Bush-Be-Gone

We have been stewing over what to do with our enormous evergreen bushes that have lined our driveway and haunted our house.  Over the past year we have used bumpers, chains, chainsaws, and pick axes to remove bushes here and there.  However, I was beginning to see those bushes as an endless summer project at the rate we were going. 

We decided to hire the removal out.  We got a few bids, and one guy came in much lower than the rest so we hired him.  He loaded his dump truck up with about five loads of bushes over yesterday afternoon and this morning.

It is a lot of fun now to look from our house and be able to see our lower lawn and trees.  We're really excited to have the bushes gone, but now we have to figure out what to replace them with!

Our first furry pet

On our way home from Arbon tonight, we stopped by a lady's house outside of Pocatello and picked up our long awaited bunny rabbit.  The kids chose a velvety black standard rex rabbit.  As we drove home, the kids worked on a name for the little female.  They chose the name of "Dot" since she appeared to be a black dot on a canvas of white bunnies that surrounded her when we picked her out.

When we got home, we set up her water bottle and feed tray in her new hutch.  We placed the hutch in one of our stalls in the barn to keep her out of the weather.

The kids are giddy to finally have a pet that they can actually hold and pet!

Its Wabbit Time

After Amber's race, she and I ran to home depot today and purchased some wood for a rabbit hutch. We have been contemplating getting a rabbit for some time.  Last year, in fact, we took Joe's old rabbit cage from Arbon and brought it to our place.  However, so much of the wood was rotten that after we looked at it for a bit, we decided it would be better if we built our own.

Amber and I took some pencil to paper and came up with a simple plan for the hutch.  We then spent three or four hours cutting the wood from Amber's new table saw to get more familiar with it

We were able to get it all set up and it is ready for a rabbit.  We just have to but some food, get a water bottle, and then pick up the rabbit.  The kids are really excited with the prospect of being rabbit owners.

To the finish line

This morning, Amber and I headed off to a park in Idaho Falls. Amber had signed up for a 10k (6.2mile) race. I was the camera man and cheerleader, and Amber was the runner. She did an awesome job. This was her first 10k race ever. She ran it in 57min13sec. This equates to about one mile every 9 minutes and 13 seconds, which was a personal best for her.

She was surprised how fast her time was. She did a great job and hardly looked winded when she crossed that finish line. After she was done I put on her headphones to see what she had listened to for part of the race...wouldn't you know it...the power driver for Amber was the October General Conference. To each their own when it comes to running ambiance, ha ha.

Dad's Truck Stop

I had to make a "Spitz" run today during work. I haven't had sunflower seeds for quite some time, but today I had a bunch of boring documents to create and I just was having a hard time motivating myself to get them done.

I went down stairs and said that I was going for some seeds. Jace wanted to come along so I took him to Dad's Truck Stop at the freeway exit near our house.

I guess the name of the truck stop confuses Jace because he keeps calling it "John's Truck Stop". I guess I have my very own truck stop now.

The end of an era

A couple of years ago, Jace was big into appending "toosie" to the end of certain names...I think it came from "Tootsie Rolls", but I am not sure. He would call me "Daddy Toosie" He liked to be called "Cowboy Toosie" as well. It later evolved into his nick name being "Jacer Toosie". He has let me call him that for quite some time. Today however, was the end of the "Toosie" title. He asked me not to call him "Jacer Toosie" any more.

I asked him what he would like me to call him. He responded that I could just call him "Jace". He paused for few seconds and then followed up with, "Or you can call me Jedi Jace".

I guess the whole star wars thing is now replacing my little toosie man. Oh well, it was cute while it lasted. Now I have to address Jedi Jace with the respect his new title demands.

Deep Cuts

I don't think our apple trees have been pruned in years.  In addition to the mounting needs for pruning, we have also had a large number of limbs and branches come down over the fall and winter.  We decided to buy a little chainsaw since we were always borrowing Dad's.  We got a 14 inch Husquavarna chainsaw at lowes and put it to work on Saturday.

Janae made the mistake of hanging out with us on Saturday, so she got put to work as well.  We chopped up fallen branches and limbs.  I started cutting out more evergreen bushes.  And we got one of our two apple trees pruned.  

It was fun to have all of the kids out working with us.  It is so much fun to work together...and around here, there are plenty of opportunities for that!

Carnival Fun

Last night, Alayna and Aliece's schools hosted a carnival for the family.  It was geared mostly for kids under 10 years old.  Aliece is still sick, so unfortunately she had to stay home and miss the carnival.

I took Alayna, Jace, and Avary to the Shelley High School for the big event.  Of course the first thing the girls wanted to do was get their face painted, which was the longest and slowest line in the gym.  They sure enjoyed the butterfly and flower that they had painted on their cheeks.  

