SPRING FEVER!!!

I know...we haven't updated our blog for a while. We just didn't have anything new going on. But, we figured it's time of an update. So here we go. Our Molly Girl has been playing school softball. She's on Varsity this year. And has been playing 3rd base and pitching. She LOVES softball. This past weekend, she had an out-of-town tournament in Winslow (which is only an hour away). It lasted for 2 days. Her team played 6 games. Only losing one game. Which put them in 3rd placed for the whole tournament. (Molly even hit one over the fence during one of the games scoring her run plus one runner that was already on base) Go Molly and ...GO LADY LOBOS!!! Hannah and Molly are both on spring break this week and loving every minute of it. Hannah especially is enjoying the break from her very busy school schedule. Krystal's business is quickly picking up (thanks to the arrival of spring) and keeps her busy throughout the week...and lately even into her weekend. We definately have SPRING FEVER here at the Sipes/Orton residence. We are ready for the sun! We've had beautiful weather the past couple of weeks (aside from the 50mph winds). It's been beautiful and sunny. This past month our Stake President has asked every family in the Stake to plant a garden. So, we've been getting our soil ready and buying seeds. This week since the sun has been shining, we decided to plant our "starts". We have a large variety of vegetables. Bell peppers, black beans, onions, cucumbers, radishes, tomatoes, green beans, corn, carrots, lettuce, peas, pumpkins, watermelon and a variety of herbs. We are so EXCITED for our yummy garden to grown. We (Sipes/Orton Clan) also decided we are going to raise some small farm animals. We already have two goats, Nelly and Toby. So, we began this week with Chicks. We got a varity of egg laying hens. We bought them today. We have 4 that are 2 weeks old and 12 that are only 4 days old. They are SOOOOO CUTE!!!!! We've never done the 'farm animal' thing and the girls are very fascinated. They've even gone as far as getting library books on gardening and raising chickens. We are so very blessed that we live with Marcie and Russ and that they too are on board with the self-sufficiency plan. We all have the "preparedness" bug. We've all been working so hard on getting our food storage built up. And the garden and chickens are just that much more to our preparedness plan. We'll let you know how it all works out. And here are some pictures of our new little friends. They have to live inside for the next month. We love them!!!




Molly Girl playing 3rd Base.




After the game!




These are the 4-day old chicks.






Krystal...with a baby chick (she's been asking for 1 for about 4 years)




Hannah...with a baby chick.