At The Farm

Last month we were invited to go help bottle feed a newborn calf.

He was only a few days old.

Hayden started to hold the bottle but it only lasted a few seconds.

Alyssa loved it. She even got bonked in the chin a few times

with the bottle from the calf butting it.

Brandon didn't want anything to do with it.

He's going through a stage.

We played around with it, it would try and chase us. It was still a little wobbly.

Hayden loved standing by it and playing. It was just like a little dog to him.

Just not quite as playful.

This was such a fun experience to go and do this.

We all had a lot of fun. Thanks Heather!

Just over a month ago we went to a BYU basketball game.

(Thanks for the tickets April)

I have never been to a basketball game before so I did not know what to expect.

It was really fun!

There is always something going on for entertainment.

Brandon was able to invite his buddy to come with.

BYU won against TCU

great game. Alyssa caught on so fast and cheered every time they scored. She also loved watching the cheerleaders. She didn't realize they were going to be part of the game. That was a big plus for her. pre-game team huddle

A Sad Day

Artica

The beginning of April 2008

Justin brought home a new pet that the kids (mostly Alyssa)

would come to really love.

Well, Artica passed away Feb. 16Th.

I found her right before Alyssa came home from school.

It was so sad!

Alyssa was so distraught, and we knew she would be.

It broke our hearts to see the kids so sad and in such pain.

These hamsters only live a few years

and she was only about a month short of that.

We could tell something was wrong

and she was changing fast over the past week. Justin had a good talk with Alyssa a few days before

and told her what might happen soon.

Alyssa just cried and cried, she immediately asked to hold her

(this made me a little nervous to her reaction

but there was no judgement.)

She seemed to be a little comforted by holding her for a bit.

Hayden is a hard egg to crack sometimes.

We finally got him to open up, instead of being angry,

he finally just bawled, like Alyssa.

We had to answer so many questions for them.

Alyssa still asked me recently if Artica was going to forget her.

It's a good, but really hard lesson for such little kids to learn.

We all had fun holding her and playing with her.

Alyssa would put her in her My Little Pony house

and walk around with her, or find

some other little small place for her to hang out close by her.

I am sure she would have tried to sleep with her if we let her.

One time I caught her walking down the street

with her little pony house to show her friends her pet.

I made a special box for her & everyone colored

or wrote a little message on it.

It was so hard for Hayden to let go of the box.

Later that day he wanted to just go down and drive his cars

over the spot we buried her.

I never knew that something so little could

make my little girl so happy.

The laughter she brought to us, especially Hayden, will not be forgotten.

Snowflakes

The other day it was snowing huge snowflakes.

It was beautiful.

Have you ever looked at a snowflake up close?

I don't know that I ever really have until the other day.

They really are all individual and beautiful.

My kids really enjoyed doing this with me.

I am sure we would have been more successful on a colder day.

So, if you are still in those frigid temperatures and still getting snow,

you should go out and look a little closer at those little falling flakes.

They are quite the site close up.

I love snowflakes!