A Baby Cuddle.

I've always enjoyed taking pictures of Papa snuggling with the newest Griggs baby but Baby J never would cuddle with him long enough for me to grab my camera. Well lately Papa has been getting all the Baby J snuggles and I finally got my picture!! Late is always better then never :) 

Inside Scratch Coat Finished!!

Papa and I got the last of the inside scratch coat on the straw bale walls the other day :) This was the biggest wall and it took FOUR loads of plaster to finish!! 

Looks great hey?? I love the look of it before Papa scratches it! So nice and smooth and much more like the finished project should look. You can see Papa's not quite done in the bottom picture.. he's sitting on top of a ladder in the top left corner finishing the last little be up!! This corner will be the 1st spot brown coated as we want to be able to move the wood stove into place before we start using it daily. Papa has a few days off and we are trying to get at least that area done for the winter. The brown coat is all mixed and in the 'tub' (see bath pictures below) which has been lined with plastic. The tub is ALMOST FULL and might be enough to finish the brown coat completely. We're really not sure how much plaster it will take. He used up pretty much all the sand that he brought home the other day! 

The BIG TUB!!!

The kids were so excited, the warm water hose from inside had been running warm water for over 30 minutes, the weather was warm enough for a bit of a bath!! Finally, Mom said, Get NAKED!!! Oh well wait.. keep your underwear on!! lol.

Stripping, it's amazing how fast 4 little people can get mostly naked! Yes, it's fall and yes R and E are wearing sweaters because it really isn't all that warm outside! 

Mad dash to the tub and a frantic crawling in! 

Sitting enjoying the nice warm water. They all thought it was a bit too warm at first but it didn't take long and they were all splashing and playing and sliding down the sides of the tub. The ridges on the edges are GREAT for standing on and jumping into the water!! 

After quite a while had passed I stuck Baby J in there too.. he didn't much care for it at first but it didn't take long and he was splashing with the rest of them. While we were there we might as well get clean :) Papa brought us some shampoo and some towels and we did a 5 head scrub! 

Kind of an expensive tub right?? Yes it is. It's not just a tub, actually it's not really a tub at all. Papa and I needed something that would be dual purpose. A large tub or something that would be able to hold cooling chickens and our plastering mix. This cow waterer is the best 'bang for our buck'  for the size we wanted. It will be easy to line with plastic for chicken butchering day or for the plaster! It's sturdy enough to hold all our chickens or an entire coats worth of plaster.. and bonus it makes a pretty cool tub or summer time pool for the kids!! Besides those 3 things I have a feeling we'll find many more uses for it.. For instance, I just thought of this..  I bet it would make a great pen for chicks or small critters!! It might even be put to use as a outside play pen :) 

In Other News :)

What is this?? Have they finally come to their senses and realized that it's all together TOO much to homeschool 3 kids, have 3 more, have a farm and run a household... etc etc.

NOPE we have not!! 

Yesterday our great neighbor Mike brought a friend of his over with his little boy, about 8 years old, to see the piglets. They got the farm/straw bale house tour and after they'd left my kids all came RUNNING to me!! Mom!! Do you know what he said!! He LIED!!! They were horrified, not that they don't lie on a fairly regular bases, but it was WHAT he'd lied about that hit them where it hurt!! The little boy, remember we don't know this family at all and after yesterday we'll not go out of our way to make relationships!, told our kids.. 'You wont learn NOTHING homeschooling!!' I soothed the kids with reassurances about everything that they are learning, including manners!!   Ok time to hop off the box!!

Papa got a phone call the other day and from the glint in his eye I knew it was no good!! I could just TELL!!! As I was sitting beside him I got to hear quite a bit of the phone call and by the end I'd put my .02 in. Papa laughed with the guy on the phone as he explained and there was no point in him having to listen to us argue about it and he'd call him back in a bit. I knew it would be a LONG bit!!  It really wasn't. Once I'd heard the whole thing and gotten a few considerations.. hee hee.. I didn't really have a problem with the idea. The guys name was John and he's somehow or other involved with one of our local Christian schools, several years ago the school had problems with one of their buses and brought it up to see if the guys where Papa works could fix it. They figured out the problem but it ran to too much money to fix it. The school ended up getting a different bus instead and still has it to this day. When the bus had been in for repairs Papa had told John that if they ever wanted to get rid of it to let him know. It has a diesel motor in it that he really wanted for one of our trucks. WELL!!! Yup you guessed it.. two years later and they want to get rid of the bus. John remembered what Papa had said and gave him a call. There were a few things that really cinched the deal... #1 it was free.  #2. It runs.. but will not start unless you use either, not a problem as I do NOT plan on EVER driving it. #3. Papa can fix it :) #4. It makes a GREAT playhouse!! :) #5. We can take some seats out and convert it to an RV for camping. Rough but better then paying through the nose for an actual RV and we don't camp all that often so rough is fine! #6. Papa really does want the motor for one of his trucks. #7. The kids love it. They got to drive home with Papa in the bus and man oh man the smiles were face cracking!! I SO wish I'd remembered my camera!

