oops

Ok the first picture in the last post was actually of Moira and Brenton as he was trashing the living room or as he calls it 'preparing for yet another scout trip'. And the picture attached here is of the kids and Brenton's mother Sherie at the falls on the way to the Matson reunion. It is late can you tell?

Matson Reunion 2010

We had a great time in Mid June at Idaho Falls with Brenton's mom on our way to the Matson family reunion which was just up the road near Rigby. The kids loved the falls and seeing Sherie's old stomping grounds, she and Herb were married in the Idaho Falls Temple. The farmer's market was fun but Hugh was pretty sure the guy with the pet wolf had 'a problem in his head', such a rancher's grandson. He also pointed out that wolves eat sheep and that is bad! The Matson homestead is still in the family and we were blessed to go on a sort of home grown tour of the area with some of the cousins, it was amazing and perfect. I have more cool pictures somewhere and will post them at some random point in time as I seem to be doing lately. The cute little boy with Hugh is Matt, Dee and Mary's grandson (cousins basically).

Ok, so it is no longer December 2009 but these skating pictures were too fun to leave languishing on my computer drive. Our neighbors the Wellings built a huge skating rink in their side yard and invited the whole town to stop by and skate whenever. They had us and several other families come for Family home evening and it was about 5 degrees outside! The kids had never skated before, Liam buckled down and pretty much taught himself, Cody was a natural, Moira did better than she will admit and the Leroy taught Hugh how to skate by having him push an old school chair around. Hugh and his little friend quickly discovered that snow boots are much steadier and therefore faster than skates and proceeded to tear all over the ice! What amazing neighbors we have. This makes all the mosquito bites I just got out in the lamb pens a little less itchy and my smile a little brighter.

May what May?

Ok, I never finished 'wrapping' up April and it is now June. I have a bad habit of not writing on this blog because I have always had a serious phobia when it comes to sharing my writing. My former students would really love to hear that I am sure. Anyway since I was last here we have done much, slept little, and even gotten a few things done around the homestead. Another 'issue' I have with posting things is that I am still trying to master my new camera and figure out how to do slideshows instead of lengthy scrolls of pictures. Back on track, May was busy with three family birthdays and numerous extended family birthdays. I celebrated 43, Brenton hit the big 39, and Moira is a glorious 15 (there will be a special post about her when I get it finished just so). Mother's Day was nice, and there were numerous dinners at goring Ranch throughout the month. Cody got his ACT scores back and is way too smart for me (I don't think I even knew the scores went as high as 31). There was an FFA banquet where Cody received an academic excellence award, there was a a soccer banquet where Cody received his varsity letter and there was lots of complaining about what a waste the last three weeks of school are. But much rejoicing in the fact that he (Cody) can take a million ag classes next year because he has been so diligent the past three years. We went to two Va'Del's competitions where Moira's group won everything in sight, one Irish dance innerschool feis (all did well, pictures soon), one dance review where the whole town darn near turns out, and one incredible Celtic Woman concert for Moira's birthday. I cried all the way thru Danny Boy and Galway Bay, I missed my dad horribly and conciously for days after. Brenton went to Jamboral for the Boy Scouts and then took Hugh and Liam to a fathers/sons camp out. Liam made Jamboral but was quite sick for the f/s camp out. He suffered admirably while I was at the dance review with Moira and the guys were camping he laid in bed and watched the Star Wars trilogy, repeatedly. What else in May? Oh yes twelve ram lambs moved in to the south pasture, 5 ewes moved in as well and delivered nine healthy lambs despite all the spring snow, hail, and rain storms. I was so grateful for no more bum lambs from that bunch. There are still seven bum lambs in that pen but they should be moving in the next week. Brenton claims that when the little darlings can rip the nipple off the bottle they NEED to go back to the ranch. We all started the branding /docking season and those 530 am starts are killing me. However, Cody and Moira always seemed to enjoy those days but man do they come home covered in blue paint and many unmentionable (and smelly) things. We put the garden in on Memorial Day and bought our very own roto tiller so now I am planning all kinds of tilling based projects. Well I now I missed a great deal of what went on, we did have school all month and Brenton and I even had a few dates that did not involve Walmart or Sam's Club. So I hope my millions of readers (mostly Becki and Carla) had great May's and that their June's are off to a rousing and sunny start.

April wrap up part one

Well, April is about to finish up with a bang here in Northern Utah where the weather is constantly changing. We have had everything from unseasonably warm, to rain for days, to snowstorms, to hail with driving winds, and back around the spectrum this month. I honestly do not mind the crazy spring weather but it is incredibly hard on the orphaned (bum) lambs the kids try to raise for their Grandpa Jr., not to mention the havoc the weather can play with wardrobe planning! Of course this was a busy month hence the lack of posting plus I always want to include pictures but we finally got a new camera (angels singing)and I am still learning how to make it all work. It would probably help if I read the direction manual slowly while not doing anything else! In the past four weeks we have been busy but happy and blessed. I began April with a three day trip to my Grandma Glennie's in AZ, she was having a rough spell so I spent a bit of one on one time with her. She is an amazing lady, she will be 94 in August and is still managing to live in her own home. She has lived in the same house since the early 1940s and cannot bare to leave it. We had a good time and she connected me with a distant relative in Alabama who has tons of family history on the Brazeel side of the family. I am still working on getting that project going. I really liked spending time with my grandma she is just a sweet person and I got to see my adorable niece and nephew for a few hours as well. The activities continued while I was gone with Moira and Liam spending hours with the 'guru' teacher from Oregon at their Irish dance company, they loved every minute of it. Cody spent much of his time riding the stationary bike our neighbors loaned as he rehabbed his torn ACL. All his efforts paid off and he was cleared on the 22nd of April, played in the last regular season soccer match on the 23rd and is now preparing for a playoff game the 29th. He has also been building pens and fixing fence since he is now the proud owner of 12 ram lambs, 5 ewes (very pregnant ewes), and co-owner of several bum lambs. We sent back one set of bum lambs who were huge and are getting ready to send back four more as soon as Grandpa finds 'room' for them. We get more bum lambs every few days but their survival rate is not great, many of them are just too small but the kids sure work at it sometimes feeding five or six times a day just to make sure everyone at least has a shot at survival. Moira, Liam, Hugh and I went to baby animal days at the heritage farm in Logan with some neighbors and had a great time! This year they had baby bears and baby mustangs on display. We have also been working hard on our studies, and the kids have decided to continue at least part time thru the summer so that they can take periodic breaks throughout the year. Smart kids if I do say so myself. Well there is tons more like trips to Colorado, adventures on the marsh trails, dance competitions, and visits with friends to write about but right now I have to head for town to get salad ingredients for Cody's "playoff kickoff" tailgate party after practice tomorrow. So I will finish up when I have another spare minute, can you hear the laughter over that thought?

And more pictures

Here we are thrilled to have the van mysteriously quit and then start a half an hour later. Thanks to Grandma Sherie for driving all that way just to follow us home. This is the only picture of Irish dance performance because my camera is beyond sad. Also important are the dog and cat cleaning up spilled lamb milk together...

lambs, FFA, bed building

Everyone enjoyed the headlamps for nighttime lamb feeding, Moira got a new bed and had lots of help taking apart the old one and building the new one. The Picture of all the blue jackets is the FFA Sate Farmer degree ceremony. Wonderful fun all the way around! Ooops enjoy the repeat of that cute Moira picture!