Final pictures of our pigs...Spotty and Smelly!

We just had the butcher out last monday and Spotty has fulfilled his purpose on earth. Smelly has been delicious and I am excited for Spotty too. These are two of the most pampered pigs but I really do miss seeing them several times everyday. I have cooked all their feed since they were babies so they were always very excited to see me.

Monday was a very hard day for Ryan and Kalli because they were my occasional helpers. Ryan is sure that we need to go get new pigs at Sonya's house (she is my friend that has new piglets). Maybe in August, but we need a break for the summer.

Our Colorado cousins and G'pa & G'ma Baxter visit!

Josh by the pig pen

Adorable Rachel!
We had a "pig out party" for Gpa Baxter and Rachel's birthday. Oh, what fun we had at G'pa's expense! We love you!! Thanks for being such a good sport!

G'pa with a mustache!

Ryan and Jessica love the pudding!

Kailyn what a "cheeser!" We love you!

Ryan love BIG cousins that are willing to push him on the swing. When is Jessica coming back?My two cave men in their hideout. LOOK OUT!

Miscellaneous March pictures

Michone, Ashley, and Kalli all love to play shops. Michone had the dentist's office on this particular day. Notice the floss, toothbrushes, and toothpaste in the window sill...Look out Uncle Justin you may have competition!

Landon and Ryan had preschool and talked about good things for their bodies. They then traced their bodies and drew good food in their stomaches and colored them like themselves. What a great job they did!

Girls like to look pretty but young boys love to SCARE their mothers. Landon has been making scary masks like this all winter and then sneaks up and growls at me! AH-H-H-H!

All the kids made kites out of string and plastic bags but Ryan has favorite ropes. You can tell how hard the wind is blowing because it is picking his kite up with a 3/4 in rope attatched to it. They had so much fun flying their own homemade kites. The other kids all had too long of strings to be able to get the kite and the kids in the picture.

Christmas Nativity 2008

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is acting out the Nativity. Josh was our Narrator, Michone was the angel, Ashley was Mary, Landon was Joseph, I was a shepherd, Kalli and Ryan were the wisemen. Notice Ryan's camel? It is his favorite horse. He is tying it up so it won't get away!

December 2008

The girls have a singing and dancing group called "Melody Makers." As you can see, we think they are the STARS of the show! This last show was called "Snowbiz" and all the songs had to do with snow...thus the winter attire!

Here is cute Kalli loving her time to shine.

Can you tell Michone loves an audience. She is a real natural.

Ashley loves the lime-light too!

These are our girls with my friend, Danny's girls. From left to right, Ashley, Kassidie, Michone, Shyanne, and Kalli.

The Perfect Tree Hunt?!

After a busy morning, we finally left for our Perfect Christmas Tree Hunt at 3:38 p.m. We knew we were tight on time so we went to familiar ground...our fire wood getting spot. We arrived about 4:15, donned our snow gear and started the search.

Ryan just had to have a little "snack" of snow.

We had a few breaks to make beautiful snow angels!

After the break it was off to the search again...do you notice the color of the sky? Neither did we until the beautiful sunset and we are still searching!

But lo and behold ... here is our tree! It is much more difficult to find the "perfect" tree in the dark so we are so happy to have a real live Christmas tree that is almost full and it will be beautiful by the time the kids have had a chance to decorate it!

It's a PIG OUT Party!

Kalli had her 7th birthday party and invited a few friends. Her personally picked party theme was "Pigs". With the help of Tiffanie, Danny, and Amy we came up with some fun games to play and the kids had a great time.

As soon as we got out of the car the games began with only only boy becoming the "PIG" and everyone else had to chase the pig and try to put him back into the pen. Basically tag. They had a great time chasing and being chased.

Next, we had a "Pig Out"! I tied the kids arms behind their backs and had them eat yogurt or pudding out of a bowl. The girls really got into it but Kalli invited one boy and he wasn't into the hole mushy face thing but he was full of smiles!

Making pig noses out of egg cartons cut up and elastic glue gunned on was next. The paint took quite a while to dry so not too many pictures.

We then had a straw search our by the pig pen...not in the pig pen, just out side of it. The kids definitely notice the change in "fresh air." I explained that at night the pigs cuddle together and bury under the straw to get warm. We were just going to look through the straw for gumballs, erasers, and little sponge capsules that you put in water and they grow into farm animals (dollar store purchase). It was harder than I thought. The gumballs were individually wrapped and the plastic would stick to the straw. They looked liked little piggies on their hands and knees sorting and resorting through the straw.





This is the "pig roll" game. The kids on the ground are pigs and try to roll and touch you while you are jumping over them. Luckily no one got hurt and there were lots of giggles!

Last but certainly not least was the "PIG CAKE"!