5 Months in Review

It has been a long time since I've posted anything.  Sorry about that.  Life is busy as I'm sure it is for you too.  We've had lots of fun the past few months and we hope you enjoy the pictures.  :)

Zachary at age 8 months (He is now 13 months old and walking)

Emily had pet cattepillars for a little while.  I would walk into the mudroom and see her with 10 of them crawling all over her arms and legs.  She loved how they tickled.

We spent a day at Living History Farms.  Miriam is playing "teacher" and has just called the primer class (Emily) to the front to recite lessons.

Emily loves reading when she is supposed to be napping.  Luckily, one often leads into the other.  On a funny note, yesterday Emily wanted to buy some screen time but all she had was a dollar so I told her we would need to break the dollar before she could buy the 20 minutes she wanted.  She promptly grabbed her dollar and started ripping it up.  Oops.  Not what I intended.

Jonathan went on his annual walkabout.  He loved it as usual.

Isabelle now has her own pigeons.  She is such a responsible child.  She went out to give them fresh water twice a day every single day of winter.  She pays for all of their food and equipment herself.  She is looking forward to when we will help her build a nice pigeon loft this summer.  Below, she and Miriam are holding "Tanner and Tucker."  They are now a mated pair and Isabelle is anxiously awaiting their two little eggs to hatch.  They are flying roller pigeons (tricks in the air).  She also has "Flippy and Floppy", another mated pair who do tricks on the ground.

 Here is the promised picture of the hay feeder I built using plans from Premier One Supplies' website.  Our Galloway cow is now fat because she basically stood at the feeder the entire winter eating.

For Halloween we were Knights and Ladies (Miriam hates princesses). 

Jonathan was David's squire and Zachary was the page.

 Miriam's Birthday

Jonathan surprised me with tickets and a hotel room to go see the Time Out for Women in Kansas City.  It was so nice to relax and have some time to think and ponder.  It may become my version of an annual walkabout.

The kids were all straining to see each other play the computer, so Jonathan piped it out to the TV and set up benches to sit on.  Luckily the keyboard and mouse are wireless.  They thought it was great to see their "Cool Math" games on the big screen.

In December Jonathan ended up having a kidney stone and had to go to the hospital.  It was his first stone so it was scary since we didn't know what was going on.  Luckily, he passed it the same day.  In the picture he is happy to finally be doped up on pain meds.

The kids love it when I crochet things for them, so here I'm finishing up a blanket I made for Isabelle for Xmas.  Miriam and Emily got purses.  Jonathan got slippers, and poor David and Zahcary are still waiting on their blankets.

The whole family chipped in to make Santa cookies.  Jonathan also made a lot of Almond Rocha candy and caramels this year.  He kept craving them.  I was too, but never fulfilled the craving since Jonathan managed to eat entire plate fulls within the first day of making them.  His sweet tooth is strong.

The animals are all escaping from the drizzle by going under the overhang.  You can't quite tell, but they are all there... 2 cows, 8 sheep, a dog and 17 chickens.  Unfortunately, last month Louie decided that ignoring the chickens for a year was enough and that chicken is now yummy.  We only have 8 chickens now.

Making Graham cracker houses.

 Bethlehem night (Xmas Eve)

The were lots of great Xmas presents, but my favorite were the mucking boots my parents bought our kids.  They love them and they have really come in handy.

Jonathan and I built a balance beam for Xmas for the kids to practice their gymnastics.  Unfortunately, a month later most of them decided to quit.  Isabelle is the only one still going, and she has decided to finish out this season and then take a break.

My handsome men.

Zachary's First Birthday

 This is what we look like when we get up at 6am for family scripture study.  Miriam is hiding from the light under the blanket.

  After dealing for a year with a stove that can't keep the right temperature and a microwave with buttons that don't work, we finally replaced them.  Here is the old set. 

And the lovely new set.

Now that the weather has turned beautiful, it's time for hot dogs out on the deck.

Jonathan and I have started working out together every morning before he goes to work.  We are doing Tony Horton's Power 90 and it has worked very well for us.  The girls were quite impressed last night when I was showing them my "guns."  They also go around asking us if we have abs yet.  The only problem with our workouts is that Zachary likes to get involved too.  This is especially difficult when we're doing sit-ups and he collapses onto our tummy.

We did a controlled burn on our front field.  It was a cool experience.  This is after the burn is done, but the field is still smoking.  It greened up beautifully within 1 week.  Couldn't even tell it had been burned at all.

Washing eggs.  Again.

Resting up after a hard day of work.