a clarification

Janice's comment to my last post had me wondering if other people who read here are having questions.  I was kind of surprised by her comment, but I know that I am not very good in the communications department (just ask my hubby, who is probably laughing at that statement!).  So I thought I would clarify a few things.  Sometimes I can't remember if I wrote about something before, and I assume you all know what I am talking about.

First I want to clarify about the growth hormones.  The growth hormone issue was brought up by our family doctor, now for the second or third time.  It is not something I looked into because I was unhappy about the size of Jedidiah, as it pertains to any preconceived notions I had about how tall or big he should be.  Jedidiah is not *just* small for his age.  I could totally accept that if that where the case.  There would be nothing wrong if Jed was below the growth curve, BUT was growing along it (he should be following the pattern of the curve, but doesn't have to be on it).  The problem with Jed is that he is NOT growing.  Which is why I mentioned that he 'fell' below from where he was.  This isn't a matter of aesthetics, but a health issue.  A child his age should still be growing.  This is the very reason Jed was on a feeding tube for three years, because he wasn't growing.  I assure you all we didn't put him through all those tests and blood draws and the g-tube because we wanted our son to be a line backer (I use that comparison only because I hate football so much, it is SOOOO not my desire to see our sons look a certain way or be as big as so and so, etc.)  He went through all of that because there was/is something wrong with him.  He's not 'normal'.  It is not normal for a child to be throwing up 3 to 5 times a day, it is not normal for a child to throw up if they laugh, or cry or because you touched the inside of his lip (checking for a tooth coming in), it is not normal for a child to not be able to talk at three years old, even though he was trying to.  There is something wrong with Jed, the doctors just don't know what.  After a ton of research on our parts I am pretty sure I know what is wrong, but time will tell. So when we last saw our doctor he again brought up how he thought maybe we should take another blood draw to look at his growth hormones and look into growth hormone therapy.  Growth hormones (artificial ones) scare me!!  I've written about that before.  Which is why we haven't looked into them even though we've been asked about them a couple of time before.  It was only after I did the growth charts here at home, that I saw Jed has not been growing.  He was just touching the bottom line of the growth chart in height (which is the 5th percentile) and now he is four lines below the curve.  If I draw a line across the chart to see at what age his height falls into the 50th percentile, it makes him as tall as a child who is 2 and 3/4 years old.  And his weight, well the chart is for the ages of 2 to 20 and his weight doesn't hit the 50th percentile!  His weight is the 25th percentile for a 2 year old, which means he weighs less than the average two year old (and Jed is 4 and a half  years old).  So not only was I concerned to see he hasn't been growing, I am also concerned because we will be having a check up with his GI doctor come this summer.  If Jed continues on this path (of no growth) it will most certainly be brought up that we may have to re-insert the g-tube.  Obviously we want to avoid that for many, many reasons.  Don't get me wrong, we will do it if we have to, BUT that doesn't solve the *reason* why Jed is not growing.  If we don't fix that then when we pull the g-tube out again a few years from now we will find ourselves in the same boat.  Jed eats, and he eats just as much (at least seemingly so) as Jonah.  Jonah, well lets just say he very well could make line backer status at the rate he's going! ha, ha!  But Jed, is a whisper of a thing.  There is something not working that is preventing him from utilizing the calories/nutrients from the food he is eating.   Which is why going on the GAPS diet is not an option for us.  We need to get to the root of Jed's problem, which I believe is gut related.  Phew!  I hope that brings everyone up to par on my previous comments about growth hormones.  They are NOT what we want AT ALL.  It's hard to be a parent sometimes.  We have to make decisions all the time that effect the future of our children.  I was only 'thinking out loud' if we were making the right one....the one about NOT giving him the hormones. 

