Our New Table :) Picnic Table :)

Kids and I build this picnic table and benches the other day with a couple of boxes of help and a bunch of 2x4's. We bought it as a kit idea from Princess Auto and got a couple extra benches. The uprights came in the kit and we just added 2x4's and followed the directions :)

 The boys did the cutting, the girls took care of the screws/washers and the we took turns on the drill. It's not square, it's not even.. but it's ours and we are ok with that :) It was a wonderful group project!! 

First snack on the picnic table :) 

It's not perfect, but what is?? 

 We are going to sand it a bit and get the letters off and Papa is going to trim the ends to get rid of the green and even them up and then we will find a stain for it. 

Beautiful side..

From the other side.. a bit more reveling about our home life :) 

Laundry drying on the line, hay bales hidden under trees to keep them out of the rain (makes a great 1st step to tree climbing Hey L??) the fire pile waiting to be burnt as well as the blue wheel barrow full of sticks to be burnt later, the stroller in the shade by the tree, boxes from our project laying on the ground.. 

But mostly I see a Family. 

August 2013

J

L

E

R

J3 

G

S at 6 weeks.

Sister Cuddles

The kids all fight over who gets to hold!! If he falls asleep on you are called the BEST baby holder!!

J3, E, R holding S.

E and S.

What good big sisters!!

Great Aunt J~ S's Has A Bath.

My Aunt J stopped by the other day and asked if she could give S a bath. 

I said YES!! 

They had a great bath! He loved it. She loved it. The kids loved it. I loved it.

 I took the pictures.. I'm very happy with my job as picture taker.

Baby baths are one of my least favorite things to do. ANY time you feel like giving a baby a bath..

COME ON OVER!!! 

I love this picture the most. S was looking at her and she was talking to him and we were all enjoying this special moment.. 

And..

He PEED ON HER!!! She was soaked too.. not just a little damp.. SOAKED!! 

She took it well.

 I had warned her.. S is a pee-er!! He's peed on at least 4 people so far in his 6 weeks!

I'm pretty sure she went home and had a shower... but hey the baby got clean!! :) 

S Slept Thru

The night last night! He was 5 weeks old on yesterday! Totally surprised me as he was super cranky last night and screamed instead of hanging out with J while I did chores. J ended up finishing chores while I tried to settle S. I got him all fed up and he fell asleep and we both woke up almost 8 hours later! He slept from just after 11 pm to ten to 7am!! Way to go S!!

Random notes: I'm not sure my body knows what to do with all that sleep. I'm pretty sure S isn't going to sleep that long every night but I think we are going to be catching up a bit on rest from here on out. The longest he'd slept before today was 6 hours. He is still exclusively breastfed and likes to cluster feed in the evening. Often nursing for over an hour at a time. He likes gripe water :) and it helps him not spit up so much.

You Never Know....

What you'll see on our yard!!  

Sometimes it's kids playing a rousing game of soccer, or chickens eating grass, full grown cows munching around the trampoline, or little pigs rooting in the dirt. There are almost always laying hens and children, dogs and toys. A couple of weeks ago it was calves as well..

Everybody loves Papa. 

Patch; still a little wild.

J3 and Milton.

Calf and beer.... such is the homestead life!! 

Calf, Papa's shadow (also know as Chip) and beer... 

Ah it's the homebrewing/homesteading life!! 

Ants

The kids and I were cleaning up the yard after chicken butchering the other day, picking up feathers and garbage and wandering around the place when I noticed a few of them squatting in a circle looking at the ground. I went over to see what they were looking at, and I'll admit get them focused back on yard clean up. I got closer and I realized that they had found a black ant 'thing.' It wasn't a nest as it was only about 20 ants under a piece of bark but the ants had eggs under the bark and when the kids had lifted the bark the ants had started to 'clean up' and 'hide' the eggs. It was really neat and I joined them in watching the ants as they hurried here and there and slowly disappeared from sight. I looked and looked but it took me several minutes, and over half the eggs, to find out WHERE the ants where taking the ant eggs. It was a hole so tiny the eggs barely fit down it but one by one the ants were methodically finding the hole and taking the egg they carried down the hole to safety. It was really neat to watch. There was no ant overseeing the rest, they just worked together for the good of the hill.

Teamwork is something Papa and I have tried to instill in our children. It's a hard thing to teach. People are by their very nature selfish and it's sometimes hard to catch selfishness if your not looking for it. Selflessness is easier to see I find. I do like to reward my kids for selflessness when I see it just like I do try and show them their selfishness when the need arises. Selfishness can be seen in speech, deed, and attitude. Sometimes all in one horrible swoop. We've found the best way to deal with selfishness in ourselves and our children is to ask 'Is that the way YOU want to be treated??' The answer is almost always no. "Then treat others the way you would like to be treated." A great lesson for us all.

Sleeping Frog~S

Oldest & Youngest: Chore Helper.

J is 9 and Papa has decided that he can stay up later, around until 10:30 and help me with the evening  chores. He fetches this and packs that and makes my job a whole lot easier. 

There are several ways to help Momma with the evening chores.

 Holding and patting a tired baby to sleep is one of them. Bonus: he gets to stay up later, I get to go to bed sooner, he gets to read his book, and I don't have to worry about the baby!!

IHC Fire Truck

Papa got to work on this cool International fire truck. No better place to test drive it then home to see the family!! 

One nice picture.

Tongues! 

Sad faces.

Teeth.

Goofy!

How many kids fit inside??

Well at least 6!!

Though you can only see 5, they are in there.