Quick Note

Ugh. Just remembered I'm out of chicken food, and I so don't want to schlep all the way to the feed store tonight. Wonder if chickens eat Kashi. Pretty sure they do now. Fancy chickens.

I am my to-do list. It's sad, I know, but I'm pretty sure that's what I've been reduced to.

Get up - check (it's a freebie and I'm taking it!)
Get the kids off to school - check
Feed Horses - check
Feed Chickens - check
Feed Baby every four hours - check, check, check, check . . .
Strip Beds - check
Laundry - Made noble attempt
Make Beds - Waiting on finalization of above line item
Exercise Horses - check
Exercise Self - thinking about it, hard
Water Potted Flowers / Plants - delegate
Weed Left Front - um, half-check
Grocery Store - put off 'till tomorrow
Baseball Practice and Games (5, 5:15, & 6:45) - Can't wait
Dinner - check (will have to be portable enough to be eaten in shifts during above line-items)
Convince Boys they already had Dinner when they ask at home - check, I think
Feed Horses again - check
Put Chickens 'to bed' - check
Bathe dog - check
Bathe Boys - check
Read with Boys - check
Read to Boys - check
Put Boys to Bed - check
Do Dishes - check
Vacuum Main Floor - check
Collapse in a heap and crawl into own bed - any minute now. . .

The past month and half has been crazy busy. All normal activity aside we've had all the extra excitement (and work) that comes with the birth, care, and training of a baby horse; a trip to Montana for one of our niece's wedding; and a trip to California for another niece's wedding. It's been a fantastic spring so far. (We'll pretend it didn't snow today - grrr.)


I know I've pretty much inundated you all with pictures of the the little filly already, so now I think I'll throw a bunch of wedding and mini-vacation shots at you!


First, Alicia 's wedding in Montana - she asked me to photograph the day for her. Soooo, six-hundred some pictures later, I'm still editing. These are a few of my favorites so far. (The subject matter was too beautiful to skimp)

Alicia's beautiful girls

The stunning bride

Bride and Groom

The New Happy Family

Couple in search of a threshold

Shooting (and then editing) these pictures made me want two things: 1. To be a redhead, and 2. To have this exact pair of gorgeous red pumps!

Next, on to California for Emily's wedding! I wasn't the photographer for this wedding, so I don't have very many shots of their day, but I did take their engagements.

The orange background shots were my favorite - so vibrant.

And on their wedding day. . . what a beautiful couple! I wish I would have taken more pictures of them on the temple grounds. Somehow between chasing after the boys and not wanting to butt-in on the real photographer I didn't. At least they were in good hands!

Speaking of chasing my boys around . . . aren't they handsome? I know I'm a bit partial, but still.

I think Sy is glowing a little bit. Must be his halo.

Is it a little bit evil that I love this shot?

I'll have to post the rest of the trip later. This post feels suspiciously like a run-on sentence.

The Wordsmith Project

My dear friend, let's call her Raymie the Great, (to protect the innocent you see.) has inspired me in many ways over the years. Back in the college days she decided she wanted to improve her vocabulary, a noble pursuit. She did the word-a-day thing. I don't remember the specific method she used to pick her daily word - probably a blind stab at an opened dictionary page or something of the sort. I do remember a few of her choices because she would use her daily word as many times as she possibly could that day to ensure she remembered it, to the point that the words became absurd by the end of the day. BUT she did broaden her vocabulary as well as the vocabulary of everyone else around her. (She generally has that impact on people no matter what she's doing, thus the self-imposed title, 'the great', still sticks.)

One word I remember particularly well because of her slight misunderstanding of the word. She had a date that she wasn't exactly excited to go on. Lon-the-home-teacher ( names still changed, mind you) arrived to pick her up for the night. She came down the stairs and said, and I quote, "Alright, let's get this ordeal on the road". Our mouths dropped, we looked at each other, and Raymie looked at all of us looking at each other. Awkward, there's a good word for that moment. She explained later that she had called 'Lon' before the date and asked him what she should wear to 'the ordeal'. So, really the moment at the front door wasn't as awkward as we thought it was - it was an inside joke by then. As much as Raymie might have felt going on the date was an ordeal, I'm sure she would have never said as much to Lon if she would have really understood the entire meaning of 'ordeal'. If, for example, she had looked up the word in a thesaurus she might have read, 'test, trial, experience' as synonyms. A full definition would, of course, include the information that the test, trial, or experience are extremely trying or severe. Poor Raymie, poor Lon. Although, they were certainly never meant to be a couple and Lon got that message faster than he may have otherwise.

My point in telling you this story (and thanks to 'Raymie' for letting me share it), is that I have a new little project all about words, language, spelling, etc. It's been in the works for awhile but now - after passing a blinking construction sign with two misspelled words, I'm finally ready to get the ball officially rolling.

Click the Wordsmith Project Tab at the top of the page if you want. Or don't. I'm not here to boss you around. If you do go, let me know what you think.

What Joy Looks Like

DISCLAIMER - if you are going to press play, know that I know these are not the greatest videos. It seems my editing software is too outdated to take them and I'm too frustrated to try any other methods to make it work. (Getting this far literally took me two days - embarrassing, I know. I'm not proud. Okay, maybe I am, but that's not the point.)

ANYWAY, that said, try to ignore my commentary, little girlie giggles, and gale force winds blowing straight into the microphone. This little filly is so adorable I can hardly take it. I could watch her run around all day. . . which will become obvious very soon.

Izzy is quite sure she's found a new best friend.

She may be right.

Oh, My Darlin'

I so love having such a great photographer for a friend! Leah came over to meet the new addition and took some beautiful pictures of her. The baby (I'm calling her Clementine for the time being) is all kinds of frisky today - very cute. She was literally running circles around Sunday (her proud Mother). Every second or third lap she would skid out and fall over, then pop right back up. I even saw a couple of little bucks.

She reminds me of a ballerina on point in this picture. Look at those legs!

What incredible changes one day makes. Isn't she gorgeous?

P.S. Check out some of Leah's work here.

It's a GIRL!!!

Wow, have I ever been waiting a long time to say those words! And, no, I didn't sneak another pregnancy in under your noses. One of the ranch mares was pregnant. She's a gorgeous horse anyway but pregnancy suited her well.

We've been watching her like a hawk over the last week as all of the signs of foaling started. There wasn't a whole lot of sleeping going on - at least on my part. I didn't want to miss the birth. My vigilance paid off. She finally had a beautiful little buckskin filly last night. And she had her early enough (10:30-ish) that the boys got to watch the whole thing! Grey (of course) was ecstatic to see exactly how a horse is born and immediately followed his comment on the subject with "Now, I just need to know how a human is born . . . exactly". Tough luck kid. Still not ready to give 'the talk' to a first-grader. I think the horse birth probably answered a few questions on its own though.

Almost All Out

Scooting Away from Mama

Finally up - after much encouragement and a couple of face-plants

Figuring out the whole milk thing

I can't believe we were lucky enough to see the birth. It was incredible. As the baby was working on getting up for the first time she let out her first whinny and ALL of the other horses answered her in unison. It was so sweet. They had been trying to get a look at the excitement the whole time - craning their necks around the corner of the barn and over fences. Now both Sunday (the Mama) and her baby are doing well. Maybe we can get a little spring-like weather again so the little one can venture out of the barn without Sunday herding her back in - and the paddock and pasture can dry out enough that we can go out without big muck boots!