June 4 - Zorro and the Farm Animals

Gabe has been doing lots of dress up lately, today Zorro joined us for chores. It was such a beautiful morning and all the animals were out and about so I brought the camera down with me. And well I did.

We have six panels that we make into two triangles and we tie the horses to them to graze every spring and summer. This year, however, we have another addition, Banner, that couldn't be tied up yet. Dad really doesn't want Banner running free, so Libby is kept in the pen with Banner until we figure out another plan. The boys still set up the panels for a jungle gym. 

For the English Shepherd club that we are a part of to sell puppies, they are putting out a calender, so we took some pictures of the dogs this morning for that.

Aleric.

Pretty little Quincy.

Family Photo. Aleric, Quincy, and Val (Who now lives in Oklahoma on a farm and is doing well)

I love this picture.

When Banner was born Libby was very aggressive toward Ginny (the cow), but now that Banner is much older, Ginny and Banner love to play together.

A beautiful picture of the Texas morning sky, By Garrett.

Every since we got Aleric he has loved to do agility things, and the other day I realized that he was getting into the calf pen with the gate closed. When I realized that he was jumping the fence I decided to make the most of it and train him to do it on command.

Rusty has finally lost his winter coat so he just glows, a perfect steed for Zorro. 

This is Garrett's idea of obedience training. 

Quincy doesn't think that is a great idea.

All our male shepherd dogs.

The sun did so much to Libby and Banner's coat that I had to take some pictures.

Everyone loves Val.

Such beautiful mornings, this is another reason that we love Texas!

June 2 - Welcome Aboard the USS Basket

We had ordered some turkey pullets some guineas keets from some friends of ours. For the first several days we kept the guineas in the house, which worked fine. They needed no light because it was really warm, it made it easier to watch them, and they made great submarine radar. Yes I said "submarine radar", they were really loud! Shea, Garrett, and Gabe decided to make the most of it, so they built a sub out of our furniture and some blankets. 

This hung right over the door, opps sorry, the hatch.

Music stands were the support beams.

The hatch in to the sub. You see that basket on the top of the sub? That is the reason for the name, also that is the para-scope. 

The keets sounded just like radar, so the boys put that to good use. Whenever the keets decided to quiet down (finally) the boys would do something with them (like walk by) to set them off again.

The inside of the para-scope.

A control panel.

The galley.

The radar room.

Another control panel.

They had a lot of fun with this new adventure. For two days whenever you came into the house you could here commands to "flood the torpedo tubes" or "up para-scope"' or "dive, dive,dive!"

June 1 - Molly's Birthday Party

Today we are celebrating our monthly family night, and so we are also celebrating the 9th year of a sweet little girl. Happy birthday Molly!!!! Molly received a beautiful tea set for her birthday, so she wanted to have an all girls tea party. 

Molly proved to be a wonderful hostest.

May Creations

We have had a wonderful spring with lots of mind spring cleaning. All sorts of creations happened this month.

Tow truck built by the three younger boys.

For a very good friend's 9th Birthday party, Janessa made this beautiful cake.

 Ever since Gabe and Kacy started human body they have also been working on a project that will be finished as soon as they finish this curriculum. It will be a surprise so you will have to keep watching the month creations to find out what it is.  They are refashioning all sorts of different clothes to finish this project. Things that are too small, too big, too old, ugly, or ridiculous.

A pink t-shirt to make the leg and arm muscles. 

White denim of an old shirt for all the bones. 

Red t-shirt for the diaphram.

A really faded t-shirt for the intestines.

Red velvet that is a fun kind of material, but too small to make much to make the heart.

Brown velvet from a business coat from the early nineties for the kidneys. 

Gabe really wanted some kind of camo in the project (I guess that's only natural), so that became the liver.

 Garrett figured out how to make little RC cars and planes, so he made quite a few along with a truck to carry them.

Some racing vehicles that the boys made. Which one do you like better?

 With all the human body stuff that has been happening, Shea and Garrett wanted to see if they could make a human body of themselves. So they took turns laying down on some news print paper while the other on traced around them. Then they drew and cut out the organs and labeled them.

Shea's body.

Garrett's body.

May 30 - Last Truck Drive

Some really good friends of ours, the Hensons, have offered dad a job in construction. It offers him more time with his family and they will let Zach go into work with dad every day. So dad turned in his two-week notice for the trucking job. Today the family went with him to take back his truck. We all took turn riding with him.

 Before we left we got a family picture with him. Its like the end of another stage in our life and the beginning of a new one.

 We wouldn't have traded this part of our lives for anything. We have learned so much of the oil field and to be flexible with dad's schedule. But we are so glad to enter a new stage and are looking forward to what God has in store for us.