Happy 8th Max!

It is Great To Be Eight!We love this kid!

In our family it is a right of passage that when you turn eight, you get a pocketknife and scriptures.
Look at that grin.

The requested cake

Finally!! A bike that is not pink! that fits him!

He was so excited!

{Raspberries}

I think bottled fruit is so pretty!

Slowly my food storage room is starting to look not so bare!

Many Pines Camp 2011

Our first camping trip of the year
Was it a disaster?
We headed out Friday at 1:00 pm to Dry Wolf Campground. But the campground had been washed out and wasn't open...information that would have been useful before we left...we searched for somewhere else, but there was no where that had water, a vital element I would dare say. So we headed toward Crystal Lake, another hour away...good thing we stopped for gas in Stanford where we learned that the bridge to Crystal Lake was out. We decided that we needed to head back toward Neihart, and ended up at Many Pines Campground at 5:30pm. Funny thing is that Many Pines Campground is only and hour from our house. Or maybe it wasn't so funny. But we got there and tried to get the campfire going so we could cook our dinner but...there were no matches. Ryan was determined that we start it with flint and steel, and that I not borrow matches. After trying with flint and steel and getting smoltering embers a few times, he went off to find dry stuff and I snuck over and asked the neighbors for some matches. When he got back there was a huge fire going. My intent was to tell him we started it with flint and steel, but the first words out of his mouth were "you borrowed matches huh?" He knows me too well. But the kids were hungry!

Look how big she is getting...sittin in her own chair!

Brotherly Love?

While I was getting dinner, Sam and Ryan set up tents. Our tent had a broken pole. Good thing there were trees we could tie it to !

Emma Posing! Of course.

Sleeping in the tent...

snug as a bug...

So glad we perservered! We stopped at Belt Creek on the way home and played in the water. I love camping!

{Hatched}

There has been a chicken sitting on her eggs all Summer long. She patiently sat and sat and sat, and just when I thought the chicks should be hatching anytime, something got them and destroyed the eggs. So sad, but she just laid some more and sat and sat and sat some more. Finallly they Hatched!

Three of them, but one didn't make it, there are now two tiny chicks wandering around with their mother in our barn. It is so cute to see how protective she is of them. The other chickens don't even mess with her or her chicks...You know how we mother's can be when it comes to our children.

Mojito the Kitty Cat

Miya was barking at something that had gotten up under our truck. I ignored it and figured whatever it was it would just go away. But the next morning, the kids found two kittys. The one was so tame that she just let me pick her right up. We got her all fixed up in the tack room, and hopefully she will kill all the mice that seem to be able to get into everything and make such a mess. Mara loves loves loves the kitty. She is in charge of her now! She is so excited that she now has an animal to take care of just like all the boys. Let's hope she finds it enjoyable for a long time.

As a side note, It is amazing how many times I think it would be really nice if I could find this , or get that, or think I really need that and it finds a way to me. So grateful for those small little blessings in my life...this kitty is one of them. Oh how a farm needs a cat to control the mice. I hope she is a good mouser now!

Sun Pickles

The Hutterites make sun pickles that require no cold packing. I made them last year and they were so good! They stayed crunchy. So were trying them again. You just make your brine, get your jars really hot (take them out of the dishwasher just after they have been on the dry cycle, or fill them with really hot water and dump the water out just before packing them with cucumbers.) Fill your hot jar with one clove garlic, dill and cucumbers. Fill with brine that is boiling hot and put on you lid that is hot with the ring. Set them in the sun for three days. They seal and unseal many times over the three days, that is okay, after three days they will all be sealed, put them on your shelf. So easy!

Montana State Fair 2011

Belt Creek With Harris' and Rowe's

Mara and Parker

Caleb and Cade...

Sam in a floaty!...

Matt and Emma...

Noah, Emma, Matt...

Caleb on the rope swing...the newspaper was there taking pictures of the kids. It was about 100 degrees that day, so glad we were at the creek.

Sam...

Matt and Noah...Lord of the Flies...please no!

The mighty crew returning from across the river. They had so much fun...

Everyone Has to Learn Sometime...{Caleb}

It's that time...time for Caleb to learn to mow. So with a little instruction, off he went.
I tried to capture with the camera how crooked the lines are and all the ",mohawks" he left...

The older boys were making fun of him, but I seem to remember when they were learning and the "mohawks" they left. We all have to learn sometime. I love him for learning! Now we have three boys and two lawnmowers to mow our many acres...who needs a riding lawn mower?

Raspberries for dinner

We went to Thuerber's last night to pick raspberries, they were so good we ate as many as we picked. We spent two hours there, when we got home, it was 8:00pm and by the time we got chores done it was 9. So we ate dinner at 9 o'clock at night...that goes right along with the ice cream we had for lunch the other day! and the veggies we had all day at the beach. I love Summer!