Learning...

To crochet!! Noelle has been very interested for a very long time to learn to crochet. Beth took some time to teach her the very basic chain. She loved it!! She was so proud of herself. She made the cutest expressions every time she completed a chain. Here are some very cute pictures of her first time crocheting. There is also a picture of today's sunrise. It took a few shots to get it and I messed around with my camera and this is the best I could do.

Noelle shows off her chain!!

Happy faces all around after figuring out how to chain!!

Just starting.

Beautiful sunrise!!

~Lindsey~

Baxter State Park

Hello! I can't believe that it has been so long since my last post. To me the days seem to blend in together like a blur recently. Getting up doing the animals getting back to the house to eat and help other kids, get them ready get yourself ready, do a devotional together, doing school, chores and occasional field trips and outside recreation. I guess I cannot blame that entirely seeing as I could have made time instead of reading. I, sorry mom, would do some blogging instead of school reading, but when you are in the middle of a great series and you don't seem to have much time for it, sometimes at night is the only time for reading. But anyway, here are some pictures of our recent trip to Baxter State Park.

Scenic view up a little river.

Hannah and Noelle :D

A funky shaped tree, well what is left, with Katahdin in the background.

Some lovely watern falls.

Upon arriving, we were able to go observe a moose who was grazing in a little pond.

This is Beth and Timmy looking on at the moose.

Small panoramic from an outlook point.

Hannah poses for me at our lunch area.

A vibrantly colored leaf on the trail.

Bekah smiles after enjoying lunch on a rock next a stream.

And lastly... a family photo!! I set the timer on my camera and I had 10 seconds to make sure I didn't mess up the camera and then run between these rocks down a little trail and onto the bridge. Although my hair is VERY messed up from running, it only took a few tries to get it. It didn't come out too shabby either!

~Lindsey~

My Favorite Video

I took this video of Timmy one day while Beth and I were doing stuff in the kitchen. Tim knew that he couldn't go get the cat or crawl onto the hearth to get the food and water. He gets so upset because he knows he cannot be naughty! So this video just proves that even 10month olds know the word "No"!

~Lindsey~

All Things New

Wow! It has been so long since my last post! I decided to do just a big post to catch everyone up. Things are finally starting to settle down a little near the end of a VERY busy September. We are losing light fast these days and the weather has been quite crisp. It is already time to switch our clothes over I guess. We have had a couple of frosts which is good weather for the apples to sweeten up, unfortunately I wish we could have had nicer weather longer. We have had a couple of nice days though, so it will help transition us into fall weather. Animals keep growing and being added it seems like almost constantly. Here are the latest pictures. I was able take all these pictures with my camera although some didn't come out great. It is very hit or miss to get a good picture. It seems as though I may have to get a new one :(

Here is our beautiful Appaloosa, Cainy. She is very sweet, however, like any other horse she has tried to pull some silly stuff while lunging or riding.

Our meat chicks are growing fast! Right now they are still kind of cute, but not for long!

This is our newest calf, Jasper. We are VERY thankful he is healthy unlike Trey. Although he is definately not the smartest thing, I would take that over being a sick cow! Isn't he cute though!?!?

Here is Izzy. She is very sociable and loves us to play and visit her. She is now outside in her fenced in area and loves to root around.

We have a start on our winter hay for the animals.

Here is Trey with Jasper in the background. He is finally healthy!! He got loose today because the lunge line broke so we are very thankful he is a people cow and came right to Dad and Chris! I guess all the time we spent around him will help us with situations like these!

The new chicken house! It is very large and it even has a loft in it! I really like that it has a divider so we can keep grain, corn, etc. in the front part of the house and the chickens can't come trying to run out the door when you open it. Dad did a great job!

Our apple trees are doing great and pretty soon we will be harvesting them! YUM!

Adorable Timmy in the field while the rest of us are putting fencing up for the pig. He was so fascinated by being surrounded by such tall grass he would just stay in one area for a while.
It worked out great! He is clapping to show that he likes being outside in the grass =)
On one of the chilly mornings the fog was rising from a pond in the mountains and the sky was absolutley clear; it was beautiful! I couldn't resist a picture.

