Country Living on the Farm

5 Years Old!!

2012-01-29T09:29:00.003-06:00

****Should have been posted on Sunday****

Today is Titus's 5th birthday! I just can't believe my second born is already 5!! WOW!! He is so excited about his birthday. He came down this morning into our room with the biggest grin on his face and said, " I'M 5!!"
It was so cute! Then he got birthday phone calls from his great grandma and from his Grammy!

Unfortunately his little brother has to stay home from church with a bad cough. But he got to go with big sis and Daddy to church.

At five years old, Titus is an active little guy. He is still taking speech lessons to help him make some of his sounds better. He is hard to understand when he is talking, especially when he is excited. He is ready to go to Kindergarten though! And is very excited about it!

He likes rockets.
He likes riding his bike (and I even let him ride his bike from speech class, to his grandparents house!)
He is picky about his clothes. He doesn't like tags rubbing him. He only likes certain "church pants". He will not wear sweaters.
He gets along well with his sister but him and his brother kind of butt heads a lot.
He likes to run.
He only wears his cowboy boots that he got for Christmas.
He eats cereal every morning for breakfast.

Matt asked him a few questions to see his 5 year old answers!! Here they are:

Q:What is your favorite color?
A:Orange

Q: What is your favorite food?
A: Biscuits & Gravy and oranges from a can (He likes the mandarin oranges but not fresh ones, just canned)

Q: What is your favorite TV show?
A: Caillou

Q: What is your favorite movie?
A: Tom and Jerry

Q: What is your favorite restaurant?
A: Oh, that's a good one! Pizza Hut, well maybe Subway

Q: What do you want to do when you grow up?
A: firefighter or just like you (he was referring to Matt)

Q: Who is your best friend?
A: Keegan and Andy (both are his uncles)

Q: What games do you like to play?
A: Freeze tag

Q: If you could go anywhere right now, where would you go?
A: On vacation. Where? Tablerock Lake

Q: How old will you be when you get married?
A: 10 or 25

Someone Got my Camera

2012-01-05T08:29:00.001-06:00

Apparently Lillie got ahold of my camera. And Titus thought he should be extra silly.

Silly silly boy.

Funny faces.

Oh and why don't we just get a shot of some hand sanitizer. That would make a nice photo.

And some shots of the nativity scene.

And Titus holding baby Jesus. Pretty cute actually!

Zethan likes baby Jesus also! This is just such a sweet little picture!

Veer Christmas

2012-01-04T20:40:00.000-06:00

For the Veer extended side, all the great grandkids plus the grandkids who are younger, put on a little skit. Natalie organized everything and made these cute little headbands for the kids to wear. The Veer uncles read the Christmas story and then the kids would go up to the front to act out the story. There was also some singing and music led by some of the other cousins. It was a fun time!

Titus was a little donkey. And per his usual, he did NOT want to have those "silly" ears on. I had to force him wear them out into the main room and then when it came time to go up to the front he would not go up there. I tried pulling him up there and he was just so stubborn. I guess he really wanted to act out his character. He finally went up there with Matt but only if he didn't have to have the ears on.

Lillie was an angel again.

Titus took refuge on Christopher's lap. He knew Christopher wouldn't make him go up there in the ears.

Lillie and Daddy holding hands. She loves her daddy.

Zethan sitting with Mama.

Daddy showing Zethan that it really isn't that bad to wear the baby cow ears.

Lillie with some of her cousins acting out the play. Lillie is always curious about who is her cousin or "just a friend" or whatever, so trying to explain to her that some of them are her first cousins once removed and some are her second cousins was a little confusing. She always enjoys when her Kansas City cousins are in town though!

Christmas Program

2012-01-04T08:18:00.002-06:00

The kids had their church Christmas program back on the 18th of December. Titus was a little shepherd boy, Lillie was an angel and Z just had a song to sing. I am very glad that I got at least this picture of Titus in his outfit. At the dress rehearsal the week before he refused to practice. When I got there to pick him up and found out he hadn't practiced he told me it was because he would look too silly in his costume. We told him that if he didn't go up and sing for the real thing, he wouldn't get his treat bag that they hand out to all the kids at the end of the service. You know the brown bags full of candy and an apple and an orange.

He did go up and sing Away in a Manger with the youngest kids, but he was supposed to go back up on the stage with some older boys then too as the shepherds in the field. Right as they were about to go on the stage he came running back to me in the pew. I guess the poor little guy gets stage fright. He was worried he wouldn't get his treat bag, but I told him since he went up the first time, that counted =)

Zethan holding a little lamb. He was supposed to go up with the 2-4 year olds and sing Away in A Manger too but of course he was not about to go up on stage either and ran back to where Matt was sitting. Oh well, there is always next year I guess.

But of course miss Lillie did her part wonderfully. She loved being an angel with her friends and singing lots of songs! She just loved all the Christmas songs this year! And actually in her Sunday School, they learn quite a few hymns and she always enjoys singing hymns with us all year!

Fall Pictures

2011-11-22T13:55:00.002-06:00

Lillie and Titus got to be the models for a one-on-one teaching class Gina Dreher was doing. Gina does A-M-A-Z-I-N-G work! I loved every single one of the pictures we got!

I wish Zethan could have gotten in on some of these amazing photos but at least now I have some super awesome pics of Lillie and Titus!

Titus was just as cute as can be. Gina asked him to lay out on his belly and he got this puzzled look on his face and said, "No way!" Then Gina showed him that she meant like this (the above photo) and then he realized that that was okay! I'm not sure what he thought she meant, but he wasn't about to do it!

Lillie liked posing for the pictures. Some of her smiles were kind of fake. Not like her big usual smiles but she still did good! She just looked so grown up!

Thank you to Gina for letting us help you out!

A Few of my Favorites

2011-11-15T18:03:00.003-06:00

A few of my favorite things right now...

A hand held milk frother. Yes it may be just another kitchen gadget but it sure turns an ordinary cup of hot chocolate into a delightfully fun treat! And it is the lowest price of most frothers out there. You can also use it to froth milk up to make lattes and other yummy things! Zethan likes drinking the warm frothed milk on its own! Purchased here.

And if you have never tasted Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate and you are a hot chocolate drinker, you are missing out. I only bought this here because I had a gift card, so I didn't feel as guilty spending so much. I will be trying my hand at making up my own when I run out. Which won't take too long.

Now for something fun and easy to take along in your purse. Or pocket. Or glove compartment. Or wherever. Ice breaker Sours. They are delicious. Especially the mixed berry, strawberry, cherry ones! But really they are all good. Matt loves them. And is known to steal them from my purse on occasion.

Another item for the kitchen. Mugs. In teal. And yellow. Perfect for my kitchen! I bought mine individually at Target but really who couldn't use more mugs! And a decent price. Only a couple bucks a piece. They sell them in sets of 8 online, not by themselves. What I really love about them is that there is plenty of room for your coffee, (or hot chocolate) and your creamer!

So that's all I can think of right now!

Bean Bales

2011-10-18T10:54:00.002-05:00

This is a catch-up post. Because of the crazy hot, dry summer, the soybeans didn't make much this year. We decided to bale them up instead. It was an exciting day!

Joel Mac, who swathed and baled them for us, came over at about 4 in the morning to get started. I guess that is the time when the dew point and the temperature were closest, so the bales would go together the best. And praise the Lord, there were many more bales than we anticipated! Matt couldn't keep up bringing them in from the field!

We had three stacks like this of bean bales! Amazing! God really provided, even in a time of drought.

Meal Ideas {e-mealz}

2011-10-17T15:59:00.003-05:00

As every wife/mother knows, it is easy to get into a rut when coming up with new meals for your family. Lately, I have been in such a boring slump with meals. Macaroni & cheese. Hamburgers. Spaghetti. Pancakes. A few different soups. The same few things over and over.

So in an attempt to get a little more creative I subscribed to e-mealz after seeing a review of it on another blog. I know it may seem a little silly to pay someone to tell me what food to make. But sometimes, you just need that extra little help to get going. You know?

For me, part of coming up with meals, is that I don't always have the groceries on hand when I think of a meal to make. Or when I was at the grocery store, I didn't have a crucial ingredient written on my list And being 25 minutes from a grocery store, I can't just run in to get stuff for one meal.

E-mealz, let's you choose what grocery store you use, then comes up with weekly meal plans (based on sales) and has a grocery list for you. That part is what I really love. (And for only $1.25 a week, they do the work of planning) They tell me what to get and what to make. So easy! And now, we will have a little more variety in what we eat.

So hopefully it goes well. I will let you know!

Sweet Potato Harvest

2011-09-27T12:47:00.005-05:00

Today we decided to dig up our sweet potatoes! We had a grand time digging them and laughing at their funny shapes and how HUGE they were. It really was pretty funny! I had no idea we had let them get that big!
Here are some of the shapes! One of them looked like a heart. Not a cutesy little heart. But like a heart that came out of a body. Ha!
So funny!
Titus helped me get them harvested. I dug them up and he pulled them out of the dirt and put them in the wagon. That wagon was heavy!

So they are out "curing" for a couple of hours in the sun. I am just pretending like I know what I am doing. But really, this is the first year that I grew them. I should have taken pictures of the patch before I dug them up. The vines were everywhere and it was kind of hard to find where to dig. And I ended up chopping some of them in half. Oops. I think I'll use flags to mark where to dig next year.

But as far as I could read on the good old google search, it shouldn't matter that they are so huge?? In fact, as long as they weren't rotting, some info I found, said that the longer you leave them in the ground the more nutrients they have? Don't know if it is true or not? I guess we'll find out if they at least taste okay. I sure hope so!

Quick Update

2011-09-02T12:51:00.004-05:00

It has been kind of busy around here lately. This is the start of something new for our family this year. I am homeschooling Lillie! So we have been a little more busy, getting schooling done and figuring out how our days should go. I just saw a logo on someone's website that said,

"I homeschool. What's your superpower?"

It is going pretty well. Today finished the third week. It really has been going quickly. She of course misses her friends from school but is looking forward to Awana starting and now she enjoys Sunday School even more than she already did!

She enjoys playing the part of art teacher to Titus. Haha. He doesn't seem to mind too much when she instructs him in the fine points of drawing hearts =)

We got to go on a walk this morning while it was still cool out and we are very much looking forward to the cooler temps predicted in a few days! I foresee spending much time playing outside on those days!

Hopefully I will get a few more posts up than I have been lately. But I just wanted to drop a little note to say we hadn't disappeared forever from my blog =)

The Coolest Pool Ever

2011-08-01T16:14:00.003-05:00

Here are a few pictures of the pool! The kids absolutely loved it! The slide was a HUGE hit!

Titus sliding off sideways was an accident. He definitely just wanted to go straight ahead, sitting on his bottom. Not really sure how he got turned around.

Now that is more like what he likes =)

Matt diving out the end.

And this was Lillie's favorite way to go down! She loved it!

Matt only tried this once with Zethan. After that, if someone would take him up to the slide, Zethan would say "Sit on you lap. Sit on you lap."

This is how he usually came down. We would hold him up out of the water. Then he really enjoyed it.

And here is another view of the pool. It kind of had another part to it where bigger kids or adults could play around so they wouldn't be in the way of the slide. Matt really liked the landscaping of the rocks for the sides of the pool. And the little water fall there in the picture had a little bench you could sit on under it!

Out on the Lake

2011-07-30T21:12:00.004-05:00

When we got to Tablerock, we got right in the water! It felt so great getting into the water. But it has been so incredibly hot there as well that the water was almost too warm! But we'll take it!

I am so glad that Titus finally got over his fear of the water! Last year there is no way he would have been swimming around like that. And even at the beginning of this trip he would not jump into the water. He was cured of that by that end though!

Lillie, Zethan and I riding the jet-ski! This was Zethan's second ride. On his first ride when we got there, he bumped his chin really hard on the plastic part in the front and gashed it open. So we were glad that he felt okay to get back on!

And there is the little man hanging out on the deck. I think this was a picture that Matt took while I was out on the jet-ski!

And then there is Lillie-not afraid in the least of the water. She had a blast jumping into the water. Matt would do back flips off the dock, so she would jump backwards too. She couldn't bring herself to try an actual flip but it was cute to see her halfway try to do whatever her daddy did! She even tried (emphasis tried) to ski! But that is another post!

Jumping and more jumping!

That is Matt with Titus on the Jet-ski!

