Friends and Lambs

Our friends, Brandon and J'lene, have a daughter that goes to pre-school with Owen on Mondays. Today while we were waiting to pick up our kids, I told Brandon about our lambs and told him that they could come help us feed them. They came over this afternoon to help. Zoey, Kamiah, and Braelyn all took a bottle and fed a lamb. They did such a good job!! Brandon also helped out with a lamb so I could take pictures.

Kamiah and Zoey feeding lambs.Braelyn got done first and she wasn't quite sure what to do with her bottle.Brandon and Braelyn feeding a lamb.The girls were so proud that their lambs finished their bottles. After feeding, the lambs had some energy. Kamiah and Braelyn had fun playing with them.

They stayed for a while and played. The kids all played so well together. It was fun for my kids to have other kids to play with. Here they are eating their "supper."

A video of everyone feeding the lambs.

Thanks for the help!!!

Queen of FHE

A week ago, Zoey was the queen of Family Home Evening. It was her turn to be in charge of treats. She decided to make brownies. She helped with everything. She's actually getting to be quite the little helper in the kitchen. She loves to stir things.And here she is scraping the bowl into the pan. She loves helping. She feels like such a big girl.Of course, after the brownies were in the oven, she had to lick the spoon. It started out with her getting the batter on her fingers . . .

And then licking them off.But finally she got bored with that and just went straight for the spoon.

Owen decided to play Peanut Butter and Jelly for our activity. We were playing and we realized that Zoey was holding her cards with her toes. It was hilarious. I just had to take a picture. Luckily, you usually only have two cards and the most you have is three. Her toes could handle that.Zoey won the game. Here she is doing her "I Did It" dance (a re-make of the Dora song). She's singing, "I did it, I did it, I did it . . .

"Yeah!"

Santa and the kids

At our ward party this last Christmas, they had Santa come. He told us ahead of time that he wanted the kids to come in families and he wanted to talk to them first, then parents could take pictures. He was a really cute Santa. We waited in line with all of the other kids. I had to go to because this was during the height of Zoey's stranger anxiety phase. We got up to the front and he talked to my kids for a while. I was on stage with them and could kind of hear what they were talking about, but it didn't really register for a while . Finally, I realized that Santa had asked what the kids wanted for Christmas. I think Zoey said she wanted a dolly, Jo wanted a pony something, but Owen told him he wanted a real alive T-rex. Then, he proceeded to talk to Santa for 4-5 minutes about how he really could bring Owen a real alive T-rex. Everything that Santa said to try to convince Owen to not want one, or that he couldn't bring him one, Owen had an answer or comeback to. Finally, Santa turned to the parents standing around and asked where this boy's parents were. Nathan was doing something else that night, so I was there by myself. Everyone looked at me on the stage. He turned to me and said, "Bless You!!" Our family was the talk of the ward for weeks after that. The Sunday after Christmas, everyone was asking how we got around the T-rex situation. I love that my boy is so smart.

And the happy "after talking to Santa" picture.

Random Phone Pictures

I finally found a cord to get the pictures off of my phone. Just a warning, I don't take fabulous pictures anyway, but I really take bad pictures with my phone. I didn't realize how many pictures I had taken with my phone, so here is just a sampling with a little explanation.

This one is just Zoey being her normal, crazy self.Owen when we went to Gabby and Yani's house for Halloween.Jo at Gabby and Yani's for Halloween.Zoey at Gabby and Yani's for Halloween.We had just left the Town Hall and we were walking through the grass behind the church. It was covered with leaves. Nathan and I were walking ahead and we realized that the kids were no longer behind us. We turned around and they were playing in the leaves. They just couldn't help themselves. So, I took a picture. . .And another . . .And another.Sometimes the kids and I will go eat lunch with Nathan at work. We love that his job is so close and we can do this. This is Owen eating lunch at Nathan's work. They love it when they get to wear hair nets at his work, too. They play with them for days afterwards. They also love the whiteboard in his office. They always HAVE to color on it.Zoey eating lunch at Daddy's work.

This one is really bad, but it's of Jo untying one of the lambs in the back of the truck.

Fun in Kaysville

A few weeks ago, we had to go down to Kaysville to pick up a lawn mower and some parts that Nathan bought online. We called up my family and let them know. We told them that we'd love to have lunch with whoever could make it. We met at an Arctic Circle. It was so fun. The kids all got to play on the play place and us adults all got to talk. The older nieces and nephews all played for a little while, but also enjoyed talking and hanging out with each other. It was great to see everyone that came. We did miss seeing a few from my family, though.Zoey had a blast. She is finally big enough that she can pretty much do anything she wants. The slide was a little intimidating for her still, though. Here's the oldest nephew trying to encourage her to go down. He was even willing to go down with her. She did finally go down, but only after mommy climbed up and went down with her.
After that, there was no stopping her. Here she is at the bottom so proud of herself for going down alone.

