-12-07T15:46:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of our new little boy! Seth Hyrum Ballard. We love him so much and are happy to share these pictures with you all. As you can see he loves to have his hands up by his face when he sleeps. He was born on November 20th and he weighed 7 pounds 5 ounces and was 21 inches long. We are proud parents and think that he is just PERFECT! He is healthy and strong. We are so blessed.

Memories

2008-07-23T11:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a tag! 1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember! 2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. (leave a memory about any of us)!

2008-07-22T11:29:00.000-07:00

Sam and I went to Lake Tahoe for our 3 yr. anniversary this year. We had a wonderful time together. It was nice to be able to get away. If you ever go there you have to go to the Heavenly resort and take the Gondola Ride up Heavenly Mountain and have lunch at the top. There is a really good little outdoor Bar and Grill there. Then you need to take another lift up the rest of the mountain and go down the longest Zip line in the lower 48 states. We did it and it was AWESOME....They say that you hit speeds of up to 50 mph. on it. It is over 3000 ft. long and you drop more than 500 ft. in elevation down the mountain. I was soooo scared when we were waiting for our turn. It ended up being way cool though and I would do it again in a second. We also went Kayaking around part of the lake and through some cool little streams that come off of it. We saw a ton of bullfrogs and Sam found some neat looking little rocks. The water was COLD but the view was beautiful. We took a waterproof camera with us when we went out on the kayak and I haven't developed them yet... when I do I will post some of those pics. There is a ton of fun stuff to do there so if you haven't been there yet you should make time and go.

2008-07-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

These are my 21 week ultra sound pics. We aren't going to find out what we are having so you will all find out when we do sometime in November. Hopefully you can tell what you are looking at. Sam is just so amazed when we do the ultrasounds because he can't believe how much the baby moves around. We went to Utah for 4 days to visit some family and also to go to a place called Fetal Foto with Farnes and Jill. It was really cool....They give you and ultrasound and put the pics on a disc for you and also make you a video you can watch of the whole ultrasound. We had lots of fun seeing the family. We don't go to S.L.C. much anymore because it takes over 7 hrs. to get there from Fallon.

"Coy"

2008-06-21T10:25:00.000-07:00

These are some pics of our new flowers. The yard
is coming along and we have been having a good
time being outside in the nice weather...although
sometimes it is a little too hot. We finally named
the puppy "Coy". He is a smart puppy. He can
fetch pretty good already and is lots of fun to play
with. Our animals sit in our lawn chairs more than
we do, as you can see! Coy also likes to mow the lawn
with Sam. Now we just need a name for our cat. We
have had him for more than a year and he doesn't have
a name yet. Any ideas?

2008-06-13T13:11:00.003-07:00

What is new with the Ballards

2008-05-29T18:13:00.000-07:00

Well we have some good news if you haven't already heard. We are going to have a new little Ballard sometime in late November. We are so excited and thank our Heavenly Father everyday for our many blessings. These are some new pics that show what we have been up to lately. Sam made me breakfast in bed for Mother's Day...It was so good but I am not a big eater in the mornings so he sat in bed with me and helped me eat it! It was a great day. There are some pics of some deer that stayed in our yard for almost the whole day eating my rose bushes and apple trees. We also went camping over Memorial weekend. It rained on us a lot but was still a lot of fun... instead of sitting around the camp fire we all sat around the tent stove to make smores...hahaha! My batteries in our camera went dead though so I don't have many pics of the trip. We camped on the Smith Creek Ranch...it was beautiful there. Sam got a new little puppy. It is a golden retriever. We don't have a name for it yet so if you have any ideas let us know. We also just got done laying a ton of sod. Our yard is looking awesome. I am going to put in some flowers, rock, and bushes so when I am done I will put some pics of it all on the blog. We hope all is going well with everyone we love....Love the Ballards

Honeymooners in Hawaii

2008-04-17T20:53:00.001-07:00

We went to Hawaii on our honeymoon. We want to go back really bad but fixing up our little place is taking all of the money. ;) We had a really good time. We ate tons of good food there...even the hotdogs were amazing. We ate pineapple until our tongues were raw. The night show at the Polynesian Cultural Center was AWESOME!! Lots of fun memories!

2008-04-17T20:32:00.000-07:00

Yosemite was beautiful! We took a trip there for our 1 year anniversary. The trip started out with one day and night up to Lake Tahoe and then we headed to Yosemite. On the way there we stopped at a little ghost town named Bodie. That was really interesting. It was an old mining town and when things started to get rough people just up and left everything there. The stores, schools, and peoples homes still had almost everything in them. We stayed a night in Mammoth CA. ( BEAUTIFUL). Then for the last night we camped out in good old Clover Valley. We went to Zions National Park for our 2nd anniversary but I dont have any pics because we hiked through the Narrows and part of the hike involved swimming so we couldnt take the camera. We are planning to go back someday to hike through the Subway which I hear is even better.

Sam, Weston, and Ryan hiking up to Steele Lake: Me and my girls having fun at the lake

2008-04-04T10:10:00.001-07:00

We had a lot of fun in the summer of 2007! Sam was able to hike up to Steele Lake with Weston before he left on his mission and Ryan, Weston's cousin, was able to go also. They had a good time and luckily Sam's gallbladder didn't act up on him at the lake. He had to have it taken out the very next month.

All of my buds came to visit for a weekend and we had a blast. We went out to dinner for girls night and then hung out at the beach and had tons of fun out on the boat. This was the first time I took the boat out on my own and I must admit I backed it down the dock better than the men next to us. Hahahah!!!

More memorable moments!

2008-04-04T09:52:00.000-07:00

These are just a few more memorable moments. We traveled a bunch and saw an awesome double rainbow on the way home from Elko. I watched Keaton for Becky one day and we made and decorated sugar cookies. He had so much fun...now everytime he comes to Aunt Brooke's he wants to make cookies...last time he helped me make chocolate chip pancakes....yummmmm! There is also a pic of our first garden. We were soooo proud of it. It was HUGE!!! We ended up giving tons of it away because we couldn't eat it fast enough. I like to think that the reason my dad ended up getting a green house is because he saw our garden and was soo impressed! ;)