Pony 4 Sale

I have mentioned our pony, but no pictures. Here she is. She was a huge hit at the family reunion, but now she is for sale on Craigslist.

She is the only animal on our farm that is not for food purposes. Although Levin had eaten horse in Kazakstan and claims it's not so bad . . . I think it's illegal isn't it?

I rode the pony one time - her first morning as a Flake pony. Did I ever tell you I don't like riding something that has a mind of its own? I was scared I would break her back, but Levin and Oliver assured me it would be okay, and it was. I noticed no other adults rode her however. I think they just thought it'd be funny to see me on her.

If you've always dreamed of owning a pony - now is your chance!

It Was A Horse Race

As I mentioned in my last post we took a few road trips end of August - end of September. The first was to upstate New York to visit Levin's sister. She took us to a horse race! It just so happens they do horse races every year that same week we happened to be visiting. None of us had ever been, "to the track" before. To spice it up a little we bet $1 on several horses. If you're new to gambling like we were, let me explain. You can bet on a horse to win, a horse to show (come in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd doesn't matter which one), or a horse to place (you choose the specific 1st, 2nd, 3rd.) Or you can choose who you think the top three winners will be. I told Levin to place a bet on #4 to show for myself. Well, he came in FIRST! I only won 89 cents. They had also chosen #4 to win and Levin's nephew had that ticket. He won $8! If only we'd bet $100! :) It is the same nephew that met with doom at the family reunion rodeo the week before so maybe he needed a boon. Not to teach a bad lesson that gambling is awesome his parents made him buy donuts for all the other kids with his "earnings."

PS. Note how much better Layne's eye looks less than a week after Milky Way slammed him into the fence.

PBR - Professional Bull Riders

Last weekend we loaded up the kids for our third road trip in I think 6 weeks and went to Charlottesville, VA for a rodeo! It actually wasn't a full rodeo, just bull riders. I didn't realize until we got there this was serious stuff, not just some local rodeo. Last year's world champion was there! There were also some pretty famous bulls there. We had a few Australians (an Australian won) and some Brazilians too. When we first got there it was so loud and they were doing pyrotechnics (is that right?) and I was a little scared for my children, but they did awesome! We had a fantastic time. We met Levin's sister's husband and his two children down there (up there for them) and also Oliver (Levin's brother we live very close to) and his family. We had such a fantastic time!

Mine and Levin's forget to bring inside the camera streak continues so these are pictures Justin gratefully shared with us.

What an awesome family! :) Aren't we cute?! I know we are because a lady a row up and over kept holding her camera over her head so she could take pictures of us. Ha ha. Isn't that funny? There were a few kids around Leah's age, but Oliver was the only baby in the arena.

Sunday morning we woke up early and before church went to tour UVA campus. It is a beautiful campus and we saw Edgar Allen Poe's dorm room. If I look tired it's because I was.

Here is my baby boy! You couldn't see him so well in the other photos because I had him all covered up in a blanket. Rebecca, this is the blanket you sent us with Dani. We use it all the time! It is the perfect size and thickness.

Here is Leah. The morning before we drove down to the rodeo we had some pictures taken of her at Sears and she turned into a little modeling queen and was more than happy to model for Uncle Justin. If Sears ever gets us our pictures I'll scan and post.

Leah said, what? You posted all those cute pictures of Oliver and only posted me in my white trash outfit? Nor fair!

So here is my cute girl!

I have good news and bad news about Leah. She no longer screams in a super high pitched voice when she doesn't get her way. She used to do it with such gusto her cheeks would shake and her face would turn red. It was annoying as heck, but also sometimes quite funny. That's the good news. The bad news is that she now says, but I want it, I want it whenever I don't respond immediately to her request or try to tell her no. No matter how many times I say no, or in a second, or yes, right now, but it's taking me time to deliver she says, but I want it, I want it, the whole time. Good thing she's so cute!

More Oliver

Cousin Joel snuck in my picture.

Little O

I realize I don't have enough pictures of Oliver, so the other day I just started snapping while he was laying on my bed. Here's what we got.

So handsome!

So happy! Check out those chubby thighs!

Hmm . . do you think you took enough pictures mom?

Are you crazy woman?? Stop taking pictures of me!

Happy Birthday To Me!

My birthday was September 11th. We had a small party with Oliver's family on Friday, then on my actual birthday Amber and I went out to Mimi's Cafe and then shopping. Then on Sunday we had some old friends from our singles ward in northern Virginia come over. It was an awesome weekend.
Levin completely surprised me with an iPod. Yea! I'm a cool kid now. :) It actually is coming in handy with some teach yourself Russian software. I just need to use it more.

The Friday before my birthday Levin had to go into Washington to the USDA building for some work related stuff. I took the kids and walked around the mall and fed our parking meter. I got just short of Lincoln Memorial when I had to turn back for fear of a parking ticket. While at USDA Levin learned he'd gotten a $500 spot award. We'd already planned to go to my favorite restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory. Yum Yum! Since he got the award we splurged and got this scrum-diddly-umpcious cake for my birthday. It was so rich, so tall, and so wonderful! I want some so bad looking at it. We ate it Friday, Sunday, and Monday (sharing it of course) and I never tired of it.

