October

We were busy this month but I guess the holidays tend to do this to you, homemade Ice Cream and Halloween oreos.

 

 and  then our chickens finally decided to start laying eggs.

Then off to the patch we went....

While at the patch little T's inner cowboy came out, it was very intertaining, even the boys from the farm were impressed with his skills.

It takes alot for this little girl to be smiley and happy so this made our trip worth it.
Some friends brought us lots of apples so we decided to share some with the neighbors.

Our boys are getting quite comffy with our surroundings and I was happy that today they played with their new friend "Zack", they played for hours together.

And the month is'nt even over yet.....

September

September has almost gone by, but not with out memories....Remember when we had a groundhog underneath our deck about 5 feet away from our basement door?  Fortunatly for us our neighbor "took care of it".  Have I mentioned we live out in the counrty?  That's just how you do things out here.

We knew we had company when we found this massive pile of dirt by his feet.  This little dude was quite the digger!

Then we finally had our jungle like back yard cleaned and boy was that breath taking!  We had never seen our entire yard without weeds.  The chicken have enjoyed this.  No kids allwed to play back here yet, it's a dirt pit.

 

 Cute boy with his cat looking at the dirt pit.

 

Last but not least one of our chickens started laying eggs this week, it has been the most anticipated event in our house for the last five months.  So much so we can't help ourselves and get the eggs before the kids do, we're on #7 for this week.  We feel so accomplished to have laying chickens, or chicken the others we hope will soon join in.

 

 

 

And that's all folks'!

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

Soccer has officially started and they boys were bursting with excitement
and boy did they have fun. All we care about if the fun aspect of the game
and everything else does not matter, they're just little boys! We all had a good
time and can't wait till the next game! One thing I always forget is how stinky
boys are, I'm gonna have to wash those socks cause they were stiiiinky! It's a
good thing they get bathed nightly I don't think I'd be able to live with then
if not. They even had an after party with the cousin.

First Day of School

First day of 3rd grade and 1st grade. They were so happy and nerveous, they both confessed having trouble sleeping last night, can't blame them when they get that from me. They also asked to be dropped off on their first day, which I gladly did. Can't say I'm totally excited, or totally bummed. If I ever get too sad about my kids growing up I just think to myself: You will have so much fun doing older kids stuff, or your house will be cleaner because they are gone, and they can also clean up better the older they get not to mention they are actually learning hopefully good things. I'm not exactly sure how I feel, all I know is that this is part of life and it makes me sympathize more with the term "empty nester."( and I shall move on before I cry.) This I do know that my house is currently clean and quiet because everyone else is sleeping, and it feels like too many doors have opened up for me all at once and the possibilities are endless.

Day break

The kids loved it. There were no swimming signs, but they were'nt really swimming, they were just splashing their bodies in the water. Days before schools started we headed out with some friends and pretty much took over, we were so glad we went.

Summer Canning

This year we started off right on track actually getting some apricots from a sweet old lady's tree and some apples from my neighbors parents tree, so naturally we were gonna can these gifts. Yesterday we spent the day away cranking out applesauce and I had some good help. Everyone wanted to do it and I'm happy to say that they did most of the work and from the little I did, I'm pretty sore and slept like a baby last night. And they have not complained once, that's how you know you're getting old! So gratefull for others willingness to share. Canning is alot of work but it taste so much better staight from the trees to you tummy.

Summer Yummies!

Troy's face says it all. These were pretty yummy.

pudding pops -- 1 pkg instant pudding, 1 1/2c milk, 2c cool whip. dissolve pudding in milk, whip in cool whip. spoon into 3 oz dixie cups and insert popsicle stick. freeze; This could be made pretty low fat too!!

Yes, we have chickens, but no eggs yet.

The girls have not started laying eggs just yet, we got them just after Easter so they are still not producing anything for us. We are expecting anxiously, in fact we can hardly wait! The kids loved the baby chicks, we got them at 24 hours of age and they were perfect fluff balls and tiny too. Baby animals are some of the most lovely things to be around. We started with 8, we are down to 7 we've already had a racoon encounter and let me tell you that my next purchase will be a shot gun! They are very mild and eat alot! They do have names, but the girls keep on changing their mind and I can't keep up with them for now we call them the chickadees.

Troy's is my favorite choice and he has not budged, he's is called screwdriver, because of it's markings he said, she's an Americauna and I can't wait for those green eggs! Trey's chicken name is Yellow and it has always been the straight black one she is the most tame because he can't seem to ever want to put her down. I'm thrilled that the kids love animals, I grew up around animals and it was great, I'm glad they're like me but we're still working on Grant.

We are back!

Once again I find myself coming back. It seems that I can't make up my mind, but I have better intentions for my new start up. I have decided that it is much easier to do this than to cut and paste pictures of the fam, so for family history purposes I am committing to blogging again! Not much to add, i think I've forgotten how to use blogger so there will be some relearning to do and I'm not even gonna try to catch up from the last 2 years. I love my children and I love where we are at in their different stages of life and I really want them to have this for themselves and for the generations to come. I'm sure that by the time these "generations" come along I will be dead and they will be fascinated by the stone age technology Abuelita Olson used and how awesomely, cooler, easier technology they will have, I'm also going to include Grant this time around and have him post some and see what we can come up with this next time around. So I'm excited to share with you all.