Horse Lesson II

A week and a half ago, Jo had her last horse lesson for a little while. Ross is going up to Wyoming for the summer, so he won't be around. He's done a great job with her. And she has loved it. Because we didn't have any horses at our house, we met Ross at Nathan's parent's house. They did the lesson in the corral with two other horses. One (Lunar) decided that it likes Gwenny (the horse Jo was on) and followed her around. Gwenny kicked at Lunar once with Jo on her back. I think it scared Jo, but she handled it well. Ross told her just to pay attention to Gwenny and she did better. She could eventually get the horse to go where she wanted it to go. By the end she was getting it faster. I think she'll miss working with horses. Hopefully we'll be able to get together with Ross at a different time and start them up again.

Making sure everything was just right.Getting instructions.Carrying out the instructions.Smile for the camera.

I asked Ross to come stand by Jo so I could take his picture. This is what I got. He would not turn around for anything. Crazy!! Anyway, thanks, Ross, for teaching my little girl about horses. She really enjoyed it.

Another update

I have a picture this time. And much better news. Last night I had a meeting to go to and when I got home, Nathan had already fed the lambs. He had gone out earlier in the afternoon to try and feed the lamb that wouldn't eat. The lady we got them from told us she fed some of them cold milk, so Nathan took it out cold and got her to eat about 4 ounces. Last night, he had to force her to take the bottle, but she finally ate 8 ounces. Nathan said once he got her to take the nipple, she drank like crazy. This morning, Jo and I each took two lambs and left the one that didn't like to drink to Nathan. Again he had to force it to take the nipple, but it drank well. It drank about 6 ounces. I'm feeling much better about things today. We let them all out in the backyard and they are loving it. As you can see from the picture, they are experimenting with eating grass. It's so cute. I am glad they are doing better.

I hate it when I'm right

We went out after church to feed the lambs. The way I mixed up the milk replacer, it just fit better into 5 bottles instead of 6. Jo and Owen went out to help me and we had told them about the lamb that was having a hard time this morning (Jo had actually seen it. She came out to help this morning in her pj's she was so excited). I told them that if it was still holding on, I would come back in and make up another bottle. We went out and it was dead. I didn't want the other lambs to have to be in the pen with their dead friend, so I was brave and took it out. It didn't seem like it had been dead long. Poor little baby.

The one that was having a hard time this morning is still having a hard time. It wouldn't eat anything this afternoon. The milk replacer just got all over me and the poor lambs face. It still seems really strong and was actually curious about the grass growing in the corral. It's too little to just be living on grass. This is SO hard!!

Update on Lambs

I don't have a picture to go with this one. It's probably a good thing. This morning Nathan and I went out to feed the lambs early, before his meetings. We were greeted excitedly by four lambs and one was walking around not as excited. I looked to the corner where the lambs slept and there was one still laying there. We fed the four and Nathan took the one that was laying down and I took the other one. The one I had had a lot of fight and energy, but it was fighting food. We finally got about 3 ounces of milk replacer down it, but it wouldn't eat any more. The little one that was laying down wouldn't hardly eat anything. Nathan finally got a few swallows down it, but most of it went on Nathan's overalls. There was nothing we could do. We had to put it back in with the others and come in so Nathan could get to his meetings and I could get me and the kids ready for church. I keep thinking about that poor little lamb out there, probably dying. I'm not sure what else we can do, but it's just hard for me to go about my day like I'm not affected when I really am having a hard time with it. Nathan grew up around animals and knows that some live and some die, but I don't know that I'll ever get used to it. It makes it seem so much more real when you actually see it. I've never been able to watch Nathan kill the chickens. When I come upon an animal dying, I have a hard time. I always wonder if there was anything else I could have done. I know it's important to go to church and I can't stay out there all day, but I don't want that little baby to die alone. I'm sorry this post is such a downer, but I just had to get some feelings out.

Our lambs

This morning we headed up to get our lambs. We were SO excited. We stopped at Wal-Mart to get some baby bottles. When I called about the lambs, the lady I talked to said she just uses baby bottles and enlarges the hole in the nipple. Then we went to get the lambs. We pulled up and Josie was out of the truck before I got the door all the way open. The lady had about 40 lambs in her pasture and she had already separated ours out. They were so tiny, but seemed strong. After our experience last year, we were hesitant to get brand new lambs. I really think that we have it the best this year. We will still need to feed them for about 6 weeks, so they will get attached to us, but they're hopefully past that stage where they don't want to eat and die easily.
Jo is excited to have the lambs out of the back of the truck. Here she is holding one of them to give to Nathan so he could put it down.We're untying their legs. We had to tie them up to bring them home so they wouldn't jump out of the back of the truck. Most of them were really good and just laid there the whole way home.
Here we are giving them their first feeding as soon as we got home. Five out of the six ate really well at first, but none of them finished their milk. It was frustrating because we were worried that they were going to go down again. They ate enough to live until the next feeding, but not very much. Right before the feeding tonight, I called the lady we got them from again and we brainstormed. I ended up cutting the holes bigger in the nipples and we fed them more contained. Whatever it was, all of the lambs finished off their 8 ounces. And very quickly, too. It made me feel a lot better about getting lambs. We are still very excited.

