Last Dance Competition for the School Year

Abigail had her last dance competition for the school year yesterday. I think they did pretty well for 3-5 year olds.
They were awarded "Best Execution" for their age group.

What little cuties!

Idaho Dance Fest

Chicken Rodeo

Yesterday after church and our lunch of egg salad sandwiches, we went outside to play. We noticed that the door to the chicken coop was open, so we went over to the coop only to discover that the chickens had escaped and were underneath the chicken coop with no intentions of coming out. We tried scaring them out, but when they would come out they would see Darin and run right back under the coop. After this experience, I am pretty convinced that chickens (not cheetahs) are the fastest creatures in the world. We tried for 2 hours to catch our chickens and we could not catch a single one. Finally, we got our dog Albert to run underneath the chicken coop to scare the chickens out, a risky move, but it worked. Now the chickens were running around in six different directions scared to death that they were going to become Albert's Easter dinner. Darin grabbed a box and would tell Albert to "go get that chicken" and Albert would chase it in Darin's direction and Darin would then tackle the chicken with the box. They did this six different times. What a work out for Darin and Albert! Once the ordeal was over and Darin caught his breath, he gave Albert some serious props for helping round up the chickens. There are no words to describe how funny this was. I know if I had caught this on video we would win some serious cash from America's Funniest Home Videos.

Easter

Abigail is proud of the eggs she colored. She got a little carried away with the paint and decided to paint her face too.
I quickly washed it off so her face wouldn't be purple for church.

The Easter Bunny came and hid eggs in our upstairs this year.

My favorite people in the whole world before church in their Easter best. It was windy outside so they were a bit cold for the photo shoot.

2009 Annual Rockland Easter Egg Hunt

This was the twins first time doing an easter egg hunt. They were really excited to be carrying around a basket, but they weren't so sure what to do with their basket. First they started collecting rocks, then they saw that the other kids were getting eggs, so they decided they should get some eggs too. Emily got to her first piece of candy, opened the wrapper and then sat down in the grass to enjoy while other kids were running around her like crazy. Elizabeth decided that the basket was too much of a hassel and that it was slowing her down, so she ditched her basket and got what ever she could put in her two hands.

Abigail is a pro at this Easter Egg Hunt thing and she raked it in big time. She and some friends traded candy after the hunt.

Our Newest Family Members

Darin went to the Burley Livestock Auction on Thursday and purchased 6 steers. He plans on raising them all summer and selling them sometime around Thanksgiving and hopes to make a profit.

Concert Pianist

Abigail has been taking piano lessons from me for about 6 weeks. So far, it is working out okay. I have been able to keep my patience and Abigail actually listens to me during her piano lesson. Last night, Abigail decided to put on a concert for Grand Nan. She got some music flash cards and called them "tickets" and charged $0.25 admission. Pretty funny, and not too shabby for a 4 year old.

Playing Dress-up

Abigial LOVES to play dress-up and finally got the opportunity to play with her sisters. We had to use clothes pins and rubber bands to modify their outfits, but the girls had alot of fun and Abi was so happy that her sisters could actually play dress-up with her. She has been waiting a long time for this day to come. Elizabeth is Snow White, Emily is Sleeping Beauty, and Abigail is a princess.

Our first dozen

We got our first dozen eggs the other day. We found these egg cartons in a shed, they used to belong to Darin's family when they had a chicken farm. We washed the cartons out and are using them for our eggs. Kind of cool that we have a carton with our name on it. It makes us feel official.

Meet Rainbow

Abigail got a little bull calf to raise (with the help of daddy) the other day. We asked her what she wanted to name him and she immediately said, "His name is Rainbow." Okay, not exactly anything close to what I was thinking, but Rainbow it is.


Our 1940's animal trailer.

Meet Rainbow.

Grand Nan is here to visit and Abigail is giving Grand Nan some training on how to feed a calf.

Farm Fresh Eggs

We decided to purchase some hens the other day so we could have some farm fresh eggs. We tried raising baby chicks last year, but they were all killed in a raccoon massacre, so we reinforced the chicken coop and decided to go straight for the laying hens instead of raising baby chicks this time. We have six chickens, they don't have names, I don't know if they will have names, but there are three black chickens and three black and white spotted chickens and they all lay brown eggs.


Our chickens in their luxury chicken coop re-modeled by Darin.

An early Easter Egg Hunt for Abigail

Our first five eggs.

April 2009 Ensign

Darin's sister Sheralyn wrote an article in the April Ensign called "Education was Our Answer" (page 28). We were surprised to find the article since she really hadn't told anyone that her article was going to be published. The article is about how her family has dealt with the trials of Cystic Fibrosis. I think it was a really good read. If you don't get the Ensign you can go to http://www.lds.org/gospellibrary/pdfmagazine/0,7779,592-6-1,00.html and click on "April" and find the article "Education was Our Answer" and read it. Below are pictures of the Mitchell family. Congratulations on being published Sheralyn!

Sheralyn's Graduation Day in December of 2006 (important for the purpose of the article)

Uncle Ty and the Twins (Summer of 2008)

Cousins Savanna and Victoria with the twins

Doggie Jail

So my neighbor has two dogs (Charlie & Alice) that come to our house a lot to play with our dog Albert. Well, Monday started out as a regular day, Charlie and Alice came over to play and we didn't really think anything about it. Later that evening my neighbor called and asked if I had seen Charlie. I told her that I saw Charlie that morning, but I hadn't seen her since then and that I would call if I saw her running around. The next morning I saw Charlie in our yard, so I called my neighbor and said, "Charlie is in our yard" she said "Yeah, I know, this morning I heard her howling so I went out looking for her and she was locked up in your playhouse" I was mortified. I felt terrible that she had asked me if I knew where her dog was and I told her that I didn't and she found her dog locked up in our playhouse like we were trying to keep her dog hostage or something. When I got off the phone I found Abigail and asked, "Do you know where Charlie is?" and she said "Yes, she is sleeping in my playhouse" The thought didn't even cross my mind to ask Abigail if she had seen Charlie previously. Abigail and I had a very serious talk about not putting animals in her playhouse or anywhere that they can not get out because they need to eat, play, and poop. We went to the store and bought Charlie a chew toy and some doggie treats and we took it to the neighbor's house and Abigail apologized to Charlie and the neighbors for holding Charlie prisoner overnight. If only I could get into the brain of my four-year-old, I could understand a whole lot more.