The second thing I wanted to address was the intention of this blog.  It started as a way to keep our family in the know about how we were all doing.  We do not have family in the area.  Everyone wanted us to send them pictures, and wanted updates, etc.  It was too hard to do at the individual level, so I started a blog.  Then I realized how much I loved blogging because it was a cross between scrapbooking and journaling.  At least sort of :-)  I love looking back and reading posts from six years ago (I had another blog for a couple of years before I started this one).  I forget certain things that had happened along the way.  And it's fun to see how we have all grown and changed.  My intention is to be real.  Whether that means I am writing about wonderful things, or depressing things.  I write about what is happening in my life.  My life is not perfect.  And I have been more intentional about writing about the non perfect.  I once had a conversation with my sister about how it seemed I could never have it all together like it seemed that everyone else around me did.  She told me that I came across as having it all together on my blog.  You can ask her if you want, but I laughed when she said that!!  I do not, I said!  But she assured me that it was true.  I don't have it all together.  And I know there are other women out there who don't either, but like me, feel like they are failing because it seems everyone else has this thing we call 'life' all figured out.  I wanted these women to know, that they are not alone, I'm not perfect, but I am following the ONE who is perfect, and HE is what gets me through all of this.  One of the many protests about the Bible is that the people in it are all messed up.  That's the beauty of it all.  They are messed up, like you and me.  The beauty is that God so loves us that He sent His son to die for our messes.  The reality is that even though Christ paid for my messes, and He has cleansed me....we still live in a messy world.  I'm 'disatisfied' with my life because I have children who are not walking in the truth.  My heart aches for them, I have cried and cried tears of grief for them.  I have called out to the Lord to have mercy on them and draw them to Himself.  It pains me to know just how more 'messy' my children can get without Him.  I am 'disatisfied' because things get crazy around here after having a newborn.  Maybe that just happens at my house :-)  There has been a lot we haven't done due to Jed, or me just having a baby, or.....x,y,z.  There are things that need to get done.  We have some goals...sort of, that's one of our problems is we don't have a vision in mind, and so we dont' always know where we are supposed to be going or what we are supposed to be doing.  But one 'goal' is to become more self sufficient.  This comes with a learning curve.  We had one dog (at a time) growing up.  Two dogs total.  We didn't have chickens, nor knew anyone who did.  We didn't visit a farm unless it was a school field trip.  It wasn't until I was just about to graduate high school that my dad started a garden.  So I grew up, not growing things.  Most of our food came out of boxes and cans.  So the way we are trying to live is foreign to us.  Our generation has lost the "older women teaching the younger women..."  I've talked to many, many women who feel lost as they were not prepared to be homemakers, but they were prepared to be career women.  So you will see here my frustrations of knowing what I want us to be doing, but failing miserably at actually getting it done!   And although I fail, and I cry, and I doubt and I get angry and I.....on and on and on.......what I am hoping that will eventually be made known is that I don't give up, I stand back up after I fall, I call out to my Father and He answers, that I eventually find my feet again.....However, you're going to see me fall again, and cry and get mad and......because I am a sinner, in desperate need of a Savior.  And though I have taken Christ as my savior for once and for all, I still need His redeeming hand, his grace, his love to see me through each and every day.  I think that's what they call, sanctification.  I wish I could breeze through trials.  I wish I always held my head high in the deep waters.  I wish I could make it all seem easy.  But it's not.  I fail.  I get frustrated.  And then I take a deep breath and pray. 

So there you have it.  My life, my blog is a mess.  But it is being cleansed and renewed.  If only it would stay clean (kind of like my house! or the dishes, or the laundry....it's always needing to be re-washed).  One day it will, one day :-)  If anyone has any questions or wonders why we do things a certain way, or why we don't do things a certain way, or whatever, please feel free to ask.