Well, for now I think that brings you up to speed. Next month we will be getting about 5 new pigs to raise over the winter for us and others. I am REALLY NOT looking forward to lugging buckets of water to all the animals this winter = (

Until next time
~Lindsey~

Update

My camera has been, and will be for a while, out of comission since my last post, however I thought I could at least tell you what has been going on. Well, right after my post about Trey he started doing worse. I thought we were going to lose him; he refused to eat anything that we tried to feed him. That made him weak and he was literally shaking from having no good nutrition. A few other things happened that are too gross to tell, but I can tell you that after antibiotics, Pepto Bismol, and long hours of nursing him back to health he is back to a healthy, frisky calf! YEAH!

Isaiah did follow through and caught us a piggy!!! He named her Izzy, and she is the cutest little thing. He loves going down, as do the other kids, and spending time with her. Both Rebekah and Isaiah were picked for the scramble. Poor Rebekah had her pig grabbed from her while trying to get it in the sack!! She didn't know what to do!! She went to go get another one but by that time the others were taken. The ratio was 2 kids to 1 pig in her age category. It was funny because it was a boy quite bigger than her that took her pig. Oh, and it was a farm boy!! At the beginning the announcer knew the boy and said it would be shameful to him if he didn't catch a pig because he lived on a farm, so instead he let Rebekah show him how to catch them and then took it! Oh well =D We will probably try for another one this coming weekend.

We did get the meat chicks in as well and they are doing well. We didn't know when they were coming until we got a call from the post office saying they were in! We hurried and through a box together for them and it worked out fine.

I was going to wait..... but I can't! We are getting a horse! We will be getting her in the next few days. She is a strawberry roan colored Appaloosa. She is about 15 hands and is really good with kids. I had to give up driver's-ed for a while, but it is worth it. I will try and get pictures of her on her somehow. That will bring our animals to:

• 1 dog
• 1 cat
• 22 laying hens
• 30 meat chicks
• 1 calf
• 1 horse
• 1 pig

Well I think that is it, and even if it wasn't I would stop because a certain little someone took a PERMANENT black marker to our keyboard and colored ALL the letters in. I am not a great typer so it has made it very challenging!

~Lindsey~

Our New Arrival

We are all so excited about the arrival of our newest member! Our little Trey Victor arrived on Tuesday the 18th at about 7:10pm, weighing 90lbs and measuring about 40" long. He settled in well and is absolutley adorable!!! Here are the pictures of our newest arrival.

Hannah and Trey.

Our first time bottle feeding him the night he arrived.....

Noelle came down to say good night to him.

This picture came out dark, but I don't have very many of him.

Elizabeth says good night, too as Trey settles into his stall.

Although he started off well, he now has "shipping fever". He has gotten some antibiotic and will hopefully start doing better soon. We have to feed him a bottle 2 times a day every twelve hours. He is now about 10 days old and is still learning how to eat grain, hay, and grass and drink from a water bucket. If caring for him isn't like having another child, I don't know what is. We also have to go out throughout the day to try and get him to at least drink and if possible eat. I think most of us enjoy it though! Even though it is late into the summer, we are also getting 30 meat chicks and hopefully the kids will be able to catch a couple of pigs at the fair =)

~Lindsey~

Climbing

While two of our cousins were up, we somehow came up with the idea to climb a mountain about 15 minutes from us. It was my mom, Beth, me, Bekah, Isaiah, Noelle, Hannah, Tim, and our cousins Kayla and Ben. Although it was fun, it took us 3 hours to get half way up and down!!! I know we had alot of kids with us, but it was disappointing to get half way up and then have to turn around because it started to rain. Last September, Beth and I, Chris, Rebekah, and Chris's friend scaled that same mountain in under 1 hour! Oh well, it was fun anyways!

All of the hikers, excluding Mom, at the entrance sign.

Noelle, Hannah, and Ben turn and look long enough for me to snap a picture.

Panoramic from an outlook point.

Benji poses on top of some large rocks he climbed.

Kayla checks out the summit with a cool telescope they had out for hiker use.

We actually did have fun on the hike! I think it tired them all out too! On the way back down we took a trail which the kids enjoyed. It is more challenging than just walking down the gravel trail, but it kept them occupied!

~Lindsey~