They had a good time riding together!

Now we are out on the boat. The kids really liked the boat! Lillie and Titus especially because whenever there would be down time they would get to jump out into the water and swim around!

And Kalisa had some bubbles on the boat so while the boat was driving they would hold the wand up and the bubbles would go everywhere! So fun! But then Titus dumped half the bubble solution on himself. So Uncle Gary's solution for cleaning him off....

Dunking him in and out of the water over the side of the boat. It was pretty funny! You can't really see what is going on in the picture. You can kind of see Titus's hand on the side on the boat. But that is Gary and Matt dunking him.

Titus actually thought it was pretty funny too!

While waiting for the boat to get tied up when we were done, Titus decided to pretend he was wake boarding. So there is is standing in the wake board boots in the boat. Someday Titus. Someday.
Matt is really good at wake boarding and he also did the slalom ski. There was a little slalom ski course set up out in the middle of the lake and it was so fun to see Matt do it. He would tell you that he couldn't do it very well, but he really did awesome! I didn't have my camera out while he was getting pulled behind the boat but my sister-in-law Rebekah I think has some pictures so when I get them from her I will have to post them!

Cliff Jumping

2011-07-29T08:55:00.004-05:00

We just got home from a Tablerock vacation last night and I have lots of pictures to post! But I wanted to post these first. Because it was pretty much awesome =)

Matt and I went cliff jumping. And yes, I am holding my nose and yes I am screaming like a little girl. The whole way down! But it was so high up there! I just couldn't help but scream! That feeling of free falling like that is crazy! And you drop so quickly!

Matt's Uncle Gary took us over to the cliffs in his boat and then the kids stayed in the boat with him while we climbed up there. Zethan was pretty nervous for us. And Lillie started to come with us and I asked her if she was going to jump too and she said she was. Then I pointed up the where we were going and asked her again, and then she said, "No way, not from up there!" (I would not have let her anyway had she wanted to-maybe when she is a little bigger)

It was definitely over 30 feet high up there! I'm not sure I would have gone through with it if Matt wasn't up there with me. It looks high from the boat but then when you get up there and look down! Oh man! But Tablerock Lake is so deep that there wasn't really too much to worry about. The boat had a depth reader on it and it was, if I remember right, about 50 or 60 feet deep where we jumped. But then it just drastically gets deeper and deeper towards the middle of the lake. Well over 100 feet deep!

Matt went up for a second jump. I didn't get a very good picture of him though. I think I am in need of a nice camera. I got the picture up above and then the soonest I could get another picture is the splash in the picture below!

Oh well! I guess we'll just have to do it again next time we are there! And next time I will be keeping my legs straight as I go into the water!

Hay Balin' Fun

2011-07-22T15:19:00.001-05:00

The hay out in our pasture got baled. And that means the kids LOVE to go out there!

Lillie brought along her notebook to count how many bales there were.

This is our ride. And the only reason I am wearing a dress and am barefoot is because I was working in the house getting supper put away and the kids said I just had to come ride, right that second. =) Who was I to crush their hopes and say no =)

Watching the baler.

Daddy shot =) I love those =)

They thought it was the greatest watching the bale plop out of the back of the baler.

And then it would get a little shove from the arm and roll away.

Standing up on a bale so they can get a better view.

And here is the part where I bore you with pictures galore, but! it is the kids favorite part of going on four wheeler rides. When they get to get down and RUN!!

Even Zethan thinks it is the greatest! His little legs are already running before he hits the ground.

But he needed to stop and make sure we were actually coming.

Lillie made it to the bales. Titus is coming in second.

Lillie just keeps running...

and running...

and running... But what is this. The boys are having technical difficulties.

Big brother will comfort you Zethan. While Lillie keeps running...

It's okay Zethan...

There you go, wipe your snotty nose on Titus. That'll make ya feel better.

Oh the poor baby. What's the matter.

Sissy will help you now.

Okay, never mind. Back to running.

Here we go running again! The boys are off!

Wait, I think I ate too much.

The end.

The actual 4th of July

2011-07-21T14:53:00.001-05:00

We got to go to a very cool fireworks display put on by a cousin of a friend of ours. They go ALL OUT for the 4th! It was so neat! The kids first enjoyed some desserts.

And Lillie and Titus and Zethan all fought over who got to push this little miss around in her stroller. This is the daughter of our friends Jaron and Amy. She is the cutest little thing! All dolled up in red, white and blue.

Here is the beginning of the fireworks show. They started out pretty close to where we were sitting and shot them out over this little lake on their property.

It even had sandy beaches. The kids thought it was great.

Playing around on the little wall that keeps the sand in.

Some more friends and family enjoying the show!

And Titus watching them from his comfy spot in the sand! And for some reason I made them take baths before we left home. They definitely got a second one when they got home again.

And Matt watching the show.

Here are some pictures I tried to get of the awesome fireworks that they shot out over the lake. They would go into the water then pop back up and some would float like this with little fountains and fire and some would actually shoot back up into the sky.

It was hard to get a picture that really showed how awesome they were. I had never seen any like them.

And all the different colors and everything were so neat! The fireworks were set to music/talking as well. Very impressive!

And after the show there were giant sparklers! The kids thought they were great!

Trying out the night setting on the camera.

All in all it was a very fun day and weekend! We are blessed to have so much family around and friends who let us join their parties!

Family 4th of July

2011-07-20T14:21:00.003-05:00

Better late than never, right? I haven't kept up with posting very well, so now I have several to post all at once. Here is what happened the next day, after the last wedding post. We had my immediate family over for fireworks. All 24 of us.

Zethan and Caden fighting over the wagon. These two boys sure know how to push each other's buttons.

Matt's cheesy pose.

My brother, Konnor, wanting to know if we can start lighting fireworks yet. He is the one who loved lighting them the most. (Notice the two little boys still fighting over the wagon in the background.)

My brother Kylan is standing there in the red shirt and my two brothers-in-law, Austin and John are telling big stories there in the chairs =)

Okay, you two, enough fighting.

There, that's better. Caden, pull your cousin around =)

Everyone lined up just waiting for it to get dark. We did do a few smoke bombs and some snakes and a few parachute fireworks while we waited.

Everyone is so enthralled!

I was in charge of the lighting of the fireworks but Konnor really really really wanted to help out. He is kneeling there in the red and white shirt lighting something. And again, if you notice in the background, I think it so cute, Grammy and Papa holding the little ones! My mom had Zethan and my Dad has Jessa, the second to youngest in the group.

And they are all watching some snakes grow there in the rocks.

We had a great evening and it even cooled off that day! So that was nice! And for the most part no one got hurt but one of the very last fireworks got knocked over and shot of fiery ball right at Kinsley's thigh! He hooped and hollered but was fine! Pretty funny actually!

And the cutest quote of the night goes to Everet, who, after seeing some fireworks shoot up and then noticing a star in the sky said, "Hey look, a firework got stuck in the sky!"

July 2, 2011

2011-07-12T15:49:00.003-05:00

This is a post about Andrew & Rebekah's wedding day! I didn't really take very many pictures, running after an energetic 2 year old doesn't allow for pictures real easily.

We started out the day by getting our hair done! Lillie was getting a very fancy up-do! Unfortunately she is a very picky little girl and hardly cracked a smile the whole time.

Please note the sour face on Lillie as she is looking in the mirror. Apparently it was not looking like what she had in her mind that it would look like.

I made her let me take a picture of it when we got home, but she was just crying and crying and did NOT like it so I told her I would try and fix it a little so she would like it.

Now that's better. She is all smiles! I let it hang down a little and thankfully it was so curly that it was very forgiving to work with. I felt bad for all the work Corie did to make it look so beautiful and then Lillie didn't even like it!

Also Lillie got to pick out some clip on earrings for the wedding. She thought that was great! And her pretty shoes are from Target. Her dress I ordered from ebay! Ha! It was only like $28 with shipping.

Titus hanging out with Nat and Garrett. He was having fun!

Lillie sitting with Grandma & Grandpa Stucky, waiting for pictures.

The first of only 2 pictures I got with just Matt and I. Period. All day. Any camera. Sad.

Zethan hanging out snacking on fruit snacks while waiting for pictures. You would have never known he had been sick all night with a bad reaction to a cashew.

And the second and last picture Matt and I got together. I was really hoping to get a good picture with him. With him being all dressed up and I had a new dress and Corie did my hair as well. But it was just so busy of a day that it didn't happen.

Grandpa Veer is holding Lillie and her cousin. Actually, technically, her first cousin once removed.

And a picture from the ceremony.

Then a shot of the boys as we drove from the wedding to the reception. They were passed out!
And that was the last of the pictures I got of the day. None from the reception. I can't wait to see all the pictures from her photographer. The ones I have seen so far are GORGEOUS!

Sunday Morning Drive

2011-06-28T22:00:00.001-05:00

These are some pictures of the kids on the way to church one Sunday morning.

Lillie had let me put her hair in hot rollers so it turned out cute! And then Titus wanted to "do" his hair with hair gel.

And this was Zethan's hair before I gave him a hair cut.

Popular Girl

2011-06-21T20:22:00.003-05:00

We watched some cousins the other evening and one little girl was the center of attention.

They all were fighting over who got to hold baby Jessa.

And get their picture taken with her.

And play with her while she was sitting in the bumbo.

But of course my baby still wanted to be my baby. =)

(That is what he was doing the whole time while I was trying to take pictures. Other than the ones he was in, he was hanging on my back)

Lost Dog (Now Found)

2011-06-15T15:11:00.003-05:00

Our littlest dog, Copper, has been missing for a couple of days. He had somehow disappeared during the night and wasn't around at all on Tuesday. We walked up and down the road, looking in the ditch, thinking maybe he had been hit.

Then we thought maybe since he is a small dog, a coyote got him. Or possibly some one just decided to take him. We had NO idea what happened. Then today, our neighbors (who live about a mile away) called and asked if we were missing a little brown dog! They brought him right over! We were all so excited! I had told the kids just this morning, after Matt had gone around on the four-wheeler looking, that I didn't think Copper was coming home.

It is so strange that he went away that far. And actually, he showed up at someone else's house that was another mile away, and they called our neighbors to see if it was their dog. It wasn't but they decided to go pick it up and see if they could find its owners. We are so thankful that they took the time to find us instead of just taking him to the humane society or something!

Then after all that and we came back inside from getting him home, I found these papers along with another 5 just like the middle one. Lillie had, all on her own made up these little posters. We never even talked about making signs or anything. The top says "Did you see ar dog?" And then notice the label it says "Boy" on it.

And on the bottom of the last paper, it has a picture of two animals and she has them labeled-Cioty (Coyote) and Coppre (Copper) and underneath it says "Did you see a ciotes et him?"

I thought they were just adorable!

We still are very curious as to why he wound up a couple of miles away. If something chased him or he chased something? Who knows. He has never run off before. Hopefully he won't again!

Sandwich Monster

2011-06-13T23:32:00.002-05:00

Daddy had a little visitor ride in the tractor with him while he was planting. The little visitor stole his daddy's sandwich while his daddy was filling the tank

And this little visitor thought he was pretty funny, eating his Daddy's sandwich.

So if this little guy comes to visit you-watch out. Or you just may find yourself with your lunch =)

Weekend Wedding

2011-06-11T15:56:00.002-05:00

Matt stood up in a friend's wedding this past weekend and we got to make a weekend of it! My sister Krista kept the boys for two nights for us! Thank you! And Lillie stayed with her grandma and Papa the first night and then rode up with them for the wedding. She LOVES anything to do with weddings! That first picture above is when Lillie finally got to see daddy after being away the night before. She was so excited to see him all dressed up =)

They had a dance at their reception and that was the first time we had been to a wedding with a dance and Lillie was very intrigued. She REALLY REALLY wanted to have a dance with her daddy! They swayed together for one song and then we just let Lillie hang out on the dance floor while we watched. I think she picked up the chicken dance pretty quickly =)

They stopped for a little to get a picture. Lillie already looks so tired in this picture but she kept going strong all the way even back to our hotel that night and we didn't get back until midnight! She very much enjoyed herself! We all had a good time and it was fun to get away without the kids for at least a night!

