Something Beautiful

Define Necessity......

2011-12-18T04:34:00.001-08:00

http://www.brutallyhonest.org/.a/6a00d834516bb169e201543828639c970c-pi

2011-12-03T20:08:00.001-08:00

My sweet 11 yr old was baptized tonight. It really was a thrill to see him follow God is this area. He did beautifully and was such a big kid. I was proud. Logan was blessed to many extended family members there. Good job Log, we love you so much!!Just a little funny..... On the way home Madeline asked him if it was scary getting dumped. :). Funny girl!Julie

Recent Pictures

2011-11-13T05:13:00.001-08:00

Here are some pretty recent pictures.....

Daddy and Gideon playing soccer.

Anna in action (sort of, she would be the one picking her fingers in the back).

Asher is such a hoot. This is last year's Christmas present and he rock's it all over the house, much to the dismay of our floors. Check out under the saddle..... closer picture to come.

This is trick or treat at McAuley's Center. We have two fairy princess', a pumpkin (my niece Gracie), Superman, Bob the Tomato and Captain America's daughter (my niece Cadance).

Iron Man (my nephew Jack), Logan in his ghillie suit and Tyler as an army man.

Madeline in action.

Gideon and Anna playing soccer.

Logan and Gideon taking a break. Logan had just played a game in Bellefontaine (hence the mud).

Leah ready for the 8th grade dance. Ahhh, my beautiful girl!

Madeline at her birthday celebration #1, at Aunt Sue's house.

The kids asked me to take this picture and it is awesome of all three. Man I love these monkey's!

Daddy getting one of Madeline's bear hug!

Madeline and one of her wonderful presents. She got so many thoughtful gifts. Kayla
(you can see her in the back of the pic) made her a wonderful card that Madeline adores.

Madeline and her birthday celebration #3, at home on her actual birthday. This is her princess ring from Daddy and I. Later in the day we went on a 4H trail ride. Maddie got a nice long ride on "Mousy," our friends pony. She loved it.

Asher and Lucy at gymnastics last week. It was visitor's week. Look at Lucy's huge blue eyes!

Gee on the balance bar (in the back) and Ava on the balance bar in front.

Ok, so this was under Asher's saddle. Aparently it is how he gets his crayons from place to place.

That is all for now!

Julie

All is well.....

2011-11-02T20:51:00.000-07:00

Well, life here at the Cole house is moving right along. My husband treated me to an evening away tonight. We went to Columbus and did a little shopping and ate at Chipolte. It was great and much needed and appreciated.

Life has settled down a bit now for us. Volleyball finished up a couple weeks ago and our last soccer games were Saturday. It looks as though Logan is going to play basketball, so that will consume some time. To be honest though, I don't mind so much in the winter. There's not a lot to do anyways.

Our newest "fun thing" around here are our horses, Sophie and Charlie. They are great and gentle and just a joy to be around. Having horses is something we have always dreamed of doing and here we are. Charlie is a 14 yr old Quarter horse and Sophie is an 11 yr old Paint. I need to get some good pics of them and their completed stalls (and tack area)! We plan to do lots of trail riding some showing. Leah is already working on riding Charlie English and Logan has been riding Sophie western (they are taking riding lessons from local lady who knows her horses).

Even though sports aren't real intense right now we are still very busy trying to get some projects finished up before winter. Plumbing was ran to the barn last week and the electric will be finished up tomorrow. It is so cool to have plumbing in the barn. Last year was so trying when it came to getting water to the animals in below freezing temps and we only had chickens last year. Oh and we are already enjoying the electric that is already in. It is good stuff and I feel so blessed to have all these new things. We still have to finish the hay loft before winter and we have some major dirt moving to do. Moving dirt has been slow due to the rain and mud (and my yard is a mess), but we are at least headed in the right direction.

The kids are doing great. So far no major illnesses this season (knock on wood, I know). I am homeschooling Anna, Gideon (K) and Madeline (1st) while Leah and Logan attend West Liberty. 3 little ones all at one time is very tricky. Plus Asher wants to be a part of everything. He is quite cute trying to be a big kid, but he is very loud and he can really slow down the learning process.

We are looking forward to a fun weekend. Friday night is a playoff football game at the school. West Liberty went undefeated this year I believe. Saturday during the day we are doing some special digging (more about this in another post) and then we have church. Sunday we are going to go on a trail ride with our local 4H group. It will be our first real trial ride and it should be a good time. Also, Sunday is Madeline's 6th birthday. My smart, beautiful and fun baby girl is growing up into this amazing big girl. How did that happen? She is pretty excited also to be spending some of her birthday riding. She loves the horses and wants to be in control of the reins as soon as she sits down.

Well, until later......

Julie

Some long overdue pictures......

2011-10-13T02:54:00.000-07:00

My garden is dying down. Yeah! I got lots of peppers, green beans and mammoth sweet potatoes. I canned a decent amount of tomatoes, but they met their demise too early due to a fungus. My cukes were short lived also. My 5 heads of cabbage were lovely and me beets did great!

Here are some peppers ready to be chopped and frozen.

My tomato set up. It's real rough having the TV there.

This was Asher's set up while I canned.

It was obviously rough for him also.

Daddy rocks because he bought the 4 littles new rain boots. They love them!

Say bye-bye to this old barn. It is in a pile of rubble right now waiting to be burned and buried.

Lucy and Truett camping a few weekends back. It was the funniest thing. She just embraced him for no lie probably 5 minutes. And he just stood there.

He seemed less than impressed.

A rousing game of ring-around-the-rosie.

Baby Emma, Leah, Naomi (Gee's best bud), Lauclan (spelling? - bad aunt, yes) and Jami.

This is Asher's hair after playing in the grass.

He was rolling down the hill (and kind of in to the road).

SOme pictures of our sweet cowies. We just moved them over to the in laws to have some time on the still green pasture. This is our little twin that we bottle fed from day 1. She loves to say hi and get treats.

Our barn stalls almost done. They are done now with 2 great horses in them.

Our twin's twin Goofy. She really warms up to us now.

Our tack area almost done.

Ok, so this it the tool you use to turn a bull into a steer. Yes, Ryan and I did this ourselves (so proud of us).

Sorry guys..........

The younger guys enjoying their new saddle.

Leah playing volleyball. Bad picture, yes. And, I got a little scolded for flash photography during play. I should have known better.

Madeline playing soccer.

That's all for now!

Julie

Bad Blogger!!!

2011-09-30T18:40:00.000-07:00

Oh man, I am such a bad blogger these days. Truth be told though, we have been extremely busy. Like busier than we ever have I think. 5 kids on 4 separate sports teams is a little nuts. Not to mention the constant drive to get the barn/stalls/home projects done. Every minute we are not at a game we are working on the house. Really, I am not complaining. Usually busy is A-OK with me.
Maybe not THIS busy, but it is all really blessing. I enjoy watching the kids play sports and I also enjoy working with my hands and getting projects done around here.

Madeline had an MRI this past Wednesday and she was just precious. They ended up not having to sedate her. Yeah! We explained everything to her as thouroughly as we could. She was just quietly compliant the entire time. We kept telling her she had to be very still and she was, like a statue. They only had to retake one picture and that was because she was breathing so heavy at first because she was scared. She still never moved. I was soooooo proud of my girl! We have no results yet, but we pray that everything is ok.

A major time sapper in our lives right now is our search for the perfect horses. We are hoping to get two. This is huge for us. We have always wanted horses, but have never had a place for them until now. It is really exciting. We have a really darling friend who is a horse trainer and is helping us. She is doing great. We are being very picky because the horses need to be dead broke for kids, but still spunky enough for Leah (and maybe Logan) to show. Long story shorter.... Here is the horse we have bought for "me." (Really though any horse we get will be for everyone to ride)

Isn't she darling???? I love her. We have not brought her home yet because there's a pending issue with another horse we may get from the same owner. Her name is Sophie.

Well, that is all for now. Both older kids just went to bed and Ryan is pretending he is awake on the couch. I think I will take this opportunity to hit the bed early. I was up at 5:45 this morning and my bed sounds so nice right now. Man, I am such an old woman.....

(FYI, Ryan is now snoring)

Julie

Camping this weekend.

2011-09-18T18:42:00.000-07:00

We went up to the lake this weekend to camp. It was a great time with the family and the weather was beautiful. Madeline fell yesterday though and that turned things around a bit for me though. She fell off her bike and didn't seem too hurt, but she was crying hard. Her crying hard turned into only wanting to cuddle on my lap and then she just wanted to sleep. That was extremely odd for her. We were there with her best buds/cousins and not wanting to play was not like her at all. She was also complaining that she couldn't see. We determined that she could see, just not real well. We assumed at that point that she had a concussion. That was further confirmed when she started throwing up. We took her to the ER and long story short, she did have a concussion, but a CAT scan confirmed there were no bleeds/fractures. I have never in my life seen Madeline like she was yesterday. She was dead asleep, even through the CAT scan. She ended up throwing up a total of 5 times and slept most of the afternoon into the evening. She did end up perking up later last night around the campfire which was good to see. Today she is acting much better.

To our surprise, the CAT scan revealed a secondary finding. Apparently Madeline has a cyst in the right ventricle of her brain. Very scary sounding. The ER doctor says they see this occasionally and they feel it is nothing to worry about, but they want her to do a repeat CAT scan in 6 months to see if it has grown. To be honest, I am just trying not to think about it. It scares me.

For some reason this fall and ER trip affected me more than maybe it should have. Our children are just so precious to us, but Ryan reminded me in the ER that our children are not "our" children, they are God's. I know this, really I do, but to be honest, I think I need to daily give my kids back to God. I know they are his, but I think I pull them so close sometimes that I like to think I am in control. I cannot fathom loosing one of them. God willing I will never have to worry about that.

Julie

Plane Crash update.....

2011-09-08T18:27:00.001-07:00

Well unfortunately we indirectly knew the man who passed in the plane crash today. He is the brother of the man Ryan has been working a second job for. He is a good guy and he taught Logan everything he needed to know this year about his 4H beef feeder. Their family just lost their father a few years back and now this. I have been praying for them all day and I just feel really bad for them......

Aww, stink. A plane went down.

2011-09-08T09:26:00.000-07:00

About an hour ago I was up in our attic messing with some tubs and I heard a plane sound like it was really low. It also sounded a little off. I thought it was wierd and almost came down from the attic to our garage to check it out. I didn't though because I am lazy and planes fly low around here a lot dusting crops. About 5 minutes later I came down and my SIL Emily was stopping by to get some eggs. She said, "did you see that fire over in the corn field?" I could see the smoke clearly from our house and I could smell the smoke also. I said "I wonder if a plane went down." Emily said her grandma had heard the plane also (we all live within a couple country blocks of one another). I drove over to the spot and it ended up being right across the road from our good friends' mom's house. You couldn't really see any smoke anymore, but the fire truck and squad were there. My good friend just happened to be at her mom's house at the time (picking up a few things) and was leaving. She said her mom always walks this road at this time and probably saw what had happened. As I left a sheriff pulled up and my friends mom was telling all she saw. Ryan called me and confirm that WHIO was reporting a plane going down near West Liberty. This is so very sad. I cannot imagine that anyone lived through that, and no med flight kind of confirms that. I pray it is no one we know......

Julie

Nope, not dropped off the face of the earth.

2011-09-02T20:16:00.001-07:00

I like to try and keep up with the blog better, but we have been extremely busy lately. School has started along with 5 kids on 4 different teams. Plus the garden needs harvested and processed daily it seems. Oh and we are working very hard to put stalls in our barn for our horse we are hoping to get soon. (Yeah!)

I wont lie, having the two oldest in school has been a big adjustment for me. Them too, but I think especially me. I know that most people reading this blog wont understand this, but I have gotten used to being with my kids 24/7 (except for Leah last year of course). I like it that way. Multiple people, just making small talk, ask if I am ready for the kids to be back in school. I answer honestly and say, "no, I miss them." It is like someone all of sudden said "sorry, you only get to be with your kids for half as much time as you use to." Most people slowly lose time with their kids. It starts when they are 4 with preschool. I know, I am totally pathetic. It is getting easier though. Hey, I already get them home for the next 4 days!

Besides adjusting, life is good. My three 5 year olds are suppose to start school next week. However, we may bump it a week. They are excited about it. I have their curriculum, but I haven't done lesson plans yet or anything and I need to get in my attic to get some manipulatives from years gone by. Maddie will be starting 1st and Anna and Gee are starting Kindergarten. We were going to wait until next year to start get and then they would all be staggard, but Ryan wants me to try Kindergarten with him. I have no doubt he has the brains, he just doesn't seem to have the focus yet. Time will tell I guess.

Well, I have some pics to add for next time. Garden and barn stuff mostly.....

Later,

Julie

Trying not to cry........

2011-08-23T04:35:00.000-07:00

Logie is gone.....

2011-08-11T02:30:00.000-07:00

So I whine when Leah is gone, so it is only right that you here my whine when Logan is gone. Well, really I miss him a TON. He went to Vineyard camp ALL BY HIMSELF. I am so proud of him and I am sure he is having a great time, but man, this is by far the longest he has ever been gone. Our home is certainly not the same without him here. Having him gone and knowing that in a week and a half he and Leah will be gone all day, well it is about more than this sappy mama can handle. I like being with my kids. I have gotten accustomed to being with them 24/7. I prefer it that way. But alas, life is every changing and life this year takes Leah and Logan to West Liberty. I recognize that this is something that a wide majority of people have dealt with since their kids were 5, but I haven't and it is a very difficult switch.

So last night Ryan and I ended up going to the beef steer show at our county fair. It was pretty cool. Leah watched the kiddos for us. I am starting to love when Leah sits for us. I come home to a clean house and pretty happy kids. Last night I came home to some amazing artwork. She even wrote on the sheet what each kids said the picture was about. Priceless.

Here are some close ups:

The whole thing, on our bedroom wall:

This picture makes me scratch my head. Anna obviously got a hold of my camera at some point. I think this is taken in the chicken "barn" at the fair. Gotta watch that girl.

Our fair booth won first place out of all the booths. We worked hard on this and our win was pretty impressive considering all the booths there. Here are some close ups of Leah and Logan's stuff:

The whole booth:

Until next time,

Julie

Just some recent pics and fair updates....

2011-08-03T13:40:00.000-07:00

Well, we are back home after a long 4 days at the fair. It really was fun and a good learning experience, but it was also very hot and busy. Thank goodness my super cool neice and nephews helped us out with the younger kiddos.

Logan's beef feeder ended up being probably the most trying thing of the weekend. We are just so new to the whole "beef world" and the learning curve is quite large. Let's just say we ended up being a little fish in a big pond, but that is ok because Logan did great and we were soooo proud of him. His calf, Samson, still has a future as a nice looking steer next year, he just needs to "beef" up a bit. :)

Leah placed 3rd in her class and 3rd in her skillathon. The judge said she had the nicest silkies there. Leah has really enjoyed her silkies and is thinking she will breed her own next year. That would be lots of fun I think.

Right now my garden is dripping with beans and needs some attention, which it will hopefully get tomorrow. Also the storm that blew through yesterday (and forced Ryan and I to run for shelter in the fair grandstand with all 6 kids plus 1) knocked over some plants. They need staked. My tomatoes are super top heavy anyways.....

Lately I have been dehydrating everything I can get my hands on. Bananas and apples are my favorite. How pretty is this?

This is from a week or so ago. Gee opening presents for his birthday, with a little help of course. That's ok, it was Katelyn's birthday too!

At the West Liberty park with my Aunt Donna and the cousins. It was a lot of fun and a great way to celebrate Gee's birthday.

How cute is this picture!

Mommy and Gee on his birthday at the David Crowder Concert.

Leah doing her interview at the Ohio State Fair.

Later!

Julie

An Ode to Gee

2011-08-02T19:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday our sweet Gideon turned 5. We celebrated by eating lunch at the park with my aunt cousins. This was celebration number 3 for him, so it was pretty laid back. Yesterday evening Gideon went to his first concert, the David Crowder Band. He was only mildly impressed.

I love my Gideon more than words say. He is quiet to most people but around this house he can be the life of the party. Just yesterday he was teaching Asher how to pull his eyes down and make a funny face. Gideon can be ornery and is going through an "I'm going to annoy my siblings" phase, but he is really a lover at heart. I wouldn't ever want to imagine our lives without Gee in it. He is such a beautiful kid and we all just adore him!

Speaking of Gideon, the poor guy, he has pretty bad teeth. They are beautifully straight, but they just rot so easily. He has had trouble with his teeth since we brought him home at 14 months. Sunday evening Gideon came to the kitchen counter and he looked like he was chewing something. Nope, it was his lower jaw swollen. I looked inside and his back tooth had a huge pus blister on it and was obviously draining into his jaw. This is the same tooth that we have done mini root canals on twice. We desperately tried to save it because the permament tooth under is tiny and needs his baby tooth to stay put to keep it on the straight and narrow. Well, enough is enough and Gee had his tooth pulled today. He has been on antibiotics since yesterday. He was a great trooper, as always! Right now the said tooth is in the tooth pillow that DeeDee made him for his birthday, waiting for the tooth fairy. I didn't think we'd be using that thing so soon.

On an entirely different note, Leah had her nutrition judging today at the Ohio State Fair. We decided not to stay all day and wait for the results, but we should be able to get them online tomorrow. Good luck Leah!!!

Julie

Oh to pray this prayer........

2011-07-25T18:28:00.000-07:00

My father in law sent me a link via e-mail entitled "giving." I read through it and this is what it ended with:

Do you want to be happier?

Dont pray for blessings; pray for important work to do.
Don't pray for prestige; pray for a place to serve.
Don't pray for more things to use; pray to become more useful.
Don't pray for greater pleasure; pray for greater purpose.
Don't pray for an easier path; pray for joy on the journey, wherever it leads.

If you do, I believe your prayers will be answered.

I want to pray like that.

Julie

Just some recent pics.....

2011-07-24T18:23:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks back we went to Kings Island with Jason and Jami and went to a Toby Mac and Newsboys concert. We rode rides during the day and stayed late to watch the concert. It was super fun and super hot. It was great to spend time with just the older kids, we don't do that a lot. I have learned that while I still consider myself a thrill seeker at heart, well, my stomach doesn't always agree. Bummer.

Here is the concert!

Leah, Logan, Ethan and Sophie waiting in line for a ride. FYI, this was the line where a very stinky, hairy guy had no sense of personal space. Then, said guy sneezed all over me. No lie. Totally grossed me out. EW!

This is Leah's yeast bread place setting from last week. Simple and lovely I think.

Leah with her place setting, right before judging. Really the judging has a lot to do with how thoroughly you fill out your book, how well you test on the skillathons, your interview, your place setting and it is almost as if how your food tastes is the least of their worries. Trust me, you want it to taste good, but it is more about what you learned in the process. Leah won't even take food to the Ohio State Fair for judging. With that being said, her cinnamon rolls were amazing! After we were all done, the judge came back up to her and asked for another cinnamon roll for the other judges to try. Um yes, this will be our new cinnamon roll recipe.

Not the best picture, but this will probably be Leah's silky fair trio (two hens and a rooster). See how red the comb is on the roo? Not such a good thing, but we are unsure how big of a deal it is.

This week will be a bit of a break before a crazy couple weeks. Next week will be down right nuts!

Julie

Chatty Asher and 4H.

2011-07-22T03:52:00.000-07:00

This has been a very busy week. Leah and Logan had their 4H skillathons Monday and Thursday evening and Leah had her non livestock judging Wednesday and Thursday. Plus, we meet over at our advisors house here in a couple hours to work on our fair booth. Throw into that White Park calves jumping the fence two different times and starting the timed AI's for our 3 White Park Mama's and well, it has been nuts this week. Oh and plus I got poison ivk/oak so badly that I had to go to the Dr. and get a script for an oral steriod. I feel like the steriod it just keeping the itching at bay and I think it is making my stomach upset and keeping me from sleeping well. So, there you have it, my very large "this week had been nuts" vent.

