Big Kids

They're growing up.

Everyone was busy posting pictures of their kids on the first days of school, and here I am, a little late. But I did take the pictures.  The kids were a little nervous heading off the first day.  They got on the bus and headed in - I didn't even go in this year to just be there.  I felt a little bad about it, but they made it through the day fine.
One day I told Adina when she got off the bus,

 "Oh, how are you? I've missed you so much today. Did you miss me?"

She replied, "No."

I thought I misheard her...I said, "Did you miss me today?"

She answered, "No, Mom, we're in the SAME town."

Oh. Ok.  I guess she's feeling safe and secure at school and it's fun and busy enough where Mom isn't missed.  It's a good thing, I know. :)

And she's got her first set of spelling words this week, too.  So we've been practicing reading them, writing them and spelling them out loud.  Yesterday, she took a practice test at school.  I asked her how it went.  Her response was, "I did HORRIBLE. I got every one of them wrong."  I thought to myself that we'd have a lot of work to do last night to get her feeling ready for today.  When we got home, I looked in her folder from school.  She got 8/10 on her test...hardly horrible and only 2 wrong.  Haha...Matt and I laughed about that one.

Here are some pictures of Clarence and Adina's first day last week and Clifford's first day this week.  Cliff's first day, he woke up stubborn and determined to stay home.  By the time he'd eaten a pancake and was dressed, he was ready.  And so cute.  He rode the bus really well and I met him at school to get him situated in his classroom.  He's kind of quiet, but says he likes school, and I think he just likes to watch kids and see what they're playing.

Clancy and I are having fun hanging out together...and he really loves doing all kinds of farm work, so having to be home by himself with just Mom and Dad a few hours a week isn't going to be too hard on him.

Have a fabulous weekend, and eat some beef today!

Family Pictures!

And we're off!  Matt and I head off on a fun couples adventure today, and we're leaving the kids behind with Auntie Mary!  I don't think she knows what she's getting into. Ha!  We love her and are so thankful she's willing and able to take care of the kids for a few days while we go off and have a little fun.

Meanwhile, here are some adorable pictures taken last week of Matt's family - his parents and siblings and us.  Thanks to Michaela of Sustad Photography for all the great photos.

Have a great week and weekend!  

Time Flies And We're Having Fun

It's been so long since I've wrote on here that I've forgotten about my blog. Until today, when I was looking for a recipe and thought I might have shared it on here a while ago. It wasn't here, but I realized how much I miss sharing about my sweet family.  Whether anyone reads this or not, it's still here and something my kids can come back and look at in years to come.  I was also saddened to realize I haven't written a post since last October.  They've changed so much since then!

Our 2016 has been full.  We try and savor our time with just our family and the times we can just be home, doing our work and improving things around the farm.  With all the rain we've had lately, we've done a few things.  Matt made me a sidewalk last week, and is working on a new cement pad because he's moving in some hopper bins later on.  We haven't hayed much because of all the rain.  The quality won't be very good at all once we get into the fields, but I just pray that we will be able to get into them and make hay for our animals for the winter.  Matt has stayed optimistic and does not dwell on the fact that it's almost late summer and we've hardly made any bales for winter.  He knows this is out of our control and trusts God's plan for us.

I'll just share a little about each kid to catch up for myself. I want to remember how they are right now - they're so fun!

Clarence is great.  He works almost like a man...he's been so helpful for Matt for cattle work, fencing, and just any sort of farm life.  This spring, we were busy sorting out about 50 or so pairs so that we could work them and put them in another pasture.  A bull got out and mixed everything back up again - not a huge deal, just more work.  That day, Clarence came home from school and just went outside for a while.  When he came in before bed, I asked what he'd been up to.  He had brought up over 25 pairs by himself to help Matt out.  His heart is so big and just loves to serve others.  He's been busy with tball this summer, but that's complete now.  He also planted a big garden - corn, over 60 tomato plants (I think) ...he just kept finding more and more and planting them wherever. His plan was to grow oodles and sell them at the Farmer's Market in town now later on, but he's finding out what too much rain will do to his garden.  It grows weeds better than tomatoes.  He's also hatched out about 25-30 chickens from his own incubator this spring.  He and Matt built a little portable chicken coop for them one weekend, which really made him a happy boy.  He's very dedicated to feeding and watering them and getting them to new grass.

