Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Starting June

Updates are on the way!

5/31 - I took the kids to a day camp.  It was hands down the worst camp I've ever been to.  Last year was great, but this year the camp directors were new so I guess I should cut them some slack.  The kids still had fun playing (even though they were asked to sit quietly way too much).  This is them trying to sit still and be quiet.

6/7 - We met my parents at Lake of the Ozarks.  We were hoping to go out on my dad's new boat, but the weather didn't cooperate.  So instead we hung out at Miner Mike's for the day.  The kids loved it!
 Josiah wanted to play this machine where you push a button and have a chance to get a lot of tickets.  We thought it would be a good learning opportunity for Josiah about odds and how it's very rare to win these sorts of things.  See how our little life lesson turned out for us?  You're looking at a future gambler!  :)

 6/8 - fishing at a local pond with daddy.  The kids thought it was funny to stick their fingers in the mouth of the fish - this is Josiah after the fish "bit" him.
 6/13 - I took the kids to a railroad museum in Springfield.  They got to do things like climb around inside the huge old train cars and pull the whistle.  They loved it!

 That night Josiah had a t-ball game.  Here he is being distracted by his picture-taking mom while he's standing on 1st.
 Aiming for the throw...
 ...and throwing to first.
After the game he went to his first overnight camp which he loved!

6/14 - date night!  We celebrated our 10th anniversary by going out to dinner at Metropolitan Grill (it was SO yummy).  Then we went mattress shopping, but we still haven't bought one.  So thankful for my husband and for our life together!


6/16 - Our final cow had her calf!  We were so excited and relieved - she was SO big so we were concerned about her needing help during labor and/or us not being home when she calved.  Thankfully she calved all on her own and before we left on vacation!  We call this mama White Face (for obvious reasons), so Josiah named her calf White Skull.
 6/19 - We went to Webb City (Joplin area) to see our nephew Trent play baseball.  The boys were so proud of him (and us too)!
Also packed into these two weeks: pool time with friends, $1 summer movie, zoo, more t-ball games, some fun library events, a craft session at Michael's, and lots of bike rides.  A great start to the summer!

More to come!

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Start of summer

More updates!!  Look at me keeping my blogging promises!

4/26 - we went to a marriage retreat in Branson with our church.  It was not what we expected but still a great getaway.  Thanks to the Bonvillians for taking care of the kids! 
5/1 - a better picture of baby Pearl at about 1 week old.
5/2 - We listed our house!  We're hoping to move closer to Mt. Vernon, but we'll see if that's what God wants us to do!

Josiah's end of year school program.  They are singing 'God's Not Dead'.  Singing is a loosely used term here - it was more like shouting.  :)
5/7 - Josiah's school field trip to Jump Mania.  His class is on the floor and the first graders are behind them.
Also on 5/7 - we got Levi a big boy bed!!  He had been asking for one for a few weeks.  So we told him if he could keep his underwear dry we'd get one for him.  The crib is still in the room for a backup plan (which we have had to employ several times).  He was so proud of himself the first night when he was able to get out of bed and exit his room after we put him down to sleep.  Not quite what we were hoping for, but he's getting better at it!  He had a potty training setback last week, so he had to sleep in his crib for a few nights (which he now hates), but he's doing much better staying dry now (thankfully)!
5/10 - Mother's day weekend - we went to Jason's parent's house and 8 of us got up really early on Saturday to run the Joplin Memorial 5k. 

Here are some of the cousins being goofy.
Jason's sister Ericka drove up from Texas so it was fun to get to see her family.

5/11 - continued the fun family weekend with our nephew's graduation party.  Congrats Chandler!
5/14 - Josiah has been into making his own costumes lately.  He's also been watching a Star Wars cartoon every time his mean mommy lets him watch TV.  Here are my little clone troopers.
5/17 - Matriarch (#4) had her calf and she even let Jason and Levi pet it!  She mooed at them the whole time though.
5/20 - goofing off in the field, looking for another new calf after Jason told us that #7 had calved.  Surprisingly, we didn't find her calf in the tree.
5/21 - Josiah loses his first tooth!!  He was already prepared with his grown up tooth, so no toothless wonders around here!  He was so excited.  After putting his tooth under his pillow that night, the "tooth fairy" left him 50 cents and some new drawing stuff.  The next morning he was so excited, but a little while later said, "it was you that sneaked into my room and took my tooth last night, wasn't it?"  Smart kid (or loud tooth fairy).  Then he said, "This money isn't worth very much - can I please have my tooth back?".   
5/22 - several years ago a friend gave us a body crayon.  Hence the following superhero picture.  They even had capes drawn on their backs.  Baths were fun that evening!
Also on 5/22 we finally caught up with #7's new bull calf!  She hid it well.
Then we finally (after 3 years) decided to climb up in the loft of one of our barns.  Not sure why we'd never gone up there before.  Maybe because of all the animal poop (raccoon?), or maybe all the dirt dobber nests?  Or maybe because we weren't sure about it's structural integrity.  Whatever the lame reason, we were missing out!  Josiah now has plans to make this his clubhouse.
Weekend of 5/24 - we took a trip to St. Louis to visit our friends.  On the way there we stopped at Wendy's because Josiah had earned a free jr. frosty for reading 4 books by himself.  He was way excited about it (rightfully so).  So we get frostys (frosties?) for everyone, I grab straws, and we pile into the car.  The problem was, I accidentally got coffee straws.  So we were getting headaches trying to suck the thick frosty goodness through the teensy, narrow straws.  Levi started crying.  Thankfully I found some big straws in the glove box, but then he had the opposite problem - he couldn't suck hard enough to get the frosty all the way to the top of that giant straw.  Followed by more crying and begging to get the tiny straw back.  Our frosty drama was very comical.  First world problems!