Recipe

Mimi told me I should put the recipe for my barbecued chicken on my blog, so here you go.

Barbecued Chicken

1/3 c. ketchup
1/3 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. vinegar
2 T. lemon juice
1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce
1 t. salt
2 t. dry mustard
2 t. chili powder
12 chicken thighs and drumstick pieces

1. Stir first 8 ingredients together in mixing bowl.

2. Put chicken pieces in the crock pot and cover with sauce.

3. Put crock pot on high until it starts boiling, then reduce heat until the sauce is simmering and cook for 5-6 hours.

4. Eat with yummy twice baked potatoes and mixed vegetables.

5. Hear all the compliments come rolling in. Yummy!!

6. Store leftovers in the fridge to make "Barbecued Chicken Salad Surprise" or some other fun leftover chicken dish.

Jo's Glasses

My sister commented that she didn't realize that Jo got glasses. Looking back, I guess I never posted about it. A few months ago, Jo came home and announced that she needed to go to the eye doctor and get her eyes checked. She had been trying to follow the songs in church and she hadn't been able to see which song we were singing. She couldn't read the number up front. Nathan made an appointment and took her to the doctor. The doctor said that her eyes weren't that bad, but apparently they were bad enough for her glasses to make a difference. The Saturday after she got them, she was down watching cartoons in her glasses before she even got ready for the day. She was so excited to pick out her glasses and told everyone for the week before she got them that she was getting glasses. She even wrote it on Nathan's board at his work and wouldn't let him erase it. She looks really cute in them and loves that she can see so much better.

Another tractor?

Nathan went to an auction about a week ago and got LOTS of fun stuff. This is one of them. It's pretty fun to look out and see it in our pasture. Owen asked when he saw it if the thing coming out the front was a cannon. I can just picture what was going on in his mind. Personally, I think it looks old and cool. But don't tell Nathan, or I'll never convince him that we shouldn't fill our yard with old tractors. He is excited to introduce our "new" tractor to his Rusty Nuts and Bolts Club this weekend.

Videos of Zoey

There were quite a few things that I wanted to remember about Zoey at this age, so I took videos of them. They turned out pretty cute, so I thought I'd share. Sorry about her hair. It's kind of scary. I'm recovering, so give me a break.

In February, my kids started staying after school for choir. My friend was the choir director and asked me to be one of her assistants. Because of that, Zoey has come with me to all of the practices. She is still in her stranger anxiety mode, so she won't go play with the other kids because there are moms there that she doesn't know. So, she sits behind me the whole time. the other day, she broke out into one of the songs. I started quizzing her on them and she knows most of them. This first video is of her singing "I'm a VIP."

Last year for the Primary program, they had the nursery kids learn "I am a Child of God" and sing it to the congregation. Zoey learned it very well, but of course she wouldn't sing it when she was supposed to. Even now she calls it "her" song and will break out singing it often. These next two videos are of "I am a Child of God." I can't decide which one I like better, so I'm putting both of them on here.

She has all of a sudden decided that she LOVES jokes. These next two are of her telling her favorite jokes. The first one is knock knock jokes and the last one is her bluebird joke. Owen tells me that he made up that joke. I'm not so sure because it actually makes sense and is funny. If he did, more power to him.

Barbecue Chicken Salad Surprise

So, I decided that Owen and Nathan couldn't have all the fun. I wanted to experiment with food, too. Actually, what happened was we had some leftovers that needed to be used up so, I mixed them all together and Ta Da! My kids actually LOVED it and asked to have it again this week. I'm hoping I remember enough to make it again.

I know, they look so thrilled, but they really did like it.

My Barbecue Chicken Salad Surprise and Cheese Toast.

Another Easter Egg Hunt

I just found these pictures, so they're out of order. The last Sunday in March, Gabby and Yani had the family over for an Easter dinner. They set up a little Easter egg hunt for the kids. They were all loving it. They made sure we remembered their baskets and were so excited.

Zoey showing off her candy.Owen being a nut and showing his stuff.Jo showing her candy.M is thrilled with her spoils.Zoey eating her candy.

Owen - yes, we're trying to get him to show emotion more often. Every picture we have is some boring pose (as if!).