Garfield County Fair & Junior Livestock Show!

August 1-5, 2011

Panguitch Stake Youth Trek @ Wyoming

 Trek was....AWESOME! There are WAY to many pictures to post, so if ever you come through this way, stop by and we'll tell you the whole story, complete with slide show. :) Actually, I've decided to go ahead and blog about Trek, but it will be in a week or so. :)

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August 18, 2011

Kids start school!

Jordyn started 9th grade this year, so she's officially a FRESHMAN in HIGH SCHOOL! Gah.

We're having a bit of trouble sorting out her classes- we're trying to get her in a "Debate" class and "FFA", but those are both electives and she only has 2 electives as a Freshman. One is Seminary, which we are NOT dropping, so we're stumped as to which to take. Both are AWESOME! So we are meeting with her counselor to see if there's a way to take them both. (The FFA teacher suggested a way...we'll see!)

 Brittany is in 6th grade this year, and the "Queen Bee" of the Elementary School. Here she is with her teacher, Mr. Barney

Koby is in 4th grade, and yes. We DID have him registered for home school. Yes. Because of his "issue". But after a LOT of thought and prayer, I decided to keep him in public school. I'm glad I did. Already, he's learned things that I would never have thought to teach or have time to do. Here he is with his teacher, Mrs. Marshall

And here's our "baby"! Ryan is in 2nd grade this year. Where does the time go? Here he is with his teacher, Mrs. Cloud. He already loves school and is whizzing by in reading!

It's nice to have all the kids in school. Lets me catch up on everything around the house, which is very nice.

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JUNE, JULY, & AUGUST

A LOT has been going on with our crazy life this summer! I just never have time to blog each thing, so here's a run-down. We decided to put the kids in 4-H this year, thanks to Benji's cousin, Annie. She got us hooked up with 4 chocolate Mini-Rex rabbits, and the kids have worked hard all summer to train them and raise them to compete in the county fair.

June: Getting to know the rabbits. Brittany's rabbit is a female she named, "Amazing Grace", and the chunkiest one out of the 4. All 4 came out of the same litter.

Jordyn with her female rabbit (smallest one of the 4), "S'mores".

This male rabbit is Koby's. He name him, "Milky Way".

And the horniest one of the bunch is Ryan's rabbit, "Mr. Rabbit".

July: We decided to make a rabbit cage because Brittany's bunny had "pecking order" over Jordyn's bunny. Meaning Britt's bunny, "Grace" was sort of bullying "S'mores" by oinking all the food. S'mores was losing weight and fur mass, and Grace was getting fat! So we made this awesome cage with dual living quarters, each with it's own cubby box (for breeding down the road). After Benji made this cage, his cousin Annie saw it and loved it so much, he know has a ton of "orders" to make more! Let's hope his schedule allows him the time, lol.

July came with more training, playing, and feeding. We put Grace on a diet (they have to be a certain weight to be able to breed), and added double feed for S'mores.

Our trampoline has been a lifesaver! Since we can't let the rabbits run around on our grass (we have chickens, and if the rabbits mix and mingle where the chickens go, they can get deathly diseases), we had the kids play with them on the tramp since it's enclosed with a net.

Then we'd get one rabbit out at a time and place them on a table to start training them and going through the moves the kids were supposed to learn. Before this, I had NO CLUE rabbits could be trained. Lol!

Koby with Milky Way, and Ryan with Mr. Rabbit. I am SO proud of my boys. When we first got the rabbits, they were scared to DEATH of getting scratched, and got super frustrated whenever the rabbits wouldn't sit still. They have made a complete 180!

August: This is where we got serious. Lol. The kids would practice their moves with the bunnies every single day. They got so good!! The bunnies, who were super wild in the beginning, were very calm and let the kids do their thing.

Jordyn showing the straightness of the hind legs

Koby & Ryan (and friend, Toby, who also participated with his rabbit) trying to get their rabbits into showmanship position

Benji's cousin, Annie (head honcho over the rabbit division at the fair), helping Koby learn how to show the rabbit's teeth.

Brittany showing the straightness of the front legs

Jordyn & Brittany showing the teeth

Straightness of the hind legs

The fur test

Ryan & Koby showing straightness of the hind legs. This is AWESOME, because just a month before this, they HATED holding the rabbits because the rabbits were scared and would scratch them up all over their arms and stomach. Look how far they've come!

