It's that time of year again: FAMILY PICTURE TIME!

This time of year is when we normally do family pictures.  I usually take them or have Robert's sister take them.  Yup, I'm cheap like that.  This year I feel stuck as to what we should wear and where we should have the pictures taken.


Here is our history of family pictures.  Enjoy!

2015: First Christmas in our new home.

2014: We didn't have formal family pictures...I guess this photo of us at Kirkland Ohio is the best I've got.

 2013:  I really like these.  Yes, we took these in a parking lot!  Robert's sister took them for us.

2010: Aparently we didn't have pictures this year at all.

2011: This year we had an pro take the pictures.

 2010: In my opinion this was pretty much a disaster of a picture.  The background was too dark and there wasn't enough light.  Lilly was less than a month old and Michael had a different non-smiling face in EVERY SINGLE PICTURE.  His head is completely photo shopped in!  Haha!

 Enjoy some of the untouched crazy pictures, take note of the crazy faces Michael comes up with!

Michael always keeps us on our toes.  Fun times.

Moving on to 2009: I had a friend take these while we were in Utah. 

 

2008: No picture this year either.  I usually do family pictures in November or December for Christmas cards but Katelyn was born in December so Family pictures were skipped to do crazy new baby life.

 2007:  One of my favorites! The boys aren't looking at all but we were happy and the water looks so peaceful! 

 2006: In the desert.  Pregnant with James...not sure how I hid my huge belly!

2005: We were on vacation in Utah and had someone snap this for us. 

 2004: Our first family picture right after we were married. 

So there you have it.  Stay tuned to see what this year's family photos will be...I pray it won't require much photo shopping!  (who am I kidding...with Michael it's almost guaranteed!)

UPDATE: We skipped family pictures this year! Maybe next year. 

Happy Halloween!

This year Halloween was so much fun!  The kids came up with their own costume ideas, we went to goodwill and they helped create them.  It was crazy but fun. 

Michael was a dark and stormy night...ask him where the storm was and he was ready to spray you with water.  Katelyn was a good witch, Lilly was Princess Rapunzel, James was Zoro, Robert was, of course, Doctor Who and I was "The Nicest Mom EVER!".

The Girls and their Eggs!

Eggs!

Lots of eggs!!

The blue ones are my favorite!

 Here are a couple of the blue egg laying chickens called Easter Eggers

Or maybe the fairy eggs are my favorite... (AKA fart eggs or rooster eggs...no I didn't make this stuff up people!)

The kids and I get oddly excited when we find a tiny fairy egg.  Robert gets weirded out from them.  We laugh and save them for him.  (We think we are hilarious.  He doesn't agree) So a fairy egg is an egg gone wrong.  Usually there isn't a yolk just whites and no, we don't eat them.





They are so little and cute!  (Bottom Right)

Along with our chickens we also have ducks, geese and two guinea hens.  The guinea hen eggs (top left in above photo) are a bit smaller and more pointed on one end with a really, really hard shell.

Here is our current set up and a few of our girls.  We recently built this coop out of pallets.  Is it perfect: nope.  But it actually has worked out really well!  It gives the chickens lots of shade and lots of air circulation which is absolutely necessary in Arizona!  We have a hose and timer connected to a pvc pipe in the top of the coop with small holes drilled into the pipe that comes on once a day in the summer time.  It keeps our feathered friends cool and even the chickens seem to enjoy walking and playing int he mud puddles.

Our gang of geese!  

Our girls (AKA chickens, geese and ducks) are pretty friendly.  Many of them like to be around us and don't mind being caught and held.  

The ducks and geese are pretty skiddish still.  

Here is our resident broodie beauty mama.  She likes to lay eggs, sit on them, hatch them, raise the babies then repeat.  She's a pretty good mama so we just let her do her thing.  Currently she has two black chicks that are close to the teenager stage.  I'm guessing in about a month she'll begin sitting on eggs again. 

  We really love having the chickens, ducks and geese!  The have funny little attitudes that make them fun to watch.  And then there are the eggs! They are so pretty.  I'm obsessed!

 We do sell our extra "nest run" eggs.  (nest run means we aren't inspected by the government and we don't produce millions of eggs!)  Contact us if you're interested!

It's been too long!!

Wow, almost a year of no posts!  Let's try to get caught up shall we?

