After some suspicion that the second ewe was not feeding out of both teats, Scott and the boys (along with my parents) found one of the lambs laying in the pasture yesterday - looking quite lifeless. It spent the afternoon in the house and by evening was back up and outside. Since he was looking good we took the boys swimming, but by the time we returned he'd slid back downhill. So we brought him back in for a night by the fire...! Not sure what his future will be, but he's still alive for now.

   

We were already in PJs and heading for bed when we got a late night surprise tonight!

For anyone who was thinking of awarding us medical degrees for our work with the lambs on Sunday, it should be noted that on closer inspection today it turns out we missed a few things back on Day 1. Little black-face is a boy!

Still have two little lambs as of this morning - although the rain stopped for a while last night and I think the coyotes may have gotten their first "whiff" of lamb chops!
Here's a little "farm family" picture from Monday afternoon. Frankly, they line up better than the boys when we do family pictures:)

Our house has been transformed into a chocolate factory for the past few nights - getting ready for a couple of Valentine's Day parties tomorrow...!
60+ "kiss" rings are now assembled - ready to adorn tiny little preschool and kindergarten size fingers. Now all we have to do is get them to their destinations in tact. Fingers crossed! Bring on the parties...!

 

Came home this afternoon to a very distressed ewe. We kept an eye on her all afternoon and about 5:30 tonight, the first lamb was born! A few minutes later the next one poked her head out, but that was all she did for quite some time. Eventually we realized things weren't progressing like they should (it was taking too long, and the lamb wasn't moving anymore) so we grabbed our handy book and soon learned she should have both hooves showing up by her face, instead of just one. Lamb #2 was going to require a little intervention.

So I tackled and held (tackled, rolled and slid might be more accurate) the momma to the ground while Scott went in search of the missing hoof. Success! Well, she was out at least. Scott cleared off her nose so she could breathe and we left them alone to bond. The next hurdle was making sure her leg was OK. She needed to stand up to nurse and they need to nurse relatively quickly. After close to 30 minutes we thought we would need to get involved again. She was still laying down, and closing her eyes with some long, extended blinks that didn't look good. But suddenly she was up! Found her momma and latched right on alongside her sister. Four hours later they're still feeding and filling out nicely.

Here's my favorite picture from the night... nursing and giving birth at the same time. That's one tough momma!

Ahhhh.... the little guy is growing up!

 

After two hectic weekends of running around (or being out-of-town) we promised the boys we would do some things together as a family this weekend. So Saturday morning we were off to OMSI, which the boys have been begging for since our membership expired the end of December. Carson has suddenly grown too big to spend the whole time in the PreK room (sad!), but Nolan could stay in there for hours with no sign of boredom. Dinner at Red Robin on the way home (complete with a Daddy/Son arm-wrestling tournament) and the day was done. Sunday was church, followed by an impromptu picnic in the middle of the railroad tracks, before heading over to Poppy & Nonna's house for the SuperBowl. Lovin' the family time right now:)

 

It was almost 60 degrees today! Makes your mind just start coming up with excuses to go outside! Scott picked the boys up at school and they were begging to "play on the tracks" before they even got home. Rumor has it they spent nearly two hours building a dam, throwing rocks and walking the steel. As a grand finale, the train even came by while they were there, offering an up-close look at all the cars and engine. Afternoons like this are what childhood memories are made of!

 

Not really sure what we've been doing for the past five years, but whatever it was, it didn't involve getting library cards for the boys. We always checked out books on our cards without a thought! But when we moved out of town, adults outside the city limits are only allowed one check-out at a time. Kids, however, get 20-something! (As long as they are from the children's section.) So the boys were super-excited when we told them they were getting library cards tonight! Carson picked out a book about the Titanic (a subject that has FASCINATED him since we read Magic Tree House's "Tonight on the Titanic". Nolan (Mr. "DON'T TAKE MY PICTURE!!!") went with "Froggy's Best Babysitter". Not sure if they were more excited about the books, or having little cards to put in their wallets :)