August 19, 2011

Garfield County Jr. Livestock Show!

Please forgive my photos! I could NOT find the charger for my "good" camera, do I had to borrow Brittany's point-and-shoot. The arena had huge windows all over the building, so everytime I took a picture, those darn windows would glare something horrible! :-(

The rabbit show started at 8:00 AM (same time as school, so they missed their 2nd day of school!).

The kids standing in the bleachers where we were sitting. Behind them is the arena where they would do the rabbit competition.

Lookin' sharp!

First up was the "Pee Wee" competition. Since Ryan isn't 8 yet, he's not old enough to compete in the actual "4-H" competitions.  Ryan competed against 3 other kids, ages 5-8.

Ryan answering the judge's questions

He was awarded 1st place in "Pee Wee Showmanship"! He won a ribbon, a $2 bill, and a belt buckle!

Next up was the actual 4-H "Showmanship" competition. Since this was the first year for rabbits in our county fair, there wasn't anyone to run against Jordyn or Brittany. Lol. But even so, it was neat to see them do their very best. :)

Needless to say, Jordyn won "Senior Showmanship" ribbon & buckle, and Brittany won "Intermediate Showmanship" ribbon & buckle. :) The girl in the green shirt is Annie, who, after the judges came to a conclusion, handed out the awards.

Next up was the "Junior Showmanship" between Koby and his friends.

 Koby did AMAZING! His stupid rabbit was scared of the noise so he was all over the place, but Koby kept his cool, ALWAYS smiled at the judge, did everything he was asked to do!

 Koby recieved 4th place in showmanship. But as his mom, I think he should have won 1st or 2nd! He was GREAT!

Next up: "Best in Breed", so it was between Jordyn (who was showing Ryan's rabbit), Brittany, and Koby. We found out later that Jordyn accidentally had Koby's rabbit and Koby had Ryan's. Lol.

In this competition, the judge takes each rabbit and checks every part for high qualities, etc.

Brittany won "Best of Colored Fur", Koby won "Best of Opposite Variety", and Jordyn won "Best of Breed". So, technically, Koby should have Jordyn's ribbon since it was his rabbit, lol. Oh, well.

Next was the "Championship" competition between all breeds of rabbit. The cute little boy on the far right hand side, Toby, won Grand Champion Rabbit!

And Jordyn's rabbit, "S'mores", won Grand Reserve Champion"!

And that was it for the rabbit show. They then went on to show lambs, hogs, and steers. Later that day, the girls had the opportunity (because they both won in showmanship) to participate in the "Round Robin", which is a fun competition between winners to compete against each other while showing a lamb, hog, and steer (none of which the girls have ever even been around before, lol!). We were supposed to have time beforehand for the girls to ask the animals' owners how to show them, but we got there late. The girls were practically shoved into the arena with NO CLUE as to what was going on. Brittany freaked out and got pretty scared, especially since her lamb kept jumping up and bleating. Lol. So, she withdrew, and Jordyn went in there against the other kids. She did GREAT! Even though she had NO idea what she was supposed to do, and even though the lamb was a fiesty one, lol, she held her own, I think. Next was the hog, and finally the steer. She looked SO GOOD out there! I can totally see her doing this again. :) Afterward, we went home and vegged. I was SUPER stressed because the kids were all on one, and I felt bad that my parents had to witness that. Lol.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

The NEXT day was REALLY fun, though!! We had to be there before 9:00 am to feed the rabbits, then it was the awards ceremony!

First up was the award for Junior "Best Record Book". Brittany was competing against a handful of other kids who completed record books for their lamb, hog, or steer. And Brittany WON! :) She won a "Sweepstakes" ribbon and a belt buckle! (Along with a $10 bill). She also received her belt buckle for winning "Intermediate Showmanship".

Jordyn received her belt buckles for "Senior Showmanship" and "Grand Reserve Champion" Rabbit.

Among other things, each of the kids entered something of theirs in the fair.... Jordyn (left) and Ryan (right) both got blue ribbons for their pictures, along with a $2 bill.

Koby received a red 2nd place ribbon, along with a $1 bill for his poem.

