So much to be Thankful for!

I love Thanksgiving break! 

It gets me geared up and ready for Christmas.

It's a mini-vacation for the boys and I. 

It's a time to cook and eat and play games and shop and sleep in and read and, and, and I could go on and on. 

I love how it makes me think about things I am thankful for because I am certainly guilty of NOT doing that as often as I need to. 

And I have so much to be thankful for. 

Thankful that cooking can be fun and filling. 

Thankful for beautiful fall walks that help me keep the calorie count in check. 

Thankful for quiet company while I'm reading in the library. 

Thankful for kids who peel the potatoes. 

And especially thankful for those that make cupcakes for dessert. 

Thankful for frogs who live in our fountain. 

Thankful for kids who aren't fussy about Halloween costumes. 

Thankful for pre-school memories that I've held onto. 

Thankful for my boys making new friends on Thanksgiving day. 

I pray that my family and friends know how thankful I am for them! My life is pretty good and it is only that way because of the people I have been blessed to have in it. 

Sending many thankful thoughts your way!

Flashback Friday

This weekend we are having visitors. 

Visitors that are family and ones that warm our hearts each and every time we see them. 

Visitors that we called our own for a time - a little over a year and a half. 

We were a family of four and they called us Mommy and Daddy. We kissed the hurts away, gave them hugs and kisses when we tucked them into bed at night, cheered them on at soccer games and shared every aspect of our lives with them so they knew they belonged here with us. Our boys called them brothers and were proud to do so. 

The boys are with their aunt and uncle now, happily adopted and living a great life surrounded by family who loves them and we are so happy that we get to still see them and be a part of their lives even if it is on the fringes now. They still sometimes slip and call us Mommy and Daddy but for the most part it is Mark and McRiah now (Jaxon version). 

A couple of weeks ago when we were at Jaden's birthday party (he just turned 8) Jaxon was sitting on Mark's lap and he put his two sticky, chubby hands on either side of Mark's face. Looking into his eyes, Jaxon asked Mark "Do you want to be my daddy or do you want to be my best friend". 

What we want and what we can actually have are often two very different things but we know that we are blessed in every single way to still be able to see these precious boys and be a part of their lives! We can't wait to see them this weekend and I hope that our relationship with them continues forever!

Best Dog Ever

Every person on this planet probably knows someone who can lay claim to having had the best dog ever. 

The sweetest dog. 

The smartest dog.

The dog that saved their life, their children's lives, everyone's lives, etc., etc., etc.

You know that person -  braggers that they are. 

Well, I'm here to tell you that they are all big, fat liars. 

Because we hands down, no contest, had the Best Dog Ever. 

The one who loved kids even as a puppy. 

The one you could curl up and take a nap with. 

From sandcastles to snowmen, Kye was right there with us no matter what. And that's where she always wanted to be. 

Kye was woven into the fabric of this family and as I looked back through pictures it didn't matter where we were or what we were doing, I could find her. I found this picture in the file marked "House" and Mark was getting ready to measure out the lines for the foundation of our new house. But first he had to play with Kye.  

This is from our creek a couple of years ago when the boys had friends over. I didn't even remember Kye being there but of course she was. Because she was the Best Dog Ever. 

 Always there, always content, always happy to be doing whatever we were doing. 

Until she suddenly couldn't. We found a tumor on Kye in September and the prognosis wasn't good. While she wasn't in any pain at the time, she wasn't going to be able to beat this either. We were told to make her comfortable, make sure she eats, and keep an eye on her. 

We did and even though our hearts broke a little more each day, we watched as the cancer grew bigger and bigger. Pretty soon, she couldn't jump up the stairs any more. 

And pretty soon she wasn't wanting to eat much. 

And pretty soon she wouldn't even get up when I was lying on the floor. 

That's when we knew it was time. 

With tears running down our cheeks, we said our final good-byes to our sweet dog and then laid her to rest in one of her favorite places here on the farm. 

She is buried right by the creek where there is the sound of the water and deer often bed down under the tree. 

Although we have two other dogs still here with us and we love them dearly, they don't hold a candle to Kye. She seriously was - the Best Dog Ever. 

And she always will be. 

Flashback Friday

Now that I am blogging again, I am forcing myself to go back through old pictures. Pictures that I have been hoarding. Pictures that have been sitting on my camera card for years and years collecting figurative dust. 

