So, we've never actually had a birthday for Dana. Sad, eh? Last year I took only ONE picture of her birthday dinner (taco chili, because my dad wanted it). Hannah had awesome parties, every year. For her fourth birthday she had FOUR parties. I scrapbooked them all.
So this year we threw Dana a real party. It was a combined party with her friends Luke and Josiah, whose birthdays are a few weeks before hers. It was awesome. We partied at Rachel's School of Dance where the kids enjoyed an obstacle course, lots of games, fingerfoods, cupcakes, and tons of presents.

(Fast-forward 16.5 months. That's today(ish). I'll finish posting this blog now, complete with pictures. Good grief! Whose idea was this blog, anyway?!?)

Please don't get confused: This is Dana's 3rd birthday party, but due to my lack of blogging prowess, she's now 4.25 years old and I'm just posting this. Alas.

House updates! I think that our remodel was the original reason for this blog. We fail. So, here are some updates! We'll get more out in the next 16.5 months. I promise.

From the upper left, and moving in a snail-shellish order:

1. Our little bathroom. This is the one that was open to the sky for awhile, and then had plywood for a ceiling for a year and a half. It's done now, but I have no completed pics. I'll post them when we upload them. This is the in-progress shot: new tub, walls, and floor. The room was rotted out badly. It's actually a miracle that we didn't go through the floor!!! Joel pulled out heaping tons of rotted flooring, walls, studs, and even a floor joist. Nasty business!

2. Trim! Joel got the trim in around the floors, doors, and windows. We still need to caulk and paint, but we feel more "official" now.

3. Laundry room in-progress. Joel put in wonderful cabinets, a counter, and a utility sink. What a guy! We really use this space, too. It's our headquarters for milking dishes, straining milk, and folding laundry. It is also where I keep the ZOTE (only the most powerful stain-killer known to mankind, and all for less than a dollar!!!). When Dana gets something nasty on her clothes, she tells me, "Don't worry, Mommy. You can ZOTE it." Awesome.

4. Finished! Note the ZOTE bar on the sink. :) Isn't my laundry room pretty? And so functional! Plus, I made that skirt under the sink. Pretty talented, if I do say so myself!

5. Trim in the girls' room. Aren't they cute? Don't look too closely at Dana's attire; she dressed herself.

6. Scary red waterproof paint in our shower. It's prettier now.

7. Gorgeous lady (me, of course!) posing in our newly finished walk-in shower!!! Didn't my husband do a marvelous job?!?

8. Joel with his gun-shaped tile. I think that he subconsciously left a space just that shape so he could put a gun-shaped tile in. Such a boy!

9. More of our fabulous shower! I love the double shower-heads, and I'm never claustrophobic while getting clean anymore. Ah, bliss.

10. Me planting fruit trees. That's home-improvement, right? :) I put in two pear trees (Bartlett and Asian) and a peach tree. Joel laughed about that peach tree. We live in a frost pocket. I am optimistic that it will bear fruit. I think.

11. Joel had to cut part of our pantry-area wall out to make way for a pocket door for the little bathroom. Yay! No more door hanging open in the pantry!

12. Window trim in our bedroom. I love our windows! I'm using them as a greenhouse until my real greenhouse is finished. :) Yay me!

Goats! We have goats! Actually, most of you already know this. Now you can see pictures. :) These are in no special (or chronological) order. From the upper left, moving in a serpentine trail:
1. Barli, my favorite. He was super weak when he was born (his mom, Jewel, had a very difficult labor), and we didn't think he would be able to walk because his rear legs seemed malformed. He also wouldn't nurse or take a bottle for the first 12 hours of life; not a good thing! He finally got hungry, and he hasn't stopped eating since. His legs strengthened, and now he's extremely active. I don't actually know why he's on the fence here. Ask Joel.

2. The girls with the kids. Joel set up a pen for them with the trailer for shelter. This way they're separate from their moms. We have fed them from a nanny bucket or bottles since birth.

3. Sam tidying Schneehopli's bottom. They might be separated from their kids, but our does are great moms!

4. Sam, our Sanan, and her kiddos: Schneehopli, Turk, and Waterfall. (Dana named her; seriously hippy-sounding, right? But you can't take your word back when you tell a four-year-old that she can name the next one. Mommy knows better next time!)

5. Turk doing a dance. The kids are hilarious to watch! They bust some crazy moves.

6. Jewel, our Nubian, and mom of Barli and Schwanli. (If you're wondering about the ones Dana didn't name, they come from the book Heidi by Johanna Spyri. We read it last summer and decided to name our herd after the goats in the book.)

7. Schwanli and Barli at 2 days old. It was cold and Nubians don't have thick coats, so we put them in shirts the girls had outgrown. Barli's naked in this pic, but Schwanli is sporting a darling lavender tee. :)

8. Sam, chillin' in the goat pen. She will often hang out right next to the hay so that Jewel can't get at it. Sam is our alpha-female, and she's something of a butt. Jewel is high-strung and in dire need of a sedative, and I think Sam likes to capitalize on her delicate nerves.

9. Schwanli doing a jig. These kids CRACK ME UP.

10. Sam cleaning Schneehopli just after birth. When Turk and Waterfall were born, she hardly looked at them; she only had eyes for Schneehopli. Sad, but true.

11. Schneehopli and Turk, cleaned and waiting for sissy to be born.

12. Jewel cleaning Schwanli and Barli. They had an older brother, but he was back-presenting (and humongous), and by the time Joel was able to get him out, he had died. So sad! We were really grateful these two lived.

So, that's our goat family. :)

Hogsback, April 2010

In my quest to update our Blog, I've decided that brevity is best. Also, thanks to my pal Taryn, I've discovered the glories of photo collages, compliments of Picasa, which make putting pics in a breeze! Here we are hiking Hogsback. Having lived 25 years of life in Klamath Falls, it's somewhat criminal that this was my first time ascending the majestic heights of this landmark mountain. We enjoyed ourselves immensely, after the first 45 minutes. During that time, we weren't sure if we would make it or not! We haven't hiked much in the last eight years. We met a lovely marmot on the way (see top row, second from right). He looked so peaceful! I considered resting by him, maybe never moving again, but there are diseases to consider when resting with rotting rodents. We persevered, making it not only to Lone Pine (see bottom right photos), but to the very apex of Hogsback! What a view! The trip down was a little less spectacular, as we were fairly certain that, in our descent, we were surely endangering the precious cartilage in our knees. But we did make it, and I even made a return voyage four days later with my Essentials class (the writing/grammar/math-drill class I tutor for Classical Conversations). Seven 8-12 year-olds made it up with much less ado than I did (either time), and I only got us "lost" once! (Well, twice.) Joel and I plan to make this hike a tradition, but first we'll buy some of those hiking poles that look like ski poles. We aren't laughing at the people who use them anymore!!!