For the things a man is good for....

And now I hear her sayin'



Babe I still need a man for the things a man is good for


You know how it is raisin' crops



and raisin' kids







Demands a man at least as fit as you are







So come on git on home there's hay that needs a mowin'





A boy that needs a whippin'





and a hundred things to do









If you want to know my mind leave that rodeo (beach) bum behind



Don't waste our time I'm waitin' here for you

John's Present for Father's Day - a week long sailing trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina (he just has to make sure 12 boys scouts don't drown too)

Thank you, Chris LeDoux and Silence on the Line, for putting into words my daily thoughts.

Hurry home Dada. We love and need you.

A Baby Big Enough to.....

Yell at his Mama.....


Have opinions of his own......



Get frustrated at his toys......




Lift heavy objects.....



with ease......



Wear big boy shoes...... and get them filthy, muddy and gross along with himself......



Almost walk but still bum scoot enough to wear out his britches......



Ride on Dada's truck in style.......



Eat everything with gusto......



And wear everything he eats..... and throw everthing he doesn't eat......



Eat watermelon like nobody's business.....



Get the attention of an entire room with a manly, deep throated chuckle.... cover everyone with kisses.... wallow in the bed with the best of them......



Must be 1 year old Elias McKean Genho. Happy Birthday baby Lias. We love everything about you.


1 year old stats: 27 lbs (99%) ....26 inches (50%) .....head size 19 3/4 inches (95%) .....says Mama sometimes ..... sleeps all night like a charm ..... crawls and climbs over most anything ...... walks 1 step between things ...... gives the best open mouth kisses and cuddly hugs......blows raspberries as soon as I say "pucky, pucky"....... knows what a horse is ..... dances to Dada's guitar ..... grunts and chuckles for anything he wants ......8 teeth ..... best baby ever.

Happy Birthday to Natey

Nathan had a rocking birthday party two and a half weeks ago. We only had 13 adults and 16 kids so it was just a little party. As we were rushing around getting ready John tried to make me admit that the party was really for me not Nathan but I wouldn't. Nathan talked about going camping, fishing and having a "burst-day paw-ty" for days before hand. Just look at these pictures and try to tell me this kid wasn't excited.

One of the highlights of the evening were these electronic helicopters this dad brought. He let the kids all take turns flying them and it made Nathan's night. He's been a little obsessed with "heli-cock-ers" and airplanes for almost a year now. He can find the smallest dot of an airplane in the sky and screams "AIRPLANE!!! AIRPLANE!!" till we all acknowledge the streak in the sky.

The fun didn't even stop when they landed in the trees and the big boys (ie dads) had to climb the trees to get them out.

Of course, what party would be complete without a little fireworks? Luckily, it doesn't take much to impress a 3 yr old so the lame snakes satisfied him and his little friends. They were even happy with the hotdogs, chips and soda while we fed their parents potatoes and bratwursts.

I couldn't come up with a theme for the whole party, let alone the cake so we settled on all things boy. I made the cups with bugs and all manner of construction vehicles and I have to say, they were a big hit with the birthday boy.

He had a tough time picking which one he wanted.

But he thought they all were pretty cool. Literally since they had ice cream in them too.

Eventually I made him settle on one because in his excitement he started licking it.

By three, they definitely know how to blow out candles. We had to relight them a time or two to get any pictures.

We even let the goat babies in on the fun. We brought them out and they chased the kids around. I tell you, if you ever want a cheap entertainment source, get a goat baby. Who needs a clown or blow up bouncer when you have these guys around?

Nathan had the honor of naming the little dark brown one - it's Lighting, after Lighting McQueen. I'm not sure why every little boy in the 2-4 age range I know is obsessed with Lighting McQueen, but they all are. Lighting proved to be a little too fast for Nathan last Sunday when Nathan tried to race him and Lighting cut him off. Nathan's head bit the pavement dust but don't worry - a little superglue and he's good as new.