Adina's been a gem this summer, too.  She has learned to be content with very little tv, and plays with and entertains her brothers so well these days.  They just find things to do outside all day long.  She's such a huge help in this way - I don't have to worry about trying to help find things for them to do because she's busy doing it.  She loves swimming, riding bike, drawing pictures for people, playing with her friends, camping, and she's really enjoyed trying to learn how to read better this summer.  I guess as long as it's a princess story, it's all good.

Clifford is such a hoot. He's always smiling and happy. He just goes with the flow and wants friends to play with, no matter who it is.  Clothes are probably our biggest struggle right now - he'll only wear fast clothes. Yes, you read that right.  Fast.  Fast underwear, fast t-shirts, and fast shorts.  And then he demonstrates how fast he is.  I just cheer him on and he goes faster.  Last week, we bought new shorts and he showed me the tag before he put them on and said, "See, Mom, that says fast."  I just told him he was right and to show me how fast they were.  :)  He's fun.  He's also kind - maybe it's his age, or maybe it's just his personality, but he's the one of my children who tells me I'm pretty and he tells me he loves me most often. He also likes to give me hugs and kisses most often.

Clancy is wild and fun, too.  He doesn't miss a beat following the big kids around. He wants to be in on everything.  If he knows someone's leaving, he's so sad if he's left behind.  He loves to be part of anything, from playing, to ranger rides, to working cows in the barn, to just playing farm by himself in the house.  He won't give kisses often during the day, but when I put him to bed, he's ready to pray, then he'll kiss me over and over.  I love bedtime with him.  He's been sleeping in a big bed with Clarence since about Easter, and they both love it.
 
Cliff's showing off one of Clarence's first batches of chicks.  His incubator holds 9 eggs, and I think he did 3 or 4 batches.  It was a fun project for him.

Adina loves to help with Clancy...all the time.

I found Clancy like this one day when the bigger kids were outside playing. I guess he felt a little left out.  :)

Adina graduated from Kindergarten this spring.  She's getting so old!

Clarence and the calf - it's his registered heifer that he bought from Polson Creek Ranch by Wannaska.  He's really proud of her and very concerned about which bull she's going to be bred to for her calf next spring.


The pictures are a few months old, but show what has gone on here at our farm since winter-time.  We've got lots of great cow-hands and chick-hatchers and bottle-calf feeders.  I hope to write again soon!  We have VBS this week out at Galilee, so we're all excited about that!

Oh, the cuteness!

We're busy getting ready for fall at our house, even though it doesn't look like it when you drive in our yard.  Ha.  Matt's to-do list is a mile long. I try to help a little, but there are things that I can't help with, so much of it is left for him alone.  We finished hauling hay on Saturday, so that was a great thing to check off.  We still have to finish siding the house and put on soffit and faschia.  Well, I guess Matt does. That's one thing I'm no good at helping with.  He's way up on the roof doing things.  There's also manure to haul, fences to fix up in the yard, cows to haul home, and the list goes on and on.  Good thing he's got Clancy and Cliff at home to help during the day. They make all things run smoother.

I'm excited for things to get finished up so we can clean the front yard up.

My kids have been exceptionally cute and fun lately (not to brag or anything)...

Here are a few cute pictures from the past weeks:

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These 2 with their goggles; Actually, this was from earlier in the summer, but it's worth showing now because it's awesome.

Clancy and Cliff spent the day with Auntie Nikki last week when I was subbing. Clancy's great help in the kitchen, as you can see.

Making pizza at Auntie's exhausted him. :)

We celebrated Clancy's 1st and his cousin Haaken's 2nd Birthdays, as well as Haaken's brother Swede's baptism a few weeks ago.  Clancy liked making ice cream for his party. 

We made:

vanilla

mint chocolate chip

strawberry

coffee

They were all amazing. I love homemade ice cream.  Clancy loves homemade ice cream, and he's adorable.

I'm sad that I don't have any new pictures of Clarence to show you.  I'll get some from my camera soon. He's had amazing luck with his garden this year, so I'll put his pumpkins on to show everyone. 

Here's one of his pumpkins, which was sold to my cousin Barb and is now living in Iowa.  He told her he'd sell it to her ONLY if she'd send him all the seeds when she was done with it.  

He has big plans for a huge pumpkin patch in the horse pen next year.  I can't wait to see what it turns out like (it'll be weeded, watered, and perfect).

Until next time, have a great day, Babay!

