Happy Leap Day!

Today, we're celebrating Leap Day. We just put a pan of Leap Year Day cake in the oven. Recipe found here:

http://hicookery.com/tag/leap-year-day-cake/

I am a frosting fanatic, so I'm adding strawberry cream cheese frosting. We're also playing Leap Frog and once dad comes home (if it's not raining) we're going to play a nice game of Stick Frog. This is a Boone family thing (Padre Boone would be so proud). :)

We also just got a new baby lamb that we're bottle feeding. Since the other two sheep that we own have "F" names (Floppy and Flossy), this one has just been christened Fanny. She's a cutie. The kids don't know that fanny is another word for the back side, or they'd be cracking up and making jokes. Anything to do with the bum or potty language makes them laugh uncontrollably. Oh, children!!

We hope you're finding a reason to have fun on this day that only comes around every four years!!

Happy Leap Day!!

Road Trip

We're currently on our way to Utah. We will have driven 32 hours by our arrival and we're almost there--thank goodness!! Just two hours more to go. We've had a great drive really all things considered. Tyler has been sick for part of the trip and the kids have been superb. I personally can't wait to eat real food.

We're a tad bit sad to leave our little farm. We have new pets-- a pup named Cinnamon Snowball Boone, two little lambs, and a duck named Howard. There are fun stories associated with all so maybe I'll share later. Also our cow, Dolly, should calf while we're gone.

We're so excited to spend a month in Utah with family and fun!! Cousins and siblings, here we come!!! Can't wait!!

May Day, May Day

Happy May Day. I'm alive. I'm sure it doesn't seem like it, but I do still exist. Hope you all have had a joyous first day of May. We enjoyed a lovely little Sunday with naps, Magic cookies, and warm weather.

Maybe I'll try to resurrect my blog...

I'll try...

But, I'm not going to make false promises.

Something has happened to me...

Tonight I realized as I was out in a social setting that I don't know how to be social any more. I somehow either become too quiet or I can't stop talking. I found myself extremely annoying and in my head I'd say to myself, "That's enough!" But then, I couldn't stop talking. UGH! And, I don't need those comments from siblings who say "You've always been annoying."
I have a complex now. Maybe it's time to just be a hermit.

Happy Mother's Day!!

(I know they look a little shaggy. They now all have haircuts, but I still love this picture and had to post it. Also we haven't refinished our steps. This is on the house list of to-do's. Now I'm done with apologies and on to a post).

Today I feel special. It's been a wonderful day and I'm so thankful to my hubby and little ones for making it such. I love my sweet little ones. I'm so grateful for my mother. We've had a fun weekend and a great Mother's Day.

In the LDS church, the membership mostly gives talks based on topics given to us by our leaders. We do not have a preacher who preaches to us every Sunday. The members share messages and they usually help strengthen the individual speaking.

Today hubby had to give a talk. It was one of the most tender talks he's given. It was very sweet. He was given a talk that President Thomas S. Monson (the prophet of our church) gave "Behold Thy Mother." Go read it if you can (Thomas S. Monson, “‘Behold Thy Mother’,” Ensign, Apr 1998, 2). It's one of those timeless talks. We work with the youth and one of their mom's turned around and said to me, "What's he trying to do make everyone cry?" Anyway, it was very endearing and I'm grateful he's my hubby. He also paid tribute to his mother and spoke about her integrity. I'm so grateful for her as well. She's a rock and when she says she'll do something she'll do it. She's a woman of service and she's one of a kind.

I'm grateful for the mother's I've had in my life. My mother. My Granny. My Grandma. My Mother-in-Law. My sisters and sisters-in-law. I have such good examples of what a mother should be. I feel so blessed and hope that I can be what I ought.

This is how President Monson closed his talk, "One cannot forget mother and remember God.

One cannot remember mother and forget God. Why? Because these two sacred persons, God and mother, partners in creation, in love, in sacrifice, in service, are as one. " I like that. I want to be a partner in crime. I guess I should say partner in goodness. Yeah. That definitely sounds better!! Happy Mother's Day everyone!

A Weekend of Food

My sis Jen came home on Friday and we took our cute little mom out to dinner. We went to a Japanese steakhouse and ate way too much. It was such fun, and we talked and laughed until they practically kicked us out of the restaurant. I don't think we've had a girls night for ages and it really perked up the spirits. I'm so thankful for my mom. She's such a great lady. She is a listener and she somehow always knows when to say just what I need and even when not to say anything at all. She's a wise one. I feel blessed to have her as my mother.

Yesterday, we had a very interesting dinner. My mom fried locust blooms and poke stalks. We then ate the leaves from the poke plant (very much like a spinach). Poke is a poisonous plant, but if it is washed at least twice and then boiled it is edible, and I must say quite delicious. The leaves were delicious with balsamic vinegar, and we breaded and fried the stalks which tasted much like okra. Locust blooms are just what the name says--the bloom from the locust tree. It is only available for about two weeks out of the year and it is also yummy. If you don't believe you can fry anything come to my house. I promise it will taste good. ;) We also had fresh steaks that were hickory smoked over hickory wood. I think it was hands down one of the best steaks I've eaten. And we had fresh trout that was also hickory smoked. The boys went fishing in the pond earlier yesterday, and David #3 caught the biggest fish. He caught a bigger fish than everyone so that equated to extra excitement.

Today was a great Mother's Day. I got some fun little treats from everyone--yummy chocolates, some new perfume from hubby that I love, the movie Leap Year from Jen, and my sister-in-law made me a gorgeous picture collage in all black-and-white of the kids. It was a lovely day. But, the best part is that David, J, and L pampered me and mom by fixing a delicious dinner. We had baked chickens, wild rice, baked asparagus, spinach and blueberry Frye salad, and some homemade biscuits. David made the biscuits and I was impressed. We finished with homemade cake with strawberry cream cheese frosting and then some delicious home-made yogurt with fresh mangoes, blackberries, and strawberries. The yogurt was my favorite part. I guess my weekend has revolved around a lot of food. Sorry for the long post, but it was a delicious weekend!!

Thursday

On Thursday after work, we all gathered together and went to our neighbor's house to help shell some corn to plant our lower field with. We then came to our house to do the planting (the picture up above is one of our lower fields). We ended up receiving two bags of popcorn after the night--one bag of strawberry and another bag of yellow. The kids really had a fun night.

We planted--

*Sugar cane--We hand planted this in 12 long rows. Our neighbor dug the rows with his tractor. We make molasses every year in our neighborhood (if you can call it a neighborhood). Everyone gathers together and we do the molasses in a big pot. It consists of a long night boiling the juice from the sugar cane and lots of "tasting" to make sure it's just right. Anyway, we helped plant the cane. I've never helped plant it before. I learned that you need about 3-4 seeds and you plant them about 1 ft apart. We shall see how they grow.

*Popcorn--We planted two rows of strawberry popcorn. We actually popped some for dinner on Thursday night and it was quite good. There's something exciting about the fact that this was home-grown from last year.

*Brooms?--Not sure what exactly this was, but the neighbor called it "brooms". I'm thinking broom sage, but my dad says that's not right either. Anyway, our neighbor planted two rows of brooms so that "the kids can make homemade brooms." I'm interested to see how this turns out.

*Sweet corn--All tractor planted and I LOVE FRESH SWEET CORN. I can't even wait.

*White corn--We use this to make corn meal with. And it was all planted with the tractor.

Anyway, such a fun night for the kids. We all helped with our two neighbors that we love and had a nice evening together.