Pictures that I took so long ago that I see them again and say "Oh, Yeah! I remember that!". 

Rather than just delete them, I am going to subject you to the 3,285 various things that I have photographed throughout the last many years until I am caught up (Ha! As if that will ever happen!) or you are begging me to stop. 

Let's take a walk in the past, shall we? 

Way back when Caleb was a 4th grader, he was assigned the project of choosing a famous person from history who influenced others in some way. Someone they could research, learn more about, and then present to the school and community in the form of a "wax musuem" (i.e. dressing up as said character and holding still as if made from wax while people walk around and ooh and aah at you and your poster).

Caleb chose Jesus. 

Good idea but his teacher let him know that might take him a while to research and have almost too much to include in one poster, so Caleb went with his #2 guy. 

General George Patton. 

I, being the fairly well-educated individual that I am, had to google him. Caleb favorite show at the time was Greatest Tank Battles and so he already knew a lot about this general and really admired him. He let Mark and I know what he chose and since parents were encouraged to help, he let us know that he would like some props for the wax museum part. I immediately outsourced my responsibility of creating a costume for him to wear to my favorite mother-in-law. I even had Caleb do the calling so that she couldn't say no! 

Mark immediately started planning the other props. As soon as he also googled who General Patton was, he got down to figuring out how to make Caleb a tank. 'Cause who doesn't think big tanks when they think of General Patton, right? 

Caleb's poster and research turned out great. The tank though. That tank took over our garage. The fumes of Mark spray-painting that tank took over our house. And before I knew it, that tank took over my husband! 

Mark was plotting and planning on that tank for days. He was making trips to the furniture stores looking for big boxes, trips to the carpet store looking for barrels of guns, and trips to McDonalds to keep his energy up (or so he said). 

Caleb and Owen played in the tank, tried to sleep in the tank, had Nerf gun wars involving the tank, and of course, invited all their friends to come over and just look at the tank. 

The day before the wax museum, Mark and I had to transport that ginormous thing to the gym and get it set up. We had to do all kinds of jimmy-rigging to get that thing into the doors of the gym. Multiple trips, lots of sweat, me yelling at Mark to "Pivot! Pivot! Pivot!". 

Then the big day. I took half a day off to help all the kids get dressed, their posters and props set up, and then to help them get into position for all the guests to come in and see them. The kids were supposed to strike a pose and then hold it for 10 minutes. They weren't supposed to look at people or move as if they were truly made of wax. 

For the most part Caleb was really successful at that. 

But I did get him to break character once or twice. 

"Yohoo! Over here Caleb! I'm not going to stop bugging you until you let me get your picture!" 

So he humored me. 

And then promptly told me to leave him alone. 

 After all the hoopla, the kids whooped and hollered once the last visitors exited the gym and Caleb quickly pretended they were all German invaders and he shot at them with his tank. Then we packed that thing up where it lived in Mark's den for about a month. 

The first week is was played with almost every day but as each passing week went back it dwindled down to almost a trickle of attention until finally, while we were at school, Mark burned it and said good-bye. 

I was a little sad to see it go because the tank was pretty cool but it was really too big to keep around for long. Caleb however did get some more wear out of his costume as he used it for his Halloween costume that same year (against his will because his mom was too cheap to buy him something new when he had a perfectly good costume to use!). 

I'm sure those pictures will surface up here in a day or two as I continue to go through this camera card!

4-H for Life!

This afternoon we had a 4-H meeting here at our house so I decided to make something a little extra special for the kids (and let's be honest - what adult doesn't enjoy a pig or sheep cupcake as well?) 

Already we were meeting today to begin to discuss the upcoming 4-H season. Which shows we were going to do, where we were going to get our show animals from, how we were going to need to select new officers for the new year, etc. 4-H is a year-round thing and our boys love doing it (most of the time!). I started to reflect back on this last year of 4-H and thought I'd share a few pictures that show some of the things the boys had to do.

There are several meetings before the kids get their animals. Presentations on different breeds, the names of the different body parts, learning how to make rope halters, learning parlimentary procedure for the running of meetings as well as feed to weight gain ratio for the various animals. Then the spring comes and that is when you get your pigs and sheep. Pigs are around April for the Umatilla County Fair and we get the sheep in May. 

