Happy 8th Birthday

Emmet's birthday was on Friday the 18th this year.  And again, we're right in the middle of Seth's busiest time of the  year. But, as luck would have it, Seth was home for supper on Thursday the 17th and we secretly decided to let Emmet open his presents 12 hours early.  

Here is Emmet with his presents from our family.  

He had been wanting these cattle panels that he'd seen at the tractor toy store in Des Moines.  

A Hereford cow/calf pair to go inside the pen.  

An Angus cow/calf pair.  

And a John Deere drybox spreader he specifically requested.  

All of his presents were from the tractor store.  We were there in August while at the State Fair and he picked out what he wanted for his birthday.  I then sent him to the van with Daddy while I shopped!  

We got a small present for each child (sometimes Ephraim feels left out in October since everyone else gets a present).  In honor of Emmet's John Deere infatuation, a John Deere coloring book for everyone!    I've had these in the closet for over a year now and it just seemed like the perfect time to gift them.

On the morning of Emmet's birthday, we baked homemade doughnuts.  We frosted them and added sprinkles.  (Yes, this is the next morning but Emmet is still wearing the same clothes.  He's going through a "wear my clothes to bed" phase.  When everyone else is putting on pajamas for the night, he puts on a clean set of clothes.  As long as he's sleeping fine, I choose not to fight this battle.  

Emmet requested a cowboy boot cake so in the middle of the day we baked it and Emmet did almost all of the frosting.  

Yee-haw, Emmet is 8!

Notice the green and yellow frosting for the 'E' and '8'.  That's because he likes John Deere right now.  

Happy Birthday to you!  

Emmet was being kind and helping his sister (who was having a fit of silliness) get buttoned into Daddy's shirt.  

For supper, we had homemade biscuits and homemade gravy.  Emmet loves it (and so do I)!

It was a great birthday at home.  Emmet enjoyed his presents.  The cake was delicious.

Emmet  . . . you bring so much joy to our lives.  You love your cowboy boots, John Deere farm toys, Mythbusters and math.  You love your one-on-one time with Daddy and working on the farm.

Happy 8th Birthday to a special boy!

Pickin' Beans & popcorn

Monday, October 14 was a fun day for us.  Seth would be harvesting our beans and we spent most of the day down at our old place. 

First, we fed our growing pigs who will feed our family and several others in the coming months.  

Eliza took some time to swing in the barn.  

Eden and Ephraim take a break on the bean head trailer to wait for Daddy to get close and switch out children.  

Making the switch. . . 

For a while, they rode one at a time.  That's nice for Seth and for the children.  Each child gets some alone time.

Watching Daddy from a distance. . . .

The girls are running out to Daddy for their turn to ride.  

While some children were riding, the others were working . . hard.  We cleaned out the basement of the house.  Mopped the kitchen/laundry room floor and hauled up boxes from the basement.  Then we pulled up the garden fence and picked all the popcorn.  Check out the size of that popcorn stalk that Ephraim has!  We were pleased with our popcorn crop this year, despite the drought.  It only takes a couple rows of popcorn to feed your family that snack for more than a year.  We've husked it and now we will let it dry down before using Grandpa's old-time sheller to take the kernels off the cob.  

It was a great day to spend together.  We got a lot done, both inside, outside and in the field.  

Our week, October 13 to October 19, 2013

Sunday, October 13, 2013

The farewell sermon booklet from our Pastor's last sermon on this day.  Kind of bittersweet day for all of us since Pastor Don married us and baptized our children.  The worship service was amazing!

Monday, October 14, 2013

We spent the day riding in the combine with Daddy while he harvested our beans.  More pictures of this day later.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

I'm still trying to get all our apples processed.  Whew!  This day we did 14 quarts of apple pie filling. 

Wednesday, October 16, 2013 

Monkey Bread.  Delicious.  We love having this for breakfast/snack once a week.  

Let me explain this one.  We really enjoy Apologia Science.  We're studying the Land Animals of the 6th Day of creation.  Along with our reading, there are various activities or experiments.  This particular one is the relationship between prey and predator.  The tigers that live in the rain forest have dense, dark conditions (thus the blindfold) and still have to find food.  The children were pretending to be predator and prey with the blindfolds.   

M&M's make flashcards more fun!

Breadsticks.  I think they taste just like the ones you would find at Pizza Hut or Pizza Ranch.  It was an hour before supper and I wanted bread with our meal.  Garlic bread or cheesy bread would be great.  I found this recipe for 40-minute breadsticks.  Perfect!  And they were DELICIOUS!  Try them out.  We've already made them twice.  

Thursday, October 17, 2013

It is the night before Emmet's birthday on the 18th.  Seth was at a good stopping point for the night and surprised us by coming home by 7!  Wow, that hasn't happened since . . . well, I can't remember.  So, with Emmet's birthday being the next day, we let him open his presents 12 hours early!  He was super excited.  

