Fabric Fire

It is time for 4-H Fashion!  This year Grant got to teach about different fibers - natural and manmade and how they respond in a burn test.  It is a stinky job, but who doesn't love to play with fire?  Good thing they know how to be safe!

Fire, fabric, and learning!  Good times with 4-H!

Bison Fun

Jeff and I attended the Bison Winter Conference in Colorado.  It was fun to head out and learn so much more about buffalo and tricks of owning our own buffalo someday.  The last day of the conference we were able to go out to the stock yards and see the animals going for auction.  They are amazing!

We even took some time and hunted down the Scottish Highland cattle.  

 Selfie :) 

It was great to learn new things and we had a blast!  

Time to head home to the kids!

New shirts

Our co-op came out with t-shirts for us to buy.  I think they turned out great!  We love co-op!

Sandra, Lorna, Mhari and Clark

Cast Away

The day has finally come for Talmage's cast to go away!  We have been no so patiently awaiting this day.  Talmage has developed into a pro on crutches.  He was pretty nervous to let go of them.  

Cutting away the old cast....

The atrophy of the left leg compared to the right leg.  Not as bad as I thought it would be. 

 Well, the cast went away, but he's not free yet.  He is now in a boot and has to continue to use his crutches to help him walk.  Talmage just got a lot slower!

I must say that I was not aware of the time frame involved with healing a broken bone.  I naively believed that once the cast came off we would be done.  Instead we will deal with the boot for at least another month while he tries to stimulate bone growth as he puts some pressure on it while walking with the crutches.  I'm exhausted and I'm not the even one with the broken leg ;(. 
It's a good thing Talmage is a good sport!

White Rain

Let the projects continue... with raining down the popcorn ceilings.  Sandra is my sprayer.  She soaks the popcorn so it will scrape off.  It is a labor intensive job... and super messy, but someone's gotta do it.  

Such a dedicated helper.  I secretly think she just likes to play with water :)

The popcorn ceiling ... so much work waiting.

 Let the white rain fall!

We may be a mess, but the ceiling is looking better!

Sea Quest Fun

We took Grandma and Grandpa to play at SeaQuest Aquarium with us and the cousins.  The kids love all of the cool animals and it was fun to show it off to the grandparents!  

Visiting the Capybara - rodents of unusual size!  Bree and Lorna

 They are just babies.  

  

Chinese Chickens!  They are so furry!  

 Baby tortoises!

The cute cousins!   

Petting the manta rays!  

 Grant and Sandra

Grant and Owen

Grandpa made a friend :)

Experiment!

Talmage took a biology class at co-op and over the Christmas break they had to make a multilayer biome with water, fish, dirt, and bugs.  We arranged to work together with a few classmates and everyone brought different pieces to put it together.  The goal was that the fish would survive off of the environment factors.  All of the kids took turns watching it over the next few weeks and taking notes on the conditions.

Talmage, Ella, David, and Nick

Frozen!

We had a really cold spell move through and it froze our little lake across the street.  These birds looked like they were frozen into the lake.  They weren't able to leave the lake until late into the afternoon.  

Crazy Texas freezing weather!

Happy New Kitchen ... I mean, YEAR :)

To welcome in 2018 we continued on our kitchen remodel.  The best part of all of it was getting our new oven installed!  We hadn't had an oven since before Thanksgiving so this was a beautiful sight!  Grandpa was a great help with the wiring!  

Grandpa and his helpers!

 Jeff working on mudding the screw holes.  

 Our oven, such a beautiful sight!