Fun Filled Saturday

First, the twins put their overalls on and tromped in the mud puddles.

Then, Ariana and Abigail took a ride in the Barbie Jeep

The kids were filthy from a fun day, so they all took a bath. (You should have seen the water when they got out! Yuck!)

Then, they passed out from sheer exhaustion.

What a fun way to spend a Saturday!

Mr. Thomas O'Malley the Alley Cat Ralphs

Mr. O'Malley found the perfect hiding spot away from Albert. I had to take this picture cause I thought he looked so important up there.

Laundry Helper

Today, I discovered that Abigail loves to help with the laundry when it involves a clothesline. She was such a good little helper. When she couldn't reach the clothesline, she would stand on a tree stump. It's times like this, that I love being a mom.

Well-Babies

The twins had their 15-month-old check up last week, so I wanted to post their stats. They are growing well and beginning to say a few words (mama, dada, baby, kitty, woof, moo, cookie, Abi). Both twins love to run everywhere they go and Emily has decided she is part monkey. She can climb on chairs, tables, countertops, etc. I have to keep a constant eye on her. This morning she pushed a chair over to the kitchen counter, climbed up on it and decided to style her hair with the butter that was sitting on the counter from breakfast. Emily has learned to climb on anything, but she hasn't learned how to get down safely. Scary!

Emily Celia - 16 months
Height: 31 inches
Weight: 23 lbs 8 oz

Elizabeth Claire - 16 months
Height: 30 1/2 inches
Weight: 21 lbs 10 oz

The twins are only up 1 pound from their last check-up, I guess they are burning more calories now that walking and running are their choice for mode of transportation.

Missing-In-Action

Abigail and Ariana have had so much fun playing together since Ariana's family moved here last week. On Monday, I was watching Ariana and Abigail play outside. They each had a bucket and were picking leaves off the bush by our driveway. The phone rang, so I answered it and probably spoke to the other person on the line for three minutes tops. When I hung up the phone I looked outside and didn't see the girls. So, I walked outside to locate them thinking that they were probably in Abigail's playhouse. No Abi and Ari. I went back to the house and called inside the house for them. No answer. I walked up to Ariana's house and knocked on the door and asked Kim (Ariana's mom & Darin's sister) if she had seen the girls. She said, "No I thought they were playing outside at your house." I then told her that I couldn't find them, so she walked around calling for them and I walked around calling for them. No Response. By this time 10 minutes had gone by and Kim said she would go get Jeff (her husband) and Del (grandpa) to help us look. I went back in the house and called our three neighbors to see if the girls had gone over to their houses. No one had seen Abigail and Ariana. By this time I was beginning to panic. 15 minutes had gone by with no sight of Abigail or Ariana and I was starting to let my imagination get to me as to what happened to them. No one has been kidnapped in Rockland before, but there is a first time for everything. More likely, was that the girls were trapped in some old building, old car, old appliance, or had fallen in an old well. There are a lot of dangerous things like that around a farm, which is why I had set boundaries for Abigail as soon as I moved here. I called Darin and asked him to come home from work and help us look. Two of my three neighbors were looking out in their properties for the girls. We were starting to form quite the little search party. After looking for about 25 minutes, with everyone screaming their names at the top of their lungs, I decided to go in the house and call the sheriff. Right at that time, Abigail and Ariana came down stairs and said, "Why is everyone calling our names?" I burst into tears. That was probably one of the scariest 20-25 minutes of my life. The girls had been upstairs in my craft room, where they knew they were not supposed to be and were hiding because they were afraid to come down. They heard everyone calling for them, but figured they were in trouble and better wait out the storm. Needless, to say they are safe, I aged about 10 years from that whole experience and both girls got quite the lecture from their parents after the whole ordeal.

Mother's Day 2009

Happy Mother's Day to all of the women out there that make the world go around. I am so greatful that my Heavenly Father has trusted me with three beautiful children and that I have the responsibility of raising them and making sure they have the knowledge of His gospel so that they may return to him again. Sometimes, I can't believe I have this awesome responsibility, but I know God is watching over me and and if I will be in tune with the spirit he will guide me throughout this life. Below the pictures of my three precious girls is a poem dedicated to mothers on this wonderful day.


Elizabeth

Emily

Abigail

Before I Was A Mom

Before I was a Mom, I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby. I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous. I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom, I had never been puked on. Pooped on. Chewed on. Peed on. I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts. I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom, I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests. Or give shots. I never looked into teary eyes and cried. I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin. I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom, I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put him down. I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt. I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much. I never knew that I could love someone so much. I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom, I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body. I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby. I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child. I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom, I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay. I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom. I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom .

New Neighbors

Darin's sister Kim and her family moved to Rockland on May 5th. They will be living right next door to us. We hope they like peaceful Rockland.

Abigail can't contain her excitement now that she has a friend and cousin to play with. She is so happy Ariana is here.

The Bowes Family outside their humble home: Jeff, Kim, Ariana, and Jacob

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.