EGGS!!

We didn't' get lots of eggs during the hot Arizona summer! In fact I had to actually start buying eggs from the store again...oh the embarrassment!! I mean its flat out a disgrace to have chickens that don't lay. Thank goodness they are starting to redeem themselves. Yesterday Jarom went out to feed the chickens, horses, and collect the eggs. And guess what...he brought back a mother load of eggs. We must have forgotten to collect them for a few days, because he had 18 eggs in his basket when he came in. WOO-HOO!! Our chickens are rocking!


Today Megan took on the task of cleaning the dirty eggs so they didn't look quite so disgusting. (The four eggs we collected today looked especially YUCKY!!) By the time Megan was done with them they were sparkling. That's my girl!!


We now have an official 'chicken cleaning brush.' Oh the joys of having animals and fresh eggs...I wouldn't trade it for the world. So if anyone wants green eggs and ham come on over. We've got LOTS of green eggs.

Dang Coyotes!!!

This morning I admit we woke up a bit late, and were having trouble getting the kids to get out of bed for scriptures. So Scott and I were along in the kitchen for a few minutes. I was getting some hot cereal ready, and Scott was making our daily 'green shake.' The kids still weren't down, and it was 7:30 so Scott had to take off to get to an 8am meeting.

I glanced out the back window in time to see what I thought was a dog, and then I saw Scott running and throwing a rock at the beast. He kept running then jumped in his truck and drove after the dog down the back dirt ally way. About 4 minutes later he called on the phone and let me know that he had just chased after two coyotes!! WOW!! Thank goodness we saw them. Too bad we had just let the chickens out 30 minutes before that, and the coyotes had killed our wonderful rooster!! His name was Course Hair, and he was the most protective little guy of his little band of hens. We are so sad!! I am not loving coyotes right now.

I guess we'll have to work a little funeral into our day. It will be a great opportunity to talk about death and life.

All I need are the simple things...

{our baby goat...saved!}
A few days after our baby goat was born we noticed that he was all stuffed up. What I mean is that his poop had dried into a hard ball and was blocking any more poop from getting out. We could tell he was is a bit of distress and so even though it was a dirty job we felt like we needed to help the little guy out. I know it sounds...okay it was gross!!


First Scott and Jarom doused his back side with water to try to soften it up. It helped a little...I think. Then Scott held the little guy and went to work. It took a while, but eventually we got him all cleaned up. His mom was so worried about him the entire time we were working on him, and kept circling us in the garage. Mama goat is a bit of a nervous Nelly. Once we finished Scott put the little one down and mama and baby ran to their favorite spot behind the garage happy to be together again.



{Irrigation...oh what fun}
So we just got our first dose of irrigation and all I can say is we never need to go to Disneyland again!! Irrigation is just as fun, loads cheaper, and an entire day of entertainment. WE HAD A BLAST!!



The kids thought it would be awesome to bring out our three little ducks so they could swim around and enjoy the water, and boy did they love every second of it. It was hilarious to see them swimming and splashing around. I am sure bringing the ducks out for a swim will be part of our irrigation ritual from now on. They weren't the only ducks that enjoyed our irrigation...I think we counted six or seven other ducks swimming around the front yard at one time. Not to mention the other hundred or so birds. CRAZY!!!



{A Simple time}
I think what I've enjoyed the most about our new simple lifestyle is the increase in relaxed, simple, fun, quality time we've spent together as a family. We don't feel like we need to be running around the city to find things to do...we just look in our yard or home and create things to do here. Some of our favorite things lately have been kickball, Frisbee, bike riding, climbing trees, and just sitting on a blanket reading books. Family work projects have also been simple activities we've done more of like pulling weeds, cleaning the yard, organizing the house, doing the irrigation, harvesting the pecan trees, etc... Simple is the new complex!! :)



Right now I am reading the Little House on the Prairie to my kids, and before that we read Little House in the Big Woods. As I've read about their simple lives I often wish I could have lived in that type of uncomplicated world. What would it have been like to have my husband home every day working on our farm? AMAZING!!! I can't imagine how wonderful it was being as self sufficient as they were. The family work she describes them doing is fantastic! What a great time to live.



