Sneak peak...

I am so excited to start working on another project. Aunt Bernice has trusted me with some postcards, quotes, stories and pictures that Grandma had saved. What a year this has been for me! I enjoyed compiling the book to honor Grandma and Grandpa and to celebrate the centennial anniversary of Grandpa filing his homestead claim. Now to have the chance to compile the quotes and stories that meant something to Grandma in a book, is icing on the cake! I also love quotes so when I read through the papers and cards Grandma saved, it warmed my heart.

So here are few of my favorites ~

The more you give the more you get

The more you laugh, the less you fret

The more you do unselfishly

The more you live abundantly

The more of everything you share

The more you’ll always have to spare

The more you love, the more you’ll find

That life is good and friends are kind

For only what we give away

Enriches us from day to day

That pretty much sums up the way Grandma lived her life.

I love these old photos!

I have 67 postcards and these are a few of my favorites ~

This one is to Grandma from her sister Mabel. I love it, she says "Be sure and have a big feed. Ha, Ha." Everyone loved Grandma's wonderful meals!


Looks like Grandma had a secret admirer!


This postcard says, "Dear Friend, If you don't get this card, let me know and I will send you another one." No signature, so who knows who sent it!

That's all for now... I will try to have to book ready by Christmas.

Quote for the Week - Mean people

I am grateful for all the kind people in my life because once in awhile you stumble across a mean one!

Never ever, ever...ever give a mean person power over you! It can actually suck the life blood out of you and if it goes on long enough you might, unintentionally, become exactly like them. Garner the strength, keep your self-respect intact and walk away...this may just put that mean troll right in their place or sad but true, they just may move onto their next 'victim'! Be at peace that you made the right decision for you.

Ready or not...

To celebrate the Labor Day weekend, Tim and I went to work to help Mark and Tiff with a few last minute details before Cash arrives. Tiff has a difficult time bending over so I did some cleaning while Mark and Tim did some things on Tiffani's honey-do list.

Tiff got a mirror that needed to be hung up. It really was a two man job.

"Stud" finders

Success and it looks great!

I love Mark and Tiffani's home. Tiff has added her special touch and it's fabulous.

The baby's room!!!
Tim and Mark hung the curtains.

Crib all ready

Darling nursery, only the best for our grandson!


Tiffani has high blood pressure and preeclampsia. She has a doctor appointment Tuesday and it's possible we will have a baby next week.

Tiff made these cute letters.

Everything is ready and that makes our little momma-to-be happy!

Seeing the car seat brought tears to my eyes.

Thanks for letting us help you today, it was so much fun!

Stay tuned for baby updates!

Grandson!

Wanna guess when

will be born?

I have a prize for the winner. If you want to play, just leave a comment with your guess or email me.

His due date is September 22.

I think Cash will arrive September 20 (6 lbs 11 oz 19")
Christopher ~ September 19 (7 lbs 2 oz 18")
Grandpa Tim ~ September 14 (6 lbs 11 oz 18 ½")
Kristie ~ September 18 (7 lbs 6 oz 18 ½”)
Pam ~ September 15 (6 lbs 13 oz 19 ½")
Lisa ~ September 8
Lee ~ September 9 (Afternoon B/4 dinner hour!)
Susan ~ September 10
Marie ~ September 15
Holley ~ September 16 (6 lb 3 oz)
Kim ~ September 18, in the morning (7 lbs 1 oz 19")

Two times the fun...

My niece Lisa and her hubby Hayden spent the summer working in California. We haven't seen their twins, Beckham and Ellery since they were newborns.

Tim with Beckham ~ we couldn't believe how much they have grown!!

Chris loves babies and can't wait to be a daddy, he just needs to find a wife. Where in the heck is she?

So glad Hayden and Lisa are back in Utah, we get to see these two angels more often!!!

Quote for the Week - Black and White

“The expression a woman wears on her face is more important than the clothes she wears on her back.” ~ Dale Carnegie

So... I'm cleaning out the closet and I thinking I have a lot of black and white clothes. I mean a lot. I love black and white clothes and have for a long time. I have other colors but I think black and white is classy. I also like the notion that they make me look a little smaller. Who knows??!

So I wonder if there has ever been an intervention for a black and white addiction!

I am Shalayla Williams and I am addicted to black and white clothes.

Oh yes, I also have black and white shoes AND I didn't show all my black white clothes. I pledge not to buy any more black and white clothes for one year! (It doesn't help that my favorite shopping friend also LOVES black and white!)

The Celebration Continues...

The Wyoming Centennial Farm & Ranch Program honors families that have owned and operated the same farm or ranch for 100 years or more. There were about 20 farms and ranches receiving recognition from all over Wyoming. We were proud to be among them.

My cousin Jerry Federer inherited the ranch after Grandma died in 1984.

Aunt Bernice could not believe it when she saw her 4th grade teacher at the ceremony! Her name is Dorothy Duvall and I guess she had a crush on my Dad!

Paden waiting patiently for our turn.