Starting full GAPS after the weekend

Come what may :-)  I have weighed, and measured everyone's height.  I also took the older two girl's and my measurements for inch loss for our T-Tapp experience.  I know there can be differences in growth charts, but I was a bit upset to see Jed take a down turn in his height.  His weight came down a bit (on the curve that is, not actual pounds lost), and his height really came down.  He was actually *just* touching the bottom line this past summer.  Now.....it's down there!  I even went so far to look up the safety of human growth hormone therapy!  For some reason the idea of it all scares me (so maybe I should be wary as it could be my mommy radar), but I wonder if he, as an adult will be upset with us for not doing it.  And from what I read, the therapy does not sound appealing at all.  The child needs to have five injections a week UNTIL they reach puberty!  YIKES!  That alone would make it unrealistic.  Although there may be other ways of getting it instead of by injection.  Still, pretty scary stuff.  So, where does that leave us?  Well, they say if the child starts the injections by age six they should achieve expected adult height (compared with your own family's norms).  I guess that gives us a good year to see if we can make headway to remedy Jed's health and growth.  Not that we have seriously considered the growth hormone, but it is a bench mark of sorts, to know when it would need to be started to see the expected growth.  But I still think, doing things more naturally, although may not get Jed to 'normal' height, it may get him healthier and without risking any possible side effects.  Lots to pray about in that arena.

This weekend will be our big shopping weekend.  I plan on trying to make bulk chicken and beef stock to have on hand.  Plus bulk cook some beans (only white ones are allowed on the diet).  I already have some water kefir brewing, and *hopefully* some cultured cream brewing.  I made a mistake and put my starter that I just got into the whole 3 quarts of cream, when it was supposed to be started in two cups!!  Not sure how that is going to work.  But we'll see.  I plan on turning the cream into butter.  Probiotics are very, very essential on this diet and I am trying every way I can to come up with ways to get them into our diet.  We'll have the milk and water kefirs, kombucha, yogurt and the cultured cream.  I plan to try my hand at sauerkraut and other cultured veggies and fruit.  I will need the weekend to make up these bulk foods to have on hand during the first month.  Things are still not back to normal (are they ever :-)) and I want to set us up for success.  I do not want to have to stray from the diet because I wasn't prepared.  This will take some getting used to as the diet is pretty limited.  You can have all meats, and pretty much all fruits and veggies.  The only beans allowed are white ones and possibly one or two types of green beans.  You can have coconut and olive oils and butter for fats.  Hmmmm, I think that's it!  No grains, or starches, no sugar, no artificial anything, and no dairy (except in fermented form and homemade at that).  I know Moira has been itching to start as she asks me when we are starting once or twice a week.  I was already itching to start (pretty much literally), but now more so after seeing the growth charts.

And as much as I am excited I am also scared.  Scared that some how we won't see the changes we are hoping to see.  But that is out of my hands.  I can only do what is humanly possible and the rest is up to the Lord.  So we will dive in and give it our best.

Along with the diet changes I am also trying to get a handle on our schooling situation.  Or maybe just our household situation, or maybe it's just more of a 'life situation'!! Ha, ha!  I am sure it has to do with just wanting to get things rolling more smoothly.  We are getting things done, just not everything done.  We got caught up in laundry, but it's not all put away.  We have been doing school, but not all the subjects.  The girls are really 'suffering' from a lack of structure and need the bar raised on the quality of work they have been doing.  It's pretty much a catch 22 situation we are in, and although I am seeing a possible way out, it appears that we will not be pursuing the means at this time.  Which of course if frustrating and discouraging, when you are dealing with this day in and day out.  I have been trying to give it over to the Lord, but I find myself taking it back again :-)  I can only pray that when we finally do DO something it will not be too late for our oldest couple of girls. 

Well, the baby has been sleeping soundly for the past couple of hours, I wasn't expecting that.  If I had expected it I would have gone to sleep when he did (at 8 PM).  Thursdays are so very hard for him to deal with, which makes night time a nightmare.  The poor kid gets so overstimulated and can't settle on his own.  I am proud of him that he accomplished it in only one hour tonight as opposed to two and a half hours last Thursday.  I think this is why I am having problems with getting him to go to sleep on his own.  You really need to be consistent.  But being out of the house four days a week doesn't lend to being consistent.  He is learning, but he has to readjust every couple of days.  Making the learning go a lot slower.  Anyways, I'm off to bed, hoping he will sleep a bit longer for me to get some shut eye before he wakes up to eat.  I'll have to show you the fist pictures I got of him smiling.  He's finally smiling!! Oh, what a beautiful smile it is.

