Thirty-five...

We have been counting down the "sleeps" until it is the day of Avery's birthday party. Last night as her head hit the pillow she said "Tomorrow, it will be zero more sleeps, Mama" as she made a little circle with her hands.

Thirty-four...

These are from one of our annual trips to the beach with my Mom. We stay at the same hotel every year and just relax!

Thirty-three...

These are the best little tricycles. Both Rowdy and Avery rode theirs until the front tires were completely worn through. Avery also wore the toes of her shoes out by scooting on the trike. I told her one day to try peddling and she said "No, I can go faster this way (by scooting)". Great! She has inherited her Dad's need for speed!

Are you kidding me?

Is it any wonder why Grandma Linda calls her pinky?

Thirty-two...

Avery will be celebrating her 5th birthday this week. Therefore, I will be doing a post a day in her honor. Mainly because I love draging my birthday celebration out for a week so why shouldn't she? These were from her first birthday. Look how chubby she was.

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...