He's Here!

Much to my children's dismay that the baby did not arrive on Christmas, he is finally here. Apparently, babies are supposed to arrive on Christmas to be the best present. I am sure he turned out to be the best present anyway. I was induced, it took 4 hours (short and sweet, as usual), and he came out screaming. good thing he hasn't kept up with that. We named him Leo Keller, and he weighed 6 pounds 8 ounces, and was 19 inches long. We called home and told Lana what we named the baby and she says, "Oh, that sounds nice, Mom. Have you decided what his last name is going to be?" Thanks a lot- you make me feel great about myself, Lana. Needless to say, his last name, we informed her, will be Burrell, just like all of the other children.
Leo spent some time in the NICU due to the fact that he could not maintain his blood sugar level. I was very glad when he was able to come back downstairs with me, and subsequently go home. We brought him home on Friday, and he has been doing well ever since. We went to Justin's parents' home to get the other kids, and they each took a turn holding him. When it came time for McKendrick to hold him, he takes Leo's tiny hand and says, "Nice to meet you." Very cute, I thought. McKendrick is a hand shaker. No high-fives or bones or knuckles from this boy.
The kids all enjoyed Christmas, I think. I worked Christmas Eve (at this point I must send a shout out to Darci who traded me Christmas Eve for the night before I was to be induced), went home and had Christmas with the kids, and then crashed while Justin fed the cows before we went to our parents homes. I must say it doesn't really feel like Christmas when you work through the night and grab some much needed sleep in the day. That's okay, though, because we all enjoyed spending time together. and, yes, Justin still guessed what I got him even though the box was well disguised. I still do not know how he does that!

I have not updated the blog for a year and a half. I am a total slacker, but we will just pretend that I was really busy. We are looking forward to the holiday season. My kids are so excited for Thanksgiving in 4 days. Kale keeps telling people that she is going to cook a turkey for Thanksgiving. When she is asked if she is going to stuff it, she says, "No, but I am going to rip it's feathers out!" This coming from the child who replies, "We shot her," when asked how she took care of a cow that swallowed a wire. Leave it up to her!
Rather than explain everything we have done all year, I will just post a few pictures to show the fun we had, and how much the kids changed from earlier in the year until now.
Lana on Fox

Kale on Fox

McKendrick loved his swimming lessons this year!

Kale turned 4 on July 12th! Her cake was a little saggy on one side, but it tasted good.

We have this issue with starlings at our house. Justin (who didn't know I was taking pictures of him) plays the big hunter with his (actually, the girls') pink Daisy BB gun and goes out so stealthily (NOT!) to kill the birds that keep pooping on my car.

Kale is my animal lover. She is going to be the one who brings random animals home all the time! This is Kale with Bo, my husband's dog, who turned 16 this year. For some reason, she doesn't suffer from arthritis, and she still just keeps kicking.

McKendrick played clean-up around the yard all summer, picking up all the branches and garbage that would blow around (the wind never stops here!).

Lana learned to ride her bike this summer

One of the games from our family camp

Justin and McKendrick fishing at the camp

Kale fishing

McKendrick turned 2 on May 6th

These 2 pictures are of our property we bought this year. It is in Pleasant View, CO. We bought 110 acres with center pivot for irrigation. The pivot is ancient, so, hopefully, it will hold up until we can purchase a new one. It is the beginning of the growing season, and our 1st year alfalfa looks pretty puny. Good thing it produced a profitable crop this year once the water and sunshine got on there! We look forward to moving down there and letting Justin run his own operation.

We branded earlier this spring. It was so fun to take the smaller calves and let the kids rope them and drag them in the first day. It was a big project, but my kids look forward to it every year. King, the horse Justin is on, arrived at our place one week before the branding. He had never seen a cow before, and he actually performed very well.

The New Pony

The girls' pony was finally ready to come home. We told both of them that they must ride their pony at least three days a week in order to keep her. They named her "Wildfire" after the pony in that Michael Martin Murphy song. Of course, they don't want a nickname for her so they have to yell out the four syllable, "Wildfire," anytime they go out to catch her. They are totally in love with her, which is exactly what Justin and I hoped for. Except for when I have worked all night and just as I lay down in bed they run in and want to ride the pony. So, what do we do? Go out and ride the pony. I must be insane.

Yes, the girls love their pony. Almost as much as they love buffalo wings.

And we can't forget about McKendrick. He had his first haircut (which was an extreme challenge, by the way). He kept turning to hear where the buzzing sound was coming from. At least we were successful, in the end, and I don't think anyone could see my mistakes, or at least no one said anything....

Before

After

Beginning

Since everyone I know has a blog, I figured it was time for me to start as well. It seems to be just about the easiest and quickest way to keep people informed about what happens in everyone's lives. Hopefully I will just be able to update it on a regular basis. To make a quick intro: Justin and I currently live in our second home we have built together, and are trying to sell it. Our three kids have kept us quite busy, especially since it seems we have all been sick the entire month of February. Hopefully we will all get better and get out to do some fun things so we have good new pictures to put on here!