Big Al is 11!

Today, Big Al turned 11!

Wow how time flies!!!
Happy Birthday!!!

My how they've grown!

Here are Cuddles and Brownie at 2 months old (plus a few days)... they are still cuties.. but not as fun to bottle feed! I am having challenges weaning them off the bottle, especially when the little guys, Baby and Bambi are around! I am hoping that in the next few weeks they will start to graze on actual grass.. so I can save the hay!!

Bambi and Baby are doing really well! Baby is now on the bottle full time.. I think after a few of the force feedings with the tube that he decided to get with the program! He is growing and is almost as big as Bambi. Tomorrow, Baby is 2 weeks old and Bambi is 2 weeks 2 days...
Tomorrow, I'll have to post a picture of my new chicks... they are adorable!!

Meeting a movie star......??

Looks almost fake, doesn't he???
On Sunday, we stopped by our feed store to get some fencing items, and of course to see a movie star! This horse, Pelome, was in the Zorro movie w/Antonio Banderas! Here in our town - that's pretty cool! This horse was actually INSIDE the store, and as you can see from the photo, there was nothing holding him down! He sorta just stood there and watched everyone! The kids got to pet him and get their picture taken with him... they even got autographs! Well, it was a hoofprint on his picture.. still... they had fun!

Our newest additions

Meet our two newest additions! Bambi and Baby!

Miss O got to name one of the calves... who is a week old today - Bambi.... our poor calves all have very feminine names! Bambi is alot of fun... he is really pushy and loves to rub into you with his head.. he is a cutie!

Baby on the other hand is only 4 days old... he is having a rough start. Unlike Bambi, who attacks his bottle of milk, Baby won't take the bottle yet - so we have to tube feed him - not very pleasant!

This week, Cuddles and Brownie will both be slowly weaned off the bottle... much to their true love of the bottle... they see it and come running!!

His first medal !!

Saturday we had another wrestling tournament.... Both boys did pretty well... even though it was an extremely LOOONG day for the boys (and us too!) The boys did weigh in at 7am and we did not leave until almost 8pm! ARGH!!
Needless to say... it was a happy day for both boys!!
Little J won his first match - which was a great feat for him! Big Al lost his first match to a really good kid - but he was ok with it - since he knew the other wrestler had LOTS more experience.. Little J won his 2nd match - as the other wrestler forfeited! So, due to that, he was automatically in the finals round for 1st or 2nd... Just pure luck we think.. but he does not care!!
Big Al won his second match and qualified for the consulation round... just so happened he got a bye - and got to wrestle for 3rd or 4th place!
In the finals round - Little J got pinned in about 30 seconds - but still took 2nd place over all... he was so concerned that since he got pinned so quick that he would no longer get an award... his main concern!! :) So, he took 2nd in the weight class.
Big Al had a great 3rd match.. he won 17-3... the other wrestler was pretty agressive, but Big Al had more skill and won on points. So, Big Al took 3rd in the weight class!
Both boys were extremely happy and proud to get their medals!!!

Below is Big Al starting his match for 3rd place

Little J was just getting started.. I barely had time to get any video before he got pinned!

Big Al taking on his opponent in his match he won.

A quick picture of Little J (the blur in red!) in his first (and only winning) match of the day!

I did not add any video this time... I yelled too much - so all you hear is my screaming and cheering for the boys!! I need to take some tape for my mouth next time!! We are very proud of both boys who did great jobs in their matches and exhibited some great sportsmanship!!

Happy Birthday Papa!

Since he was a St. Patrick's Day baby... its tough to find an "appropriate cake!"... so above is the end product....

Miss O was in charge of mixing - you can't see it well.. but we dyed the cake batter GREEN! She loved it!

Miss O and the boys did some birthday shopping and of course wrapped the gifts in green!

Papa was happy to get a chess set from Little J.... (though none of us play chess!)

Happy Birthday to Papa!!

What's new here.....

I am going to go backwards on what has happened since my last post... so bear with me! Yesterday was Agriculture Appreciation Day - which hosted all the students in 3rd grade from around the Valley to learn about all the "ag" related products produced here! I decided to tag along with Miss O... just for fun - well... and to see a few more of the boys in Little J's class to figure out which ones he needs to be seperated from in 4th grade... there were so many - it is going to be hard to choose! haha! At Ag Day - they brought in different kinds of livestock... Miss O is here talking to a Holstein mama-cow... she enjoyed it! She also loved seeing the Baby cow and the chickens... funny - since she sees those every day at our house!

