You Know Your Child is Getting Bigger When She:

- Saves the chocolate chips for last while eating trail mix
- Reminds me that we need to clean up toys after a play-date at a friend's house
- Hops up from the supper table (at close to bedtime), disappear for a while, come back w' jammies on, teeth brushed, pottying done, and asks to be tucked in.
- Heaves Calden out of the crib and makes him happy if the mama is preoccupied :-)
- Looks people in the eye and says 'hi' back w' a little smile
- Buckles Brielle and herself into the car-seats
- Pours her own milk without dribbles

- Then crawls unto our laps with a stack of books and snuggles right in

Age FIVE is so rewarding! It's so grown up, yet still so dependent and innocent.

We're in the thick of our tots' busy childhoods, but trying to soak it all up. How can I expand my sponge?

Life's Little Moments

We have a 'love' relationships with the dandelions!!

Calden just LOVES to filter through the grass

Thank you, Daddy, for your hard work on the swings!! The hours of breeze through our hair are starting to be logged.

This is called Lester Landscaping. Let the hens weed it.

Free Play at it's best

The start of many tree fort picnics

Calden is king at bombing book time!

Really?

Rhya found two pipe cleaners and informed me that she'd be attaching them to my headband, which would result in 'bunny ears'. The rest afternoon and evening I was a bunny. The lawn mower didn't know the difference and neither did the milk cow. :-) I decided that they should come out for gospel mtg that evening!

For the past 2 weeks Brielle has insisted that she's actually named Weston. Every few hours she reminds us: "Remember now, I'm Weston!!" I have no idea how she chose this name! She must like it. :-)

Nate has been having a bit of frustration at work. It's nothing serious, but he has stories about a certain co-worker every now and then. Tonight at bedtime Rhya said, "I don't want to go to bed. I want to hike the hill to the apple trees." Nate explained that 10:15 was a very late time for kids to get to bed. She said, "Fine then, I'm going to call you ____!" (using the name of the guy Nate's been venting about)
She has never even commented when we've been talking about ____ but obviously her ears area always in tune!! (reminds me of niece Kylie)

We had a 'family day' at 4YK today. Rhya's teacher had lots of funny stories of how observant Rhya is. A while back Rhya pointed out that Mrs. Coulson always swallows while turning the page of the book she's reading. Guess what Mrs. Coulson notices now EVERY time she turns the page? Ha!!!
Also, evidently Rhya makes note EVERY time Mrs. Coulson has her hair different.
I've also learned that there's a substitute who always raises her big toe when she's sitting on a chair talking to the class. :-)

Whenever Brielle is going to do something for a long time she says, "ALL day morning!!"
Example: "I'm going to keep my undies dry ALL DAY MORNING!!"

Dust If You Must  Author Unknown
	Dust if you must, but wouldn't it be better, To paint a picture or write a letter, Bake a cake or plant a seed, Ponder the difference between want and need? Dust if you must, but there's not much time, With rivers to swim and mountains to climb, Music to hear and books to read, Friends to cherish and life to lead. Dust if you must, but the world's out there With the sun in your eyes, the wind in your hair, A flutter of snow, a shower of rain. This day will not come 'round again. Dust if you must, but bear in mind, Old age will come and it's not always kind. And when you go and go you must, You, yourself, will make more dust.

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.