He's ONE today!!

We've had loads and heaps of snuggles, drooly grins and kisses, sweet mama time, baby blabber, silly giggles, cozy nights, hours of nursing time, explore and discovery moments, and much more!! 

As the poem on his birthday invite said, this is what's ahead:

A One year old child is so many things--

 a tiny discoverer of butterfly wings,

A Hugger of Teddies,

A sweet sleepyhead, 

And someone to dream for in bright years ahead 

(copywright, umm, somewhere on google?)

Month 0:

Month 1:

Month 2:

Month 3:

Month 4:

Month 5:

Month 6:

Month 7:

Month 8:

Month 9:

Month 10:

Month 11:

Happy completion of an entire year, our little charming man!

You are not quite walking, but taking 5 steps here or there. You have been free standing since you were 8.5 months old so we thought you'd be an early walker! Turns out you are quite cautious at taking steps but you sure like to climb!!

You loves to mimic certain sounds, like clucking, saying BUH,, DUH, DADADA.

You also love to throw things overboard and then look up and catch our eye and LAUGH.

You are very observant and don't miss a beat.

You get SO EXCITED when Daddy comes home, or when you see someone you know that you haven't seen in a while (like when the girls wake up in the morning)

You get really shy in crowds and snuggle in to Mommy and peak out at the big wide world.

We had a FUN first birthday party! The weather favored the day and so the backyard hosted our crowd. We made a monkey cake along w' kabobs and ice cream sundaes (complete w' bananas for our monkey, of course!)

Calden is so lucky to have family close by!!

The cake was pre-approved!!

More pics on nateanddarla.shutterfly.com

Ashley's ceremony from afar.

Congrats, Ashley!

What's been happening in 2015?

Last fall, during harvesting, the combine forged a nice path on a hill from one field to the next, so we took advantage of it and went sledding!

The other Lester family joined us for a fun filled Saturday. The girls have SO MUCH FUN together.

Good ole fashioned fun w' Uncle Bill:

We made our way to Terry and Sarah's for a fantastic, barf filled weekend. Rhya was sick all day Sat and Nate was sick on Sunday! He drove home w' a bucket between his legs. Poor Sarah put her washer to work.

Good thing Brielle, Calden, and I had fun! Rhya  and Nate got in a little Wii time before the pukes hit:

Sarah and Nate revived their sibling competitiveness. They are thoroughly enjoying boxing each other down. Look at the gleam in their eyes! 

 We were all ready to head out the door on Sunday when Terry had to be called in to work for a problem. Nate was upstairs sick, so Sarah and I decided that we weren't 'super mom' enough to handle all of our perfect angels on our own. Grin. We had our own mtg on the living room couch. 

This is what a normal day looks like, besides I had to give them fruit strips to get them to sit still long enough for a picture! We took advantage of a late winter (which means warmer weather) snowfall. The kids tried out their muscles and helped roll the snow balls! 

Rhya turned 5 and Brielle turned 3! We had a combined party, as usual. This year we attempted to make a tree fort cake. It went crashing to the floor before we had a chance to eat it. We quickly decided that the 5 second rule could apply.

Menu: Malts, burgers, french fries, fruit

Another year older.

Look at those smiles!!

Great Gpa and Gma Boyd weren't able to be at the party, so they came a few days later (on Brielle's actual birthday!) Gma Elva and Brielle's bdays are close together, so they shared a cake:

Our birthday present to the kids is a tree fort. Here is the start:

We invited Kylie and Karena over on Rhya's actual birthday! I met Shanda half way early in the morning and brought the girls back in time for a waffle feast. :-) Then all the kids and I loaded into the van and drove to the cities. We had a fun Trader Joe's outing, in which I had lots of exciting, willing, super happy helpers. We all got to pick out a salad. Then we had a picnic at the park, and headed to Belle Plain MN to look at 3 pigs to add to our homesteading family. Our final outing was completely unplanned, but Calden was screaming in his car seat so I pulled over at the serene Prescott beach. The kids all had a blast splashing and doing some crazy freezing water stunts. :-) Kylie was the star of that show! We finished off the day with a sleepover and then Eau Claire special mtg the next morning!