Yeah, Babay

Little Cliff is an adorable little handful.

His latest and greatest responses are:

"Yeah, Babay."  (to nearly every question I ask him)

"Sorry, Babay." (after he'd been mean to Adina in the car)

"Thank You, Babay." (after I helped him with his shower)

"Hey, Babay." (to say hi to anyone)

He's so stinkin' funny! We like to talk like him just because it's cool.

He's going to be 3 in January. As of today, I'd say he's fully day-time potty-trained. Yay for us.  He was my easiest child to potty train.  He just decided it was cool to use the toilet and wear undies, so there was no looking back for him.  It's like watching him climb a jungle gym to climb onto our taller toilet downstairs, but he does it no problem. Most of the time, it's all completely on his own, too.

The big kids are in school everyday now, so Cliff, Clancy, Matt and I have a lot of together-time.  We're loving the one-on-one time with the little boys.  Cliff probably gets a little bored not having a big kid to play with, but he makes up for it by helping me 24/7 in the kitchen, or trying to rope Clancy when I'm not looking.  HE'S ALWAYS ROPING CLANCY! I take ropes away and he finds something else - a halter, a piece of twine, a blanket, etc.  So far, he's still a little bigger and a lot more sturdy and agile than Clancy, so he can still get away with some of it.

He's just recently learned to say "Cankey". Until now, he called Clancy "Baby Guy". I miss that. Baby Guy could qualify as the "Most Original Nickname".

Clancy, oh Clancy.  How I wish he'd sleep through the night. I threaten to send him to Nikki's house for sleep training, but in my heart, I can't let him cry anything out.  Last night I tried a little; he was stuffed up, wanted to be held but couldn't get comfortable, fussed for a long time during the night (and I'm subbing today). So, I set him in the crib, shut the door, and slept on the couch.  It was the best 5.5 hours of sleep I've had in quite some time.  He's got 7 great big teeth that bite hard. He smiles and all you see are teeth - they're so cute!
Clancy's learning to walk - he's taking a few more steps every day. He loves food and sitting in his high chair for the 5.4 minutes it takes him to eat. Then, he spits out his food, throws it on the ground, or cries until I let him out.  He loves climbing the stairs, playing in the toilet, taking pots out of the cupboards, and digging in the garbage. He's also really gotten good at helping Matt. Matt was out working on my deck the other day, right out my kitchen window. He knocked on the window to get my attention, and there was Clancy, at the top of the ladder on the deck. He climbs to the top any chance he gets. Another one keeping us on our toes.

Adina loves school. She loves seeing her friends. She's been learning about apples and the letter A. They just moved on to letter B. She loves playing house with her friends at school, with the Barbies at school, and with her brothers.  All day, every day school is a new adjustment. She comes home tired and hungry.  We work on ABC's and read sometimes, and she helps entertain the little boys.  She's fun and cute and Baby Guy loves her a lot (we all do).

Clarence is busy. He's got projects on his mind 24/7.  From horse chores to pig chores to hauling hay to making cow books (you should see them) to helping move machinery to gathering eggs for selling to randomly surprising me by doing a little chore, that boy doesn't stop. He's got work on his mind ALL THE TIME. What a gem.  He's always hungry. He's learning all about spelling words and the work required to memorize them (a bigger chore than all his other work!).  My favorite is a note he brought home to me yesterday.  A plain white piece of paper that said, "I love you Jacki."  It completely melted my heart. What a honey!

Matt's great. He's busy. He's hauling hay and building my dream deck.  He rocks.  We're having fun with our farm and our life and our cool little family.

Our favorite response to each other if we need a little mood-lifter is "Yeah, Babay."  It helps remind us of what's important - those adorables listed above.

Have a great day, Babay!

Playing catch up

Wow. It's been four months since I wrote last! That's crazy. I had been trying to make it my goal to write a few times a month to keep caught up with my blog, but time flies when you're having fun, right?

The kids are growing, learning new things, helping, fighting, thinking about school in 10 days, etc.  They're so much fun.  Most of the time.

Anyway, lately I've been thinking a lot about a verse from 1 Thessalonians 4..."Make it your ambiton to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and you will not be dependent on anybody."

I love this verse. It's what I'm striving for these days.

However, at the same time, I wonder:

Do I quit my blog and just focus on my family?  Maybe, but at the same time, I love what this blog is for me...a place to look back and see what we've done together as a family and remember fun things my kids have said or done.