So we survived the car ride and had a great weekend!  We went to the City Museum and had a blast (and wore ourselves out) climbing / sliding / running / crawling our way through the 11 story building. 



Enduring the photo op so they can get back to playing basketball.  :)  We had a great time!  We love you guys Hardins, Buhrles and Dennys!
We came home to find that #5 had calved!  That makes 4 healthy calves born so far this year - one more to go!  Thankful!
5/26 - Memorial day - we visited Grandpa Regehr's gravesite.  He fought in WWII.  A beautiful day to remember our fallen heroes.

5/30 - a little better picture of #7's calf - he's 10 days old here.
Also in May, Josiah started his second season of t ball.  We missed the first two games because of other plans, and the third game got rained out!  He's only played one game so far, but he seems much more interested in it this year which is great.  It's fun to watch.  We're also in full garden mode.  Jason has done most of the planting, (the ones I can remember: wheat, potatoes, green beans, cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower, watermelon) and we've been harvesting a lot of yummy strawberries and spinach.  After being in a drought the first part of the year, we've been enjoying rain every day for the past 7 days!  And of course the garden loves it too.  Josiah is enjoying being out of school, and I am trying to have activities for them to do to avoid the boredom, keep learning, and stay away from screen time as much as possible!  Happy start to summer!

Friday, May 16, 2014

Let's start 2014 already!

Jan 2014 will live on in infamy as the great potty training debacle. It was rough.  Levi seemed interested in potty training and did a really great job of going to the potty IF he was naked.  Add pants and all bets were off.  I feel like I was really patient for the first three weeks.  By week four I was ready to put him back in diapers indefinitely.  Here is my little pant-less man.  :)  I'm happy to report that he is now fully potty-trained (even at night).  It was definitely a process but I'm thankful that the hardest part is over!

In January we butchered our pigs.  We processed the meat ourselves and still have a lot in the freezer!

Also in January, Josiah started playing basketball.  That's him in the middle of the picture.  He didn't seem very interested in the game for most of the season.  One game he pretended he was a robot, and if he didn't touch the ball he would "shut down", ending with his head dangling down by his knees.  By the last game he was starting to get more into the game, and even stole the ball from the other team.  It was an entertaining season!  He had fun which is all that matters.
February 10 is Jason's birthday, so we had a fun night out on the 8th, but somehow failed to take any pictures!  We had a delicious meal at a local place and then saw Lone Survivor at the theater.  Intense and great movie!

This is our February-enduring-the-cold-weather entertainment: fruit loop necklaces.  We also made charts of how many colors they each got.  Fruit loops = big smiles.
Also in February, my parents came to visit and we had a fun time taking the kids to the Discovery Center for Cat in the Hat week.  "It is fun to have fun but you have to know how!" -Cat in the Hat 
In March we took a weekend trip to visit my parents.  The kids had fun hanging out outside, and they were very excited to get these new Avengers hoodies from my parents. 


Later in March, Jason took four cattle to the sale, which is an all-day event when you're selling steers and cows.  So I took the kids to Sequoia park in Springfield for a really fun cave tour.  This cave has water throughout, so the tour is by canoe.  The kids did great and we didn't even capsize!  :)  We all enjoyed the tour, but especially Josiah, who got to hold his own flashlight.



After the tour we did some hiking around, had a picnic lunch, and played on the playground.

The beginning of April was Josiah's spring break from school, so I took the kids to Hannibal to visit my brother and his family.  My brother and two of his kids were in The Music Man play, so it was really fun to see them on stage!
My nephew Kason was Winthrop (he's in the middle), and my niece Ava is just to his left, the one he's smiling at.  :)  They all did a great job!
Mid-April I noticed this new tooth in Josiah's mouth!  At that time the baby tooth in front of it wasn't even loose yet.  I'm sure I'm going to have an orthodontist on speed dial in the not-too-distant future!  His tooth is now very loose, and he's hoping it falls out at school today (5/16) because it's his last day of school and he really wants that cool tooth necklace they give the kids to bring the tooth home in.  We went to the dentist this week and he didn't seem concerned, but I am pretty sure I saw dollar signs in his eyeballs (I'm just kidding - we have a great dentist, and he doesn't do the ortho side).
I took the boys to Bass Pro for Easter pictures, and they had a new portion of the store open, so we did some exploring.  They are adding on to that place all the time! 
The boys love being outside (especially Levi), and love helping their daddy.  Levi has learned how to climb the fence by himself. 
Jason let Josiah drive the tractor!  He was so proud of himself!
Dying Easter eggs. 

Mi Mi and Paw Paw came over for Easter lunch on Sunday.  We had a fun time hunting eggs, and the boys got to see Paw Paw's big truck! 


On 4/24 our first calf of the season was born!  The mama is Scarlett, so I named her baby heifer Pearl (reference from The Scarlett Letter).  The boys didn't like that name, but thankfully it stuck.  Mama and baby are doing great! 

So that's basically Jan-April, with some fun play dates and visits from family mixed in.  More updates soon! :)