November 2011

When I wait this long to blog, it is hard to remember even what we did.  At least I have some pictures to remind me!
 
Amanda, Ethan and Megan played in a piano recital.  It went well, although Amanda and Megan really do not like recitals.

 

 

 

Ethan's class at school put on a play.

 

Megan and Amanda took an after-school class for paper crafts through 4-H and the school.  The 4-H classes last several weeks.

Joshua and Ethan's 4-H after-school class was  jump roping.

 Thanksgiving was spent at Ryan and Tani's home and of course was delicious!

 Thanksgiving day was also Rebecca's 2nd birthday.  

 

 

Brent's family came to Utah for a visit so we had all the family over to our home for dinner and visiting.  It is always fun when we get together!

 

We ended the month by decorating our Christmas tree.   Our tree tends to have most of the ornaments towards the top because it seems to be more fun to decorate from the ladder!

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August 2011

The summer always goes by way too quickly, but I think we do pack in quite a bit!

I don't have a great picture of the fun time we had with our great friends, but we thoroughly enjoyed their visit.  Since they live in Missouri, we were lucky this summer to be able to visit them in their home and then later have them visit us in our home. 

Jared missed out on their visit because he was at Scout Camp.  However, he had a great time there and was able to earn several merit badges. 

I taught a neighborhood class on how to can meat and believe it or not people actually came!  I'm thankful to Todd's parents for teaching me how wonderful canned meat is in our food storage and in many, many meals.  Information from that class is on my new Developing Self-Reliance blog.

Before the summer ended, the kids and I made a trip to South Dakota.  Todd stayed home because of a little thing called a job--but we sure are grateful for that job!  The kids all loved every minute of our stay.  Mom and I had a good time too while visiting as we went through all the storage boxes in the basement.  I also had a treat seeing my good friend, Marci, who I hadn't seen for about ten years.

Ethan and Joshua love all the big tractors . . .

 

 

and trucks.

 

 

Joshua loved all the space to ride a bike.  Thanks Rachel for letting him use yours!

 

Jared loved driving.  He gave a lot of rides on the Rhino . . .

mowed. . .

 

and best of all, drove the tractor pulling the grain cart.

(He also got to drive the semi-truck, but I don't have a picture of that.)

Driving the grain cart became Jared's job once his cousin began sports practices and school. 

Jared's job was to drive alongside the combines when they got full so they could unload the wheat into the grain cart while continuing to harvest wheat.  I took this picture from within the cab when riding with Jared.

Jared would then unload the grain cart into a truck that would take the wheat to the grain bins.

Ethan and Joshua were excited to get a ride in the combine with Grandpa.  Amanda, Megan, Rebecca and I also took our turn riding in the big combines.

Unfortunately while we there, a horrible hail storm hit.  It devastated thousands of acres of sunflowers.

This isn't actually the "before" picture of the same field, but you get the idea of the severe destruction.

While we were there, it was the county fair.  Seth, Sam, Rachel and Weston all showed 4-H calves.  Here Weston's calf is being auctioned.

Grandma has the best Play-Doh and cookie cutters . .

and dolls with furniture.

She especially has the best dress-up!

Grandma received a present of various artwork drawn by the kids.

Rachel and Grandma made cookie dough and then waited for Amanda and Megan to visit for baking.

Ethan spent most of his time collecting bugs, nests, antlers, and rocks.  Check out the size of that grasshopper!

The kids had a fun time with a sprinkler on the inner tubes from tractor tires.

Everyone loved playing with their cousin's new puppy.

Joshua got stung three times on his face when he and his cousin broke down in the winrower next to some beehives.  Fortunately, he still has no trepidation towards the honeybees in our backyard.

Ethan loves sports and took his mitt so he could practice baseball.  He is now on a competitive baseball team, so I'm sure you'll be seeing more of Ethan and baseball.

We got home from South Dakota in time to enjoy the weekend with Todd before starting school.

 

Jared is in 8th grade and leaves earlier than the others.

Ethan (3rd grade), Amanda (6th grade), Joshua (1st grade) and Megan (6th grade) all ready for the new school year to start. 

We got tickets from US Synthetic to go to a Bees baseball game (minor league baseball).  It was a fun evening and the end to a fun month!

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April

April had some snow and quite a bit of rain. This made it tricky to work on our outside projects.


The school offers a variety of 4-H classes after school that go for ten weeks. Ethan did indoor soccer this time.
Amanda and Megan chose a 4-H scrapbooking class where they made calendars.


Our momma bunny had babies. One baby died, but we have enjoyed the other three.
They have grown really fast. We are planning to keep the black and white one which is the runt and the favorite. If you want one of the others, let us know!


More importantly if you want any chickens, let us know:)! Jared bought a bunch of little chicks to raise and then sell. We're getting pretty anxious to get them into new homes.


Ethan got to do his first pinewood derby. His car won first in his pack and made it to the finals for the overall race. Mostly, Ethan just had a great time and loved racing his car.


Megan and Amanda celebrated their 11th birthday. They got jewelry making supplies and we've had fun making a few things together.
They also had a friend birthday party. The girls made personal pizzas, bows for their hair and then styled each other's hair.


Ethan played soccer through the city league and Todd was one of the coaches.


We had the dirt in our garden excavated and replaced with nice top soil. Our garden has been frustrating ever since we added onto the house, because we only had good dirt about 4 inches deep. We knew we were going to do this, so that is why we planted our peas, radishes and kohlrabi in the backyard as mentioned in March's post.

We also had them excavate the grass from our mow strip and put in good soil.We then planted strawberries in the mow strip and hope to thoroughly enjoy our new ground cover.


Building a new chicken coop has been Todd's project with plenty of help from Jared. Our old chicken coop is going to be modified and will become the brooder for when we raise baby chicks.
Before we moved chickens into the coop, the kids thought it was a perfect club house.


We had an extra nice Easter this year. The kids enjoyed an Easter egg hunt at a park put on by one of our friend's company.
I actually bought eggs so we could dye white eggs. Todd thought that was a little ironic considering how many chickens we have at our house, albeit most of them aren't laying eggs yet and most of them won't be staying.
Our nieces, Sarah and Brittney, graduated from BYU so we got to have extra family here for the Easter weekend.
We had an Easter egg hunt in our backyard with family.
We enjoyed performances by Megan and Amanda with their cousins.
Ethan enjoyed wrestling his cousin with Grandpa officiating. Grandpa declared it a tie!
My dad and Jared helped Todd shingle the chicken coop roof.

My mom joined us ladies for Amanda and Megan's 4-H sewing class. They made stuffed animal frogs last time and made quillows (quilts that fold into pillows) this class.
The Easter bunny has fun hiding the children's baskets. This year they found beach towels, a picture of the temple, and candy in their baskets.
Instead of a beach towel, Rebecca had a blanket in her basket. The blanket has the same feel as her "fuzzy," but Rebecca definitely knows the difference. Not only does the imposter blanket not work for sucking on the corners as she sucks her thumb, it isn't even allowed to cover her up!
After church, the family got together for a yummy meal and fun visiting.


Rebecca is starting early!

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