New Addition

We got 6 new additions to the family yesterday. They are cute and fuzzy. Tanner and Brady spend most of their time down stairs with the chicks. I loved baby animals when I was a child (still do) and I'm glad we get the opportunity to have animals in our yard. The pictures are a little fuzzy.

We sold both of our pygmy goats on Friday. It was sad to see them go but it's been nice. They were little stinkers, endlessly trying to escape and eat my strawberry and tulip leaves. don't mess with my garden or else. I also had a few chickens escape into my garden and ruin my rows that we spent hours making (which is really hard with a belly and not being able to bend down properly). Luckily I hadn't planted the peas yet. Any chickens that escape get a good wing clipping so they can't fly high enough to get over the fence again. We still have our milk goat and she should be having her babies/baby by the end of June or beginning of July.

This week has been a nice week. The weather has been wonderful. We've trimmed most of our fruit trees and put in peas and many varieties of lettuce. I moved the strawberries to a better place so the raspberries don't overtake them. We also cleaned out the flower beds and are working on getting our junk pile cleaned out. It has been a lot of work but I love being in the dirt. There is something healing and soothing about it.

I'm just about half way through with this pregnancy. The baby started getting hiccups this week. The morning sickness is all gone and I feel great. It's so nice to feel normal again. My leg is also feeling really good. I'm going in to see a blood clot specialist next month to get his opinion on my care and the birth of the baby. My doctor never looks at the Ultrasound of my leg and he doesn't really know a lot about blood clots. I want someone who will look at it (that really knows what he's talking about) and tell me what is going on. I'll probably ask if I can do another ultrasound next month to see if the blood clot has improved.

Sets are done!!!!

This week we've been working on finishing the sets for our production Fiddler on the Roof Jr. They are done!! Thanks to all the wonderful kids (and parents) in our cast for helping with the painting. They look great! Wahoo!! What a load off of my mind.

This week we are working on getting all the props gathered up and next week the costumes are due. Then we move into the dress rehearsals and performances.

The Barn.

Motel's Tailor shop.

Outside of Tevye's house (the roof is not on in the picture). The other side of this is the inside. I've already posted that picture on another post.

The Inn or as the boys call it "The Bar." The other side of this is the street scene (already posted).

Basketball Champions

I love basketball! Matthew finished his last tournament game a couple weeks ago. They were undefeated and won the championships!! Wahhoooo! Great job team!

School this week

This month we've been learning about WW2 and the Great Depression. One of the their assignments was to interview someone who was alive during the Great Depression and WW2. My kids were lucky and have a wonderful couple to interview in our ward. Thanks O.!! Matthew brought his small video camera and Savannah brought her camera. They really enjoyed learning from someone who actually lived during and fought in WW2. Brother O. was a gunner on a B17 Bomber. He was shot down on his 45th mission but luckily was rescued by some Americans before the Japanese were able to get to him. He had so many stories to tell. Sister O. talked about the Great Depression. She said they did fine because they lived on a farm and were never in want of food. She did remember that they only had one pair of shoes and weren't allowed to wear them in the summer. She said to this day she can't go bare foot in the summer. It was very fascinating watching the video that Matthew took. They then had to write a report and read it in front of the history class. In class this week one of the Grandpas came and spoke to the kids. He was one of the only 12 frog men in the war. He was the only one who survived the war to tell his story. He had a very dangerous job swimming into the beaches and finding the best ones for our army to set up camp or attack. He was shot at and had many other awful things happen (look up frog man if you want to know more). I have such a new respect for those that have fought in war. It would be so hard emotionally and I'm not sure you would ever get over those images. I've learned so much more about WW2 then I've ever learned before. I hope the kids will never forget the past so we can have a better future.

Brother O.

Here he is when he joined the service at 18.

Here is a picture of him in the water when his plane was shot down. He had to stay in the water until rescued. He says it was for 12 hours and his wife said it was only 5 hours.

For science the kids have been doing a lot of dissection. The teacher has been wonderful and seems to know everything about Biology. Here are some (kind of gross) pictures of them dissecting a fish and crawdad. I'm a wimp. I'm glad I'm not taking the class but they seem to be enjoying it.

Savannah's group got a sick crawdad. Its body parts were all
the wrong colors and had many things wrong with it.

The younger kids learned about Saturn this week. They wrote a report and read them to each other. We talked about the space crafts sent to Saturn to collect information. We then made balloon Rockets.

Savannah's Birthday and The Homeschool Musical

This week Savannah turn 13!! My little girl. My kids are getting too old and doing it too fast. It won't be long until they're gone. I'm so glad I'm blessed to be able to spend so much time with them.

For Savannah's birthday we got a big group of her home school friends and went to The Deseret Star Playhouse to see The Home school Musical. It was so much fun! They were way off on how they portrayed home schooled kids but it was still fun. We forgot the camera. SAD : ( One of the boys took some pictures on his cell phone so I'll post those if I can get them from him. We took a few pictures when we got home but 5 of the boys and several girls are missing (one of them being Matthew).

Here are some pictures of her family party. Here she is showing off her new hat.

Tanner had to get her this little brush.

Savy started playing guitar about 4 months ago. Here she is with her spanking brand new guitar. She takes lesson from a boy that used to be in our ward. He now goes to a singles ward. Shes love it.
Matthew took pictures of her blowing out the candles but she must have not liked them and deleted them. She picked cinnamon rolls and vanilla ice cream for her birthday treat.

Silly girls!!

I love these kids!! Such a great group. I wish I had them all in the picture.

Cross Country Skiing

Every year we go skiing with our homeschool group. This year Patrick came with us. It was an absolutely perfect sunny day. The two older kids went off with their friends. Patrick took Brady and I walked around with Tanner. Tanner was actually able to ski this year. He kept going down this hill over and over until he was able to do it without falling. He was so proud of himself. It was a lot a fun. I was sad that I could not ski but there is always next year. I made a big pot of chili and after everyone was done we all ate. What a perfect day.

Savy and a few of her friends.

Matthew and C.