Spring Break

So here are some fun things we did during Spring Break:

Played outside - the weather was beautiful!

Played inside
Lucy loves to shut all the doors in the house, the problem is that she can't open them yet, so she often locks herself in, but she doesn't seem to mind at all!

The beautiful Lucy Mae

Had a cookout down at the barn

No cookout is complete without chips, right?

Stetson, trying to keep the smoke out of his eyes

Lucy, just enjoying the evening

Went swimming at the Rec Center in Cortez

Lucy and Aunt McKady

Stetson and Uncle Jens

Going down the slide turned out to be the girls' favorite activity

Stetson loved the water fountains

Lucy and Aspen - two peas in a pod

Paige in the lazy river - her favorite activity

Zach, just enjoying the kiddie pool

J.D., enjoying the kiddie pool as well

Aspen loved the slide!

Grandma and Grandpa Grover's goat had two babies and then died, a couple days later their neighbors had a goat lose two babies, so they have been trying to make the best of both situations.  The good news: the babies are getting plenty of good milk, the bad news: the mamma goat does not like them, and is super mean, so someone has to go out there twice a day and let the babies suck.  My kids fell in love with these babies, and had to go visit them EVERY day!  Stetson took this picture:)

Grandpa Grover, holding the mamma so the babies can eat

We planned on going camping with the Grover family, but duty calls and we had to take care of stuff on the ranch instead.  We had a good time, just the four of us, working our buns off.  I look forward to many more weekends like this in our future on the Black Family Ranch.  We did get to make St. Patrick's day cookies with the Grovers, and they were delicious!!!

How do you eat a cookie?  If you asked Lucy, she would say, "you lick off all the icing and then crumble the rest in your hands and spread it all over the floor."  Yup, she enjoyed it!

Stetson decorated his own, and then some for other people.  I think he had more icing on his clothes than on the cookies, but he had a great time, and enjoyed eating the cookies!

I did get some cute St. Patrick's Day shirts for the kids, but couldn't find my camera on that day, so maybe we will put them on again sometime and take a picture for the record.  All in all, it was a pretty fun week!

Too Funny!

Lucy woke up pretty early the other morning, so I just brought her in bed with us. We were just laying there talking, with Lucy right in the middle. She has been talking a lot lately herself, and was actually contributing a lot to the conversation. She looked over at Kenny and suddenly pointed to his eyes, and said "eyes". She continued, doing the same thing with his nose and mouth, and then she stopped, as if she was really thinking about something. Then she turned to me and touched my hair, and said "hair". I couldn't help but laugh, and luckily Kenny found the humor in it too!

Where's daddy's hair?

We own a cattle ranch, raising beef is what we do for a living, and would you believe that neither one of my kids will eat beef?  Seriously, not even a hamburger; when we go to a fast food place, it's chicken or a hot dog.  One day Kenny got out a package of hamburger and put it in the microwave to thaw.  Stetson said, "dad, what's that?"  "It's beef", was Kenny's reply, "do you know where beef comes from?"  Stetson smiled, "yeah, it comes from chickens!"  We laughed.  Somewhere we have failed!  Oh, well!

The future of Black Cattle Company . . . maybe we should get some chickens!

Fifth Disease . . .

. . . Yes, there is such a thing.  It is obviously not very common, but common enough that we got it at our house.  Fifth Disease, also known as "slap cheek", is caused by a virus called human parvovirus B19. This is a very mild disease with either no symptoms or a slight runny nose and sore throat, followed by a lacelike rash that may come and go for up to 3 weeks. Some kids have a low-grade fever, and some have no fever at all.

For about 4 days Stetson didn't eat much, I didn't worry because he has never been a very good eater.  On the fourth day I noticed that he was a little less active than usual, he layed on the couch most of the day and acted sleepy.  He insisted that nothing hurt and that he felt fine; I kept checking throughout the day, and he didn't have a fever. He seemed better on the fifth day, and actually started eating a little better.  On day six, when I picked him up from preschool, I noticed that his cheeks were more red than normal, still no fever. A little while later I noticed a rash on his arms, suspecting an allergic reaction, I started giving him Benedryl. Over the next two days the rash spread up his arms, then started up his legs, over his bottom and up his back, as well as being more pronounced on his cheeks.  Still, he insisted that he felt fine, and that the rash didn't even itch (unless I touched it, of course).  I decided to take him to the doctor.  They checked him out from head to toe, and everything was fine, except the rash.  A look on the internet proved the doctor's suspicion, it was the final stage of Fifth Disease.

