Sisters sweet moment

Elody is finally starting to let us at least comb her hair. I caught her letting Safia comb her hair and play with her. It was really sweet, so I got a picture of it!

Elody and Sariah's birthday party at our house

We hosted Elody and Sariah's birthday party at our house. Candy made a cake and Matt made Fig/dried cherry granola bars. That was our healthy alternative to cake. Elody really enjoyed it and so did we. Elody received a few cute outfits and a dress.

Freak hail storm in June

I just so happened to take a picture of our garden on Elody's birthday a week ago. So here is a before picture of it.








We were expecting an isolated rain shower, but not this. I hailed and it hailed hard. The hail were bigger than peas but not as big as marbles. It started coming down a little and small and then it came down hard and larger. It literally shredded my garden. The hail covered the lawns. And while this is all going on, we couldn't find our camera. Finally 1/2 hour after it was over, we finally found it and took some pictures of what was left. We were so sickened by the damage. We were supposed to go to the park to celebrate Elody and Sariah's birthdays, but we decided to do it at our house instead.

Dinner failure

Thursday night I wanted to make egg rolls. We all love them, but it takes a long time to make. I prefer to have help and cut the process time at least by half, but Matt was working on setting up the pool. So I started at 5pm. I got the chicken boiled and then the veggies prepared and cooked. This time, the store was out of the regular egg roll wraps, so I decided to try rice paper. So I got almost all of them rolled up and started cooking them. Well, I didn't get the whole roll double wrapped. Where I didn't, the roll burst in the oil. I had to stop. I sent Matt back to another store to get the real egg roll wraps and unwrapped all the half cooked and uncooked egg rolls and dumped the stuffing back into the bowl. I dumped that oil into a can and started over with new oil. Then Matt got back with the wraps and we started all over. Matt and the girls we helping by then and the baby was tired and crying. I turned it over them and nursed the baby to sleep and put her to bed. I said the blessing on the food at 9pm. Ugh! I was so frustrated I could hardly eat. I learned my lesson, don't try to fix/change a recipe that isn't broken.

Cherries cherries and more cherries!

Thursday and Friday I went out to a local farm/orchard/nursery and pick 25 pounds of cherries. We ate a bunch, probably more than we should have. Then I froze a bunch and dehydrated a bunch. Matt had to go to work so with a little help from the kids we pitted them with my friend's cherry pitter. Jileigh was a sweety and cleaned up the floor underneath me twice without even being asked. Now my hands are stained and I am nervous about leading the music tomorrow with purple hands.

Boysenberry time!

We got to pick boysenberries this week in our little patch. We picked enought to make a batch of boysenberrie jam!!! I just don't like the seeds. I would like to find a kind of strainer that would let the puree through but not the seeds.

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!