We sadly said goodbye to 22 year old Tatlana De (Tauntsie), our Arabian, that had been part of our family for 18 years. She had string halt (a leg problem) and wasn't safe to ride. Our new equine member is Peanut, an 11 year old Welsh pony Quarter horse cross:

It's spring, and the chicks have arrived. Rhya was up at 5am so she wouldn't miss out on the post office trip to pick up the cheepers! Emilee and Griffin arrived just as we were getting the chicks settle in.

Calden is changing so fast! His latest antics are fast head nods when he's excited about something, waving ferociously, and saying BUH! DUH! He did all three of these at the same time the other morning when he thought I should get up with him. :-) It was too early to rise, but how can a Mommy refuse such a happy good morning welcome?

We added a finishing touch to our current animals. I assured Nate that I was done accumulating animals for quite some time, but pigs really WERE a necessity! We bought a Red Wattle sow and her two feeder pigs, which will be freezer ready by fall. We rented a boar so hopefully the sow will have piglets in August.

This brings us to May! 

All Grown up Now

Goodness gracious. She's five. This is how our 5 year old resident carries on;

"I ran with Layla at recess today. She's really fast. We run the same speed limit"
Me: "Oh yeah? How fast do you think you were running?
Rhya: "Probably 7 miles per hour or something." (wow, not too far off!)

While getting ready for bible study, Rhya was getting spiffed to the T.
She really did try to wear the fancy lace socks with her sparkly heels, but it just didn't work for her. Too slimy. That's why the hello kitty sock found it's way on her right foot and the Frozen sock occupied the other foot. MUCH more comfortable.
After swimming Rhya put one pair of socks on. Then she said, "I need the other pair in there too. I brought two pair. This first pair isn't thick enough"

Rhya is getting quite capable in the kitchen. This morning she whipped up a batch of scrambled eggs. The only thing I did was 'man' the burners.
She was starving after her last swimming lesson tonight (which the girls LOVED, btw) She wondered about having cereal so I said, "Well, it's not the best choice but whatever..." Then I went to the living room to nurse the 'gasp' almost 11 month old.
She fetched the Raisin Bran from above the stove, climbed up and retrieved a bowl, poured the milk from the heavy glass jar, and proceeded to chow. All I heard was a bunch of clinking and slurping. I did peak at the beginning to see a gigantic serving. A few minutes later I heard a little mutter, "Wow. I am STUFFED" Then she sauntered off to get her jammies on, content as a spring chick (guess what we picked up at the post office today?)

Speaking of chicks, 35 of them are cozied up in the milk house. We arrived home from the post office at 8am. Daycare kids came at 8:15. Rhya took full responsibility of dipping all of their beaks in the special water. No prob. Easy peasy. She even handed out chicks and explained how to carefully hold them!

Rhya is getting queen of cracking little funnies. She'll say something witty and then quickly whip her hand over her mouth to hide the smirk...I really need to write stuff down when I hear it.

One of these days I'll get the pics off my camera. All for now.

2 year old humor, 4 year old thoughts and 8 month old milestones

The other day, as we were driving, we were talking about what people did for college and jobs. I described all of the different things people could learn about at college and then proceeded to ask the girls what they were going to be when they were all grown up.
Rhya thought for a while and then said, "A TEACHER!" Then she said, "Well, actually, a worker"
Then we talked about how God will tell you what he wants you to do if you remember to pray and read.
Then I asked Brielle what she was going to be. She looked out the window and said, "I want to be a STICK!" Ha. She obviously said the first thing she saw. :-) Then she said, "A MAN!" I have no idea where that came from but she chuckled a bit.

As we were tucking the kids in Rhya said, "Since I am almost five I am getting too big for my stuffed animal. But is it okay to still have it? Cuz I really like it. I want to keep it." We've been talking about how she'll be ready for certain things when she's five but never this! Kids sure assume things!

