Goobard

Last weekend we went up to visit our families. My parents have a fabulous garden with two (huge) rhubarb plants in it. I'd been toying with the idea to make jam. For the most part I don't like jam, but my mom makes this one with rhubarb in it that I actually enjoy. So while we were up there I picked and chopped up my rhubarb. Yesterday I made the jam and had a couple cups leftover and made a strawberry/rhubarb crumble. Scott LOVED it and didn't want the kids to miss out. Relentlessly he offered them some and finally they caved- and liked it. Oakley really liked the jam too. But after she ate the crumble she kept saying how much she liked the Goobard stuff.

Also while we were up the kids, Scott and I got to help Grandma and Grandpa plant some of their flowers and garden. Oakley held up a trowel and asked Grandma, "Do you have another shovel stick so Sierra can help?"

So after a good weekend we have come up with two new vocabulary words; goobard and shovel stick.

Announcing our new arrivals...

Here are our new baby chicks! We just got them tonight. This one has been named Nina, she's super sweet and even fell asleep in my hands.

The black one is Lilly and the one on the right is Hedwig.

We are sharing them with our neighbor. They'll have them half the time and we'll have them the other half. We get to share the eggs all the time.

These little yellow girls will lay blue to green eggs and I was told, occasionally a pink egg.

Oakley, Sierra and I are pretty excited about them. Izi likes to look, but doesn't want to touch, which is OK, cuz I think she might accidentally hurt them AND I don't want to wash her hands twenty times a day. Scott says he's not that excited, but if you listen to him talk to them, I think they'll be good friends.

Sierra with Nina. She has crazy hair cuz she'd just finished swimming at a friends house.

The black one will lay brown eggs. Here is their new home, for a few weeks. We are looking for scrap wood and other supplies to build their coop. Anyone who has any ideas or plans of a good coop, please leave a comment!

Fun Day at the School

On May 2 our school had a huge rummage sale, carnival and craft/vendor fair. Here are the girls in front of their school.

This is Oakley going down the slide.

Sierra was a huge help. I had to be at the school at 6:30 to help and didn't get home until 4:00. So Scott was left with the girls. Sierra helped do Izi's and Oakley's hair and got Izi dressed. She also helped keep track of her at the carnival.

I was in charge of the bake sale, here are 12 loaves of bread I made. I also made 3 pans of Rice Krispy Treats. The whole thing was a lot of work by a lot of people, but we were able to raise a lot of money for our school. YAY!!

Our New Garden!

This is a cute picture of Izi throwing a bouncy ball to Duke. He loves to play ball/catch/frizbee with anyone or anything willing. We've seen him try to toss the tennis ball to the cat many times. The cat is not a willing participant of fetch. Anyway, behind them in the far corner of our yard is the BEFORE picture of where we put our new garden boxes.

Scott built the boxes and we put ground cloth on the bottom. Izi and Oakley are helping us pound in the staples, they did a really great job! We later applied stain/water repellent. This was last Wed. It took most of the day to build the boxes and move the rocks. Plus we bought a new yard wagon to help with the moving of the rocks, but we had to stop so Scott could take us on a few rides, he even took me :))) It was a lot of fun!

This is today. It was good enought weather last Wed and today, but the rest of the days inbetween were pretty windy and cold. They girls had a lot of fun playing in the water and are taking a break here. Notice Duke trying to play and Izi doing whatever her sisters are. I'm surprised she's still dressed.

This is the mostly finished product. Scott (in true Scott fashion) had to rearrange some of the bordering rocks and add more. But we layed down more ground cloth under the new rocks and boxes, put the boxes and rocks on, and filled them with yummy peat moss and garden soil. We covered them tonight with more ground cloth (I think it's becoming an obsession-NO WEEDS!). The nifty white rocks are courtesy of the "forest" behind our yard. They're really chunks of cement we think. Who cares, they are free and look great for now.

These are our seedlings we planted last week for FHE. At the top we have corn-we got a "new" kind that has red kernals, we also got the yellow kind. Below that is a row of cantelope, then a row of watermelon then our mini, carving and GIANT pumpkins. We have other things to plant, but I'm sure only my mom and dad care about what those are. So there you have it, the before, after and what we're going to put in it.

Floss anyone?

Yesterday I was sitting at the computer and I kept hearing this noise, blurrrddd... blurrrdd. I was busy doing something and the noise was registering in the back of my mind. Then I started really hearing it and I realized it was the DENTAL FLOSS being pulled OUT of the container. When I got to the bathroom Izi had unwound over half the thing. Here is what I couldn't get wound back on the spool.



Of course she needed a picture too when she saw the camera. Silly girl. What's really funny though is she started doing it again today, but I was much quicker, we only lost about 20 yds.

Whoa, Mom's Talented!

That's right. Let me tell you about the amazing feat I accomplished this morning at the wonderment of my 8 year old. Our fridge and microwave are relatively close to each other. I was filling up a liquid measuring cup with water from the fridge for oatmeal, while simultaneously OPENING the microwave door. When Sierra saw that she said, "Whoa, Mom is talented!" Whoa. is. right. I am Mom and I CAN do two things at once. (Isn't that one of the definitions of Mom-multitasker?!?)

Our Trip to Zion National Park

Here are some pictures of our visit to Zion. It was really cool. We went to St. George and had lunch (that is where the balloon came from), then went into the park. I haven't been to the park in the wintertime before. I really like it with snow.

I think this picture is hilarious because Sierra has a loose tooth, which is totoally sticking out over her lip. She lost it soon after. After we left the park we stopped and got some ice cream. All in all, it was a really great family day!