On the brighter side though, the poison is drying out, the calves are back in their pasture (for now), mama cows are experiencing their first breeding, at our hands, and pretty much the dreaded part of 4H is over for the kids (judging and skillathons). Now they have to show their animals at the fair which will be a new thing, especially for Logan, but that is fun also for them. And, the kids did great this week. We won't know their skillathon scores until fair, but they pretty much tell them how they did on all but a couple parts and Leah and Logan did great. Also, Leah won her nutrition project again for her yeast breads and will be going to the Ohio State Fair for the second time in a row. She really wanted that and worked really hard for it. Yeah Leah!

The 4 little kids, well, they unfortunately have been just drug everywhere this week. I feel bad for them, although they are troopers and did well to occupy themselves. It is a good thing Asher loves his car seat! I think we are going to take all the kids tubing down Mad River Sunday. It will be a great break from all this and sounds like so much fun!

Oh and speaking of Asher, he is turing into a little parrot. He repeats almost anything you tell him to. The little kids have great fun with this, especially Anna. She gets him going on about his nose, eyes, mouth, etc. I think sometimes she gives him a little too much info and it confuses him, but he loves it. He repeats pretty much anything we say now too. In general he just talks a LOT. For a while I just blew it of some as jibber jabber, but then I realized that if I really listened, he was saying a few real words in there. It is a hoot though to hear him carry on. Asher still loves to scream which can be nerve wracking and is proving to be difficult to break. He screams when he's sad, but he mostly screams when he is playing or happy. What do I do about that?

Asher adores daddy (who doesn't in this family) and totally on his own he has affiliated the Under Armour sign for daddy. I didn't believe it when I first saw him do it, but sure enough he is obsessed with it now. He sees the sign, points at it and yells, "see daddy, see daddy" all happy and excited. It is really, really funny and well, weird for lack of better words. I guess I didn't realize Ryan wore that much Under Armour gear. Asher will go nuts though when he sees that sign anywhere, not just on Ryan. :)

Well time to get out of bed and start my day. It will be a good day I am sure. You know even when my life seems crazy and stressed (which this week has really stressed me out), I am so grateful that when I take just a moment to reflect, it only takes half a second for God to remind me how blessed I am. I know that I live a blessed life, but sometimes in the midst of just living, I forget. Praise God that He reminds me. Praise God that I get to wake up to six beautiful kids every morning and a husband that I have adored now for over 20 years. Life is good, crazy, but good.

Julie

Our happenings around the house.....in pictures.

2011-07-17T13:49:00.000-07:00

So I finally got some pictures of everyday stuff around here.

Today we hosted the 4H meeting. We had it in the barn and it was hot. Very hot. We got a lot done though. This is our last official meeting before fair, so we had a bunch to cover (see how great the camper fits in the barn). Our 4H leaders are a great couple that we enjoy a lot.

A picture of the outside of the barn. This is the east side. Yep, our yard on this side is completely destroyed. That is to be fixed this fall.

The front/side. I love our porch.

Our sweet little twins. Really, these little girls are just precious (as far as animals go). They come right up to you in the field, even Goofy, who was super skiddish when she first came here. Sparky is in the front of the picture and she had a longer snout and darker ears/nose. Goofy is in the back of the pic.

This years garden finally totally weeded for the the first time. Whew! The first row in this pic is the kids' row (cherry tomatoes, watermelons, pie pumkins and cucumber). There are also some cabbage in there (not the kids'). The next row is green beans, the closest row is beets and onion, but the onions are doing aweful. I will not be doing those again. This will be year 2 for failed onions. Two strikes and your out around here.

The first tomatoes turning.

My cukes. I am loving the trellis.

The whole garden.

Samson, Logan's fair beef feeder.

Poor Patriot wishing he was out.

Now he is happy.

Leah's fair silkies.

The white chicken in this pic is one of the Delewares we hatched here. Unfortunately, it appears to be a rooster.

Well, that's all I got for now. The next few weeks will be pretty busy. 4H skillathons and judgings are all next week. The week after that we will be getting the fair booth ready and the animals to the fair. The week after that is the fair. I think we are pretty ready though and hopefully things will go without a hitch.

Julie

Our first E-Section.

2011-07-17T04:52:00.000-07:00

Meet Uno...........

We tried to incubate our second batch of eggs the last few weeks. We did the same thing we did with the first, but had very different results. Our first hatch, we had 11 out of 14 eggs hatch and that was great. They eggs had been shipped over a couple states and they say a 50 % hatch rate with shipped eggs is really good. So for this hatch I bought some eggs that were more rare and more expensive and did everything else the same. I have checked these eggs over the last couple weeks (called candling) and thought all but a couple questionable ones were duds. Very disappointing considering they had been a little more pricey and I really wanted some of these in my flock. So last Thursday (which was technically hatch day, day 21) I am walking through the kitchen and I hear peeping. Leah was in there and I asked if she heard it also, sure enough she did. I was happy to see that the eggs werent a complete loss. By Friday morning, the peeping from inside the egg had lessoned and the chick had yet to make a pip.

I will spare you all the research I have done, but the basics of hatching is that a chick will pip a hole in the egg and zip a line completely around the egg and then push itself out. Many things can go wrong, but if you have a good humidity level and temperature in your incubator, it is usually best to let nature take it's course. My temps were good, but for some reason my humidity was a little low.

We woke up Saturday morning and the chick had pipped and was still peeping a little. I notices though that the membrane around the chick was very dry and somewhat shrink wrapping the chick. Not good. By 3:00 Saturday, the chick had made no more progress. It can take 12 hours for a chick to completely zip around the egg, but they usually make consistant progress. I decided, after much research, to intervene. I did not want to lose the one chick who was trying to make it, but often times intervening can do more harm than good. They can bleed to death and all kinds of ickiness can happen. We were fortunate and the E-section worked! We zipped the rest of the egg with a bamboo skewer and were very fortunate that the chick was ready to come out. It was indeed shrink wrapped in it's membrane and I am sure it would have died had we not intervened. Yeah!!

Julie

Poopies

2011-07-15T06:16:00.000-07:00

I think potty training is in our near future. I have been working with Asher for a few months to recognize his "functions" if you will. Like if he pees on the floor after a bath, I will tell him that he went pee pee, that kind of stuff. Lately we have been working on poopy. Last weekend he told me he went poopy so I checked and I think he was confusing pee with poop, but I changed him. Just now though, he came up to me patting his bottom saying "poopy," and sure enough, he had. Yeah! I have no intentions of hitting this hard at this point, but I definitely think getting him familiar with the potty chair is in order. Go Asher, Go Asher, Go Asher!

Julie

15 years and a lost tooth!

2011-07-04T04:23:00.001-07:00

July 20th marks 15 years that I have been married to my wonderful husband. In celebration of that, I swept him away for last week for a little trip. I have been planning this trip for months. Last Tuesday evening he came home to a treasure hunt of sorts that Leah and Logan had planned. Their were 15 clues with each clue having the number 15 in it. The last clue brought him to our bedroom where our bag was packed, t-shirts had been made (thank you cheap Vista Print deal) and tickets were displayed. We left 9 hours later for our flight to Bermuda. I have never done anything like this before and Ryan was caught so off guard that we had a hard time even reading whether or not he was even cool with it. He was and we had a wonderful time. We have never both left the kids for longer than a night so this was a very, very new thing for us. We were gone for 4 full days and 3 nights and got back late Saturday. The kids did great, which honestly was our greatest concern. Thank you to our super awesome babysitters (Eva and my in laws Rick and Deb) who kept them busy with activities and made it a lot of fun for mommy and daddy to be gone. Also, thanks to Leah and Logan for being a big help, I felt way more comfortable leaving knowing that they were there to lend a hand.

So, of course Bermuda was amazing. It has very quickly become one of my top places to visit. The flight was relatively short and I found tickets a couple months back for what I felt were pretty reasonable. We stayed in a mid range hotel which had everything we needed and we almost literally spent 3 days on a little motor scooter that we piddled around the island in. I will remember that trip for the rest of my life and I hope Ryan does too. Speaking of Ryan, I could not feel more blessed to be married to my best friend for 15 years. Really, I am in awe that I am able to spend my life with this man that I just keep loving more and more. I don't take this for granted.

Ok, so to change subjects, Anna lost her first tooth last night. She told us yesterday morning that is was loose and by about 11:00 pm it was out. I am still a little surprised by it all. Maddie is older and the only loose tooth she has was knocked loose. Anna was so proud and the tooth fairy left her a little green present under her pillow. **Sigh** I guess my babies are getting big......

Happy 4th all!! We will be taking the kids to see the Urbana fireworks tonight with my sisters and my mom and step dad. They should love that. Well, all except Asher. Surprisingly he doesn't seem to love the fireworks. I figured if for nothing else he would love how loud they were, but nope. We saw a few small ones last night and he laid his head against me the whole time. Hmph.

Julie

"Someone Worth Dying For" - MIKESCHAIR OFFICIAL (High Quality)

2011-06-23T18:25:00.000-07:00

Really, this song is excellent. A must listen to, especially in my opinion, if you have a teenage daughter. :)

Leah's gone......

2011-06-21T18:37:00.000-07:00

Aw nuts, Leah's gone again. However, she is in a very cool place, downtown Cincinnati. She is on a mission's trip of sort working with the people of that area and learning more about the heart of Jesus. She went with a group of middle school and high school students from our church. Some of the kids, our buddy Olivia and I took Leah to Columbus yesterday to see her off. I really am pretty pathetic when my kids are gone. I miss them so much. I need to get over that. I think this will be a great learning experience for Leah though and I am excited to hear all about her week when she gets back.

Our summer seems to be into full swing. Logan got his 4H beef feeder last night and we spent all morning trying to run around and get all the things for it that we didn't have. Right now it is in a make shift pen in our barn. Our barn still has a very wet and muddy floor, something which we hope to remedy in the next week. We are planning a couple short trips this summer, camping and maybe a weekend trip to Kings Island or Cedar Point. This summer is Ryan and I's 15 year anniversary, so it would be nice to do something special for that. We had thought we would do something big for our 10 yr anniversary, but Maddie was just a little squirt. We did go to Cedar Point for a weekend which was really fun, but the kids went with us, which certainly changes things. Next week Logan has soccer camp for 3 days at Leah's school and then they are both going to attend Vineyard's camp the secong week of August. I have no doubt this summer will fly by. I have come to love summer even more because it means ALL the kids are home all day. I treasure that more now than I ever have before.

Ok, for some various little kid updates......

Maddie: Still as fiesty as ever. I can see her maturing though and that is nice. A very cool thing that has happened with Maddie lately is that she asked Jesus into her heart a couple months back. I had forgotten how cool it felt to know your child is mature enough to see the need for Jesus. Madeline is still very focused on spiritual things and talk a LOT about the bible, the verse she learned in class, etc. etc. It is very cool. She is starting to get "in" to the sports she likes, which is soccer and gymnastics right now. Madeline is still a little high maintenance, but she is also a big help. I know she is purposely trying to share better and be more helpful. She is the first one to offer to help me with something and she has good stamina. She usually will say something like "Jesus wants us to help people." Probably Madeline's biggest downfall right now is her temper. It gets the better of her sometimes, but overall, Madeline is becoming such a little lady.

Anna: Anna is really a unique kid. I love her personality. She is so loving and soooo tenderhearted. Anna is much different than Gideon and Madeline. She enjoys very different things. Anna plays soccer and does gymnastics, but her passions at this age seem to be dancing and animals. Typical sports don't seem to motivate her much. Anna is by far the most perceptive child I have ever seen. She has like a 6th sense. She notices thing way before anyone else and she remembers stuff I can't believe she remembers. We tell Anna all the time that she has eagle eyes. Anna has a really fun personality, especially when she feels comfortable with you. She can be a little shy, but once she is over that, she can be goofy. Just ask her to do her "Little Big Planet" impersonation!

Gideon: Gideon is just all boy. He like to run and play and goof off. But similar to Anna, he can be really shy. Gideon hates to have attention drawn to him in a public setting. Especially if it is negative attention. He loses it. So we have to be careful with him sometimes. Much like Anna, Gideon is also tenderhearted. He loves big and he hurts big. Gideon though has such a sweet, sweet heart. Yesterday Asher got in trouble for something and we crying. I walked in to the room to Gideon wrapping his arms around Asher and patting his back. Asher was just holding tight to Gee. It was very sweet, but that is just Gee, he is a little sweetie. He is also very ornry though also. Right now he is going through a phase of just playing rough. Even though he is the smallest of the 3 little ones, one of the girls seem to always running to me and telling that Gee hit or knocked them. He mostly doesn't mean to, he "just playing." (Which by the way is a phase I am coming to hate)

Asher: Is getting so BIG. Oh my, it is crazy how my baby is not a baby anymore. Right now Asher is our little tornado. He just goes through the house tearing out everything in his way. He particularly loves my drawer with bowls and lids. He could spend hours trying to put lids on bowls. I tend to have to tell Asher "no" a ton right now, but overall he listens well (although he cries almost every time). Like, we took the gate off the stairs and it took him maybe a day to learn that he isn't allowed past the first step. It is a rare occasion that he ever tries to climb the stairs at all. He is good about putting things back when I tell him also, he just needs to learn not to get them out in the first place. He loves the wii and Playstation remotes. They turn up missing a lot. Asher is a little lover also, but for some reason he seems pretty practically minded, if a 2 year old can be practical. Asher is talking all the time. I only understand about 1/2 of what he says and I have to listen hard sometimes to get that. He will jibber jabber like crazy to people (some total strangers) and they will not catch a single thing he says. It is quite funny. He does however say "outside" a lot. He would rather be outside than anywhere. He also says "dink" (drink), "Weah naughty" ("Leah Naughty" one of my personal favorite because Leah torments the poor kid), "Gee," "Nn-A," "Go-gie," "Byce," "Goggie," and a number of other words. He is also putting two words together frequently.

Ok, so there's an update on life in these parts. As soon as I get my memory card emptied, I will get some farm pics and post them. I haven't done that in a while.

Julie

Family from up north.

2011-06-17T19:28:00.000-07:00

Much of my dad's family lives in Michigan. Well, my Aunt Sandy, Uncle Steve and cousin Misty were here visiting some this evening. They came to the house for a bit and then we met the rest of the fam for dinner. I love spending time with then. They are just fun, down to earth people. Plus, Uncle Steve is the closest thing I think I have to seeing my dad in bodily form. From what I hear their personalities were somewhat different, but I think they looked alike, especially in stature. We had a great visit but for some reason I left a little sad. Unfortunately I have no memories of my dad, but there have been a few times in my life where I have really missed him. Tonight was one of those nights. How you really miss someone you never really knew, well I have no clue, but it just seemed like he should have been there, with his brother, with us.

Julie

Finally, an update..

2011-06-15T18:08:00.000-07:00

First off, sorry for such a long delay. We have been more busy than I can say. Lots of hard work. Not to mention a vacation to Canada in there.

First off, an Anna funny. We were coming out of a store this afternoon and I commented how Anna would make a great mommy some day. Anna's reply was "yes, I will be a really good mommy and I won't spank." I said, "oh, ok, well, if you don't discipline your kids how will they grow up to be nice adults (not that I think spanking is the only way to discipline)?" Anna's reply was "well, I WILL spank them when they get big." Ummm, good luck with that.

Oh and I love how mashed potatoes are "smashed" potatoes in this family. I don't want to forget stuff like that.

So, this pic is of Asher's little family birthday party. We went to the park and really it was lots of fun.

Presents......

Just a "swingin."

The fam at the park (minus Anna - off playing and Leah - at school).

For Memorial Day we went to the cemetary where my dad, two grandpa's, a great aunt and a great grandma is buried. It was good to visit and remember these lives.

My dad's grave. It's a shame he never really got to see his kids grow up and to see his amazing grandkids. God has a way of filling empty spaces though.......

My Grandpa Wren's grave. Leah and Logan did get to know him some.

Our annual fishing trip was fun, but man we had to work hard to catch fish. It was crazy.

Ryan and a nice bass. I think it was a smallmouth.

Ok, see the snake is this picture? Super big and creepy and under our dock! We heard it was a fox snake? I still say it was a rattler.

Maddie driving the boat. Scary.

The boys swimming. This picture reminds me of how different Gee and Asher are. Gideon (while I was really proud of him for getting in, Anna wouldn't even consider it) clung to Ryan and freaked if he couldn't cling properly. Asher was just ready to dive over the side. I even have a picture of him just bawling that he couldn't get in at first.

Two very large mouths.

Log had a rough couple first days, but he picked up a few later in the week. Good job Log!

What do three 4 and 5 yr olds do on a boat for 8 hours? Why, they play itouches.

Me and my very nice Walleye.

To come is pictures of life around here. You must see our little twinlet calves and Logan's 4H calf is coming this weekend. Plus, our barn is built and our pasture is almost fenced in. Told ya we've been busy!

Julie

End of the school year!

2011-06-02T17:26:00.000-07:00

Today was Leah's last day of school. Yeah for all of us. I am going to love having my girl home all summer. They handed out awards today for the middle school and Leah got salutatorian for her grade. I am sooooo proud of her! The boy that got valedictorian is a friend of hers and they have a little battle going. I guess though they only counted the last 3 quarters of grades, not the 4th quarter. Leah got one A- her second quarter (in Algebra, she got a little behind because we were in Florida 2 weeks), well the #1 dude got an A- this current quarter (the 4th), but since they didn't count the 4th quarter, he beat her out. It's all good, he seems like a good kid that works hard like Leah.

So, off we go into summer. We will be leaving soon for our annual fishing vacation which is always a lot of fun. The kids have a couple camps to go to and 4H will consume some of our time, but it should be a great summer!

Julie

We had to put her down.

2011-05-28T19:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I am sad to say that we had to put our cow down. She was just getting worse and worse. I felt so bad for her. I watched to vet put her down. I know it was best for her, but it just seems so wrong to take a life, under any circumstances. We really did all we could for her. For 6 days we babied her and gave her as much attention as we could to get her better. We still have no clue what was wrong with her. We know her potassium was very low, but every other test came back fine. Her baby (twin B, lovingly named "Goofy" by the kids) is still here and doing ok. She will probably be here for quite a while. I want to keep a close eye on her.

Julie

Cow update and a few recent pics....

2011-05-26T05:08:00.000-07:00

Well, our mama White Park is still looking very bad. She is barely eating now and I wouldn't be surprised if we lose her today. I hate that. Here is a picture taken of one of our White Parks a week or so ago. I can't quite read the ear tag, but it may even be the one right now that is sick. The are such beasts and very cool.

This is a sweet picture of my Uncle John and Asher taken on Easter.

Meet Misti. She is our new milking cow (hopefully). We plan to breed her soon for an early spring calf. We have a lot of work to do between then and now though. She is super nice and tame, but she is not halter trained and can get real feisty when trying to make her move. She will follow you for some sweet feed though! I think she's pretty.

This is Anna's birthday cake. She wanted chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Hence the brown dress!

Anna and her bud Katelyn at one of her party's.

Anna had a little slumber party after her birthday shindig. Here the girls are eating their donut breakfast.

Our last gymnastics for the year was last week. I was sure to bring my camera. I should have brought Ryan's camera though. Mine was too little to get a great picture.

Anna and the beam.

Maddie on the big beam.

Gee and his dismount. Graceful, eh?

I need to finish planting my garden. I am almost done, but the rain is seriously affecting my ability to put things in the ground. I think I will wait until this weekend to get the rest in. Right now I have two types of potatoes in, about 5 types of tomatoes, beets, onions (2 types) and peppers (3 types). I also planted about 10 more strawberry plants in my strawberry beds about 2 weeks ago. We are already getting strawberries. I still need to get my beans, sweet potatoes, cucumbers and squash in. Plus the kids need to get their garden's in.

Today will be busy. We are meeting the vet over at the in laws to check on our down cow and to vaccinate the rest of the cows. We will also ear tag our calves and pull some tail hairs to send away for a couple tests. It should be interesting. We only have 3 cows and 3 calves to do, but we have like 20 other cows that need done. I also need to get to Walmart today and try to plant the bushes in the front yard. I am also trying to get some baking/cooking done for our vacation next Saturday. I think we are going to be just plain crazy busy until we leave in 9 days. That vacation will be well needed.

