Mocha

Mocha is by far the coolest animal we have ever had! Jake and I got two mini horses (Java and OhLa) two days before we got married. We wanted a baby miniature SO bad! Well it took three years and WE FINALLY HAVE ONE! We had been watching Java really close and we knew she would choose to have her baby on the coldest night of the month. Sure enough the wind is blowing, it is freezing, and we notice Java was getting close. Julie, Jenny, Granny, Andre, and I all stayed up waiting for the colt to be born. We lost a colt last year and so we knew we had to be with Java this year to make sure the baby would live. Andre delivered the little colt at 1:00 AM, and we were so glad we waited with her. Java couldn't have done it without Andre. After she was born the colt started getting cold so we carried her into Granny's shed and turned on all the heaters. I called Jake and he came over and taught the colt how to eat. It was a long night, but now we have our little MOCHA! 

Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day (as a mom) was wonderful! Jake wrote me a nice card, bought me a fishing pole, and all the fishing necessities. We woke up and went to my parents house where we had a delicious breakfast! We ate and then loaded up and drove to Matt Waner. The fishing was slow, but we still had a great time! My Dad caught the first fish, Jake caught the biggest fish, my line was tangled the most, my mom walked the most, and Brilee took the longest nap. All in all we had a great Mother's Day.

Family Time!

Four Month Shots...

I hate shot days! I know they are better than the alternative, but they are no fun! I have been telling Jake for two months how heart breaking the two month old shots were and that I would NEVER go without him again. I told him how she balled uncontrollably for ten minutes and how hard they had to stab her little legs. He took the day off of work and he and I went to the appointment. We waited in the waiting room for a hour and a half. It was torture. As we were there Brilee's eye started getting really watery and goopy. By the time we were called back it was a full fledged infection. She really had good timing for an eye infection. She weighed in at 15.3 and stood at 23 and 1/4 inches. She is now in the eighty percentile for weight and twenty-fifth for height. Doctor Staker looked her over and told us she was looking great and that it was time to start solid foods! He then explained the shots again and said the nurse would be right in. I told Jake to prepare himself, as my heart was beating a thousand times a minute. The nurse came in gave Brilee her shots, and the little stinker didn't even cry. She was FINE! She was actually rather happy. We took her home put her down for a nap at five PM and she didn't wake up until seven thirty the next morning. She was pretty fussy the next day and kept getting fevers. It took about two days and now she is back to herself!

They don't call them a "Waiting Room" for nothing.

Her poor eye!

Before

During

After

Great Grandma and Grandpa Cooley

Brilee got to visit her great grandparents a few weeks ago! It was such a nice day to get out and visit. We had a great time catching up and playing with Brilee. We look forward to our next visit with them... THE POOL WILL BE OPEN!!!

Toys are for... EATING!

Bri Bear's FAVORITE toy! She goes crazy under this thing!

Trying to shove TWO toys in her mouth.

Wore herself out!

GARDEN TIME!!!

Granny always plants an amazing garden. Last year I never really felt well enough to do much with it, and so this year I hope to make up for it! We plant: corn, tomatoes, beans, watermelon, cantaloupe, every pepper you can dream of, carrots, potatoes, cucumbers, radishes, and I am sure I am forgetting a lot of things. It is so much work, but we all really enjoy the canned food throughout the year. As you can tell in the pictures the kids think the garden is AWESOME too... I am excited for all the years Brilee will have enjoying this garden with her cousins!

We HEART Taylor!

Last Tuesday Granny, Andre, Jenny, Julie, The Panas', Annalee, Elly, Chloey, Jaylie, and I went and saw our favorite singer... TAYLOR SWIFT!!!! We had such a great time. We loved her music, her concert, our posters for her, and all the excitement a day of traveling with kids brings. I rode out with Andre, Granny, Cy, Smelly Elly, and Leeber Girl. Our first adventure was making our signs the night before. Elly and Leeber wrote for Taylor "We heart Taylor Swift" and for Kelli Pickler "We are small town girls". Jaylie and Chloey wrote for Taylor "Taylor Swift ROCKS" and for for Kelli "We love RED HIGH HEELS!". Our first stop was at Costco. I had been the week before and so the girls and I went to all the sample carts and spent the majority of our time dreaming of the fun we would have by the blow up water slide. After Costco we had to take Cy to Andre's sisters house. It was fun seeing her house... it was way cute! We then went to Olive Garden where we began to worry we would be late for the concert. When we finally got to SLC we parked and the girls started dragging Granny to Energy Solutions. When we got to the door we saw a sign saying Kelli was sick and wouldn't be performing. BUMMER! Taylor Swift put on an awesome concert. She was a great performer. My favorite song was You Belong With Me and I also LOVED White Horse. After the concert we went and picked Cy up, and traveled on home. I left Brilee with Jake and was really sad about leaving her for so long... but guess what she did awesome for her Dad (and Grandma Dickson). I had such a fun time and so did they.

Waiting for GO time!

Taylor's biggest fans!

Thanks to the nice girls in the short shorts and cowboy hats for this pic!

YUM YUM!

We had enough fun at Costco we didn't even need the concert!

I hate that stupid old pick up truck you never let me drive. (We sang a lot)

Right before I left, you can't tell but there are definitely tears!

Farm Land!

I am proud to say the Birchell land is now officially FARM LAND! Jake, my parents, Jake's parents, Pete, and all our siblings have helped us do a huge land make over. Our land started out with old fences everywhere, thousands of russian olive trees, huge ditches, big cotton woods, dead wood piles, tumble weeds, and only flood irriagation. Back in March when Jake was explaining everything that had to be done to my parents he kept saying "It is going to be more work than anyone can imagine... but if we finish it will be all worth it." So after three months of never ending work I think we would all agree it was a lot more than we thought it would be, and it is also very rewarding to have it finished.We started the project by borrowing a back hoe from one of Jake's friends. With the back hoe Jake, Kevin, and Donny began digging up the russian olive tree's. (Jake also used the back hoe to completely remove the old house and big trees by my house.) We then rolled up all the old fence, Woody and Barry cut the cotton woods, we all loaded the fire wood piles up, Jake got to do his favorite thing and burn about forty large piles, and we put the wheel lines together. Del came home for Easter and wanted to help us. Unfortunately the only day he could there was an awful rain storm. It was freezing and Jake, my Mom, and I wanted to quit so bad but of course Del and my Dad kept insisting we finish. After the sprinklers were all put together we started leveling out the ground and breaking everything up to get ready for the planting. Jake borrowed a seed drill and spent three days working on getting it running. When it finally was working we were able to  plant alfalfa and oats and then we turned on the water! It was a great feeling to see the sprinklers work and an even better feeling the day we woke up and could see hay growing in our fields. Thanks to everyone for all the help... and Jake I am so proud of you for getting it done! I haven't taken any pictures of the alfalfa and oats growing yet, but I will try and remember to tomorrow! (I am still need to the blogging thing, but this would have been a good post to learn how to do a slideshow.)