Where Do They Come From??

Here is a picture of this years garden. We have a small strawberry patch, and we planted lettuce, carrots, broccoli, zucchini, cantaloupe, tomatoes and onions. The kids are all very excited. They love to eat things out of our little garden, for that matter so do the neighbor kids and some of their parents as well. The other morning I woke up to find this....

One whole row of broccoli eaten down to the nubs (that row was to the left of the row Jacob is pointing at and on the other side of the lettuce). You can't really see it but that doesn't really matter because it isn't there to see anymore, and half of the next row eaten (the row Jake is pointing at). At first I thought a rabbit had jumped the little fence and that he really liked broccoli. For the life of me I could not figure out why he did not eat the lettuce. Well later in the day I noticed little green worms all over the existing broccoli plants. Now we have never tried broccoli before, this is a first and we have never seen these little worms before. So here is my question; where do they come from? Now this question goes for tomato worms as well. In another month I am sure we will have those as well. I mean really do they just crawl around for miles sniffing the air trying to find tomato plants. Are their little eggs in the dirt just waiting for tomato or broccoli to be planted and then poof they hatch and start eating my plants. I just do not understand this, but year after year they show up. They certainly do not live here in the winter. So there it is my thought inspired question for the day.

Never a dull moment...

Before lunch time Saturday morning Carson's
arm (near the wrist) snapped in two. Not a good way to start the day.

Bet you will never guess who did it? Our one and only little girl, Hailey. She may have quit playing soccer 2 1/2 years ago, but she still has a mean rocket shot on goal. Carson decided to be the hero and jumped in front of her shot and tried to block it. Well he blocked it alright, and it snapped the bone clean through.
Good news is; it is not on a growth plate, he is young and still growing fast, and it is close to the growth plate so it will remodel itself very quickly. We will go in tomorrow or Tuesday to have it casted. Whenever Dr. Smith has an opening. I am sure he is going to look at the family file and tell me it is growing, at least this time it is not Jacob. Jacob is on a first name basis with the good doctor he
calls him Purcell.



At least he is in good spirits, and we have learned he has a high pain tolerance. Which meant no codeine/hydrocodone and freaky dreams for him.

Easter Weekend

For Easter weekend we rented a cabin in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. The Cottrell's had Spring Break and we had Friday off of school. What better way is there to spend a holiday weekend watching General Conference and enjoying the great outdoors than with family. Since SanDee and I seem to be the picture takers we as usual are not in the pictures, but I assure you we were there. Also do not feel obligated to view all the pictures that I post lately, but Trent's parents are on a mission and this is a way for them to be apart of our lives while they are away, and for the rest of our families that we do not see very often
as nobody lives near us.

First things first, the little kids found the hot tub.

The big kids found the pool table.

Trent enjoying the great outdoors on a conference call.
Gotta do what ya gotta do.

We also celebrated Trent's Birthday while there. Happy Birthday Trent!



We did a little egg dying and Easter Egg hunting, and a little fishing on Friday and Saturday mornings.

Not sure where this large amount of family intelligence is coming from, hope it is not hereditary.

Yes, the branch hangs over the water.

While the priesthood holders drove into Idabel to watch the priesthood session of conference, the rest of us enjoyed a little hike.

Somehow our gym bum always seem to find a "balance beam", even in the great outdoors.

March Maddness??

March Madness alright, and I am not talking basketball. Although the upset of Northern Iowa beating Kansas last night will be talked about for the rest of the tournament. Poor Trent, the Jayhawks are his team, he had them down for winning the whole tournament.

This is what we woke-up to this morning!?!
It's March 21st, for Pete sake. So much for the first/second day of Spring.Our Peach Tree, and it just budded-out three days ago, I guess if it wasn't the snow the hail would have gotten it anyway. After all we got peaches this past summer and two years in a row would have been a miracle.Holy Snow Batman! Look how high that snow is, will ya. It's not like we live in the North here folks.

The Many Faces of Jake

For Christmas this year we got all the boys a suit. Garrett really needed a new one, and all the little boys wanted a coat like Dad. So I broke down and said okay. We took these pictures back in January, recently I dumped them onto the computer and was going through them. Boy did I get a good laugh. You would think from looking at all the kids it is the same picture over and over, until you look at Jacob. I think his facial expression changes in every picture. Anyhow just thought I would share.

So without further ado...The Many Faces of Jake.

And we thought life was crazy before Jake. Now we know it was a little on the boring side. What would we do without Jake.

Contest

Hey all -- I entered Chase's Valentine's day box into a contest and I need votes. So help me out and go vote. You get two votes so look at all the entries, there are only 7. And enter yours if you want.

Valentine's Day Box Contest

Snow Day #2

So what do you do when school is canceled and you have record breaking snow fall in a 24 hour period in your area? Well you sled, build snowmen, build forts, and benches, have snow ball fights, come in and drink hot chocolate while your snow clothes dry in the dryer, and then you start all over again. Funny side note we went to Kroger to buy donuts this morning after sledding at a near by park and the kids wanted me to buy some long carrots for their snowman's nose instead of the baby carrots we have. Nope, not a chance every bag of carrots gone. So on the way home I noticed that practically every other house in the neighborhood had a snowman. So not typical unless you never get snow I guess. And yes many of them had long carrot noses.