Another grandchild in the family

We added grandchild number 17 to the family early Sunday morning. ShaRae had a baby boy around 1:30 in the morning. They named him Blake Howard McShane. He was a little bit early, but seems to be a healthy boy. He weighed around 8 lbs (they weighed him twice and had a difference of 2 oz, so we'll stick with 8 lbs) and was 21" long.

Family Reunion

Here we are in Pocatello. Taryn (Janelle's third) was baptized Saturday July 12th on her birthday. Jaret (Zach's third) was blessed Sunday July 13th. There are 30 of us now and one more on the way (ShaRae's). We're all here except Derek (Michelle's) husband and having a great time together. Here are some pictures to prove it.

Audrey
(That's right it's me Connie, with Zachary's help.)

And it all started here 37 years ago.


The Maughans (Michelle's family)


The McShanes (ShaRae's family)


The McMinns (Janelle's family)


The Howards (Ryan and Amber)


The Hansens (Shauna's family)


The Howards (Zachary's family)


Here's the original eight. What a scary lot.

Update

Farming is going full steam now for Bob and it keeps him busy all of the time. With balers breaking down and other things falling apart, it has been an interesting crop so far this year. Thankfully the weather has been a little bit better so Bob is almost done with the first crop..

Audrey is out of school and enjoying summer. She keeps busy with workshops and other things around town and also loves to visit her 2 favorite children occasionally. (And those 2 know who they are) :)

They are both getting excited to head up for a family get together in Idaho here in the next 3 weeks. Janelle's daughter Taryn is getting baptized and Zach is blessing his baby, Jaret, that same weekend. It should be fun for them and all of the grandkids in Idaho are excited for Grandma and Grandpa to come visit.

I'll see if I can't pry some more information out of Bob and Audrey here in the near future.

Updates

The last couple of months since our last entry have been pretty uneventful. Which is always good for us. The less stress the better. We did have a few fun things happen though.

Bob celebrated his 60th birthday on March 29th. Another year older ("and wiser" he says).

Zach and Carrie had a baby on April 16th. That makes 16 grandkids now and the boys are outnumbering the girls 9 to 7. It was hard with Zach's because they didn't find out what it was until the birth, but eventually we finally found out.

School is now even closer to being out for the summer so we can plan trips. If we can afford the gas to go anywhere. There is a family reunion on Audrey's side this July at Lehman Hot Springs though. And they have said they have cleaned it up considerably since the last time we were there.

The farm is running at full speed now too since it is spring. Hay is a hot commodity in the area and the smaller bales are always popular for those with few horses and cattle. Thank heavens for them.

Life is good and we hope all are well. We'll work on having pictures up from things we've been doing in the future.

Staying Busy on the Farm

Life has been pretty busy and hectic in our household. Now that spring has come in Washington, it is time to get back to work on the farm. This is the reason we are using for not updating our blog in such a long time. Hope that works for everybody. :)

Bob has already started spraying and spreading for farmers around the country side and that has definitely kept him busy. He has also ventured into the wheat business with a few acres this year. He is excited not to have to swath and bale as many acres.

Audrey has been busy with school, as always. She is anxious for spring break to come to get a good break from the kids. But all in all it has been a good school year.

Howard Family Christmas Cards

For all of those family members that we forgot to send out a Christmas card to, here are pictures of our family members that they sent out this year. The first picture is an entire family picture from our family get together this summer. The others are described below. In order to get a more detailed view, just click on one of the pictures and you can see the families. We didn't get one from ShaRae or Ryan, but they are in the big family picture, so enjoy!

Here is the entire Howard crew. We fill out a card very well we think.


This is a picture of Michelle and Derek Maughan and family. They live in Pasco, Washington.


This is a picture of Janelle and Rob McMinn's family. They live in Pocatello, Idaho.


This is a card from Shauna and Brian Hansen and their 3 kids. They live in Logan, Utah.


This is a card from Zach and Carrie Howard and family. They also live in Pocatello, Idaho.

Can you believe we did this?

Okay, officially we didn't set this up, our son did, but we will hopefully keep things going to stay in touch with everybody. Check back once in a while to see what things we have started doing. We will keep you informed of new things happening in our lives and in the lives of our children.