Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Psalm 82:3

What if there are children who will suffer somehow because I failed to obey God?
What if my cowardice costs even one child somewhere in the world his or her life?
(excerpt from The Hole in Our Gospel)

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Birthdays, Pee and other Spring Updates

Kyle and I are NOT country folks, but we don't mind hanging out on the farm for a good cause (so long as I can go home and shower at the end of the day).  Our 10 year old wanted one and only one thing for her birthday - to "ride a horse."  Not sure where she gets her love of smelly animals, but she was beyond thrilled when we pulled into a country farm that had a horse sign out front!  The man who owns the ranch let the kids explore and check out animals on his farm and he took us for a carriage ride (of sorts) through the fields...where the horses grazed.  Chels was all smiles, the boys thought it was very cool and MJ did what MJ does best - plug her nose and tell us how smelly animals on a farm are.  That's my girl!!!!

And here is my man...
THIS is how you KNOW you're ready for the Chicken Dance!
Chels on her first "real" horseback ride.  All by herself.
He liked the ride, but has a whole new respect for his horse enthusiast friend :o)
Hum...I can think of 10 captions for this one!
I'll let you decide for yourself what we should title this picture.

Nope, she didn't like the horse ride.  But her parents strongly encouraged her to "be brave" and just sit on it for a minute.  She did...for a minute...and not one second more!

Jacob had more fun on his horse stroll than this picture would lead you to believe.
He said he likes cows better, though :o)  Then he asked if we could bring home a goat with us...for a pet.
He misses his animals, that's for sure!


On our carriage ride through the fields...horses grazed...
...and then they saw us coming, so they followed...

...and our birthday girls was on cloud 9 that day!

The kids got to hold a baby bunny on the carriage ride, too.

Our giant teddy bear teen loved his bunny.

Chels's squirmed all over the place, and MJ just enjoyed petting them all
(though she wasn't "sold" on holding her own).

And just when we thought we ran out of "new experiences" for the day, Jacob had a new sensation soaking through his clothes.  It was SO funny...because rabbit pee is funny to everyone right?  Well, just after he realized he was soaking wet, small brown pellets started falling from you-know-where.  Now THAT was FUNNY!  And after that, Chels's rabbit started to pee...and peed right where it looked like she had peed her pants.  And THAT was even FUNNIER! 

A wind-burned (slightly peed on), but happy bunch.


When on a carriage ride, SOMEONE has to hop out and open and close gates to all the pastures, right?
Run dad, run!


Our 10 year old...
Opening presents with colorful tissue paper is pretty interesting...

...but making "dresses" for your sister is even more fun!  So long card-board boxes -
hello rainbow tissue paper!

Spring break arrived - so before leaving town Jacob practiced his teaching skills by helping Chelsea with her math homework so she wouldn't have to take it with her.  Yep, the student has now become the teacher.  And Chelsea really liked him teaching her...because she doesn't get much play-time with him now that he and Corey act like twins from another mother (which they totally are!).
 

The teacher explains how to reduce fractions and add/subtract fractions
that have different denominators.

We went to grandma's house and it only took us 15 hours to drive there!  And you know what?  Not one complaint from any of our 5 kiddo's.  Not one.  And you know what else?  None of them have an iAnything to entertain them.  Just movies, activity books and music.  Oh, and Jared slept 1/2 the way...which apparently makes the trip fly by!

It was so nice to be there, but it was very different without grandpa there anymore :o(
Chillin' with grandma :o)
The poker table comes out...as usual.

Jared is an expert driver now, and helped grandma with some yard work.
One of his "jobs" was to drive younger kids around the yard...
which he didn't mind doing one bit.
3 acres...no speed limit signs...and some hills.  Nice!

Since he can reach the pedals, Kyle taught Corey how to drive.
He did great!
Still not looking forward to him having a license in 2 1/2 years;
that's a SCARY thought!

Jacob loved it.  But then again, he loves just about anything!

WHAT is he doing standing on a pile of dirt????
That's what I asked myself one morning as I looked out and saw this.



It's Jared-Hood :o)  He got some bulls-eyes, too!

This is sort of our "adopted grandma" (Kyle's sister's husband's grandma - did you get that?)
We see her each time we visit and she came out to Kyle's mom's house for Easter dinner.
She's 89, funny, witty...and according to my children, "the shortest grandma we've ever seen."
Now that they've all outgrown her we wanted to get a picture.
And she was willing to play along...thanks Grandma L!





Housing update:  Framing is done and drywall should be started by Monday...that's what they tell us anyhow.  Kyle and Jared spent this past weekend wiring the house for surround sound (which we've never had before), and something else (which I can't remember at the moment).  Jared learned quickly and ended up doing one entire floor all by himself.  Thanks Jared...dad couldn't have done that without you!