May

Chris- Still working/living in San Francisco.  I feel so incredibly blessed to have him as a husband and a father to our children.  I appreciate SO MUCH the sacrifices he is willing to make on our family's behalf.
We keep him busy during the six days a month we have him here.
He has found a new hobby in VW bugs, which is particularly fun for the whole family. He recently bought me a '69 convertible (Happy Mother's Day) to share the driveway with his '71 Super Beetle.  We joke about selling the suburban and taking two cars everywhere we go.  We'd sure save a TON on gas! He has high hopes of adding an older bug and a bus to his collection in the future.
Another thing I love about Chris, is that he is so incredibly supportive of my hobbies and dreams.
He teaches Gospel Doctrine on the Sundays he's in town. I love to listen to him teach. He truly has a testimony of the Gospel and he loves sharing it.

Kayci- I'm surviving.  I'm slowly discovering the ability to ask for help when I need it. Just last week we had our Bishop and his family come hang our shade screens. Not an easy task, and I'm SO grateful for his willingness. I stay busy- which keeps me sane. Between the vinyl business, the furniture business, callings in RS and coordinating monthly stake baptisms, and the endless number of client design projects, there are times I feel stretched to my limit, but I wouldn't change a thing. I love being outside with the boys taking care of the animals and the yard, even if that too, is hard work.  I'm anxious for summer break, sleeping in and staying up late, swimming all day-every day. I'm also awaiting the arrival of a new desktop computer and a vinyl software upgrade. I'm toying with the idea of doing the vinyl stuff more full time. Right now, it's a hobby that pays for itself, but I have a goal in mind to help build up our savings. After all, we'll be paying cash for the delivery of this baby girl in October!

Kleven- He's growing fast.  I can tell by how quickly his jeans get too short to wear. It's a good thing I convinced him to wear shorts to school. He is reading everything, and writing stories and books, and is ALWAYS drawing. He is our artistic one for sure. We really liked Eduprize this year and we're excited to continue there in the Fall.  Kleven just finished his first season of Coach Pitch Baseball. He decided he likes soccer better because he "doesn't have to stand in line forever". So, we'll be doing soccer again in the Fall as well.  Kleven is a smart kid. He absorbs information like a sponge and can recall the most random facts about everything. We were trying to explain some of my pregnancy woes to the boys, especially my keen sense of smell and Kleven quickly explained that "mom is like a polar bear, which can smell up to eight miles away".  He never ceases to amaze us with his intellect. His teacher recently told us that she has never encountered a child quite like him before. He is such a perfectionist about his schoolwork, but he is also so incredibly creative, it puts him at two extreme opposites. The goal for the last quarter was to get him to turn in a sloppy creative writing paper.

Ezra- He's still our "squish".  We cheated and put him in a booster seat after his fourth birthday, even though he doesn't weigh 40 pounds yet. I know, we're terrible parents. He hasn't grown much in the last year, but it seems that everyone else his age certainly has, which we realized while watching him play t-ball. He was the shortest kid with the exception of the youngest girl on the team.  The helmet made him look like a running bobble-head. But he was FAST- which was surprising.  He is usually referred to as "pokey-joe" and "slow-Mo"and I'm sure he'll have a complex later in life from hearing so many "hurry up's" and "faster, please's".  Ezra has a kind heart and a sensitive soul. He is the calm, relaxed type and can usually be found in front of the tv in his underwear or a red power ranger costume.  Ezra will start his second year of Preschool in August. At this point, he's just excited that class is in the afternoon so he won't miss his favorite morning cartoons.

Merrick- We've been counting down the days til he's old enough for nursery at church. NEXT WEEK! He's cute, and that's about all he has going for him on Sunday.  I'm afraid he's going to be the class clown or the bully. He's tough and stubborn but those dimples save him on a daily basis. He hasn't been a picky eater, which is great, but he's a bottomless pit. He can smell candy/treats before he sees them. I won't make the mistake of putting holiday appropriate candy in my apothecary jars on the piano again. He learned how to scale the piano and take the lids off without me hearing the glass clinking. Merrick loves to be outside. If the screen door isn't locked, he's in and out as he pleases. There are only two problems with this, one, he'll go out without shoes and find patches of thorns, and two, he's always dragging a blanket with him. He's also moved on from "baby toys" and only likes to play with cars and trucks be right in the middle of the action with his brothers.

The Farm- I'll have to go count, but I think we've got about 20 chickens, all kinds of breeds.  We're getting 14-16 eggs a day. And no, we won't be eating the chickens. The goats are thriving and growing in number. We had four babies born in February, and a fifth one just last week.  I got to help deliver the first set of twins with one hand, while video conferencing the delivery over my phone for Chris to see. It was amazing. I told Chris I would do it for a living, it was so fun! The second set came without help, and the last little guy, Rupert, we missed by mere seconds. He's the favorite. I had to milk his mama and bottle feed him for the first few days and he's become quite the little tag-along. The boys adore him. We sold two of the other babies this week. and hope to get two more sold soon. We're pretty sure we'll be keeping Rupert. Bean, Ezra's rabbit, still lives on the back porch. He was the only survivor out of the three we started with last summer. He's a favorite with the little girls that come over to play. They'll carry him around like a baby for hours and he lets them.

That's us, for now.  If you're interested in following my projects, check out the Goat Farm Furnishings blog too!