The Hotel we stayed in had a pool so we let Lillie swim that next morning and then we ate breakfast at Panera. Her daddy let her choose a brownie for her breakfast. She got halfway through it and then wanted a plain bagel so I let her get one. I didn't think she would eat much of it but she polished off the WHOLE bagel! She was one hungry girl =) I guess all that dancing and swimming really worked up her appetite =)

Then we got back early afternoon today and I went to pick up the boys from Krista's. I was very happy to see them! They had had a good time! And now we are home just chillin, doing laundry from the weekend and some dishes I didn't get done before we left. Zethan is back to being my constant sidekick. And Matt is back in the wheat field helping bring in the harvest. I loved getting away but I also love the life we have here at home! The kids are already anxious to ride in the combine!

Happy Birthday

2011-06-06T09:47:00.002-05:00

Today is Matt's Birthday! I love you Matthew so much! We got to celebrate his birthday at lunch with his family. (And then we went out with friends in the evening) He got lots of fun gifts from his parents and siblings! And a very yummy dessert from his mom!

Lillie took the collage of photos before we left for church. On the last picture I told her, "One more picture." And then I kissed him. She was so cute, she just grinned like "Oh brother" but took the picture =)

We are going to be baking him a cake sometime today and have a nice supper! The kids have been coloring and cutting and thinking of all kinds of little things to make for him for his birthday =)

Butterfly Chandelier DIY

2011-06-01T21:05:00.006-05:00

This is the project I have been working on today! A Butterfly Chandelier for Lillie's new room! I am so excited about finally getting to decorate a girl's room again!

I just want to start out by saying though, that I used this DIY tutorial for this project. I am in no way trying to take credit for coming up with this idea!

I just changed things a tiny bit. I found a big embroidery hoop at Goodwill so just used that. It was only a 14" instead of an 18". But that's okay!

Then I took some fabric and ripped it into strips. I used a solid aqua color and a pink stripe fabric the same as the curtains in her room.

After I got a big pile I cut them into about 10" pieces.

Then started tying them onto the hoop. I put the wire on the hoop before I started tying.

Almost done with the tying! I just tied a regular old knot on there.

Then I punched out the butterflys. I did about 100 of the light pink color and about 60 of the white butterflies.

I used some left over ties for the "hangers" of the chandelier. Then I hooked it on to my ironing board while I strung the butterflies and tied each string on as I went. (Like the tutorial shows to do).

And I would have taken a picture of stringing the butterflies but I kind of had my hands full =)

So here is my finished product! The pictures really don't show it very well, but I think it turned out very cute!

I am loving how Lillie's room is coming together. I will do a post on that when it is all done and put together!

Splish Splash, takin' a mud bath

2011-05-30T13:57:00.003-05:00

Some pictures from the rain we had a little over a week ago. The kids loved playing in the water.

The big puddles must have seemed so huge to the kids!

Lillie and Titus running around in the grass!

Then they moved to the field and found the REAL mud =)

These photos are all courtesy of their Daddy! I love it when he takes pictures of them! They always turn out so cute!

They just had so much fun!

Even Copper was having a good time =)

Snow Boots in May?

2011-05-28T15:01:00.002-05:00

"Zethan, why are you wearing those boots?"

"Bee-tuz"

"Because why?"

Bee-tuz why?"

Yes, Zethan because why? Why are you wearing them?"

"Bee-tuz me like 'em"

He is just talking and talking more and more! I didn't actually expect an answer and there he went and answered me!

Table for Nine

2011-05-18T10:00:00.001-05:00

We had some family over for supper to celebrate Lillie being done with Kindergarten. It was so fun and relaxed. This could easily because a last day of school tradition! We had sandwiches on buns, chips, homemade blueberry muffins, brownies, pop, and for dessert we had slush. This slush is pretty much the best thing ever. My mom made it growing up every summer. It was always something we looked forward to and a sure sign of summer!

I am not very good at making plans ahead of time, so just the day before I was calling people inviting them to come over. Of course then that makes it difficult to have very many people make it since they have their own things going on. And one of Lillie's grandmas sick too, so that was a bummer. But it was so fun to all be able to crowd around the table outside and just hang out. And it was a beautiful evening, just a tad chilly, especially after eating slush! But really if your plates aren't blowing away in the wind, it is a nice day for spring!

Natalie came and she brought a cute little gift basket for Lillie. She is the best at putting gifts together and making them look so cute and fancy! Lillie loved it! She also knows just what to get her little niece! Also their grandpa came (Matt's dad) and their Grandpa & Grandma Stucky came. If you haven't figured it out by now, they are the ones who lived here on the farm before we moved in. And they are the ones that live at the end of town where Titus rode his bike to yesterday. (About 1 3/4 ish miles from here)

Hello!

Daddy and daughter. Lillie was trying to make a silly face while her daddy was squeezing her.

So he put his hat on her and she was trying to make it look like she didn't like it, but we all know how much little girls love it when their daddy's goof around with them! She loves her daddy!

And of course there is Zethan being the ultimate goof ball. He was really enjoying his brownie.

Kindergarten Promotion

2011-05-17T20:44:00.002-05:00

Lillie had her last day of school today. All the little kindergarten kids were so cute! They all stood in line as they waited for their name to be called.

Then their teacher would do this fun little pinky shake, fist bump and then give them a hug. But Lillie would only go for the hug. Silly girl.

All the kids lined up with their awards. Each of their certificates had a character trait award on them. She didn't announce them all aloud, but Lillie's was for Joyfulness. I thought that was very special for her.

Lillie and Mrs. Burkart. She was a super great teacher for Lillie and I know that Lillie will miss her and all of her friends over the summer. We'll have to schedule some play dates!

Also, for a fun little treat for Lillie's last day of school I let her ride her bike to school. Titus and I each rode our bikes along with her. But Titus still has training wheels so it is kind of rough going on those dirt roads. I told Lillie that if she wanted she could just go on ahead so she wouldn't be late. She got to school in probably 15 or 20 minutes. (Titus and I took about 40)

Titus was ready for a break by the time we got to the edge of town and didn't want to go those next 3 or 4 blocks to the school. So I told him he could stay at Grandma & Grandpa Stucky's house while I went to make sure that Lillie actually made it to school. So he pulled up into their driveway (they live right on the end of town) and I kept going with Zethan in his bike seat behind me. Lillie had made it to school and I saw her little bike parked in the bike rack. So I headed back to pick Titus up. He was inside happily eating marshmallows and playing. He didn't really want to make the trip all the way back home so I told him I would ride back and then pick him up in the Tahoe when we came back to school for Lillie's promotion. As I went back outside, Grandma came out with me and told me that she didn't know how long Titus had been waiting outside at their house, but she had gone outside to do something and heard crying in the front yard, and there was Titus just looking back and forth and crying. I guess he didn't realize I meant he could go IN their house.
Just as she was telling me this, then Titus came out and I asked him why he was so sad when he got there. He said it was because he thought I was never coming back! Oh, poor little boy! I felt so bad. I never even heard him crying or thought twice about him not just going up to the door and ringing the door bell! I told him I was going to check on Lillie and would be right back but he must not have heard or understood me!
But all was made right with a few marshmallows and games =)
And I have another little post coming up with pictures from a little party we had for Lillie this evening to celebrate her last day of school!

Just thoughts

2011-05-16T18:36:00.002-05:00

Just a few random thoughts for the day.

Today at Walmart I had some returns to make. I don't especially like making returns. Especially with three kids in tow and definitely not when I walk up and am 4th in line and only one person working at the counter. So anywho, I had been waiting for maybe 10 or 15 minutes. Or maybe not that long, it seemed like awhile though. And finally it was my turn and the lady said the usual, "I can help whoever is next." So I push my ginormous cart up to the counter (you know the two seater kind) with my three kids all complaining about something or other that they didn't think was going their way. As I just get up there, this other lady that had just come a couple of minutes ago, says "Um, I was in line here first. I have been waiting for quite some time and the line is over here not where you were."

Seriously!?! You are going to try and say because I wasn't standing in the exact spot where it says to form a line you are going to complain that you were in line first because I wasn't in the right spot?? Wow.

Anyway, the lady working, just kind of looks at both of us like she wasn't sure what to do. So I just calmly said, "Actually I was here long before she was"And put my stuff up on the counter. Thankfully, nothing else was said about it. So, ya, not really a big fan of Walmart either. I would rather just go to Target, but since I needed to return a couple of things...
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Tomorrow is Lillie's last day of Kindergarten. I am almost more sad about her finishing her first year of school than I was about her starting it. This next year she will be going all day. And she just seems like she is growing up so much. I was pretty sad dropping her off for the last time at noon. (She goes in the morning tomorrow). But I am happy, that we won't have too much of a schedule to work around for the summer. ---------------------------------------------------------------------

Our barn cats have all started to have their kittens. We found a couple of nests of them out in the hay a week or so ago and counted 8 kittens. But then the mama cats moved them and we have only found one of the litters again. At last count this winter when all the cats were gathered around eating I counted 13 adult cats. Crazy!! We don't really feed them that much, just a scoop and whoever gets it, gets it. And now that it is summer time, we only have a handful of adult cats that hang around much. But by the time all of them have their kittens I am sure we will be adding some 15+ to our farm. Oh dear.

Mother's Day

2011-05-09T08:26:00.000-05:00

Mother's Day was so special yesterday! Lillie and Titus had connived together the night before and said they had a plan for Mother's Day. They told me that they had to wake up early and I needed to stay asleep though. Oh and it wasn't a present but they were going to 'do' something.

Then they realized that they were going to need Matt's help but he wasn't going to get home until after they were in bed so Lillie wanted to write him a note. Then she realized she didn't know how to spell some of the words and since I wasn't supposed to know what was going on I told her to call Grammy.

It ended up that the note just said they needed help with Mom's Mother's day present so I could have helped her but oh well.

So Matt woke the kids up that morning and I stayed in bed. I was actually awake but I pretended like I was still sleeping =) After awhile I heard Lillie and Titus start coming in my room so I started to lift my head up and Lillie hollered "No! You can't peek yet!" Then they sat a plate food on the night stand and ran out. Then their daddy told them to go back in and tell me "Happy Mother's Day"! They were so proud of their work and it was just adorable! I loved it! Matt made scrambled eggs and Lillie cut off the tops of strawberries and then also made strawberry milk! I absolutely loved it!

Then before we headed to church I wanted pictures taken with my three munchkins! And Matt took all these cute photos!

And also I didn't have to change any dirty diapers all day! And when I told the kids to go pick out their church clothes that morning, Titus kind of complained and said "You pick them out" But Lillie told him, "She doesn't have to today because it's Mother's Day! We can pick her clothes out!" Then she proceeded to go pick out my under clothes first! Hahaha! It was so cute! Since I get ALL their clothes, it is only logical that if she was going to pick out my clothes, then of course those items go along with it!

Thank you kids and Matt for a super fun Mother's Day!! I love all of so much and I love being Lillie, Titus and Zethan's mommy!!

Spring Program

2011-05-04T09:16:00.002-05:00

Lillie had her Spring Program on Monday night. The first part of the program, the Kindergarteners and the pre-schoolers did a cute little Noah's Ark read-a-long with songs and actions.

Lillie is there in the lion hat on the top row,

They were all so cute up there! And then for the thunderstorm, they would flash the lights and some of the little kids would squeal. (Not scripted) And it was just adorable!

Then the K-4th graders came out and did some songs all together.

Lillie was so excited the have her grandparents there!

In the background there you can see Zethan getting some candy from his Papa. Their Papa almost always has candy for them in his pockets.

It was so fun having a Patriotic theme this time! All the red, white, and blue was very festive!

Kountry Kupboard Celebrates 30 years!

2011-04-11T17:34:00.000-05:00

The first Saturday in April we celebrated my Grandma Nusz's 30th year of having Kountry Kupboard. That is her health food store. She carries organic groceries, snacks, vitamins, candy and other things. Along with a selection of dairy free products and also gluten free products!

The companies she carries in her store sent lots of free goodies for all the customers. We had boxes and boxes of samples.

These first few pictures are of the tables that were set up outside to display all the free samples. And then some of the samples that companies sent, my mom packaged up into baskets to have a drawing.

They even set up a big tent for the sales reps to have tables under to showcase some of their products.

Here is an inside view. As the customers came in there was another table with samples on it and then since it was a party they also could have a piece of cake!

