Thirty-one...

If you have ever thought to yourself "I wonder what the Shinkle's do on a beautiful sunny saturday afternoon"...

...uhmm, yeah!

Thirty...

Watching the Three Stooges with Dada.

Twenty-Nine...

Avery: Can I play on the Church one?

Me: Yep!

Minutes later I come into check on her to find her singing "I love to see the Temple" and doing a little on-line coloring! The music plays to the song as you color it. So sweet!

Twenty-Eight...

I Heart Him!

Twenty-seven...

I am so fortunate to be able to stay home with my kids. I have worked off and on since they have been born and I definitely prefer being my own boss. My husband is self-employed. That suits him as well. He is an entrepreneur. He owns a Tow Company, Storage Units, runs an Adult Foster Home for those with developmental disibilities and also farms a little bit.

We have a great manager at the Tow Company and Storage Units and so when Ron goes to work it is usually at the Foster Home. What I find interesting is that our jobs are not that different. For example, at any given time of the day we could be found doing and saying very similar things.

• Chew with your mouth closed please



• Did you wash your hands after you used the bathroom



• Turn that down



• Take smaller bites or you will choke



• It's time to take your shower/bath



• It's time to catch the bus



• Good job buddy



• Go to your room if you are going to keep making that noise



• Clear your plate from the table



• Did you brush your teeth yet



• Dinner is almost ready



• If you are good we will go to DQ for dinner



• Don't get out of bed until it is light outside

I am sure there are many more. And unfortunetly, both of our jobs require cleaning up poop! I just don't get to hire out for it, Ron does!

I don't have a picture of him hard at work but do have one of him hard at play.

Twenty-six...

This morning as I was waiting with Rowdy for the school bus, we noticed that two of our neighbors' horses were out. She was getting them back into there pasture and all the activity was making our cows anxious. So I thought I would throw them a bale of hay to calm them down. After all that is what I do when I am stressed...I eat! In doing so, I noticed that this dainty little guy...

...had a piece of twine that holds the bales of hay together wrapped around his left horn, around the top of his neck and around his right hoof. Yikes!

I went into the pen with him and all the other cows, with some bread (their favorite) and tried to lure him over and cut the twine with a pocket knife. At one point I was face to face with him and we were probably eight inches from each other. Now, you must know, despite his "Torro" appearance, he really is very tame. I was able to cut the twine a bit. Aside from Avery being inside by herself with the sleeping Bo-man, I decided to stop trying to help our bull when he took a step and "mud" splashed all over me. To put my experience this morning into words, I can only rely on a classic Chris Farley line from Tommy Boy.

Tommy: Man, did I get douched with mud!

Paul: Hey, chucko, that doesn't smell like mud.

Twenty-five...

Avery has always been a little artists. She really enjoys anything that involves colors, paper, play-doh and the like. I told my mom if you just gave her a three ring notebook full of paper, for Christmas she would love it! And she did.

Today her medium of choice was paints. What made me grab the camera was that fact that she requested the smock and she proceeded to fill it with her supplies. Also, I was loving her two brush technique! Clever little girl!

Obviously, waiting for a burst of artistic inspiration to strike:

Twenty-four...

I went to the Temple yesterday. It was a great blessing to set aside some time to spend in a place that is so peaceful, quite, and sacred. It was nice to clear my head, pray and ponder. It felt good to do service and work for others. I needed to be there.

Twenty-three...

He got to play outside today twice. We have been enjoying the dry weather. But it is still super cold.

Twenty-two...

All I have to say is,"side-pony". Well maybe, I have more to say. It is after all me in a cheerleading outfit. This was my senior year. I remember the night this picture was taken. It was always the rule that our hair had to be in a pony tail when we cheered at games. We had a game this night and I, being the very obedient individual that I am, showed up with a pony tail. Really, I don't recall wearing it that way, but apparently I did. All, the other girls as you can see didn't send me the memo that we could wear our hair down for the photo. I remember being embarrassed that I had it in a ponytail and the rest of my friends looked like they could step into their prom dresses without doing a single touch up.

Cheerleading was really fun for me. I enjoyed it so much I did it in College as well. I was so ecstatic to make this squad because I didn't make the cut for my Junior year. I love every part of being on the squad; the outfits, the locker tags, spirit posters, bus rides, cheering at the games, and I loved our school colors (Navy and White).

Go Lakers!

Twenty-One...

He can't talk, but he made it abundantly clear that he wanted to get up in the seat and drive.

Twenty...

We didn't have any electricity for most of the day because of some work that was being done to our house. It was actually kind of nice. No screens! No TV for the kids and no computer for me. I was sitting on the floor next to Avery while Bodie was napping. She was playing her leap pad and I was reading a book. We were both snuggled in our nests (blankets). I looked over at her and was astonished by how long her lashes are and they are so dark. We had a great afternoon together just her and I.

Nineteen...

He brought this home with Dada today:

He got to play in the barn today:
She got to do this today:

Eighteen...

There probably won't be any of these left tomorrow...

Seventeen...

SOOC stands for "Straight out of the Camera". It means you have not done any processing to the photo. It is always my goal to have the image as close to how I want it SOOC (it rarely happens and evey photo could benefit from some processing). Yesterday we went outside to "find the light". The sun was out and it was right before sunset (an ideal time to take natural light photos). I was pretty happy with these, and it was great to go outside and get some fresh air.