At one of the inside stations, Little J is attempting to plant a bean in a baggie... hmmm.. Miss O had to get in on the action and watch as well! They also had a wagon ride - that we went on, all the kids loved that! Unfortunately, the only bad thing was the weather... snow and cold! Oh well... it was a fun 2 hours!

Over the weekend, Uncle Jim and Aunt Erica came over to help with the calves... both "boys" got their horns pasted to help them fall off.. (we don't need any horny cows here - we have other problems!) And they also got "banded"... I decided for their privacy to not show the pictures of that! Basically, its a simpler method of castrating... Aunt Erica is really good at this... I'll give her credit! You have to get all their "goods" together, then a special rubber band is placed at the base... apparently in a few weeks, they will have two less body parts! We made the boys help and watch the process... with a warning to never mess with Aunt Erica!! :)

Above picture is Cuddles donning his freshly pasted horns... Below is Brownie - who was not very cooperative with the whole thing... can you blame him????

Miss O has been working on what she likes to call "homework".. which we practice saying her letters and tracing them... she seems to think that she is more than qualified to grade Big Al's homework!!

And take a look at the picture below and see if you can figure out what is missing and altered??? Poor Lyger is a long-haired cat.. occasionally we have to clip under his arms/legs to keep the mats of hair from getting too big... apparently, I screwed up and left the clippers on the bed.... a certain someone FOUND the clippers, and since Lyger is so gentle when he is sleeping... well... he woke up with a "new do"! He is minus his eye-whiskers and his whiskers around his nose are well... cropped close! Poor thing has not wanted to go outside at night to hunt!! Miss O apparently wants to study cosmotology when she gets older!!

I hope that everyone is having a great week so far!!

I'd like to thank..........

My friend, Debbie, gave me this lovely award! Sort of the making lemonade out of lemons theme! Debbie is currently in Ukraine - TRYING to finish her adoption of her adorable 15 year old daughter who just so happens to have the same name as my little O! Debbie is "nearly" done and my heart goes out to her as she has probably had more small delays than she should have.. She will have been in Ukraine for almost two months by the time she returns home! She has also so graciously offered to meet up with my friend George to help purchase a cell phone for Sergey, our boys brother... she is an angel!!

So - on with the awards!!
Here are the rules...
Put the logo on your blog or post.
Nominate at least 5 blogs that show attitude and/or gratitude.
Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
Let them know they have received this award by commenting on a post.
Nominate your favorites and link to this blog.

Christine - Though I know Debbie already gave this to you... consider it your second award of the day!!

Charlene - Charlene and John are still in Ukraine and almost done with their adoption as well... they have had a really long and stressful trip! Their new son is ADORABLE!! You're almost done my friends!

Meredith - Wonderful Meredith always amazes me... she deserves way more than blog awards!! Four adorable children and one more on the way... AND she continues to do wonderful advocacy for those children left behind... truly inspiring!

Jennifer - Miss Jenn only updates her blog when I force her - haha! She is such a great person - and I am keeping my fingers crossed for her on her next adoption!

Erica - Erica and her family have had a tough year... they have lost a loved family member, a failed adoption trip to Ukraine, and now they just are wait-wait-waiting for their daughter to be ready for them in Ethiopia! Her blog is great - and she has more patience for things to happen than I ever would!! Hugs my friend!!

Enjoy your awards! Be sure to pass it on!!

News from the homefront!

For some reason - this post took me forever to get on here! Last weekend we took the boys to the first wrestling tournament of the season in Yakima. This was Little J's very first tournament! He had loads of anxiety.. there was a lot of nervous crying (something he is very proficient in!) and lots of stress for him....
Big Al was ready - there were no big issues for him! The only challenge he faced was that he had to wrestle a GIRL right off the bat! That threw him for a loop! He ended up beating her without too many problems.
It turned out that Big Al and Little J were in the same weight class - something that we were concerned about... they are about a pound apart in weight. The first match - Jason had to wrestle - he did end up losing 7-2... at least he scored points! The second match, he wrestled the same girl that Alex beat... It was Jason's first win... though it was stressful for him - he was very relieved!

Here is a very bleary picture of Little J starting his first match (he lost to the same guy that beat Alex - who did end up winning the weight class)

Here is Little J down in the referees position....

Big Al starting off the match he ended up losing to the same boy who beat his brother.

It was an extremely loooooong day! I felt better knowing that Little J had won at least one match - so he was not discouraged enough to quit! Big Al ended up the day taking 4th place in the weight class... Little J took 5th... not bad out of 8 kids!

Saturday will be yet another match - this time a little further away in Wenatchee... hopefully - we will have some good news and better pictures to post!

