What do boys do for fun?

Well it depends on their age. The oldest will always push the younger ones around, on a tractor or in a car. The middle one will use the hose to spray them as they race across the yard and the youngest LOVES every minute of it all. He just gets carried and placed wherever the oldest wants him and goes along for the ride. The oldest will think a little and put on a bathing suit, the middle will just take his clothes off to his underwear and the youngest will have his diaper taken off for him and run around in the buff. My daughter and I were crying because we were laughing so hard.

Now if you are in doors and you don't hear your two year old run quick and see what is up or send one of the older children to check on them. Don't be surprised by what you might find......finger painting on himself. Boys will be boys.

First Hair Cut

You know most moms have so many jobs and one of mine is the "barber." I must be descent because I get approval from my hubby and his father has been a "real barber" for over 40 years. I thought it was time to cut Merrick's hair for real. He is going to be turning two at the end of the month and I know we will be taking pictures so why not with a new cut. You can see by the pictures he does not like the clippers and I am amazed he came out of it with any hair. Brinnlee and Clayton were excellent helpers. Brinnlee was the photographer. Of course there had to be a treat and he was a happy boy even after all the trauma. We have the best "job's" in the world!!! Thank you Lord for making me a mommy.

Camping

Our first family camping trip in a l o n g time. We had a blast! It was nice to get away and enjoy the wonderful outdoors that the Lord has blessed us with. In the pictures are our children getting dirty without a worry. Nolan totally enjoyed whittling. He usually can't sit still ever! But give him a BIG SHARP knife and a stick and he would sit and concentrate for at least 15 minutes. Clayton is our future hunter for now. He really enjoys shooting his bow. Brinnlee actually took most of these pictures. Merrick just loved to play in the dirt. It was great just letting them play and get "dirty."

The First Tea Party

My daughter was turning 6 and we wanted to have a tea party. So after searching on the web I came up with a few ideas and ran with it. It turned out perfect. She had four of her friends come and we had set the tables for 8. I decided that I was going to enjoy this one with "the girls." My two older boys and my husband were the escorts and served the "ladies." We had soooooo much fun and both the boys and girls loved every bit of the party. We made tea party hats to start and then sat down for lunch which was served by the boys or young men.... Brinnlee then opened her gifts and we returned to the table for dessert and tea. Matt, my wonderful hubby and awesome daddy, came out with his English accent as he asked what kind of tea we would like and we just about fell off our chairs in laughter. The younger girls ate it up. They played right along with him. It was fun to teach our daughter and sons how to serve and be served. I have to say that our first tea party was a hit.

Garden Update

We are now harvesting peas, spinach and Swiss chard. I have taken a little Romain lettuce too. This has been the easiest garden ever. It has been so much fun for our family to go out each morning and see if there are peas to pick and in the afternoon we go and get some chard and spinach for dinner. The carrots are not ready and neither are the beets. We are going to be planting melons, cucumbers, sweet peppers, and green beans. We are looking forward to the summer harvest.

Ski Day

We had the wonderful blessing of taking our two older children skiing Tuesday. We left REALLY early that morning and headed up to Flagstaff for the day. It was great spending the day with just the two older children and enjoying the beauty of Gods creation in the mountains with my hubby. Clayton learned how to ski a couple of years ago and this year we were able to get Brinnlee up on skis.

We have peas!

Here is the latest on our garden. We have some peas growing. Our lettuce is doing great, in fact I think we will be eating some spinach next week. We have had to use some of our grapefruit to try to keep the ants away. They seem to really like the swish chard. Our beets did not do as well. Not sure why?

No More Procrastination

I finally took the plunge! I have been wanting to make my own yogurt and butter for a long time. I just thought it was too hard and took too much time. Well to my surprise and a friends blog, thanks Jodi, I did it. It was soooooo easy and took no time at all. The butter is awesome and I know VERY good for us. Not sure what I will do with the buttermilk yet. I have also started to learn how to soak my grains before using. The oatmeal over night is great. My next new change will be to sprout wheat before making fresh wheat flour for bread. I will need to read up on that.

The Pecan Farm

We are gathering the pecans after the tree was shaken.

This is the shaker. It is placed around the trunk and you can actually feel the ground shake like an earthquake.

This is Clayton on the tire swing.

Last Saturday we went as a family to a pecan farm in Camp Verde, which is between Phoenix and Flagstaff. We had such a great time learning about the Pecan Tree and the 40 plus different varieties. We were able to see how they shake the tree to get the pecans to fall on a tarp and then gather them up. Then we were shown all the different shellers. The children loved it. As you can see they also had a tire swing which we had a hard time getting the children away from. There were some sword fights with Auntie REW and a river walk as well. If you have never eaten a pecan fresh from the tree there really is a difference! They were so tasty. It was a wonderful day being out in Gods creation.