Sheep dog Festival

I'm not sure why I'm even posting this because I don't have any pictures of the actual festival or any dogs.

But we DID watch the sheep dogs work their magic and round up, then separate and lock in their sheep. Its amazing to watch.

We also watched dogs jump into water and boy, can those dogs catch some air. 

There was a tent with a petting zoo that also did animal demonstrations. The kids loved that and because that's what they were most excited about, that's what I took pictures of. 

Big Rabbit

Skunk - so soft!

This bird of prey (hawk, eagle, falcon?) flew out of the trainer's hand unplanned and landed on the chair next to Parker. He was surprised and a little nervous. :)

On the way home, we stopped by the home where my grandma and grandpa Dewey used to live in Orem. I lived here with them when I met and was dating Sterling. I took a picture and sent it to all my siblings. 

New critters around here

The rabbits had bunnies. It is so exciting to see these new little babies from the very beginning!

I ordered butterfly larvae and that was fun to see them grow their way into cocoons and eventually butterflies.

I also got ladybug larvae. Our garden really needs them and they hatched at exactly the right time.

A very unexpected, uninvited guest, were two snakes!

Baby Congo

The kids were so excited to get a new baby kitty. 

They named her Congo.

We've had a lot of fun playing with her. The girls worked a long while on Saturday building a house for Congo. And it's a good thing because we've had real cold weather, including snow! Poor kitty.

Congo gets pretty tuckered out playing with all the kids and often needs a nap.

One of his favorite places to sleep is with Sterling.

June stuff

The kids talked me into going swimming. It was hot and we were bored and I didn't want them in front of a screen. So off we went and they had the BEST time playing together. They don't always play well together at the pool but this day they did!

I tried my hand at a new crochet craft. They are called 'lovies'. Like a blanket/stuffed animal. The doggie is for Tom's new baby, Luke. And the penguin was just for fun. Its floating around the house, somewhere. :)

Parker spent a week at scout camp. It rained, it snowed, it was sunny. He describes it as living through all four seasons in one week. This was his last scout camp and is soooo happy to have this phase of life OVER! He enjoys camping and scouting but there is a big behavioral and interest difference in the new 12 year old scouts and almost 14 year old Parker. Its just time to move on. Plain and simple. And he is READY!

Bryce said, "I wanted to draw a dolphin and ended up drawing a 3-D car. 

When we came back from our Idaho trip to Coeur d"Alene, we found this snake skin in our yard under our peach trees. Glad that visitor came and hopefully left while we were gone!

May stuff

The middle of April, we got new chickens.

So we put our old chickens (3 yrs old) on the classifieds for free-

-to make room for 9 new chicks.

In May, we put the chicks out in the coop. They like it a lot better out there. But it is not even close to the joy I feel not having them in my house anymore!

In the chicken picture you may notice cousin Cooper! I was lucky enough to babysit Cooper, Milo and Coleman while Sarah and Dallin took an overnight trip. Saturday turned out to be quite eventful. 

Yes, the chickens went into the coop. 

Also, Sydney had MORP! 

And then, just as Sydney was coming home to get ready for her dinner date and the boys were ready to go to their home, I sliced my finger on a very dirty metal chicken feeder. 

I rushed to the Instacare and got 6 stitches, just in time to throw a messy dinner together and leave for a book signing. Whew!

So the book signing was fun. Mostly just us authors and a few family members who had already purchased books. So there were no sales. But it was fun to be together and read an excerpt from our stories.

I was first and I completely forgot to even introduce myself and went right into reading my story. All the authors after me introduced themselves, talked about the genesis of their story and read a longer excerpt. That was kind of embarrassing but I learned a lot so I guess that's good. (And thank you mom for coming to support me!)

Bryce left this note on my bed. It is soccer season right now and most of his friends are playing on teams. We usually don't start sports or lessons until 2nd grade. But he really wanted to play soccer. He informed me that he plays World Cup every recess and he knows all the rules and all the good plays.

For teacher appreciation week, I totally dropped the ball. I had an idea to make crochet bookmarks just for fun and thought, "Hey! Why don't I make them for the teachers?" They only take 15 minutes to make. So the morning of the last day of teacher appreciation week, we put together these little cards and they turned out awesome. I was pretty proud of myself for the pun. 

Book Mark my word. 

You are the GREATEST!

And then Rachel translated it for the spanish teachers. That makes me so proud!

LDS Storymakers Conference was May 11-13. I really enjoy going to this conference but oh my, I was on the biggest roller coaster. Thursday workshop I felt like the worst writer. Thursday afternoon I had some great ideas and knew how to fix everything. Friday, I decided I was finished writing. Saturday, I was totally motivated. I know I'm not the only one and most likely, every writer or the majority of writers feel this way. 

And every year I wish I had taken pictures. And I didn't. It was so fun to see Amy Wilson from CO again. We had the nicest dinner (with Tanya) on Friday night on Provo's center street. 

But this is the only picture I got. This is Nikki Trionfo, the ring-leader of the social side of Storymakers! 

She also published a book this year, "Shatter." I reviewed it on my Bookworm Wednesday blog. Its a great book and she's a great person. 

We had our end of year piano recital. It turned out great. Short and sweet at 30 minutes. 

Camille and Rachel talked me into doing Performing Arts Camp again this year. Yikes. One week to prepare! And notice the typo?!?!? 9:30am-11:00PM. What?!?!?!

We had some visitors on the front lawn. Ducks! They reside in the canal that runs through the subdivision and raise a family there every year. But they've never ventured this far from home before. 

Animal day at the office

Farm Bureau sponsored SeaWorld Day at work. They spent a little time talking about the park and their conservation efforts. Then they introduced us to several animals they brought with them. Bryce and I enjoyed it quite a lot!

Porcupine, which we learned does not eject its pokey quills, but they do come out easily when a predator goes in for the attack. This cute little porcupine paraded up and down the aisles of chairs on his leash.

Forgot the name of this little bird, but isn't it beautiful?

This is a lemur, I think. So, so cute and very friendly!

Sterling's co-worker, A.J., got in on the action.


Kangaroo. It didn't take long to realize the strength in those legs!