We stayed for about 30 minutes until all of our spending money was gone. The little ones had a great time, but we sure missed having Aliece there with us. :(

HapPi Day

While I was exercising this afternoon, Amber was busy in the kitchen making dinner.  At dinner time, the kids asked what it was that we were having and Amber said it was chicken pot pie.  There were some funny looking lines in the top crust of the pie.  Amber asked John what those lines were and he thought she was accusing him of messing with the pie crust.  He got all defensive until Aylee calmed him down and told him that Mom was not making an accusation, but rather asking a question.  All the sudden a light came on in his head and he said, 'Ah, yeah, it's a Pi!"  

I was thoroughly confused.  After dinner, Amber asked when I wanted to have dessert.  I asked her what was dessert and she said, well, guess.  I was clueless until she asked, "What day is it today".  I then realized that I was behind the times compared to Amber, Aylee, and John.  Today is 3/14 - otherwise known as "Pi Day" in honor of the mathematical term for 3.14....  So, since it is 3/14, that makes it Pi day.

It was then that I realized what Amber was trying to get John to understand during dinner.  The odd markings on top of the shepard's pie was the Pi symbol that Amber cut into the crust before baking it.  So, after having a "Pi" labeled shepard's pie for dinner, we had some apple pie for dessert.  Um...it was a great way to celebrate 3/14.

Happy Pi Day everyone!

A birthday buddy for Aliece

It is funny how many of our kids have birthday buddies. We were counting it up and a good number of them have someone who has a birthday in the family on the same day or right next to the same day.

On today, Aliece entered into the birthday buddy club with the birth of her newest cousin - Reed & Michelle's new boy, born this afternoon.

We're excited to meet this little guy. Aliece is excited to be able to share her birthday with one of her cousins.

Happy Birthday Aliece

It is funny how things go for Aliece.  9 years ago she celebrated her 1st birthday.  She was sick and her birthday was probably not the happiest for her.  Today, on her tenth birthday, she was sick again.  However, I think this birthday went much better than her first.

She has only really had a fever, which has effected her, but still enables her to be up and around as long as she has some tylenol or other medication down her.  Amber was dedicated to making this day nice for Aliece due to her sickness.  She got to stay home from school and sleep in.  We brought her coffee cake into her bedroom with the candles ablaze.  Aylee had made the coffee cake for Aliece the night before for a special breakfast.  The school kids sang happy birthday to Aliece and let her blow out the candles.  They then went downstairs and had some for breakfast while Aliece went back to sleep.  After the kids left on the bus, Amber went in and laid next to Aliece for an hour or two.  

Amber and Aliece spent the day doing things together.  They spent several hours on sewing projects.  Aliece stiched a CTR emblem. It was cool.

For lunch, the non-schoolers went to Subway with Aliece for hoagie sandwiches.

When the kids got home it was an afternoon of gifts, treats, and phone calls from friends and relatives. 

By evening, Aliece was worn out!

Happy birthday Aliece!

An Idaho Swimmer

We have been going swimming on Friday evenings lately as a family.  The Idaho Falls Aquatics Center offers family swimming at $9 for the family for two hours.  The kids have really been enjoying it.  We often go with our neighbors that are heavily into swimming.  Our neighbor will often take some of our kids to the swim lane and provide one on one swimming lessons.  It has been a great experience for our family.

Last Friday, I asked the kids to get into the car to go swimming.  I found Avary in her swimsuit and cowboy boots.  She was ready to go to the pool!  We had a good laugh about it before having her switch to sandals.

It's a barn!

Yesterday morning Amber took the girls into town to do some much needed grocery shopping. While they were away, the boys and I worked around the place. The weather was awesome, so we were in the spring cleaning mood. It wont be long before we will be getting calves back in our pastures. I taught John how to drive the four wheeler He drove around while we examined the fence situation in a neighbor's field that may let us pasture there for free. Looks like we would need a mile of electric fence to take advantage of that, so we'll have to decide whether it will be worth it.

We then worked on the barn. Until now, the barn has been a huge storage unit for all of our extra stuff that we didn't know what to do with. We gutted it and set up six stalls for baby calves. We are thinking of getting a small handful of newborn calves to bottle feed and raise up. However, they recommend having a pen for each calf to prevent the spread of disease. Our barn has tracks in the walls and posts that allow us to slide 2x8 boards in them to set up walls. We how have six pens ready to go.

John and Jace set up the swings and the trampoline as well. When the girls got home we had a picnic lunch and the kids played on the trampoline and swings. Oh, it really got us in the mood for Spring and Summer.

Dangerous Dancing

Yesterday I came downstairs and had lunch with Amber, Jace, and Avary.  As we were cleaning up, Avary was dancing in the middle of the kitchen floor.  I asked her if I could dance with her.  She obliged and we took a few turns around the hardwood floor.  

