It's time to 'Boy Him Up'

I know, I know, Allen is growing up and will soon be a big active toddler running around at top speed and talking up a storm. I know that this will all happen whether I am ready for him to grow up or not. Theres just something about wanting your last baby to stay little FOREVER! I've had people telling me that my sweet little baby boy needs a haircut ever since the hair began growing over his ears. At that point I just ignored the comments. I mean, beautiful soft brown baby curls, who could in their right mind cut that off!                   

Well as you can imagine, his hair was getting pretty long and I was getting more and more comments about it, including advice from his sisters and father. I was finally told by a dear friend that I might want to 'boy him up a little'.  But, from my point of view its this, If I cut his hair, then I no longer have a baby but a toddler. My last baby, is it so wrong to want to keep him a baby as long as possible? I mean come on, everyone knows that he's going to be the most spoiled rotten kid ever for which he cleary will compensate for by being called the baby for the rest of his life. I can see it now, "Oh, the baby is going to Kindergarten"  "Thats the baby out there on the soccer field with the number 8 on his jersey"  "Oh, how sweet, the baby is off to High School, Graduation, College" "My baby just got married." So see, long hair or not, he'll always be the baby. I know that our friend and everyone else is right, it is past time to stop holding on to my baby boy and let him grow up. So here we are with Allen's first haircut.

It took 4 of us 1 to cut (me) one to hold, one to entertain and one to take pictures!

What a Handsome boy!

Myles turns 43

April 18th

For Myles birthday we did nothing. But only because I was sick. Sooooo, the following week after the pig show was over we had a group of friends over for a BBQ. We had a lot of fun visiting, eating and watching Avatar. We alomost burned the house down with all of the candles on Myles cake, luckily he is full of a lot of air and was able to blow out all of the candles! =}.

I would like to take a moment to gush about my wonderful husband and mention some things that I am truly grateful for. 1. I am a very lucky woman and I am married to the very best man in the world!

2. I am so grateful for a man that truly loves me through sickness and health, for richer or poorer.

3. I am grateful to have a husband who truly understands the principle of forgiveness and lives what he believes. 4. I am married to a man who loves and cherishes his children, he is a good father. 5. I am married to a man who is a good provider for his family.  To sum it up, the kids and I are lucky to have Myles and we love him with all our hearts. We love you and hope you have a great 43rd year baby.

The Grand Champion

We've had two livestock shows recently. The local Fallon show, Churchill County Livestock Show which was April 22-24, and the Reno show, Nevada Junior Livestock Show (NJLS) which was April 29-May 2. In the Fallon show Madison took Grand Champion! She's pretty proud of her 2 belt buckles! Remember she took Grand at State Fair as well. Minnie didn't show in Fallon because her pig didn't make weight. Natasha took 1st in class, Kylee took 3rd in class, Chelsea took 2nd in Class and Lindy took ?. I don't remember how they did in showmanship. To Clarify, The places above reflect how the pig lookks, the judging is only on the about the pig. It's called Market Class Judging. Then they go another round Called Showmanship which is when the kid is judged on how well they show their animal.

Lindy was a bit glum. This was her first time showing and she was nervous plus her shoes were soaked and she was cold and very unhappy. :{This is the all time favorite picture, The Judge is shaking Madison's hand giveing her her rossette for Grand Champion and in the back ground Natasha is smiling, happy for her isister.. Madison and Natasha were both in the final drive because their pigs both received 1st in class. Chelsea was in the holding pen with the potential opportunity to be in the final drive if the 1st place pig in her class had won Grand.

Playing in the Sun

I just wanted to share these pictures with you. It was spring break, warm but still a chill in the air, April 7th. I think that my kids are more than ready for hot lazy days in the sun.  I ran one of the kids to town and came home to a pool party! They had scrubbed out the old pool and cleaned off the patio all on their own. I had came home with a treat for them, sonic slushes and cheap tacos. It turned into quite the party. Aren't they great!

I don't even have swim trunks unpacked for the little boys yet, its way too early.

Clayton just work his skivvys and Allen didn't care what he wore!

Lake Tahoe

April 8, 2010

Natasha's friend Taylor came and spent Spring break with us. She had never been to Lake Tahoe so we took a day trip up to the Mountains. It was so nice! The weather was perfect and because its not yet tourist season the beaches were practically empty. We all had a nice relaxing, fun afternoon.The above picture was taken above the famous Emerald Bay.

