New Stairs!!! House Project!

Our new stairs our wonderful Papa built us!!

 They are 6 feet long and stock still when you go up them :) 

Papa ripped the stairs off the old porch we were using as stairs and we are going to use it as a picnic table in the yard. Here the boys are sitting on a poplar pole and Papa is peeling the bark off with his big knife.

A Papa Birthday :)

Mr.& Mrs. B, the kids and I surprised Papa with a beer cake :) 

Bottles of Beer on a pan, taped together with candles taped to the top :) 

Papa said it was the best cake ever :) 

New Bird On The Homestead

I was out milking the other morning when I spotted this bird and it's mate in the chicken pen eating the chicken grain. When I went to take a picture they both flew off but not far. Later on during the day the kids and I saw them several times so we looked them up.  It could be a mourning dove or possibly a bird that escaped from captivity like a African Collared dove ( which looks the most like our picture) :) What do you think it is??

L and E got their very first Bibles the other day! The Bibles have their names on the front. It was very exciting and Papa taught them how to play the Bible game swords right away. They know their books of the Bible but it was a bit hard to find them in their new Bibles. I have a feeling though that there will be a lot of Swords in our future :) They found Jonah where we had been reading as a family and followed along while Papa read a chapter. It turns out that E's and J's Bibles are the same and L's is the new copyright which is a bit easier to read and so it's a little harder for him to follow along during readings. They will be starting their own devotions in school this year with the ACE program so now was the perfect time to get their own Bibles. They are also bringing them to church to follow along while scripture is read. They even packed up a little pictures kid Bible for R so "she could have a Bible too!" I love that they care for eachother and help eachother. R was quite pleased :)

~Baby Food Days Are Here Again~

Carrots ready to freeze in ice cube trays. With little girls I use ice cube trays, with little boys I use yogurt containers :) My girls eat so much less then the boys. Baby G can eat two cubes if she's really hungry, J3 at this stage was eating 4!

I freeze them in the trays then pop them out and keep them in 1 gallon zip lock bags, refilling as needed. Soon I will only use these handy cubes for meals in a hurry or when we go out and about and I will use my baby food mill at the table at meal times for at home meals.

Food?? Really?? Baby G Takes a Taste :)

I'm a Happy Baby!! 

I'm a very happy baby!! 

First Bite.

Seriously?? THIS is what we were all excited about?

Are you sure Mom?? 

Hey MOM let go of my hands!! 

J can you believe she's not letting me grab the spoon??

THE GREEN LIGHT!!

Seriously! This stuff is NASTY!!

Well Mom seems to be encouraging me to eat it!! Maybe I'll have another bite.

Nope still nasty! MORE???

I AM SO DONE!!!

Just for the record it was well sweetened, nicely thinned, cream of wheat at the perfect temp!

J, R and E fought over who got to finish it off and they all assured me it was WONDERFUL!!

She's now had cream of wheat, carrots, oatmeal, watermelon and apple sauce. 

Thank You J for taking all the wonderful pictures :) 

The green light is the light on the front of the camera that comes on just before the picture is taken.

Baby G thinks the green light is evil. 

But she enjoys hamming up to the camera anyway. 

A Merry Night

The Food!!! 

Mr. B had been gone guiding and came home for a short few days to visit with his wife and he brought back a 15lbs salmon!!
The Friends
Mrs. B called us up and asked if Mr. B could make us supper.. 

OH YEAH!! 

Then she asked if they could bring Mr. B's younger brother Scott..
I had to think about that one :) . 

Scott's been off traveling the world for the last several months so we hadn't seen him for quite a while. 

He's my cousin you see.

The kids love him.

So I said yes :) 

No really Scott it was really nice to see you :) 

Finishing supper.. BBQ'd salmon, flayed by Scott, cooked by Papa and Mr. B, rice, corn on the cob, salad, with ice cream cake for dessert. YUM!!! A meal for a king!! 

J3 and his cheese ball grin :) 

What was left of the 15lbs salmon after roughly 30 minutes of feasting.. They sliced up lemons and onions and laid them on top of the fish. It was AMAZING!!!! Papa took this last piece to work and he said it was just as good the second day. Which is amazing for fish! 

The Fun!
After supper there was the usual sword fighting :) 

Apparently Scott and E were the two champs and here they are dueling it out.

E won!! Scott said she was amazing! 

This is not just mindless sword play.

 There are rules.

 If you are mortally wounded you die. (Often dramatically) 

When the last person is standing, you can come alive again and play again.

 Certain areas are off limits for attack. 

This picture pretty much sums up a night with Mr. B and Scott over.. or just Mr. and Mrs B. 

Fun Craziness

Baby G and Baby J :)

WOW there is a baby here!

And WHO is that over there??  :) 

They are 4 months apart :) 

Super Cute. 

E Reading :)

Bedtime stories :) 

L Reading :)