For his birthday Nathan got the movie Cars, a Lighting water bottle, a cool toy that spins disks into the air, an action figure that bends all sorts of ways, the CandyLand game, and lots of little cars and airplanes. He was in hog heaven and keeps asking me if we can get this or that for "his burst-day paw-ty yesterday night".

But all good things must come to an end and with all those little kids we never did make it fishing or camping that night. He didn't mind too much since he was bushed with all the excitement. He wouldn't take a nap that day although I tried to make him for almost an hour and half. Finally in frustration I told him to "Get up, now you're gonna have a yucky, yucky birthday party." He cried about that forever and kept telling me he didn't want a "yucky, yucky birthday party cause he wants a nice birthday party". Oh, the things we do to traumatize our kids. I think it actually turned out fine with no grumpy meltdowns so I had to eat my own words.

John kept the fun going the next morning by letting him drive the tractor. Driving tractors = pure heaven for little boys. Every time we happen to go behind the office where the tractors are parked he begs to go sit in them for "Juss a men-et, Mama". Even though he gives me the most endearing look I never give in cause I'm so mean.

They did a little demolition work and took out the mismatched, straggly boxwoods on the front steps. Thank goodness.

Lias did not appreciate the tractor or the demolition work.

Nathan cranked and cranked on that wheel while John did the real work on the backhoe. I think someday soon John's gonna have a real surprise when Nathan figures out how to actually move this thing while he's pulling and pushing on all the levers.

Yep, I think a 3 yr old is definitely big enough to start learning to work around here. Just as long as we let him take a little time off here and there for things like naps and riding bikes and giving his Mama hugs and kisses.

--HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG BOY--

Poor Sweet Baby

Our poor sweet baby had to have surgery today.

Let me tell you, it was one of the scariest things to walk away from the operating room, knowing darn well that your baby is in good hands but that he is about to be intentionally "cut open", for lack of better words. It's like having your heart taken out, looked over and then someone carefully walks away with it, telling you you'll have it back in a few hours and everything will be fine.

Luckily, everything did go just fine and they were able to fix his inguinal hernia (when tissue or part of an organ, such as the intestine, protrudes through from the abdomen into the inguinal canal in the groin), which is a fairly common type of hernia that affects up to 1 in 20 kids. He was a complete doll baby before, during and after the surgery, which pretty much sums up Lias anyway. He's seriously the nicest baby ever. And the sweetest. Oh, and, of course, the cutest too.

We thought his surgery would be first thing in the morning but it ended being scheduled for 3:30 in the afternoon. All fine and dandy for an adult but you try telling a baby that he can't eat anything after midnight. I snuck him some crackers that morning and fed him jello and I was allowed to nurse him till noon so he made it without too much fuss.

He thoroughly entertained the entire staff with his deep throated constant chuckles (seriously, this kid laughs all the time) and his bum scooting around in his little hospital gown. He decided gowns are not for him, since they gape open in the back and show off his diaper. He even scored a cool balloon and some sweet socks that he wouldn't leave on.

By the way, a dad is the absolute best toy you can bring to entertain a baby that has to wait in the PreOp room for over an hour.

Eventually, 3 anesthesiologists and 4 doctors came and gave him something that made him really woozy. It must have been training day at the hospital because there were at least 10 people in the OR with him and most of them were interns. Check out those heavy eyes.

His head got way too heavy to hold so we had to help him keep it up as we walked him into the OR. When Lias is tired, he gets pretty giddy so it was kinda funny to watch him get woozy and slap happy.

They put the mask on him, he looked around and fell asleep. Not a peep out of him, although I did almost cry. We kissed him goodbye and were escorted out to the waiting room, where we filled up on the free WIFI and trashy magazines for 2 hours. They did all the IVs and stuff after he was asleep and we were gone. They told us that the only complication they had was trying to find a vein for the IV since he was so chunky.