Julie

Stink. Major cow trouble.

2011-05-23T05:16:00.000-07:00

We had a super busy weekend. Last Thursday the cow we bought about a month ago to be our future milker had to have an abcess drained. We had noticed a large lump and it just wouldn't go away. The vet drained it (extremely icky) and packed it with iodine laced gauze. We brought Misti (our milker's name) over here to keep her out of the mud and to be able to care for the wound. So, she joined Sparky behind our chicken coop. Misit is a beautiful and tame Dexter cow (will get a pic today), but she is not halter trained (something we will do once she is here full time). So getting her from the trailer to the pen ended up being a one hour chase around our property (she only had like 40 feet she had to walk). Not fun. She is doing very well though and really, I like having her here, even if it isn't full time yet.

So Misti was kind of a pain, but our real trouble started last Friday. Ryan met the kids and I at the park to celebrate Asher's birthday. Around 3:00 we were on our way home when my father in law called to tell us that one of our White Parks was down. Not good. Long story short, she is still down. It took a bulldozer to get her moved to a pen. We were wading in no lie 6 to 10 inches of mud (thank you unending rain). She is still alive but pretty bad. She is eating and drinking however and the vet cannot say what her issue is because all her vital signs were good. It seems strange to us. She is an expensive cow and so we are not willing to just let her die, but at the same time we can't make her more expensive by adding vet bills and treatments that may not even work. Very tricky. While I am not attached per se to this cow, I certainly feel bad for her and do not want her to die.

Another issue with having this cow down is her calf. All of our 4 cows have calves. This cow happens to be Sparky's mom (or bottle fed calf). So with her being down, it leaves her calf (Sparky's twin) alone. Now I have been impressed with how well the 4 White Parks tend to take care of one another. We have even see cows nursing off mama's that weren't their own. After talking to the vet we decided to take Sparky's twin here with us (we left her with mama in the pen one night, but mama is not milking and it was pointless). The vet told us that mama had very little milk left anyways. So Goofy (the kids named her) is here and isnt reall happy about it. She is like a loose cannon, although she seems to like being with Misti and Sparky back in the pen. She will not eat any milk replacer (which is concerning) but will eat some hay. She is very scrawny. We have a call into the vet and I plan to ask her about mama and the calf.

So yeppers, a busy weekend. Every spare minute that was not spent on the cows was spent building fences for the cows (both here and at the in laws). You know though, I don't mind spending our time like that. It feels purposeful to me and we get to do it together as a family.

Oh, FYI, our "farm" now has a name. When Misti's registration was transferred to us the guy we bought her from needed our farm name. That got us thinking and after going over many options, we decided on "The Familia Bendecida Farm." It means "Blessed Family" in Spanish. It is kind of cool because Jorge (Gideon's foster brother) helped us with the translation through e-mail. He is such a neat kid!

Julie

My baby is 2!

2011-05-20T02:27:00.000-07:00

My baby is two today! I love this little man more than I can say. Asher is funny, inquisitive, smart and tender-hearted. He is certainly the baby of the family and is treated as such. He is very adored. Can you see why???

How can you not love this face?

Here is the birthday cake we made him for one of his birthday celebrations. Yes, I know Mickey looks a little off. My first one free-handed. Asher liked it though. He LOVES Mickey Mouse.

Asher with his new truck from MaMa and PaPa.

Asher's birthday balloon. I got it for Asher at Walmart last night.

We are going to meet daddy at the park today for a little party with just our little family. I love getting special time with the kiddos on their actual birthday. Daddy is leaving work early and I am making a strawberry pie that Gee helped me pick out. It is actually suppose to be dry today. Yeah!!

I love you so very much little man and so does daddy, Weeeahh (must say it in a sing-song kind of way), Gogie, Addie, Nnna and Gee. You are the best!!

Julie

PS My laptop hard drive has been replaced. Yeah! I have lots of pictures to catch up on.

New hard drive coming

2011-05-15T17:35:00.000-07:00

So my dear husband finished my interactions with HP tech support and my new hard drive is on the way. I have no clue why a new computer already needs a new hard drive...... A little frustrating. Oh well, I am just glad to be closer to full computer capacity.

Life around here is good. I am not feeling too hot today, but I am optimistic that tomorrow will be better. Ryan and I did do a little work on our fences today. They are getting much closer to being done. I am so ready to have them finished, but it is a very long process. They look great though. Also, I really want to get our new milking cow here. She is low man on the totem pole over at our in laws farm, plus she has a problem with her knee. I want to be able to more closely monitor that. Sparky is seriously outgrowing her small pen behind the coop. we let her out in the yard on Friday and she just ran and ran. Oh, and one of our little (black) White Park calves is looking rough. She is very thin and doesn't appear to be connected to her mama anymore. We might bring her over here for a while until she fattens up a bit.

Our barn has made tremendous progress this past week. It was the first time in over 3 weeks that we had anyone even here working. If they keep at this, I think they will be done in another week or so. We still have a lot to do before the barn is ready (like staws and gravel, eventually a loft).

Leah is heading to Chicago this week for a class trip. She is so excited. I am a little concerned for her although I am sure it will be fine. I am just glad it is only for a few days.

Well, there's my small little update. Tons of pictures will follow soon!

Julie

Sweet Little Chickies!

2011-05-07T19:11:00.000-07:00

So our little eggs hatched on thursday. 11 out of the 14 eggs we put in the incunator hatched. That is really a very good hatch rate. The other 3 eggs are still in there, but I will probably get rid of them tomorrow. My very curious side wants to crack them open and do an "eggtopsy" of sorts and see why they did hatch. Part of me thinks I would get totally grossed out. Hmmmm, I will have to think on that a bit...... The 11 we have though are adorable!

Happy Mother's Day to all those great mama's out there! I cannot tell you how blessed I feel to have my beautiful kids and husband. They are more precious to me to anything here on earth and I just praise God for giving me these gifts!!

Julie

My computer is gone......so sad.

2011-05-03T05:23:00.000-07:00

My laptop is less than a year old and it is gone. I have had trouble with it off and on since I have had it but we assumed some bug had just got to it. We sent it in to the local dude that fixed Colepak's computers and he fixed it. Then it moved to Hotmail issues. If I tried to reply or send a message to someone it shut my computer down. About a week ago my computer completely shut down. I called HP support and was on the phone for an hour and a half with kids needing to eat, etc. Pretty much we needed to shut down my hard drive which would probably cause me to lose all my data, so I told him that I needed to back things up first. That is where we are at. My computer is backed up and I just need to call HP again. I know we are going to have to send the hard drive in and I am dreading calling and being on the phone forever. It is frustrating that a computer that is pretty much soley used for internet piddling and a few pictures is having so much trouble.

Well, we are still living in a swamp. This rain is really making me want to go cuckoo. Our barn has not been touched in over two weeks. My garden plot is so wet I can't even begin to plant in it. The grass seed we've planted is probably rotting. IT IS A MESS.

On one productive note, we have gotten all our fence posts in for our pasture. This is kind of huge. We spent the last two weekends on it. Ryan worked his hiney off and my father in law pitched in tons. I didn't do much until last weekend, but they are all in! Even in the rain. The negative side to this is that there are huge ruts and mud spots now throughout the pasture due to the skidloader being so heavy and sinking into the wet ground. But we knew that would happen and really needed to get that fence in. Can't really wait for the rain to stop or it would never get done..... Now we have to get the wire screwed on and electrified and add the gates. That will probably take another two weekends, but I would much rather be doing that stuff than driving posts (not that I do all that much....).

Animal/Livestock Updates.......

Logan has picked his beef feeder calf and I think we will be getting it in a couple weeks. His name is Monopoly. Ryan went with a friend (a dude that knows way more about this stuff than we do) and picked him out. I think Logan is pretty excited about him. Sparky needs a buddy for sure!

Sparky is doing great. She is getting big! She is still taking the bottle a lot and she needs to be switching over to feed/hay more. I am not sure how to get her to do that. Time for more internet research I guess. She downs her bottles these days and she nudges so hard it hurts. Last night she busted Logan's lip pretty bad when she nudged him.

We picked up our milker cow last week. She is so pretty and friendly. Really, she is super cool. I cannot wait to get her here in our barn/pasture. She is a registered Dexter. They are a pretty interesting breed. They are naturally smaller than a normal milking cow and I think she will be much easier to handle, come time to milk her. She will not be milked for quite a while though because she isn't even pregnant yet. We are working on that. We are hoping she will calf next spring and will have milk all next summer/fall.

The chickens are, well, doing what chickens do. Our original layers are giving us about 8 to 12 eggs a day right now, which is pretty good. Our new layer chicks are in an awkward stage where their feathers are half in and half not, they look pretty funny. Their colors are super pretty though and I am happy with my hen choices. Leah's fair silkies are gorgeous. Really pretty birds. I am interested to see how they show this year. The meat birds are 7 weeks today. You are suppose to butcher between 7 and 8 weeks. They are looking so healthy though, I want to wait as long as I can. Maybe the end of next week?

Our little eggs in our incubator are on day 21. They are suppose to start hatching today. We have been candling the eggs to check on their development and it appears that all 14 were alive and looking well (to my untrained eye). They were all moving inside the egg as of 3 days ago. On day 18 the chicks go in to "lockdown." You don't open the incubator, you don't turn the eggs any more, etc. So, we are just waiting to see when and I guess "if" they hatch. It would be a bummer at this point to get this far and loose them.

Ok, so there is life around these parts I guess. I would love to post some pictures, but until my laptop is fixed, that is not happening.

Julie

Messiah has Risen!!!!

2011-04-24T08:38:00.000-07:00

Recent Pics

2011-04-21T04:56:00.000-07:00

Asher right after getting scolded. He literally snuck cookies from the snack drawer while I was outside. Check out his expression in the second picture....

This is his "What?!?" look.

This is him just starting to break down.

Our barn progress. A little bit more is done now, but not much unfortunately. That is Anna and Gee out in the yard with sparky.

What Leah chooses to do in her little free time. He would be a pretty girl......... Just kidding.

Gideon getting a Leah "do."

Anna and her updo!

Maddie's pretty bun!

Impromptu monkey bread. Soooo yummy, even though I actually resisted any from this batch.

Just wrong on so many levels. Look at the grease soaking through the corrugated! The kids thought it was great.

Check out the turtle that just appeared in our yard. We are pretty sure it has been hiding out under old outbuilding all winter. It had moss on its back and was pretty big. Here is a chicken checking it out.

See how big it is! Yikes!

These were some very yummy graham crackers I made with the kids. It was fun to do and they were super yummy! It even used WW flour.

This is our new egg indubator. I am very excited about this! Right now we have over a dz heritage deleware eggs in there. They are on day 13 of a 21 day incubation. We have candled them and couple times and they are looking really good (I think, I am certainly no expert). Hopefully next week we will see some hatch!

Until Later!

Julie

So very tired of rain.

2011-04-19T18:24:00.000-07:00

I know it is spring and rain is just part of this time of year........however.......I have had enough rain already! Seriously, it is getting ridiculous. We had a nice day on Sunday and we were literally outside all day. We got a lot done, but there is so much more to do and I can't get outside. Mud and puddles are everywhere! We have places in our yard that are just like soup and the have been off and on for weeks. Multiple vehicles have gotton stuck and we have ruts in our yard the size of small swimming pools. Ok, have I complained enough???? I could go on, but I won't. I think I will just praise God that I have a nice warm and DRY house to sleep in every night.

A non-whiney update is coming with pictures..... Yeah! Pictures are always fun!

Julie

Farm Girl Stuff

2011-04-11T04:51:00.001-07:00

Well, as of yesterday, all of our calves for the spring have been born. We ended up with a set of white twins, two black calves and one singleton white calf (born yesterday). In terms of a money making endeaver, this was not our best start at things. Both the black calves are not considered breed standard for the White Parks (kind of obvious, I guess). Apparently our chances of getting a black calf were around 10% and our chances of getting twins was even less. Go figure. We are still trying to decide what to do with everyone from a financial perspective. From an enjoyment perspective, it is a little different for me. I love our little flock. I am really enjoying the breed. They are hardy, good mother's (except for our poor Sparky), non-aggressive, but understandably protective. Plus, I think they are beautiful animals. And yes, I will be able to eat them. I undertand that it is just part of it all. Our most recent little black calf (born last week). This is the little one born just yesterday. He/she is probably about 6 or 7 hours old here. Saturday afternoon we had an Etiquette Dinner with our 4H club. Here is a picture of Leah and her table. Ok, back to cows. This is just a picture of both our black cows together with their mama's. It is funny how our White Parks tend to hang with one another out in the field. This is Sparky's mama and twin sister. Our little black calf #2, about a day old. How cute is it???? Our barn progress. I am so excited to see our barn moving along. With the rain, it is moving more slowly than I would like, but it is still moving, so I shall focus on the positive! Ok, this is totally not farm girl stuff, but it is my nasty garage. Right now our garage totally stresses me out. We have chickens in there, that have no other place to go and just a bunch of junk! I can't do anything about the chickens right now, but I can do something about the junk. I decided to tackle one wall at a time. Here is wall #1, before. Embarrassing, yes. An "after" picture will hopefully come in a few days.

One last little cow picture...... So cute.

The kids and I made these coffee filter flowers. I don't do near as many projects with the kids as I would like, but this was a good one. It was a two day project because you have to let them dry once you color them, but they turned out so nice. What was even nicer was letting the kids hand deliver them, along with some muffins, to some our special relatives.

Julie

First Dance

2011-04-09T04:27:00.000-07:00

So Ms. Leah had her first dance last night. She went with a buddy of hers and they apparently had an "awesome" time. Said buddy came over to the house early to help prep. Daddy got his camera out! Here is Madeline wishing she was going to a dance. Bless her heart. She was so interested in everything Leah was doing. She is such a little diva wanna-be. Leah getting her hair done and eating steak and fries. Ummm, in our bathroom. Slightly icky, yes. Btw, Leah has INCREDIBLY thick hair, oh my. It took forever to do the ringlets Leah help "buddy" get her necklace on. I just love the smile on buddy's face. How cute is she? Leah in her pretties. How beautiful is this kid? So grown up. I just love her to pieces!

Got Raw Milk?

2011-04-03T05:48:00.001-07:00

Most people are familiar with the term "raw milk." It is milk that has not been pasteurized. I have done quite a bit of research on the subject and have concluded that in the right settings, people can drink raw milk very safely. I also believe that raw milk has great natural benefits for the average person. With that being said, we decided to pasteurize our milk. I was more the raw milk type, but Ryan, well, not so much. Probably the biggest thing for me though was neices/nephews/friends that come to visit. I want our house to be a unquestionably "safe" enviroment for everyone and my leanings toward raw milk aren't so dead set that I'm not willing bend some. Home pasteurization is a little different though than what the big dairies do. Our milk is not ultra-pasteurized, which I am still reading up on, but so far it appears that our milk maintains more nutrients and "good stuff" than store milk (don't quote me on that, like I said, I am still researching). Also, our milk has not been homogenized like store bought milk it. To spare you the science lesson, we get all the benefits of cream with our milk. Which for us means fresh butter (and maybe more at some point). We plan to get our own milking cow, but we are pretty picky with what we want, so it takes a little time. At this point we are blessed with raw milk from a good friend. I tried pasteurizing our milk on the stove, but it was very hard to get just right and the taste was very much affected. Ryan let me buy a pasteurizer and I love it. It is super easy and the milk tastes great. I though it might be interesting to show you how we pasteurized our milk. Asher, ever time I get the camera out he says "cheeeeeeeeese" and I have to take a picture. Oh, here is some real vanilla that I am making. This is my first time making it, but I have been wanting to try for a while! It is just cheap vodka and real vanilla beans. The hall I am painting. I seriously thought I was going to die climbing the ladder and such. Ok, this is our pasteurizer. The tube hanging off the side has a cork in it. The pasteurizer gets filled with water and this is the "drain pipe" if you will. Here is what our raw milk looks like. The pics aren't great, but if you look real close you can see the cream at the top. This is the pot with the milk in it. That pot rests in the bigger pot. The bigger pot gets filled with water. There's a burner at the bottom of the biggest pot that heats the water. It takes about 15 minutes to pasteurize. All you do is plug it in and a buzzer sounds when it is done. After it is done, you quickly circulate cold water through the same way you filled the pot. That is it. This is how you fill the pot up. All my clean supplies. Here is how we store our milk in the fridge. It works great because all the cream rises to the top and is easy to skim off. I would say the milk we drink is probably between 1% to 2%. The pasteurizer does 2 gallons at a time, so I am pasteurizing twice a week. I also included a pic of how I store my stuff and try to keep things organized. Just a couple fun pictures! My two girlies and a picture of all the kids loving on Olivia! Oh, and not to be forgotten, here is a picture of our new little black calf. He/she seems to be doing well! Julie

First track meet, Little lady #2 is getting big and another new baby!

2011-04-01T05:54:00.001-07:00

Leah had her first track meet yesterday. She did great and we are really proud of her! Running her relay..... In between matches sucking on a highly nutritious tootsie pop. Next to her is a really sweet gal Leah runs with. We were struck with how much they look alike. It was really kind of wierd. Asher even called the new girl "Weah" when he first saw her. So, Madeline got her first official babysitting job this morning. She watched Asher for me while I fed Sparky (who is doing well, thank you very much). She was so mature about it. She even took his snack away from him before I even left because she did not want him to "choke on too big of bites." When I came back in (after like 5 minutes), she very maturely told me that Asher was a good boy for her. It was really cute and really she did a great job with him. I think they just rolled the ball accross the kitchen floor the whole time. Another cow update.... We have another new calf. We think it is a heifer, although I didn't get a great look. The funny thing is that she is all black. No, this is not typical with "White" Parks. It really is a genetic flaw of sorts. It does happen within the breed, but only when a bull and cow are both carriers of the gene. I kind of wish she had been a "he." Then we would just grow the calf out for meat, which we can still do even if it is a heifer, but just not as ideal. We will not include this calf in the breeding "program" because she does not meet the breed standard. Nuts. However, she (and mama) seem to be doing well, which is all I really care about right now. I will get pics as soon as I find my camera! Julie

A Few Quizing Pics.......

2011-03-30T18:18:00.000-07:00

Leah and part of the crew in one of the final matches. Playing "ninja" on one of her breaks. Does anyone else even know what ninja is? I think it is the craziest game ever I thought Leah just made it up until I realized that everyone else seems to know how to play it also. Weird. Leah and her bud Olivia (also in the first picture in the shades). The team and the second place trophy. The team, the trophy and the massive tournament bracket. Good Stuff! Julie

Funny kids.

2011-03-28T10:38:00.001-07:00

I have been painting the hall (I am on color #3, but that is another story) so I am getting an earful of the three littles playing in their room. They have been playing up there for maybe 45 minutes and Madeline asked if they could come down and play a game. I told her "yes" as long as they cleaned their room first, here is how the next 5 minutes went: Madeline: Mom, that's not fair, you are being mean to us. Me: I am sorry you feel that way Madeline. Madeline: But I want to play downstairs......... Me: Then clean your room. Madeline: When can we come down? Me: Once your room is clean. Madeline: What about our snack? Me: No snack until your room is clean. Madeline goes into her room in a puff. Here's the conversation I hear in the room...... Gideon: Come on guys wet's cwean our woom, so we can have a snack (yes, he has slight "l" issues). Anna (little Ms. Sassy lately): I don't want to clean our room. Gideon: But we won't get a snack and we will have to stay up hear forever and forever. Anna (Shouting to me in the hall): Mom, we don't want a snack and we don't care if we have to stay up in our room! Anna was promptly scolded by Gideon and Madeline. Aparantly Anna was the only one who felt that way. A few minutes pass and Madline comes out in the hall and asks: Mom, if you don't eat or drink forever, will you die? Me: Yes, Madeline, you will. I haven't seen them since. I hope they are cleaning....... (I apologize for how my messages are being totally clumped together. I am typing and sometimes retyping it and this keeps happening)

The made it to the championship!!!

