Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Happy Birthday Derrick!

Today Derrick turns the big 3-5. I worked today, Shayli had school today and Derrick stayed home with the boys. We ordered take out from our favorite Mexican joint- Joel's, and now we are just hanging out as a family.

We had a busy, busy weekend:

Friday night I come home to learn that our barn has 6-7 inches of standing water all over. We also had one of our favorite families come over that night. So my friend Melanie and I headed out to the barn to make little islands for the animals to keep them up out of the water until we can make a more permanent fix.

Saturday we did a little more for the animals, took Shayli to a friends house for a sleepover and then the rest of us headed to a family friends house for a birthday party. These particular friends have a nice and big farm with SO MANY goats. They probably have 20 babies right now and holy cow are they adorable (more about them later) We feel so blessed to know some quality people that we can call friends. Rad ended up coming down with a fever, so we headed home and called it a night.

Sunday morning Rad was feeling much better. So Rad, Cade and I headed to church. Rad is loving primary and says that he chooses the right because "My ring tells me too." Cade is one of two kids in my nursery group and there are two of us serving as nursery leaders. It's fun having a smaller group so that I can have some quality one on one time with Cade on Sunday's. After church we headed to out to grab Shayli from her sleepover, we grabbed the trailer from Bob, and HAD to pick up a bunch of bails of straw to help with the barn flood. Back at home we did some more flood control and then headed to a friends home for dinner. These particular friends are in our ward and it was nice to spend an evening talking food storage and self reliance with some strong LDS members.





Monday morning was probaby one of the smelliest mornings of my life. The standing water in the barn turned into a big ol stinky mix of pig, goat, chicken, rabbit and cat grossness. So Derrick and I spent a few hours with five gallon buckets and a sled. We scooped the grossness with the buckets, dumped it in the sled and drug it outside to dump. Nasty, nasty, nasty. However, it was so fun working side by side with Derrick. We have so much fun, even in the most disgusting of circumstances. After a few hours of hard work the water was gone, new straw was put down and the barn clean. Shayli and I then clipped the goats feet, did some grocery shopping and then had a couple of families over for Derrick's birthday dinner. I made some BBQ pork and beef sandwiches... SO GOOD!

The Till's brought Derrick a "farming kit". The kit included a double sided ax, a pair of suspenders, the farmer-est pair of pants you will ever see, a long sleeved flannel shirt and a straw hat. Derrick wore them the rest of the night and man oh man was it a kick in the pants. I am kicking myself for not getting pictures.

Today after work Shayli I stopped by our friends with the goats and picked out two new baby goats for ourselves. We snagged a handsome little buck that Cade has named "Buck" and a beautiful baby girl that Shayli and I named "Fawn". Shayli and I are going to start breeding goats and we are really excited about it! What a fun hobby for us. Althought I guess farming is more of a lifestyle huh?



If you've made it to the end of this post... CONGRATS! I am totally aware that it was bit long and probably a bit dull. But if this blog is to serve as a family journal as well... sometimes, that's what the post's will be. :)

Sunday, January 9, 2011

And we are back...


So I am off of Facebook and back to blogging.

My goal is to update our blog weekly. So check back at least that often!

The boys are doing fantastic. At the moment they are laughing at Hitch (our newest animal addition). Hitch just came running into the kitchen and slipped and then slid all the way to the sliding door where he stopped with a crash.

Cade is growing like crazy and talking lots. He loves to sing and he loves the piano. He is such a ham, always making goofy faces and making us laugh.

Rad is in preschool and loving it. He is looking forward to the snow melting so that he can start racing his dirtbike. He really likes primary and his favorite song is 'Follow the Prophet'. Thanks Sam and Andrew!

Shayli recently won first place in the Invention Convention contest at her Charter School. She takes her invention to regionals here in a few weeks. We have a hotel room reserved for the event and we are looking forward to supporting her in her efforts. She is doing so well in school and is such a great 13 year old.

Derrick is doing great as Mr. Mom. It is nice to come home to a clean house and dinner made every day. His shop is getting closer to being finished and he loves living where we do.

I am working as a banker at a bank in Sandpoint. I really miss being home with the boys but since I have to work, I am glad that I like what I do.

Derrick spent a good chunk of the week researching different fitness routines and diets. Starting tomorrow the two of us will get up early and work out together. I am thankful for a husband that supports me in the things that I want to do... goodness knows that he does not need to lose an ounce.

The farm is doing great. We are down to 4 goats (Dean Grinder, Rocky, Sunny, and Cracker), 1 rabbit (Roxy), 2 barn cats (Rock and Roll), 10 hens, 1 rooster, 3 pigs (Hammy, Porkchop and Bacon), and Hitch our Chocolate Lab mix that we adopted in the early fall.

Life is good.


The Boys in Hitch's kennel.