As their evenings are described I long to have every evening in my home spent like theirs...simple and with family. Their evenings are powerful time spent together as a family. She describes her family sitting around their one room cabin talking and just being together...her mother busy with a sewing or handicraft project, the girls busy with some useful project, and her father preparing for the next day (sometimes cleaning his gun or making bullets) as well as often telling a story, reading, or playing his music.


I am inspired and comforted as I read the description of life back then. Even though part of me wishes I could have lived then I am grateful for this day in age, and the many conveniences I enjoy. Even though this is a crazy busy world we live in I am in control of my life and I am capable of keeping my life simple and focused on what is really important in life...family and God.

Goats, and Kids, and Ducks, OH MY!!

{our baby goat is born}



Okay its not exactly our baby goat, BUT it was born on our property. Does that count? This morning I was cleaning up breakfast while the kids were out feeding all the animals when in rushed Jarom carrying a baby goat. He had an excited grin on his face and explained that he'd been heading out to feed the chickens when Jorge our neighbor called to him. 'Have you see the baby goat?' Jarom was confused at first but then he realized what Jorge was talking about. Let me back up and explain. A few weeks ago Scott got talking to our new next door neighbor and explained to him our massive weed problem. I'm not sure exactly what happened after that, but somehow we ended up with one of his goats to help 'manage' the problem. I LOVE IT!! Only in the country do you borrow your neighbors goat to eat your weeds. The goat he let us borrow was pregnant and I figured he'd take her back before she was ready to have her baby, but much to our surprise and delight he let her stay with us!!! So last night we had a baby goat delivered on our property!!! WOO-HOO!! I never thought I'd say that. :)

Its the cutest little thing ever and so sweet!! Its black and has a gentle personality.Momma goat is super protective but is comfortable enough to let us come pet and spend time with the new little one. We haven't named her yet...but we'll have to do that soon. Jarom is hoping that Jorge will let us buy the little goat eventually and keep it for ourselves. We'll have to wait and see what happens.

{3 little ducks come waddling back...}

Two weeks ago I had a homeschooling conference I went to. My mom watched Becca and Scott took the other 5 with him to Jarom's pinewood derby race and as I later found out to the San Tan Feed Store. We had finally gotten our garage cleared out of chickens since they had all gotten big enough to graduate from the heat lamp in the garage to the coop in the backyard. on my drive home I was getting excited knowing that I could finally park my car in our non-stinky non-chicken filled garage. Much to my surprise when I arrived home that Saturday evening I was shocked to find three (totally adorable) ducks in our garage. And they were STINKY!!! Thank goodness they were cute.

The kids explained that whole thing to me. Dad was a sucker. They had gone to the feed store to get some more chicken feed and an auto-watering thingy for the horse. The kids spotted the ducks right away and started playing with them, and Scott couldn't help himself and just had to get three to bring home.


Now I admit they are the cutest things you've ever seen!! But my goodness...they do stink...they sure love water...and they are MESSY!! Tonight will be there first night out in the chicken coop. I hope they make it, don't freeze, or get hurt by the other chickens. I'm kind of worried!! So even though I've been complaining a bit about them, and have harassed Scott about them lots, I fell in love with these cute little creatures the first time I saw them waddle around. What a hoot!

Life on the Farm

{what's been happening}
Over the last two months our lifestyle has really started to change. Since we've moved into our 'farm' we've added 2 dogs, 19 chicks, and a horse to our family. Its an adventure and we are loving the slower rural life. Its funny because a few years ago if you would have said we'd end up in the country I'd have said you were crazy. It wasn't the type of lifestyle I was looking for at all. However, people, books, and things started coming into my life that began to change that idea I had of what I wanted for me and my family. It made me question my motives and paradigms and helped me begin to make a massive shift in the direction I was headed. The Lord certainly knew what I needed because I didn't know this is what I needed. I am so grateful I listened and took that first step even though it was one of the scariest things I've ever done.

