My little helpers

Mama: Chey, can you please feed the dog?

(Mama wanders off to gather up dirty laundry.)

(Mama enters laundry room.)

Mama: Chey! What are you doing?

Chey: I give Franklin very much. (Said with a big smile)

Ahhhh....love my mama's helpers.

Happy 4th Isabella

We were so happy to celebrate Izzie's 4th birthday at the end of October with a sweet tea party. What a fantastic time watching the boys get so excited about decorating and treating their little sister with all kinds of homemade gifts.

Happy 7th birthday, Elijah Xavier

We love you and think that you are the coolest 7 year old on the face of the planet. Your tomahawk cake was a smashing success and we are so blessed to have you in our lives.

And the little princess said...

with eyes so big and bright, "Mama, can I wear your dress?" So, mama stops ironing, puts the pink nightgown on the princess and all is right with the world.

Adding more cluck-clucks

We welcomed 6 new Golden Comet hens to the bunch this past weekend. It is exciting that they are already laying eggs and absolutely beautiful chickens. It is obvious that they have been well taken care of and are very healthy.
It was quite an interesting day watching the Barred Rocks (5 hens and 1 rooster) try and immediately figure out a pecking order with the new batch of 6 hens. A lot of squawking and running and pecking and flexing by the only male of the bunch. Rich and Dante had quite a time narrating the rooster's thoughts as he was walking around in his glory among 11 females.
We are having a great time not only watching the chickens clean up the bugs in the yard, but also giving us yummy brown eggs each day.

The moment has arrived

Sunday morning as we were getting breakfast ready, Dante came charging up through the yard. At first I thought he was hurt with as quickly as he was running. He charged through the door holding our very first ever chicken egg. The moment had arrived. WOOHOO! We were all so excited. We were making eggs anyway (store bought), so we decided to cook up our homegrown one, too. The bright color of the yoke was just unbelievable compared to the other eggs. The children have been relentlessly stalking the chicken shed waiting for more eggs. We have gotten 4 so far and I am sure the eggs haven't even been sitting in the nest for more than 30 seconds before they are brought up to the house.

Your hands are full!!!

Yup...they sure are.

Co ed imagination

On this absolutely beautiful country morning, the little girls are playing with an old car seat on the porch. Dante and Elijah are in the woods collecting fallen down trees for the upcoming cold season. Isabella and Justus are playing with Matchbox cars in my bedroom. As I walk past to pu laundry away I overhear serious talk of monster trucks. Then a sweet little girly voice says, "Well, I am going to Walmart to buy some honey for my cereal." Isn't it great they way He made them so different.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Chickens and Goats

We are so excited to be able to accommodate some small animals on our property. The Sullivan's gave us 5 hens and a rooster and they are so much fun to watch. They spend the day pecking around the yard eating lots of bugs...YAY! They haven't started laying eggs yet, but it should be any day now. We are looking forward to our free range farm fresh eggs for breakfast...mmmm!

Also, we plan on slowly working at clearing some property to be able to raise a couple of cows. Since we don't have a ton of extra time to be doing this currently, we thought we would purchase a couple of goats to help start the job. Our new pygmy goats, Clover and Daisy have been happily eating brush for the past week. It is hard to believe how much those little things can eat in a day. Rich is going to enclose a little area of the tractor shed to house them at night and when it gets cold, but for now they are in his workshop. P.U!

Living out in the country has taken a lot of getting used to, but little things like watching the animals peck and graze about the yard has made it a little easier.

A simple gesture

We had a sweet visit with our dearest friends for a few hours yesterday. It is so hard living far from them, but our time together is still precious. As we were leaving, Amber gave me a nice big stack of coloring books for the children. This morning I asked them if they wanted to color in their new coloring books and they said, "NEW COLORING BOOKS?? WHERE?" I told them the Sullivans had given them to us and they were in the back of the van. You would have thought I gave them each $100. They spent the next hour coloring in their new books. So, thank you Ms. Amber for a simple gesture that gave me an hour of peace on this beautiful Saturday morning. We love you guys and hope to see you soon.

Other blog pages

Because we are back to spending a lot of time learning new things each day, please check in with our Love Of Learning blog to find exciting updates.

Summer Recap

WOW! This sure has been the fastest summer ever. Rich headed back to work this week and as I reflected on the past 2 months, we have been so busy. Not only did we create some great memories by dressing up cowgirls, playing army every single time it rained and celebrated Father's Day and 2 birthdays, but we moved a family of 8 a little ways south to a new home, rented out our old home, got a kitten, and 6 chickens, but the biggest news of all, we found out we were expecting another blessing in January. PHEW! Pause...deep breath. Did I mention potty training a 2 year old and soothing a teething 1 year old amidst all of that? Oh yeah, and the constant reassurance that even though we were moving away from our bestest friends, we would "still see them enough to keep you all content?" Busy may not be the word to describe what our summer was like.
However you would describe it, God surely remained faithful each step of the way. He does have it all in His hands and provides a lovely space right in the shadow of His wings when things get crazy.
Love,
Amy

A new baby in the house

This is certainly not an update, but just a quick post. The young lady that Rich has been home bound teaching all year, Carson, sent a beautiful gift home for Isabella yesterday. A little duffle bag filled with a lovely baby doll and all imaginable accessories. Isabella was so delighted and it seems her little sister, Cheyanne, and big brother Justus think the baby is pretty neat, too.