Wild About Pigs

***Live in country. Must have animals.***

John, the good sport that he is, happily delivered 2 piglets to our doorstep, I mean barnstep.

It all started when I asked John if was going to get pigs again soon. He said yes, and then asked if I wanted him to pick me up a couple. I replied, "YES!!" It didn't take long to persuade Dad. It made me feel like a kid again, crossing my fingers behind my back that he'd oblige.

Here they come! The kids were all eyes. Rhya was NOT impressed at their ear piercing screams as we carried them to the pen in the barn. She started wailing herself but settled down after the pigs realized that they were safe.

A week later, when we moved the pigs outside, Rhya INSISTED that she be RIGHT next to us when we carried the pigs out. We told her that they would scream again but she said that she wouldn't cry. She surprised us and stuck with us the entire way, informing us that the pigs were fine. "They're fine, Mom! They're fine!"
                           

Meet the pink male. He's way lazier than the female. She'll be hop skipping around the pen while he lounges under their dugout by the haybale. 

I've had a lifelong affair with pigs. If you ask anyone who knew me as a kid what my favorite childhood animal was they would most likely remember that it was a pig.

My next job is to save the female from butcher day and take her to our new place! Do I sense a market for grass fed pork? 

2013 Wild Mountain Rugged Maniac Mud Run

Calling all mud lovers!!! If you're looking to get dirty, this is the ticket. We are incredibly hooked on mud runs. It's not competitive at all, just super fun, especially with fellow goofy friends!

                                                 Nate, sqooshing through the mirk.

                                                Travis- looks like he does this every day!

                                          We ran this with Gary last year and again this year. It's turning into a tradition.

                                          Andrew- this is the guy who hates to get dirty!

                                             Weston the workhorse

                                                       3.1 miles, 23 obstacles. Nate finished in 38 min.

Jana, Julie, Ellen, Maja, Darla- let's just say we didn't do it for the time but for the fun!

                                                                     FIRE

                                             Typical Nate- cool, calm, collected, hardly puffing

                                             Here come the girls- Julie, Ellen, Jana

                                           Darla and Maja- There was a pool of mud at the bottom, and they slimed Dawn       dish soap on us so we slid super fast.

These two make their own obstacle courses!

For the Love of Spring

Free range kids with the free range hens!

Mother's Day is so fun now! Rhya came up to me the night of mother's day. She was giddy with excitement over the bag of Dove's for me. We had to open them RIGHT AWAY and hand them out to everyone in site!

The countless rainy days have been much to this puddle stomper's delight. There's not a puddle that she won't try to splash in. She even tries to veer into big puddles in the parking lots. Wet socks? Who cares!

We picked up 100 chicks at the post office. Rhya's attention span lasts a LONG time in the chick pen. The other day I saw her snatch one up, nuzzle it, and give it a gentle smooch. They're getting MUCH harder to catch now, much to her dismay. Good thing 10 are layers so she doesn't have to say goodbye to all of them at butchering day.

Kristina called us up one morning and asked if we wanted to check out the banks of Hay Creek. Wow! It was great! Last minute picnics have been a big highlight of this spring..especially when it includes cousins and friends! Grady is getting to be quite the charmer. I am amazed at his ability to chuck down the food. Fistfulls.

This spring brought the birthday of little Gabriel! Wow where did that year go? I think babies grow up on me way faster when I have my own kids to take care of. It feels like they are slipping past me but someday life will slow down and our kids will love to have cousin playmates! He charmed us all by his cake performance and newly acquired walking skills.

Where one is, the other will be also. Karena and Rhya are INSEPARABLE. Lately Rhya has been doing special little poses and telling me, "This is what Karena do." They must practice gymnastics together. :-)

We hunted for mushrooms and found none- same with our hunt for rhubarb (which we found out was burdock, thanks to Gma Mo and my dad. oops. hilarious) Rhya shimmied over rocks and scurried up the hills just like a little goat. 

Brielle at 14 months, delighted to be outside.

Homeless

We said goodbye today to the only house we've known as a married couple and family. Nate bought our house before we were married and we've lived in it ever since!!