In My Kitchen

I thought I would share some pictures of my kitchen.  Well, only a small slice of my kitchen.  I love seeing other people's pictures of their every day surroundings.  The girls love to see older pictures of their bedrooms, and comment on how they are different now because of a, b, c.  And there is beauty to be had in the every day.  Granted some may have more beauty than others, but it's still there.  I have loved seeing some peoples snap shots of their kitchen sinks, with their dishes drying on their drying rack.  Yes, sounds silly, but it looked so quaint and beautiful.  So I decided to snap a picture of my window sill.  It's not very pretty, but it's what I've got :-)  So here it is, in all it's glory!

My kitchen window sill.  I love the light that comes in through here.  I was trying to capture the bottles illuminated in the sun light, but I found that hard to capture.  I'm still learning this photography thing.  I am proud that I am shooting all in manual mode.  It was a big learning curve, and there is still much to practice, but at least I have half way decent pictures now.

On my sill you see, left to right:  A bottle of champagne from our wedding, with an engraved wedding cup behind it.  An empty quart jar (that usually houses our water/bleach solution) with a newborn goat bottle cap on top (that we've never used!), a fake plant, some crochet hooks (I have no idea why they are there), some Dixie cups, a whole sill full of homeopathy bottles that need to be sterilized (I was keeping them in a large container under the sink, a much better place, but my container disappeared), my blade for my food processor (to keep it out of reach of little hands).  There are a few other things off to the right of this picture, that you can barely see in the above photo.  They are a figurine of a bride, a figurine of a groom (currently headless and needs to be glued), and another wedding cup.

The other day I was making flat bread.  The baby was sleeping, and the children were all playing.  I decided to take that time to pull out my tripod and practice taking some pictures with it.  It's a wee bit different when shooting in manual as you need to set the exposure right for the shot, as opposed to auto, where you just hit the timer button and go.  I had fun!  Here is some of the process of making my flat bread.

I LOVE the lighting that was coming through the window.  I think I captured it pretty well.  Here is my wooden cutting board getting ready to be re-floured.

Rolling out the dough.  I couldn't find my new Pampered Chef roller.  I am assuming a little boy took off with it.  They like to think it is "Roley" from Bob the Builder :-)  Not a problem as long as they put it back!  It will turn up soon I am sure.  So here I am using my non handled roller.

Pouring the olive oil on.  Yum, I can taste it already, or more like, again.

There it is, with the garlic, dried onion and course salt on top, ready to be put in the oven.

Taking it out of the oven, all nice and puffy.  I had originally set my exposure with the oven door closed, which is white, and had a very under exposed picture.  I could have left the oven door open to set the exposure, but I wanted to keep the heat in there, which helps the bread to puff up during it's short six minute baking.

There you have it, a slice of my kitchen.

Hope and frustration

I know I get a wee bit unstable after a baby is born.  With the hormone plummet, it leaves me weepy and sometimes depressed (aka the baby blues).  This time around things have been much better, but not entirely free from the weepies and blues. I can be really excited about something and the next hour be totally depressed. That can be so frustrating.  I am trying to constantly remind myself that God is the same God this hour as He was last hour.  It can be hard, and frustrating. 