He was a good boy and played quietly for over an hour.

There were about 30 of us at the ceremony.

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We are trying to look interested in what the speakers have to say!!

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Senator John Barrasso, Representative Cynthia Lummis, Governor Dave Freudenthal and Senator Mike Enzi were there to present the awards.


My cousin Jerry and his wife Marcia accepted the award. I thought of Grandma and Grandpa, for almost 70 years they worked and operated a successful ranch. I am sure they were happy that we were all there to celebrate.

Click on people's faces in the photo to tag them.

I hope the ranch will always stay in the family.



I sure enjoyed seeing my cousin Carlene again. She is so beautiful... inside and out!

So Tim and I headed for home. We stopped at the Well Draw plant. It made us sad and wish that things would have turned out differently.

We also stopped at Martin's Cove. I love it there. President Hinckley once called Martin's Cove Wyoming's Temple. It is a sacred place and I feel a special spirit there.

They have little handcarts now. The little boys pulling the cart are so darling!

I told my friend Sister Nickell that I would stop and see her. I served with her at the temple. She works so hard and is always kind. She and her husband are serving a mission at Martin's Cove.

I love Sister Nickell. They have 8 daughters. I think this is their fourth or fifth mission. They have enjoyed their mission at Martin's Cove so much they planned to come back next year.

We also stopped in Casper for some famous hot wings.

I enjoyed the trip with Tim but I am glad to be home. There is no place like home!!

By the way, about one month to go... until Cash's birth day!

Click on people's faces in the photo to tag them.

Newspaper Article

I asked the Cheyenne newspaper to do a feature story about Grandma and Grandpa... and they did! I thought the reporter did a good job. She missed a few details but I was just grateful it was in the paper. The baby in this picture is my Dad and that is the original homestead cabin.

Local Federer ranch to celebrate 100 years

Little did Theodore Federer know in 1910 that his hard work would pay off and his ranch would be honored a century later.

By Baylie Evans

CHEYENNE -- An old sepia-tinted photograph shows a life that many in the Federer family remember fondly.

It shows a smiling, chubby-cheeked baby in a baby bonnet, a windmill above a weathered brick building and chickens polka-dotting the landscape.

It's the life that Theodore Federer built for his family after he bought a train ticket westbound from Illinois in 1910 and stopped here.

Theodore Federer had heard that there was free land out west for anyone that could make it, and he was ready to try.

He set up about 16 miles northwest of Cheyenne and worked the land for several years before it legally became his.

He couldn't have known that his ranch would survive 100 years and would receive recognition for becoming a centennial ranch. He only knew that he had to work hard enough to put food on the table each day, which was no easy task.

Carl Federer, the youngest son of Theodore and Edna Federer's eight children, said he remembered growing up on the ranch just after the depression.

"Folks did everything to make a living," he said.

His family raised chickens, milked dairy cows, grazed cattle and broke horses to buy groceries each week.

Theodore Federer even hunted coyotes, which fetched a price at the time. He would leave before sunrise with his hound dogs and return after dark, Carl Federer recalled.

"You had to be tough to do that," he said.

Life on the ranch was different than it is now, Carl Federer said.

In high school, he would milk 25 cows before catching the school bus at 7 a.m.

Once, he broke his collarbone in a rodeo and couldn't milk them. The family had to sell the dairy cows, he said with a chuckle.

He recalled a blizzard in 1949 that he and his family were lucky to survive.

"It was horrible," he said.

His mother, sister-in-law and several children got trapped in a car during the blizzard and had to be rescued with a toboggan.

"We went out looking for cows after that and, this is no lie, we drove over the telephone lines," he said.

Doctor visits were rare and neighbors took care of each other back then.

"It was a pretty tough life," he said. "I wouldn't trade it for anything."

At 4 p.m. this Friday, more than 100 friends and family of the Federers will gather at Lions Park for a reunion and celebration of the 100th anniversary of the ranch. They will come from all over the country.

Eileen Federer-Williams, a granddaughter of Theodore Federer, said she and her family are proud to still have the family's ranch in their name 100 years later.

The future of the ranch is a little uncertain right now, but she said it will likely remain in the family name for some time to come.

"It means a lot to our family," she said. "We just feel like this is Wyoming's heritage."

She grew up only a quarter of a mile away from the Federer Ranch, herself.

"Honestly, it was the most wonderful experience to have grandparents so nearby," she said.

While the men and boys were out working, the women and girls would work inside.

Her grandmother taught her how to serve and be kind as well as how to quilt and crochet, she said.

"If you asked who the biggest influence in my life was, it would be her," she said.

A lot of homesteaders didn't make it and had to look for work in town. But the family's work ethic made it possible.

"I think it's a little harder these days to teach work ethic," she said. "The farm made it necessary."

She hopes to honor her grandparents in the coming days with the reunion and by accepting recognition from the state as a centennial ranch on Saturday at the State Fair in Douglas.

"(My grandparent's) influence is still felt," she said. "Believe me."