Spring is here at last!

I started the month of March (3/14-3/17) with a (very uncharacteristic of me) impromptu trip to Dallas with Jason's mom to visit his sister and her family.  I was talked into it the night before around 10 pm.  After some frantic packing we pulled it off!  I did forget to pack pajamas for the boys, and I forgot to bring the amoxicillin Josiah was on for an ear infection, but other than those things we were pretty well prepared.  We had a great trip and thoroughly enjoyed the nice weather!

Here's Aunt Ericka giving Josiah a much needed haircut at her salon in McKinney:

 Chilling on the porch swing with MiMi (saying cheese):

 Josiah got this Iron Man Popsicle from the ice cream truck (his Aunt Ericka likes to spoil him):

 Levi with his cousin Samantha (he loves her):

 The whole crew at the end of the trip:

I also got a haircut and a pedicure while we were there...I'm not entirely sure why I came home!  ;)

3/26 - Levi dressed up as the Hulk.  He loves that guy, and goes around the house saying "hu hu!".

3/30-3/31 - had a fun Easter with my side of the family.  Here are the eggs we dyed with silk ties - much less messy than coloring eggs, and they turned out really cool!

 Cousins hanging out:

 All dressed up for church:

 On 4/3 we got 14 new baby chicks!  They are almost a month old now, and have grown a lot.  Most of these will be for meat (sorry chickens).

 4/10 - just being cute.  When Josiah is finished eating he likes to be a scavenger and go check out what Levi has left.  Levi sometimes hand-feeds it to him.  I guess that's easier than asking for seconds?

 4/20-4/21 - our friends the Hardins came from St. Louis to visit!  It was so great to see them and hang out.  We all went to Silver Dollar City on the 20th and had a blast, but unfortunately I forgot my camera!  So these pics are from the 21st:

4/30 (yesterday) - a new baby calf was born!  Number 7 had her calf (she is our only horned cow, so Josiah calls her "Horny").  Josiah and I were excited to go see the new calf, but her mama wasn't excited about us being there, so we kept our distance.  It was still fun to get to see him!

Josiah decided to climb a tree.  I guess the calf wasn't exciting enough for him!

We've planted part of our (now 50 ft) garden - garlic, potatoes, strawberries, eggplant, broccoli and cauliflower.  So thankful for the warmer weather, even if it is intermittent!  80's yesterday and back in the 40's by Friday.  It's Missouri - you never know what you're going to get!

Winter survival

We have been so stir-crazy for the past month!  Am I the only one that wants to punch a groundhog?  Here are some of the things we've been doing to combat the winter blues.

2/1 - had a playdate with superhero friends!

 2/8 - date night (took the kids to Jason's parent's house - thank you MiMi!) for Jason's 35th birthday!

 2/14 - Valentine's day - we made his school V-day box out of one of our (many) empty ice cream containers.

Weekend of 2/17 - Jason took out the deer meat he cut up and froze in November so we could process it.  Josiah had a great time helping out!  Now we have breakfast sausage, summer sausage, and 2 kinds of jerky.

Grinding...

 Stuffing sausage casings...

and making jerky.

 2/18 - Levi decides he wants to play with the Sam's size ketchup bottle.  He doesn't even eat ketchup, but this is still the best Heinz advertisement I've ever seen.  :)

 2/21 - Ice.  Lots of ice.  It looks like there's snow on the ground, but it's really just...

(you guessed it) - ICE.  Since he couldn't make a snowman or even a snow angel, Josiah figured out that hitting ice with a stick is a fun game.  Until your mom makes you come inside because it's too cold.

2/23 - a great thing to do when it's cold, the ground is wet, and there is very little wind?  Burn a brush pile!  When the fire died down we went out there and roasted marshmallows over the embers.  It was a little weird to roast marshmallows in 30 degree temps with ice on the ground, but we stayed plenty warm sitting next to the fire. 

The kitty was happy to have company.

2/26 - we finally got some snow!!!  We were able to make a snowman (which he tackled shortly after this picture was taken).  Also, it's not really a snowman.  It's a one-eyed snow pirate.  Levi is mad in this pic because the cat keeps knocking him down. 

So happy that winter is almost over!  Time to start planning out our garden (start planting potatoes next weekend!), think about getting chicks (to raise for meat), and decide if we're adding a pig to the farm!  Yay for spring!