For example the article I linked up to the other day from S.M. Davis.  Wow, great article.  It was pretty much everything we needed to hear in a nutshell.  I also read most of the other article mentioned in his article, "Freedom from the Spirit of Anger".  Something I really, really need to get victory over.  It is imperative if we are going to see changes in the children.  These articles have given me a lot of hope.  We've been slowly losing our children, the olders in particular.  It has been heart breaking to witness, and I hate the hopeless feelings when I haven't known how to address it.  Jeremiah has read the first article and agrees with everything Davis says.  We have briefly discussed it, but this sort of thing will take some serious consideration and careful planning.  The danger is making a great start, seeing changes and then WE revert back to old ways.  That will be more damaging than what we are seeing now.  So this is not something to take lightly or without a plan!  So there is hope, and I am glad for it.

On the other hand I get so frustrated with the myriad of things that pop up whenever we start to make headway.  They can usually be lumped into a few groups.  The children getting sick, things around the house breaking down with great speed and multiple items at a time, or fears of the future.  Right now we are on the mend from a cold.  I can only pray we stay healthy.  Very soon we plan on making some repairs around here, so I can also only pray that the money we are setting aside will be for that and not to take care of other things breaking down.  For example I would really like to have screens on my back windows.  We've already had a few flies in here!!  I hate flies!  Grr...So the first two things haven't (at least not yet) materialized.  But the third is rearing its head.  Again, these are the three areas that ALWAYS come up when we are trying to make gainful strides in our family (whether marriage or parenting related).  It never fails.  If our family is in total chaos then there is peace in the rest of the world.  Yes, I know that's not really true, but it seems like it!  And, yes, I know I am not supposed to worry about tomorrow, but I do.  It's hard to know what to do, or think sometimes.  There is huge talk, at least in some circles, of economic collapse, of the US going down, of....x,y,z.  We are told to prepare.  I hear it from my dad, I read about it, or hear others talking about it.  Prepare.  Well we've taken step to become more self sufficient, BUT we are SOOOOOOO far from being self sufficient it's scary to think of any of these scenarios coming to fruition.  Have gold on hand, make sure to have plenty of ammo, stock up a years worth of food, be totally self sufficient for all your needs.....ugh. I know I can only do what I can do, but sometimes I don't want to keep thinking about "preparing".  And why oh why are some of these things not avoidable.  Government is getting too big for it's britches, and we are told to 'prepare'.  I don't want to prepare, I want to know how to stop the government from growing any bigger.  I know of people who have left the country, thinking it will be safer else where.  One family didn't even tell anyone, NO one, of where they were going, just the country they would be in!  Wow, that is extreme!!!  And I'm known for being extreme :-)  That takes the cake.  I want to be level headed.  But when I look down at Aubrey I have this huge mommy bear well up in me!  Don't mess with my family! 

Alrighty, that is where I am right now.  Check back in another hour and I may be all giddy some minuscule thing, that's how these mood swings work!  Ha, ha!  I haven't taken any pictures recently.  I've been very busy with baby sleep training. I put a post together on that topic that I will share next week.  I've been very busy with that.  It;s taken a lot of my time!  but we are seeing progress. Speaking of baby, I hear that he is awake.  Gotta go.

What GAPS has done for one boy

I came across this the other day and thought it was pretty amazing!  Do check it out.  There is hope for autistic children, and many other children/adults suffering from a huge range of medical issues.

http://sahmville.blogspot.com/2011/02/autism-improvement-on-video.html

Wheels for Noah

I would all of you to please go check out Wheels for Noah.  I've been following this little guys story for about three years now.  He is only six weeks younger than Jed.  He and Jed both got a g-tube put in around the same time.  Unfortunately while we found out that what ever was ailing Jed was not life threatening, the same was not said for Noah.  He suffers from a mitochondrial disease.  Right now they are holding a fund raiser to purchase a wheel chair accessible van.  There are many ways you can help.  Just visit their site to find out how.  Their fund raiser is only 19 days away.  They didn't have a lot of time to put this together, so jump on board now :-) 

Thank you all!!!