The video is of Little J winning his match... the look of relief on his face in the end is classic!!

Swagbucks - I'm hooked!

I normally don't send mass emails to people when I sign up for a program or shop online.. but this one, well... In the month I have been signed up, I have earned $20 in gift cards by basically searching online (instead of google).
I don't get alot of emails from them - its easy and I get something back - something that I can use!

Give it a try - signing up is super easy - and when you sign up, I get a little bonus as well! :)

Click here to go to Swagbucks!

Mission completed and dancing with girls!

Big Al, who is in 5th grade has been working on a project for the last two months called Celebration of Cultures. It has been ALOT of work! He has had to not only do research on his own, do alot of writing and creative projects (neither are his strengths!), he has had to learn some new songs, put together a board about Ukraine, make a Legacy book, and learn to dance with girls!

The entire 5th grade sang many cultural songs from all over the world... I have to say that they sounded SO much better than any other concert! (maybe because its the last one I have to attend for him!)

Miss O escorted me to the event... she wanted to dress up, since she saw all the older girls dressed in skirts and dresses.. or at least I "think" that is why she wanted to dress up... maybe she just wanted to get into the box of clothes from Allie!

Big Al danced with his little sister after we watched the kids all do their jazz dancing!

Alex put together his country board... he has been studying Ukraine... he actually learned a few things and was able to put to use alot of the things we purchased on the last trip (2006). He was only one of a small handful of kids that were the only person in their group. Considering he has a really hard time with homework - this was a major feat for him... his teacher was amazed that he was able to pull it together! (so were we!)

Here is the video of his 5th grade class doing their dances (Big Al is in the blue shirt with khaki pants!) The best part was watching the facial expressions of the kids when they had to ask each other to dance... classic! Apparently - lots of cooties were exchanged!! hehe

Molly - feel free to high-jack the video!!

Our newest additions....

It's a bird... it's a plane.....???? Nope... its.......

BABY COWS!

Last Tuesday, I did something I was not sure I really ever wanted to do... but, its done! The kids and I picked out 2 calves to raise! Since we have handled the "eating the pig" thing from last year, we figured that this would be a good time! We have two adorable little Jersey bull-calves! One is about 37 days old, and the other around 45 days old. We are currently bottle-feeding them twice a day.. fun! Actually, it is sort of an arm workout - as they get a little pushy when really hungry! At this age, they are super cute! Hard to believe in 18 months they will be on the grill! We have yet to name them.

This one cow is a little more "friendly" than Miss O appreciated! He is a little "flirty"! He will need part of his "man-hood" taken care of shortly!

Little J was in charge of bottle feeding last night

Big Al did bottle feeding this morning

I hope that all the kiddos will enjoy this experience! The calves will be living in the pig pen for the next few weeks, until we get a seperate pasture set up - so the horses don't make kicking targets out of them! Next critter project will be our baby chicks that we will have at the end of March! What fun! (quick - someone do a sanity check on me!)

Wow - where has the time gone???

This last week has been really trying! So many things have been going on and we've been trying to keep some sort of "normalcy". (That IS funny - is there such a thing??)
With the hubby working in Seattle four days a week, that means 3+ of those days I am pretty much a single parent.... and the boys are starting to really figure out that my tolerance level is getting really low!! It makes me really thankful when the clock reads 7:45pm - because that means that it is brush your teeth and get ready for bed! Gotta love that! Unfortunately, #1 boy is still finding ways to make bed time a real challenge... though we are working on it... it makes things stressful! Boy #2 has real challenges the next day if he does not get his full amount of "beauty" sleep... which easily translates to my day becoming a real - not-so-beauty-ful day!

Here are some of our weekend activities!
Sunday afternoon - we had this really weird snow system move through... the flakes were truly the size of a CD... you can't see if very well in the picture... it was insane! Big Al was running around catching them - since he tends to get wrapped up in his activities - he only ran into one of the trees once! Little J and Miss O both enjoyed running around with this crazy snow! I have never seen such huge flakes!

Sunday morning, we went to the park and the kids rode their bikes on the access road... it was cold, but good for them to get out and burn more energy! Here is all three.

This was Miss O's very first biking outing! We thought that she would get tired after about 15 minutes - but no - she went the full hour with no complaining! She can really get going on her bike! She is very competitive when it comes to keeping up/beating her brothers!

Have a great Monday!

The last few days have been.....

