Mystery solved.

I couldn't find Axel and Hanna the other day... so I went next door...

...this is what I found in front of Grandma's house.
Hmmmm.... do you suppose?

In the eyes of a child...

Apparently something other than cheese was on Axel's mind when he looked at my cheeze whiz cracker and yelled "Temple!"  Thank you Axel, for reminding me of what's important and giving me hope that occasionally I'm being listened to.  (What's a temple?  It's not a cracker with cheese... check it out!)

We're Home!

We made it back!  It has come to my attention that I forgot to mention an important part of our trip.  "The Traveling" (ominous music).  The kids and I drove, and we took along my friend Roselle and her kids(4).  We had 9 (nine, in case you think I made a typo) kids in our car, it was something (for lack of a better word).  We just got a fourth row seat for our Excursion and we installed it the day before we left.  My car now holds 11 people.  I love it!  It worked so good on our trip, things were tight, but everyone had a car seat if they needed it, or a seat belt, or whatever.  On the way there we started early in the morn, and drove all day.  It's normally a 14 hour drive for us, but took 18.  It was awful and good at the same time.  Good because the kids were really good, and only the two little ones broke down the last few hours.  Awful because, well, because it was an 18 hour car drive with 9 kids (duh!)  On the way back we changed our tactic and drove starting at 10 at night.  I think we shaved an hour or two off our time.  Worth it.  Especially because most of the kids were comatose for 8 of those hours.  I don't have any pictures of the drive, apparently I had other things on my mind (like resisting the urge to abandon ship, lol.)  Roselle's family is moving from Cali, so that's our last trip together (sigh.)  Anyway, we're glad to be home!  Yeah for Idaho!

Meet the Cous!

Here's Millie checking out her newest cous!

Millie is 4 months, Gabe is 4 weeks.

Cute, Cute, Cute!

Here Comes The Sun ... Da Da Da Daaa (Beetles)

Yesterday we went to the park, and I kept Millie in the shade the whole time, I promise, but...

...if you look closely you can even see the white line where her head band was.  Sorry Millie!  (no vitamin D supplements needed this month)

More Vacation!

We went to the beach on Saturday.  It wasn't too busy and was perfect weather.  We did get burned though, it was overcast and I didn't do sunscrean (even thought I know better).  But not too bad.  We spent the whole day playing in the sand, searching for sea shells, and checking out anything we could find that was alive.

Here's my dad and the girls looking at some marine life on these rocks.

Christy found a sea snail.

We found some poor crabs to harass with a stick, until one of them "came out after" Cynthia.  (I think she was just a little jumpy)

Hanna's having a good time!

Axel too.

Today we went to the Jelly Belly factory, yumm!  It was tons of fun and at the end of the tour we of course got free samples.  My fave:  I think it was the "pear", or maybe "root beer", or "buttered popcorn."  I haven't gotten up the nerve to try the "baby wipes" yet.  (no joke, that's a flavor)

family pic in front of the "jelly belly bug"

hope you're all having a great day and summer!

Sunny California

Jen and the kids have gone to visit Jen's dad Tom in sunny California.  So far we've went to the park, museum/aquarium, and more park.  Here's a few pictures of the kids:

Here we are at the aquarium, it was lots of fun!

Here are some of the kids at the park, also lots of fun!

More soon!

Bear Trampoline

you guys gotta see this, funny!

Look!

Check out my other blog, See Jen Run.  The link is to the right.

Mom's have the best resume ever...

Ok, once you've been a mom, you could get any job in the world, right? Of course everyone knows we can write Taxi Driver on our resume, and Chef, Laundress, Receptionist, Nurse, Accountant, Dentist (think extractions), Teacher, Dietitian ("you don't get dessert until you eat your veggies"), Maid, Dishwasher, etc. etc. etc... But this week I discovered that I am also a Plumber... sort of! I'm going to paint a picture for you, because if I really posted a picture, you would start gagging and never read my blog again, and then what would you do with all your spare time? Here it is... (this material is rated "G" for gross, and may be unsuitable for pregnant ladies) ...mad, naked toddler (I told him bath time was over and drained the tub) + bathtub drain (withOUT one of those little screens that keeps things from spontaneously going down the drain (aka. being forcibally pushed down)) + busy mom trying to get 5 kids fed and ready for church + BM from the afore mentioned toddler who apparently eats a high fiber diet + yellow gloves + permanent marker to mark yellow gloves with the word "CLEANING" so they never, EVER get used for dishes again = my plumbing experience. An MP3 player was needed to drown out any swearwords/brain waves that might occur during the cleanup process and there is apparently just enough fiber in his diet... too loose to pick up, too firm to wash down. Brody took one look and said "well, I guess he showed you who was boss!" I don't think I will be putting "plumbing experience" on my resume... I don't want that job... plumbers are either SERIOUSLY PAID or not right in the head.

May Madness!

Well, it's may, and now I know the meaning for the expression "May Madness" (or is it March Madness?), oh well, for me it was May! Our school, in the interest of saving money, decided to shorten the school year a week (take all the "snow days" that we didn't use), and as a result, everything was crammed even tighter into the last few weeks. I try to get involved and haven't had a spare moment lately. First there was Cynthia's field trip, out west of town to some sand dunes. Everyone brought snowboards, sleds, etc, and it was FUN:We buried the kids here, the whole class! Cynthia is on the very top right, just a head.

They when we were done with pics, they all escaped.