not much to post

  So the past few days have pretty much been summed up with holding, rocking, nursing a baby.  A sick baby at that!  Yes, the dreaded sickies have visited our home.  Thankfully it is only a cold, nothing more.  But that  has meant a very stuffy and fussy baby.  I am getting the feeling that when this child gets sick we are in for some major complaining!  Ha, ha!  I had been in the middle of sleep training, which was going very well, when Aubrey got sick.  Time to lay that aside until he was feeling better.  Last night seemed to be the night, if for no other reason both he and I were totally exhausted.  I've been up many an hour during the middle of the nights with Aubrey.  Walking with him, or steaming in the bathroom to open up his stuffy nose.  Yesterday afternoon I was seeing that his nose wasn't so stuffy.  Then last night I had pretty much exhausted all my recourses to get him to sleep.  The one thing that has never failed was putting him in the Moby wrap.  But last night I think he was so exhausted and overtired that even that didn't do a thing.  It just let him cat nap for ten minutes before starting screaming and crying all over again.  Sigh.  So knowing that he was fully fed, and not in pain, and as comfortable as possible I sat down in the rocking chair and rocked him.  And Aubrey?  He screamed and cried for a solid 15 minutes.  It was pitiful, but I couldn't do anything else.  He fell asleep after 15 minutes and stayed that way!  I was able to put him down in bed, the first since he's been sick.  Since becoming sick we have not been able to put him down at all!  The few hours of sleep I have gotten over the past few nights have been propped up in bed or propped up on the couch!  Not comfortable I assure you :-)

   For the first time in days I decided to put Aubrey down for a nap, to continue with our sleep training.  I will have to write more about that in another post for anyone interested.  It went well.  And he's been sleeping for the past hour and a half!  It was nice to make some breakfast and eat it all in one swoop. 

   Not much else has been going on.  Again, half of us have been sick.  Now we are getting better, and it appears that the other half are getting sick!  Of course.  So since I don't have a ton to say I thought I direct you to a couple of good reading sources today.  The first is my sister's post.  Timely for sure!  Seeing as how I have been praying for wisdom and insight into our bumpy parenting ride we have been having over here.  Along with her post I recommend this article.  Jeremiah and I will be sitting down to discuss it and see what steps need to be taken with our family.  Here's another short article on 'saturation love'.  I can't say I agree with everything the author wrote, but I think the main point is very valid.  To put it mildly, 'we've got issues'!  I am sure a lot of people would just tell us we just have a teenager on our hands, but frankly God's word does not give provision for the teenage years.  What we deem to be normal teenage behavior can be wrapped into one little word: SIN.  I hope those two articles will get you thinking.  Have a great day!  I plan on getting some *major* cleaning done (if the baby continues to cooperate and sleep well!). 

Lots-O-Pictures

We had a wonderful time outside yesterday.  While half of the USA is under snow, we were enjoying a wonderfully cloudy, 70 degree day over here.  I wanted to get some fresh air as well, so I strapped on the baby and we all headed out.  Below you'll find lots of pictures of our time outside.  I think we spent about 3 hours out there.  And my back can attest to that!  I love my Moby wrap, but using it for 3 hours was a bit much.

As usual the girls were building wonderful creations.  They even brought out some of their toys to add to the fun.

Here's Flannery's community.  She was very upset to find that her community was wiped out by hurricane Jonah.  Ah, little brothers, you gotta love them.

I didn't even bother asking *why* Isabella was sitting in this blue bin that was half way filled with hay.  Sometimes I'm afraid of the answers!  :-)

Jed has started this 'new' thing.  He doesn't want his picture taken.  I made a game of it the other day by telling him I was going to "shoot" him.  He thought that was fun, except that makes it really hard to get a decent picture of him.  I have a lot of Jed's back, or blurred head, or....you get the idea.  And you must admit you love the new boot fashion.

Now, Jonah on the other hand, he's still a ham.  :-)  And a cute ham at that!

