Spring Brand 2009

. Gathering and cutting brands at Temple Pond

The Gates & Foremaster ranch is on the Arizona strip and every spring it's the "Big Brand"!! It is always an exciting time for the boys to go out and work, work, work, until the cows come home or at least until they have all the calves branded! Tanner was the only one from our family going out until we realized how much fun it would be for the whole fam to go out so we arranged our heavy work schedule, put on the old duds, loaded the ice chests and met up with Tanner and the rest of the gang early afternoon on a very hot & dusty day. I had so much fun with this photo shoot and had great models to work with! Tanner wasn't so happy to have me videoing and snapping every second but was really glad I had cut up watermelon to drop into his mouth during the hot & dusty brand! It turned out to be a very fun and memorable day and I got some amazing pictures that I will share in a slide show as well

Relaxing on horseback and four wheeling while the big boys do all the work!

Clint tricking the calves that branding doesn't hurt, only getting pulled by the nostrils does!

Tanner & Shaydon doing the muscle work pushing the calves through the shoot.

Our work is done. What a dirty but happy family!

Mother's Day '09

My special day started out just right with my favorite breakfast prepared by Cassidee. Whole wheat pancakes and omelettes! She is amazing in the kitchen and very efficient. We had a huge breakfast and still made it to church on time at 9:00a.m.! Tanner surprised me the night before informing me he was one of the speakers in church too. He did a great job bringing in humor with his talk stating that he could out psyche me!! ya right Tanner! His talk was a heart warming tribute to me. It was sweet but tore at the heart strings as he mentioned that one year from now he would be calling me from Chile! UGH!!! Thanks T, for the reminder!


Lots of hugs all day especially from Jaxon. I have unconditional love from all my children. I love being their mom!

My beautiful 85 yr. old mother!


My mom and brothers and sisters all met at Betsy's home this year for a Mother's day luncheon. It worked out perfectly to attend Betsy's ward and listen to Ben & Kirsten sing and then go to her home for wonderfully prepared food! Mom had all of her kids present which is a feat all by itself! We had a great time laughing, reminiscing and even got to watch Gordon do his traditional "skip" down the sidewalk as he went to his car! Too funny! A private and fun joke to all members of our family.


In the evening, we all gathered at Jon's sisters home in Santa Clara for more food and fun. Tyler & Mary Dawn have a beautiful home and backyard! There were cousins galore as always to hang out with!

Jon & his amazing & beautiful mother

Trying to get a good family picture is hard enough at our house. It didn't help when our dog Sonny spotted a lizard on the wall of our garage and went crazy until she snatached it with her teeth! She then took it to the grass and rolled on it. You can see the kids' reaction in the picture above! Weird dog!


My queen for the day comes to an end! Thanks for a wonderful and eventful day and especially for the Toby Keith tickets babe! I can't wait to go in August!

Elder Gates' Blog Address!

I have started a blog for Tanner's mission. If anyone is interested, you can follow along at:

eldertjgateschile.blogspot.com

I'll probably get even more behind with my own blog but oh well! Such is the story of my life..........

Clint's Homerun Caught on Video Finally!!!

Look what I can do now!!! I found the right connections to upload my DV movies!! This is going to be soooo fun! This was Clint's final at bat on his little league team the "Blue Jays". What a way to end his great season with a beautiful bomb over right field!
I couldn't get the video clip I put background music with to work on my blog......oh well.

The Other Members of Our Family!

We love our pets so much at our house. First you have our cat Cali the queen of the house who would love to go outside and hunt for birds & lizards.Then you have our dog Sonny who would love to come inside and get out of the heat and simply hang out with her favorite buddies, us!