A few of the early customers. See that lady in the black pants checking out? Well at one point while she was there Zethan went up to her and just wiped his snotty nose back and forth on her BLACK pants! Oh. My. Word. So embarrassing!! She didn't even know what to do. She was kind of laughing about it but she kept saying, "Oh my, I, I I've never seen anything like that before" But thankfully she was nice about it!

My Grandpa and Grandma Nusz. Grandma is holding her newest great grand child. My sister's three week old baby Jessa!

And trying to keep the little boys busy, we gave them a bag of jelly beans. Organic jelly beans of course.

Posing by the cake.

Mom and I frantically trying to get some last minute things put together before the hoards of customers arrived.

The one in the pink shirt is my Aunt Charlene. My mom's older sister. And Krista is the one who made the aprons for them all to wear!

And again, trying to keep the boys busy and out of the way. They are playing with legos in the back room.

And Lillie helping out with something. It turned out to be a great day, a little windy, but a great day. No one officially counted but the estimate of customers that day was around 800, I think.
My mom did pretty much all of the planning and organizing and brainstorming. She came up with a bird them and the customers all got a magnetic notepad with a birdie on it and the first 200 or so customers got a kitchen towel with an embroidered birdie and "Kountry Kupboard". I'm sure there were more bird themed things that I am forgetting but it all came together so nicely and it was a fun day to celebrate!

Finally here!!

2011-04-11T14:10:00.002-05:00

Our final calf was finally born early this afternoon! She has been the biggest one for the longest time. We thought maybe she was having twins. But I guess not. Just a big calf!

But since she seemed to be over due, the calf was too big for her. So after letting her go on her own for 30 or 40 minutes, Matt decided to go help her out. In the first picture you can see him sitting behind her pulling a rope he has on the calf's feet. I have a picture that shows it a lot better but it was a little graphic and I wasn't sure what the proper blog etiquette is when it comes to showing too much of that kind of thing =)

Here is one of the older calves, coming by to say hi.

Most of the other calves were just hanging around, waiting to see their new cousin =)

There is the mama and her new baby. In the picture she still needs to clean the baby up and it hasn't gotten to it's feet yet. But it sure is amazing how soon after being born that these calves can get up and walk around. And they know almost right away where to go to find the milk. It just amazes me every time.

So we are very thankful that she chose today to have her calf. A warm day that Matt was actually home. If it had happened anytime in the past two weeks, it would almost be guaranteed that Matt would not have been home. He has been planting corn and we haven't really seen much of him. He would get home well after the kids were in bed and leave before they woke up. He even stayed out until 4 in the morning one night. And midnight was about normal. But they are all done planting and it is so great to have him home today! Lillie and Titus were fighting over him at one point. And then Zethan would chime in, "My daddy!"
We did get to go visit him in the field one afternoon though, and I have some pictures to post from that! They LOVED going to see him!

Just a little Paintin'

2011-03-30T09:13:00.004-05:00

This is what I have been painting in the kids' room. It will eventually be just the boys' room so that is the reason for the "boy" colors =)

The camera doesn't show the true colors real well but you can still see what it looks like!

I am very very pleased with the way it turned out!

I took several days to complete it but it was worth it! The rest of the room is not done though, so whenever it is I'll try to post about it! I won't be doing this on any of the other walls but I have some fun things to do anyway!

Titus thought he wanted his picture taken too. And even though Z isn't looking at the camera he was saying "cheese!" the whole time =)

A day at the Zoo

2011-03-21T19:43:00.006-05:00

That is Konnor by the giant tortoises. He wanted his picture taken EVERYWHERE!

And Lillie got this new little notebook for her birthday from her Aunt Nattie and she wanted to draw all the animals that we saw. So she would plunk right down and draw them as best she could. It was pretty cute!

And we actually got to see the hippos! We were all pretty excited about that. We don't usually see them for some reason.

There is everyone looking at the hippos. We went with Krista and her three kids (the newest one being just a couple of weeks old!) Plus Konnor and Kimalee came along!

Konnor confiscated my camera so he kept telling me to pose. Here I am with Titus and then holding Caden's hand.

And Konnor tried to get a few self portraits in. He was trying to get a picture with a mini wart hog statue.

All the boys by the tiger statue.

Another of Konnor's pictures. The sleeping Tiger.

And this is how Lillie rode a lot of the day. She was having some leg problems today =) Haha! She fell asleep last night with both legs hanging up over her bed safety rail. And apparently she spent most if not all the night that way. This morning it took an hour or two for her to even really be able to stand up and walk. I was a little worried actually but they weren't black or blue or anything. But throughout today she has still complained that they hurt. I guess they are just sore.
And Kimalee actually liked pulling the wagon! Which was a bonus because it would get heavy pulling Lillie in it! But little Kimalee didn't seem to mind at all!If I asked her if she was tired of pulling it she would say it was getting heavy but then she just kept pulling it! It was a HUGE help!

And posing again for Konnor. This time by his favorite- the giraffe. We actually got there just in time for him to go up on the tall platform and feed the giraffes. It was pretty cool to go up there and see the giraffes face to face like that! They are quite the amazing animal!

I really love going to the zoo with the kids and seeing all the animals and learning about new ones. Or learning new facts about animals I already knew about. Such as: tigers are the biggest cat. I thought lions were bigger than tigers but I guess I was wrong!

And I really like the amphibian and reptile building. Looking in each glass container and trying to find the animal that belongs in there. And then seeing the snakes (behind glass of course) and all the different kinds there are. There was one in there that I don't remember ever looking at before that was so cool and weird. If I remember right it was a viper. But it's head was like a triangle and then it has this big fat body and the colors were almost like leaves all over it. It was pretty neat. Can't say that I would like to encounter it out in the yard somewhere but behind the glass it is interesting. And the anaconda! It is so HUGE! It is just amazing! Okay, wow, that is enough about snakes...

So we had a good time and it was a great day for it!

Zethan's Baby Talk

2011-03-19T18:17:00.002-05:00

I thought it might be fun to put a little video on here of Z talking. I know all parents think their kid has the cutest little voice, and I am no exception =)

Cousins

2011-03-19T18:00:00.000-05:00

We visited their cousin Reuben last week, We hadn't seen him for awhile and boy had he grown!!
Titus and Zethan thought he was pretty neat and kept wanting to hold him. But Lillie "didn't want her picture taken".

But Titus would hold him for awhile and then his arm would slowly go lower and lower and he would say How Heavy He Was. It was fun to see him and his mama Mallory again! They just moved into a new house and now they have lots of room! It was so fun to see!

And Reuben is just the cutest little boy! Can't wait for the cousins to spend lots more time together!

Swimming!

2011-03-19T11:48:00.004-05:00

We took the kids swimming for Lillie's birthday! They loved it! That is Lillie in the hot tub. It was a pretty big hot tub so they thought it was fun to swim in it.

I wouldn't let Zethan get in it except for his feet because it was so hot. But one time he decided to try and go in by himself and fell right into the water, but I was there to catch him. And then when Titus got in once, he had that life jacket on but he was first on the little seat that goes around the edge and he didn't realize that the middle was open so he stepped right off the seat and you should have seen the look on his face. He was petrified! I thought he was shocked at the heat but then after he got back to safety he said something about not knowing it was deep. It was pretty funny.

And Lillie really did have fun but unfortunately she was getting sick and I didn't know it, so that is why she wasn't out swimming and playing as much as I thought she would. After not being there very long she said she was ready to go. Then she fell asleep on the way home and when we got home she felt too warm so I took her temperature and sure enough, she had a fever. Poor little girl, getting sick on her birthday. So she stayed home from school yesterday but last night and today she not had a fever and is doing just fine. Maybe a few little sniffles.

And that little Zethan giggled and giggled in the water. He's too young to be out there on his own but as long as we were holding him or he was getting a piggy back ride, he was a happy camper.

It was pretty cute watching him ride around on Daddy's back. Matt would swim under the water and you would just see Zethan zooming along the surface. He thought it was great!

There is Lillie again, waiting for the rest of us to be done swimming.

And you would have never seen Titus out in the middle of the pool by himself with a grin on his face last year. But he finally grew out of being terrified of floating out by himself. He would swim across the pool, climb out the ladder, go around back to the steps, get in and swim across to the ladder, over and over.

Zethan all wrapped up and ready to go.

Six Years

2011-03-17T12:54:00.004-05:00

Six years ago today Lillie joined our family...

Today Miss Lillie turns 6 years old. She is just so excited about her birthday! She is the last one in her afternoon Kindergarten class to turn 6, so she is very glad to finally be as old as the rest of her classmates =)
And she picked out her shirt to wear a few weeks ago! A green shirt so she would avoid getting pinched on her birthday =)

Mommy and daughter! I am so proud of my Lillie girl. She is just learning so much and is a wonderful addition to our family! I can't believe that six years ago today we were just beginner parents-not knowing what was to lie ahead of us! We can hardly even imagine life before our Lillie came into our world!

Her Daddy brought her home donuts this morning after his Bible study and when she woke up Titus gave her a present . Later we are taking her and the boys swimming. And we bought her a new swimsuit and another swimming toy that we will give her before we leave. So far we have kept it a surprise what we are doing! I know she is going to be super duper excited!
And then Sunday for lunch, we will celebrate at her Grandma's house with some friends! She is one lucky lady=)

At the hospital when she was born, the nurses thought we should name her Patricia in honor of St. Patty's Day =) But we stuck with Lillie and I think her name fits her just right!

Lillie Anne Veer- we love so much and look forward to what all the Lord has in store for your life! Have a very Happy Birthday, girlie!

Update

2011-03-14T17:50:00.002-05:00

We had another calf born today. This time though the mama had it all on her own. No help from us! Matt was gone and it was just me, so I am very thankful there were no problems. So that makes the four calves. They are all doing well!

The one that we got as a replacement is still working on bonding with the momma. The cow is getting better at not trying to kick the calf and letting it nurse as long as we have her in a head gate. But otherwise, she doesn't let it nurse. And we got this calf from a small dairy. When the cows at a dairy have calves, it is really just so they produce milk. But if the calf stayed on the cow then it would get all the milk instead of the cow being milked so we can have milk. So that is where we got it from.

We still have four more heifers to have calves so hopefully those births will all go well too!

No photography please

2011-03-10T11:08:00.000-06:00

I came out to get some pictures of mama and baby.

She immediately went to guard her calf.

I guess she didn't want the paparazzi getting any shots =)

Calf Number Three

2011-03-09T21:00:00.002-06:00

Next adventure started Tuesday morning.

(Just a picture of a couple of the heifers)

We could tell that there were several very close but one that was fairly imminent. Matt wanted to get her separated first thing so there wouldn't be any calf stealing going on =) He got her in the barn but we could tell she didn't really want to be there. This mama was one that Matt had pegged as a little bit stand-offish =) So she was in the barn and safe and the others were looking fine. We really wanted to get a replacement calf put on the mama that lost hers. Matt went up to a livestock sale to get a calf and left me in charge. Oh boy. Around noon I needed to take Lillie to school. When I got home I noticed that there was a heifer in the pen where the bull is kept. I first thought that one had escaped from the barn but I didn't see any hole in the walls or anywhere that she would have gotten out. But when I went to the barn, the mama in labor had sure enough broke through a poorly hung door. The door had just kind of swung back in place though so I couldn't tell from outside that she had gotten through it. So I opened it back up and tried to corral her into the open door. Well, she was having none of it and it is extremely difficult to get a cow to go where you want it to by yourself, when that place you want it to go, it does NOT want to go to. So I was running all around in the MUDDY mucky pen trying to get it in the barn. I was wearing Matt's mud boots because I had yet to get myself some. They were a mile too big and one got sucked off in the mud and I ended up running around in the muck with my sock on! Lovely.

(This is a picture of the Bull and of course Matt in the background)

She never did go in the barn for me so I didn't want to leave her with the bull so I opened the gate for her to go back in with the other heifers. Well miss heifer #86 (they have ear tags) decided to chase this heifer in labor all around and push her and shove her into the corner and everywhere else. For some reason she was not being nice. And I knew that wouldn't be good for her to have her calf with that #86 bothering and pestering her. So once again, I am out there trying to get a cow to go somewhere she doesn't want to go. All the other heifers (6 of them) would follow me into the other pen. But the one in labor and the one bothering her were being very stubborn. I finally got #86 away from her and tried steering her into the other pen. I would jump this way and that way trying to keep her going where I wanted. I'm sure if someone had been watching they would have thought I looked ridiculous! But eventually she got back around me. I was ready to give up and at least get the other 6 away from the one in labor when #86 decided to follow along with the crowd and I got all 7 of them penned up away from the mama in labor. Then finally Matt got home and through a series of events, we both eventually got her back into the barn because she seemed to be having trouble pushing this baby out. So Matt and I got her in the head gate so she couldn't escape and we helped her get her baby out. This time it was much harder getting that baby out than the other one Matt helped out. We had to tie something to the calf's legs that were out and then PULL! It was pretty neat being there helping pull a calf. And that one figured out how to nurse very quickly! A big blessing! And again a big calf weighing in at 90 pounds!