Speaking of fashion.  This my friends is high fashion.  Sandals in February, and lovely pajama bottoms.  And no it was not 3 o'clock in the afternoon.  At least if it was I'm not telling :-P

Moira trying to give me a silly look.  See now, I have the power of black mail on my side. Ha, ha, ha!

Isabella being silly.

A red boot.  Makes me think of those art exhibits I would see during my college days.  Things like "The Yellow Dot".  So I am assuming that this would classify as a very artistic piece.  :-)

This just struck me as totally funny.  I would caption this as, "I said to hit me upside the head with a 2x4, but I was *joking*!", or maybe something like, "Poor guy, he never saw it coming."  I was feeling a bit silly yesterday.  Well at least yesterday afternoon.  Must have been the warm air.  I wasn't feeling that way come evening though.

Saoirse working construction on their set up.  It was windy out so those 'shingles' kept flying off.

Saoirse was dismayed to see her hard work blow away.

Jed asked me to push him on the swing.  So after I got him in I grabbed my camera and told him, "Ah ha!  Now I've got you!  You can't escape from me now!"  He tried to fake that he wasn't happy about that.  But I managed to get about two half way decent pictures of him.

Around here we have some chickens who willingly jump into the soup pot!

"Oh Maude, Maude!  Run for it, you're in grave danger!"

"Don't worry Maude, I've got back up.  We'll find a way to get you out.  Louise, do you see a door to this thing?"

Look a fainting goat.  No not really.  But I will say I laughed my head off at this site.  This is Lilly.  Lilly is very pregnant.  I'm wondering if she isn't having twins!  Lilly was leaning up against the hay pile. She started to rub her head along the hay pile, moving her head back.  She just kept going until she fell over!!  I wish I had a video of it.

 

Just a chicken at the watering hole.

Two sisters looking at two sisters.  I thought this was funny too.  See, I was pretty slap happy yesterday!  I wonder what they are thinking?

Hey girls, whispering in front of others is rude. 

"A little to the left, no, to the right, ahhhhhh right there!"

For someone who is borderline germ phobic, this is a painful sight :-)

Can anyone guess where we spent the later half of our outside time? 

The creek!  We must get in what creek time we can before it's tick season.

This is our fallen disk swing.  Isabella knows all about that!!!  I saw Saoirse pick it up and bring it down with us.  I was wondering what she had planned on doing with it.

There she is doing "something".

It's a rock collector?  Really?

Jonah is afraid to walk across the bridge.  The open slats have 'caught' his foot in the past and so he found a better way to cross.  Smart boy.

Look we had company.  We had been down at the creek for a little bit when I heard a whole LOT of goat crying going on.  It seemed to be getting louder.  I looked up to see all four of our goats wondering around the top of the hill.  I sent Moira up to lead the way.  The goats were actually running down to the creek.  They seemed to have fun with the new scenery.

Oh, so it's not a rock collector!  Saoirse wound the rope around this tree and made a new swing.

Jed sloshing around.  Speaking of sloshing.  When Jed came up on the bridge I burst our laughing with each step he took.  He had at least two inches of water in each boot.  So each step you would hear this sloshing sound! I guess you had to be there.

Flannery had boots full of water as well.  She's putting her boots back on after draining them out.

Jed spent most of his time going back and forth between the bridge (where I'm standing) and where the older two girls were (at the bend of the creek).

Every time we go to the creek the girls always find more rocks for their rock collection.  I caught a few water droplets falling off the rock.

Lining up their rocks.  That doesn't last long though when you have two boys who think every rock they see is for throwing purposes.  There were quite a few less rocks to take back compared to how many the girls found.  Much to their dismay.  Didn't I already say something about little brothers earlier?  :-)

This would be the end result of our time at the creek.  Dirty laundry, but happy kids!

Not only did we have dirty laundry, but dirty kiddos!

Oh, and a tired baby.

Now it's time for me to go.  This is my new watch by the way.  Very classy.   Pink and plastic :-)  But it does tell the time.

Just because

Just because they're all cute!