T-ball

Nate just finished playing t-ball with his cousin, Will. 

 

He was pretty excited to start playing at the beginning of the season, but by the end, he wasn't very interested in playing.  It was really fun to see the kids play- on the first day on the way to practice I was trying to explain the rules to Nate.  I explained how when it was his turn he would hit the ball and then he would run to bases- 1st base, then 2nd base, then 3rd base, and then finally he would run home.  He starting chuckling and said, "Really, Mom?"  I was a little distracted so I repeated it, and he laughed some more, and said "really?"  I finally "got it" and explained that home base was another base, not home where we lived.   We all laughed at that.  So many times the kids would do something funny like hit the ball and then run after it, or run to the wrong base.  They quickly figured out the sliding into home base rule, and they made sure they did it every time.

Nate and Will

All the Mormon boys, Samuel, Nate, Will and Cooper. 

The last day I didn't wash Nate's pants before t-ball since tball was a couple of days before.  (I only do laundry once a week if I can help it).  He started talking about me washing his pants, and then he explained that I was never supposed to wash his pants so the stains from sliding into home would always be noticeable.  Apparently one of the other little boys explained that that was how it was supposed to go.  Cute boys!

A Lot of Work



People often ask us about having an additional property to the one we live on.  It sounds like a great idea- a way to get away from the concrete jungle, somewhere where the kids can play around.  Sometimes, however, it is just a lot of work. 

We recently got the house pretty much completely done- there are a few tiny projects that we can work on.  Now it seems like this would be the perfect time to go and just enjoy the land, spend the night in the house, and let the kids play all day.

 

Enter drought.  That was pretty bad on the trees, but we were able to cut down last year all of the trees that died.  We made a big fire and burned the logs.  This year, all of a sudden we started losing a lot of pine trees.  In all, we probably lost about 30.  We think it is due to the drought weakening the trees defenses, then the bugs came in and killed the trees off.  So, the part of our land that was pretty thickly forested, is no longer thickly forested.  First, we had to get someone to cut down the trees.  Joe could do a lot of them, but there were a couple that had broken off about 20 feet above ground and were leaning over.  Those were much to dangerous for Joe to cut down by himself. 

 

These first 3 pictures is the thickly forested area immediately after the men cut down the 25 trees.

Then Joe had to hire some young men in our ward to use his tractor and four-wheeler to haul logs away from the forest into a field to stack them up to burn.  That took the two boys 2 full 8 hour days.  Adam and Joe helped some too.

There were so many logs that they had to make two burn piles, both of which were quite massive.  This is pile one.

 

View farther back for reference.

This is pile two:

Pile 2 just starting to burn:

A couple of hours into burning pile one:

A little after the start of pile 2:

4-5 hours into burning pile 2.

The next day- what is left of pile 1.  It burned nicely. 

 

This is what is left of pile 2.  A week later, after two massive rain storms, there were still a couple of places where the ashes were still burning. 
 
 
 
 

Since we lost so many pines, we had to buy more to replace them. We mostly bought several types of oaks, but we also got some long leaf pines.  The plant sale we went to didn't have loplolly pines, which is what died, we will have to try to get some for next year.

Easter

We had several fun activities for Easter this year.  We actually went to the ward Easter party this year, I think this is the first time ever.  I think it is probably because I am part of the ward council and I heard about the planning of it, so I thought I better help support it.  Plus the young women were in charge of some activities, so I wanted to help/ make sure that went well.  Honestly, though, I didn't help the young women, they had it all under control and they did a great job.  

 

The kids all got their faces painted  Even though it looks like a basketball, that is an orange egg.

 Then they got to hunt Easter eggs.  They did it by age, the youngest went first and were each allowed to gather 12 eggs.  They had us each bring 12 eggs, then we could each go home with 12 eggs.

 By the end, there were still a lot of eggs out there- several families brought a few extra, so some kids went back to get more.  Of my family, Michael went back and got so many eggs, that his basket was overflowing.

On Easter, the Easter Bunny came.  Last year, the Easter bunny hid all the baskets throughout the house.  The night before Easter, the kids all left notes for the Easter bunny, asking him to hide their baskets, so the Easter bunny did.  Problem is, the Easter bunny hid some downstairs and the kids didn't look until I suggested they look downstairs.  Nate's was hidden in the fireplace.

The kids felt miffed that they didn't get to do another easter egg hunt, even though the Easter bunny did hide eggs around the house, so just yesterday, I got a couple bags of candy and let them fill plastic eggs and hide them and then find them.  (And yes, that is an empty toilet box in the background, we finally decided to replace the old toilet in the house, and boy am I happy about it. Now to dispose of the old toilet, anyone want it as a lawn ornament?  Didn't think so.)

 Adam filled a few eggs, then decided he didn't want to do it.  Instead, whenever he wanted a candy, he put it in an egg, ran to the nearest tree, set it down and then pretended to find it.  He kept that charade up for 2 days until the candy ran out.

We didn't get to dying eggs.  I haven't done this with the kids for a couple of years and I actually feel a little guilt about it.  Oh well, maybe next year.  I still have the egg dying kit I bought on clearance after easter 2 years ago....

Bluebonnets 2013

Camping

Since Joe got Good Friday off, we decided to spend the extra long weekend at our land.  We went up Thursday night and stayed in the house.  Joe got up on Friday and started two huge bonfires, the pictures belong in a different post so I will tell more on that later.  Then on Friday, we invited a bunch of friends up to camp with us.  It was fun, but it did get to be a little crazy with so many people running around, and riding the 4-wheelers.  Maybe next time we will do it, but not run the 4-wheelers.

 

Recently, Adam told Joe he wanted a mini-dirt bike/motorcycle.  It was only a few days later and he got this. Both Adam and Michael ride it really well.

 Joe also recently got a new tractor upgrade.  He had bought a new tractor about a year, or maybe it was two years ago that was an upgrade from his first one.  Then he bought a backhoe to put on it, but after having it sit there for a year, he finally figured out that they wouldn't work together.  In the meantime he bought another little tractor and sold that too, so at this point, we are pretty tired of "new" tractors and their implements.  He bought this one because the backhoe was already attached.  I think it is a little bigger than the last one, but really, I can't tell.  (I'm pretty sure he can't tell either).

 Joe in his element, doesn't he look good?

The kids also had fun riding the zipline.  Its funny, it never gets used when we don't have other people there, but when we do it gets used non-stop.

 Michael found these caterpillars.  I don't know what they were doing.  Every once in a while a few would put their heads up and then move them in sync to a beat.  It was strange.

 This was our tent.  Nate didn't want to pose for a picture.

We camped with everyone else, but at 2 am I wasn't sleeping well, and I had been tossing and turning for the last hour.  I finally thought, "Why am I still laying here?" and went and crawled into my bed in the house.  A couple of hours later, Joe comes in the bedroom, turns the light on and says, "Oh sorry."  I asked him what he was doing, and he came in and said he thought I was someone else.  He then slept in the bed too.  The kids were none the wiser for the lack of parents for a few hours.