Caleb's sheep was already fairly large when we first picked him up. Not very tame though and the first few weeks that we have the animals, the boys just have to spend time in the animal's pen, reading to them and letting the animals get used to their new environment and their presence. 

The boys have to work with their animals daily by walking them. Owen drives his pig with a pig whip. He can only tap on the pig's jowls to make it go right or left or he can tap on the pig's side to make it walk forward. Their is no whipping involved - I promise!
Caleb walks his sheep with a halter and without. He must learn how to show it with just his hands so he starts to practice that early on.
About 6 weeks before the fair, our 4-H group started to meet weekly at our house to practice showing. Mark had built a corral over the winter and boy did it come in handy! Everyone piled around to watch.

Sheep kids would go first and our 4-H leader Nick (who also judges a ton of shows every year) would tell them what he wanted them to do.

Caleb practiced lifting his sheep's neck to show a good clean line as well as making sure the lamb's feet were straight. The back of the lamb also needs to be nice and flat, not hunched up. 

 Pigs would go next and they would have to practice driving their pig around the ring, always keeping the pig between them and the judge (making a ham sandwich!). Nick would move around the arena so that the kids would have to make the pigs walk towards him from all different angles. The trick was to get your pig close to the judge but not too close! Also, you always had to watch out for the other pigs and their drivers. Plus, keep your eyes on the judge - head up Owen!

 Caleb's sheep suffered an injury that we didn't know about when we purchased it. Because of this injury, Caleb learned a lot though. He learned how to give his lamb medicine orally.

How to wrap and bandage an open wound.

Even how to give a penicillan shot in the neck (Grandpa Terry helped him learn this one).

 At the actual fair, there is a ton of work to do. For the parents as well as the kids.

The kids have to clean pens daily, feed twice a day, check water constantly, as well as keep their animals as clean as possible. Right before showing, the boys would wash their animals in the cleaning stalls.

One day of the fair, the kids had judging to do as well. They were put into groups and they looked at 4 species of animals - goats, sheep, pigs, beef - and they had to judge them based on their conformation. Out of over 100 kids, Caleb scored 10th and Owen scored 20th for their age division. That's really good!

Show time for Owen went really well. He placed first in his class but as we were all watching him show, the judge looked in our direction and then went up to Owen. Those of us in the stands could see her ask him something and then we all watched as he looked at me and said "My mom". What?! What did I do?
The judge then went and got the microphone and said that while it was a great group of showman there was one who stood out. The only thing is that she noticed he kept looking into the stands and when she asked him who he was looking at, he said "My mom". Aahh! How sweet! Except I do want him to win, so stop looking at me Owen! Look at these pictures though - his eyes are on the judge the whole time!

Well, maybe I am sitting right behind the judge in this one...

Tootie and Owen were quite the team but Owen didn't make it to the last round. He finished 3rd in the run-offs which is still awesome but he is really thinking he's going to win it next year!

Saying good-bye was the hardest part. 

Owen wanted one last picture with Tootie so he could remember what a good pig she had been. 

Caleb also had a great year showing with his lamb, Hank the Tank. Hank was a smaller built lamb but a good one. 

All his hard work paid off and Caleb was also asked to come back for the run-off. He did not win sheep showmanship but it was still exciting to be called back!

Each of the boys finished the show with 2 blue ribbons (which is good) and they had a great time at the fair.

Our club cleaned house with awards, including Pig Herdsmanship, which is the banner Owen is holding.

On Friday we let them go out together and ride the rides. Jaiden and Jaxon had come to visit us at the fair and Jaiden stayed and rode rides with the boys until midnight.

Here are Jaiden and Jaxon with Tootie. It was great seeing them and I loved the fact that they wanted to come check out the boys' animals.

Here's to 4-H! I may not love it when it's time to load pigs into the trailer or when it's time to shovel pig manure or doctor a lamb that has maggots or when I get an enormous feed bill but...it's all worth it! The life skills and work ethic it's teaching my kids is awesome and that's just to name a few things that they've learned. They are also earning money for college, learning where the meat they eat can come from, how hard it is to take care of animals and how to produce a good product. They have to volunteer their time, fund raise, and give speeches to community members. I wish more kids participated in this great program!