Everyone loaded up in the van ready to go. We didn't know if it was going to be hot, cold, sunny or snowy so we packed for everything. The weather and road report had said that part of the hwy around Lake Tahoe was closed due to an avalanche watch.

We stopped at Zephr Cove Beach first, we could tell that it was still winter in the mountains!

Our awesome shadow picture on the dock. The water is so amazingly clear.We didn't get to take a cruise on the MS Dixie II this time around, it was still too early in the year but we did get a picture. Notice the snow on the mountains on the other side of the lake. After alot of begging from kids who wanted very little to do with the dock or the boat we hit the beach. Clayton was so impatient to get in the water that he kept stripping his pants down everywhere. we had to tell him 4 times to get his pants back on because we're not ready to swim in the water yet.All of the younger kids were anxious to get in the water. We however did not pack swimsuits because I knew that the water temperature was no where near being able to swim in it yet so the younger kids stripped off their shoes, socks and pants and hit the water. The funnies one of all was Clayton, he ran into the lake at top speed and was up to his waist hyperventalating before he could stop and turn around!!!  :):) You so totally had to be there. Everyone still had a blast wading in the water along the shore, even Allen got in on the action. Britten spent alot of time collecting crawdad pinchers. He had never seen anything like that before and found them very fascinating. He was very proud of his collection. The best part about the whole day was just letting the kids run off and play and piddle around with whatever interested them. Just letting the kids be themselves, wet and dirty and the whole nine yards!You can get an idea of how cold the water was by noticing how red everyones feet are!

This snow man was perfectly white before the kids knocked it over, makes you wonder where they got the snow from to build it? or how long its been there?Can you tell what Kylee's sitting on? Pretty funny.When we got Emerald Bay the snow was up to the kids knees. Most of them chose not to get their warm stuff and they ran around like half dressed lunatics in the snow. Kylee actually ran through knew deep snow carrying her flip flops because she was too impatient to wait for everyone in front of her to go first. I can't believe how big these boulders are!

I could add a ton of phots of just the scenery, its so gorgeous up there but instead I'm going to put in just one of my favorite shots. Beach, water, dock, ship, trees, mountains and big blue sky. I got it all baby!

Spring Break Begins With Easter

     Easter this year was a bit different. It started off with a trip to Reno to get Natasha's friend Taylor from Boron. I know that the two girls were super excited to see each other but I tell you, I think that I was almost just as excited! Taylor is such a sweetie and a super good friend to Tashee.

     That evening when we were decorating eggs all 3 of the older  girls decided that they would rather go out with their friends and leave the little ones home to do the eggs. At first that seemed ok to me because they are growing up and I can understand how dyeing eggs isn't exactly up there on the top 10 things to do on a Saturday night, but I can tell you all, it will never happen again! From here on out everyone will be at home to dye our eggs together as a family. And thats final! The little kids had a good time, I even got into it a bit more this year. I bought a camo egg kit so I was having fun trying to make camoflouge eggs, there was gray dye and army green! It was pretty cool! Chelsea took charge and got the dye ready with her sisters while Clayton tried to stay out of trouble.

Clayton had tons of fun, he loved the whole concept of coloring eggs and was far too impatient to even bother with using a wire or spoon or anything for that matter to get the eggs out of the dye, he just used his hands!

Heres our annual Easter Egg in front of the Eye picture!

Family Togetherness in a Barn

Yes, I said in a barn. We spent St. Patrick's day evening out at the pig barn watching Myles sow Berney farrow 8 piglets. Not everyone was there the whole time, except Myles of course, but we all came out, sat, watched and went back inside at our leisure. There was no arguing or fighting just quiet awe and excited expectation as we witnessed the miracle of birth. Sweet family togetherness. Funny how the sweetest miracles seem to happen in barns!

We did begin the day with our traditional accessorizing of the green; beads, head bands, t-shirts, hair dye and shamrock stamps.

We then ended the day with our traditional corned  beef and cabbage dinner with our Green velvet cake to top it all off in honor of Grandpa Betts whose birthday it is and the reason for which we have developed the family tradition of going all out for a holiday that most don't even notice is there.

     You just gotta love that Clay smile!