500th Blog Post

Today marks my 500th blog post!!!  I thought it would be fun to do a contest!! For everyone who comments on this post I will enter your name in a draw to win a dozen cupcakes of your choice!!!

With calving upon us there is not much to report other than calving!!  For the 8-10 year olds at church they have activity days once a month.  This month their leader wondered if they could come out and look at the new calves and learn about what it takes to look after them!  Calum was excited to have the boys come out, and I even thought he'd be braver around the cows because of the boys coming.  But alas, he stayed in the Jimmy and watched from the open window!!

When Vance and Sister Jackson got to our house Jared told them he would go ahead and catch a calf, hopefully a new one, in the calf catcher and we would ride behind in the Jimmy and get out into the calf catcher once the little guy was inside!  All went according to plan and we were able to tag a new little calf!  A cute little heifer!!  Vance was even able to have her suck on his thumb.  They pet her all while Jared tagged and recorded in the book!!  The mother was nice and calm and would come up the cage every so often to make sure all was well with her baby!  It went over really well with the boys, and they were able to learn lots and see what it's like to be on a farm!  They even saw a dead calf who had for some unknown reason died earlier that day.  Janice was able to tie in a message and a scripture about being kind to animals.  We had Popsicles on the front porch before they had to leave!  A great learning experience for them.

I was able to get a great picture one windy day of one of our cows who has horns!  She is so funny looking she's actually cute!!! 

We are in full spring mode now that the snow has finally melted.  Calves are coming, grass is greening up and the days are longer!!  With these longer days Jared and I and sometimes Armin and Emry have been walking at night!  Just as the sun sets!!  Makes for some gorgeous pictures!  Jared has been carrying his .22 on our walks because we came across a skunk one night!  Sadly, no sign of it since that one night!!  Or maybe it's thankfully!!!  Jared really wants to shoot it though, he shot one already this year, we seem to be over run with them in our area!

The kids are getting ready to start coach pitch and golf.  And they are all excited!  There are only 2 months of school left, it goes so fast, faster now that they are all in school full time!!  But I wouldn't change this time of my life for anything!  Well, maybe the state of my house, but that will change all too soon!  Emry turns 14 next week and is studying like mad for her learner's license!  She'll be able to go to the Church Youth Conference next month too.  How did my precious little girl get so big?

Life isn't slowing down at all.  I'm enjoying every minute and savoring the time I have with my kids while it lasts!