Labor Day Weekend

So these kids have an awesome Dad who loves to go to new places. He planned a great trip to Louis Lake in WY. We saw a lot of nothing on the way to a beautiful mountain cabin retreat. 

On the way to our cabin we stopped in a very small town in WY called Farson where we met this famous owl 'Hoot" he has been in over 125 movies including the Harry Potter series. 

We payed to have our picture with him. 

The really cool part of our trip is that all of these kids grandparents were with us. We did some boating, hiking, genealogy, fishing, camp fires, Dutch oven cooking, knitting, church, swinging and exploration. We love getting away as a family and destressing in a new environment. 

Summer Fun

Bubble fun

Dress up

Grandma's 70th birthday party

Growing sunflowers in our Garden

Hair chalk and girl friends

Our Garden

Ballet Lessons by big sister Evelyn

 

School Stuff

 Evelyn has really enjoyed Soccer. She is doing really well this year with her all girls team and they are really starting to get the team effort thing.  Reading is finally not a struggle and she  actually starting to enjoy it and do it for fun.  Math has been a journey and we are still learning. violin has been amazing she is really talented and I hope that she will continue to develop this talent. 

Hailey is pretty funny to watch with Soccer. Often times she holds back and stays in the defense position and chews on her nails. Her dad once asked her why she doesn't play more aggressive and get the ball to the goal more often and she said "Because I want the other girls to have fun and have a turn." She is a very thoughtful girl and a great friend. she is really good at math although some concepts take time for to grasp and more direct attention. Isn't that us all though. She is really progressing with reading and writing and I am pleased with her progress this year. 

Stetson is doing the play "The Ordinary Princess" his character is High Lord Chamberlain and the practices are taking up  a lot of his time. He is really doing well and we are excited for this weekends performances. Soccer is fun but Stetson is the smallest on the team and doesn't usually play as hard as the others. He is thinking he will train a s a ref this summer so he can earn money this fall. Math is going well he is doing his assignments. Grammar has been skipped a bit but he always does his cursive. I hope that very soon Stetson will be more excited to learn. 

Spring

Iris plants in blooming!

Garden tilled and manure unloaded.

Cabbage, broccoli & cauliflower plants to put into our garden. 

We raked the remainder of the leaves  and branches out of our yard this weekend, took a load of green waist and we got three loads of manure for our garden.  There are plenty more things that we need to get done in are yard but it is fun to have warm weather and be outdoors once again. 

 

Spring Break

We made Chocolate chip cookies, posted the recipe on Mom's food blog and shared them with a kind neighbor who served us, as well as Grandpa who visits daily.     

The girls and Stetson's friend Owen dressed Stetson up. 

He is a Rapscallion hula dancing Storm trooper!!! 

We went to visit cousins and Evelyn got a few new gently used cloths. 

This outfit was one of her favorite!

Grandpa, 6 Cousins and an Aunt joined us on a 3 mile Ridgeline hike. Grandpa did great considering he was in the hospital recovering from a stole this time last year. 

 

Easter was fun with lots of yummy treats, eggs full of money and a hunt. Some got scooters the others Lego's. All enjoyed their surprises!!!

We didn't truly take a spring break because we've had so many visitors in the last month. The girls still did math and grammar each day and Stetson started to truly work on his online Adobe class. We all watched some of the video's with him like "Thriller" by Michael Jackson.

Life

Evelyn and Bristol learned how to grind wheat and helped me make bread. 

Hailey and her best friend playing dress up and jumping on the trampoline. They are princess Elsa and Arora or someone else super Disney princesses like.

We all helped Dad to track down a water leak and do some water damage clean up. 

Stetson will be High Lord Chamberlin in the play The Ordinary Princess in May. We are super excited for him to sport his dapper costume and play his pompous roll. So far he is really enjoying his funny one liners in the play. Mom is helping with the costumes and we all very excited. 

Evelyn also did a great job on playing her violin.  I was trying to upload a video of her playing but it won't upload. 

 

First Time Skiing

 We went to Cherry Peak Ski Resort! This is the first time me (Stetson), and my mom went skiing together! My mom has gone skiing many times before, but this was a first for me! I LOVED IT!! I don't mean to brag, but I was REALLY good! I was going down Intermediate slopes in the first HOUR! 

My sisters and I completed all our Grammar, Math and Science This week. We all have had fun at co-op and have been studying WWII! One of my favorite subjects! Lately I've Been playing a game called War Thunder. It is a game that is based on WWII with real-time tanks, planes, and war ships!  