As a result of taking that first step a lot of things have happened. First we moved a year ago to Queen Creek by Scott's brother which was awesome. Then I started homeschooling (which I never thought I'd ever do) which has turned out to be one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. We turned our TV off (okay we maybe watch one movie a week)!! We started reading a TON as a family! I joined a book club on steroids called 5 Pillars...which has pushed me harder than college in many ways. My kids figured out how to get a long better than ever, can play for hours on end using their imaginations, and are the best of friends. My kids are learning how to work (Megan and Jarom especially) without complaining. In December 2008 we moved a little further away from town to a 3 1/2 acre farm and things are better than ever. The ward we moved into is amazing and the kids already have friends and fit in perfectly. Scott and I feel right at home, and we've already made lots of friends with other families. Its been such a blessing to have everything go smooth with the move. The first Sunday we attend the ward after we moved in I felt this overwhelming peaceful feeling. It felt like home and I didn't really know anyone yet. I haven't felt quite like this before, and I feel so blessed to feel so settled and peaceful about where we are in life right now. This is the right place for our entire family to be right now. I know the Lord's hand was in the chain of events that has lead us here. I know He loves each of us and is aware of our unique circumstances and needs. I am so grateful for my testimony of a loving Heavenly Father who has a plan for us and wants us to return to live with Him.

{fingerprints}

One day I started talking to Jarom about the book I was reading 'The Beginners Guide to Constructing the Universe." Its a pretty cool book! Anyway I started telling him how throughout the universe different shapes and patterns are repeated over and over. One example was the swirling pattern of a universe, tornado, black hole, water going down the drain, etc... Later he came in and showed me how with the wax from a candle in our hall bathroom he could see his fingerprint and guess what there was that swirly pattern again. He also noticed how each fingerprint was so different, so we talked about how no two fingerprints are the same. It was a great discussion! Learning happens all the time...sometimes planned sometimes not planned. Its all a matter of taking advantage of the opportunity when it appears. I don't always capitalize on these opportunities, but I'm trying to!!

{the lawn mower}
Scott tried to mow our new lawn with our push mower, but after 30 minutes and hardly making a dent we decided we needed something a little more powerful and quick. So we started looking on Craig's List for a used one. We had NO idea how expensive a riding lawnmower was. After almost two months of looking we found one that worked and was in our price range. WOO-HOO! I am not sure if Jarom and Scott realized this is a tool NOT a toy. Oh well I guess when you can make work fun its a WIN-WIN!! It cracked me up on Saturday when Scott decided to mow the backyard real quick. He had the biggest grin you ever saw and followed up the job by taking the mower out to our dirt area and doing a few 360's!! Gotta Love It!!

Jarom likes to pull up the blade and take the mower for a few spins around the yard and the other kids LOVE going along for the ride too! Sometimes I get a bit scared having my 9 year old with a 20 horse power motor under his control. AHHHH!

{Going Healthy}
A few weeks ago Scott went out of town. I had a ton of laundry to do so on Saturday I flipped the TV on and we all vegged in front of the TV for a few hours (something we don't normally do). At first we were watching ice skating, which is one of my favorite sports to watch. However, when that ended we started by default watching an infomercial on juicers. Before I knew it Jarom and I were hooked, and then Jarom started begging me to get the juicer. He swore he'd start drinking juice and commented on how our family could really use it so we could be more healthy. I caved in when they marked it down to 3 easy payments of $49.95 or something and I ordered it. It finally came a week ago and we've actually used it quite a few times and the juice is awesome. All the kids (except Megan) love the juice and I'm working on her getting out of her chicken nugget and ranch kick and try new things. We'll see how that works out, but as for the rest of us we are starting to get a little more healthy by drinking 100% real juice.