After it was over they came and got us to go back to him and I almost lost it again when I saw this poor little baby all wrapped up in a blanket looking so lost and just wanting his mama. They let me hold and nurse him right away and he slowly came awake and realized he was hungry.

We decided to use the food as a bribe to get him through the hour ride home quietly so we left him to just eat his hand until we got on the road. Note: babies and IVs don't mix - way too many things they can pull out.

He's sleeping it off upstairs now and should be no worse for the wear within a few days. Thank goodness for modern medicine and cute, cute healthy, safe and happy chubby babies.

Issues, my computer has issues

So yes, I've been on kinda a blogging funk lately. It just sometimes seems like such work to try to get the pictures off the camera, into the computer, downsized and played with, and then uploaded to the blogger world. By the time I get there, it's already midnight and there's a kid screaming in their sleep and I'm thrashed!

But tonight I really wanted to blog about Nathan's 3rd birthday party and my computer has major issues. I recently took the plunge and moved totally over to PSE 7 rather than using Picasa, mainly because Picasa has swallowed some of my very important pictures (try Nathan's whole birth folder - gone, poof, nowhere to be found) and I'm ticked off at it. I loved Picasa for it's ease but I figured if I just put a little time into PSE I'd get it. Wrong. Tonight I've spent 2 hours trying to figure out why I can't access my pictures file in PSE and I'm ready to throw the computer out the window. I'm starting to think it's not the program's fault but rather Vista, which I hate with a passion. So I've actually lost ground after 2 hours - I'm no closer to being able to quickly process my pictures AND I can't even find the #$%@^ ing pictures.

Does anyone have a program they really like? I thought PSE was supposed to be great but I'm not thrilled with it, obviously. I have almost 8,000 pictures over the past 5 years but I just want to be able to look at them. Help. Please.

On another note, we're alive and good. John's building boats, Ava just finished her first season of soccer, Nathan got his first superglue treatment tonight and it's holding his head together just great. Lias has a big week ahead with a little visit to the dr to fix a small hernia in his groin and his birthday all in one week. I just got over strep throat that knocked me down flat for a few days but think I have it on the run. IF I ever get my stupid computer to work I'll blog about all of it. Until then the pictures will continue to build up on the harddrive.

Easy Come, Easy Go

Whoa, where have the past three weeks gone?

To the rabbits and the chickens and the goat babies and my own few babies and John's boats with the boyscouts and to a busy life for John of wearing a suit to church each week and me being a sacrament meeting widow. Whew, no wonder we're a little tired. But for my story of easy come easy go...

We've learned that it's as easy to get out of the rabbit business as it is to get into it. Within one week about a month ago we were unexpectedly gifted with 14 rabbit babies and within the past week we have unexpectedly been relieved of 7 of those rabbits. Yes, this is another sad tale of woe and misery and blood and horror. You can stop reading now if you still want to remain in awe over our luck and fortune to have so many cute adorable bunnies to play with on our idylic little farm.




Last Friday we set up a little make shift hutch in the yard for our "buck" rabbit and its 4 babies that had made it to that stage. Her and her family had been living in a dog crate in the garage and couldn't see the light of day or eat the clover and we were feeling bad for them living in their squalor. So we set up a chicken wire cage outside in the yard with a few pieces of heavy wood on top of them, with the intention of bring them in during the nights. We remembered the first night and forgot the second and that was our fatal mistake. During the night the lovely dog that lives at our house tore apart the cage and, once again, wreaked havoc and carnage across the backyard. It was the final straw for me. Every time I walk past her now I kick her if I can and refuse to give her the time of day. This, coupled with her last 15 animal slaughters and the fact that she nipped at Ava the other day, have done her in in my book. I realize that I should not have left the rabbits out over night but it still doesn't make me feel any sympathy for this dog. John is up a creek because he really can't work the goats without her but I believe he is looking for a replacement in the near future. In the meantime she's kenneled whenever anyone comes over and hated by me all the time. So ends the story of the buck that wasn't a buck after all and it's adorable babies that had just opened their eyes and could fit in the palm of your hand. And sadly, I never even got a picture of these babies or their mother.


