Rock Creek

We love free stuff. We also love getting out and doing things together. How often do these two things mesh? Not often enough. But we have stumbled upon an awesome place for a fun day trip with the kids, Rock Creek! I don't know how Patrick found it, but it's a fairly secluded creek off of the Feather River only about 40 minutes from our house. It's a beautiful place full of giant boulders, waterfalls, frigid swimming holes, and hidden nooks filled with mossy coolness. The best part? It's free! We take a picnic lunch and spend the whole day there, the kids and the dogs love it. Here are some pics from our most recent trip.

We're Home!

We went on trip last week to visit Patrick's parents down in Southern California. We had a blast! Patrick was unable to go since he had to work, so I just took the three older girls while my mom helped watch the younger two when Patrick was at work. It was so bizarre to have only three kids! And now that they're 13, 11, and 9 they are able to take care of themselves, well, with a little reminding that is!

We helped Grammie with some projects, visited a yummy bakery which has a show on TLC called The Bakery Bunch, went to a thrift store and bought some dresses, went to see the new movie Sorcerers Apprentice, spent an afternoon at the beach, and visited Patrick's grandmother Mammy. Of course we also sat around watching a lot of T.V. and eating way too much junk food! On the whole we had a wonderful time!

There was a sad, sad, tragedy here at home while we were gone though. One day when Patrick went to work one of the baby goats, Flora, got out and the dogs got to her. They must have played with her to death because there was no open wounds or blood. They probably shook her like they do when they catch a chicken. I don't blame the dogs, they were following their instincts, unfortunately.

That said, here are some pics of our trip:

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Anniversary Honey Love

 Happy Anniversary Sweetheart! I love you so much more now, 14 years into the marriage, then I ever have. And you're still the handsomest man I know! I'm so grateful to the Lord for giving you to me to spend my whole life with. I love you Honey :)

Baby Goats!

Our goat Daisy had babies! Well, she did a couple weeks ago. But I couldn't let the chance to blog about them slip away. They are just SO darn cute with their long airplane ears! I spared you the gory pics  ;)

1st baby- Flora

 

 

 

Kinda wobbly.

2nd baby- Fauna

I found it!

Two pretty little girls.

Piggy back.

Patient momma.

Laundry Room Renovation, pt. 1

Here are 8 things I've learned during the past couple of days as I've been renovating my laundry room:

1. Old duct tape on a scary looking outlet is there for a reason. Leave well enough alone or you will be shocked. Really.

2. Rats can chew through thick stucco. Apparently they love to line their holes with old dishcloths as well, (mystery solved.)

3. Sometimes it's better to leave rotting drywall alone as well. Otherwise you will keep making the hole bigger in an attempt to patch it.

4. Spackle covers a multitude of sins. It's pretty much my best friend.

5. Measure 2-3 times, cut 5-6 times. (See #4)

6. New paint makes a HUGE difference.

7. Unattended orphans gravitate towards water, especially the muddy kind underneath the trampoline.

8. I didn't need that pig off of Freecycle after all.

8th Grade Graduation

Yep, my baby is now in High School. I'm not sure that it's sunk in yet. Yes I feel older, but somehow disconnected from it at the same time. Sometime in the next couple of weeks we need to sit down and chart out what classes she wants to take over the next four years to make sure she gets all her credits done, then order the curriculum. I'm not too worried about it, the teaching and all. She is very independent that way and can pretty much teach herself without me hanging over her shoulder the whole time. What a blessing to have an oldest child like this! If she needed a lot of hand-holding I don't know what I'd do, I'm just not that kind of mom (sorry girls! ;) After she graduates she wants to go to culinary school which suits me just fine! She can live at home for as long as she likes!
I love my daughter, she is so extremely helpful around the house and with her sisters. It's like having a live-in cook and nanny, for free! (Well, as long as I throw some book money her way now and then ;) Congratulations Moriah, you're one special girl!

I'm an Auntie! Again!

Introducing.... Baxter! Yes I'm a week late, but better late than never ;) Isn't he adorable? I think I have the cutest nephew in the world!

Better Late Than Never

I know ya'll have been on the edge of your seats since we've gotten back, waiting to hear about all the excitement. So here's some pics of our vacation to Southern California, (Orange County). We try to go every year to visit Grammie and Grumpy, and so Patrick can go to the Shepherd's conference. It's about a 9 hour drive normally, 10 if we have to stop frequently for the kids to go potty, or 8 if we drive at night and drug the kids with Dramamine (our preferred method).

First we went to the La Brea Tar Pits. It was a lot of fun and we got to see some of the bones they recently found.











Tar












Prehistoric Horse (see happy Faith?)











Mammoth














Dire Wolves (lots of them)












Trying to sit on the Giant Sloth














Success!












Cute Pic

















Then we went to the beach.










It was a little nippy, but still swimable.
















We had a couple birthdays (Moriah's now 12, and Lily's now 7), visited with Mammy, and did some shopping too.













On our way back home we stopped to visit our friends the Carrells for a couple days.















We had so much fun but were completely exhausted when we got home!

Picture Time

Hello there! It's been a while, again. After several calls to AT&T, and a repairman coming out to our house, we finally learned that it was our modem which was bad. Of course it was too old to be covered by warranty so we had to buy a new one. I'm not complaining though, we are actually able to get on the internet whenever we want now and it works fast! :))

What I've been wanting to share was our Christmas pictures I took of the kids in the park. I've never been a fan of professional picture taking places. #1- We could never afford them, they're too expensive! #2- They don't always come out great. And #3- I try to avoid dressing, polishing, then dragging my five kids through crowded stores, not just during holiday time, but ever!

Now, I've always used a 35mm which I LOVE. For years I steered clear of the digital cameras. Whenever my friends would give us pics of their families using a digital camera, the quality was never good and the picture would fade quickly. The problem with my 35mm though was that it was too big and bulky to carry around with me, you couldn't see the picture after it was taken to determine if you needed to redo the shot or not, the film is $5 a pop and to develop it was another $5. And when you have to develop the whole roll, you end up developing unwanted pictures which end up in the garbage. I take alot of pictures so it was getting way too costly.

So I finally broke down and bought a digital camera. I figured technology is better now than it was 10 years ago. I'm happy! I can throw it in my purse to always have on hand, don't have a drawer full of film that needs to be developed anymore, and I get to pick and choose the best pics that I want developed. I can store the pics on my computer and can e-mail them to family (as soon as I figure out how to do it!). But the best thing of all is that a photo editing program came with our computer that lets me crop and enhance the pictures I take, for free! Then I can e-mail the pics to a photo developing place and they'll send me the prints in the mail. I only have the good ones printed. This new way of doing pictures is WAY more time and money efficient than before! I have yet to get the prints in the mail, so we'll have to wait and see about quality, but the pics do look great on the computer (but NOT when on the yellow blog background, sorry). Have a look!