It was very bittersweet to take one last eye sweep throughout the place. There are so many memories of Rhya playing in that little sandbox with her bare toes, sliding down the old metal slide on her tummy, poking around in the chicken pen under the lilacs, going through the 'doggie door' (hole in the screen door- ha), flopping down the stairs on her hind end, on and on!!

I remember walking through the front door for the first time after getting married (and someone put a hedge trimming tool in our fridge!)
I remember fixing up the place and laughing about eating meals at tv trays.
I remember getting stuck outside in COLD weather when the garage door opener was being stingy.
I remember our interesting assortment of neighbors (good 'ole Harold).
I remember both nights of laboring throughout the house, especially leaning over the couch in the living room.
I remember sitting on the front step, reading children books, watching the cars go by.
I remember how the baby swing was set up 'just' so in the living room.
Oh, so many memories in a short almost 7 years. What will the next place bring???

A Child's Perspective

We stood high atop a breezy hill this evening. Rhya rested on the hip of her daddy and Brielle lounged on her mama's hip. We watched the deer rustle around far across the freshly tilled field. Daddy asked Rhya if she could see certain objects almost out of eyesight.
The sky was dimming as Rhya perked up and pointed excitedly do the distance. "Look! Do you see that?" She asked. "See what?" Nate replied. "That red thing. That dot. It's blinking!!"
"Oh wow! That's a tower a long ways away." We smirked at each other thinking it was cute that she was so excited about something so 'non scenic', but yet impressed at her detailed vision.
"Let's go see it, Daddy!" Daddy chuckled and explained that it was far, far away. "You can do it. I know you can!" she urged.
Rhya shimmied on down her Daddy's leg to the rain soaked grass and grabbed his hand. She pulled at it as she said, "Here. I help you. I go with."
We explained that it was getting dark and that we might get lost if we tried to find it. She was sure we could find our way. Then we told her it would take hours to walk to the tower. "Why?" she asked. We finally distracted her into deciding we should get back home to check on the baby bunny.

A reminder of a simple lesson to me: Have the faith of a child. Eyes on the goal. The hills and valleys and dark experiences don't matter a bit if we have our god as our guide.

April

Happy May Day, which means Happy Anniversary Ma and Pop! 31 delightful years!

Who knew April could be such a fast month? Back up to March 31- I made a li'l cake on Brielle's actual birthday since she had to wait until April 20 for her 'real' party.

The girls were beyond THRILLED to go on their very first bike trailer ride together on the first nice day of the season. Rhya was a seasoned rider and Brielle had no qualms about speeding around town with her big sis'.

She did, however, have some qualms about this:

How does one get it into a 3 year old's head that a baby is not a bouncy ball? I suppose it does go both ways and Brielle does make up for it with hair pulling and 'my way or the highway' moments.  They really do enjoy each other and it's great to see more and more interaction between the two.

Backtrack to April 11. Rhya turned 3! She bounced the evening away:

We thought that a 1/2 hour of jumping would be sufficient but she was still boinging away at the end! Maybe I should've known- she would jump on everything if we let her. She thinks she's pretty clever when she goes to lay down in bed. She 'has' to stand up first and then flop down so her body bounces a bit. Sometimes she even sneaks a few jump start bounces in before flopping down.
Where do I start with the latest and greatest with this clever, sweet, sassy, energized ball of life? She's my shadow. She doesn't miss a thing. There's hardly such thing as 'code talking' anymore.
She gets embarrassed if we remind her about something that should be changed about her actions or behavior, and usually says, "But I was just doing this. See?" Then she'll alter whatever she was doing in hopes that we approve. (like just lightly bouncing with her knees instead of full fledged leaps, cleaning up a mess instead of smearing it all over, pretending like she's stuck on her way to the car seat instead of avoiding it when she decides to finally obey...)
She's started pretending she 'doesn't get' or 'doesn't see' something if she doesn't want to comply or doesn't want attention. For instance, the other day she was standing right next to her little kid rake and asked if I saw it. She looked all over the place (mainly in the sky- hilarious) until she said, "OH! Right HERE?"
She has no clue how transparent she is. The other day she told me to go into the bathroom so she could get a piece of gum. I had just told her that we didn't need gum.
I really need to write more of this down because she is constantly cracking me up.
If someone gives her a kiss she informs them if she left it on or took it off ("I taked it off") If I grab her a bit rough when she's being a stinker she'll 'wipe' off the part of her arm that I grabbed. I have no clue where she came up with it.