Brittany received a "Sweepstakes" Ribbon and a $10 bill for her poem!

After the awards ceremony, Brittany and Ryan went with Grandma and Grandpa and dad to the park for the Fish Grab, while Jordyn and Koby stayed with me at the arena. (They had to stay dry for the auction). We heard (Benji has pics on his phone- I'll try to get them soon) Brittany and Ryan caught loads of fish for dad. :) Later at 11:00 am was the auction. Any animal that placed "Grand Champion" or "Grand Reserve Champion" in their age category had to sell their animal. That means Jordyn and I forget why Koby had to sell his- probably because he was the "Best of Opposite" in his category... don't recall. Anyway, I didn't get pics of the auction, but we did get video! Ugh. Nevermind. Blogger is having issues with my videos. Anyway, Jordyn sold hers for $60 and Koby sold his for $40. Okay amount, considering it was the first year to include rabbits. Oh, and the buyers allowed the kids to keep their rabbits, so everyone's pretty happy. :)

Afterward, we stood in a long, sweltering line for some free BBQ at the park! I don't know WHY I didn't think to get a picture. Lol. Then my parents headed back home while we went and crashed. :)

Here are some pics of the kids with their winnings:

It was a lot of fun, and we're already getting started for next year! We REALLY hope we can get the word out on the rabbits so there will be a lot more competition. Also, this way, a lot of kids who can't afford to raise and show the bigger animals will be able to afford to show the rabbits. TONZ of thanks goes out to Benji's cousin, Annie, who made this all possible!! We are now starting a rabbit breeding business with Annie, who has a contract for IFA to sell rabbits for 3 years. We are breeding top-quality, champion bloodline Mini Rex rabbits (super soft, silky fur with stand-up ears). If anyone is interested, we will be selling them for $30 each. Yes, this will be in our backyard, but this is no "back yard" business. Quality counts! We have them papered to prove it. This should be interesting. Lol. It's mainly so the kids can learn responsibility, and that if they're going to raise animals for the fair, you have to treat it like a business. You can't get attached to every animal, because if you win, you HAVE to sell. We'll see where this business takes us. Lol.

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Here are some

MISC JULY/AUGUST PICS!

Jordyn turns 14!!! Can you guess what kind of cake she asked for? Lol.

For her birthday, her two Panguitch BFFs came over and we had fun taking crazy pics.

Benji took us can-hunting out in the hills for a few days, and we came back with LOTS of bags full of cans. The next morning when he went to smash the cans, we kept finding lizards, lol. Here's Ryan with one of them.

On our way up to Logan to drop off the kids (my sister Heather was kind enough to watch the kids for a week while we went on Trek!), I was finally able to stop and see my neice, Sophie!! She's still in the NICU at Primary Children's Hospital in SLC.

My uncle Don (one of my mom's twin brothers) came clear up from New Mexico to see us! We haven't seen him in almost 11, 12 years!

I got to change Sophie's diaper! Isn't she the cutest? She's SO. TINY! Pictures don't do justice at all!

My "baby" sister and her baby girl. Wow. Seeing Ashlee as a mom is awesome. I've waited for this day for YEARS!

Uncle Benji holding sweet Sophie!

The 3 kids (Jordyn stayed home) in front of a painted pony at Primary Children's Hospital

We made it to Logan, and I got to see another adorable niece, Lily bug!! She is SO cute. In this picture, she looks JUST like Heather's (her mom, my sister) baby pics!

Brittany and her cousin, Sydney! Brittany was SO excited to hang out with Sydney for the week!

August- a recent pic of Benji & I

Sweet Koby blowing out a dandelion

I need to save these pictures for when the kids are older and hate me. Lol.

I thought this was so cute. Jingles and Daisy went over and plopped next to Ryan and went to sleep. :)

Brittany & Jordyn sitting by Jordyn's friends, Jantzen & Sicily at a neighborhood BBQ

Brittany, Koby, & Ryan with friend Logan at our neighborhood BBQ

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Well, I have spent entirely TOO MUCH TIME on this computer today! I need to pick up my kids from school, and, oh! Did I mention I am now an official SOCCER MOM??? I coach Ryan's soccer team and we have our 2nd game today. :) Later!