But as I said, Matt went to get a replacement calf, but came home empty handed. So now today, Wednesday he will go pick one up from a dairy that saw our "Replacement Calf Wanted" ad on craigslist. It was born the same day as the one we lost, so hopefully not too much time has passed to get it bonded with the heifer that lost her calf. I'm sure it will be another adventure.

(This is the heifer that lost her baby.)

And of course, today again I am in charge of watching the heifers and if one seems to be about ready to push a calf out, I have to get the others out of the pen so they won't bother her. Next time when they all calf, they should be able to go out the pasture and without any assistance from us, have their calves just fine. But since this is all their first calves, we felt it best to have them all up here in the pens close by. Hopefully today goes well and none of them will need assistance!

Calf Number two

2011-03-09T14:00:00.002-06:00

To pick up the story from Saturday afternoon.... That evening at 11:00 we had another heifer have her calf. A little heifer calf. This time Matt had been home and was watching her and knew it was coming. He didn't want to take any chances so he helped the calf out by just pulling on the legs as the mama had the contractions. Calves are supposed to be born with born front legs out first. So far, that has been the case with ours. So that calf was born healthy but then the heifer that lost her calf tried to come and claim this calf as her own. So the real mama and her were pushing and shoving each other around and kind of knocking the calf over to try and claim it as their own. Eventually Matt got the mama who lost her calf away from the newest calf. He put the newest calf and its mama into the barn so they would have their own space. But the calf didn't seem to be able to nurse right away, or the mama wouldn't let it or something. Maybe because there was so much commotion when it was born. So Matt had to use the drencher to feel it the first colostrum and then he had to feed it a couple more times. He tried to work with it to get it sucking on the mama but it wasn't going well. He was up most of that night.
Then Monday morning he went out there and there it was just sucking away from the mama! We were very thankful for that! So they are doing really well now and are out of the barn in a pen by themselves. We didn't want the very first heifer, who lost her calf, to cause any more problems. Matt weighed this calf and it also weighed 85 pounds!

Ramblings on Our Newest Adventure

2011-03-09T11:00:00.000-06:00

This was written Saturday late afternoon or evening: (And there will be more updates coming soon) Sorry this is so much rambling. I wasn't sure if I would even post it but hey, this is a blog about our life and farm and this is what is going on right now=)

We have 9 first calf heifers that are all supposed to be having calves any day now. A heifer is a girl "cow" that has not ever had a calf. A first calf heifer is, a girl cow that is pregnant with her first calf. Make sense? Okay, good =) Anyway, you have to watch first calf heifers more closely than seasoned mama cows who have had several, because their deliveries may be more difficult with things not ever having been stretched out like that before. They should be bred to a bull that should produce low birth weight calves, to help make calving their first easier. So we have nine of these lovely ladies that we have been watching for the past several weeks, just waiting to see any signs that their labor is imminent. In fact, this past week, I have gone nowhere except taking Lillie to school and going to church on Wednesday evening. (Though not necessarily because of the cows-anyone noticed gas prices lately?) And Lillie has been asking me, "Why do you always have to check on the cows?" Because I am constantly going out there. I would really like to be out there for the delivery! One of them has seemed to be ready to have her calf for the past week or even two weeks. But she just kept taking her merry time. So, from Monday-Friday this week I have been out there watching them and Matt even gets up during the night to go check on them. And today, seeing no more progress this morning we thought we were in the clear for awhile, I took the kids to eat lunch at d'Veers and then we headed to my little brothers' basketball game. We were gone 3 hours. Three hours. That's it. And wouldn't you know, in that 3 hour time span, the heifer that we have been watching the closest, had her calf. I knew almost right away when I drove in the driveway. I could see some white stuff out in their pen and I was sure I had never noticed anything white in the hay pile before. So I carried each of the boys up to their beds, because they fell asleep on the way home from the ball game. Then I rushed out there to see a newborn calf, seemingly just born, lying behind its mother. The calf didn't really look like he was breathing well or even much at all, so I stirred the mom enough to get her to get up and start licking the calf. And I could see that the birth sac was still over the calf's face so I got that off of it so it would not suffocate (although, it may have already done too much damage because I don't know how long the calf and mama had been lying there before I got home). But it still didn't look quite right to me, how little he was moving and breathing. I called the vet and they said give it about 30 minutes to let the cow and calf bond and see if anything is happening then call back if I needed to. In that time, I realized that the calf had not been breathing and was most certainly not going to make it. I got Matt's sister on the phone to go get him from their house where he was working on his new pickup (no cell phone reception and he couldn't hear the house phone). When he got home, I was so upset that we had lost our calf and especially that I hadn't been home to help it but he wanted to go out there to it right away. We got out there and he rubbed his finger in the calf's nose and pushed around on him a little to try and get it to start sniffing and breathing some. And it seemed to work! The calf was miraculously breathing again. And it even was softly mooing to his mama and the mama would answer him back. We were very excited. But then he just would not get up or even lift his head up. We called a friend who has done this kind of thing much longer than we have to come help us. We tried to force feed it but it did not work and the poor little calf ended up not making it. I am sad for it's mama too. We are all so sad around here this evening. Lillie and Titus were so excited about the newborn calf and they got to see it but then were so confused why it had to die. We didn't have much to tell them. But we do have some speculations. We think that the mama just had too hard of a time pushing the baby out. Remember at the beginning I said that a heifer's first calf should have a low birth weight. That means around 50 pounds. Well, we weighed this little guy and he weighed 85 pounds!! So we are assuming that this particular mama cow was a week or two past her due date and the calf just got too big. And since we weren't home watching, we didn't know that she was having trouble. If they take too long once they are in active labor, the chances of survival for the calf are very low. But all the signs were there a couple of weeks ago for her to be having the calf and it just didn't progress far enough. And this was our first calf as well. Since this is the first time we have ever had a "herd", we are definitely still learning. And sad that we lost our first one. We are hoping and praying the other mamas will have an easier go of it. And we will be watching much closer from now on.

Surprise Heart Cake

2011-02-08T19:51:00.002-06:00

So I saw this link on Beki's blog and thought it was so cute and it would be perfect for Valentine's! But of course I need to practice before then so here is my first practice heart cake!
I know, I know, it isn't exactly the most perfect heart. But, Next time I should know how to carve out the cake a little better to make the top of the heart not so square-ish. Also, since I am no where near a perfectionist, I didn't bother to try and level my cakes before I stacked them. They actually baked pretty even except that my oven must not be level.

There is my creation. The piece that I cut out is sitting next to the main cake, that is why it looks a little funny in the picture.

So there it is! I thought it turned out well for the first try. And just a note about the recipes for the white cake on the link. I did not like the white cake that well. It was edible- of course- its cake =) But I would most likely do a different recipe. That one is super duper dense and I don't know if it has to be that way to keep the heart shape, but I guess I'll find out next time. Also, the frosting I didn't like too much. It was just butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and milk but it was not good at all. Maybe the butter I used was bad but I will probably stick with my tried and true cream cheese frosting that I always use.

Sledding

2011-02-08T19:28:00.003-06:00

These pictures are from Saturday morning.

The sledding hill. This first hill didn't have quite enough snow to cover the grass showing through so the sleds didn't go down very well. But the hill behind it and to the right had more snow packed on it and worked much better.

Lillie just relaxing after going down the hill.

Matt giving Titus a little shove down the hill. The little green disc sled worked much better than the inflated one.

Zethan was not a fan of the snow. He was just grumpy about it. Matt held him for awhile then I held him on my lap. He buried his head into me and just fell asleep while the others were sledding. It was pretty cute.

Titus liked to throw snow balls at Matt. But Titus didn't like it too well when he got one thrown back at him.

Poor Zethan is still stuck with pink snow pants. But I think my mom found some at her house that will work for him now. Lillie had fun going down the hill.

Then Matt went down with both of the boys. The inflated sled didn't work very well but he was too big the green disc.

Lillie running back up the hill, to go down again!

There she goes! She really had a blast! Titus had fun too but Lillie probably enjoyed it the most out of everyone! We were there about an hour and she thought that was not nearly enough time!

But it looks like now both hills will be covered for awhile! I can't believe all this snow that we have! It is amazing!

Birthday Flowers

2011-02-08T13:48:00.002-06:00

I had my birthday last Friday and my sweet hubby got me these beautiful roses!

I put them in this vase my brother-in-law made and they are just gorgeous in it! I love it! He is amazingly talented at pottery and all other forms of art.

Matt took me out to eat at Abuelo's and we even ordered dessert! The tequila pie. It was wonderful! A lime cheesecake type pie in a graham cracker crust with whipped cream and a strawberry on top. Mmmm, good.

Then we went to Home Depot and Lowe's. Ha! We are big party-ers! Oh yeah!

But we had a good time hanging out together without the kids for a few hours. Lillie and Titus were very concerned that I didn't have a cake for my birthday. I'm pretty sure that was more for their sake of wanting to eat cake though. But it was cute of them.

New Headband!

2011-02-03T14:12:00.001-06:00

I got in on a headband swap this past month and today I received my headbands! They are so fun. My swap partner even sent two! Yay! Here is a picture of one of them. I couldn't get a picture of the other one before the littles interrupted me =)

So there it is! Thanks so much Malea!

Loving these stencils from etsy!

2011-02-02T20:37:00.000-06:00

Half off Gift Cards

2011-01-19T16:01:00.003-06:00

Today only you can buy a gift card to use on amazon.com for half price! Pay $10 for a $20 gift card. Nice!
You can purchase your gift card here.

Easy Peasy! Just set up an account and you can purchase your gift card. You can just pick a city that is nearest you, you don't have to actually live in that city!

Also today at Groupon you can get a coupon worth $20 for just $10 at Two Brothers Barbecue. They are delicious! And at two of their locations in Wichita they have a BBQ buffet! Oh yes! So if you go at lunch that is like buying one buffet getting one free! Their prices are pretty reasonable, especially for kids! You can check out their website at twobrothersbbq.com. They have the menu and all the pricing and locations. So if you like barbecue you should definitely check that out! Who doesn't love half price dining =) So just head over here to the groupon site and set up your account! They have some good deals sometimes for the Wichita area on this sight!

It's Christmas Outside!

2011-01-10T19:00:00.004-06:00

The kids were terribly excited that it snowed so much over night. They even woke up earlier than they normally do in anticipation of there being snow on the ground.

"Hey kids, wave to the camera." ??????

Daddy making it snow!! They thought it was hilarious because he just kept shoveling it and shoveling it.

Lillie making a beautiful snow angel!

Zethan was so freezing. He just wasn't real happy but he certainly did not want to go inside and miss out on the fun. He wouldn't keep the gloves on that we put on him so we put tube socks on him to at least help keep the cold off a little. And aren't the boys wearing pink snow pants a hoot! But that was all I had for them that fit!

Zethan, more than ready to pull the sled with the four wheeler.

Titus was up first. He wasn't sure what to make of the snow flying in his face but he loved the ride!

Lillie next! She loved it! Of course!

Then we had Lillie hold Zethan for his ride. I thought he would be too cold and just cry but as soon as we started going he just giggled and giggled! So cute! But then when he got back to the four wheeler and was sitting between Titus and me he kept saying, "Freezing, freezing" over and over again.

So we made them go in for a warm up break.

It was a great day! And so nice that we didn't have go to school!

Oh yes, and the title of this post is what Titus exclaimed when he saw the snow this morning!

Say cheese..

2011-01-07T10:10:00.005-06:00

He was adorable in his little tie! These ties have an adjustable elastic around the neck and the tie length is also adjustable. So cute!

Titus was not in a great mood for picture taking and this cheesy grin and pose is the best one. All the others he is scowling or something. Or pulling his tie off.