I guess the word to describe the last couple of days has been... interesting. I could use alot of different words, but that one word sums it up!
Thursday night, I got the joy of taking Big Al to the ER, yet again! After talking to the pediatrician, it was highly advised to take him into the ER... and you are probably wondering "WHY?"... well... if your child had pee the color of purple grape juice, you'd be a bit concerned as well! Arghhhh! To sum up the four hour ER experience, it took the threat of pumping his stomach to get the necessary answer out of what caused the purple pee... that would be large quantities of CRAYONS. Lovely - another $800 for a visit to the ER... No real pain for him - but with his other issues, anytime we get something weird like that - it usually is an ER visit - since it is always conveniently happening after the dr's usual business hours! Another ARGH!
Friday - the boys have early release days at school, so they are home a bit earlier - which has its pro's and cons! Miss O does NOT get early release days - so she rides the bus home on those days. Of course, both boys had Valentines Parties at school... I think that they both gorged themselves on all the candy they could eat on the way home... as they are smart enough to know that I always take it from them when they get home and dole it out over a few days!
The hubby was nice enough to bring me flowers - something he rarely buys me... a nice Valentines present!
Today - The Hubby was in charge of Valentines for the kids - he did good as usual! I got a heart-shaped box of candy... which was nice! Call me petty - but I am REALLY choosy when it comes to candy - and these will probably get eaten by the kids!
Little J had a birthday party to go to at the pool... and there must be something in the water - because after each party he feels sick! I secretly think that he is drinking the pool water - enough to upset his stomach, that and all the candy from the last two days, cupcakes and probably an extreme overkill of sugar......Oh well - no one asked me - I'm the Mom! haha!
We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Happy Valentines Day!

My family.... by Miss O

Miss O created a family portrait... since she is only able to write her name and Papa's - the rest of us are creatively shaped! HA!

Pajama Day at Preschool!

Today, Miss O had Pajama Day at her school! She has been really excited about this for DAYS! She got to take her favorite critter as well! They served pancakes shaped like Mickey Mouse - so she was in Heaven!

More birthday fun!

This year we were a little belated in getting out the bithday invites from Little J's party... but never the less - he was happy! He had a few friends from school and family show up to his pool party on Saturday... it turned out pretty well - with the exception of the melting cupcakes! hehe!
Little J and his buddies from school - all three he has been in classes with since kindergarten!

A quick pic before the fun in the pool begins!

He got a pump up rocket/plane thing (Papa did the shopping this year!) and of course he had to try it out when there was no wind!

Little J enjoyed opening presents at home and of course the cards! Miss O had to be in EVERY picture - I think that she just loves birthdays in general -regardless of who is having the birthday!

And of course - we had our traditional Mexican dinner out on his actual birthday - had to wear the sombero and have fried ice cream! Happy 9th Birthday!!

The Birthday Boy!

Congratulations Little J!

Today marks his 9th Birthday! Hard to believe that this little bundle of joy used to weigh only 16 pounds and wore size 6 month clothes until he was almost 20 months old! He is 4 foot one and 58 pounds... It is amazing how things change! He is excited to have a family dinner at the traditional Mexican restaurant tonight and to have a birthday party at the pool on Saturday... He has had a pretty good year - so it is all well deserved! Happy Birthday to our little Dink!

We love you!

Wrestle-Mania.. starring Miss O

Little J has been able to attend the same wrestling practice that Big Al is at... good thing for me - that's one less day a week to taxi them both around! Miss O enjoys watching the practices - and seems to think that she has a future in wrestling too... take a look at the short video!

Spring - for now!

The last two days have been NICE... if you like waking up to 20's in the morning and highs of about 40-45 during the day! But, the sun has been shining - NO WIND.. and it is really nice to hang out outside and enjoy the fresh air!

The doggies have been frolicking more than usual in the sun!

Miss O has been enjoying playing some basketball with her brothers

Little J likes to show off some of his b-ball form! He can play b-ball for HOURS if you let him!

Big Al has been busy breaking the last of the Christmas toys he received!

Someone on a cute bright pink Barbie bike has been tearing up and down the asphalt on a regular basis!

Our bird feeder has remained really full of birdseed... I wonder WHY that would be??????

I hope that we have a few more days of this... it is a nice change!

The Groundhog

First of all... let me say how disappointed I am that when I checked on the computer this morning that there was not ONE thing said about the stupid furry critter that supposedly can predict weather! Since we are 3 hours behind when the ground hog does his thing.. you would think that we would have the news pronto - not at noon!
Honestly - the poor thing is probably poked and prodded until he does SOMETHING!


Oh well... regardless - spring won't be here until March - so I'm not worried about it anyhoo!