The Circle of Life

One Saturday afternoon my (Robin's) Uncle Ken called up to the house and asked if Jacob would like to come out and ride in the tractor and learn a little bit about the task Uncle Ken had before him.

With the MANURE SPREADER! That is right folks Uncle Ken (and Jacob) would take heaping scoops of poop out of the cows' coral and place them in this implement (trailer thing you hook to the back of a tracker). Then they would drive over to the field and Jacob would press a button and manure would spray all over the field as they drove up and down the rows.

Of course being an eight year old boy, Jacob first giggled when we explained what Uncle Ken was doing with the tractor in the coral. But to say he was excited to help is an understatement.

After an interesting lesson on the circle of life Jacob's final comment was, "No wonder you always wash our food!"

Our Bag Lady

Some of the cutest pictures are unposed and completely spontaneous. I can't believe how fast Jane is changing from my little baby girl to this adorable toddler full of smiles!

Jacob actually took these photos. He is really good at getting her to smile! She was just so busy carrying around her bags and playing her own little game.

What Little Kids Will Do When No one is Around to Interfere

Why do we spend hundreds of dollars each year on toys?

Meet the Rabbitsons

Meet Bolt,

Lady, and

Robert.

As part of cub scouts Jacob can pass off the skills he learns taking care of a pet. I promised him that Grandma's dog would be a great pet to learn to take care of, but before our arrival, Grandma's dog ran away. Luckily a sweet lady down the street raises bunnies, purely for enjoyment. She allowed us to "borrow" some bunnies for the duration of our stay so we could learn to care for animals. They really are very cute, and the best part is the ability I have to return them if the kids loose interest and stop taking care of them.

Unfortunately the day after I took these photos Robert and Bolt escaped! We found Bolt, but Robert seems to be long gone. Jacob is heart broken, but Sister King is happy to lend us another. Sweet Sister King! I will post pictures of a new bunny soon.

One good reason to wear shoes

While doing some training prior to my deployment, I was fortunate enough to be in northern Florida for a month. Since I love running so much, I decided to go for a run a couple of times on the beach while I was there. Not only is it a really good workout, the scenery was awesome. But the creatures that tended to float inland and get stuck in the sand was reason enough to at least run with shoes on, making it much harder as you slide and sink more. I survived, and luckily I never stepped on one of these guys while running the one day barefoot.

These two guys are little jellyfish that washed ashore. This little one was about the size of silver dollar, but its tentacle was about a foot and a half long. The body of the one below was about the size a fist. I saw about four smaller jellyfish and four larger ones within a quarter mile of my run. I then decided to run further inland so I wouldn't get hurt.

And lastly, this was the view from the hotel I was forced to stay in. Life in the Air Force is hard sometimes.

February Fun

Life here is very different for the kiddos. They were all very excited at the prospects of snow as we were coming here. To tell the truth though, Shreveport had more snow than we did in the month of February. None the less here are Emma, Jane and Benjamin sporting their new "snow" boots which have turned out to be fairly good for mud as well. Who would have guessed? It is colder here though and the girls are trying to get used to the idea of wearing leggings and pants instead of just dresses and skirts all the time.

Philip has decided that he likes the cows. It was like talking to Bambi the first time I took him out. First he shouted at the calves "Here Cows!!!" while holding out a rock for them to eat apparently. Then he started calling everything a cow. The cat in this picture didn't mind to much that Philip kept calling it a cow, but he too was not fond of the idea of eating a rock. To make the experience even more comical it seemed every calf in every corral RAN away from Philip. The poor guy. He just wanted to be friendly, but his volume does take a little to get used to. He is not discouraged, though. I here, "Look mommy! Cows!" everywhere we go now, but out here there are really cows everywhere and so most of the time he is right.

This little guy was just three days old when we went out to meet him. Philip really liked him.

This month I have to give kudos to Uncle Cliff. He said, "You buy it and I will build it" and so we bought. . .

and he built a wonderful swing-set/play-yard. Many many hours went into it and many hours have already come out of it.

Jane loves the swing, well they all do really.

And everyone loves the slide. Especially when Uncle Cliff goes down with you. This will be well loved for years after we leave. What an awesome effort from Uncle Cliff, Uncle Kenny, and even Jacob who found nuts and bolts and held boards, ect. Thanks Cliff for helping Jacob feel of worth.

Matthew is learning to smile this month. I can't believe he is at that stage already!

Uncle Cliff actually helped us get all settled. He was here for over two weeks and got everything situated from play yards outside to electronics and ceiling fans inside. All of the kids were sad when he left.

Grandma has a piano and everyone loves to hear her play. She has an, "everyone can play if you use just your fingers" rule. I love this rule! I love that they all want to play.

More smiles from our little Matthew. Grandma is good at getting smiles.

Here is the little bit of snow we did get this month. As you can see there is not much, but what a commotion it made. The kids played and played and it was melted and gone by noon, but it was a great morning!

Benjamin and Emma have become more connected than ever. They dance and play and I am glad they have each other.

It seems Jane wants to have that same connection with Matthew. She just loves to talk to him. She will actually push me away from him so that she can have HER chance to love and kiss him.

To think of her as a big sister is strange. She is still my "baby girl," and at least she still loves to snuggle! But she really is so good and soft with Matthew I feel she must remember him from before.

January Juggle

January came rolling in for all of us. Nato went back to work and we all spent a lot of time preparing for our journey to Idaho.

It seemed that Nato was not going to have as much time to help us at home as we thought, but after the wonderful amount of time we all had in December we could not complain about his duties calling him away.

Matthew got bigger and bigger this month. He seems to want to be long and tall like the rest of the clan.

As we struggled to say farewell to all of our friends we found ourselves bonding closer and closer as a family.

Everyone was excited for Jacob's first pinewood derby.

The food was, well, fast!

Jacob's pack in Louisiana.

Jacob receiving his latest gold and silver arrow points.

The races! Jacob's is the second from the left.

He got fourth overall in the Wolf Den!

Only a few days later we began the packing.

And the cleaning,

Soon it was time to go. . .

Our trip was very good. We had two days of airline travel instead of the planned one. But since it was a maintanence issue we were given a hotel room for the night in Dallas. The next morning we flew to Seattle and then on to Boise. The kids did great on the planes.

While in Seattle we had a FIVE HOUR LAYOVER. This sounds bad, but the kids had so much fun in this play area that it was really not bad at all.

They would run and play and then rest.

And then play again! It was really a great little place to hang out.

After we got in on Saturday we met lots of family waiting for us at Grandma Irving's house. We talked and talked and somehow the next morning we pulled ourselves out of bed and got to church. Nato blessed Matthew with the assistance of many wonderful family members.

These are the only few pictures we have of the proof of him being blessed. With all the travel and lack of sleep I (Robin) simply forgot to take pictures with everyone.

After our crazy weekend we tried to sit back and enjoy the last few moments of our month and our time all together.

Matthew is growing so long so fast, I will just have to work hard to keep photos of him updated for everyone.

Jane and Nato: Working on their debut!