And we have a great place to park it!! At least for now.. we'll see how old it gets having a bus within view of the house. The spot where the bus is parked is a dead spot in our otherwise lush acreage..We're not sure why as it's been seeded and babied for several years. Papa thinks maybe because of the trees right behind it. 

Oh yeah... and the funnest thing of ALL... Internationals do make buses.. they are everywhere but this one just happens to be made by 

Bahahahahhahahaha!!! (It is also our 1st ford EVER!!, Papa says AND LAST!!)

Oh and before you think now we're going to go crazy with buses.. one of the 'considerations' was that there WILL NEVER BE TWO BUSES ON OUR PLACE AT ONE TIME!! They may pass in the driveway but may never linger!! Papa still dreams of owning a International Bus you see but as far as this homeschooling, do it yourself-er, mother, wife and all around farm apprentice, never mind chief cook and bottle washer, is concerned.. ONE BUS IS ENOUGH!!! 

What Has Been Eating The Apples??

Looks like something very hungry has been snacking on my apples...a Hungry Little Baby J!!! 

Yes I keep my fruit in a wipes box :) It USED to live on the floor in the kitchen but we recently had to move it to the counter... seems we have a HUNGRY HUNGRY BOY in our house who just needed a nibble here and there!! I had told him not to touch.. and he didn't.. I found him leaning over 'bobbing' for bites with his hands tucked to his sides :) He was trying SO hard to obey!!  Only his mouth made contact!! 

Heehee Look What I Can DO!!!

Yup Baby J is climbing chairs!! And OH SO proud of himself!! 

Creative Kids.. Sand Creation's!!

The kids really love to play in the sand!! J and L made this town one day while we were plastering :) It's got tunnels and roads and all kinds of fun stuff!!

Happy Happy Gift to ME!!! :)

A couple of weeks ago now I was taking the kids to the park and we stopped by Papa's work to tell him what we were up too and see if he could come join us a little on his lunch hour. Well he happened to be on his break and Phil, a guy he works with, pointed me to the office. Now in all honestly Papa did tell me that Phil had NO idea but I have a feeling that next time Papa tries to pull a stunt like this all the guys will know and I'll be 'detained'  so that Papa can cover his tracks. What was Papa up to?? Gambling? Buying Internationals?? Nope.. he was trying to surprise his wife with a gift!! I walked into the office and there is Papa sitting at the computer with a IPad2 on the screen and he's on the phone with the place in the 'city' that sells them.. To tell you the very truth I was shocked!! I didn't even know what an IPad2 was!! LOL. I do now :) Papa turned BEET red from shoulders to hair line and hung up the phone. We took a little walk outside and he told me what he was up to and why and what an IPad2 is. Very cool!! As it turns out I didn't actually get the Ipad2 for a couple more weeks as they refused to sell him one over the phone. So the next time we went to the 'city' we went and took a look and picked one up. AWESOME!! I love it. As backwards as I know we are it's really cool that we found something 'new' that fits me as well as my new IPad2. I can 'borrow' books online through our local library and read them on my Ipad2 without even leaving the house! As I still read between 5 and 8 books a week this is wonderful. I can check my email, the weather or whatever and not even have to leave my bedroom. Our laptop is wonderful but it pretty much lives in the living room and it is used for movies, music and everything else.. my Ipad2 is MINE!! :) Papa does get to use it every once and a while.. but only if I'm not :) 

Papa and Baby J watching a youtube video, something about Internationals, on my new IPad2.

J's 1st Written Story :)

I gave J this little book for writing in. I told him he could write about what he wanted when ever he wanted or I would give him a topic and he would have to write about it. His first couple of pages are filled with his name, his WHOLE name!! Quite a chore to write it all out but he'd never learned to write the whole thing and needed to. Then he wanted to write his siblings names.. their WHOLE names. Now your probably thinking what's the big deal with the WHOLE name thing?? Well Papa and I name the kids after people, great grandparents, grandparents and well... two people PER kid and it makes for some LONG names. For instance J's WHOLE name is, I believe the longest, at 26 letters from start to finish!! R's is the shortest and Baby J, L and E's are all pretty close, numbers wise. He also wrote out my name and Papa's. That's a LOT of writing! This little memory story is what he wanted to write about after our visit with G and G Griggs and cousin M. He did ask me to spell some words but there are a few misspelled, and a few things left out, and that's OK, it's his little book and his memory. 

Oh and he's decided that for this little book he will only write in pen and that he's going to keep it forever. I'm ever so curious to see what he'll write about next!! 

Creative Kids!! Wood town.

While Papa and I were being creative on the plastering the kids found their own way to be creative. A couple of boards, chairs, the old mattress from the hid a bed, some toys, the outside 'fort' blanket, and a couple of hours to themselves and they created a pretty cool 'Wood Town' as they called it. 

 Strutting their stuff!

They played on, under and around it all weekend. It changed daily if not hourly and they had a BLAST!! L was master builder but everyone got to try different ways to make up the town. The last day they made a big half square up to and attached to the trampoline and had a real work out running up and down the boards to the trampoline and back and forth then jumping on to the mattress.