2011-03-27T06:44:00.000-07:00

I have been following Leah and her quizzing tournament this weekend very closely. I think there are 7 local teams here in the West Liberty area and Leah's team came in 3rd out of the 7. So not bad, but I was curious to see how they would do in a tournament of 77 teams. They lost their placement game, but then kept winning. Today is the championship game and they are in it!!!! Since they lost once, they had to play the other team twice to win the whole tournament. As of right now, they won their first game against the other team and they are playing the championship game as we speak. I have been face-timing with Ryan's iphone and believe it or not we lost the connection at 75-65, our lead and 1 more question. Ryan just called and we lost by 5. The other team got the last question, which would tie it, but they got a team bonus of "5." How disappointing to be so close..... They did great though! 2nd place is AMAZING!!!! Way to go!! Julie

Happy Birthday Logan!! (an update also)

2011-03-23T18:37:00.001-07:00

Well, my firstborn son was born 11 years ago today. He was induced two weeks early and was 8lbs 14oz. He was beautiful and extremely easy to be in love with. I know people say this all the time, but time just flies. I remember his birth so clearly. Now he is truly becoming a little man. His is starting to show how mature he can be and I adore his willing spirit. Logan is such a gift to our family. I love him way more than I can type on this blog. Happy Birthday dude!!!

Madeline, Anna and Gee drew pictures for Logan and suprised him by "cleaning" his room and putting the pictures on the door.

Here's Logan tonight eating his requested apple crisp.

At mama and papa's Sunday.

At our house Sunday (yes two parties in one day).

A cow/calf update...... Things are going well. Mama cow and twinlet at the farm seem to be doing really well. It appears that mama passed all/most of her ickies and it also appears that twinlet is nursing. Yeah, big praise! Bottle baby (unofficially named Sparky by my BIL Jason) seems to be doing really, really well. She ate like a champ today and by the end of the day she was even trying to nurse the bottle like she is suppose to. Like actually rooting for the nipple and latching on. I would say I am pretty optimistic for her at this point. We even found a superd farmer that gave us a gallon of precious colosrum. It is a guess as to whether it will do her much good, but hey, it doesn't hurt. She is still not eating two full bottles like most calves her age, but I bet she will be by tomorrow. I am giving her 4 to 5 smaller feeding instead of 2 big ones to help her stay healthy. I will feel much better though if in a week she is still doing good. I think she is still at risk for many things..... Thank you for praying and please keep her in your prayers (all of them really).

On a side note, I am not so sure I am cut out for this livestock thing. I can see myself getting a little too attched to the "stock."

Julie

A Silly Request?

2011-03-23T02:53:00.000-07:00

Could you say a little prayer for our twinlets? We still have the bottle fed calf in our chicken coop and I'd say her future is sketchy. We are getting different reports from different vets/farmers, but what we are hearing is that this little one really needs some colostrum in her. We have been giving her colostrum replacements from TSC, but the thoughts are that those might not be good enough. We/I almost literally spent all day yesterday dealing with cattle issue. I really don't mind, I kind of enjoy it, except I am worried. Being extreme rookies does not help. Mama cow (at father in law's) looks as if she is taking quite some time to expel the afterbirth (sorry if that paints an icky picture in your mind). For now she is ok, but we need to watch her. Also, yesterday we got concerned for the twin still with the mama. Mama is very protective of her, but we are not sure she is nursing ok and she keeps getting stuck in the brush/fallen tree that mama likes to hide her in.

The baby at our house did not eat like we hoped at all yesterday. I went to feed her in the morning and she wouldn't eat at all. After multiple attempts throughout the day (with little results) we finally got her to take another pint last night. She still looks good, isn't dehydrated, knows how to suck, etc. She just seemed uninterested. Best case senerio is that the 3 pints she gorged Monday night was quite a bit for a little girl like her and she was full/had an upset stomach. Worse case senerio is that this is the beginning of the end for her. She needs to eat.

All of last night was spent at the farm (Thank you to my VERY responsible two oldest babies. They seriously took care of business here at the house with the 3 littles while we were a mile down the road). The plan was to get mama and calf in the trailer so that we could move them to a "stall" up by the barn. The hope was that if we could get them to the stall we could watch and see if the twin was nursing and we could possible milk colostrum from mama for our bottle calf. And maybe even reunite bottle baby soon. We had to move the stall's current residents out (a mama and calf that were ready to go back to pasture) and then somehow load the "wild" mama and calf in the trailer. Long story short, a very unhappy mama cow would not go into the trailer, even with her baby in there. We lost all daylight and called it a day. We did however see a couple promising things there. One, mama is really cares about her calf. Being in a pasture between baby and an angry large animal with horns is not cool. Two, baby peed three times (once on Ryan - ha!) in the hour we were messing with her. I think she is probably getting some milk from her mom.

I am not sure how today will go. I have the number of 3 local dairy farmers that I am going to call to see if any have any extra colostrum. Yes, a tad bit out of my comfort zone. It is really important though, even now, that our bottle baby get this. I hope they are receptive to me. It is a little tricky in these parts. These farmers have a "farmer's mentality" if you will, God love 'em.
I am concerned that no one will want to be bothered with such a trivial thing, plus colostrum is often times needed for thier own calves.

Oh and just another little crazy thing added to our list of already crazy things, the rest of Leah's fair silkies are due to arrive today. Normally this would not be a big deal, but the breeder called me last night (My phone literally went off when mama cow was about 4 feet from the trailer with baby cow. I had about 5 guys giving me the look of death). Aparently one of the 6 chicks has been exposed to coccicidiosis. Sooooooo, that chick may be DOA or it may be fine. At any rate, all the chicks will have to be quarantined and treated with meds for 3 to 5 days. Really isn't a huge deal, but enough to add a little more stress.

I am suppose to be leaving Friday at 11:00 to go to Pennsylvania for the weekend with Leah. Ryan has been totally cool with being here with the kids, but in light of the animal things we have going on, well I think Ryan might go in my stead. Although Ryan is a big help, the kids and I typically do the animal stuff around here. It would be a lot for Ryan to be here with all the kids and having to take care of some high needs livestock.

Ok, this post was much longer than I was planning. I guess I feel like I have time because I have been up since 3:30. Even though I am a little tired still, the house it extremely peaceful right now. Kind of nice.

Anyways, would you pray for the twin calves, especially the one we are bottle feeding? I would really hate to see either of them die.

Here is baby in her "stall" in our chicken coop. This was yesterday morning.

How beautiful is she?

Here is mama and calf out at FIL's farm in the brushy pasture.

Julie

Twins!

2011-03-21T18:11:00.001-07:00

A couple of our White Parks have been looking like they were due to give birth soon (I will spare you the details). This was a bit concerning to me because they were not suppose to be due until early May. The man we bought them off of seemed pretty sure of his dates. A vet we know said that the calf would not make it if is were born this early (if in fact the early May date was correct). Well my father in law called this afternoon and said that we had a calf and he/she looked healthy. We darted right over there to check it out. Sure enough there stood the sweetest looking little calf ever. It was hard to see because the mama cow gave birth in the trees/brush, but all looked well. We left to get Leah from school. Well about 6:00 this evening, Ryan called and said my brother in laws (who also have cattle over there) found another White Park calf in brush. At first they thought maybe another one of our girls had given birth, but it was obvious that the other 3 were still pregnant. Apparently our new mama gave birth to twins. My brother in law thought the baby was trash that had blow into the field and when he checked it out, there she was.

So we have twin girls, but there is a problem, the mama wants nothing to do with the extra calf. We think she probably dropped her first and maybe didn't even realize she did and went along her merry way. She probably then gave birth to baby #2 and bonded with that one. The "extra" calf stood and walked on its own and tried to nurse everything in the field with udders. It got knocked around pretty hard. It also tried multiple times to nurse on its mama and she wouldn't have anything to do with her. By the time I got to my father in law's the baby had been taken to the barn. Ryan went to TSC and bought "formula" for the baby. He and Jason (the brother in law that owns the White Parks with us) finally got the baby to drink the bottle and now she is here. No, our barn is not up yet, but we cleaned out the extra side of our chicken coop for her. It is plenty of room for now.

She is adorable. I will post a picture in the next couple days.

Julie

Laura Story - Blessings

2011-03-21T09:55:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite songs right now........

I love this verse!

2011-03-17T04:16:00.000-07:00

"But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." Romans 8:24-27

I was reading this verse this morning and it really hit me kind of hard. For some reason verses about waiting on God really convict me. I think it is because I recognize that I am so impatient. Having hope is not always easy for people like me. By the grace of God though, I can have complete faith and hope in Him. How awesome is that?

Julie

Seeds are here!

2011-03-16T05:43:00.000-07:00

Yeah! My seed arrived yesterday and I must say, they are very pretty. I have been reading up on planting heirloom seeds quite a bit and I am a bit worried. It is going to be tricky to plant them without worrying about cross pollination. Or I could just not worry about using the seeds year to year and then cross pollination wouldn't be a problem. But then that would defeat the purpose for me a bit. Hmmmmm......still not sure how I want to go about this. Anyways, here are a couple new types I am going to try:

These are suppose to be really good for canning. I think they look cool.

These look really interesting! A cross between a cherry and tomato?

All the prettiness!

I am not totally sure why I felt the need to include this picture. Leah snapped it of me while we were waiting in the Dr.'s office for her sports physical. Which, let me add here, was really rushed. My very fickle 13 yr old wanted to run track, then didn't want to run track, then back and forth about 200 times. She finally decided she for sure wasn't going to do it. Track sign ups came and went, track practices started and all of the sudden Leah decides she just really wants to join in. ARGH! So we rushed her sports physical in (our Dr.'s office was very accomodating) and the rest is history.

Eggs in a basket. Can you tell those are suppose to be heart shaped? No, I don't always make bigger breakfasts, I don't want you think I am a super mom. This morning we had "toasted oats" (aka generic cheerios) and bananas. These eggs in a basket though are always a hit with the kids.

Bread made with my new bread recipe! I am so very happy with this recipe and it even easier than my old recipe. This is even made 100% with my freshly ground whole wheat flour. Let me know if you want the recipe.

Perfect sandwich bread!

Things are busy around here as usual. We had some sickies here on and off over the last week, but I think all is on the mend. March is pretty busy for us because we have about 50-ish birthdays going on, 4 of which are in our immediate family. Plus, next weekend Leah and I will be gone all weekend to a quizzing tournament. That will be lots of fun, but it will be a little hard for me to leave the rest of the family for a very full weekend. Bless Ryan's heart for single parenting for the weekend.

Our White Parks are doing pretty good although it seems as if one are two are getting closer to giving birth than we thought. This could be bad if they birth too early. We are hoping their due dates are off. It would really stink to loose a calf.

Well, until later!

Julie

"Children Of God" - Official Music Video

2011-03-11T09:14:00.000-08:00

I love this song and video!!! Give it a listen.

A couple kid funnies...

2011-03-09T19:38:00.000-08:00

So we are coming home from church tonight and the kid's had a couple good ones. Today is Ash Wednesday and we went over to church for a special service. We decided that for lent as a family we are giving up TV. I am sorry to say, but for us this will be quite sacrificial. Anyways, this evening service marked the beginning of lent for us. So, no video for the kids on the way home. Leah and Logan knew it was coming (they helped us choose this), but we had to explain to the kids that we were not going to watch a DVD because we are going to take a few weeks to focus more on Jesus. Madeline asked if she could still watch cartoons at home, and we said no. Anna was pretty quiet, but then all of a sudden she very boldly declared, "Mom. Dad. You guys are being mean!" She said this with her arms crossed and a ton of attitude. It was so funny. We tried to explain again why we weren't going to watch tv, but she was very unimpressed. She had the four older ones in the car laughing out loud.

Since we had no DVD on the way home, Madeline felt to need to talk all. the. way. home. We even asked her a couple times if she could just stop talking for a couple minutes. Maddie talks a lot, but even more so when she is tired. Anyways, we had the radio going and Ryan actually flipped it to a country station. An oldie from Alabama came on and Madeline said "turn this up, I like this song." Ryan turned it up a bit and Madeline then said "this is a cowboy song." It was just cute. Ryan and I use to listen to country music a lot in high school. Now we rarely do, so I guess that type of music is somewhat of a novalty to our kids.

Speaking of Madeline, she is definitely going through a time of enlightenment. She is really starting to piece together the mysteries of life and is maturing so much. Right now she is really into everything Jesus. It is so cool to watch. She is listening intently at church and can repeat her bible verse and tell us about the story weeks later. In church tonight we were reading out loud together about how Jesus was tempted by satan. Madeline started going on about how she knew that story and how Jesus "didn't listen to satan." It is just Jesus talk almost every day. I can't really tell you how much I love to see her so interested in her Savior.

Julie

Just ordered seeds!

2011-03-05T05:36:00.000-08:00

I am really looking forward to gardening again this year. I feel like each year I learn a little more about what works and the kind of things we want to grow and eat. I think in general I am just ready for spring and for things to start growing/blooming again. Our little piece of property is so pretty when it is green and lush. The snow can be pretty too, but now it is rainy and extremely drab.

Two years ago I grew my own seeds in the garage. The grew well, but after I planted them we got a late frost and every one of them died. I ended up buying starter plants (like years before). Last year I didn't even bother with seeds. This year I wasn't planning on doing seeds either, but in my efforts to become more self suffient (and I just like watching things grow), seeds are the way to go. Especially heirloom seeds. Also, if I do it right, I will never have to buy seeds again. Heirloom seeds are "pure" if you will so I can dry the seeds after the garden is done and have my seeds for next year. You cannot do this with hybrid plants/seeds. It is like making a copy of a copy, it just doesn't work well (ever see Multiplicity, "pizza Steve......"). There will be no consistancy in your product, if you get anything at all.

So I just ordered a bunch of heirloom seeds. My hope it that this year my whole garden will be nothing but heirloom varieties. I have been reading up on heirloom seeds and I think they will be a bit tricky at first. Many heirloom seeds are open pollinated which means they can cross with other seeds of the same type. For example, if you are growing more than one type of cucumber, those two types will cross pollinate. This will not effect your end product this year, but the seed you save will probably be a mix and will effect your plant next year. To my undertanding, this does not jump accross species. A pepper and a cucumber will not cross pollinate and create some crazy new veggie (a pucumber?). Also, fortunately, heirloom tomatoes and beans are not typically prone to cross pollination. The way to "fix" the cross pollination problem is to only plant one variety of a certain species or to plant them far enough apart that cross pollination will not happen (I think it is debatable how far that should be). I ordered a number of different variety of seeds for some of my plants and now I need to consider how I am going to do things. I will probably cut back some on variety and try to plant some far enough apart that they don't cross pollinate.

Even though planting heirloom seeds will be a bit more work, I am hoping the benefits outweigh the negatives. Being able to use them year after year is a big plus, but also how cool will it be if my kids grow gardens some day and grow the same seeds their mama did?

FYI, we bought our seeds from Seed Savers online, but their are lots of reputable sites these days offering heirloom seeds.

Julie

Happenings....

2011-03-04T03:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Ryan's 35th birthday. The kids and I made him a cake and took it to Colepak and ate lunch with him. The kids also made gifts and cards and took them to him. It was a fun time. We don't go to Colepak all that often anymore so it is a treat for the kids. That was about it for birthday celebrations yesterday. I am sure more celebrations will come. March is a very busy birthday month for us. We tend the clump together the parties.

I just have to say, I love my husband so much. I praise God for giving him life and bringing him into this world. I can't tell you how many times I wonder how I got so very blessed with this awesome man. It is such a priviledge to be walking through life with him.

Happy Birthday Ryan !!!

Well, we decided to build a barn. I am really excited!! We have been talking about this for a while and we almost started last year on one. We decided to wait until spring and it looks like it will be started next week. Yippieee. Our plan is to use half the barn for livestock (happy, happy) and half for storage. We have a very nice Amish man building it for us.

Long term I am not sure what our plans are for the barn. The storage will be awesome and is very needed right now. On the livestock side, we are thinking maybe a hog and a dairy cow. Yes, we may get our own milk! I have been pushing for a dairy cow for a couple years, but they are a lot of work and with no barn, well, I didn't have much of a leg to stand on. I just love thinking about getting our own fresh milk, making our own butter, etc. Really it is the missing piece for us in being somewhat self sufficient. Our barn will also be used to house our various 4H projects and probably our meat birds when we have those throughout the year. Good stuff.

Some other "good stuff" (and this is the REALLY good stuff) has been some more devotion time with the older two kids. We have been listening to "Walk in the Word" recordings lately. They are really very good. They aren't necessarily geared toward kids, but Leah and Logan have no problem with them. Although we do pause it occasionally to explain or reiterate something. A couple nights ago they were talking a little bit about the end times and how we are really living a blessed time right now. Our children can choose to follow God, or not. The physical consequences of their choices are relatively easy right now. The day will come when they are not so easy. The message was not spoken in a gloom and doom tone, which I liked. It really evoked some emotions in our kids and lots of questions. There was a lot said in the 26 minute program, but we sat with the kids for close to an hour and a half just talking. We "just talk" with our kids a lot, but this was a little heavier, but very good. I think the general tone was hope and restoration, not "the end of the world is coming." I believe that is the best attitude to have.

Which brings me to another conversation......

How do you deal with the "talk" of the state of our country? I know in my neck of the woods I hear a lot on both sides. This came up some in our conversations with the kids, especially with Leah. Leah has asked me a couple different times about where I feel the US is heading. I think she is scared a bit. I don't really blame her. I remember being her age and going to church and hearing the pulpit banged about the end of the world coming. It is certainly one way to scare you in to being a "good little kid." Now that I am older, things look a little differently to me. Fear isn't really a good tactic when dealing with issues of the heart, which I believe is what Christianity is all about. Don't get me wrong, I reverently fear God. How can I not? But I refuse to live in fear or teach my kids to live in fear.

I really feel like the US is heading in a very bad direction. I think things around here are going to change, for the worse. I believe that the US cannot continue to reject and blasphamy the blessing of God for very long. God will not be mocked. The Bible tells us of a day where the Holy Spirit will allow men to have the desires of thier hearts. Right now we are living in a time, where as bad as things can be, the Holy Spirit is restraining the evilness of man. He will stop restraining at some point. That is a scary concept to me, let alone my 13 year old daughter. But you know what? I still will not teach my kids to be afraid.

God has blessed and continues to bless us, and I intend to live that way. It gets very frustrating to me (and all of my limited supply of grace) to see Christian people live as if they are not the chosen children of God. God will never abandon us and we have complete hope in Him. If God is watching the sparrow, how much more does he care about me?

So, how does this concept of God and our future affect my daily life? Well, I do like to be prepared. Yes, our hope is in God, but God expects us to use our abilities and our brains to walk through this life. I "hear" about where the economy (and the US) may be heading, and I don't necessarily disagree. I just disagree with how some people choose to live in light of this knowledge, in fear. Our family is preparing in many ways for an uncertain future. One of my favorite ways is by learning to be more self-sufficient. I guess I just feel like these are skills that we "should" have anyways. I think overall though we are trying to find a balance between being prepared for what life has for us and living our lives to the fullest. We are not always successful, but when we focus on the hope we have in God, well I think that keeps us in check.

Okay, this post got a little heavier than I was planning, so here are some cute pictures of Asher to lighten the mood.

Ok, I just love that he loves his Mickey Mouse. So cute to see him sleep with him.

"Say cheese Asher....."

"CHEEEEEESE........."

Madeline wanted a chore, I was happy to help the girl out. She now feeds the dog. Madeline is VERY task oriented. She has already told me that if we get a cow, she will milk it. She even explained how, even down to "you squeeze the things with milk gently." Ok, well, I see another chore in your future. Please ignore the messy garage (it tends to accumulate junk all winter because no one wants to be out in the cold) and the neck pillow Madeline is wearing.

Yummy chocolate cakes for Ryan's birthday. They were quite yummy, definitely a "keeper" recipe. The kids called Ryan at work on Tuesday and asked his favorite color, cake and icing flavor and animal. So these layered cakes were stacked and frosted in blue frosting with our whole family and a horse on the top. It really turned out kind of cute and the kids were very proud.

