Happy Anniversary!

It was 14 years ago today that we made the covenant to live together as husband and wife. Henry brought me a dozen roses yesterday. I do get flowers from time to time, but rarely do I see that many roses at once, so it was extra special! Honestly, it does not feel like that long ago. As Jeff & Sheri Easter sing..."Life is great and gettin better". Here's to another 14...

Our Extended Family

Our farm family grew this month. Raquel & Jeziah have asked for a horse for a very long time. Jeziah wanted a white horse, Raquel a Palimino. We haven't been sure how responsible Raquel would be if she were to get a horse, as much as she claims to like one, it's still different once you own one. Instead of making that investment to find out, we did the next best thing! Our local camp is always looking for people to look after their horses through the winter, and we offered to help out. We now have 4 horses and a colt. And two of the horses are white! One of the horses is rideable without a saddle, so it doesn't get much better than that. Currently I'm not sure who is having more fun with them, the kids or the dog. Lacy has entertainment all day in the fence. The weekend the horses arrived, we also found a stray kitten in the yard. The kids said "now we have a real farm". I suppose the more the merrier! Oh yeah, Jeziah rode the horse the first weekend, but was a little frightened and wanted to get off. When he got off he said "but I'm still a real cowboy, right?" Of course :)

Projects

Our latest project has been painting our miles of fence. The project is a lot bigger than we had anticipated. Slowly but surely another pen gets done. We're are almost done the first coat on half the fence. We would love to see the first coat completed yet this fall. Here's hoping for Indian summer! The barn is coming along. Next step is the shingles, siding & windows. We also had one pond dug out this month. We're hoping to dump in a couple feet of sand, and use it as a swimming hole. If every summer is as hot and dry as this one, I don't think we'll be doing a whole lot of swimming! Our other pond in the front yard is also almost dried up, that tells us it's dry. We haven't seen it dried up since we moved here. So this is what's been keeping us busy this past month.

Back to School!

September 5th was back to school for Raquel & Dexter. It didn't take us long to find routine again. Jeziah started Nursery School on September 11th, and is going every Tuesday & Thursday morning. He grew up really fast...the nursery school is now in the high school. (Yes, the boys have the same shirts. Jeziah is so thrilled to have matching shirts, "just like Isabella & Hailey", his cousins who often wearing matching outfits.)

A Barn Update!

The barn has grown wings! Slowly but surely it's taking shape.
Jeziah wanted to help paint. I think he had more paint on him than on the fence, but he had fun! It took almost 2 weeks to get the paint out of his hair. The joys of using oil base paints.

A Makeover!

Raquel has inherited the natural curl gene. For the past 6 months or so her hair has started to kink and curl. It's been hard to work with because it's only doing it on top and in the front. Some curls are extremely tight and some are just wavy. We were both tired of trying to work with it, and so she was ready for something new. She wanted bangs in the worst way, but it wasn't really an option with those kinks, but Sara did a great job of calming it down.

This is Raquel in the morning!
The "new" Raquel!
Of course this style only lasts until you wash it, but it is a lot more manageable. I suppose I'll have to teach her how to use the flat iron one of these days...

Good Bye Summer!

Here are some random thoughts and pictures from the last little while. Even though the summer has been busy, it has been good! A lot of memories have been made, and will be treasured for years to come. In the past two months we have fed and/or entertained 65 people, spent 18 nights at 4 different campgrounds, attended baby & wedding showers, attended 1 wedding, celebrated 5 family birthdays, kids celebreated 3 friends birthdays, spent 5 mornings at swimming lessons, attended VBS 5 evenings, helped in the camp kitchen one day, had work bees, kids had a couple sleep overs, shopped for school supplies, and Henry & I went on 1 date! Never a dull moment, yet yesterday I was hearing "It's boring at home". Only one more day, and that's about to change again. We're all excited about school starting, and finding a routine again. I've realized that I function better with somewhat of a routine, and I'm a lot more productive! Maybe I can even keep up with the updates now :) We had a Hawaiian theme "Cousins Carnvial" for Henry's nieces and nephews age 4 and up. I even attempted to make t-shirts for the kids. I need to learn a few things about doing iron on pictures. Unfortunately my great idea didn't work out too well!
Sometimes the age difference makes no difference, and then we have to take a picture to prove they can be best friends!
Raquel loves to hold and play with Rayleen. Camping together with Kim & her girls gives lots of opportunity for bonding!
And as summer draws to a close, it means three of us officially become another year older. Sorry Mom, but I only have a picture of one of us "aging"!