The Hoyt Family: Logans 5th birthday

This first part was supposed to be at the end of my post but I added the pictures in last and didn't want to move them and screw up the size and not be able to click on them so pardon my screwed up backward posting...
First A Small tribute to my dad's for father's day.. I'm a little late but thats ok.. My dad passed away 6 years ago in July.. Oh how I miss him.. He was a farmer in utah.. Farming was his passion. He loved being outdoors, up in the mountains hunting and camping.. He loved animals.. He had lots of goats, pigs, deer, dogs and horses at his farm.. The kids loved to visit and pet all the animals.. He also had many orchards of cherries, peaches, and apples. Him and my step mom ran a fruit stand in Perry and worked very hard.. He also built a housing development with my grandma in Perry called Hill Haven subdivision. He worked very hard all his life.. My dad is my hero.. I looked up to him alot.. I wish I could have been around him more.. We didn't get to see him much growing up but the times we did were so precious to me.. I always had the best times camping with him.. He had me riding a 3 wheeler by the time I was 5. And he didn't even kill me when I backed the 4 wheeler up right through someones camping trailer and put a huge hole in it, or when I would be miles away and run out of gas and he would have to come get me.. He taught me how to water ski.. He had me skiing with him when I was about 4 or 5 as well.. He would have me stand up on his feet and wrap 1 arm around me and off we would go, and he would tell me when to plug my nose when we were going to go down in the water..I think I got my thrill seeking from him.. We were always doing dangerous, fun, exhilarating things..
Unfortunately he died way to soon. I would give anything to see him again and talk with him. There is so much I wish I could have said before he died.. The thing that gets me through is knowing that we will be reunited again. Happy Father's Day Dad I love you you will always be my Hero.....

And to my other best dad in the world.. He got me when I just turned 1o. He got the raw end of the deal I think.. He had to raise me through the toughest part of my life.. Being a teenager and a girl when he only had boys was probably a nightmare.. He was a police officer in Utah for 30 years before he retired.. He is also a Viet Nam Vet.. Now imagine how fun that was for me growing up Not!!! we didn't have the best of relationship growing up.. I had to get pretty sneaky when it came to sluffing school because at the time I was in High school he was the juvenile cop so he was always there.. And I would get so embarrassed when the kids would come up to me and say oh man your dad just busted me.. I would literally turn my head and pretend I didn't notice him when I saw him.. What a daughter hu? And of course he did background checks on all my boyfriends, always found me when I wasn't where I was supposed to be, made me do the jobs over again if I didn't do them right the first time, taught me to turn the water off when I was brushing my teeth so I didn't waste, and turn the lights off when I left the room. No talking on the phone past 9:00 pm, taught me how to mow the lawn, shoot a gun, parallel park, and much more. He was always there at my colorguard performances and parades cheering me on and helped make me the person I am today.. I hate to think how my life might have turned out without him. He brought us back into the church and I will always be grateful for that.. He's a little OCD, he stays up at night worrying about everything and tries to solve the worlds problems, but he's the best grandpa and dad anyone could ask for and I am grateful that I have him and I didn't kill him off through those teenage years.. Happy Father's Day Dad.. Love you!!

Now on to whats been going on in my neck of the woods lately!!

I have gotten a bit behind on my postings.. We have been running non stop since school got out with different things going on and projects we want to accomplish.. And here I though summer was for fun and relaxation??

We attempted some clean up around our yard to beautify it.. I doesn't look like much from the Pict's. but if you saw the before Pict's you would definitely see the difference.. We cut back alot of trees and foliage around the back yard so you could view the walkway to the pond better and just took back the edge of the greenery.. We are only renting right now so we cant do to much to it.. If we owned this I would go to town and take out all the smaller trees and foilage right down to the water so it looked really cleaned up but still had the big trees for the shade and some of the natural preserve running along the pond..

This whole stoned path was really covered in foilage and tree branches ect. so we really cut back this area quite a bit..

Picture of the pond in our back yard.. It's only about 3 feet deep and full of moss, Lilly pads and tons of turtles, frogs and snakes eeewwwwww!! My kids have a blast down here catching the frogs.. When I was down here on the waters edge with my legs straddled one in the water and the other on land trying to cut down some of the foilage a big water snake slithered right between my legs.. I froze with fear.. I just hate snakes.. I always have been since I was a little girl, and was chased by a rattlesnake when I was fishing with my brother.. He had to pick me up and run with me on his back. It was a real frightening experience..

We don't really have any flat area up in our yard to plant a garden so we decided to try and till up some ground by the pond and make a garden there.. The ground was pretty hard so we brought in some top soil and tilled it in and gave it a try.. Our only problem is we have lots of wildlife out here so we had to fence it in hoping it would keep the animals out plus we have to carry buckets of water down everyday to water it because we have no way of getting a hose down this far so its kind of a pain but if it goes well and we can harvest some food from it it will be worth it.. It's not much but it's at least something.. Before we could get it planted and fenced we had a bunch of turtles rejoicing for the nice tilled up dirt and they came and dug holes and laid tons of baby turtle eggs all over in our garden.. Unfortunately I think a raccoon or chipmunk or some kind of animal found them out and ate them for the next day we found lots of broken apart egg shells, however they didn't get them all so we covered up what eggs were left and planted around them and then fenced them in so I guess we are harvesting baby turtles as well.. We didn't have a garden in NJ so I am really missing my home grown veggies.. So far we have only lost a couple plants so we will see.. We were really late getting it in so I hope it produces before winter hits..

We took Logan to get a new haircut.. He4r hair was getting pretty long. It had been a year since we cut it so she was in need.. I think it turned out really cute..

We also used up some wood pieces we had left over from our move and made some garden boxes out of them and put them up on our driveway.. I think they turned out pretty good for being free... And the plants are really doing well so far..

And on the 23rd my baby turned 5. Can you believe it!!! My how the time has flown by.. It's hard to see the last one growing up.. I just wanted to keep her little forever but she just seems to change everyday... She is the only one of my kids who got my blue eyes and blond hair.. She really looks like my side of the family.. My dad died right before I got pregnant with her but I know she knew him and spent time with him before she came.. She is so much like him in so many ways.. I see alot of him in her...

For a year now since her last birthday she has wanted these Diamond Castle Barbies.. I have not been able to find them in stores so I had to look on ebay which of course because they are now discontinued they cost an arm and a leg.. But at least we found them and got them so she was excited as ever..