This is everyday life for our house, so I took a picture of it. I do this with the bread like twice a week. One loaf of whole wheat and two small loaves of cinnimon swirl. This is before their second rise. I love using my freshly ground whole wheat flour, but it is not rising nearly as much as I am use to. I think I might look for a new recipe.

The 3 littles presents for daddy.

Until Later!

Julie

Mooooooooo!

2011-02-24T05:43:00.000-08:00

Yeah! Our White Parks are here. Unloading them was awful because the trailer kept getting stuck in the mud. My poor father in law, it was his property getting torn up! For now our 4 heifers are in his pasture with his cows. They are pretty cool looking cows, for a picture scroll down.

So why am I showing you a picture of flour? Well this is freshly ground wheat flour. It isn't the best picture, but this is the flour I am going to try and use 100 % of the time now. I bought a hand cranked flour mill and used it for a while, but it took too long to grind to do it all the time. My mother and father in law bought me an electric mill and I used it for the first time last night. I LOVE it. We have been weaning out white flour as much a we can for a few years now, but it is difficult to substitute 100% whole wheat for all recipes. I learned online (through the Heavenly Homemakers Blog) that white wheat can pretty much be 100% substituted for regular white flour. I have also struggled with finding wheat berries to grind. We planted wheat this past fall, but it won't be ready until summer. Well, the country variety store (Amish ran) that I frequent carries white and red wheat berries. I bought a 50 lb bag. It worked out to be 70 cents a pound to buy. I have no clue if that is a good price or not. The red wheat berries were around 50 cents a lb so I could have gone cheaper. I hope I can really do all my flour this way. It will be way healthier for us and no doubt cheaper in the long run.

Here's more canning I have been doing. I made corn chowder. It doesn't look real "chowdery" because the dairy has not been added. It is not recommended to home can dairy product or "dense/pureed" soups. I am sure there are ways around this but I am not taking any chances. No botulism for us please.

Here are the soup and beans that I canned. I am not sure that it is cheaper to buy dehydrated beans and can them or to just buy cheap canned beans. My sister in law and I had this discussion just last week and I have never done a price comparison. I need to. I am sure it would make sense to buy bulk beans also and see the price. Anyways, I had these beans just sitting in my cabinet (where they had been for at least a year).

Asher can be such a ham. I was getting a picture of all the kids eating breakfast (the next pic) and Asher climbs up on the chair and says "cheeeeeeese." It was pretty funny.

Eating breakfast on a rare weekday morning that Leah was home (no school Monday). Mmmm, oatmeal.

Ryan and Asher out checking out our new cows.

Anna, our little animal whisperer.

Two of our girls. Pretty eh? I guess you would have to like cows to think they were pretty, but come on, these are some nice looking animals! All four of our heifers are due to calf this spring, probably early May.

All the kids making sure the cows like their new home.

Later Gator,

Julie

Normal Stuff

2011-02-16T08:20:00.000-08:00

Life is finding it's groove for us post vacation. It's a good thing. So, here some of the normal stuff we have going on....

Madeline and I picked up Leah's 4H chicks on Saturday. They are bantam Silkies. Bantams are much smaller than standard chickens. We bought some from TSC a couple years ago and they are great. They are very friendly and lay eggs pretty regularly. They just aren't real purposeful except for their tiny little eggs. Anyways, they are interesting chickens. They have black skin, 5 hairy toes, and big poofs on their heads (when they are full grown). We now have 10 silkie chicks in our garage. Only 2 or 3 of those will make to the fair to "compete."

Cute eh?

Here they are in their box.

We celebrated Grandma's, Leah's and my cousin's boy, Jaren's birthdays on Saturday. It was fun, but a mad house. We did it at Der Dutchman and there were like 40 of us. Lots of kids, presents, etc., etc. I failed to get any pics. Here's a cupcake I made though for the occasion. It was an orange creamsicle cupcake and very moist. Pretty yummy.

The other night I got a hankering to snap pictures of the 4 little kids and how they sleep. It was pretty funny. Here's Gee with his dino pillow pet, his blankie and Patches, his "goggie." (It is under the blanket). Gideon will often just throw off all his regular covers and ball up under his blankie. He looks so old in this picture to me.

Here's Anna with her blankie (We bought her this blankie at the Brookstone store at the airport on the way to Guatemala. Her's was the original and Gideon's and Asher's followed). She also has a bunch of babies surrounding her that you can't see. We got all the kids electric blanket this year to keep the chill off.

Yes, this is Madeline and yes she is actually sleeping like this.

Asher almost always sleeps on his belly. Usually with tushy sticking way up in the air. He is still in a pack n play in our room/bathroom. This kind of stinks, but he still gets up pretty early and we really don't want him waking the older kids up. I think we are going to stick him up in his crib anyways though and see how it goes.

Look at these beautiful flowers. These are from my most excellent husband. They weren't really even for Valentines Day or anything. He really is the best hubby ever!

I am very much getting ready for spring. It helps when we have these 50 degree days. I am starting to think about my garden and livestock stuff. Tomorrow we are having our cattle delivered. YEAH! We have been working on attaining these for months now. They are Ancient White Parks and are a really cool heritage breed. I am so excited about getting these. We are getting 4 bred heifers, so we will have babies in a couple/few months. We are also really getting our 4H stuff going. I am going to help advise this year, so I have to do some training, etc.

Like usual, life is busy, but good and blessed!

Julie

The Anniversary of a Miracle!

2011-02-13T18:39:00.000-08:00

Exactly one year ago tonight Ryan and I took Asher to a Columbus ER on our way home from church. We were up all night shuffling the other 5 kids home and getting transferred (by squad no less) to Nationwide Children's hospital. I remember that night so very clearly. I won't replay all the details, but I will tell you God was there. I was more scared than I had ever been, but at the same time I experienced the peace of God more clearly than ever before. Early in the wee hours of Valentines Day 2010 Asher was admitted for Bacterial Menengitis. I know we have never been so close to losing a child. I also know that God saved Asher, not only from possible death but also from serious complications.

I still reflect often on the love that was poured out to us from friends and family. People took care of our kids so Ryan could be with us as much as possible. They brought food to the house and just made a hard situation as easy a possible. Above everything though, it was the prayers that we felt the most. I have no doubt that Asher is here and is who he is today because of the hundreds of people that lifted him up to God. In hindsight, as heart-breaking as that situation was, it was probably one of the most beautiful things I have ever experienced.

Today Asher is strong, happy and healthy and I do not take that for granted. I just praise God.

Julie

Vacation Pics

2011-02-08T05:57:00.001-08:00

Cutie Patootie Asher:

Shopping for souvenirs with daddy (God bless his soul).

Super cool Lego dragon at Downtown Disney.

Gee made his own Lightening McQueen! He loved it. It was like a build a bear for car lovers!

Here he is screwing in a bolt.

Gathering his supplies!

Waiting for the ferry at Magic Kingdom.

Asher was not feeling great at Magic Kingdon, but he still managed a smile!

Look at those faces!

At Minnie Mouse's house with the cousins.

Ok, so here is my silly band warning: They May cut off the blood supply to your child's hand, making it blow up like a balloon. Gee got a pack of silly band and 3 of them were WAY too tight. They were not doubled looped or made to be rings, etc, and Gee has tiny wrists. I snapped these pics like 3 hours after the tight bands were taken off.

Leah and Ava celebrating their birthdays!

Asher showing Naomi the love. This was such a nice thing because Noami doesn't typically care for Asher and she was very graciously allowing the hugs to happen.

Naomi and Coleson sharing the love.

Noami and Gideon sharing a hug. Now these two get along great. They are pretty cute playing together, even though Gideon is over a year and a half older.

Asher giving Lucy a ride.

Me getting the birthday sundae bar ready.

A birthday cookie (a crooked birthday cookie because I am too lazy to figure out how to flip it).

Leah's freshly pierced ear.

Only 8 more years Madeline.

Leah being brave?!?

Asher in the exact sink he took a bath in last year. Yeah, it's a little small.

Toy Story army man.

The three Tower Of Terror newbies. It was their first big kid ride.

Maddie and I pre-ride.

The yearly grandkid line up. Yikes! That is a lot of kids.

Some of the cousins took a rest in our bed every day. They would all snuggle up and watch a movie.

Logan and Ethan with Mickey Mouse at Chef Mickey's.

Asher meets Minnie.

Truett, Gideon and Asher playing in the baby pool.

We stopped at the Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta on the way to Florida. Here is our whole crew.

Asher being sweet.....

........and ornry (before we left) ......

Until Later,

Julie

Sweet 13!

2011-01-30T04:25:00.000-08:00

My baby girl will be 13 tomorrow. Not to shabby to be able to celebrate here in sunny Florida! She and my now 3 year old niece, both have birthdays in January so tomorrow we are going to party hardy. We are taking her to get her ears pierced. She has been waiting for a while to do this and we always told her for her 13th birthday, and well, it is here. After the peircing, we are going to eat a nice dinner out and then come back to our vacation house and make sundaes. Sounds like a great time to me!

As hard as it is to believe Leah is 13, I think it might be even harder for me to grasp the concept that I have a teenager. It makes me feel a little bit old. In most areas though Leah is pretty mature and so in some ways it feels like her age is starting to match her personality. (The exception here would be her interactions with Logan, man, they know how to rub each other the wrong way).

I can remember so clearly (some things are fuzzy here in my old age) when we found out that our little Leah was on the way. And then when she was born, well, it was one of the best days of our lives. She was a big baby (almost 10 lbs) and she had bright red hair. She still has bright red hair and she is just a beautiful person. She is smart, driven and most importantly, she has a heart for God. I am so proud of her. Ryan and I are incredibly blessed to have been given the gift of Leah. I just love my girl. Happy Birthday Leah!

Birthday's aside, Florida is great. We have some sickies going on here in the house, which stinks (and seems to happen most years anymore), but everyone is still chugging right along. Our family (knock on wood) seems to be faring pretty ok so far. Ryan was sick a couple days before we even left and that continued a couple days into the trip. Asher got sick starting Friday and is still fighting something. The rest of the Ryan Cole kids are holding up pretty well. A few coughs here and there, but no anything that is really getting them down.

We have been to a Mickey Mouse character breakfast, to the beach and to Hollywood Studios so far (plus the guys have been golfing). The rest of the time has been spent here at the house just relaxing. We usually don't plan much on the weekend because all the Disney stuff is so busy on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Next week we are heading to Magic Kingdom, the guys will golf again and we might go to either Sea World or Downtown Disney for our family day (this is the day set aside for individual families to do whatever they want). It will be a good week, but unfortunately it will be our last week here. Oh well, I guess all good things have to come to an end.

Julie

Chosen

2011-01-21T01:57:00.000-08:00

I have this weird little thing about me (well I have MANY weird little things about me) and it is really stinky. If I wake up (whether it be 2:00 or 6:00) and stay up for longer than a few minutes, I am up for the day. I am sure this is a totally foreign concept for those of you who grasp sleep like it is your last crumb of bread. Don't get me wrong, I love my sleep and this quirk is maddening sometimes, but alas, it is what it is. For the record, my wake up alarm was a mix between coughing, having to pee and little 19 month old turkey that thinks 3:00 in the morning is play time.

Anyways, as I was laying in my bed, trying to go back to sleep, I started reflexing on the last 6 to 8 years of my life. I have been feeling a bit sentimental lately due to Asher's 1 year anniversary and all the memories that packing for Florida has brought.

There were some very tough times in those years. Ryan and I's secondary infertility seemed pretty unbearable at the time. I felt it was my right to bear children and how dare anyone take one of my "rights" away, including God. In hindsight I think I spent more time on a soapbox with God than what I did morning the potential loss of future children (although that was there too). You know though, God has a way of getting things back to the right order. Maybe I made bearing children a god, I can't be sure, but I know that our Lord is a jealous God and He will not stand for competition.

Our losses during those times still sting, but I am amazed at how much I have changed through out this process. I still cannot see the full picture, but I am totally in awe at how God formed my family. I went from planning to have 4 biological children (and was well on our way to that) to having 6 children from 3 different parts of the world. I found myself thinking this morning, "what changed?" Sure, Ryan and I experienced infertility and that was the kick off to where we are now, but why did we even experience infertility in the first place (while we had some possible medical causes we never really knew for sure)? Why did we have to not only go through the loss of an ability, but the loss of children? I still have questions, but at this point in our journey I just overwhelmingly feel like Ryan and I were chosen. I cannot tell you how humbling that is to me.

In general, as a Christian, I know what it means to be chosen by God. Everyone has the opportunity to be chosen. This morning though it was different. It was the first time I reflexed on the last few years and just knew that God hand picked Ryan and I. He hand picked us for the pain and for the immense joy that came out of the pain. Feeling blessed doesn't even describe it. I never would have chosen to experiencing infertility. If it were up to me, we would be sitting here today with our 4 stair stepped children. Don't get me wrong, that would have been a beautiful thing, but I deeply feel we have experienced so much more than my plans for myself. God allowed us to experience the pain, but He didn't leave us there. He could have and would have been completely justified in doing so, but He didn't. Praise God that our lives are in His hands and not our own.

I guess I offer our/my experience to you, not only as a somewhat interesting thing to read on our blog, but as an encouragement. First off, where is God in your order of things? Is He squarely at the top? He won't settle for anything less. Also, if you are going through something right now, maybe you could focus on what God is teaching you in the moment and not how many days you have left until you are through your misery. Pain is a part of life. Nobody enjoys pain. In hindsight though, I wish that I wouldn't have wished so much time away and would have just rested in the moment. At times I counted the indefinite days until the misery was over and you know what? My baby girl and baby boy grew up. I surely missed some quality time with them pining over things that were out of my control. What is God chosing you for? Do you have the ability to trust him through the pain?

Julie

Flying South......

2011-01-20T05:01:00.000-08:00

Oh how I love me some Florida in the middle of winter. We are leaving tomorrow for what has become our annual trip to Florida. I am so excited. The kids are so excited, well, excitement is just abounding here at the Cole house. I really do love this trip. We go with all of Ryan's family (10 adults, 15 1/2 kids) and we all stay in one big house. You'd think that would be a recipe for insanity, but it isn't for the most part. This trip is probably the most relaxing vacation we take. We spend as much time as we can just chill-laxing. It is a beautiful thing.

I was holding our mail at the post office on Tuesday and the lady said something about snow coming later in the week. She said "I hope that snow storm coming doesn't delay your trip....." I assured her that it would not. I think I even went as far as to say something like "I don't care if we get 3 feet of snow, we are out of here." :)

I am not near as packed as I would like. I did a lot of packing last weekend, so I was feeling pretty on top of things, but then the week hit. We have been busy this week and things have moved slowly. I should be able to gets lots done today though. The morning is busy but the afternoon/evening is open. Also, we are not leaving until Leah gets off of school tomorrow, so I will have some time during the day tomorrow. However I have to fit in taking the dog to the kennel, getting to the chiropractor and lunch with my sister (that last one I am looking forward to). Oiy. Lots to do.

So, I guess it would be wise for me to get off the 'puter and start getting some stuff done!

Take care,
Julie

A Year with Asher!

2011-01-18T06:46:00.000-08:00

You know, this month, right about this time, marks one full year with our sweet Asher. I remember the trip to get him so clearly still.

It was an incredibly long flight, made worse by a video system that did not work. We arrived in Ethiopia late and "Z" our super sweet CWA driver was right there waiting. Once we got to our guest house (again, late) we were exhausted. Ryan has tried to call a couple times I guess, so I called him first thing (which was extremely tricky, I had to use our guest house manager's cell phone). On Monday (the 11th) we got up, got a few groceries and then went to get my baby boy. We were filling out paperwork and didn't even hear the CWA van pull in. All of a sudden one of the caregivers walk in with a bundle all covered in a blanket. I asked if it was Mussie and it was! He was asleep and incredible. Leah and I took turns holding and I filled out the rest of the paperwork. We got to talk to his caregiver about his health, etc. Then, we had a coffee ceremony with Asher and the CWA families/staff. Really, it was a beautiful thing. The weather was incredible and I remember that day with nothing but happiness.

Asher had a pretty rough start here in the US. Between ear infections, surgery for tubes and his meningitis, well, he went through a lot at first. Now, he is amazingly healthy. I do not take that for granted. God rescued Asher and made Him whole again. Now Asher is an extremely lively and curious toddler. He is bright and funny and he brings total joy to this family. As with all our kids, we know that God has big plans for this kid and I am so excited to see God move in Asher's life.

Julie

Getting ready for spring. Yeah!

2011-01-12T06:34:00.000-08:00

I love spring and I hate spring. Spring use to be my least favorite holiday because it is so wet and muddy. As I get older though, I appreciate it more and more. There is nothing like a sunny spring day to boost your spirits. I love that first day that the kids get to run outside and play. Happy times.

I have spent the last couple days in chicken world. We have decided to butcher our current layer flock (wont be until early summer) and start anew. They are 2 years old and your can tell that their egg production has slowed down. Egg production certainly has it's ups and downs even in really young hens, but by 2 years old it starts to take a steady drop. It is kind of hard to think of turning them all into soup, but I do think it is the most economical way to go about things. Chicken feed is expensive, even though our birds free range a lot. No since feeding birds and get no eggs in return. Welcome to the world of livestock I guess. So, we will get new baby chicks in March (both layers and meaties) and 8 week later when we butcher all our meaties and current layers. Also, we are going to try our hand at hatching our own eggs this year (yeah!-the kids and I are really excited about this). I have been looking for an inexpensive incubator that will work for a bunch of rookies.

Leah and Logan are planning to do meat birds in 4H again and Leah really wants to show a silkie. Silkies are really sweet, cool looking bantam (mini) chickens. We have 3 in our current flock right now and they are the best (they will not be butchered, they would yield little to no meat and eat very little). So, I have been trying to find her a silkie that has a little bit of show quality to it. It needs to be born after 1-1-11, but laying by the fair (which doesn't happen for silkies until 20 plus weeks). I found a place in VA that was great. The people are incredibly nice and were willing to ship to us (which is always tricky with birds). We were thinking we would use them, when out of the blue I get a personal message (I had posted about our silkie search on a chicken board I frequent) from a guy in Dayton willing to GIVE us some show quality silkies. He's a breeder and is unexpectantly having to hatch some new birds. He only wants a certain color and said Leah could have any/all of the rest. So, yeah us!

Logan has decided that he wants to show cattle this year. He is pretty adament about it. I think this will be great for him, but we have some delimmas. Logan wants to show our White Parks (which will be here in mid February), but our White Parks are so rare there will be not specific catagory for them. I am not sure how that will be handled. Especially considering our White Parks will be grass fed and not pumped full of feed/corn. Really, they wouldn't ever do well when compared to other beef feeders (which is the category I think Logan would enter). We could get a popular beef breed for Logan pretty easily and let him show that, but that just rubs me the wrong way. I have a couple calls in to some people that know way more about such things, so I guess time will tell.

Besides livestock stuff, we are still planning to build a barn this spring. We are suppose to be "first on the docket" will a local guy we have been working with. I have always wanted a barn (or at least one that is not falling down and full of racoon poop) so this is probably the most exciting thing that will be happening this spring. We have the old barn down and the pad is ready. This will be so great for us. We are going to use about 1/2 for storage and 1/2 for livestock. Finally I can get some stuff out of our garage and we will have a place for a cow or two(and whatever else I can think of, or I mean, talk Ryan in to).

Okay, enough about spring I guess. Back to our half a foot of snow and bitter cold.......

Julie

Christmas and Misc. Pictures

2011-01-06T05:21:00.001-08:00

In true to Julie form, I have a bunch of pictures from the last couple weeks. However, unlike my normal true to Julie form, they are in chronological order.

The Wednesday before Christmas Ryan took Gideon, Leah and Logan to work with him. I decided to have a couple of my little neices over for some girl time. We made Christmas ornaments and birthday cakes for Jesus. It was lots of fun. The girls got to pick their frosting color and their sprinkles for their cakes and they even got to lick the frosting out of their bowls!

