The Funny Red Balloon

For some reason I have really bad luck uploading videos on YouTube, but today I finally got one I've been trying to upload for nearly a week. Here's Ethan sitting on the couch with Elizabeth while Madeleine makes her laugh with a big, red balloon. :) I totally hate hearing my own voice, but I had to keep the kids in line, LOL.

Birthdays and Ella

My baby girl, Madeleine just turned 4-years-old at the end of May and I wanted to post a couple of pictures of her while I have a chance!

She is so beautiful and growing up so quickly!

For her birthday she requested blueberry cake and since I'm on bed rest a friend of mine who was over helping me made Madeleine a blueberry cake with cream cheese frosting! That was so sweet of her! Thanks, Bettina!

Here Madeleine is playing outside on her birthday with Robbie.

The other new thing around here is our new Jersey heifer, Ella! She's 15 months old and weighs about 650 pounds. She'll be our milk cow next year - assuming she gets pregnant soon. Here are a couple of pictures of her:

We bought Ella from some folks who had her as basically a pet. She's very friendly and loves following Brad around. She even comes when he calls her name! She is also gentle enough Ethan and I can lead her around if needed.

Here are a few random pictures from this month:

Robbie just had his second birthday, but his birthday pictures didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. He had food on his face in most of them! :o) In the picture above he is petting a new lamb Brad brought in the house to show me since I'm unable to go out and see the new ones. That little gal couldn't seem to figure out how to feed off of her mother, so we gave her to some friends to bottle feed. It sounds like she is getting spoiled with all sorts of attention! I sure am glad it worked out for them to take her!

Here's a cute picture of Ethan, Madeleine, and our Scottish Highland calf, Red. I think it's cute how Ethan is standing in this shot - it reminds me of his daddy! And I think it's funny how Madeleine was brushing her hair outside with the new hairbrush she got from her grandma for her birthday!

Spring

Spring is definitely here. Spring brings with it many ups and downs; snow and mud, gray skies and blue, warm and cold, bicycle rides and sledding. We've gotten more snow this spring than we did during the whole winter, I think. We had one snowfall of 18 inches, then another of about 6 or 7 inches. Most of the other snowfalls have only left an inch here and there. The wind keeps blowing it into drifts making some of them deep enough for me to sink up to my knees in and other areas bare. I must admit, this part of spring is bothersome. I look forward to the end part of spring where we mainly get sunshine, blue skies, and blossoms. It's just around the corner... I can almost smell it and definitely hear it - the birds are returning!

Here are a few pictures I've taken this month that I thought I would share with all of you:

A picture of spring; bicycling and snow.

Little man, Ethan shoveling paths through the snow.

Robbie interrupting school time.

My baby belly at 6 months along. I accidentally didn't get my head in this photo, but it was the best angle of the belly out of all of the photos I took recently.

Brad has returned and will be working from home, hopefully for a long while. I'm very happy to have him home, as are the children. Even the oxen seem glad to have him home! They get more attention from him than they do from me. :) I just don't tend to find the extra time and energy it takes to stand around scratching their chins, necks, and backs.

Well, that's it for now. I'll try to get an updated photo of Madeleine on here soon. I have a harder time getting a good one of her since she is always on the move! :) Have a great weekend!

This Beautiful Week

It has been another full week of living! Last Sunday we went on a lovely, 8-hour-long drive in gorgeous low 40's weather. I was amazed to see bits of green grass coming up and small buds on trees in some areas of the countryside we drove through. In the area we live now we won't get to see that until May (normally) - I almost wonder if this year might be different. We've had a warm February for this area - mostly high 30's/low 4o's, although a few days even hit the low 50's! I'm thankful to be getting more daylight hours each day and plenty of warm sunshine to enjoy!

On Wednesday we kept real busy. I have been borrowing a van from a friend when Brad is away on business trips and we wanted to begin making it up to her by buying her a new windshield, so we had to take that into the town that is about 30 miles from here to get that done. It was supposed to take the glass shop half of a day to do the job. We knew we didn't have 6-hours-worth of things to do in town, so after doing our main grocery shopping we headed back home where Brad had to check up on some work related things and I needed to put the groceries away. Once we were done with that we headed out again to a town about 20 miles from here to get new tires on our new (used) vehicle (we decided a couple of weeks ago it was time for a second vehicle - one that would sit our family after the baby is born). After that errand was done we went back home where I had a few hours to get things done around the house while Brad worked. We were all kind of tired by the time we had to go back to pick up the van. Robby fell to sleep in his car seat on the way, in fact. So, when we got to the glass shop it was decided that I would pick up the van, go buy myself a new mop at the cleaning and restaurant supply place, then get the few things we needed from the grocery store (a different one from the one we had shopped at that morning). That ended up leading to my first two hours alone since Robby was born! I must admit, it was quite energizing. By the time I got back home I had enough energy to feel happy while getting all of my evening chores done. It was great!

The rest of the week was filled with just regular activities around here; schooling, cooking, baking, cleaning, etc.

I've been enjoying some of my favorite types of views this week - sunshine shining in a beautiful, wide open blue sky against the snowy white peaks of the nearby mountains. With the warmer temperatures we've been getting this month Ethan, Madeleine, and Robby have been spending several hours of each day outside playing (their idea, of course). I'm often surprised at how much they find to do out there! Also, Brad has been able to work with the new calves quite a bit as well as our big guys, Curly Sue and Little Bill. We'll be taking the big guys to a winter fair next week, which should be interesting (hopefully, I'll can get some good pictures to share!)