Happy 13th Birthday, Zachariah!

Incredible! We now have 2 teenagers in the house! Really, really hard to believe that Shawn and I have been together that long,sometimes it seems as though we were just dating yesterday- other times its really hard to imagine what my life was like pre-Shawn(much much better with Shawn!). SO SO thankful for the time God has allowed us together and even more thankful for these 4 precious lives He has entrusted in our care. Zachariah- I love your tender spirit and what  you mean for our family. Yes, your name may be mentioned a bit more often in correction and maybe a wee bit of exasperation, but I wouldn't trade it for anything, for I see beyond the trivial stuff to you. And we do love you! It's not easy growing up, and the older I ge, the more I see you'll get there fast enough without me pushing you. I'm so thankful for you, and even though we don't share actual birthdays since you decided to come out 1 and 1/2 hours after my birthday(on the 30th), I'm so glad to almost share my birth date with you!

Happy 6th Birthday, Noah!

Happy Birthday to such a terrific little fellow. Well, not so little anymore! I'm sorry to say though, you'll always be Daddy and Mommy's little fellow since you are our youngest. We are so blessed to have you in our family! You certainly light up our lives and have such wit about you that we constantly wonder where you come up with your knowledge! We love you, little buddy.

Remember that saying.....,

Kids say the darnedest things? Well, they can also say the most heartbreaking things as well. For instance, on our way home from meeting on Sunday, an enormous sigh came from little Noah. Followed by, in a very pitiful voice to Josh, Zach, and Hannah, "Well, there's only 4 people in this world that loves us. Daddy, Mommy, Grandma, and Papa." This was totally out of the blue as we were talking about our lunch plans! He did amend his statement with, "Maybe 6. Aunt Angie and Uncle Simon do." How heart wrenching for me to hear! Shawn and I have been thinking and privately discussing the idea of moving somewhere to find a meeting where maybe an older couple would be surrogate grandparents so our children would know what it means to feel and see and be told they are loved. And be around people that want to be around them, without putting them down or getting after them for so many unimportant things.  That really makes us long for adopted grandparents that can show them love and a Godly influence by a life lived not with words only, but by works.  So, so glad the little ones are in His hands and care. And most importantly, have His love that surpasses human love and abilities, without fail.

Where do they get this from??!!

So on our way home from filing our taxes, I asked our children if they remember when the Arby's and the Walmart and the other various shops were built. Some replies I received was kinda(H),maybe(Z), and no(J).  However, the one to remember came from,......,,, Noah! His fabulous reply was, "No Mom, you know why? It was before I was born. I was just a rotten egg in your stomach then." All serious and not once laughing, unlike his sister, brothers and dad! (I didn't laugh though, was too flabbergasted to!) We have to ask where does he come up with this??!! We figured out where this one came from anyway. The game many play of last one there or you're a rotten egg. Noah says he's always the last one there so he must be a rotten egg. Hmmm. Should I be proud of his medical knowledge of where he came from or saddened to think he thought he was a rotten egg or amazed that 5 yr olds can pull things out of their mini computer brains like this? I felt a little of all three and maybe its just a mom thing, but I felt mostly sad because he believed it! Our precious Noah. You are certainly not a rotten egg but instead a wonderful blessing and bundle of pure joy for your family. We all love you SO much, little soon to be 6 yr old fellow!

More snow pictures

I love this kind of snow. Heavy on trees and everything around, melts on road. Great for scarity cats like me that is petrified of driving in snow. Must come from living on hills and getting cars stuck sideways,  halfway up the hill, and then having to back down with little control of where the car will end up. Also from men in big trucks that lose control from going too fast and t-boning you in your drivers door and leaving lasting hip pain causing hours of physical therapy. Or something like that. I suppose it could just be the person as well. 

Here snow is falling from trees and I took this picture through my sun roof. :)

My boys decided they really needed to try out the hill in our backyard. Just for a few runs then we'll come right back in and do school. Meanwhile, the sensible one decided she has too much school to do, (and anyway some people do care if they get good grades and school done, Zach, unlike you who could care less),so they stay inside and deligently work on school. 

Running up hill before mom says ok that's enough now. 

I think this is one of my favorite pictures of the day. Like what you would find on address labels. :)

The next pictures are really cool too. Or at least I think so! In a matter of minutes, it's easy to see just how fast time goes. I noticed the sun was very pretty on the flag on our front porch, and as I took the first picture, not even a minute later it was in a different position on the flag. So I took the following various shots of the sun working its way across the flag. 

My hands are only a little cold Mom, are you sure we have to do school now?

Brrr it's really getting cold! Ok we'll be right in. Thank you, boys. I sure love you and am so glad you have a chance to be boys and know what it means to have fun. I really love you too, Miss Responsible! You are truly a blessing to your dad and me! God really blessed us the days He let you four join our family!

Changing seasons

Seasons come like this beautiful spring day. And seasons go and new ones come, like this cold snowy fall day. Mid fall and snow. How unusual for us to see snow 2 weeks into November. Beautiful cleansed feeling walking through wet snow while breathing crispy cold air. 

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!