Enough with the sassy stuff. On to the sweet stuff. Rhya has lots of caring, loving moments.

She loves to take Brielle by the hand and go exploring.

She adores reading books and has NEVER turned down an offer to be read to. She snuggles right in.

 Lots of times when I am carrying her I whisper, "You can put your head on my shoulder." Instant head burrow. :-)

At random moments she'll come running up, plant a smooch on my face, then run off.

Music is a must with this child. She is hardly ever silent. She sings the day away. It takes her FOREVER to finish a meal because she hums with food in her mouth and gets lost in lala land.

Rhya and the farm get along swimmingly. She is a little chore girl, collecting eggs, riding on the tractor w' Gpa and the dirt bike with Travis (she says, "I hanged on bary tight!!), taming wild kittens, throwing loose hay into the horse paddock, riding trike all over.

 

On to the next piece. Did I say farm? We're living with my parents right now, since we decided to sell the house and buy something in the country. We spent a good part of April cleaning up the house and moving most of our stuff out. We moved in with Mom and Dad April 20th, listed it April 25th and it sold on the 26th. It's not official yet, but if the inspection goes well on Fri we can set a closing! The buyer want to close by the first part of May. It sold before it even hit the MLS.

 

Mom and Dad are getting quite used to us, as they even hosted the girl's party. Everything went perfect and the girls enjoyed the day immensely. We're so lucky to have so many relatives close by, including 4 grandparents, 7 great-grandparents (6 attended). The girls adore all of their cousins and aunts/uncles too. The day was busy, but at times I loved to just step back and observe everyone enjoying each other so much. We definitely are spoiled with rich fellowship.

Our menu was Grilled Chicken bacon salad, French bread, and strawberry milk. 

Rhya got a 'pig wallowing in mud' cake:

Brielle got a 'ducks swimming on the water' cake:

Present time!

 

With that, I will hop my way to bed. My little bunnies will be up in the morning regardless that I stayed up way too late to write a blog entry that should be in 3 separate posts! Congrats if you made it to the end.

 

 

Still our Baby

Happy Birthday Brielle Bethany! 

Sunday (March 31) was the actual day. Oh the memories that came flooding back from 1 year ago!

The night before her birthday Nate said, "I vividly remember that day she was born. It was a very good day"
I wholeheartedly agreed with the exception that it felt like my stomach was going to flop to the floor. :-)

Wow. One year. Now she's a walking, jabbering, climbing, full of life mini person!

 - She started out 8 lbs 11 oz and is about 21 lbs at 1 year

- She started experimenting with walking at 11 months but it took her the entire month to get up the courage to walk full time. Now she walks around with a huge triumphant grin.

- She likes to carry stuff around and try to put clothes on her head. It's a common site to see her walking with a pair of tights strung over her head and one of Rhya's shoes in her hands.

- She thinks it's so fun to arrange things. On our recent trip, she spent hours putting sea shells in the bucket and then dumping them out...over and over. Last night we spent 30 minutes putting wooden pieces in and out of a puzzle.

- She has very important things to tell us and gets really involved with jabbering. She'll use her hands, lean into the person she's humoring, and look them straight in the eyes, 2 inches away. If we yell something to a person in the next room she'll yell over there too. Full volume is easily achieved. She loves to talk on the phone. If you want to hear her jabber just call us and you will have a willing participant.

- She knows what she wants and will let us know! Rhya and Jordan's sippies are hot commodities and she'll go to any extent to get them. She wiggles ferociously and says, "EH, EH, EH" whenever she is trying to tell us something that she wants.

- She knows how to do 'SO BIG!!'. She'll also put both hands on her head if she's asked where her head is. She's very adamant about shaking her head back and forth if she doesn't want something.

- Brielle and Rhya are starting to really enjoy each other's company. Rhya was zooming Brielle all over the yard in the umbrella stroller today and they had a BLAST.

These years of having small children are SO fleeting and SO precious. Where is the pause button? In the meantime, we are looking forward to a busy, fun filled summer of toddler-hood.

**The above pics were taken on our recent FL trip. I will blog about that soon! Meanwhile, pics are up on Shutterfly.