Lillie is sporting her newest dress. A peasant dress. With the long sleeve version with elastic at the cuffs. {Pattern here} Of course next time I make the dress I will make a few adjustments to the measurements that the pattern calls for but overall it was a good straight forward pattern. Oh and I added the casing around the middle. Otherwise it was just like a hanging bag on her. Not so flattering.

Lillie liked it at first, then decided that she didn't because the sleeves were "silly". Then I told her that she had to wear it and I guess she gave up the fight of saying it looked weird and just wore it without any more complaining.

I made a messy flower hair bow to match. The fabric for the ties is Amy Butler and the dress fabric is all from Hobby Lobby.

And I really really wanted to get a few good pictures of them all together but of course there was too much going on and they weren't having any of it. The is the single picture I got of all three of them together. Great huh? Maybe next time....

Coloring House

2010-12-30T17:00:00.000-06:00

Lillie got a playhouse from her Grammy that she could color. She got right to work coloring on it. And the boys got right to work running wildly through it because it had two doors so that could go round and round. Girls and boys are so different. Lillie kept hollering at them to "stop scooting it around".

And they occasionally popped through the window to say hello.

Titus helped color it some but he said "My arm is tired".

Wait there's more...

2010-12-29T21:58:00.000-06:00

Our little family Christmas. I told Lillie that when they woke up Christmas morning they could open their stockings. She was so excited. I think I heard her wake up first and then go wake her brothers up so they could see what was in their stockings. I always LOVED my stocking growing up so it is fun to see that my kids love it too.

Family picture! It isn't too bad a picture. For all of us pretty much just waking up. And sadly this is probably one of the better family pictures I have from this year. I meant to make time for some fun family pictures but it never happened.

Titus wanted to sing Away In A Manager for us before we opened presents.

Momma with Lillie and Ty. Oh and that green John Deere sweat shirt is what Matt got me for Christmas! Love it!

Oh yes, now he is happy!

Daddy showing the boys how it works =)

That little boy loves his green toys. Zethan and Titus each got a small combine and then they shared the larger one.

And great grandma Nusz got this golf set for the boys. Titus is learning how to putt.

Getting better at it.

And his doctor set that he got from us. He has been going around asking us if we are sick =) Then he'll give us a "shot" and make us all better!

We had many fun Christmas celebrations this year and even have one more on Sunday!

Cousin Lovin'

2010-12-29T21:55:00.000-06:00

Lillie and Emily. Best Friends.

And their newest little cousin, Reuben. These pictures are from our Cook Christmas. There were so many kids and so much going on that I couldn't get real good pictures so these two pictures will have to do to document that night. But we had tons of fun!

Yes, I know Christmas is over...=)

2010-12-29T13:07:00.000-06:00

Daddy's little Joey

2010-12-28T21:51:00.001-06:00

Matt came in from hunting or working around the yard and Zethan wanted so badly to go back out there with him.
Well, maybe not this way though, Dad. It's not too comfy.

And he's done.

Church Christmas Program

2010-12-27T21:42:00.001-06:00

Lillie and her friend Addison all dressed up in their angel costumes.

The angels, shepherds, King Herod, and the magi. So cute up there!

Lillie did great. She was happy to be able to be an angel this year!

Then it was Titus's turn to go up on stage to sing Away In A Manger. He did fine for a few seconds while I snapped these couple of pictures.

You can see his eyes getting a little worried here. And then he just lost it. "Mommy, Momm-y, Mo-o-om-my" So I got him and he just buried his head on my shoulder. Poor little guy got stage fright I guess =)

But they were all adorable up there doing the hand motions and singing!

They love celebrating our Savior's birth with all their innocent child like faith.

Hi Bubba

2010-12-26T21:41:00.000-06:00

What a goof ball. But he likes 'em! And he likes that they make us laugh.

Vacation in Pictures

2010-12-23T15:20:00.000-06:00

The 5 story Christmas Tree at Silver Dollar City.

Daddy, Lillie, Titus and Zethan watching the tree light up to music.

Titus and me riding in the tea cups. It got going a little fast and when we got off Titus couldn't walk straight!

Matt and Titus waiting for the play to start.

Zethan and me waitng for the play to start. We watched Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" at Silver Dollar City. It was very good!
I gave the kids candy necklaces to keep them occupied. They thought they were great.

Posing by the snowmen decorations after watching the "Frosty" play.

Getting ready for the "Frosty" play to start. Amy's got her hot wassail. Looks like Lillie was singing and I have no idea what Matt is doing.

The kids got to go up front to watch the play. It was a talking snowman and the kids all thought it was great. Lillie and Titus are on the right side of the picture.

Jaron and Amy after riding Wildfire.

It was pretty nice weather while we were there. We all wore double layers and coats and hats and gloves but with all those on we didn't get too cold. And we had a great time!

Powder Keg

2010-12-22T19:00:00.000-06:00

Our friends Jaron and Amy came with us to Branson and of course we went to Silver Dollar City while we were there. We took turns watching the kids to go on rides and then Lillie and Titus could ride most of them as well.

Here they talked Lillie into going on Powder Keg with them. She has been once before and didn't like it too much but since Amy went with her she thought she would try it again =)

The picture above is just as they took off. So all their heads are flying back.

And there is Matt waiting with the boys and Sophia. Titus found a barrel to play with.

It was all fun and games until he stuffed one of his gloves in the hole and realized that he couldn't get it back out.

A little of this and a little of that

2010-12-22T14:38:00.004-06:00

Just a few things....

Lillie is really starting to like writing more and more. She is learning to "sound spell". This morning she folded a piece of paper in half and wrote on the inside, "1 supon utim" Can anyone guess what it is she was trying to write?

Titus can be incredibly silly. On the way home from Branson while going through the McDonald's drive through someone was saying something like "I can't wait to get home." Then someone said "I can't wait to see Jasmine" (our dog). Then Titus pipes up, "I can't wait to poop." Boys.

Zethan has about 3 or 4 bruises or scrapes on his forehead alone. And the latest one from this morning is a doozy. And no one is really sure what happened. We heard him screaming in our room and when we got there he was up on our bed. You know those cartoons where they bash each other on the head and then a huge bump grows up. Well, we could seriously see Zethans bump getting bigger and bigger. Poor little guy.

And tomorrow starts our Christmas celebrations. The first 2 out of 6. Lillie has been keeping track in her head how many days are left until Christmas. She does a good job. I don't know how she remembers because we don't have an advent calendar or anything here. Also, she has been waiting for December 22 (again keeping track on her own what day it is), which according to her, is the first official day of winter. I didn't look it up but I'm pretty sure it is. And she is quite convinced that it is going to snow today because it is the first day of winter.

They do have a calendar at school that her teacher shows them things on so that is probably where she is getting a lot if it from. But all weekend and this week even when she wasn't at school she was counting down the days.

These kiddos can be a lot of work but they sure do make life fun =)

It's Flying Day!

2010-11-29T15:23:00.002-06:00

We got to go out flying in this plane the other day! Each of the couples got to take turns. Natalie and Garrett with Lillie, Andrew and Rebekah, Matt and I with Titus, and then Tiffany and Christopher with Lillie again. There was a seat open to she begged to ride again =) We thought she might be scared of it, but nope. Not even a little bit.
Getting ready before the first flight.

Right before our flight. Titus was so excited that it was "Flying day".

The head set was a little big on him but I think he liked them. It is so noisy once you are up in the air that we have to talk through these head sets with mics.

Titus and I rode in the back seat. That really is pretty much all the room there was.

And here is a view of our home. I never did get a really great shot because it was a little bumpy by then and I couldn't keep the camera still, so most of them are blurry. And leaning over Titus, taking them through a window isn't exactly ideal. But it was still a great time!

Andy proposed to Rebekah by spelling out, "Will you marry me?" with hay bales out in our pasture. So that was really neat! Lillie is very excited for them, as we all are! It took him and a friend about 3 or so hours getting the bales out there and arranging them! And we all kept a good secret so she was very surprised!
You can read more about the engagement over at my sister-in-law's blog !

Grandparents Day

2010-11-24T19:09:00.003-06:00

Lillie had her first grandparents day at school yesterday! They had a big program with each class (K-6th) doing songs and a group song. Also the Kindergarten class recited Psalm 100. They were so cute and did so well! Lillie's song included wearing a turkey hat. I think she liked it.

This is the only pose I got on my camera because I was video taping during the program. Her grandma and papa (Matt's parents), her Grandpa Veer (Matt's Veer grandpa), and Grandpa and Grandma Stucky, (Matt's Stucky grandparents). It was so fun to have them all join us!

I know it was grandparents day but they let the parents come too =) Matt was off of work so we all went, including the boys. That morning or maybe the day before, Lillie kind of shyly says to Matt, "If you are aren't working in the afternoon, you could come to show if you want to."
She was so cute wanting everyone to come watch her. I was very proud of my little Kindergarten girl =)

Latest Project {crochet edition}

2010-11-23T21:04:00.003-06:00

I have seen different versions of these on etsy. I really liked them, but didn't necessarily want to spend money to buy one since I knew how to crochet.

I did end up buying a pattern but it didn't work up the way I wanted it to. And I thought I could figure out a way to make it much cuter and easier.

So this is what I came up with. I did many trial ones before I finally got the pattern written down just the way I wanted it to be.

It buttons in the back, but mostly that is for looks. It makes it cuter from the back =) And the poppy flower is what really makes this fun!

Fall Festivities

2010-11-17T12:40:00.003-06:00

Back in October we went on a hay rack ride over at Krista's house. It was a little chilly and windy but of course we still had fun.

Austin drove the tractor pulling the hayrack.

Kylan and Mallory and their new little baby Reuben even got a ride. And Kayla and Emily are there on the right side.

Me and baby Z. I guess next to baby Reuben he isn't too much of a baby anymore, but he is still my baby Z :-)

Posing with Matt =) Hay rack rides are his favorite. Hehe. Well, maybe not. But he was a good sport about it =)

And there is my dad and Caden is sitting next to him. He's got his little green frog boots on =)

And Zethan again. Eating popcorn. Krista is a great hostess and thought of bags of popcorn to munch on during the ride and also we all got either hot chocolate or cider to bring along! Nice!

Lillie and her cousin Emily. They are the best of friends. Lillie even went to Branson this past weekend with her- without us! (But that is another post as to why that happened that way)

And Everet. He gets a little excited about things =) He's so funny.

We had a great time and then we came back to Krista's house for chili or this other chicken taco type soup. They were delicious. Thanks for hosting Krista =)

His brothers Keeper

2010-10-28T14:11:00.004-05:00

It is nap time for the boys around here.
I have been making pies for d'Veers tomorrow so I was busy doing that.
I told Titus to go lay down for his nap. He complained a little and was concerned that Zethan was not having to take a nap as well.
I told him that I would bring Zethan up for his nap in a minute or two. After a few minutes had passed I realized that Zethan wasn't around and was sure he was in the bathroom making a mess of things in there.
I checked the bathroom and no Zethan. Well, he must have followed Titus up stairs and is playing in their room. I got up there and Zethan was already in his bed sitting there with his blankets and a book.
Titus was also in his own bed playing his leapster. I asked Titus if he put Zethan to bed. And he simply answered, "Yes".

I guess he wanted to make SURE that if he had to take a nap, so did Zethan. =)

Girlie

2010-10-19T19:15:00.003-05:00

Just a little update in case anyone is curious. Lillie was supposed to get a new shorter cast today. But after looking at the X-rays the doctor said that there had been a little radial drift and felt like it would be premature to put the other cast on. I'm not totally sure what that means but I assumed it just meant that the bones where the break is moved a little on the radius bone. Which is the bigger of the two bones in the arm.

That was a little disappointing but after he explained that the cast would have still gone around her elbow to prevent her arm from being able to twist, it sounded like it would not have been too much better than the one she has on now. I'm not really sure how that would have worked but the doctor said that she would have been able to bend her elbow but still wouldn't be able to twist her arm, and her hand would just still be palm up.

Lillie was sad that she didn't get to choose a new color. She was going to go with yellow or red if they had those colors.

The doctor first said we could come back in a week and get that other kind of cast, and then he thought for a little and said we could just leave this cast on that she has for another two weeks and then just get it off completely and she would go home with a brace thing that could be taken on and off. I told him to just tell us which ever he thought would be best. So we'll go back again in two weeks and see if the cast can come off! Hopefully her arm is healing properly and there won't be any other problems from it.