Cali loves to play hide and seek waiting for me to turn the corner so she can leap out at me and then take off running to hide in the next spot. She talks to us all the time especially in the morning when she first gets let out of her laundry room. We have to keep her locked up at night so she won't wake us up at 5 in the morning because she wants to play!
Sonny on the other hand has to stay confined either in her pen or on a chain since she was put in the slammer almost a year ago! She scared us when she bit a cop who was trying to catch her after she got loose down the street! After the cop passed out and the ambulance came, all was well. The cop never lived it down from his co-workers and we were lucky he was too embarassed to punish our dog any further. It was a hot day and Sonny did show her teeth so putting those two things together would make anyone pass out!

Sonny is the great lizard hunter! She barks like crazy when a lizard is spotted and her "boys" love to help her out by causing the lizard to "fall" off our wall so Sonny can catch it! She is too quick for the lizard everytime and loves to kill it (not eat it) and then roll on top of the dead carcus. Very weird dog......

Here's is our beautiful queen of the house! She loves me the most and is usually following me around the house. She loves it when I fold laundry because I'm usually sitting on the floor and she'll come right in and plop either in the empty baskets or right on top of the clean clothes! For some reason, she has to know where her "mother" is at all times.

We absolutely love our animals and they love us. I had to include them in our family blog!

Tanner's BIG 19

Cassidee was so thoughtful giving Tanner BYU golf club socks a week early. He loved them!


We can't believe Tanner has hit the magical age of 19! He is a great example in our family and treats everyone with respect and kindness.

His all time favorite baseball team is the Atlanta Braves. He's liked them since he was 7 years old with his favorite player being "Chipper" Jones. We wanted to surprise him with tickets to their games against the Arizona Diamondbacks at the end of May. He's never been to a Braves game but hasn't missed many that have been on TV! We thought this would be a great family trip with Tanner before he ventured out into the mission field.

He also got mission stuff such as a digital camera & of course luggage.



T's favorite cake is cinnamon swirl. I couldn't find it in a box cake for some reason so I made it from scratch. Pretty good......


We love you Tanner!

April - Busy Month 4 Sports!

Snow Canyon 7th Grade Border League

Clint did really well playing point & shooting guard. He is a hustler and got many steals and break away layups. He was a joy to watch and his team made a strong showing during the tournament winning one and losing a close one at the buzzer by one!




Competitive Soccer League -
Clint plays defender & sweeper on the "Surge". He's 12 and plays on a U15 team (fifteen years old and under). He is the perfect spoiler for the other teams plays. He may be one of the smallest players but by far has the biggest heart!



Jaxon is the Great Defender!! As seen by video,(#17) he is quick and gets to where the play is and then crushes the other teams attempt to score! He is very competetive and aggressive out on the field.
Church Ball - This was the most serious sport of all! Our ward had a stacked team this year as always. 3 sets of brothers including the Gates, Brush's, & Benson's made up most of the team. It was fun having Tanner, Shaydon, & Clint play one year together. Our ward took 1st in stake and won the first game in the regional playoff. The 2nd game was a nail biter but we ended up losing by a close score leaving us frustrated with some of the calls. They are an awesome bunch of friends who have fun playing together and are thrill to watch.

Red Mountain's qualifying track meet for the Hershey - Jaxon & his good friend and neighbor Cole finished 1st & 2nd in the 200M. They both advanced to the regional track meet at PVHS on May 8th.
Jax finished 1st in both of his heats in the 200M & 400M. He barely missed qualifying for the 400M!




Little League - Jaxon's on the "Angels" in the 9 yr. old minor league. Jon helps coach. Jaxon has improved a lot gaining confidence on the mound, plate, & the field. Jaxon has been the top pitcher on his team. Real good accuracy but hates it when the other team hits off of him! He can't wait until he can throw curve balls etc. to strike the batter out every time!
Clint's final year on Little League. He's loved playing for the Blue Jays for 3 years. His team is the team to beat. He's been coached by his uncle Chad with his dad as the assistant. He is the anchor for the team with his seniority, pitching abilities, & consistent hitting and RBI's. Very important player who plays to win every time and always gives it his all. 4 home runs to boot so far.