Nothin but blue skies do I see

This weekend was our Robie Creek run. I have to admit though that I chickened out this year and sold my bib at the last second so as much as I wish it was me, I did not run the race in 3 hours like the paper says. Will did run it though and did really well. He was so close to being under 3 hrs. (maybe next year though.) His official time was 3 hrs 7 min and 11 seconds. As always it was a lot of fun being there and getting to be a part of it.


Dont let him fool you, He is happy to be done and have food!

Hello Chickens

Around the time we said good bye to the shed we said hello to our new chickens. We are starting out with nine chicks. Emilee really wants to name them but I am not sure that is such a good idea when we will be butchering some of them. And since we don't know the sex yet it makes it a little harder. They are very quickly outgrowing the box. I am hoping that in a few weeks we can get them out into the coop. We still have a little more work to get it ready and we have to get power out to it so we can set up the heat light. Little by little though it is coming together!

Cake 2

This is my second cake from class. The only thing that I don't like is that we don't have a lot of time to decorate it there. By the time I get home I am fighting to keep kids out of it and don't have a lot of time to complete it. I did learn to do a shell border which was exciting. The ones I always did were really sloppy so it is nice to know how to do it right. We also learned the second part of the rose. I also learned never to use whipped cream as the filling. It was to light and the cake started to push it out the side which is why it looks so funny. I think that with the right colors and time you could do some really cute things with the circus theme. More in a week.....

Happy Easter

I thought I would post some of the pictures of the kids finding Easter baskets. We also hid eggs in the living room and kitchen and they had lots of fun hunting for them. I think that next year we should rethink all the candy, we had two kids on very high sugar highs! They did enjoy it though and we got to spend the day together watching new movies. Em got the Bee Movie which is now the new favorite. I hate how in a few months they get movies for Christmas, Easter, Birthdays and valentines day and then there is such a long gap til it all comes again. Oh well, I guess we just need a new holiday in the summer! And yes Jake does own pjs, He just has a tendency to end up clothesless.

Cakes in the making

I finally decided to get started on my dream of going into the business of cake decorating. I am now taking a Wilton decorating class once a week with Valerie. It has been so much fun and I have learned things that has made a lot more sense then the ways I have always attempted things. This is the first cake I have made for the class and I am really pleased with the way it turned out. I have never made butter cream icing from scratch so that has been a challenge but I am figuring it out! I am really glad that I am doing it and I will try to keep more pics coming! and if anyone needs a cake let me know, I don't know how we are going to eat all of these cakes I am making for class!

Goodbye Shed!

Since we have moved into our house I have wanted to tear down the older shed on the back of the property. Since we were in the process of building a chicken coop and could use the wood we spent the better half of one day stripping it of everything useful. Will decided to finish it out.



And there it goes!



The back third of the yard is going to be the garden this year. We removed the fence that bordered the grass area and are going to move that back to keep the dogs out of all the plants. I am excited about all that we are doing. I wish we would of taken more pictures of how it was when we moved in. We are going to plant blackberries and raspberries and blueberries along the back fence and then on the right I am going to have the herbs and strawberries with artichokes and asparagus. On the left we are planting trees including peach, apple, pear, nectarine, and apricot. I am going to grow tomatoes and peppers and onions for salsa and corn, beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, radishes and carrots, green and red peppers, and lettuce. I also got an almond tree to grow in the front yard. Once we get our chickens and rabbits going we will be pretty self sufficient. If I could fit a cow in I would!









On a side note our animals have grown a lot! Savage and Remington are almost as tall as me on their back legs. They are also turning brown. Rella is also bigger, but still really gentle and great with the kids.

Our New Toy

I guess the pictures on this one pretty much does it justice. After much waiting we have bought a bike. And after much pestering and persistence on my part Will has taught me how to ride it! Now we just have to buy me one!

Spring Break

I keep telling myself that I am going to keep the blog up to date but then I find myself sitting here with hundreds of pictures to post and so many things happening! The last week of March Will had his spring break from school and we were really excited to be able to spend some time working in the yard getting it in shape for summer. We had one of our fences about half way done when it started pouring and did not stop. So much for working in the yard! It was nice having him home though even if we were stuck indoors! I couldnt believe how much rain was coming down so I had to take some pictures.