We have eggs!!

Two to be exact. Small and brown and pretty. Rosie was a little disturbed that it came out of her. Plus I'm pretty sure it hurt. She didn't really know what to do after the fact. She moved it around with her beak and then awkwardly sort of sat on it while looking around like "What the H--- just happened?" Der claims that these are the two most expensive eggs we have ever bought. Haha! I know I'm lame, but I am so proud of our little layer! It won't be long and they will all get the hang of it! So cool!!

Daily Danny - Guest Post

Natalie is usually a very eloquent kid. I said usually . . . When talking about a rather dense individual Natty very seriously says, "Yeah, he's not the sharpest spoon in the drawer." Uh, spoon? We all laughed our heads off! Then she turns to me and says, "are you going to put this on your blog?" Youbetcha!!!

Chicken Condo

Nat put the finishing touches on the hens condo last week. Yahoo, it's finally, completely finished!! Here is the view if you are standing in our back yard.

I LOVE this cute rooster knob for our egg door. We should start getting eggs any time now!!

Here is the view from the side of our house and next to the garden. Betty is at the top of the ramp and the top of the pecking order (yes this is an actual thing) and she is one bossy lady!

Cutie Rosie wanting some attention!

Here is the view from the back of our yard looking frontwards. The upper door is our access to the henhouse to change the bedding and feed. The hens love to get on the lower perch and look out the clear window.

The lower door is storage for bedding, feed, and tools. It has been very convenient!

Here is Stacey, Rosie, and Roxanne coming over to say "HI."

I'm so glad that this project is finally complete!! We love our hens and this is a very fun hobby!

First Day of School

It's the day all moms wait for and some moms dread. Our baby started first grade and that translates to him being gone ALL DAY LONG!!! He was cautiously excited for the day. Brady was very excited to be heading off to fourth grade.

I love these cute boys! Even if they will NEVER smile for pictures! Striking the cool pose they came up with. Handsome Dan holding up the wall I guess.

I'm sure he wants to smile . . . he just needs the brain to send the message to the face!

Bones is working the backpack this year!

Wwwait, what is this? Teeth, parted lips, could it be a SMILE!! (sort of) Check out those size 5 1/2's!

This works for me. I like this smile a lot! It's not his actual smile, but as far as smile's for the camera go, it's a good one!

This is a nervous kiddo!

Yes Lolly, that's more like it!

Here she is a big 8th grader.

If anyone remembers me from high school you would recognize that I would have totally worked this shirt, skirt, and shoes!!! Heck, I'd wear it now too if it were g-worthy and if I was Nat's size!!!

Here she is looking an awful lot like a highschooler, oh wait, she is!!

I promised not to take pictures of her in front of the school.

I lied!

.

.

.

.

So, it was a quiet day with not a single child of mine home with me. I did laundry all day. I turned off the cooler and the fans and the fans and just enjoyed the stillness and quiet of an empty house. I didn't even turn on the tv except at 1:00 to watch Matlock. Don't judge. Today I'm mowing the lawn and making something cool for dinner.

Daily Danny - Guest Post

So yesterday I was pretending to be Nat's teacher who has an unreasonable grading schedule. I was pretending to explain why it was so tough and I said, "Because I'm short, and fat, and chubby so I can grade as tough as I want to . . . " Brady looked up from his homework with a weird, albeit innocent, look on his face and said, "Mom, you're not short!?" RUDE! Natalie and I busted a gut over that one! Um . . . yeah . . . don't judge me for being such a poor example to my kids by mimicking the teacher in such a . .uh . . negative way. You should see the grading schedule 79% is a D- !!!

24th of July

For as long as I can remember we have been going to Storm Mountain ind Big Cottonwood Canyon for the 24th.

This year was no exception.

Lolly and HJ doing a little amateur repelling.

HJ looking quite a bit like my brother.

Bones (got a little itch on the inside?)

Happy Hikers!

Learning about and building cairns. The cairn building contest winner!

MaryJoyce and Danny working on a cairn.

Danny, MJ, and Nat.

Typical!

You always need to bring home a good walking stick right HJ?

Beautiful views!

Awesome picture Nat!

Can't Leave 'em alone for a minute!

Yep, they are truly "grundy undies!"

No comment!

"Wow hot mamma!"

Curvalicious!

July 2010 - Cub Country

Panning for gold!

Knots!!

Indian pictographs!

Happy campers!!

July 3, 2010

We enjoyed a great evening with ALL of Derek's siblings and ALL of our nieces and nephews too!

This just doesn't happen very often!

The kids did a lot of this . . The teenagers/Dads did a lot of this . . .

The little kiddos did a lot of this . . .

and this . . .

and this . . . It was such a nice evening. I didn't want it to end!

Kindergarten Water Party

The moms in Danny's class put on a fun water party for the last day of school. We had a a great time watching these cute kids! I think they had fun too! Relay #1 This was so cute. Two lines of kids. Everybody has an empty cup. At the head of each row is a bucket full of water. At the end of each row is an empty bucket. The first kid in each row fills his cup from the bucket and then dumps it into his neighbors cup. The neighbor fills HIS neighbors cup and on you go down the row until the last kid dumps his cup into the bucket. The kids had a ball with this relay!

Relay #2

This game was cute. Fill the sponge up with water from the full bucket . . . run to the empty bucket and squeeze the water out. Take turns and repeat until the full bucket is empty and the empty bucket is full!

Happy boy!

Danny with his best bud Braxton and some pizza.

His life is complete!

End of year assessment with his teacher, Mrs. R.

Piece of cake!