Here's Kayla with her yummy cake!

Katelyn with her very purple cake.

Kayla and Anna digging in on the extra frosting.

All four girls having fun!

This year we bought a tree for each bedroom upstairs. It was their nightlight for the Christmas season. The girls picked purple for their room, the boys picked blue and Leah picked white. They were really quite fun. We left them undecorated and apparently the kids thought that would not do. The tree in the girls' room was decorated to look like a girl with a vest, skirt and shoes. Ha! Very funny.

Oh, I am very excited about this project. It is a "family Rules" craft project that I found off the internet. This is how it looked with the base done, before I added the rules.

Here are the bigger kids (Logan, Ethan, Leah and Sophie) playing out on our little pond. They did not last long. It was cold!

The four little ones braving the cold (Anna, Kayla, Gideon and Madeline). They stayed out just as long as the bigger kids.

Asher is getting ready for Christmas Eve breakfast. I think this is going to be a tradition around these parts. It kind of started the holiday fun (and food).

The whole crew ready for the yummy feast.

This is how we kept Asher going Christmas morning. By the way, he totally dug wearing the santa hat.

How the presents/tree looked ready for the kids Christmas morning.

The annual waiting on the stairs picture.

The note Santa left for Anna, Gee and Madeline.

They found their present!

Asher found his present. A plush cowboy rocking horse.

Opening presents.

Logan got a Ghillie suit and I think it seriously confused poor Asher.

Ok, so this is how Gee's hair looks first thing in the morning. I think he needs a hair cut.

I watched my 3 neices the other day for a bit and their youngest is 3 months younger than Asher. Asher tends to get a little pushy at first with Lucy, but I swear he was sharing in this picture, not getting ready to push her. Oh, just to clarify, he does not push her down, just gives a little stay away from my stuff "pat." I am so proud of Lucy though because she does not take his crap and it takes about 10 minutes for Asher to realize that Lucy will not be a pawn in his little game.

Asher has started doing this crazy laugh when you ask him to smile. This is how it looks part of the way through. It is seriously hilarious. It is like a wierd happy incredible hulk transformation.

Here it is again. Nice, huh.

Here is our "family rules" all done. I love it.

Here is part of my acomplishments this week. From left to right: sausage lentil soup, beef vegetable soup, beef, and bean soup. I have decided that I do not like the process of canning the beef (very messy), but I LOVE the finished product. Oh and I also canned 5 pints of shredded chicken from a couple of our small birds in the freezer.

Julie

Madeline just said the cutest thing....

2011-01-04T07:43:00.000-08:00

Madeline just came up to me out of the blue and grabbed my hand and said, "Mommy, thank you for getting Asher, he is so cute and I love him so much." How sweet is that???? Honestly, Asher does no wrong in Madeline's eyes. Even if he wacks her with a toy, she doesn't care. And then if I scold him for wacking her, she says "It's ok mommy, I don't mind." Yesterday she asked me if she could marry Asher when she got older, I told her no, but they could be great friends. She seemed ok with that.

I just love how all the kids adore Asher. Madeline just seems to be more tolerant of him than she is of anyone else.

Julie

No, we have not dropped off the face of the earth......

2011-01-04T05:54:00.000-08:00

Man, it has been a while since I have posted.

The holidays were great! We got to spend lots of time with our extended families and lots of time together just the 8 of us. My favorite part was Ryan being home the week between Christmas and New Years. He still had to do some work, so he wasn't here the whole time, but most of it and it was a beautiful thing. We all get attached to having him home and it is sad when he has to go back.

The kids were tons of fun this year and just enjoyed themselves so much. The did a really good job also of being toted around more than usual. Also, there were considerably more overnights and having fun with cousins/friends. To be honest I think they are still bouncing back a bit. School and work started back up yesterday along with all other activities. We are definitely getting back in the groove.

The great thing is that in a few weeks we get to get back out of the groove to go to Florida. I LOVE our Florida trips. I am already starting to pack (actually have been since putting the summer stuff away a couple months ago). We have been doing this trip with Ryan's family every year for a while now. We rent a big house close to Disney and all stay together. We usually only go to the theme parks a couple times and the rest of the time is just spent relaxing, swimming, and, well, relaxing. I cannot wait!

Well, off I go until later. I am canning our yummy grass fed beef we butchered a couple months back. It is in the pressure cooker as we speak. I think I am going to can some chicken while I have the pressure cooker out. Actually I may go ahead and make beef stew up and maybe some chicken noodle soup. Those are soooo nice to have on hand for a quick meal. I love my pressure cooker!

Julie

Merry Christmas!!!

2010-12-23T19:48:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to wish everyone in the blogosphere "Merry CHRISTmas!"

I am so blessed. I pray you feel blessed this Christmas also!

Julie

Wall Praise done and a Haircut!

2010-12-21T05:20:00.000-08:00

Yeah! My wall praise is up and I love it. It was a little tricky because I wanted it kind of random and I didn't want to totally work around the furniture in case I move it, but you kind of have to. Anyways, here it is (in reverse order).

Yesterday Gideon had a dentist appointment and we decided to have Leah and Logan stay home with the other kids. Really just Anna and Madeline because I took Asher with me. We let Leah stay home occasionally with the kids these days, but usually not for longer than an hour or so. Usually it is just to run to our local grocery store. So this time was a little different because I was going ALL THE way to Urbana. Gee's appointment was at 4:00 and we did not get home until 6:30. The poor guy had to end up having a root canal. He tooth they were going to fill was totally destroyed inside. They kind of wanted to pull it, but that would affect the tooth coming in next so they did the root canal. Gideon was incredibly brave. Like superboy brave. Our dentist was so impressed. He was laying in that chair for 45 minutes with multiple shots and drilling. The only time he cried was when she was initially drilling (with no Novacane) and he felt it. Even then it was just tears streaming down his face. It really just broke my heart. When all was said and done, he got a spinny toothbrush, a Lightening McQueen car, antibiotics and tons of praise from everyone. Poor guy, today he is very swollen.

Ok, so back to Leah and Logan. I had to run to Walmart to get his script which is why I was so late getting home. The kids were starving (we told them no eating while I was gone), but they did so great. They were all snuggled up on the couch having a Toy Story marathon. I was just sweet that they were all doing something together and having such a nice time. Of course once we got home, Asher and Gideon joined them.

Asher got his first hair cut Saturday. It was a big delimma for me. In some ways I like his crazy hair. I like for it to have some length. I have no desire for Asher to have a major afro, but I have way more options for styles if I let it grow a bit. To be honest I have little to no knowledge on styling African American hair. I just don't to buzz it all the time because I don't want to take the time to work with it a bit.

Anyways, here is the after shot of the back.

The front.

Before shot.

Before shote. This was probably the most problematic area for me. You can't totally tell in the picture, but the hair around his ears was really long. It reminded me of Krusty the Clown.

I like the cut and he looks super cute. I miss the length, but I like how much more even it looks. It has just grown in so very wonky.

Julie

Mom, somebody colored on the living room wall....

2010-12-20T05:41:00.001-08:00

So Gideon just said this to me. Yes, my heart sunk a bit and I honestly thought "I thought Madeline was done coloring on the wall." I went to see the damage and to my relief Gideon was talking about the wall art I am working on. I started it last night after the kids were in bed. How he can mistake that beautiful script as coloring, I'm not sure.

My walls in the living room just seem very bare. Especially above our couch. So I was looking online and found this great site:

www.wallpraise.com

They have a huge selection and excellent customer service. I actually started to hang my wall praise last week and messed up a whole section of it. I was in tears and I called as soon as the place opened up (after I was done being in tears). I talked to the owner and she was super sweet. She re-shipped the section I needed and didn't charge me a penny. I will send a picture of it as soon as I get it all up. I am also working with Leah on a wall hanging for our dining room. I am equally, if not more excited about this one. I adore the idea, I just hope my turns out as nice as the one I am patterning it after.

I have no clue why I decide in the weeks before Christmas to start of projects? Maybe it is so everything looks nice for Christmas? It isn't like anyone comes over here though and the kids don't care. Oh well, I try and take any motivation I can get and run with it.

Julie

A rave for my two big kids!!

2010-12-16T04:49:00.000-08:00

A little back story......

Last year Madeline and Anna got these beautiful ballerina dolls for Christmas. They were made by Corolle and pretty pricey for their size. But, I knew the girls would love them since they are really in to all things dancing/pretty. They did love them and in January when we went to Florida the ballerina dolls went also. Well, only one doll came home, Anna's. Madeline was pretty bummed. We rent a big house with Ryan's family while we are there and it gets well scoured before we leave, but things were crazy with Leah and I being gone half the week in Ethiopia. Anyways, Maddie carried on about it for a little bit, but after a few weeks she didn't say much about it. Well, we are going back to Florida this January. We told the little kids about a month ago. Madeline almost immediately asked if we were going back to the same house. I told her "yes" and she replied "good, I can finally get my doll." I told her it probably wouldn't still be there, but she seems convinced it will be and has commented a couple more time about getting her doll when we go to Florida.

So last night I was checking out some of my "deals" websites and I found a really good deal on the exact doll Madeline left in Florida. 30% off and free shipping. I mentioned something to Ryan about it and he didn't say much. We have already spent our limit on the kids for Christmas, so the doll was just going to not happen. However, Leah and Logan were in the room and knew about the "doll situation" and they decided to buy the doll for Madeline out of their own money. They are going to run into our rental before she goes in and set the doll on the couch with her arm up and waving. You know, like she has been just sitting and waiting for Madeline to come back. How sweet is that? I love those two!

Oh and another little funny..... The kids just adore Ryan. I know most kids love their daddies and our kids are no exception, but they just want to spend every second with him. The weekends (especially long weekends) spoil the kids and on Mondays they always ask if daddy is home. They are very bummed he is not. So I have told them (and Ryan reinforces it) that daddy works so that we can have a warm house and good food to eat (among other things). So yesterday Logan asked me if Ryan was going to be home on time and I told him I wasn't sure. Gideon spoke up and said "yes, because daddy has to wurk because we need a wurm house and good food." And then this morning Anna said pretty matter of factly to Gideon "daddy is at work!" To which Gideon replied "I guess I am Asher's daddy now then." It was so funny and out of the blue....

Julie

Yeah! Some Pictures!

2010-12-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

I found my camera battery charger and now I can upload some recent pics.......

Ryan does some accounting work for a local guy and this is one of the stamps he uses. Apparently Madeline thought Asher needed "signed." I can't believe he even let her do it. Please ignore the drunk look on Asher's face (we try to keep the kids to one beer a day...).

Making Christmas cookies. Yummy and messy. Every kids dream.

Anna, Gee and Madeline with their Aunt Sandy blankies. They LOVE them.

How cute is this picture? Anna and Gideon checking out their presents.

The kids posing (and eating candy canes) after decorating the tree.

My big and little babies....... *SIGH*

This was out looking for our Christmas tree. This picture is more about though, my husband's intentness on feeding our kids french fries. Almost every time they are in his car and mommy isn't, it involves french fries. Actually, it isn't a big deal because it happens maybe once a week and it is usually because Ryan is being helpful and taking all the kids somewhere. Now the kids are starting to wonder though why mommy doesn't buy them french fries like daddy does.

Looking for our tree. I think next year we will start a new tradition of buying a tree with a root ball that we can actually plant. Those tend to be on the smaller side though and I like "going big." I think I may just need to get over that.

This we so funny to me for some reason. This is over at Aunt Sue and Uncle's house on Thanksgiving. The kids were having "tub races." They were bouncning the tubs to one side of the garage and back. It was weird and funny all at once. In the picture (from left to right) are AJ, Leah, Bryce, Olivia and Jackson in the back.

A few weekends back Ryan and I got a night away from all the kids (thank you Aunt Chrissy and Eva). We went to Columbus with Jami, Jason, Adam and Emily and had a great time. I have really been blessed with brother and sister in laws that I really enjoy spending time with. We did a bunch of things and one of them was going to this cute little park. It was a good photo op.

Jason and Jami

Ryan and I

Adam and Emily

We have a snow day today and the kids are hoping to go outside and play in a little bit. I kind of dread getting them all bundled up for what I am sure will become "too cold" in about 10 minutes. But hey, that's what kids do right? Maybe they will surprise me. I am going to get moving on my Christmas baking and I have some painting to finish in our dining room. Tonight we are all heading in to town (in all the snow) to do a Christmas performance for Grandma Dobbins. I am looking forward to that. I know Grandma will love it!!

Julie

Life is just moving right along...

2010-12-07T05:21:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted a lot about anything specific because life is just chugging right along pretty normally(is that a word). This is a good thing. We are continuing to get ready for Christmas which is always fun! The kids, really all 6 of them, are pretty excited. I keep trying to get them re-focused on the real meaning of Christmas. I am usually successful.

Most of my presents for Christmas are bought! Yeah! I finished cutting out all of Asher's quilt squares and I will probably start working on that in the next day or so. It will be a little time consuming, but since it is one of the few things I am making this year, I should have the time.

Speaking of quilts.....I have got to rave about my Aunt Sandy. My Aunt Sandy is a quilter, she knows her stuff. She is married to my dad's brother (who is pretty cool also) and they live in Michigan. My Aunt Pat and Uncle Greg live in Michigan also (my dad's sister and her husband) and they are super people too. Anyways, Aunt Sandy has made all 6 of my kids quilts. Really, really cool quilts!!! Not only has she made all of my kids quilts, but she has made quilts for my siblings kids also. We got 4 quilts in the mail last week (plus a 5th one for my niece Gracie) and they are beautiful and just so fun. The great thing is that the kids LOVE them. They have been sleeping with them every night. I feel so blessed that a relative that we don't see near enough cares enough about my kids to spend hours on quilts for them. It makes me feel special, I know it makes them feel special, it is such a good thing!!! I have cute pics of the kids and their quilts, but my camera battery is dead with no charger to be found. Soon though.

Next Monday evening we are doing a little Christmas program for Grandma at her nursing home. Almost all of her great grandkids will be participating. I think Grandma feels really special when we all take the time to pull something together like this for her. I want her to feel special. It should be a pretty cute little ditty. It is at 7:00 if anyone wants to come....... There will be cookies.......

An little Asher update:

He is doing great. It seems like he battles every little cold that comes around, but it doesn't typically make him act bad. He is talking a lot. You can't understand 90% of what he says, but he is SOOOO jibber-jabbery. He will carry on about everything. He does say "good" if you ask him how he is doing. He says "thank you" when you give him something. He of course says "dada, dad (emphasizing the d's), mama, mom, Leah, etc." It is just fun to see him put things together. Like taking the baby bottle and running to the fridge to put it on the shelf where his bottles are. Or like running to the door to leave when I get the car keys off the rack. Even watching him pout in front of his siblings just to get sympathy can be funny. Really, Asher is just fun right now and we are all enjoying his antics.

Until later,

Julie

I have officially lost control.

2010-12-03T14:06:00.000-08:00

They win.

My house is total choas right now. Madeline and Anna are dragging Gideon around the house by his arms and Gideon is cackling like it is the funniest thing ever. Asher is screaming (at the top of his lungs of course) at everything (and nothing). Leah and Logan are playing a video game in the living room, yelling at the other four houligans to "get out!" This has been going on for a good 30 minutes now. What am I doing?? Well, giving up, for now. I have yelled about 214 times today to stop running in the house, to stop screaming and to settle down. Oh and where is their father in times like these? Out hunting. I guess if he can retreat to the woods, I can retreat to my bedroom.

Julie

I Believe - Natalie Grant

2010-11-30T06:30:00.000-08:00

Casting Crowns If We've Ever Needed You

2010-11-23T19:15:00.000-08:00

I wanted to post this video on my blog because I feel this song is very relevant, not just in light of recent events, but in the every day life of a Christian. This Youtube version of the song is believe it or not, less visually stimulating then some of the other versions, but I still get choked up every time I watch it.

I don't often post about my views on the state of the US or the world. It is not that I don't notice what is going on around me, how can I not? I do notice, quite a bit. I have gone through times of sincere despair when I think about the moral and physical destruction we create. My heart breaks when I think of the child half a world away that is dying right now because he has no food. My heart breaks, possibly even more, for the child that is dying right next door because his/her mother has a choice. I get increasingly angry at the unjustices of this world, the political filth the infiltrates our every day lives, and how, as a country, we are moving further and further away from God. However, and this a huge however, I have hope. God sees all that I see and more. God knew the World Trade center would get hit and thousands would die. God knew people would kill babies. God knew government would be corrupt. I have immense peace knowing God is holding us in His perfect hands. This is not the kind of peace that leads me to be inactive, certainly not, but it is the kind of peace that allows me to trust God with those things I cannot change.

I hope you watch the video. I hope you recognize the need to completely rely on Jesus Christ.

Julie

Maddeline's Birthday and Lots of Pics!

2010-11-20T03:58:00.001-08:00

Ok folks, Ihave lots of pictures up and many of them are of Madeline. Her Birthday was on the 6th of this month and she pretty much ended up with 3 little parties.

This was party #3. Maddie is giving Katelyn lov'ins to thank her for an awesome birthday gift (that Katelyn picked out herself no less). Last weekend we went to Maumee Bay, probably one of my favorite Ohio State Parks. We decided to just celebrate with Ryan's side of the family while we were there.

Opening presents

Asher being a cheese head.

Princess cupcakes, sorta. I made frosting and brought cupcake liners, sprinkles, etc with me to the park. I even brought cake mix. However, I forgot to get oil and eggs and we were no where near the store. I was going to buy cupcakes from the lodge, but they wanted $30 a dozen. Ummmmm.....no. So we improvised. I frosted the blueberry muffins I had already make and brought from home and let Madeline sprinkle them and put on the crowns. It worked great.

This lodge has a great play area with all kids of "soft" things for the kids to bounce around on. They has so much fun!

How cute is my little nephew Truett?

The kid table eating the yummy buffet breakfast. This was the first time that we put all the kids a one table (minus the littlest in each family). They did pretty good I thought.

The adult table.

Sweet pie Lucy and Asher at the "head" of the table.

Madeline riding her bike from Christmas last year. I am sad to say this was the first time she rode it. I put it together that morning. Very, very sad.

Gorgeous pears that I canned last week. These were gifted to me by our amazing neighbors. They are very time consuming to prepare, but they will be a real treat in the winter.

Ok, so here's the difference in what a free range egg looks like and a store bought. They yolks in the free range eggs are MUCH oranger and richer. I got a dz eggs for like .39 cents at our local store (they have some good weekly specials) and our hens are laying really low right now. Plus, fresh eggs are hard to peel when you hard boil them. So I bought 1 dz eggs, you should have seen Logan harassing me. I think he thought I was two timing our hens.

Last week was visitors week at gymnastics. Here is the little kids' group (go Gee, the only boy in the group).

Here are the kids showing off!

Gee.....

Anna Banana.......

Madeline...... Let me say here, Madeline held that V sit forever. She is competitive like her big sister.

Asher got a chance to hang around on the equipment. He loved it until he had to move for the class.

Ava, just chilling and waiting for Katelyn to get done.

This picture is from the party at our house the day after Madeline's birthday. My mom got Madeline make up and Aunt Chrissy and Uncle Nick got her princess dresses. Uncle Nick and Aunt Kristy helped the girls get all done up. Beautiful.

Maddie eating her birthday cake.

This is what happens when a 4 year old says "let me take a picture."

I thought this was so cute. Madeline giving Aunt Sue lovings for her birthday money.

Opening more goodies (check out Cadence on my lap, she was very interested in the present opening).

This was actualyy Madline's birthday. We ended up at Jami and Jason's house. We gave her our presents and Jason and Jami had a gift for her also. It was so nice and she loved her Pillow Pet. Here she is showing Sophie and Kayla the love.

Leah and Logan picked this out for Madeline and paid for it with their own money. Such a good big brother and sister!

Waiting like a princess in the dress she picked out.

Aunt Chrissy and Gracie (aka peaches) earlier in the day. How photogenic are they!?!

