Happy 14th Birthday, Hannah!

Happy Birthday to our amazing daughter. What a joy and a giant help you are to me! I can't say enough how much I appreciate all you do to help our home run smoothly while we are going through the construction phase. We love you for you. Don't forget, it's okay to still be a kid!

Boys will be boys, if you let them!

A few days of rain turned the pad into a nice muddy mess. Well, nice if you're boys. Not so much if you're the crew working in it. We were at the farm over the weekend and the boys ventured out onto the pad. All was well for a short while, until Noah slipped on some mud and somehow thought that Josh was the cause. So he picked up some mud to get Josh muddy as well, Josh retaliated and thus a mud fight was born. Zach didn't want to be left out so he joined in. My dad and Tad was certain I would be very upset with them. Somehow, it just didn't seem upsetting to me. Good thing for the boys I guess! Their clothes can be washed, and they weren't harming anything other than their clothes. I did make it clear I didn't want repeats of this situation, but every boy should experience a mud fight at least once in their life! Even grown men play in the mud, for example: construction workers, professional football players, and of course, farmers! There was a footer on the pad that was 4' square and roughly 24" deep. It filled up with mud, so I had the bright idea to let them "swim" in it. They had the time of their lives! Instead of getting angry, I considered the memories in the making for them. I want to remember how quickly they are growing up and be more concerned with their spiritual well being, which will profit them in their lives far more than how I, or others, think they should be behaving. I know that statement may not win very many favors toward me, but to please God more than anyone else is how I want to live my life.

Some of muddy water on pad.

More mud and water.

See construction men playing in mud, I mean, working!

The watering hole!

Explaining the mud, notice Noah.

Josh oh Josh!

Whatcha thinking, Noah. Can we do it again?

I think it was colder than they were expecting! At least, Zach's face says so!

Not so bad once your body temp drops!

This is so much fun, Dad and Mom. Thanks for not being angry with us.

Hey, wanna try swimming??!

Hannah's 8th grade graduation

We attended Hannah's 8th grade graduation on June 8. She had over 1300 kids in her grade level but only a little over a hundred attended. Hannah has worked very hard this school year. She was in the honors program which is a lot harder than attending regular 8th grade. On top of that, we've been very busy since April with the dairy construction and she has been helping out a ton here at home while I have been overseeing and organizing the construction process. Shawn and I have nicknamed her EB, short for Energizer Bunny. She just keeps going and going! Thank you, Hannah, you are an amazing young woman! We're so thankful you're part of our family, keeping us on track.(I also wanted to share this adorable picture of Hannah and Ava.)

Kids and critters, and family too

Kids playing with our vets daughter, Emily and her baby goat, Bumblebee

Emily K and Emily J

Noah holding Sydney

Last batch of kittens, how cute, they are hugging each other.

Checking out the horrible. dead smell under our shed. Found a very large cat that we have never seen before. So glad honey took care of that one! I only observed from the porch, and the smell was horrible from there!

Notice: Dad has bandana on, poor Noah gets the whole smell, with his finger in his mouth of course!

Playing in the sprinkler on a hot day, next day cold!

Dinner with Mom's brothers and sister

Mom's family

Uncle Bill reading Grandma's list

Milking Tinkerbell, our non-pregnant, never had a baby goat. Milked her for almost 30 minutes, didn't milk her dry, and while I milked her, I shot it into this bowl, which she drank! She had a huge udder on her and our vet said we may need to milk her out once. A specific weed can cause a goat to develop an udder., which obviously happened with ours.

Beautiful lilies

More of our kittens

My view out our kitchen window of our  Rose of Sharon bush that I landscaped. I removed the small stones around it, added these large ones from the dairy pad, and put Diana's old fish tank gravel at the base.I think it turned out great!

Picture of our 4 larger out door critters. Peanut in front, Tinkerbell the goat, Beauty the horse, and Coco the goat in the background.

Eggs in our bluebird box. It was a decoration birdhouse, and a bluebird decided it was good enough for real!

Next day, there were 4 eggs!