Sixteen...

Bodie was here...

Fifteen...

I am sure you have seen these before. But if you haven't it is so much fun. It is really fun to do with your kids. You walk around in your house or outside and you try to find letters in everyday ordinary objects. I was lookin through some old photos and I ran across the J-U-L and the A that I took outside a long time ago. I hadn't found a good "I" yet. Well as I was getting ready to workout this morning I realized a dumbell is a perfect "I".

(click to make larger)

By the way, I skipped my workout to do this. This was more fun and not so sweaty.

Fourteen...

He is quite possibly the sweetest little boy. Last night when I was putting him to bed we were rocking in the recliner doing a little bedtime snuggle. He had his head down on my shoulder. We hum twinkle twinkle little star. He hums with me...I love that! He kept lifting his head off my shoulder, looking me square in the face and giving me a big huge smooch. He did it about 20 times.

He used to let me rock him to sleep. But now he really prefers to lay down in his crib and go nite nite by himself. He does the same thing at nap time. I lay him down in his crib wide awake and he goes to sleep on his own. He is talking more and more everyday. When he says Mom, it sounds like mmmbob. Often when he wakes up I can hear him in his room saying mmmbob, and I always sing back bo! mmmbob, bo, mmmbob, bo...until I get up to his room.

Thirteen

I have heard of people thinking of a word for the year. They use the word as kind of a theme or a direction. They choose words like love, hope, change. It is something that is meaningful to them. I have NEVER thought that I would be able to do this. To choose one word to focus on for the entire year. I just thought to myself, how nice for them, but I can't commit to one word. I didn't even try to think of one.

Then unexpectedly as I was driving around the other day dropping kids off here and picking this up there (you know the drill). Like a ton of bricks a word came to me. I kind of ignored it for a minute. Then the more I thought about it I couldn't get it out of my head.

For me this word will help me strive for the next level. I find myself just kind of going from day to day and not challenging myself. It is easy to be challenged when you are younger because you always going to the next level; kindergarten to first grade, junior varsity to varsity, high school to college and college to your first real job. As you get older there is not as many natural levels in life. You have to create them yourself or you are stuck.

Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of responsibility to live up to with motherhood, wifely duties, church, preschool and such. However, I feel like in some ways I have settled into a pattern of taking care of things on mediocre level. And you know what? That is just not my style. Ron and I sometimes discuss that it feels like we are getting a lot done but only half way. Well, I don't like halfway.

I had no idea that I would blither on like that just to introduce my word for 2009. Here it is:






po·ten·tial

adj.
1. Capable of being but not yet in existence; latent: a potential problem.
2. Having possibility, capability, or power.
3. Grammar Of, relating to, or being a verbal construction with auxiliaries such as may or can; for example, it may snow.
n.
1. The inherent ability or capacity for growth, development, or coming into being.
2. Something possessing the capacity for growth or development.
3. Grammar A potential verb form.
4. Physics The work required to move a unit of positive charge, a magnetic pole, or an amount of mass from a reference point to a designated point in a static electric, magnetic, or gravitational field; potential energy.

My favorites are in green. I just feel like every aspect of my life can be brought up to the next level. I feel like I can apply myself more. So look out 2009 for you are full of potential.

Twelve

Hands down...

one of...

my most...

favorite times...

of...

the day.

Eleven

This is our cat, CJ, and our dog, Cooter. Cooter is named after, well Cooter the car mechanic, from the Dukes of Hazzard. Man, that is embarrassing. Two Dukes references in the first week of my blog everyday about the Shinkle household. CJ stands for Cooter Junior. I know, how original. However, over time he has been called all sorts of other things. For example, Chicken, Chickers, Bic, Bicker, Silly lil Bicker, Son of a Bicker (sorry but I want this to be complete), Flea Flicker, Flick, Flea and Niner (he had an accident with one of his toes when he was a kitten).

Now that the introductions are done. The cat and dog sometimes like to cuddle. I drove up the driveway one day and there they were. I had my camera handy in the car and snapped these shots. Chickers obviously, wanted nothing to do with it and got out of there. Leaving...

...Cooter. He has also been called Cooter-bear, Doggie, Iggy, Furry Bear, The Furriest Bear That Ever Was Furry and Flippity Flop (that's what his ears do when he runs).

Ten

My helper helperton putting the silverware away for me. She really is great at being a big sister. She LOVES to help me with Bodie. She just adores him. Lately she has loved helping him to put food on his fork when he needs help. One day Bodie walked up to Avery and gave her a great big bear hug and since that day she has a even more special place in her heart for him.

Nine

When I took these photos of Bodie I just hung a piece of white fabric in a doorway that gets good light. Well, The Bigs, that's what Ron and I call Rowdy and Avery, naturally thought it looked like a stage with a curtain. So they put on a show. It went something like this:

The Audience:

(Do you like that I decorate my home with Bo and Luke Duke?)

The start of the show:

Avery's turn:

Stage Left:

I love how Rowdy is peeking around the curtain from backstage:

Introducing Rowdy:

At the end Rowdy said "Does anyone have any questions". Apparently, Avery did.

Rock On!

Rowdy has left the building!

"Thank you, Thank you very much" said like Elvis