Monday, June 24, 2013

Summertime

Happy Summer!  It's been a whirlwind so far, but here are some highlights.

Josiah was in swimming lessons for the months of April and May, and he is getting a lot better!  He is a lot more willing to put his head in the water, and is gaining confidence.  We took June off because we had too much going on, but will take him back for another month in July.

5/3 - Josiah's school silent auction and play - all of the preschoolers wore pajamas and sang "God is bigger than the boogie man".
 5/4 - snow in May!  This is one of our apple trees with beautiful snow-covered blooms.
 5/4 - our second baby calf named Bumblebee (from Transformers):
 5/11 - calf #3 named Black Widow (from the Avengers - can you tell who names our calves?):
5/15 - took 2 of our cows in to be butchered.  I followed Jason to the processing plant because the trailer he was pulling didn't have tail lights.  That meant that the cows were staring out the back of the trailer at me most of the 20 minute drive to drop them off.  And giving me sad eyes.  It was hard to drop those 2 off, they were the most like pets out of our herd.  But they didn't get pregnant, and we need to eat!

5/18 - went on a fun camping trip with friends from Josiah's preschool class at a Yogi bear campground:


 5/23 - three of our 4 calves - the fourth was born the day before this pic was taken.
 5/23 - took the boys to the Butterfly Palace in Branson.

 They have a mirror maze which is really disillusioning (is that a word?).
 5/23 - this is at Josiah's first t-ball game!  They had a couple weeks of practices leading up to this.
 5/26 - a fun pic of all 4 of the calves running.
 5/27 - Memorial Day - went to visit the grave of Jason's grandfather who fought in WWII.
5/30 - Levi as the Incredible Hulk.  His 2nd birthday is coming up - can you guess what the theme will be?
 5/30 - a gorgeous rainbow after weeks of rain.
5/31 - we picked up our meat and did some delivery!

6/1 - Josiah went to a day camp with our church. I was one of the helpers.  The kids were great and had a blast.  Josiah said he's ready for the week long version!

6/8 through 6/15 - took a vacation to Branson with my side of the family.
 Went to the aquarium and got to see sharks, spiders, snakes, alligators, wolves,
 pet sting rays,
 and even pet a sand shark!
 Out for yogurt.
 Went to the Table Rock Lake Dam - they had some fun things at the visitor's center.
Also on vacation we got to do some shopping, the girls got pedicures, the guys went fishing, we swam, played on the playground, and went to Silver Dollar City.  Unfortunately Levi got sick half way through the trip and I got sick on the last day - not a fun way to spend vacation.  But at least we had fun before the sickness hit.  Also while we were there, Jason and I celebrated our 9th anniversary by going out for ice cream.  He also bought me a beautiful ($2 costume jewelry) ring.  :)

6/20 - this is Josiah's team after their last t-ball game.
6/22 - we got 2 pigs.  They are still pretty shy.  Hopefully they will warm up to us soon.  The day we got them, they escaped.  Do you know how fast an 8 lb pig can run?  We had no idea.  They were not easy to catch, but we eventually got them both back in captivity.

6/23 - I accidentally dressed them in matching shirts for church.  They are too cute!

In addition to all of this stuff, I have been sick 3 or 4 different times (I have lost count).  I am ready to be healthy for a really long time!  Our garden is also keeping us busy - we now have planted: garlic, potatoes, eggplant, strawberries, broccoli, cauliflower, beans, cucumbers, zucchini, carrots, and tomatoes.  We are getting 9 or 10 strawberries a day, and they are yummy!  We've also gotten a handful of potatoes so far, with a lot more on the way.  A quote I read recently said "growing your own food is like printing your own money".  In that case we are loaded!  :) 

We have one more pregnant heifer that could calve any day - praying for another safe delivery!

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

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!

Thursday, March 7, 2013

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!