Next sad story. Two nights ago John and the kids decided to finish the door on the original (dog proof) rabbit hutch that we have the other mother and her surviving 4 babies in out in our yard. It's a great sturdy hutch that lets them eat clover as we drag it around the yard each day. This mother is the original mother that came with the original 4 babies (of which none died! yeah!) and she's a great mom. She has raised 8 babies in the past 2 months now and if she has one fault, it's that she's a little too defensive of them. We haven't handled her at all since this second set of babies was born a little over 4 weeks ago, so she's gotten pretty wild. I came out that night to see Ava in the cage with her, petting her and laying next to her while John drilled the door in. I thought that was pretty amazing since she's actually tried to bite us a few times but didn't think too much of it till Ava got out of the cage and she still didn't move. We had given her a bunch of extra lettuce that she snarfed down but I thought she looked a little sickly and started watching her. All of the sudden, she started convulsing, eyes rolling and gasping for breath and yep, within 3 minutes she was dead. DEAD. We all (Ava, Nathan and Lias too) stood there shocked. Could we possibly have more bad luck with these rabbits? After a little googling, we found out that rabbits can actually be scared to death and the only things we can figure is that between the drill and Ava touching her we killed her.


She left behind 4 little babies that are just at the brink of being able to survive on their own so we'll see how they do. They do NOT like the fake milk replacer we tried on them so hopefully they're able to get enough from the grass. Time will tell.

So moral of the story: Easy Come, Easy Go (and we really stink at keeping rabbits alive)

(Up next - Nathan's fishing, tractor riding, bonfire birthday and not one word about rabbits, I promise)

It's getting ridiculous here on the funny farm....

He's are becoming she's and she's are turning into he's. Or something like that.

Last afternoon around 5pm Ava went out to check on the teenage bunnies, who now reside in a dog cage in the garage, and she came back in with a disturbing tale she was telling. "Mama, I think one of the new baby bunnies got into the bucks cage cause there's something moving in there." This is the buck we bought at the auction to breed to the mother rabbit who has now had 2 litters in 4 weeks- how naive were we to think we needed a buck around to help with that? Ha! They just spontaneously have babies here on the funny farm.

Anywho, back to our crazy tale. "No, Ava, I don't think a baby is in the bucks cage." I reassure her. "Maybe a mouse got in there or something. I'll come look." I head outside to see this buck that's sitting in a plastic tub that used to house the baby chicks that met such an unfortunate end a few weeks ago due to our dumb dog. The tub is still full of old dirty chicken litter and now has rabbit urine and feces too. After the new babies arrived on the scene we decided we'd just send this buck back to the auction since we obviously were not in need of his services. We've thrown him a little rabbit food and usually remembered to give him some water in the past few days, but that's as much effort as we've got time for with 60 goat babies and 12 bunny babies and 12 baby chicks kicking around.

It doesn't take long after looking in the tub for us to realize we've been fooled once again by the auction. Yep, our "buck" just gave birth to at least 6 tiny, red, baby hippos that are wiggling in all that old chicken crud and rabbit crud and a huge pile of rabbit fur. Who knew that a mother rabbit pulls out all her hair to make a nest and it looks like a rabbit went through the lawn mower? So we now have at least 16 baby rabbits on our funny farm, and 12 of them are unwanted and unplanned and uninvited. We're selling the 4 teenagers now but we'll see if anyone wants them. And wouldn't you know it - the auction that we were planning on taking them to this weekend to get rid of them is canceled due to a death in the family. And John just left this afternoon on a 3 day business trip.

Ava sure is excited though. She never dreamed we'd have this many rabbits. If they survive long enough to get hair on them I'll post some pictures. On the bright side, we should have tons of cute bunnies to play with soon.