Random Stuff

I am way behind in posting pictures! Here are a few from mid-February.

Mark ordered yet another tire for his dirt bike. You know he orders a lot for his bike when the kids see the Fed Ex guy pull on the yard and yell "Look it's the motorcycle guy!" Oh well at least he rides it instead of leaving it sit in the shed all year. For some reason they shipped his tire in a box big enough for a dishwasher! The kids didn't mind; it was transformed into a house in no time!

Elijah's been eyeing this toy for awhile so we let him have a turn.

Still fascinated with the shower drain.

The kids and I filled up the hot tub a couple weeks ago. Sitting in it every winter is always great fun for them! At first we had Elijah stand beside the hot tub and watch, then he started tugging at his shirt as if he was trying to undress. We felt bad leaving him out, so we put on his little swimmer and he joined in on the splashing. He really enjoys the hot tub as well as his bath. We do turn the temperature down to a kid-safe level for all of you thinking those horrible parents aren't supposed to put kids in hot tubs. :)

Sick Kids

Elijah & Ameila have been battling RSV and something else for the past week. Today was the first day everyone has remained fever free. Elijah still seems to be feeling tough but is hanging in there. We are thankful that his oxygen levels weren't low enough to be hospitalized. We do breathing treatments at home. Amelia has also had a terrible cough to the point of throwing up. She is doing much better, but still coughs if she runs around to much.

Elijah giving himself a breathing treatment.

As you can see he's not sick enough to stay out of trouble.

Crawling

Elijah started crawling! The last week in January he really took off and has been busy exploring ever since! He especially likes to rip the leaves off my plants and climb into the shower and play in the drain. So gross! I put up the baby gates last week and warned Ethan and Amelia not to leave stuff laying around or Elijah will eat it or wreck it.

A short video of Elijah crawling in the kitchen.

Temporary baby gate. :)

Ethan made a little farm with all his equipment neatly organized in the corners of the quilt. Then Elijah came - it's not so neat anymore.

Naughty Boy!

Gardening so soon

It's never good when your husband is looking out the window and says from across the room "look what YOUR kids are doing." This is what we saw on Sunday afternoon. I guess I'm not the only one excited to start gardening!

This spring I need to get a couple skidloader buckets of dirt to fill in my garden/pond.

Ethan still had his church clothes under his snow pants. :(
At least I was able to get the mud out. :)

Another mud hole they were digging in.

Young Farmer Conference

Friday and Saturday Mark & I packed up the kids and headed to Des Moines for the annual Young Farmer Conference. We arrived at our hotel about 30 minutes before our meeting started. As I was helping Amelia out of the Navigator and grabbing the kids' stuff I realized that we forgot OUR suitcase! If you ask me, Mark was supposed to add his toiletries and bring the suitcase to the car, if you ask Mark I was supposed to make sure we had everything. :) It really doesn't matter. :) Fortunately for us, BJ and Cassia were also heading to DesMoines for meetings and were nice enough to go back to our house from Pella and bring us our suitcase! THANKS GUYS!!!!

The group from Mahaska county.

I took the kids swimming on Friday night while Mark listened to the keynote speaker John Phips from the US farm Report.

Amelia loved swimming. It wasn't long ago that she wouldn't swim unless someone was holding her. Now she goes all over by herself!

Ethan made a friend, Josh. They were in the daycare together and Ethan said to me, "I think Josh farms too." I laughed and told him that everyone here farms, its a farming conference. He was amazed. :)

Rachel and Sara singing with "Live Band Karaoke" This was our Friday evening entrainment. I was really impressed at how many people sang.