And as you can see from that picture, her cast is not slowing her down too much. It is probably more of a pain to me because she needs help with more things and keeping it dry is a pain. But I know that it will be a short time and it will just be a memory.

I love Pie

2010-10-14T17:56:00.003-05:00

Pie is so good.
Probably my favorite thing to make.
d'Veers is opening up Elbing tomorrow!
The grand opening of the Bakery and Coffee shop!
I get to make pies for it!
So far I have those 2 pumpkin pies in the oven baking,
and have already made today
2 caramel pecans,
2 apples,
and those 2 empty pie crusts are going to be Banana-Strawberry.

Next up is tollhouse pie (my own version of it anyway) and triple berry pie.

So come on out to d'Veers in Elbing tomorrow! Open 8-5, serving breakfast from 8-11 and lunch from 8-2, with all the muffins, coffee cake, goodies, pies, flavored coffee and more that you could want!

Check us out on facebook for more information!

the Three Musketeers

2010-10-06T12:27:00.003-05:00

These three little rascals are something else. They love to be together and play together but they love to argue and fight just as much. Some days I just don't know what to do with them.

Zethan is just getting plain naughty sometimes. You'll tell him not to do something and he will just look at you and giggle, then do whatever he is NOT suppose to do. But then he'll do something that is just so sweet. Like just today when we dropped Lillie off for Kindergarten he actually said "love you" to Lillie. Now it wasn't as plain as that but I knew exactly what he said. And he said "sissy" as he pointed to her out the window. I have tried and tried to get him to say Lillie or Sissy and he never has. Until today. So sweet. And he had to make sure that Lillie gave him a kiss and he gave Lillie a kiss.

And Titus. He is just ornery-er than ever. Well again, it is more like just plain naughty. But he never does it maliciously. Just deliberately. Does that even make sense to anyone but me? Anyway, I think with Lillie getting all the attention from breaking her arm and Zethan still being more "needy" than him, I'm pretty certain he has a bad case of the middle child blues. Also, he hasn't seen much of Daddy lately since drilling wheat and harvesting beans has come along. That started about last Thursday I think. With Matt leaving before 7:00 and getting home sometimes well after 10:00. It makes for long days without Daddy attention. But tonight is Awana so we get him for the evening=) And harvest doesn't last forever. And we will get to ride in the combine or tractor or semi whenever they get around to cutting our field! That is always a highlight! Several weeks ago already Titus was asking when Daddy would cut the beans because he wanted another combine ride.

But this morning Lillie was actually up before he left today so she was so excited, she saw him and ran full blast to give him a hug. They love their Daddy. She was excited to show off her pink cast to him. And she was excited for the kids in her class to see it.

And now the house is peaceful with the boys napping and Lillie at school.

Pink Please

2010-10-05T20:32:00.003-05:00

Lillie had her scheduled one week check-up with the surgeon today. It went well. Other than we were scheduled towards the end of the day so I guess they had gotten behind a bit. We were there for 2 hours.

But the X-ray showed a little new growth so that was good! And she got to get a new cast! The first one was really loose because the swelling went down. The doctor's words were, "Oh, that's a bit wobbly, huh?"

So Lillie got to pick out a color since it was an office visit. She thought that pink was pretty sweet. It is very HOT pink=) When they took the old cast off, her arm was still bruised and around where it broke was still a little swollen. I'm sure by the time these next weeks go by it will be as good as new=) In 2 weeks she will get another new cast that doesn't go as far up her arm.

She is doing really well with the cast and she has not complained about it at all. I thought maybe she would get really annoyed with it but so far so good.

We are thankful that her arm is healing!

Lillie's Broken Arm update

2010-09-27T16:25:00.001-05:00

LThis picture is while we were waiting for them to come and say it was time to go back to the operating room. You can see that she is in good spirits and happy here. She was all smiles when we got to the hospital and everything. Great Grandpa Veer, Papa Veer and also Grammy(my mom) were all there waiting for her. Then while she was in the operating room Grandma Veer and Aunt Tiffy came. Aunt Nattie and Uncle Garrett stayed with the boys.

Daddy is trying to get her to hear his heartbeat. It really wasn't working very well.

A little after this I think the surgeon came in and talked to us and told us that he would be doing what is called a closed reduction. So they didn't have make any incisions. They just pushed the bones back into place and casted her arm. He said she should be in the full cast for about 3 weeks and then go to the doctor and get a shorter cast for another 3 weeks. We were so glad that they didn't have to do any cutting and that the bone itself didn't break the skin. Arlene, the nurse from our church, did say afterwards that it looked like one of the bones was pushing pretty good on the skin though and was close to puncturing the skin. She said then they would have done the procedure right away the day it happened rather than waiting until Monday.

Mommy and Lillie. The hospital had that little giraffe on the bed for her when she got in the room. She really likes him. Lillie is all warm and cozy in those pre heated blankets=)

Then it was about time to go back to the operating room and she got really scared when we talked about her going to sleep. And of course she couldn't see why I couldn't go back there with her and didn't understand what was going on. She was crying and scared but thankfully Arlene that goes to our church and also was one of Lillie's Sunday School teachers got to take her back there and was there through the procedure. We were very thankful for her to be there.

Here she is just coming back from the room she stayed in until the anesthesia wore off. She was in a lot of pain and was pretty teary. Daddy was trying to make her feel better by showing her the xrays and how they lined her bones back up. I'm not sure she really cared =)

You can see her face in this picture and how out of it she was. They did give her some morphine through her IV. They put the IV in while she was sleeping. She never even knew she had it in. The nurse kept referring to it as a "magic straw" to give her medicine. That knocked her out pretty good giving her morphine. When she woke up enough from that she had to take some Tylenol with codeine by mouth and then the nurse got her all "unhooked", and we came home. We got to the hospital about 7:30am and got home about 1:00pm. But that was with a stop to get some Sonic, Subway and ice cream at Braum's to take home. The only way we can get her to take the medicine is to have a spoonful of ice cream ready right after =) Lucky girl =)

And here are the xrays.

The picture above is an xray from the top view. You can see the 2 bones broken and slid to the side and overlapping the bone they broke away from.

Above is an xray from the side. It shows how the bone slid forward and is overlapping. That is why they had to essentially pull from the elbow and pull from the hand so that is was stretched out then guide the bones back into place. That is why they wanted her asleep because the pain would have been unbearable.

And this is an after xray. You can see the bones are back together. The doctor said it was perfectly fine that they weren't 100% aligned. They will grow back together just fine. He said everything went well and it was a "good reduction".

Thank you to everyone for praying and thinking about her. She is just up and getting ready to paint sun catcher that her Aunt Natalie got for her.

Update for Lillie

2010-09-26T09:51:00.006-05:00

Just a quick little update on Lillie. Nothing has really changed. She is still just sitting on the couch watching netflix. Thank goodness for netflix. That spot she is sitting in has become "her spot".

We had a Sunday School party last night but my mom came over a little before we needed to leave and offered to stay with Lillie, so Lillie was very thankful for that. She had been wavering back and forth whether or not she wanted to go with us. It was at her aunt Natalie's so I knew she would have a place to lay down and everything, but I told her that if she didn't want to go that I would stay home with her. But she still couldn't decide what she wanted to do. But then when her Grammy offered to stay, Lillie was all over that. She was staying home =) This morning when I gave her a bowl of apple jacks, I sat it beside her but then she asked me to hold it for her while she ate because "that's what Grammy did."

Grammy brought her some goodies while she visited. A fun unicorn pillow pal and a sticker book and some snacks. Although poor Titus, asked, "Did you bring anything for me?" But of course Grammy came through and had brought popsicles, so he was happy! Kimalee had come with my mom too to visit Lillie. I guess all the kids were pretty worried about Lillie. One of them said that Lillie was too young to have a broken arm =) Also while my mom was here we figured out why Lillie was insistent that she had NOT broken her arm at first. She thought that since her arm wasn't completely detached that is was not broken. She didn't know that we were talking about the bones inside.

On Fridays at school the kids get to check out library books. As it turns out, Lillie happened to check out Berenstain Bears books and one was about going to the doctor and the other one was about being healthy but it had pictures of the "inside" of the body. Like X-rays and the muscles and bones and things. It was kind of cool to see that when I pulled them out of her bag to read to her last night. So I showed her the bones that broke inside her arm and talked about how a tree branch breaks and that is what her bones did. But I explained to her that God designed our bodies so amazing that our bones can heal and grow back together. I think the more I explained about what happened the better she felt about it. Sometimes I think that if I cover over things that will be better (and to a point it is). But I think kids are able to understand more than we think they can.

She slept okay. I brought an extra mattress down so she could sleep in the living room comfortably. She kind of had a hard time going to sleep. She kept wanting me to hold her hand. Finally she said, "You can go out now." But she kept waking up pretty frequently saying that her arm hurt. And she is so stubborn about taking medicine. She hates how it tastes so I have to really really coax her to take it but in the middle of the night she was not to be reasoned with. Finally about 3am she figured out how to turn just slightly onto her side without bothering her arm. This must have been much more comfortable because then she slept until morning about 7:30.
I think she probably slept better than I did. I was so worried about her I couldn't hardly sleep. I know everything is going to fine though.

And now while Daddy and Titus are at church we are just hanging out watching Veggietales on netflix =)

I guess that wasn't exactly a short update=) Please keep praying. And thank you for your kind comments. They are much appreciated.

My Poor Baby Girl

2010-09-25T12:47:00.004-05:00

Well we just got back not too long ago from a trip to the ER. Not exactly what we were planning on for this morning.

Around 8:30 this morning Lillie and Titus thought it would be fun to go "play basketball" outside. So they both got their tennis shoes on and each got a "gym bag". They headed outside and Lillie told me she wanted to show me something she could do.

She climbed up on top of her playhouse-which she does all the time- and then she jumped to hang onto the basketball rim that was next to the playhouse. Since it was morning the rim was wet with dew. She grabbed a hold of it and swung forward a little and her hands slipped right off. She fell straight down back first. Thankfully the rim is not raised to its full height. But it was still a good 6-7 feet high. Matt and I both saw it happen from the porch.

She cried out but it didn't sound like it was too serious. Maybe just mostly scared. Anyway, I ran out there to her and Matt went back in the house. As soon as I got to her she was sitting up on her knees holding her left arm. Immediately I could see that her arm was crooked. I yelled at Matt that her arm was broken. He didn't hear me the first time but he did come back outside so I yelled again. He came over and we helped Lillie into the house and laid her down. I put an ice pack on it and told her not to move. All this while since I first hollered at Matt that her arm was broken she was insisting that "No, my arm is NOT broken".

I called Grandpa & Grandma Stucky since they live closest, to come stay with the boys so Matt and I could both take Lillie to the ER. When they got to our house we left. Then since the boys are a little much for great-grandparents for long stretches of time by themselves, Mark and Diane-Matt's parents-came and took over keeping Titus and Zethan.

Along the drive she was still crying that it hurt and I could tell she was pretty scared. So I prayed with her and sang to her and tried to talk to her. She wanted to go to sleep so bad. It was like she just couldn't take the pain and her little body was just going to shut it out by going to sleep. I had no idea if it was okay for her to sleep or not and I hadn't really checked her head after I saw her arm crooked. Since I didn't know, I thought I would be on the safe side and just made her keep her eyes open. At the ER they did say that it was fine for her to sleep. So she did =)

Anyway, at the ER they did X-rays (pretty much while she was sleeping) and obviously it was just to see how bad of a break, not whether or not it was broken. We saw the X-rays and it just looked terrible. Both of the bones in her arm were broken and shifted over. It was just above the wrist. Since it was so bad they couldn't just set it and cast it there. They put a splint on it and wrapped it securely so she can't move her arm. And then she has a sling on. We will take her back to out-patient surgery Monday morning so they can do surgery to set it straight. At least she will be completely out when they set it. Hopefully they won't have to put pins in it but they will see once they get in there. My poor baby girl. I just feel so bad for her. But she did so good and was so brave. She hardly ever made any noise or any cry while at the ER. Except when she heard mention of possibly needing a shot for pain if they set it there.

She was talking about how her arm was hurting and we were trying to tell her that the shot would help it feel better. So she quickly changed her story and said that her arm really wasn't hurting that bad anymore. Poor girl.