Then there was "field day" which got rained out (bummer!). Then Christy had her Kindergarten Graduation, with party/fieldtrip included. That was a blast! She was very proud and pleased, and she loved her teacher. Here they are:

Christy and her wonderful teacher Mrs. Fabanich. She was awesome! Brenda and Tyler had their babies last month, so we watched their older kids a couple of times, that was fun! here's some snapshots: Here's one of Axel getting dressed up as a unicorn... looks like his arm is being twisted...NOT! And here's Hanna and Millie. Hanna's getting better at handeling her, not just poking her in the eye! I've gotten some cute pics lately with those two.Well, that wasn't too mad was it? The farming is going so slow, because the rain hasn't ceased for more than a day or two at a time since last month. Brody is still waiting to get the second half of his crop in, and at the moment it's looking like that might not happen. We'll see!

When things start to melt here in Idaho, we don't put away the snowmachines, no-no! We just turn them into wave runners, lol. Brody was having fun skipping this pond out behind our house, so he called a friend and told him, to which the friend responded "I'll be there in 20 minutes." Who can miss a great opportunity to get in some redneck farm sport! We loaded all the kids up (including Millie, 6 weeks) and went out to join the party! Us girls went out on a Razor A.T.V. but apparently 2 feet of snow is a little too A.T. for even that, so the guys had to rescue us with the snow machines. We actually made it quite a ways, you should have seen us digging! When the wheels got through the snow we were flinging mud on everything! Good times Sabe!

Here's Cynthia, riding along.

Here's Brody and Travis, doing what guys do - lookin' cool! (and racing)

I even got in on the action (not with Millie) but did manage to look a little dorky (embarassed chuckle). It was my first time, next time I'll sit down and relax, lol. My pants and shoes were so wet afterward (no, I did not pee).

Fun stuff! The main reason I put these up is to see if I can upload a video successfully. So there you have it.

what's up, y'all?

ok, here's the super brief update!

December - holidays at home, very fun! Jen got a new TV. Brody and Jen built a "shelf" for it, and as of today, no one has broken/pulled down the tv yet. see the cool red wall, nice!

January - we remodeled our kitchen/living room! we knocked out a wall, a brick fireplace, another wall, a staircase, and the worlds ugliest built in pink china cabinet (sorry to those who loved this work of art, but I'm glad to see it go). we replaced it with (in order) nothing, nothing, a support beam, a new and improved staircase (anyone recall our old one?), and nothing (but hopefully a built in bookshelf/computer desk one of these days). oh, and we removed all the plaster on the ceiling, installed all new lighting, and replaced the green lenolium. I use the term "we" loosly, because we had a variety of friends and family do all this, and we paid them. My contribution was "giving instructions" and "design". Brody did the "demo" and forked out the bill. the kids were patient to live under constuction for a week, except for the week we went every day to grandma's, the construction dust about killed Axel, he has asmatic tendencies (sp?) when he has a cold. it turned out awesome beyond our imaginations! everyone hussled because I was due very very soon, actually, we weren't done until about 5 days after my due date, but thanks to my blessing of always being late, that was 2 days early! here's some pics:

here's from the living room, you can see the new inproved stairs and lighting.

here's the kid's handprints in the wall texture, that was fun. too bad we missed Millie, but what do you do?

here's another form the kitchen to the living room. a better one of the stairs and awesome floor!

February - we had a baby (that pretty well consumed the month). Jennifer Millie Harshbarger was born on February 14th, our valentines baby. she hit my "predicted" due date right on the head (much to my dismay, and relief (think, remodel+baby)). everything went well, except that she was posterior (for those of you not familiar with this term, it means "ouch!"). she didn't turn and she took longer than I was hoping to come out, and when she did it was "ouch" but we made it. I had a midwife instead of a doctor (still went to a hospital) and for anyone wanting to have a good experience with natural childbirth, I would highly recommend using a midwife, it was awesome. She was very helpful and empathetic, she encouraged me in all the right places, and let me call the shots (something I love). I only with I had come up with this bright idea 4 babies ago, lol. Millie was fine through it all and nursed right away, and we came home 2 days later. The kids have adjusted like no big deal, which has been great. I took a while to recover, longer than other times, but by a month or so, we were feeling more or less back to normal. Millie is doing great and thriving, surviving such things as being cared for by a 4 year old, and fed by a 2 year old. Cynthia has proven very helpful with household things, and is learning to cook, and christy is a very good baby sitter. I can always depend on them. The kids are all doing great, in school and otherwise. I try to stay involved in their school, helping out in class some weeks, and attending fieldtrips. We go to the library once a week if Cynthia has been organized that week in school (she hasn't missed a week, this reward has really helped her stay focused). It's fun and rewarding, I try to only get a movie for myself, if I have a book, the results are disasterous (see above picture, notice the dishes, table and floor... oh wait, you can't see that).

April - we had a baby blessing for Millie, here she is as cute as she can be. I made the dress, one of my vavorite hobbies, sewing. It was fun and rewarding.

Erik and Jessica came up with their kids, I got them a little out of order here, oops! I have 2, then she has 2, then I have 2, then she has 2 and then I have 1, sounds like I'm next, lol!

Here's their baby, only 5 or 6 days older than Millie. (can't remember)

anyway, this wasn't brief, but... oh well, better than doing the dishes. we sure feel blessed to have our loving family and wonderful home to raise them in. Farm life is good to us! We can run and play and spread our wings out here in Squirrel, and we love it! Hope all of you are well, and we love you!