High School Here I Come!

June brought about 8th Grade Promotion for Bailee. She's now officially a freshman in HS! It is so hard to believe we have another kiddo in HS again. Time is flying by. School will start 3 weeks from tomorrow.

Here are a few shots of her with Amber and with friends right after the promotion ceremony!

Junior Livestock Show 2012

Another Jr. Livestock Show is under our belt. It was a great year for both Zane and Bailee. Bailee ended up with Grand and Reserve Champion 4H Market Hogs and Grand Champion Carcass Hog. Zane earned Reserve Grand Champion middle weight Market Hog and Reserve Grand Champion Carcass Hog. Zane also won Grand Champion in Jr. 4H fitting and showing contest. It was a good year in the Perleberg household. This was Bailee's last show as a 4Her as she will be in FFA this fall as a HS freshman.

Here are a few Jr. Show pictures. I didn't take them. Thanks, Doug, for the pictures.

These are Bailee's Grand and Reserve Market Hogs. Zane's helping her show them in the overall finals round since she can't show both at the same time.

Here is Zane showing his hog during the Market contest! He won his class and middle weight Reserve Grand Champion with this hog.

Bailee - during the Market contest! This is her overall 4H Grand Champion hog.

An official hunter in the house!

Yesterday was the Hunter's Safety written test and today was the field test day at the Davenport Gun Club and Zaner passed both. We are sure proud of him. He studied really hard (actually I did too helping him study) for several days and now has his certificate to prove it. He's such an animal lover that it will be interesting to see if he ever hunts much. He learned a lot about gun safety which is so important.

This makes three hunters living in my house right now but unfortunately I'm not a fan of the taste of wild game. I guess that will leave more for the rest of the family. Today and tomorrow are open for youth turkey hunting. At first he was excited but decided he didn't want to go out by the afternoon. Below are a few shots of Zane shooting clays with the instructors. I took them with my iPhone. No fixing of anything, I just uploaded them and posted them on the blog. You can see that the weather cooperated today. No rain and the clouds were fantastic in the background.  

I don't have any pictures of Bailee because she was busy visiting with her friend. They took a few walks to the gas station and the soda fountain instead of watching the field tests. I can't say I blame them.

Last Tournmament of the Year!

Yesterday was Zane's last wrestling tournament of the year. He took 1st place in his age and weight division and earned a gold medal!  It was in Reardan and we hosted the tournament. That meant up and at 'em at 5:15 AM and running check-in/registration by 6:30 AM. The tournament went well and we were done and home by 4 PM. After helping run registration, I spent most of my day in the bracketing room. Thankfully I saw all but one of Zane's matches. These photos were taken by Doug, the resident sports photographer and grandpa of one of Zane's friends.

Next weekend is a livestock show in Moses Lake and the following weekend a shoot for Hunter's safety.

One week until Spring break. Maybe true spring weather will arrive with it? We had snow on the 1st and 2nd days of Spring this past week.

Wrestling Video

I'll try to post a video Bailee took this weekend at the wrestling tournament. Zane ended up earning a bronze medal for 3rd place overall. He wrestled 4 matches and won 3 of 4. This video is showing one of his winning matches. Take a peek and let me know what you think. Zaner is in the maroon singlet.

Grandpa was here this weekend. It was great to see him.

The kiddos are gearing up for two livestock shows this spring. Steve, the lamb is here at home and the pigs are offsite at a local youth ranch.

Our chickens are finally starting to lay eggs. Or at least one or two are starting to lay. Usually they lay them on the floor the the coop but today one managed to lay an egg in the nesting box.

It was gorgeous on Friday and today it did a bit of everything from snow to hail to rain and wind. It's snowing again as I type. I guess this is spring in the Inland Northwest!

Now on to wrestling...

Yesterday was the first of several wrestling tournaments in the month of March. I used my Rebel because I have misplaced the battery cover to my new camera when last charging the battery. I know I put it in a safe spot so I wouldn't lose it but can't remember where that "safe spot" is. I forgot how to change my shutter speed on the Rebel so my pictures turned out a bit blurry.

The chickens started laying eggs this week and our first calf arrived on March 1st (a nice little heifer)! Spring has arrived I hope. The temps are supposed to be up to almost 50 by the end of the week. It's definitely a muddy, mucky mess outside.

Here are a few shots of Bailee looking thrilled to be sitting all day in the gym. I am sure she will be excited (sarcastic here) to see these on the blog.

Here a few of Zane wrestling. He is in the maroon singlet. Wish they were a little sharper. I took a few that were blurry but would have been great shots otherwise so didn't post them. Darn!

A week of basketball and awards

We received a letter from the school inviting us to attend a special awards assembly at school this past Friday because Zane was to receive an award. We were supposed to keep it quiet. It also happened to be a 'read in' day so his entire classed dressed in PJs to read the afternoon away. He was awarded Outstanding Effort in all areas for going above and beyond. We are very proud. Here is a shot I took with my iPhone 4S so I could email Rick (who was that the state HS wrestling tournament in Tacoma). I can't figure out how to turn it. Sorry. All the pictures I take with my iPhone are blurry. I'll have to get Robyn to show me what I'm doing wrong when I visit this summer.

Then it was on to a weekend of basketball at a tournament in Davenport. They ended up 1-3 for the tournament. Basketball is now officially over. Here is a shot of Zane taken by a wonderful grandpa who takes photos at each game and prints them off and/or emails them to all of us. Thanks so much, Doug!

Basketball season is coming to an end; Let wrestling begin!

It's been almost a month and a half since I've posted a picture on this blog. I must get better and I will. The biggest problem is that I haven't taken a picture since Christmas. Life's been busy but that's not an excuse.

Bailee and Zane are busy with their animal projects for spring livestock shows. Bailee's showing pigs and Zane is showing a lamb and pigs.

Zaner is finishing up basketball and has started wrestling. This coming weekend is a 3 day basketball tournament to end the season. So far he plays at 5 PM and 7 PM on Friday. It's in Davenport so at least it's close.

Here is a picture of Zane taking a shot at a basketball game a few weeks ago. Thankfully other people are taking pictures and sending them to me. This is one of Zane's favorites so I thought I'd post it. I didn't do anything to it but posted it as it was emailed to me.

Welcome 2012!

We spent a quiet night at home on New Year's Eve - just Zane, Rick and I! Bailee was at a friend's house for the night, Ashley was working and Amber with friends in Spokane. We made sliders, stuffed mushrooms and played the game Hedbanz! It was a quiet but fun night.

School starts tomorrow (Jan. 3rd) for all of us. I am excited to see my kiddos but 5:15 AM will come early as my body isn't used to getting up at that time the past couple of weeks.

Bailee's finished with JH sports and now Zane is playing Little Dribbler basketball each Saturday for 5 weeks. Then he'll move on to little guy wrestling. Both kids are showing animals this spring for two different livestock shows.