She got by without any needles today but of course they are going to have to put in an I.V. on Monday so I hope she doesn't freak out too bad. When she gets shots at the doctors office she puts up a pretty good fight. Last time her shoes flung off, she was trying to kick her legs so hard.

She is doing fine right now. Resting on the couch and watching netfix. Hopefully the boys will remember to be careful by her. They are so used to just wrestling and playing with her. They are going to have to take care of her instead of her taking care of them =) She really is a very good big sister. But I know she will heal soon. Just keep praying.

Chef Z

2010-09-21T12:59:00.003-05:00

Lillie had all her pretend cooking and food things out. The chef's hat is too small now for Lillie so we put it on Z.

Then I thought he should have the matching apron on. It was a little long. This is his "where did it go?" pose. With his little hand up like that. Cutie.

And about 2 seconds after this picture was taken, off came the hat, off came the apron. No more chef Z. But he sure was cute while it lasted=)

Washing Wheat

2010-09-20T17:22:00.003-05:00

Grandpa & Grandma Stucky came this morning to wash some wheat. Lillie and Titus LOVE helping them with it!
Lillie thought she was big stuff running the water into the barrel.

Fun memories with the great grandparents!

Growing

2010-09-18T07:00:00.001-05:00

My fun lovin' little girl. She is just growing up so fast. She is absolutely loving school. Every day she has so many fun things to tell me about. An when she prays she almost always thanks Jesus that she gets to go to school. How sweet is that. And AWANA has started so she is enjoying that. She gets to be down in Sparks with me this year. We have had 2 nights so far. The first night, every time I would catch a glimpse of her downstairs with the K-2nd graders, my heart would just kind of jump a little. I just couldn't hardly believe that she was old enough to be down there with us. Since I'm director I didn't have much chance to think too much about it that evening. I kind of had to push it out of my mind that my baby girl is growing up. We have a very large group of kids this year! The first night we had 25, I think and last night we had 27. For our church, that is a lot of kids! We are very thankful we can have this ministry and are so excited for these kids coming! Also, this is the first year for Titus to be in Cubbies. He loves it and he thinks he has to go into his class by himself. On the way home last night Lillie told him that she would take him to class next week and he immediately hollered, "NO!! I can do it myself."

He isn't being able to quite get the verses as easily as Lillie did. Partly because he doesn't articulate very well. But he will get things mixed together or put two totally different thoughts together. If he hears the verse enough times and we really work with him, then he can get it. It is just going to take a little longer than his sis. And speaking of Titus not speaking well =) I have the process started to get him into some speech therapy. Hopefully he'll be able to learn some things to help him pronounce his sounds better. Right now he can't say the letters, S, L, Z, J, F, TH, R, SH and probably some more that I am not thinking of at the moment.

So needless to say his Cubbies teachers probably can't understand a lot of what he is saying. At home we can, for the most part, figure out what he is saying. But even sometimes we can't understand something until he puts it into context for us. And it sure is cute how he says some things but I think it is probably time he is able to speak better. He'll be 4 in January. Anyway, we love him the way he is, even if he doesn't speak well=)

Butterfly

2010-09-17T13:26:00.001-05:00

Lillie and Titus love catching butterflies! Usually they just are able to catch the little yellow ones.

But Titus actually caught this pretty one all by himself! He came and brought it to me and I thought it was so pretty and was so proud of him for catching it all by himself that I let him put it in a jar! For a little while anyway. Then Daddy made them let it go so it wouldn't die. He's such a softie=) But I love him=)

Brothers

2010-09-16T19:00:00.001-05:00

They just love each other.

So much ornery-ness for such a cute little guy. Don't you love how the hat is making his little ears stick out!

Finally a picture with them both looking! Matt was actually taking these pictures and I think he took 3 before this one and each time Zethan would close his eyes, put his head in front of Titus or turn his head. Boy, I love these little boys!

And I finally made something for Titus! I brought that hat up to him while he was playing in room and said "Here Titus, this is for you!"

He jumped up and said "For me?!? THANKS MOM!" And then he gave me a HUGE hug. It was so adorable. He must have been feeling a little left out since mostly I make girlie things for Lillie=)

Little Ducky Is...

2010-09-16T13:22:00.002-05:00

Going....

Going.....

Going.....

GONE!!!!!!!!

Blankie Love

2010-09-04T19:42:00.003-05:00

Poor baby....why, oh why, must you wash my blankie, mommy??
And now you're taking pictures while I'm in distress!?

I just want my blankie back.

Fall Style

2010-09-03T15:00:00.001-05:00

I got Lillie a hat crocheted yesterday! I thought it turned out very cute! Pictures don't always show it very well.
I was so excited about this one because I actually won this pattern for free! It is always exciting to win a giveaway! Thank you to Speckled Frog Boutique!

Lillie wore the hat to school today. I told her she had to take it off when she got into her classroom. She was insistent that she could wear it all day because, "That's what Gracie does with her hat." She is always telling us funny things that Gracie has done. I think Titus even has a little crush on her from everything Lillie tells us and he hasn't even met her. Hehe!

And Lillie showed us a trick where you "take your eyeballs out, pop them in your mouth, and then put them back in." (She closes her eyes, pretends to put something in her mouth, sticks her tongue in her cheek and then pretends to put them back and opens her eyes. Ta-Da.) I asked her where on earth did she learn that? Her response: From Gracie.

Gracie sounds like a fun little girl and Lillie seems to be making fast friends with her! I wonder what Lillie will learn next!?

Actually Lillie's little mind is just a sponge. She is saying new things everyday that she is learning in her classroom. She has different work stations to do and so many other things! Like P.E. and music. I am surprised by how much she is soaking up already! And it has only been 2 1/2 weeks! I am so proud of her!

Pony Beads & Boys

2010-09-03T11:07:00.006-05:00

When Mom was cleaning out the basement she found a HUGE stash of pony beads. I think they were a garage sale find way back when.

I let Lillie and Kimalee make some necklaces out of them while the boys were napping. But when they boys woke up....

They had other plans for the beads. I told them they at least had to keep them in the bucket as best they could. They dumped all the colors together and then had at it dumping and pouring and scooping them.

Zethan thought it was grand. He had a few spills but they weren't too major. Definitely worth the time he spent playing by himself!

Just having a grand time! I'm not sure I would have let him just have at the beads except that Julie and Melissa both had blogged about their kids playing with sensory tubs and how much fun they had. So I figured why not?

And of course by the end Zethan thought it would be great to sit his whole body in the bucket. So fun!

Oh and F.Y.I., this is only probably half of the beads found=)

Pasture Fire

2010-08-30T16:31:00.003-05:00

Just a little adventure for our little family. We rode the four-wheeler with Daddy out to the pasture to burn off the extra hay that didn't get baled.

Matt starting the fire.

The kids are just watching. They LOVE four-wheeler rides! Especially Z. As you can see, he will just sit there and absorb it all!

Getting away from the fire to start some more rows on fire! It didn't take too long for the smoke to be billowing. At one point, we couldn't see Matt and Titus was just sure the fire had "burned him all up".

Just still beginning. It was kind of fun sitting out there watching it and listening to it crackle. We were up wind so even though we were right next to it we couldn't really even smell it and the smoke wasn't in our eyes.

Aww, brother and sister love=) Actually, the picture makes it look like they were being sweet but if I remember right I'm pretty sure they were fighting.

Our shadow.

Happy girl!

Pretty sunset. And of course it looked way prettier in person=)

I like these little adventures we get to do as a family. Memories!

House Slippers

2010-08-27T08:07:00.002-05:00

Lately I have been wanting to do some crocheting projects. Maybe it has to do with the cooler weather. I'm not sure. But anyway, etsy is filled with super cute crochet patterns. I found a cute little pattern for house slippers. More modern than your grandma's crocheted slippers =)
They are fun and they were worked up pretty quickly!

Its kind of fun making something for myself once in a while=) Although, I made them last night after the kids went to bed and this morning Lillie saw them and is begging for me to make her some=)

And of course baby Z thinks any shoes left in the open are fair game for him to confiscate. So those little piggies are his=)

I have a few more new patterns to try out but I probably should make myself work on sewing projects for the upcoming craft fairs! I have lots of new products and so does Natalie! We are very excited for this year! Have a great Friday!!

Little Girl Growing Up

2010-08-26T08:28:00.003-05:00

My sweet little girl. My first born. Big sis to two ornery brothers. Willing helper (mostly). Fun lover. Game Player. Teaser. My little girl forever.

She is growing up. Which is a happy and a sad thing.

Happy because I know just how ready she is to learn new things and interact with different people. Sad because she will learn those new things, essentially without me. Happy because she is making new friends. Sad because that is just another step away from me. But overall we are all HAPPY that she is starting this new journey.

She couldn't be enjoying herself any more! She has been going for a week now and just LOVES it! She has a fantastic teacher. And the activities that she is getting to do and that she will be doing just sound so fun and interactive. And there are only 6 kids in her afternoon class. So lots of attention and lots of close relationships will be had!

I am so proud of my little girl and love seeing how happy she is to go to class. Of course I am so happy to see her when it is time to pick her up too though!

We can't wait to see how she grows this year!

Grapes

2010-08-16T14:29:00.005-05:00

My mom has a beautiful flower garden at her house! Dad and Mom added a Concord grape vine a few years ago (I actually have no idea how long ago!) and it has grown so much! This year I got to get the harvest of grapes!
There were so many grapes for just one plant!

They are kind of growing in with an ever green tree. Lillie was going to help pick them but it was too "pokey" for her=)

The picture above is the bowl I filled as I washed them and picked them off the stems. It seemed to take forever! And it is a giant bowl!

And this picture above is the grapes left on the stems that I haven't cleaned up yet.

I looked through several grape jam or grape jelly recipes and it seemed to me that it would be easier to make jam instead of jelly.
So I separated the skins from the grapes (which is actually way easy just time consuming), then pureed the skins with some sugar, added more sugar and a little lemon juice and the grapes (with seeds in them) and cooked them all up for awhile.
Then strained them (by pushing through a sieve with a spatula) to get the seeds out and the bigger skin chunks. Then cooked it some more to thicken it up and bam- homemade grape jam! Of course then I used a hot water bath to seal up the filled jars.

I actually figured out with the second batch that I didn't need to separate the skins and grapes-just puree everything and the seeds were hard enough that they stayed together, so I could proceed just as before. Just much less time involved!

This is what I got from my first day's labor=) That was only two batches. I didn't have a very good stock of jars because I didn't really have any idea how much it would make. I probably still have about 3 or more batches worth of grapes left. And all that from one grape vine! Amazing! And oh so yummy!!

Fun Little Date

2010-08-16T10:09:00.003-05:00

Matt has been trying to figure out a way to get away to Kansas City for a fun overnight date with just the two of us but with work and finding an overnight sitter for 3 kids and others' schedules and everything is was not really working out. So yesterday after lunch his mom kept the kiddos and we sneaked off to a fun little date!

It was a perfect day to be out. It was a little drizzly for awhile but no downpour, and the temperature was fantastic! So we hiked around the little waterfalls for awhile and just hung out. Matt couldn't do too much since he still has kind of a bum knee. But he was great about taking me! So sweet of him! And no kids! But we'll have to go back sometime with the kids because they would have loved splashing around!

Ruby Red..

2010-08-11T15:39:00.003-05:00

..lips. :insert lots of laughs here:

Not really sure why on earth I am posting this but I guess I will anyway=)

I bought some new lipstick today.
I tried it when I got home.
Wow.
Bright.
Red.

Titus said, "You look like a different person."

Going from never wearing lipstick, to trying a Ruby Red color (I didn't look at the name in the store-possibly because I had a screaming 16 month old with me) is probably not the way to go. In the store I thought it was pink actually. Oh well.

But I got a good laugh out of it and the kids think I look hilarious so it is entertaining them=) I guess it's good for something even if I never wear it in public=)

Little Artist

2010-08-10T18:02:00.003-05:00

Hmmm, I think Lillie may be following in her aunt Nattie's or aunt Krista's footsteps. They are both super artists! Lillie drew these little pictures all by herself. Maybe you aren't too impressed=) But as her mommy, I am=)

I kept asking her, "Did you really draw these all by yourself?" And she would just nod her head with a HUGE grin on her face. I couldn't believe she drew those hearts! And she even put the little hearts for noses! So cute! Can anyone guess what characters they are?