{the co-op}

We are part of a babysitting co-op in our new ward. There are three families all together and its GREAT! We've never been in something like this before (I think because we have so many kids) and its been super fun for us and for the kids. We swap babysitting three Fridays a month and then on the fourth Friday we have a game night with all the kids and adults. We hosted game night last week and went swimming first (our pool is heated right now...it'll be interesting to see what that's going to cost us...ahhh) and then turned a movie on for the kids while the adults played games. This is what the kids looked like after the movie was over. HILARIOUS!!! There were sleeping kids everywhere.

{My Birthday...the big 32}
My mom and Scott made my birthday rock! My mom called the day before my birthday and offered to watch my kids...she ended up taking them around 2pm on the 5th and kept them overnight until 9 or 10 the next morning. Thanks Mom you are the best. I don't think she realized how awesome this was. It was one of the best gifts ever. To have a day to get caught up on all the things I can't do usually which was fantastic. I LOVE homeschooling, but because I have 6 kids with me at all times I don't get out much which gets me behind on things that require getting out. Anyway it was perfect and I loved hanging out with Scott the whole time. THANK YOU BOTH!!!

{Valentines Day}
Parker is awesome!!! He needed to earn some money to go on a trip with his music group called Light and so he sold singing telegrams for Valentines Day. I was totally surprised when I answered the door and there he was!! What a treat...its something I'll always remember. The best part was he earned the rest of the money he needed for his trip. Way to go Parker!!

After Parker left I ended up working on my Gospel Doctrine lesson until 7:30 so instead of a romantic dinner (we didn't have time for that because of me) we ate a hot dog and nachos at the movie theater and watched Taken. All the restaurants had an hour long wait. After the movie we hit Village Inn for a little pie. We had a great time even though it wasn't your typical Valentines Date.

{horse hunting}
We've been on the 'farm' now for 2 months almost and we're itching for a horse. We knew our first horse needed to be old and gentle and after looking and riding (that was fun) a few different horses we settled on Titan. He's a 20 year old retired ranch horse that is gentle and slow. Just what we needed. (Although Scott is ready to have a horse he can run...scary.) The kids love him and after having their riding teacher come check him out and give him a thumbs up we are excited to add him to the family. Scott's been so cute checking up on him and keeps looking out at the pasture and saying...I can't believe we really have a horse.

We got Titan on Monday and on Tuesday when Scott got home from work he went right out to the pasture (before he even came in to give me a kiss...) and tried to saddle him up and take him for a ride. After about 10 minutes of watching the horse run away from Scott Jarom went out and taught Scott how to ketch the horse and get him saddled up. Within 5 minutes of Jarom's lesson Scott was up on the horse and trotting around. SO FUN!!




{the golf cart}
So last Thursday a week ago I guess my mom called. Her neighbor was selling a used golf cart for really cheap and she thought we ought to get it. We drove down there and Scott stopped by after work and it was just what we needed. However we wanted to do a little more research to see if it was really a good deal. After looking on Craig's List we realized it was a good deal and decided to go for it. I think we'll use it a ton to fertilize the garden, trees, feed the horse, and chickens, etc... So far its been fun and the kids have had a blast riding around in circles.

{the chicks}
The cutest....I think this is our cutest chick. Its called a Frizle and its feathers actually grow up instead of down. So backwards basically. It looks like its feathers are curly and its so cute and puffy. I really like this little guy that the kids call Frizzie.

The ugliest...this is Vulture, or at least that's what we call him. He's a weird breed that don't grow feathers on their necks. The feed store said they grow up to look like vultures hence where the name came from. They had quite a few of them when we got our chickens but I only let the kids get two (and one of them died from being overly loved I think). So we are down to one ugly vulture. It'll be interesting to see what she ends up looking like.


