Now for something cute to look at...

Part of why we moved to a rural town was so that our children would have the opportunity to raise animals. Last year, we experienced raising chickens. Some of them are still alive, so we decided it was time to up the ante.


We are trying our hand at raising lambs this spring/summer. Clint found two local sheep farmers with bum lambs they needed help with. When a ewe births three sheep, she will only care for two of them. The third lamb has to be bottle-fed, and is called a bum lamb (or a bummer.) Because sheep are social creatures, we decided to get a pair of bum lambs. The farmers will pay our children for their work at the end of the summer, at which time they will collect the lambs for eventual breeding.

Last Saturday, Clint took Autumn & Micah to go pick up the lambs. Unfortunately, one of them was sick (and not showing symptoms at the time.) He never ate much at all for us, and Clint had to bury him on Wednesday evening (after the lamb stopped breathing right in front of Clint & Autumn.) This prompted a lot of discussion about the resurrection, but the children handled it amazingly well!



Anyhow, we picked up a replacement lamb yesterday (the children had fun bleating back to her all the way home, while she complained about being stowed away in a kennel in the back of our car.) Oreo (the replacement lamb) and Cookie/a.k.a. Lambie (the surviving original lamb) are doing very well. It's fun to watch the kids play with them. Jonah spent 30 minutes in a game of hide-and-seek with Cookie on Thursday (she was feeling pretty lonely). Who knew that lambs could play that game...she was actually good at it, and would attack Jonah with lamb kisses each time she found him. And it's sweet to see them feeding a bottle to them. Gabriel chased Oreo around for 5 minutes last night, trying to get her to take his bottle. He was scolding her for not cooperating ("No! NO!") and had a stern look on his face that would have intimidated me into obeying.


So, wish us luck on our newest adventure. And, if you get an urge to bottle-feed a lamb, stop in. Feeding times are 7 A.M. and 6:30 P.M.

k, fine.

So, Eve talked me out of chopping my hair. Then Clint came home and talked me back into it. Then I went to the stylist, who talked me out of it again. And, since I think the next time I cut it shorter, I'll never grow it out again, I'm kind of happy to wait.

For Eve...

Who put on another hat yesterday to become my hairstyle consultant. :) I couldn't decide whether to trim it up with longer layers added, or take the plunge and get a cute, layered bob. Anyway, the results are in. Here you go, Eve (before & after)...

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Gabriel is in a major mimicking stage. He spends a lot of time observing. Observing me, observing Clint, and mostly observing his siblings. Sometimes, this leads to really cute stuff. Like how he folds his tiny hands together in prayer, and even momentarily closes his eyes. (I know because I peek... it's really too adorable to miss entirely.) Other times, it leads to not-so-cute behavior. Like when he grabs the wii remote, points it at the television, and chants "Die! Die!" in his tender baby voice. (The boys are working on yelling "Go!" while playing their favorite tank game, because I can hardly stand it.)

Today, he hiked atop our couch, which must seem like a major mountain peak. I saw what he was trying to mimic, handed him a couple of books, and then he tried to read like his biggest brother. I don't think Jonah even noticed him, or the flash of my camera as I tried to capture the learning taking place. And, maybe in a few years, Gabe won't notice either.



But for now, he didn't mind hamming it up a bit. Then asking to look at the "baby" on the screen.


Well, baby, we hope we don't mess you up too much!

Family Fun Night

One thing I love about blogs is how fun and easy it is to find great ideas... and steal them! Every Monday night, we gather our little family for Family Night... we sing, we pray, we have a lesson, and then comes our favorite part -- games & treats! A couple Mondays ago, we tried out my stolen, flour-cutting game.



You fill a plastic cup with flour (make sure to really pack it in), dump it upside down (I put it all on a cookie sheet to cut down on clean-up) and place a coin on top. Then you take turns slicing the flour, until someone eventually causes it to collapse. This sends the coin falling into the mountain of flour. At this point, the person who last sliced the flour has to find the coin with their face.


It was really a big hit, so thank you blogosphere!! ;)


Autumn finally cut the mound right down the middle, so that she could indulge in a flour facial!


And why no picture of me, you ask? Well, let's just say I rock at flour-cutting... we all have our talents! ;)