Chickens

 

Asian Black  - Charcoal & Penguin

Rhode Island Red - Carmel & Butterscotch

Austria White - Lemonade

Amber Link - Nugget & Freckles

Delaware - Angel

Americana - Liquorish 

Olive Easter Egger - Midnight

Bantam Blue Silkie - Lucifer or Chooster - Is now DEAD!!!

This chicken ended up being a rooster and our good neighbor who has seen first hand what a mean chicken can do helped by breaking his neck and throwing him in the trash!

All the rest of our ladies are super gentle and good natured.

We love our fresh eggs and pretty ladies!!!

Exercise

 We now have a pull-up bar in our laundry room of all places. So we had a contest among the kids to see who could do an actual pull-up. We all are a little weak at the moment and intend to get better as the winter wares on so that we might be able to be stronger by spring. 

We also have a small trampoline and yoga ball that the kids like to use to get there wiggles out on. Sometimes the girls turn the trampoline into a stage for one of their many dance shows or musical performances. 

Evelyn also discovered her love for jumping rope and has been doing so all over the house. She did so much on Saturday that she was sore Sunday and into today. She does not like how her calves hurt, she says that it is hard to walk up and down the stairs. 

Tender Mercies - Horse adventures!!!

Stetson riding Beauty!

Hailey riding Beauty!

Bristol riding Beauty with Andy Pendly guiding!

Evelyn petting and getting familiar with beauty before riding!

Evelyn riding Beauty!

Stetson playing catch with Sunny!

Good dog Sunny!

The kids have been begging for a dog and they got to have ample time with a very fun one on the weekend named Sunny. They were also blessed to be able to ride a horse as you've seen. Our good family friends let us have the majority of their home to stay in as we attended the funeral of my Mother. We were grateful for the friendly connections we have kept in our life that allowed for such comfortable accommodations during such a trying time.  The kids didn't really know that it was a hard weekend as they got to eat out, ride a horse, play with cousins, stay in a really cool house, explore, and snuggle a dog. Life is always full of adventures. We take one day at a time and trust in God every step of the way!

 

ABC"s of God Creations

Apple's

Bumble Bee's

Cookies

Dew on a morning leaf

Emotions

Father

Grass

Honey

Ice

Jack Rabbit

Kitty's (Skittles and Tiger)

Love

Mountains

Newt 

Octopus

Penguins

Quail

Rocks 

Sand

Tree's

Utah

Voice

Wade's

FoX

YOU

Zebra's 

We love all of God's creations and had fun coming up with this ABC list of things that came to mind for us. We especially love this state that we live in and the opportunity that we had to explore so much of it this last year. We are excited for the adventures that await us this year!

Kids have been very creative with train track cities, playing house, tea parties, pretend birthday parties, bulldog tag, sardines, dolls, decorating, books and I'm sure many other things that I am not even currently aware of. 

School is off to a pretty good re-start with all math, grammar, flashcards and phonograms worked on for the week!

Our family had to quarantine for the last week and a half so we are grateful to once again roam freely. 

To Grandmothers house we go!!!

This is Evelyn climbing one of my favorite trees that I climbed when I was a little girl. Evelyn is 9, my parents moved to this home in Idaho when I was 10. This is a overgrown apricot tree and it is so beautiful when it is in bloom. My parents will soon be moving in with us and leaving this home of 27 years, change is bitter sweet.

Evelyn got to come with me to visit my parents, just her and I. We had a great time being just the two of us. She also really enjoyed her cousin Violet and a sleep over at Grandma and Grandpa's house. They are truly good friends and love the rare time they had to be together. Family is so important! 

We had waffles again for the first time in forever! Grandma gave us an old waffle iron of hers and the kids were so excited to make our paleo banana waffles. We enjoyed them with orange juice, eggs and bacon. All of the girls were very helpful.

School was minimalistic this week due to mom being gone, kids being with baby sitters and Dad. Non the less learning still occurred and we did our best to increase in knowledge. 

 

Play

Hailey, Bristol and Ezra were having a great time playing with their stuffed animals and trying to hide among them.     

The girls put on a play. They had practices and several dress rehearsals for days as they prepared to make Sunday the 6th a very special day. There was violin solos, dancing, singing and plenty of laughter. The whole family was so entertained by these three actresses. 

Sunday the 6th was Ezra's 2nd birthday. We made coconut cream pie and mixed berry pie to celebrate the occasion. Everyone was eager to help him with opening his present, a car that he could assemble himself with a drill. We sometimes joke that Ezra is going to be a construction company owner and call his company E Z Construction. This little guy brings so much joy to the whole family we are glad he is apart of our lives. 

School was participated in. Violin lessons were attended, math lessons were completed, science and safety was learned and grammar was worked on and improved.  As well as cooking, cleaning, sharing and disagreeing appropriately.