Earlier, during the Flake reunion, Levin had surprised me with this beautiful print. His brother Lincoln lives in England and brought it with him. I'd never seen it before, but loved it. It is called Jesus' Childhood and is painted by Gerard von Honthorst (1590-1656). I got it framed and there she sits propped up on our mantel. Our sea shipment has not arrived yet, so all other wall decorations are still en route.

It was a great birthday! Oh, Mom I don't think I ever told you, but I got a pair of jeans and a case for my iPod with your birthday money. Thanks!

Can You Say WT??

WT stands for white trash and in this picture Leah looks umm . . . a little WT.

Note, camouflage hat, remains of dinner stains on her shirt, pants with worn out knees, and last, but not least her shoes are both right foot shoes. Earlier in the summer she lost a shoe at Target so we bought a second pair at Wal-Mart. So she's had an odd shoe floating around the house. Levin put on her shoes that night and well . . he ended up with the old one and therefore, two right shoes.

To add to WT guess where we went for dinner?? Popeyes! At least it wasn't BoJangles. We went there when we went to visit Levin's sister in southern Virginia and can you say hello GREASE??Back to the picture, yes, we took Leah out in public like that. Unfortunately, she didn't wear the camouflage hat to Popeyes so we just looked poor, not like cool white trash folks on our way to the monster truck rally.

More Reunion Pictures

Right before the rodeo I made cotton candy for everyone. Who feeds their kids pure sugar at 9 am?? I don't know, I guess I did. Everyone was super impressed at my mad cotton candy making skills. I used to make it for the Manassa Pioneer Days rodeo when I was a Young Woman to earn money for girl's camp. It was so yummy! I still have some of the sugar, but I'm not sure I'm willing to pay $40 to rent the machine again.

As I mentioned the rodeo had one mishap. I was just coming outside from taking care of another child's injury (unrelated to the reunion) when Layne took a tumble off of Milky Way. He hit the fence. Ouch! Less than a week later we went to his house in New York and it looked much better thank goodness! He was tough and didn't cry.

At Oliver's house they did a huge slip n slide and sno-cones. Here are Levin and Moema throwing the kids down. Hyrum, Taylor, and Oliver watch on and hose down the plastic. Leah wanted a go so I had Levin throw her down. She suddenly got a look of fear when they picked her up like that. When she finished I was standing about where Oliver is spraying the plastic and she came running over, Mommy, Mommy! She had the biggest grin on her face and was soo thrilled. She declined to go down it again, but got so happy when we'd ask if she wanted to. She is so brave! Oh, well she does freak out when we try to get her to ride the pony . . . maybe not so brave afterall. Sorry, no picture of her on the pony. I'll try to get one.

One night we did cousin parties by age group. We lumped the two youngest groups together and just had them stay home and play since the others went out. They played in the pool. Leah just stood there shivering, but didn't want out. I finally had to make her since she was already sick. The older kids braved going down the slide which is actually kind of steep.

We had an awesome time co-hosting the Flake reunion. I had to take Tylenol every night, but we survived and had so much fun on so little sleep.

Other fun things included late night conversations, playing soccer with my sister-in-law Lucinda and a bunch of boys, adult dinner out followed by ice cream at Rita's. We had a great time.

We had a problem with one toilet, but thank goodness for Justin, my brother-in-law who fixed it so we didn't have to pay a plumber! Woo Hoo! I think those are the high-lights.

Flake Reunion

It's been a long time since I posted. Levin started language training yesterday so vacation time is over and it's time to get back to normal/organized life. I'll try to get updated with all that we've been up to for the last month and a half.

First, was the Flake reunion. Would you believe Levin and I didn't take a single picture the entire time??? What losers! I blame Levin. It is in my genetics not to take pictures (right Mom?) Unfortunately, Levin was pretty much busy non-stop and I was usually with Leah, who happened to be sick, and Oliver. I stole some pictures from the Flake Family blog to share with you. At some point I hope to get copies of other people's pictures and maybe I will post more, but don't hold your breath.

Here is the Fam Damily - this is all of us. Only Levin's brother's wife, Siobhan, and two of there three boys were missing.

The rodeo was the highlight of the reunion for most people. Here is Joseph riding our calf Milky Way. Ride 'em cowboy! Milky Way refused to move in practices for the rodeo, but he did a darn good job the day of the rodeo. He was wild and crazy! We actually had one injury - I'll post a picture later.

This is Oliver's son Ryan riding a different calf. I don't have a mutton busting picture, but the sheep did awesome in practice, but horrible the day of the rodeo! They wouldn't move! That is why they are now frozen in my freezer in the garage. Yep! The sheep became lamb-burgers on Labor Day. The lamb-burgers were delicious and Sunday I made a lamb roast that was pretty darn good if I do say so myself. That'll teach the animals they need to perform during the rodeo.

Another part of the reunion was Amber, who is a professional photographer, took pictures of all the grandkids just on the fly Sunday after church. She got this cute one of Leah which was pretty good considering Leah was sick and never smiles for me. She does love Amber though. She runs after her saying A-mer, A-mer!!