Friday, October 18, 2013

Emmet with his cowboy boot cake.  He decorated it all by himself, yee-haw!  And yes, (my astute blog readers will notice) he has the same shirt on as the night before.  Children go through phases, yes?  Emmet's particular phase right now is to sleep in his clothes--jeans, belt, shirt, everything.  So, in the evening, when the other children put on their pjs, he puts on a clean set of clothes.  There'll be more pictures from Emmet's birthday.  

Saturday, October 19, 2013

We'd finished reading the book Almost Gone, illustrated by Steven Jenkins.  He is probably most famous for his book What do you do with a Tail Like This?  We enjoyed his illustrations and that was the basis for our next art class.  Well, only a couple of my children caught the vision that I had . . . and I'm okay with that.  Here is Eliza's butterfly and habitat.  She had painted the gray on a separate sheet.  We waited for it to dry and then we drew and cut out the butterfly and glued it on the habitat.  

Saturday morning found us at my nephew's flag football game.  

The girls played Barbie/mammoth.  

While my boys . . . 

all while Garret played on the field . . . .

Our week, October 6 to October 12, 2013

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Sunday, after church.  I kept forgetting to take a picture for the start of Sunday School, so this is it.  Everyone is enjoying Sunday School.  Ephraim has Seth for his small group teacher.  Emmet and the girls are in the same large group but go to different small group teachers.  The girls are in separate classes and learning to adjust to the fact that they come home with different crafts/papers.  I continue to be busy teaching the large group lesson on a rotating basis and managing the Children's library.  

Monday, October 7, 2013

A very silly time with the Very Silly Sentence game!

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

The view from my kitchen window.  I made the valance from Seth's Grandma Ferguson's hankies.  

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

We had to give a deposition at the sheriff's office this day.  The burglar was present, too. 

The Bible verse that came to me as we prepared for this day (with only about 24 hours notice) was Psalm 112:8  "His heart is steady; he will not be afraid, until he looks in triumph on his adversaries." 

How did the deposition go?  Well, the defendant still wants a trial.  He has plead not guilty.  This whole process is frustrating and long.  

On Wednesday night, the children had Gems/Cadets and I worked in the basement on the new Missions Bulletin Board.  It isn't quite finished, but this is how it looks so far.  I've got a clock for each missionary and it is set for their time zone.  We also have prayer cards for each missionary that are available to the congregation.  I am pleased with how it turned out.  The map is new and the missionary pictures have been updated.  

Thursday, October 10, 2013

You might be a farmer's daughter if you have your birthday in a barn!

Friday, October 11, 2013

I made a Chicken Macaroni Bake for my monthly supper swapper meal.  We've already consumed ours and it was good.  Visit the Supper Swapper blog for more recipes.  

Saturday, October 12, 2013

My morning started out by driving to Pella and dropping off another van-load at the semi that goes to Mississippi.  That is always a good feeling.  I did finally get rid of the baby stroller, you can see that sitting by the steps.  I also dropped off the children with my mom so I could go to a wedding in the afternoon in Albia.  It was a nice ceremony for a friend of mine and from there I went to Osky to the retirement celebration for our pastor.  He's retiring from our church after 16 years and also retiring from the ministry.  It was a beautiful celebration.  

Congrats on your retirement and we wish you well!

Happy 6th Birthday

October 10 was the girls' 6th birthday.  They've been counting down the days to their birthday for the last month or so.  Eden had only one item on her birthday list:  Barbies.  Eliza also wanted Barbies but she got something else that fits her personality, too.

First, it is October.  For a farmer, that means it is a busy time of the year.  Well, who am I kidding, farmers are busy year-around but extra busy during harvest.  Seth has been working 18 hour days so we haven't seen him much.  That creates the dilemma of opening presents as a family.  Solution:  take the presents to where Daddy is farming.  

Yep, you might be a farmer's daughter if you have your birthday in a barn.  And they didn't mind a bit!  

The girls with their present bags!

Eden got a Barbie doll and table/lamp/chair set.  Eliza got a purple pick-up truck with horse trailer and horses.  

Ahhh.  Their princess Barbies.  And yes, if you can read the fine print, they are the 2007 and 2005 Holiday Barbie.  And no, I didn't break the bank paying for them.  Gotta love those thrift store finds.  The Barbies have never been out of the box.  Sorry Barbie collectors, but these will see some play time.  

An outfit for each girl:  a denim skirt and shirt (both from a consignment store, but that's okay!)

Another Barbie for each (found those at the new Hope Ministries Thrift Center) and a new Barbie outfit.  Eden's is an ice skating outfit and Eliza got a horse riding outfit.  

A photo with Daddy and our heart-shaped banana bread for breakfast.  

The girls with their cake.  This is a practice cake for their party in a couple weeks.  We had a bit of dilemma in deciding whose Barbie would be in the cake and we compromised with Eliza's Barbie but Eden's Barbie dress.  

Sisters who love each other!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!