Some very sweet sentiments.

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....

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!"

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.

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

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.......

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!

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!

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.....

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"

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.....

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......

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