Do I cancel my facebook page?  Seriously, I go back and forth about this one daily.  Truthfully, though, as much as I dislike all the crap and whatever is on there, I feel like it's also my connection with people I don't see often, or with groups I'm involved in who only communicate this way.  It's still a toss-up for me, though.

Instead of focusing solely on this social media stuff and how I'm sick of it/annoyed with it, I want to try and just be in the present with my family.  Sure, I WANT to write about my kids and put pictures up, and I probably still will.  I'll still check facebook, too, It's just part of life these days.  But my goal with this verse is to fully live each day, and work at getting stuff done each day (even when the tornadoes run through the house and it all seems like it's not worth it.)

Anyway, these are my thoughts lately...hopefully I'll get back into the blogging realm. Until then, I'll be minding my own business and working with my hands. ;)

Have a fabulous day, friends!

Daddy's Helpers

Yesterday, Dr. Mattson came over and we worked bulls.  Clarence and Adina were at school, so we had Cliff and Clancy out helping us.  Clancy woke up with a cold yesterday, but I bundled him up well and he helped for an hour or so.  Matt's so lucky he's got so many great helpers around this place!

He yells, "Hah, hah, c'mon, bull."

"Cheese"

Matt walking the bulls up to the chute...Cliff's watching.

Clancy out helping...he was watching the dogs.

Every hard-working cowboy needs to stop and have a snack break.

Always ready with his paddle...

Dr. Mattson made the comment, "You can tell this is Clarence's younger brother - he doesn't go anywhere without his paddle and he's loving every minute of this."

Cliff had to check in the trailer and make sure the bull was behaving...turns out this was a mean one.  When we put the next bull in, they started fighting in the trailer and we had to let the one back out of the trailer and let it run back into the chute.  

Little Clancy fell asleep and rested in the pickup while we worked the last few bulls.  

What great little helpers we have, and I just love how they (mostly Cliff) want to be so involved with what's going on.  

A visit from the Roseau Great-Grandmas

On Saturday, Matt's mom brought his grandmas over for a visit.  Since both Megan and Mark and us have been redoing our houses, she thought it would be a fun time to show them our houses.  On Friday, I made some caramel rolls and cinnamon rolls for us to have for brunch the next day.  Saturday morning, Matt and I finished speed-cleaning the house for company, and then enjoyed the rest of the day.

Here are some pictures of the kids and two of their great-grandmas:

All of us minus Carmen...

Some of the kids were being difficult taking pictures.

Here's a pretty good one.  Grandma Jeanette brought over handkerchiefs for the kids...The boys all love their new "cowboy scarves"!

Since Mary didn't come, the day wouldn't be complete without the boys calling her to check on her.

Last night the kids were helping in the kitchen...they're adorable!

Saturday afternoon after our company left, we had a great family ranger ride around the pasture.  It was so much fun and such a beautiful day!  We found a pile of gopher holes, so the boys decided to start trapping.  Then we crossed the river, the kids played in it a little bit, and we explored the woods a little bit.

What a fun way to spend a Saturday.  To top the weekend off, Sunday was raining, so we all just napped and watched movies on Sunday afternoon.

Have a super day!

Little Clancy

Here's a recent favorite picture of mine...

This is last Tuesday at Altru.  Clancy had to put on a hospital gown because he had an MRI.  He was born with a sacral dimple.  I don't know all the technical terms, nor do I want to, so here's just what I know and have experienced through all of this.  He was born with a sacral dimple.  At the top of each child's butt is a little dimple...instead of being closed like most other kids', Clancy's is an open hole.  When he was about a month old, we did an ultrasound to see if it was open all the way to his spine or if it was closed.  We didn't find out because he was a squirmy baby that day, and they were a little worried about the bottom of his spinal cord. They thought it might be tethered.  So, they told us that we'll do an MRI when he's 6 months old, see what we find out, and go from there. If it's open/there are problems with his spinal cord, there would be surgery.  If it's closed and all looks well with the spinal cord, nothing would happen.  Well, after a stressful day at Altru (stressful for me...just worries and whatnot), we went home to wait for results.

Wednesday evening the doctor called to say that all is well. He's completely normal, won't have developmental issues related to his spine, and his sacral dimple will eventually just close up.

We're so thankful that all is well and that our little boy is completely healthy.  How lucky and blessed we've been with all our children.

Praise God!