Happy Birthday!!

This charming girl is turning six today!!!

Even at a early age, Phoebe loved chocolate!!

The sweetest little flower-girl ever!!!

Happy 6th Birthday, Phoebe Joy!!!

We Love You!!

Happy Birthday!!

This little guy has a birthday today!!

Grinning and Growing!!

Noah's chicken interests started when he was still young.

Growing yummy vegetables for the family!!


Getting taller each year!!

Happy 17th Birthday, Noah!!

We Love You!!

Washing the Bus.

Last Saturday the girls tackled the project of washing our bus.

During these dusty summer months it doesn't take long to get the bus pretty filthy!!! Plenty of water and elbow grease!

Looking better already!!!

Phoebe gives me a grin as she washes windows!!!

Happy Birthday!!!

This little sweetheart has a birthday today!!!

Just look at that smile!!!

A great big sister!!!

Happy 24th Birthday, Lydia!!

We Love You!!

Uncle Tom & Aunt Barb's.

This past week-end Dad's step-sister and her husband invited our family to spend the the week-end with them on the lake they live on in Lincoln, NE. We had a wonderful time!! Uncle Tom and Aunt Barb were so gracious and made us feel right at home. We all enjoyed the two days we spent with them and the time spent in the water.

Tabitha, Noah and Esther waiting for their next turn on the tube!!

Seth capturing many memories on the video camera!!

Seth and Esther on the wave-runner.

Boat rides are fun!!

Moses enjoying the gentle waves in the water.

Aunt Barb and Mom headed out on the wave-runner!

Dad and Esther at the front of the boat (it was a little windy, right Esther??)!!

What a wonderful time we had at the Lake!! Thanks for having us Uncle Tom and Aunt Barb!! Come see us sometime soon!!!

Tubing!!

Saturday afternoon was spent taking turns on the tube. None of us had ever been tubing before so it was a special treat!!! It was a beautiful day to be on the lake and we all enjoyed it immensely!!

Uncle Tom drove the boat, and managed to knock several people off the tube into the water!!

Daddy!!

Mommy!!

Seth.

Esther cheered the loudest when Seth slipped off the tube, and received her just rewards when only a few short moments into her turn, Uncle Tom successfully flipped her off the tube.

Noah braved the trail for us all and went first.

Despite our best efforts, we couldn't get him to fall off!!

Elizabeth.

Tabitha takes the prize for holding on under to most pressure. At one point the tube hit the wave just right and flew through the air several feet above the water! She managed to hold on even after the tube smacked the water and hit several waves!!

Moses.

Micah.

Charity was our youngest to tube, and she held on the whole time!!

Water Skiing......

Late Sunday morning we once again loaded up in the boat and headed out to that lake to do some water skiing. It was still pretty cool out and the breeze off the lake could make a person a little chilly if they were wet! :)

Our terrific boat driver, Aunt Barb!!

Dad, our skiing expert made it around the lake many times, but ran into a little trouble when he tried to drop a ski.........:)

Seth made it up the very first try, and stayed up!!

Esther tried many times and though she made it up many times, she couldn't keep her balance and plunged right back into the lake.

Esther's one last try....ends in a splash.

Chicken Butchering.....

Last Thursday marked the beginning of the chicken butchering season. We spent two days butchering, the first day skinning 50 birds. It was a bright, sunny day and as a result of working in direct sunlight, the workers got extremely sunburnt. Arms and faces glowed bright red for several days. The second day started much later, and we only managed to butcher 30 birds. Plucking by hand slowed things up a bit, so it was decided to ask Scott to bring over the plucker to speed things up. On Thursday of this week we got back to work and got 120 birds done in about 5 1/2 hours.

Noah had the dirtiest job of us all, cutting the heads off.

Esther is the most vital person in our operation. We always knew she could gut birds fast, but actually timed her this time and found she could gut a bird in 48 seconds. Pretty good, huh?

Scott's Terrific Plucker at Work!!!

Tabitha does a fantastic job wrapping the birds up for us.
We are grateful that she is so good at it because none of the rest of us can do it well!

Clean-up.....

It's a wonderful feeling to go from here........

......to here!!!!

There is only one pen of birds left. Because we lost an entire pen (120 birds) to a wild animal over night our butchering has been cut in half. The remaining 75 birds need about 7-10 days more and then we'll be done butchering this Spring!!

Happy Birthday!!!

This little man is celebrating today!!

Run on over here and wish him Happy Birthday!!!

We Love You, Scott!!