I found out that children will come down with the rash 10 - 14 days after they have been exposed to the virus, and that the disease is contagious during the week before the rash begins. Once the child has the rash, they are no longer contagious. The good news is that it is usually super mild and no treatment is necessary. The rash is harmless and causes no symptoms that need treatment. Also, this is like the chicken pox, once you have had it you shouldn't ever get it again because your body builds up antibodies to fight it.  In Stetson's case it was mild enough that I didn't even know he was sick until he was no longer contagious.  My apologies to anyone who may have come in contact with Stetson during that time!

A picture of the rash on Stetson's cheeks and arms

A picture of the rash on Stetson's legs

The crazy thing about this rash is that it comes and goes.  Sometimes it is very dark, and sometimes you almost can't see it at all.  It seems to be much worse after he has been playing hard and after he has a bath.  This picture was taken the next day, when the rash on his face was much darker.

Can you see why they call it "slap cheek"?
(No, I did NOT slap his cheeks!)

And a view from the side

 I can't believe he hasn't been scratching like crazy, but it doesn't seem to bother him at all, it just looks bad - especially for sending him to preschool - but the damage has already been done, no use keeping him home now!

I believe Lucy got this as well, though the rash has only appeared on her legs.  She got a lot sicker too, but I think that had a lot to do with the two eye teeth that just broke through - yay!!!  She has been trying to get those for months!

My cute little diaper baby

You can see the rash a little better in this one

Lucy had a runny nose, cough, fever, and ear infections.  She was one miserable little chick!  It was Sunday, it got quiet so I went looking for her, and this is what I found . . .

She got herself a pillow and blanket and went to sleep on the floor

I think we are finally on the mend!  Yay!!!  We celebrated that and the warm weather by going for a walk and playing outside - I am definately ready for spring!

Check out those shades!

We tried to feed our horses some apples, but they weren't interested, I think they were just scared.  Stetson was super disappointed because "the big white horse on Tangled eats the whole apple, even the seeds".  I thought that was pretty funny!


Stetson with his apples



Lucy with the dog

 Hopefully we all stay well, and the weather stays warm!  We love spring!!!

State Wrestling

Two of my amazing brothers were among the top four wrestlers for San Juan High this year.  It was a tough year for both of them, but they stuck with it and finished strong.  I was only able to watch one home dual, against Monticello.

Jens, in the yellow, is clearly leading the match

1...2...3...PIN!

Jade, the only senior wrestler, has some tricky leg moves

Jade, in yellow, stayed on top and ended the match with a PIN!

I am grateful for the opportunity I had to watch these guys at the State Tournament at UVU.  We rode up in the semi with Kenny, then met my dad in the bus at the truck stop in Springville and he took us to the school.  I was a little nervous about having both of my kids by myself with that many people, but they did great.  Jade and Jens, along with their teammates Dallin Jacobson and Chase Richmond won enough matches to make it to the second day.  Kenny and Stetson went home, but Lucy and I stayed to watch the final matches, and they were intense!  Jade finished in 4th, Dallin finished 5th, Chase finished 6th, and Jens finished 7th. The funny thing about Jade's 4th place finish is that his brothers both placed 4th at State their Senior years as well.  I guess the Grovers are a 4th place family . . . we will see what Jens does as a senior.  Jade was also among 10 2A senior wrestlers to be named to the 2012 Academic All-State team!  Way to go Jade!!! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

What is Valentine's Day without flowers?

Kenny has it easy, he doesn't have to remember to get me flowers because his dad ALWAYS does!  This is one thing that I look forward to EVERY Valentine's Day, and this year did not disappoint!  Lucy got some too, and she was SUPER excited!



Flowers from Grandpa Black
Lucy's - Mom's



Will you be mine?

 I got Lucy this cute little dress for Valentine's Day and tried to take some pictures, this was the best I got.

Lucy Mae

This year for Valentine's Day we made and decorated cookies with our cousins, the Palmers.  It was fun and super messy!  I'm sad I didn't get any pictures, but it was all I could do to keep up with the kids.  Then we took the cookies around to some people we thought might need a little cheering up, the kids had a blast!

Kenny asked me what I wanted to do for Valentine's Day, and I told him that I would really love to go out to dinner and then to the temple with him.  Suzie was kind enough to watch the kids, and we had a WONDERFUL evening out!  Thanks honey, I love you TONS!!!