{Blue and Gold}

For this year's Blue and Gold Banquet they asked the boys to bring a cake or pie that they made and decorated. Jarom took this very seriously and asked his Nana to come help him decorate his cake. On Tuesday morning Jarom made the cake 100% by himself including clean up. I was very proud of him. That afternoon when Nana came he made the frosting and decorated it mostly by himself with just a little guidance from his Nana. He was so proud of his cake and I have to admit it looked AWESOME!!! It was definitely the best on there. Way to go dude!!!!

This is why we live in Arizona!

{Perfect weather}
Today the weather couldn't have been better. It was PERFECT! Not too cold not too hot a little overcast with a few light sprinkles. WOW!!

{Gate Install}


We played outside almost all day today. One of the perks of living in the country lots of space to roam. :) Today we also got a fence installed along our front yard today to help keep our animals and kids off the street. I know I am a little paranoid, but the street we live on is really long and sometimes cars get going pretty fast and it just scares me. I am so grateful for this gate and the huge stress reliever it is.


{Ginger and Gilligan}


For Christmas we got two adorable miniature Australian Shepperd's. It was a compromise. Scott wanted a good sized dog that could get a Frisbee and I wanted a dog small enough to not knock over all the kids. Viola! We found the perfect dogs. They are about half the size of a normal Australian Shepard but still have all the traits and characteristics of the breed. Gilligan is our little man I think he'll end up being a toy size probably about 13 inches high and maybe 20-25 pounds. Ginger our big lady will most likely be 15-17 inches high and 25-30 pounds. We are loving them!!

{Chilling Outside}

Cooper outside in his PJs at 4:00 the afternoon. It was just one of those days! We were on the Arizona rainy day schedule. Slow, steady, and relaxed. We even started a fire.


Its hard to see it, but Jarom is actually jumping a little ditch. He was so excited, but didn't think my photo really captured the moment. Sorry dude...I'll try better next time.


Becca chilling in her stroller as always and being a good little girl watching her brothers get dirty.

Brea was busy taking a nap while I was taking photos, and Megan was inside coloring some Let's Play Music puppets. She is so awesome and has really started loving to learn. While her brothers were playing outside she ditched them to color, draw, and read in our school room. No worries though...she was able to keep tabs on what they were doing out front through a window in our school room...she even opened it and talked to us outsiders for a bit. (Megan did play outside with us this morning for a few hours...so its not like she doesn't know how to get dirty and play with the boys.)

{School Report}
Today we did squeeze in some good reading time after lunch. Jarom actually was begging me to read a chapter in a book I am reading to Megan and Jarom. It was awesome to have him really wanting to do that over something else. Progress.

Farm Family At Last!!!

We now live in the sticks and man are we happy about it!!!

A miracle for our family happened the end of 2008. We were able to move to the country and get a little family farm/ranch. YEA!!! Okay so calling it a farm or ranch may be a stretch because we only have two dogs and five chickens (probably not enough animals to call it a farm), and we don't have a garden only a few trees with pecans, apples, and citrus (probably not enough food growing here to call it a farm). Oh well its a work in progress and soon we hope to have a few more animals and a nice sized garden real soon.

Neither Scott or I have ever lived where there are no street lights, side walks, sprinklers (we have irrigation), or where your neighbors have deer, goats, turkeys, cows, and horses. Its AWESOME!!! I know we're in for some big surprises as we embark on our attempt to be country folk, but we're going to be smiling the entire time even when we look like fools because we don't have a clue as to what we are doing.


Here's a picture of the backyard. The last few weeks we've had a great time playing kickball, Frisbee, throwing a boomerang Scott found while visiting his parent in PR, and of course chasing around the dogs.

This is one of our two pastures and I plan on getting some horses and cows to fill them both up. Part of me would like to also get a mini cow to put in one of our smaller pens. I've heard that they produce milk (a lot less than a full size cow) and they are only the size of a calf. Sounds about perfect to me, and it'll give my kids an opportunity to do some real work.

I want to document the whole story of how, why, and when the move happened but that will have to happen in another post because its time to get back to school with the kids. It's going to be a great day.