Jace saw all of the fun and he soon cut in and I was without my two year old partner.  I took it as my cue to head back upstairs to the office to work.  I just sat down at the computer when Amber called my cell phone and told me I needed to come downstairs right away.  I hurried down to find Amber washing Avary's head in the sink. Her ear was bleeding.  Once we got it cleaned up, we saw a big gash in her ear.

I guess Avary and Jace were dancing in circles and lost their balance together and Avary fell, catching her ear on a drawer handle on one of the cabinet drawers.

Amber took Avary to the doctor's office where they examined her and determined that the piercing went all the way through the top and side of her ear.  She had a couple of stitches inside the ear and about three behind the ear, with a remaining stitch somewhere on the side of the ear.

Avary was brave during the whole ordeal.  However, we had to pump her with ibuprofen throughout the night due to the pain that would wake her.  

She should get her stitches out by the weekend, and it will be several more years before we give her permission to pierce her ears again.

Two year old songs

Avary is walking around the house right now singing some of our favorite songs:

Pizza power! Keeps me safe from Fin (scripture power)

And....

Tinkerbell, tinkerbell, tinker all the way! (jingle bells)

Color Coordination

Amber texted this picture to me this morning from home.  Here we have the ultimate color coordination:  Pajamas, cups, plates, and utensils.  I sure miss being part of their morning routine while I am here in San Diego.  One more day!

Business Trip Boosters

I am in San Diego this week for a training event. When I arrived late last night to my hotel room and started to unpack my bags, I found an envelope in my shaving kit bag that told me to open and select one thought every day. It took all of my will power to wait until today to open the envelope and pick out my first quote.

From the looks of it, each kid chose a quote for me for each day. They called the cards, "Business Trip Boosters". They even had six little avatars on the card that must represent each one of them. After talking to Amber it sounds like Aylee drove the project, designed the cards, and worked with the kids to get these all together for my trip.

Over the past few months I have been giving the kids a card in their school lunch with a different thought each day. So, it was fun to have them turn around and send me thoughts for each day of the week that I would be away from home.

No Internet? No Problem!

Yesterday we had a big wind storm come through for most of the day.  It was really whipping outside.  It took down our neighbor's flagpole and started blowing our grill off of the deck before we moved it.

Due to the high winds, the base tower to our wireless internet was damaged.  From about 2pm we were without Internet access within the house.  That put a kink in things somewhat with work, but luckily I have a mini-internet within my computers in our house and I had all of the stuff I needed to continue working.  I just had to answer emails via my phone.

It is funny how much of our house is dependent on the Internet.  We get our TV that way, we listen to our music via the internet, etc.  There are so many distractions in our lives through the Internet that it was somewhat relaxing to have it gone.

While we were making dinner, I suggested that we spend the evening powering down the electricity in the house and sitting by the fire to read books.  The kids were really excited about that idea.  We popped some popcorn, brought up some candles and lanterns, and then powered off our circuit breaker.  It was interesting how quiet the house got immediately.  I guess we get used to all of the white noise and hums by all of our electrical appliances and gadgets.

We had a great time sitting in the candle lit darkness curled up near the fireplace reading our books.  It is good to have a modern day electricity/internet detox occasionally.

Undies Confusion Part II

I mentioned just last week how Avary has been confused with how to handle her underwear.  She has been putting both pull-ups and underwear in the garbage can.  Well, we have been working with her to understand the different.  However, today, when Amber pulled the laundry out of the washing machine she noticed a bunch of white, tissue like stuff all over the clothes.  She figured someone had a tissue in their pocket and proceeded to move the clothes to the dryer.    When  it came time for Aylee to unload the dryer and put all of the clothes in their various piles, she was surprised to find a nearly disintegrated pullup that had gone through the wash.  

I guess that Avary now just sticks undies and pullups directly into the front loading washing machine so that they will be reusable the next day.  

A Stretch of Fun

On the day that we were getting ready to go to Arbon we received just over an inch of snow here in Shelley. It was Sunday, and so we had church in the morning and we were supposed to go to Arbon right after. I looked at the weather forecast and Arbon was supposed to receive more snow than us. So, in faith, I packed up the kids' snow gear to take with us. Once we got to Arbon the kids were a little disappointed in the weather. There was very little snow I mostly bare ground. We had a great time and Arbon playing with cousins and visiting with grandparents. So the kids really didn't miss going outside and play in the snow. However, when we got home, the kids saw all of the snow and remember that they didn't get to play it yet. It was just getting dark but we hooked up an old stretcher that Dad and I bought at an auction and tied it to the hitch of the four wheeler. The kids had a great time sitting in our makeshift sled while we pulled them around the field in the back of the house. This was our first chance at using the stretcher that I bought. It works pretty well! We were able to fit every single one of our kids in the stretcher while I pulled them behind the four wheeler.