So I'm down for the count and have to rest all day, Dr's orders.  I tried to be super mom.  Super moms don't get sick.  So I stayed in denial about being sick for a bit too long.  So I showed up at the Dr's with a temp of 101, oxygen levels at 94% (not good!), a crazy bad cough, can't catch my breath...not good.  Official diagnosis: 1 ear infection and the second on it's way to an infection, a respiratory infection with possible pneumonia.  After an in office breathing treatment I was sent home with 3 prescriptions to add to the over the counter drugs I was taking.  I was told to rest for several days and if I don't improve within 24 hours I need to go to the hospital. 

Today I lay here watching Cake Boss being thankful for kids who are being good entertaining themselves, good friends who brought us dinner last night and who assisted Robert in giving me a Priesthood blessing and being able to breath. 

It's the little thinks folks...like breathing that really count!

I am definitely one to stick with natural but today I'm quite certain the handful of (anything but natural) pills and an inhaler I'm taking is literally saving my life. So I'm happily taking it all! 

So crossing my fingers I might be able to get some posts in.

Wish me luck!  

Welcome Snow White...Good Bye Maleficent!

AKA, the saga of our first goat!

 Meet Snow White (She's the big goat white goat.  The little goat was a loaner because goats don't like to be alone so we borrowed a goat so she'd have a friend.)

She was really sweet!  She loved Lilly and Lilly loved her! 

She was pregnant.  Very pregnant.  We got her on November 17th, 2015.  We were told she would have the babies any day!  They said she was a Nubian bred to a Boer.  After getting her home and looking her over.  I wish we hadn't gotten her.  Pretty sure she was a Nubian Boer mix.  The worst part: she had a lump that we didn't see when we agree to purchase her and clearly the seller wasn't upfront about it.  We now know what to do and what not to do when buying a goat.

She was huge!  You could see the babies moving around when she would lay down.

We learn that goats like to eat their house.  Nellie...what a trouble maker.

We waited...

 and waited...but no babies...

 And then on Christmas Night I looked out and thought something didn't look right in the goat house! Magically we found a baby goat and then 3 more popped out!  We knew we were in over our heads with 4 babies!  So I called in back up and my good friend Julie came to the goat rescue!  We spent a couple hours warming up and drying off the babies. 

Meet the runt.  He came out first and took didn't get cleaned off fast.  It was a really cold night and we didn't think he would make it. So we brought him inside to sleep on a heating pad.  We thought he was going to die.  I thought he should die in comfort at least.

 In the middle of the night I heard him stir so I got up and tried to feed him.  He wouldn't/couldn't suck. I prayed to figure out what to do.  And clearly the answer came to put molasses on the roof of his mouth.  Within seconds he perked up, went from limp and couldn't stand or suck to sucking like crazy on everything he could find and standing strong!  It was a Christmas miracle!  So at 3 am I was snuggling a brand new baby goat (and getting peed on by said baby goat) and feeding him with a syringe while he sucked on my finger.  It was great! 

The next morning he was standing and crying for food so I took him out to mom and he latched right on and ate a good breakfast!  

Ummm...goats in sweaters!  Is there anything cuter?!

They were born during a cold snap. We had several nights of below freezing.  So perhaps they didn't need sweaters but we decided to play it safe.  We didn't want our first baby goat experience to end in tragedy with a dead goat.  

 

Yes, they came inside sometimes.  Mostly to have their sweaters put on each night and get their vitamins.

 

They are so CUTE!!

During the daytime we took the sweaters off 

One day it rained.  They played in the puddles and got all wet.  When night came they were still wet and shivering and it was supposed to be below freezing.  So into the tub they went to sleep for the night.  Surprisingly none of them figured out how to jump out!  Haha!

They quickly grew.
Oh and meet Maleficent! (the evil queen from Snow White.  Once Snow White had babies she turned mean trying to bite and headbutt everyone who came near.  She got a few of us good. 

We loved watching the babies play and building structures for them to play on

Then they grew bigger and got into more mischief.  And they started eating SO MUCH FOOD!!

When they were about 3 months old we decided it was time to sell them.  And Maleficent too.  We wanted her for a milk goat but she was hard to milk and her milk tasted terrible.  If we kept the babies we knew we would be eating them and we decided we weren't ready for that adventure yet.

So good bye little goats.  It's been so fun watching you grow!  Good bye Maleficent, ahem Snow White, thank you for the memories and the lessons we learned.