It's time to talk about Calden, at 8.5 months old. He's just the most charming little bug. His little nose scrunch still delights us, as does his huge nose snorts as he's excited or really happy that we're looking at him.
His motor skills continue to charge ahead as he's cruising furniture as well as balancing for 10 seconds at a time. A big huge rear thump follows the balance but then he just laughs (unless it's too major of a head bang)
He gets very excited about food and shovels it in as fast as he can. He thinks it's very fun to try to drink out of a cup we hold out for him.
Little C is starting to jabber. He likes to do the 'babababa' noises, and much to daddy's pleasure, 'dadadada'.
Sleep is out the window. He wakes up a good four times per night. Maybe it's the tooth that starting to poke through? Or all of the new things his brain is processing? Either way I'm a softie and put up with it cause he just goes right back down. No night time partying, just frequent middle of the night greetings and paci or nursing requests.

Now I can't look back on this blog and think that all was just peachy perfect so here's a story for ya. My perfect (in public) little daughter Rhya has inherited the lovely sassy, temper stricken spirit of her mama. Gets mad easily? check. Gets offended if she thinks I talked to her in the wrong tone of voice? check. In fact, if I'm getting after her she huffs and says, "DON'T talk to me in that tone of voice! You're HURTING my feelings!" Oh and the melt downs are fewer but the 'getting mad' stuff is pretty common.
Back to the story. The girls were FIGHTING LIKE MAD over the toy coupe that I brought in. No, it's not a house toy but it's been so cold outside we needed a little boost and it's been fun. However, they were having massive issues so I scooped them out of the one person seat, picked up the car, and announced that it was going out to the garage. Next thing I knew, I heard a schppt sound and then saw a string of spit come flying my way. Then Rhya stomped  away.. Yes, that's right. She SPIT at me. So there. She's not perfect. :-) I told Nate later and he got round eyes and then nodded and said, "Yeah, she's a GOOD spitter. She did just spend a week spitting into the sink when she had a chest cold so I suppose she was all practiced up.

The other week I was venting to Kayla about the girls fighting so bad. She had no sympathy but said, "So??? We did it too!" Oh yeah. Reality check. It's normal. Anyway, I think I need tips right now because they really do love each other and play awesome at times but when it's bad it's BAAAD. Hmm. Still normal, eh? They usually make up pretty quick and go off to take care of there dolls or 'get ready' to go on a trip to the waterpark, grandparents, cousins, conventions, etc. The bags are being packed constantly.

The days are getting longer. Our little house nestled in the pines and fields is bustling this year. What a wonderful stage of life!

Quiet Thoughts

Rhya recently spent a couple days sick in bed. Afterwards, she said, "Sometimes, when I was laying there I was awake. One time I prayed."

I replied, "Oh, that's really nice! What did you pray about?"

Long pause.

Then she replied, "God"

So simple and sweet. Somehow her little mind was turned to our Father. She just simply thought about him and it made her feel all safe and cozy in her bed. 

This big person can learn so much from my little people. Just think about God. It's enough. He will then guide our thoughts.

See that Girl?

She's going to become my sister in law! More importantly for her, she is going to become my brother's WIFE!!
Yee haw!! We couldn't be more excited! The rest of us have been impatiently waiting this announcement for a few months now. Yes, they've only been dating for 16 months or so but they seemed totally perfect for each other right from the 'get-go'.

The girls are totally smitten and will be thrilled to have Aunt Ashley only a few miles from us! We are foreseeing many horse rides, book snuggles, impromptu suppers, and good ole times in the future!

I tried to find a picture of them together, and this is the best I've got! Calden bombed it when they came to see us at the hospital last May. :-) I can assure you that they have plenty of pictures though, because that's how they announced it to us.
Travis and Ashley 'popped in' one evening and brought Nate a birthday present. Then Travis looked over and asked Ashley, "Do you think we still have that Shutterfly book in the car?" "I think so" she replied, and hustled out to retrieve it. Then Travis proceeded to ask me about the mural on our wall (totally trying to come up with small talk, HILARIOUS)
Sure enough, after we hurriedly flipped through the book (anticipating the end), we came to the last page that said, "SOON TO BE Mr. and Mrs. Boyd!!