And finally, my poor tormented son. He tried to chase those wings off (think of a dog chasing his tail) for like 5 minutes. All I have to say Logan is "your time will come...."

And, that is all folks. Whew!

Julie

Awww....finally feeling better.

2010-11-18T18:53:00.001-08:00

Well, Monday night ended up being just the beginning a couple days of total ickiness. Definitely the flu, although I don't think I ever fevered. I really don't hardly ever get sick and this was probably the worse bout of the flu I have had that I can remember. The problem with me being sick is that life still has to go on. Ryan still has to go to work, the kids still have to eat, I still have to break up endless spats. Oh well, I still love my life, it is just easier when I feel well. I still feel tired and my stomach is still off, but I have more energy and no more aches. Yeah!

Praying the littles stay healthy!

Julie

I have the sweetest little monkey's

2010-11-15T16:07:00.000-08:00

I feel pretty poopie right now. We just got back from our 3 day weekend and I have felt worse as the day goes on. I am thinking maybe the flu? I don't typically get sick, but, well, I am now. Fortunately laying down with some Advil in my system has helped a bit.

Anyways, my sweet monkey's....... Ryan had to go up to Bellefontaine to do some work. So we bribed Leah and Logan (free electronics) to watch the other 4 kids while Ryan was gone. The more I move the yuckier I feel so now I get to lay in my bed with my laptop, my electric blanket and the television. Pretty comfortable considering. Well, Madeline came into my room before Ryan left and said, "Mommy will you be sick tomorrow?" I told her that I hoped not. Then she told me that she we going to keep an eye on me. She hopped into bed and laid beside more for a bit and then left telling me she would check on me every few minutes. Since then, a cute little face has popped into my room about every 10 minutes to see how I am doing. Maddie is tag teaming with Anna and Gee. Boy it is nice to feel loved.

Julie

A weekend away

2010-11-12T02:47:00.000-08:00

Off we go to a long weekend, yeah! We are headed up to Maumee Bay state park for a couple days with the kids and Ryan's side of the family. I have barely packed, but I got a new bike. I am so excited about it! We decided to do some biking this weekend and my bike is old and not working properly. So Ryan and I headed up to good old Walmart last night and I got me a new Schwinn. It is so pretty and blue! Now to get the baby seat hooked up. It takes a two seater pull behind, a baby seat carrier and a baby backpack to get our crew on a ride. Oh and Leah and Logan have to pull their own weight of course. It is fun though and we don't do bike rides near as much as I wish.

I am starting to get excited for Christmas. I actually found the station on the radio yesterday that played Christmas all the time. It was a beautiful thing! I will say though, this beautiful Indian Summer we've been having makes Christmas a little farther from my mind. Not so far though that I haven't been doing a little more Christmas shopping. For some reason, buying for the kids is coming super easily this year. It is nuts. Fortunately I am finding great deals on line and haven't spent all that much really. Just little things here and there. Our poor delivery guys. They will be making their rounds at our house. Good thing they are such nice guys. They even bring our crazy 90 lb puppy treats. I am thinking that one of these good Christmas deals needs to be for them!

So, I am not sure I mentioned this before but we had our friend start digging our pond this week. We have been working toward this for a couple years now. You know, digging test holes and saving money. Every test hole we dug hit great clay about 8 to 10 feet down. We have a LOT of beautiful peat moss, but that doesn't typically hold water. Well, wouldn't you know it, the huge hole he dug didn't hit clay anywhere. It has totally left me scratching my head. So for now our front 4/5 acres is a muddy mess. We have a big hole and I think we are going to see how that hole keeps water and go from there. A little disappointing, but that is the way it goes sometimes.

Until later!

Julie

Some Pictures

2010-11-05T06:05:00.000-07:00

So I now have my diaper bag (and camera) back in my possesion (thank goodness). Here are some recent pictures of the monkey's. Some are a little old....

I was impressed at how well Asher could walk and kick Logan's soccer ball. It is like half his size, but he was pretty coordinated with it!

So, what do you do when your house is over-run with crazy kids? You stick them all in a dog crate. Actually, they put themselves in the crate and said "lock the door." I had to make them get out to make room for Patriot.

How pretty are these? Ryan has gotten super sweet about bringing home little treasures like this for me. I love it and think it is incredibly thoughtful.

A recycled sweater I made for Asher. I used an old Abercrombie sweater for the body and it is super heavy. I am happy with the end results, although the arms and the collar turned out a little wonky. It looks really sweet on him.

Aparently I was not paying enough attention to Asher because he got into the trash while I wasn't watching. I was however paying enough attention to grab my camera. The funny thing is that he wanted nothing to do with the spaghetti when we ate it the first time.

Here is Logan at his desk upstairs doing school. We have switched some of his home schooling this year to Switched On Schoolhouse. He is taking 3 computer subjects. He really likes them, which I like!

Asher's favorite drawer. For a while I just let him play in it because there's nothing in there that can hurt him. Now it is getting annoying to have to pick this stuff up from all over the house. Not to mention he has a play kitchen in the dining room that has tons of stuff to drag out. Yesterday he was getting into this drawer and I said "no, Asher" very firmly. He looked at me, shut the drawer, and walked away. No drama. Nice!

Anna, Gee and Madeline the first day of Kindergarden. Maddie is technically the only one doing Kindergarden work, but Anna and Gee are practicing their names and coloring some. Madeline loves Kindergarden and asks me to do it every day, although she only technically does school on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

A couple weeks ago I did my Kroger Shopping before Ryan left in the morning. Asher was up (stinking early bird!) so we went together. It is impossible to put Asher and my coupons in the seat of the cart so I let him try the "big kid" cart. He LOVED it and was happy the whole hour I was shopping.

Gideon loves his dad so much and during soccer he would just follow him up and down the field while Ryan was coaching. It was so cute and I had to get a couple pics. On a little sad note, at Logan's last tournament game (the one they won), Gideon asked me to go "help" daddy and I said "sure." One minute later Gideon came back looking very, very sad. I asked him what was wrong and he said "Daddy said go sit with mommy." The boy was temporarily defeated. I think Ryan was just very focused on the game (it was close) and needed Gee to be out of the way, which I understood. Gideon, not so much.

Well, there are some updated pictures. Now I need to get to my canning/dehydrating. Our WONDERFUL neighbors gave me some sweet potatoes and a bunch of pears and apples. I am trying to put them all up before they go bad.

This weekend is our last weekend before two weekends of being away. I was thinking it would be pretty laid back, but it is shaping up to be kind of busy. Tonight we are going to dinner with my mom and step dad. Tomorrow is Madeline's birthday so will try and make that special for her. We have an apartment warming party to go to tomorrow, plus we have church and Ryan's aunt and uncle are in town. Not sure how we will fit everything in, but I am sure it will work out. Plus, all my family is coming over on Sunday to celebrate Maddie turning 5. So there goes a laid back weekend, but that is ok. It will be fun!

Julie

Some very sweet sentiments.

2010-10-31T15:07:00.000-07:00

So a few nights ago Ryan went upstairs to say goodnight to the kids. He was leaving Gee's room and said "goodnight buddy." Gideon asked "Dad, did you know we were going to be buddies when you got me?" Ryan said "got you from where, Guatemala?" Gee smiled and shook his head "yes." Really to me, it doesn't get much better than that. That is just precious on so many levels. Gideon loves his daddy like crazy and I hope they are always best buds.

Today I was heading back from Columbus with Asher and the little girls and we were watching the ever popular Veggie Tales. It was the beginning of one the video's where Bob is trying to convince Larry to play the Tuba and Larry says something about how he doesn't want to play because everyone will laugh. I hear Maddie say back to Anna "you didn't laugh did you?" She was seriously watching out for poor Larry.

I need to take this opportunity to say I love Veggie Tales. Leah and Logan really got in to them when they were little, but they have been a by gone thing for a few years. Now in the last year or so they have really been revived with the new batch of kiddos. They love watching them and I love that they are getting excellent messages from the bible in such an entertaining way. I mean, who doesn't love Bob and Larry?? Oh and I highly recommend their newest video "It's a Meaningful Life." It is kind like a Veggie version of "It's a Wonderful Life" and the "Polar Express." PLUS, it is adoption friendly (any Steven Curtis Chapman fans out there?)

Well, soccer is over and Logan and his team won their tournament. It was a great game and Logan did a super job. I am so very proud of my original little man. He was proud also!

I am also very proud of Miss Leah. She got a 4.0 for her first 9 weeks of school. I hear that she is the only one in her whole grade to do that. Her parent teacher conference is this Thursday so it will be great to see what they have to say about her.

I promise, pictures will come with the next post!

Julie

It is me again....

2010-10-26T04:53:00.000-07:00

You know sometimes there just isn't much to blog. Not that I don't blog because of that, but I swear sometimes I do try and spare you the details. Today is not one of those days.

Life is trucking along like normal I guess. It has been a little warmer here than it normally is (like low 70's) and it has been really nice to get outside and try to enjoy the weather. It has also been windy and I heard today they are expecting gusts up to 60 mph. Goodbye pretty fall leaves on our trees. Step 1 to winter.....

Logan is in the middle of his soccer tournaments. He won his game last night and his next game is Saturday at 10:00. The little kids have their last game on Saturday also. Soccer is lots of fun, but it will be nice to have our Wednesdays and Saturdays back. Setting aside this time really hasn't been a big deal, but I feel as if we are just scratching the surface of "running" for the kids. Between piano, gymnastics, school and homeschool I feel like I run a lot, but with 6 kids I know we are only just starting the craziness. Even though we plan to restrict the kids and their endeavers, running like a mad woman is inevitable I guess.

I told you I already broke out the first Christmas gift buy, well now I am really on the prowl for good deals. Since my last purchase I snagged a deal for Asher on one of those deal of the day sites and I got a really good deal on some Veggie Tales stuff from the Big Idea site. I am still trying to pace myself though. We only spend a set amount on the kids for Christmas and I do not want to max that amount too quickly and certainly not before Black Friday.

Something a little exciting on Ryan and I's part...... We are taking a couple days away from the kids in a few weeks. We are taking a full Saturday, Saturday night and all day Sunday to get some adult time with some of the other adults in Ryan's family. We aren't sure where we are going yet, but wherever it is I am sure will be lots of fun. Plus, in a couple weeks we are heading up to Maumee Bay with Ryan's family. So two of our November weekends are going to be taken with fun stuff. Then add in there Thanksgiving, well, it will just be an exciting month.

Well, we have gymnastics in a little bit so I need to go. I have lots of pictures to upload, but my camera is in my diaper bag and my diaper bag was left in Columbus last Saturday. All is not lost though. They are holding my bag for me. Luckily my camera was the only thing of value in the bag. So really, as stinky as that is, I feel blessed to even still have the bag.....

Julie

"Gee's not marrying me!"

2010-10-18T14:09:00.000-07:00

So Madeline just walked downstairs in one of her princess costumes and said "Gee's not marrying me, he's just running away......and playing with cars and stuff......." It was obvious that Madeline expected me to swoop in and make Gideon play along and marry her. My initial thought was "run Gee, run!" Marriage is wonderful, but not at 4 years old with a bossy sister. I told Maddie that Gideon was aloud to run and play. She stopped off. Ha. Very funny!

Julie

Christmas, already.

2010-10-11T05:15:00.000-07:00

I bought my first Christmas presents last week. Oiy. And so it begins. It was actually fun to get, but I need to give just a tad bit of background.

I do not care for character type clothing/shoes. Leah and Logan never really had that stuff when they were little. No Dora backpacks or Barney t-shirts around here. This still holds pretty true even with the little kids. Well, until now. For some reason Disney (which I have not always "loved") is really getting to the kids (and me too I guess). I think it is because we pretty much go to Walt Disney World every year now and the kids are growing up with it. Gee is really loving the movie "Cars." He watched it for the first time about a month ago, he doesn't even know a new one is coming out. The girls though just LOVE princess stuff. Last year at Disney World it was so fun to see their little eyes pop when they actually got to meet a couple princesses. Anna loves Cinderella and Madeline adores Ariel (is she even a princess?). Since I love my kids and I like for birthdays and Christmas's to be more about what they want, cheaply made, but unusually expensive Disney paraphernalia is making it's way to the Cole house.

The Disney store was having some good sales and free shipping. So Maddie and Anna are getting a princess and prince doll (with clothes), a t-shirt, and a personalized jacket (so fun!). All in their favorite character. Madeline will get hers for her birthday next month and poor Anna will have to wait until Christmas for hers. I like getting Christmas early to some extent. I do quite a bit of my shopping on line these days (except for Black Friday of course). Last year I hesitated to buy for the kids too early because I was worried that they would really want something closer to Christmas, but my budget would have been already blown. That wasn't the case. This year I feel more comfortable buying ahead some because I think what the kids are really liking right now will hold true a month or so from now also.

I am hoping to make some Christmas again this year, but no where near as much as last year. It got to be a little out of control. Each of the kids will get a little something made by me, but nothing too major probably. I am definitely going to make Asher his mama made quilt this year. I have all the fabric and I even know the pattern I am going to use. All the kids have a quilt made by me but him.

Since we are talking about Christmas gifts, I know what I am getting from Ryan already and I am so excited! I am getting a new laptop. I have been using Ryan's Macbook Air for 2 years now. It is a very cool lightweight laptop and even though using an "Apple" takes a bit of learning, I really like it. It is dying though and we took it to the Genius Bar Saturday night and they said it would cost almost $800 to fix. Um, nope. Not paying that. I have been wanting an ipad for a while so we considered moving to one of those. I am sorry to say though that I do not think I would be happy with that long term. I have an iphone and really the ipad is just a big iphone. I want more than that, which it hard because the ipad is sooo cute! I think we have decided to stick with Dell. They make a good solid product and it is what Ryan has been using and happy with for a while now. Over the weekend I created my Dell and Ryan is going to e-mail the specs to his contact at our local Dell and see if we can get a better price. I am super excited!!

There was one aspect of ordering my Dell that was frustrating to me. Have you all ever heard of project (RED)? Here's a link: http://www.joinred.com/red/ It is a neat idea. Businesses can partner with project (RED) and part of the proceeds made from that product goes to help AIDS victims in Africa. I have bought a few products already. A Gap t-shirt and outfit for Asher and a coffee mug from Starbucks. Some big names partner with (RED). Dell is one of those big names. I was extremely stoked when I saw that Dell had (RED) products. They even had them available in the computer type I was looking at. There were like 12 or so designs to choose from and I picked my favorite. Well, it was an additional $170 to get a computer with a (RED) design. Very high and not something we would normally pay for, but we are pretty committed to giving back with what we have been blessed with, so we looked into to further. After more research we realized that only $20 of that $170 actually went to AIDS relief. Only $20!! I am sure the designer had to get his/her cut and Dell had to get theirs, but $20?? No thank you. Our money would be much better spent to send that $170 to World Vision. Nuts though, there were some cool designs......

Until next time!

Julie

The comfort of Heaven

2010-10-07T19:55:00.000-07:00

You know sometimes I long for Heaven. Not in the sense that things are so bad here, not at all, I have a beautiful life. But there are times when I just find intense comfort in knowing that the God of this world is preparing a place for us. A place with no tears and no sadness. Much like everyone else, I have had trials in my life when things were miserable. I praise God though that my times of desperation have been far from me for a while. Tonight however, I was longing again for a peace that only Jesus can give. I almost feel pathetic even admitting to what was so heavy on my heart because I have seen real tragedy in this world. I think though that maybe other mom's like me will understand.

As Ryan and I lay in bed tonight I relayed to him the prayer Madeline had said before bed. Madeline really has precious prayers. In some ways she sounds wiser than her years and in others so like a child in the way she tries to mimic the prayers she has heard. Tonight's prayer was very typical and at the time, while sweet, it didn't strike more of an emotional chord than it normally does. For some reason though as we laid in bed, I found myself desperately wishing I had that little prayer seared in my memory. 10 or even 5 years from now I am going to want that moment that I shared tonight with Madeline (and Anna) back. Time goes so incredibly fast and as I delight in my children growing, there are moments that feel downright unbearable. Tonight was one of those night.

Tears just streamed down my face (as they are now) as I thought about all the missed opportunities with my kids. How many times do they ask to help and I say "no" because I know it will take twice as long. How often in a given day do I just sit down and color with them or play a game that they like. I am ashamed to say, not very often. I don't doubt that Satan uses guilt as one of his favorite tools, but for me it seems that every time I get sad that my babies are no longer babies, my next immediate thought is "you waste so much time on things that don't matter." While I can recognize that truly I do not think I am an awful mom, there is some truth to that thought and I intend to remedy this situation to some extent.

Well, I digress because what I really wanted to say was that in the midst of my heavy heart I was reminded of a conversation that I just had with a good friend of mine. This is the same friend that just lost her son a couple months back. We were talking about how we, as humans, place such an emphasis on time, especially when it relates to death. Her baby boy was "too young to die." But you know I really don't think God looks at life like we do at all. I think time is somewhat irrelevant to Him. This thought and my knowledge of Heaven brought such comfort to me tonight. I look at my babies, from 1 yr old to 12 and think "they are getting so big, so fast," but I know that when we all get to Heaven this will be barely a blink in God's eye. Yes, as a mom, I second guess myself a lot and it can be sad to watch my children grow, but what a joy it is to know that the time will come that everything will be ok. I won't feel sad that I missed some opportunities with my kids anymore, I won't feel sad because I will never hear that little 4 yr olds prayer again. My friend won't feel sad because her baby boy "died too young." Do I love my life, the good and the bad? More than I can say. Do I long for the perfect Heaven that only God can create? You bet.

Julie

Thriftiness and Recent Happenings.......

2010-10-04T07:16:00.001-07:00

Life has been busy and I feel bad I haven't posted in such a long time, but that is the way it goes I guess. This past weekend we had all the "Cincy Coles" to our neck of the woods. Ryan's dad has one brother and between these two men their are like 18 children (including husband/wives) and 30 grandchildren. Plus, 2 more grandkids are brewing and one cousin is getting married in a couple weeks. This Cole side took the "be fruitful and multiple" thing very seriously. It was a great time though and I love that side of the family. They are fun and easy to spend time with. It is always a blessing. Grandma Cole was very missed though. I thought that numerous times throughout the event. We all still miss her........

This has become Asher's spot. He loves to sit here. This time Anna and Madeline joined him. Asher loves to get into my drawers and get out my lids and storage containers. He tries very hard to put the lids on, but 95% of the time they don't match and that is very frustrating to him. Anyways, this is almost always the spot he comes to with his spoils.

Gee said "take a picture of me" which doesn't happen often, so I did. Nice Gideon.....

Asher is just like a little tornado. He walks through the house puling out anything he can. I can always tell where he has been. Fortunately he is learning "no" pretty good so if I catch him in the act I can deter him temporarily. Here he is very proud of his empty pop bottle from the trash.

A wagon ride from this weekend with part of the crew.

Esther and Scott and their two littles (you can't see Coleson).

Uncle Dennis, Aunt Sheila, their daughter Sarah and two of her littles (she is pregnant with #4 and paper pregnant to adopt from China).

This is Aaron, son in law to Uncle Dennis and part of his crew (plus some). His wife Alisha is pregnant).

One of PaPa's shaggy cow's. If anyone is interested in such things, Ryan and I will be purchasing some cattle of our own soon. We are inquiring about possibly starting a herd of Ancient White Parks. They are a really cool dual purpose type cattle. They are pretty rare and right now we are very much in the getting prepared stage. It is exciting though!

Feeding the cows.

So, here's some thriftiness in my life right now. I found this great wooden car at the Goodwill. I love solid wood stuff for the kids. They are so durable and classic. I am so tempted to switch all their toys out for stuff like this. Do they made wooden Leapsters and I touch's?

Cute little shoes I made for asher out of a recycled wool sweater. He wears them all the time!

I just made these yesterday for Madeline. Anna and Gideon have a pair cut out and ready to sew. They are a little wonky and I plan to tweak the next two pairs.