Hello 2013

 Just to finish up 2012...

12/25 A fun Christmas pic!

 12/27 Levi trying on his first pair of Levi's (thanks Nate & Jen!):

 12/29 Fending off Christmas break boredom with a volcano science project.  Our lava turned out more pink than red. 

 12/29 Levi in his "cool dude" glasses.  He wears them around the house saying "coo doo".  :)

 12/30 Just hanging out!

 12/31 Enjoying the brief snow - Josiah built this snowman with his daddy. 

We were sick for three weeks straight, including some of Christmas.  Croup, stomach flu, and regular colds all passed around the house.  We are very thankful to be healthy now!

On to 2013!

1/16 Enjoying some green smoothies - they are Josiah's favorite! 

 Levi is asking for his cup back, but I just had to get a picture of his green mustache.

 1/18-1/19 We finally made a trip back to Kansas City to see some friends!  A lot of them hadn't met Levi (he is 18 months old now), and there were several new babies that we had yet to meet.  It was a really great trip, and it was reassuring to not feel that Kansas City was still our home when we visited.  It is nice to feel like where we live now is where we belong.  But we still miss all of these people (and Costco).  :)

 Super fun times!!!  I am feeling super blessed in life right now.  Really wishing there was a pause button.  Levi is communicating more and getting more social (which is not saying much, but any progress is good).  Josiah knows the rules and for the most part obeys them (except for the peeing on the carpet incident over Christmas break).  He is a great reader and is now in gymnastics and jujitsu (though he will have to pick one or the other soon!).  I am super thankful for my family!  We are praying right now about the possibility of buying land and building a house.  A daunting but exciting prospect.  We have yet to find land, so I guess if God wants it to happen then we will find some!  We would appreciate your prayers!

Celebrating

Here are a few of the fun celebrations we've had lately!

11/3 - Girl's weekend for me - beautiful location and amazing friends!

11/5 - Just goofing off and practicing walking.  He is an expert now!

11/10 - I took the boys to my parent's house while Jason went pheasant hunting.  They loved playing outside and enjoying the unseasonably warm weather!

At my parent's house, Josiah got to open some early birthday presents, since he wouldn't get to see my parents on his birthday (he didn't mind spreading his birthday out!).

11/22-11/24 - had a fun Thanksgiving with Jason's side of the family, and then they came to visit us later that weekend, and Jason hosted private shooting lessons/target practice for them.  Our niece Samantha (far left) was a huge fan, and is now putting a .45 on her Christmas list. 

12/1 - we took Josiah for a very last-minute planned trip to Silver Dollar City for his birthday!  He loves that place, especially the roller coasters.  They had amazing Christmas lights - it was a great time of year to go, especially since it was 70 degrees that day!  Last minute planning is very against our nature, but it was a fun day and a great surprise for Josiah!

12/2 - we had a fun family birthday party for Josiah at his MiMi's house!

The cake I made was supposed to be eaten hot, but unfortunately it melted the bottom of the candles and we had to throw this piece away!

12/6 - Josiah's actual birthday!  It was a Thursday, so we took Transformers cupcakes to school, and that evening we went to Bass Pro with friends to see Santa! 

As you can see, Levi thought Santa was going to abduct him. 

That evening we made pancakes for dinner (one of his favorite meals), and then opened presents. 

12/7 - one final birthday celebration - we went to a bouncy house in Springfield with Josiah's best school friend.  They had a blast!  

 

The evening of 12/7 we left to go to my parent's house for our first Christmas!   We had a great time seeing everyone and getting to relax and hang out. 

 

After coming home from Christmas with my side of the family, I downloaded pictures from the camera to the computer (the same way I always have for the last 5 years), and then deleted them from the camera.  Problem was, they didn't all download.  It was strange - some in the middle of the sequence got left out.  So I lost about 200 photos - Josiah's birthday and Christmas pictures.  But then my amazing husband came home and was able to do a restore using a program he found online and retrieve the deleted images from the SD card.  He is my hero!!!  Seriously, what would I do without that guy?

The last month has flown by, but we've had so much fun and enjoyed celebrating Josiah's birthday, as well as beginning to celebrate Jesus' birthday!  Merry early Christmas!