Kittens :)

We recently went out to a friends place and picked up these two very cute little sister kitties :) 

I think we've decided on naming them Fluff and Daisy. Daisy is the short haired sister that L is holding in the picture below. The kids love them and you can often see J3 packing Daisy around. He is super gentle and she just lets him pack her around. Fluff is a bit wilder but is taming down nicely. J can catch her now and I've heard her purr. They came from a farm with lots of big dogs and after the first little introductory spat they are getting along great with Chip.

The kittens first day was spent hiding in the engine compartment of the Travelall! So we lured them out with a bit of milk. That night when Papa got home he opened the hood and fished them out and put them in a animal case over night so he could take the truck to work the next day. The second day they spent under the house but by evening they were playing on the front steps and exploring the whole area around the house. They did not like chickens and they are still scared of them. Our other two cats Midnight and Hunter, both males, seem to have adjusted nicely to the kittens. Hunter has already accepted Midnight so we didn't expect him to have any problems. Midnight was TERRIFIED of them for the 1st day and would run away at the sight of them. By the second day he was just curious but didn't want to get too close, just in case! A few days later and they are all best friends. Midnight washes the kittens and snuggles with them and generally seems to be parenting them. 

I never seem to have my camera handy when I see J3 packing a kitten but I WILL get a picture of it yet :) 

This picture was taken 2 seconds after I saw these little cuties spooning... Fluff was still a little wilder then she is now and wasn't too sure about my stopping to take a picture! 

Tenting :) ~In The Yard~

With the weather co operating the kids decided to sleep out in their tents. J wanted to sleep alone in his and it was decided that L, E and R would sleep together in L's tent. They started out a bit later to bed then normal and Papa and I checked them several times. I went out at about 11 pm, still light here, and found the girls had jumped into J's tent and L was sleeping alone.. or at least laying in his sleeping bag in his tent alone. The girls informed me they'd gotten scared and needed their biggest brother to 'keep them safe.' Less then 50 feet from the house :) SO I decided they'd all sleep in the same tent and got them all ready, yet again, for bed. This time they went to sleep rather fast and slept until 4:30am when L, E and R got cold and came inside. J3 was sleeping out of his bed that night too. He was fast asleep in R's bottom bunk so the girls climbed into J's bed and L climbed into his own bed and everyone slept until 10am :) When the other kids went inside to warm up J went back into his tent and slept alone there until 10. 

They had a blast tenting in the yard. J still talks about doing it again but I think the actual experience has worn the idea a bit thin for L and R. E says she would like to try sleeping alone in her tent but I don't think she'd last very long as her imagination is a lot like her mothers.... overactive. :) 

Cutie Pie!! ~Baby G~

Baby G is at a super cute age right now. Full of smiles and giggles and cute little firsts! 

We are enjoying every minute! 

Talented :) I have a picture of her holding on to her toes in the womb :) 

Loves paper.. eating it.. and the rattle of it when she smacks it! 

Baby G on the 'outdoors playpen.' She really likes to watch the kids, dog, cats and kids outside. 

Yesterday she did manage to get herself sitting in between two springs.. not sure how she did it but she had her legs up with just her little rear between the springs and she was happily banging on her feet when I got there to rescue her..not that she figured she needed it. 

Such a little lady! 

Yes, I'm beautiful! 

And getting into messes.. she was tangled in the camera case cord! 

Wearing Mr.B's hat :) He put her in the exersauser backwards and put his hat on her..
MAN IS SHE EVER CUTE!!! 

At the beach for the 1st time ever!! Sanding on the sand.. mostly she wanted to eat it! 

Yes, I'm Cute.. and I know it :) 

Sitting in the truck!! Big Smiles :) 

This evening during supper she reached out and snagged a kernel of corn off my plate and popped it into her mouth in one quick moment. This afternoon she took cracker after cracker to SMASH on the tray of our high chair just 'cause :) She loves her food and is a good eater! 

She loves to snuggle and will sometimes fall asleep on someone if she is tired enough.. The other day at the beach a friends 14 year old was holding her and she fell asleep on her shoulder.. *hearts melted*!! She loves to just lay her head on your chest and smile sweetly at a nearby person. The kids love to hear her giggle and a few nights ago E and R got her giggling, and them giggling for about 10 minutes.. I got it on video. She thinks pretend sneezes are HILARIOUS!! 

She gets up on hands and knees and rocks and crawls a little ways.. but if she's in a hurry she drops to her belly and MOVES!! Today she finally, she's been working on it, crawled over Papa. She's been able to crawl up half on top of him but today she made it right over! 

We think she may be left handed as that is the hand she took the crackers with tonight.. the last 5 at least she took with her left! If so Baby G will be our 1st lefty! 

There is a pack, 8 three years old or younger!, of little boys at home church and a couple of them always come over to 'pet' her :)

 It's so cute!! They all love her! 

So do we :) 

J3 is TWO!!!

Mixing up the cake! He got to turn the mixer on! BIG SMILES!! 

Gifts and he's only smiling picture of party night! 

With his cakes.. 

I tried to make it into a cow but it looked more dogish,

 and Papa thought maybe a Panda! 

So I asked J3 if it was

 A cow?.. yup

A dog?... yup

A panda?.. yup

Then I asked him what it was and he said.. drum roll please...

A CAKE!!! 

Good enough for me! 

FIRE!! Cool!! 

Look at that I blew it out!! 

We had a blast! Happy Birthday Little Man!! 

Bales~ House Building :)

I recently spent an afternoon, while the baby was asleep, building the bottom two layers of bale walls on the new project. It was quick and easy and the only longer part was halving a few bales for those walls which needed them. I'd forgotten how sore your fingers get tightening up bale string :) 

Here is a view of the back part of the new floor. This will be master bedroom (very back), two bathrooms and another bedroom and then a pantry (I'm standing in the pantry in the picture.) before the dinning area and kitchen off the front. I should take a new picture. The bales in this one show about where the walls will be but these walls will not be bale walls and I've been building more with these bales so I have 4x4's laid out on the floor to show the floor plan. Papa and I recently took an entire Saturday and planned the house! We are  going to be using the floor plan as a guide not a written in stone tablet. But at least now we know where the windows should go! Which is what Papa is working on now; window frames and door locations. We've also priced windows and doors and walked around in the rooms to see if we like the sizes.

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.