Ooo, anther steal from the Goodwill. These are Robeez soft shoes for Asher. These retail for $25 plus dollars. I paid $1.99. They are like new also they just look a little smushed. I have been seriously been looking for another pair for Asher on line and very close to buying some. Good thing I held out.

This is probably my best all time find from a Goodwill (and I have found a lot). I loved this bag and could tell it was quality. Little did I know. After doing a little research on line I found that this bag is from a German designer and they retail for $200 to $500. I kid you not. I paid $2.99. Yeah baby! Now do I try and sell it knowing how big of a pain that can be, or just use it with a smug little look on my face?

Ok, so this wasn't thrifty because of anything I did, but holy cow, it is wonderful and it was FREE. My very excellent mother and father in law gifted this set to us. They moved recently and bought a different set for their new house. I cannot tell you how much we needed this. Our last dryer was very seriously on its last leg and it was sooooo un-efficient. I zip through laundry now and when you do about 3 to 4 loads a day, that saves so much time!

Student of the Month!

2010-09-22T09:29:00.000-07:00

That's right, my sweet little redhead got middle school student of the month. Not bad for it being the first time she stepped foot into a public school. I am pathetically proud. She got her picture taken (I assume for our once a week local free paper) and got a free t-shirt. It is a little unclear as to what a student has to do to get student of the month, but Leah said something about good grades and a good attitude. Works for me! Good job Leah!!!!

Julie

Oh. My. Word....He is soooo loud!

2010-09-21T05:12:00.000-07:00

Asher is such a loud child. He could certainly pass as my bio kid based on that one fact alone. He isn't just loud when he is crying or irritated, he is just loud as a part of his regularly scheduled programming. It is how he communicates. Our little kids are not allowed out of bed until 8:00, Asher however is usually up by 7:00. He is still in our room so we are the only ones really affected by this, until we bring him into the rest of the house. This morning he was done with breakfast and ready to play by 7:40 and he just walked around the circle of our downstairs rooms yelling. No particular reason, just because he could. He would only stop occasionally and look longingly up the stairs. Seriously, he was watching for the kids to come down. He is a crazy boy I tell ya!

Here is goofy boy this morning (snot and all). Right after the little ones were awaken. See that chipped and mangled paint on my trim? That is seriously starting to bug me. When it is too chilly to work outside, painting trim will be my new project.

A super grumpy Anna this morning. She snapped out of it pretty quick though.

I just love how Asher always sleeps on his belly. This was particularly cute. He was totally wiped out from a morning at the soccer fields.

Anna and my beautiful niece Gracie (aka Peaches). Look how big she has gotten......

Getting warmed up for soccer with the 4 yr olds.

Action shot (kind of).

Ok, so he doesn't love hummus.

Asher and I visiting my awesome grandma! The rest of the crew was there also, they just didn't make it in the picture.

Watching the Labor Day parade in town. We still have bags of candy left.

Asher says "hi."

Gee and his "Bob" tie. He wanted to wear it and I was more than happy to let him. What a cutie! Oh and I can't for get "doggie." He loves that little dog. It has been de-rattled, sewn back up, half eaten by Patriot and washed probably 20 times. He is holding up well!

More of the parade crew. Aunt Esther, Uncle Scott, Coleson and Truett.

Well, that's all folks. Off to gymnastics!

Julie

Kid updates.....

2010-09-16T13:32:00.000-07:00

As I am waiting for my apples to soften (to make into applesauce) I thought I would update you on the kiddos.

Leah:

She is enjoying 7th grade. I think she likes public school and she is doing really well. She is working hard and already getting really good grades. I think she is making friends also, which is good. Although, can we say drama? Holy cow, what is with middle school girls? So far it doesn't seem Leah is directly involved in the craziness.

Leah is still taking gymnastics and she really, really enjoys it. She is panning to join the track team this coming spring and she is already starting to run when she gets the chance. She and Logan are still taking piano.

Logan:

Logan is playing soccer again this year in our local recreation league. I think this is year 4 or 5 for him. He usually plays goalie and he really does a great job. I love watching him. His first game was last Saturday and he even made a goal. Yeah!!! That is not the norm for him because he rarely plays forward.

We are starting school next week (the plan was to start this week) and Logan is technically in 5th grade. He is already taking a Science class with our local home school co-op. With Leah gone, it is so good to have Logan home. Someone else to have an intelligent conversation with is always good!

Madeline:

Madeline will be starting Kindergarten next week with Logan. I am kind of excited to get her started. I really think it will be great for Madeline. She needs something like this to keep her busy and she is so itching to learn. She also has a very good attention span, which will be great.

Madeline (along with Anna and Gee) is playing soccer this year for the first time, I am her coach. Our team is great, we have my 3 little ones, my niece Katelyn and twin boys. So, only two last names on the whole team. Our first game was Wednesday and it was crazy. Madeline did great though and scored two goals!

We are still having some trouble with Madeline getting out of bed and such, but it is better. Praise God. I am also seeing a maturity in Madeline these days that makes me very sad and proud all at the same time.

Anna:

Anna won't technically be starting Kindergarten next week. I really do not feel she is even really close to ready yet, although I am starting to see a spark for learning in her. I will however let her (and Gee) participate as much as they want to, but I am not going to push it at all with them if they'd rather go play.

Anna likes to play soccer, but I think she likes getting to play with her cousin more. She (and Gee) get a little goofy when they get around Katelyn and it is all about a good time. In our game on Wednesday she was about in tears after only being on the field for a couple minutes. She said she didn't want to play and I think it was because she hadn't kicked the ball yet.

Something I am noticing more and more about Anna is that she is learning to hold her emotions in, which can be both good and bad. Anna is kind of going through a funny stage right now though and it is just enjoyable. She is a little bit sassy and she is at that stage where she is putting the particulars of life together and she is making comments based on her conclusions. I find myself thinking a lot "where did she pick that up at?"

Gideon:

Gee is doing good. We still have trouble with him taking forever to eat when it is something he doesn't love (which is a lot), but we have a system that seems to get us through. We are going to take him back to the dentist because I think his teeth are bothering him some.

Gideon really does a good job with soccer. I am impressed that he doesn't let the other kids intimidate him and he just gets out there and does his thing. He has good ball control and he pays attention pretty good.

Gideon is still a tender-hearted little guy. I love this about him although it can be a little difficult at times. A couple weeks ago Asher had my phone and Gee told me about it. I asked Gee to go and get it from Asher for me. I watched him and he went to grab it from Asher and Asher wouldn't give it to him. Gideon got into a tugging match with Asher and Asher won. I know ti was because Gideon didn't want to hurt Asher or make him sad. Very sweet eh?

Asher:

Asher walks more than anything now. He really even barely crawls anymore (Julie wipes tear). He has been cranky for about 6 weeks now and now he has a cruddy nose. Ick. He has 4 big teeth coming in though so I guess he has an excuse. Asher is a stinker. He is little a mini tornado going through my house. He leaves a mess wherever he's been. He loves to pull my measuring cups out of their drawer, his cloth diapers out and the DVD's out of the entertainment center. We try to close these things off, but that doesn't always get done. Oh well, I guess it is just part of having a toddler.

Asher was taking medicine twice a day for his reflux. I hated giving him meds, but they seemed to help. Well, about a month ago I took him off of that and he rarely spits up. I honestly believe his issues are all related to milk. He is still on soy and almond milk and he does well with it. I tried lactose free milk a few weeks back and he spit up a ton and had very runny stool. He can only tolerate a little cheese/yogurt also, which stinks.

So, there are the kiddos. All are doing well, praise God. Ryan and I are doing good also. Colepak has been busy to varying degrees for Ryan, which all in all is a blessing. He is still keeping books for a local guy and that is taking a little more time than I thought it would, but it is ok. Ryan (and Jason) is coaching Logan's soccer team and I know he enjoys getting to spend that time with Logan. I am still canning, freezing and dehydrating. I am also doing some organizational overhauling in the house which is much needed. We are looking to put in a pond, build a barn, put in a fence and buy some cattle in the next 6 months, so prepping and praying about that can be pretty time consuming also. I am trying to get all my loose ends tied in anticipation of school next week.

Thanks for catching up with us!

Julie

"I want my mommy"

2010-09-14T18:44:00.000-07:00

Ryan and I have been and always will be very open about our adoptions with our kids. I am noticing though that even at an early age Anna and Gideon's capacity to be affected by their adoption experiences is very real. For the most part, Gideon couldn't care less. He is probably a pretty typical boy in that sense. I get the feeling though that it bothers Anna a bit. While we are very open about them being adopted it isn't like it is brought up all the time. We have 6 beautiful and amazing kids, I generally see no need to distinguish the biological from the adopted. I think there is potential there for half of my kids to feel a bit alienated. I try to be very honest but age appropriate with Anna and Gideon. I want them to be extremely proud of their heritage (Asher also) and I want them to celebrate the fact that they were adopted.

For the first time today though the topic of Anna and Gideon's birth mom's was really discussed. I get the impression that Anna feels a little bummed that she didn't come to us the same way Madeline did. She likes to reminisce about when she was a baby a lot and I just walk down memory lane with her. We talk about the first time I saw her and how I knew from that one photo that I wanted her to be my little girl. We just talk a lot about this. I have told her about our beautiful adoption experience with her and I have mentioned her birth mother before, but she must not have understood. We were in the car today waiting for Leah to get done with piano and the discussion went like this:

Gee and I were talking about babies and Anna chimes in....

Anna: "Mommy, like when I was a baby in your tummy, like the picture in your room?"

Me: "Anna, the baby in mommy's tummy in that picture is Madeline."

Madeline: "Yeah Anna, you didn't grow in Mommy's tummy."

Apparently and somewhat unfortunately Madeline was paying attention when Anna and I talked before about her birth mom.

My mind was sent reeling for a second. I want conversations about the adoptions with the kids to be very comfortable and very commonplace. I had to think really fast how to explain to Anna (and Gee because he was right there) about their birth mom's again, hopefully this time in a way they could get.

I will spare you all the details, but in the end both my little Guatlings seemed pretty happy and cool with things, to my relief. Probably one thing though in that conversation that I will never forget is Anna saying "I want my mommy," and she didn't mean me. I am almost crying as I even just post this. There was something in me that felt defensive and extremely possessive of my baby girl. I almost wanted to shout "I AM your mommy." But I didn't and I feel like God gave me grace in that moment and I responded, "I have a picture of your birth mommy Anna, would you like to see it?" I know Anna didn't mean she wanted to choose her birth mom over me, I think she was just so intrigued she wanted to meet this woman. Rightfully so. We got home past bedtime and this conversation was long gone by then, but I am going to find the picture's I have of Anna and Gideon's birth mom's and tomorrow we will sit down and look at them together.

May God protect my sweet adopted babies. I pray they never feel the pain or anger that can many times come with their amazing circumstances.

Julie

So Beautiful.....

2010-09-06T18:04:00.000-07:00

Man, you cannot beat the weather today. Breezy, warm, low humidity..... I love it! I have spent as much time as I can lately outside. We added a deck to the side of our house last fall. It is right underneath a huge tree. We have really been enjoying that deck. We bought some furniture for it and on the weekends we have been spending significant time out there. In a month or so it will be great because it will overlook our pond. Yes, our pond is due to be started in a few weeks. I am a little nervous, but extremely excited to see how it goes. We have been debating whether or not to put a pond in for years. Finally, we are going to give it a go.

Poor Asher, he fell out of our garage today. He was in his walker and we have about a 6 inch drop of the one side of our garage. He plowed right over it (I wasn't out there) and flipped into the dirt. He busted his lip and was really wailing. As sad as it was it was somewhat sweet for me to comfort him. He is just always on the go and while he normally likes to be held, he doesn't normally snuggle anymore. He wanted to snuggle and it was great. Wouldn't you know it, not 3 hours later, he fell off the deck. Not anywhere near as hard, but pretty traumatic still. And yes, we do watch him, I swear. He has never fallen over either spot before. Today was just not his day.

It has been a nice weekend and it hasn't been just the weather either. Saturday we went to the Labor Day parade and the kids got lots of candy thrown at them. We went to church as usual and had a nice dinner afterwards. Sunday was a little lazier and in the evening we went to my aunt and uncle's house. Such a nice time with family. We had a little cook out and just enjoyed the great outdoors. Today was pretty busy until about 4:30. Ryan's family came over and again we had a great visit. So, gorgeous weather, good family time, it doesn't get much better than that.

Julie

A slew of pictures......

2010-08-27T05:31:00.000-07:00

I am so bad about clumping my pictures. The blog would probably be a bit more interesting if I just added a few pictures with each post, however that takes more time because I have to upload pictures more often. So, until we have a couple more hours in a day, clumping it will probably be........

Yesterday Ryan was bush-hogging our front pasture and Asher just stood at that window for about 10 minutes and watched him. It was cute. Oh and he also managed to eat (well, not swallow it) a dead fly so maybe the tractor and daddy weren't the only things keeping his interest.

I just thought this breakfast was pretty. Yogurt, fresh raspberries from our AWESOME neighbors and home made granola.

Gee liked it. Check out the silly bands.....

This picture makes me go ARGH! My cucumbers seriously took a hit from our chickens. We spent good money and time on an electric fence for around the garden and it doesn't keep our chickens out. Next year we will be adding a couple more wire strands and maybe some more voltage! I got only a few cucumbers this year because the chickens trampled all my plants and they pecked what little cucumbers I did get. I had Logan keep the chickens in the coop for a few days and my cukes were starting to recover with just a few vines. Well, we accidently let them out for one day and see what happened? ARGH!

I am LOVING my new dehydrator. Fun stuff and a whole new world of food preservation is being opened up. Here Madeline and I are doing basil. This girl loves to help!

Massive spaghetti sauce canning. Yummy!

Tomatoes before dehydration (we had 4 rows like this)......

.......and after.

Ryan was planting some trees this past weekend and he found this in our neighbors corn field. It is a pumpkin! Last year we threw our old pumpkins over the fence and apparently one of our heirloom seeds decided to grow us a pretty pumpkin. Pretty cool. This little baby (a small sweet pie pumpkin) is now canned and sitting on my shelf.

Helping daddy plant trees.

The great sweet corn assembly line.

Gee manned the truck.

Then to Madeline......

Then Anna......

Then to the porch.....

Then to Logan and Leah...... He may not look like he is working but Leah and Logan shucked a whole truck load of corn.

Here are my pictures from our reunion in West Virginia. It was a really good time and I am already looking forward to next year.

Paula, Chrissy and I kind of got a thing going with "Goonies." Ever see it? It is probably the best 80's movie of all time (IMO)! Well Chrissy found these "Truffle Shuffle" shirts and bought one for all of us. Go Chunk!

We celebrated Gideon's birthday again while in West Virginia. Here he is blowing out his candles (something he wasn't able to do at his last party due to injury).

How funny is this? Rhonda's little dog was afraid of Paula's little dog and this is where he hid out one night. :)

We had a "dance off" with the kids (and Paula and Gaynell of course). It was one of the funniest things ever. I have a video of Gaynell busting a move and if I can figure out how to upload it on here I will. It is soooooo funny.

Paula doing her thing! You go girl!

Tyler, oh my this kid cracks me up with his dancing. He has got some serious moves.

Go Logan.....Go Logan.....Go Logan.......

Bryce and Logan dancing together.

AJ shaking it!

Chrissy and Tim enjoying the show (aren't they cute?)

Asher "playing" checkers with Cassie and Samie. Those poor girls, I am not sure they ever finished that game. I told them the floor was not a good place to lay that out. Pretty much if Asher can reach it he considers it his. I have to say here though, I have the BEST nieces and nephews (on both sides) in the WORLD. They are so sweet and tolerant of the little kids. Not once did Cassie or Samie get irritated with Asher.

I wanted to include some fair pictures of Leah and Logan and their chickens.

Logan and his bird being auctioned (the kids were breaking down so I didn't stay to get a picture of Leah and her bird).

Logan carrying his bird back after being judged.

Leah carrying her bird back after judging.

Leah and her birds in the pen.

Logan and his birds in the pen.

That's all for now!

Julie

Oh my... We got trouble coming.

2010-08-25T06:54:00.000-07:00

So I asked Anna and Gideon if they are ready for soccer tonight and they both replied "yes." Anna then asked "are those boys going to be there?" We have two none relative boys on our team. They are twin brothers. I told her "yes." To which she replied "good, I like boys, I'm gonna marry a boy some day." Oh Anna honey, over my dead body......... (did that sound a little dramatic?)

Julie

First Day of School....

2010-08-24T06:52:00.000-07:00

Yes, my baby is at school today. Definitely a first for us. I miss her already. We went to the school open house last night and she put all her junk in the locker and she got a tour from a sweet gal in her 4H group this year. The school was a mad house and we took all our kids plus my nephews (who may be going there next year). So, we were certainly adding to the chaos. We prayed with her this morning before she left and I have been praying for her so far this morning. I know she will do fine. I think this transition is quite probably way more difficult for me. Ryan took her to school this morning and snapped a picture of her for me. I will pick her up this afternoon.

Ahh.....a new chapter in the Cole family for sure.

Julie

Busy, Busy, Busy....

2010-08-20T12:41:00.000-07:00

Ahh, the story of my life I guess. It is good though because I would rather be busy then bored. Nothing too new going one really, just canning/freezing produce like crazy and trying to get a few different projects completed around the house. It just seems that I never get to do tons at once. When I have things to do outside of my daily routine, I still have the regular stuff to do and so I go back and forth a little at a time. I just finished corn and applesauce. I could probably still pick some more corn if I'd like, but I don't think I have time. Today I am going to to spaghetti sauce and more green beans. Plus I am trying to get our patio furniture put together. It is giving me trouble, which, I don't have time for......

Leah starts school next Tuesday. We enrolled her a couple days ago and I think that got her more excited. She got her schedule and got a tour of the school. We kind of know the school a bit from various events so it wasn't totally foreign to her. We are going to an open house next Monday night. Crazy stuff. Getting everything ready for school has been kind of fun. Leah is getting her binders organized and getting her supplies ready. If you think about it, pray for my girl. I know God will keep her, but extra prayers would be nice.

On kind of a similar note, Asher is 15 months today. My last baby. He is talking a lot more. He has gotten sassy, I kid you not. He tells me "no, no, no, no." He says it with attitude, usually in response to me telling him not to do something. He says "yeah." I will say "Are you a good boy Asher?" He will respond "yeah." He says "good, good, good," usually when he is eating something yummy. He actually did say "mama" the other day tow different times. Finally! He is walking more and more and getting more brave. Asher is such a joy to everyone in the family. We just adore him!

Until next time......

Julie

Why am I up at 2:00 am??

2010-08-12T23:04:00.000-07:00

Good question and I have an answer, canning. Oiy. I have canned over 3 dozen quarts of goodies in the last few hours. We have been blessed with a really good garden this year. We are leaving tomorrow around noon for a family reunion and this has to be done before we go. I am already letting corn and apples sit with the hopes of them staying good until Monday. I hate that, but I can only do so much. The fair has wiped us out this week. It was fun though and the kids did great. I was one proud mama. And then all 52 meat birds/roosters had to be processed today. I haven't even packed yet. I should be able to hit my pillow in about 15 or 20 minutes though. My beans are in the pressure cooker and my lemon bar base (to take with us this weekend) is almost ready to come out of the oven.

This weekend will be great and should be pretty relaxing. I am just looking forward to having nothing to do. Gesh, I never thought I would say that..... I am getting so old. I was hoping to take the camper with us like we did last year, but unfortunately our camper has not left the barn all year. This totally bums me out because I love to camp. It just didn't happen. Having our camper there is so much easier for me, but it's all good. We have my aunts house right there and we are renting a cabin about a half of a mile down the road.

I think Asher is sick. It hit me like a hammer this evening. He has been soooo fussy for about 3 days now. He has been waking up in the middle of the night, he's had a runny nose for days, he has a horrible diaper rash and I have noticed him tugged/batting at his ears. No fever, but I am almost positive he has an ear infection. It would be his first since his tubes were put in back in April. So, even though I have no time I will certainly be trying to get him into the Dr. before we leave.

Ok, well I have about 5 minutes left so "see ya!"

Julie