Sweet moment

Matt enjoys sitting and playing the guitar once in a while. My little kids have always been facinated with playing on it too. This time it was Elody's turn.

Happy 1st Birthday Elody!!!

Today is my Elody's 1st birthday. And she slept through the night for the first time.
Darn it! I did it sideways again!

My sick little Beau

Today Beau has come down with a fever of 102 degrees. He has also developed a strange rash. Any ideas on what is going on with him would be helpful. I have two theories. 1- The fever and rash are associated with a virus or 2-When we were at the Ranch, he was playing in some new sand. There might be something in it that he is allergic to. I put some Caladryl on him tonight in hopes to stop him from itching himself and causing further irritation. My poor baby!

Next morning: Last night Beau woke up at around 2am with a really bad croupy cough. It was so bad that he could hardly breath. We took him in the front room and set up the nebulizer and gave him a breathing treatment. That really helped him to relax and go back to sleep. This morning his fever is normal, but he is still itchy!

I finally thought to look in his mouth and it is dotted with spots too and his toungue has little raised bumps. wierd!

Day three: I have ruled out the allergy and decided that it is a virus. His tongue has now turned red.

Elody walking

At ll months and three weeks, Elody is now walking.

Memorial Day weekend at the Ranch

We spent Memorial Day weekend at the Ranch. It is a family work weekend. Saturday I got the job to clean the industrial size double oven! I took me half of the afternoon to get it clean. Matt spent Saturday and Monday working on patching ceiling and fixing broken plumbing. Monday I cleaned the kitchen and the basement. Sunday we went for a hike. Little did I know that there would still be snow on the ground. I didn't put on my hiking boots. I only had my running shoes on. Not the best shoes to go tramping through the snow. I was trying to help my little kids get through it as well. Fortunately, I had family members to help.

The only down part of the weekend was all the sugar treat that were there. I tried my best to keep my kids out of them, but I wasn't able to watch all of them all the time. I was nursing Elody when They broke out the ice cream, sherbet and peach cobbler. All my kids (minus the baby) had a bowl or cup full of dessert. I would have let them have a little, but I wasn't there to control the portion size. I took away Beau's because if he gets sweets at night, he coughs. He didn't cough that night this time, but he did have a night mare. But now, Wednesday, he is sick and I have a bunch of sick kids. Almost everyone has a cold, cough, and/or a soar throat. The baby and Talon are throwing up and Matt came home sick from work. I hate the ill effects that sugar has on my family. That is why I don't give it to them and it frustrates me when other people think they need to give it to them, despite the fact that it is just not good for us! Matt's uncle had the flu while we were up there and his brother's kids were sick too. So this week we are just going to ride out and try to get everyone better.

Elody can now stand up by herself and take 2-3 steps. It won't be very long now before she starts walking!!!

wood projects

Matt is the scout leader of the 11 year old. Right now they are working on a wood working merit badge, so Matt put them to work in our garage making nesting cubicals for our chickens. Also, we inherited my dad's wood working toy. Matt decided that he wanted to try to make a bowl. He did a pretty good job with it too.

chicks 3 weeks old

The chicks are now 3 weeks old. This was the first week we took them out of their little home and took them outside on the lawn. They were hesistant at first, but then they seemed to really like it. The kids just love them to pieces. We have to keep reminding them to be careful with them and that they are not toys.

Angelique's talent show

sprouting

I have been trying to make more of an effort in sprouting grains. I mix together all being organic: buckwheat, millet, oat groats, kamut, brown rice, spelt, soft white wheat, popcorn, rye and ..... (I don't remember). Then I soak them for 12 hours and then sprout them for 24 hours until they are barely sprouted. that is all they need if they are just going to be dehydrated. I used my mom's old dehydrator to do the job and dehydrated my sprouted grains for 24 hours. Then I ground them and put them in the freezer. This sprouted flour makes the best muffins and much more nutritious. I am trying to make an effort to being more traditional in my cooking and baking. I bought a book called, Nourishing Traditions. In my opinion,iIt is by far the most correct book on eating and nutrition.

Safia's last day of Pre-school

Today was Safia's last day of preschool

Elody moves on her knees

Elody can't quite walk on her feet yet by herself, but she likes to move around on her knees. It is really cute to watch so I got a couple of videos of it.

Jaren's first grade class play

Jaren's first grade class did the play, 'The Little red hen.' He played the part of the cow. It was a darling play and Jaren did a great job!

Safia's first R

We have been working with Safia for at least a year trying to get her to say the "R" sound. I have even talked to the speech therapist at the elementary school for her advice. She told me of a couple of exercises I could do with her. Everyone told me not to worry about it, but I still did. I worked and worked with her. Tonight when I asked her to say, "R" she did it!!!! Then we asked her to say all sorts of "R" words like: ranch, rat, girl, curl, remember, etc. We cheered and cheered for her!

Elody's first step

Elody is learning to balance more each day. Today for the first time, she stood for several minutes without assistance. I sent one of the kids in for the camera and took a picture of her. Then I started the filming hoping I could get her to take a step, AND SHE DID!!! Then....Talon shot her in the face with a foam dart! I was more startled that she was. She was fine, but Talon got into a little bit of trouble. He knows he is not suppose to aim at people's faces.

I know, I need to learn to not take video sideways~

Cousin Chad's birthday party at the park

Today we went to the park for Matt's sister's(Amanda)son's birthday party. It is really cool park. I got a couple of pictures of the toys. They also have a splash pad there too. Matt's other sister Esther made this amazing cake for a fund raiser auction. Amanda bought it for $100. Other's pitched in to help pay for it. I normally don't eat cake, but I had to have a taste of this one. Every layer had a different flavored cake and filling.

Elody is 11 months old today!

My little baby is now 11 months old. This silly girl can't walk yet, but this morning Safia put her up the rocking horse and went to town on it. We have put her up on it before, but she really was hesitant on it. Now we can't keep her off of it. It's hilarious!

Beauchene's 3rd Birthday

I love this little boy!

While we were at Matt's mom's house last weekend, we sang Happy Birthday to him with all the family and Grandma got him a Thomas the tank engine. We got him the summer PJs. Then on Tuesday, his actual birthday we sang to him again and gave him his other presents. When I asked him earlier what he wanted for his birthday dinner, he said, "Jello!" So I said, "What else?" Again, he said,"Jello!" I asked him, "What color?" and he said, "Blue!" So, he got blue jello for his birthday dessert with candles and everything. For dinner I made creamy potato casserole with ham and broccoli. It was pretty yummy.

Beauchene is the love of our lives. He is so sweet and kind and loving and compassionate and compliant, and obedient and funny. If he could only stay little!

Elody and Chienne

For some reason, Elody loves Chienne even though that dog is at least twice as big as her. Matt's mom took these pictures of her at her house.

Roofing Matt's mom's house

Sometime ago when we were out at Matt's mom's house, Matt went up on the roof to check it out because she had mentioned that shingle had been flying off. Well, he firmly told her that she needed her roof re-shingled and soon. So this past weekend he and most of his siblings re-shingled her roof. Matt went out Friday morning and he and Ryan, his sister's husband, ripped off all the singles. Saturday they all nailed in all the new ones. Even I went up there for a little while and nailed in some shingles. It was actually kinda fun. Candy and I took the kids for a walk up the wash and wore them out. Here is a picture of my two little ones crashed out. They are so sweet when they are sleeping. :)