9 months old

Elijah turned 9 months old last week so I thought I would post a few things about what he's up to. We just had his 9 month check up today and he weighed exactly 19 lbs and was 28 1/2 inches long.

Elijah is definitely an outdoor kid! He cries everytime someone goes outside without taking him along. He especially cries when Mark leaves. He also likes to be just like Ethan and Amelia. When he sees them riding their bikes he wants to join in. I love that this little toy because it has a long handle for pushing. We have lots of fun riding in the shop and yard!

Balls seem to be Elijah's favorite toy at this point. Any size from golf balls to soccer balls will do. He loves to play catch or throw and then chase golf balls on the kitchen floor.

He has two lower front teeth and the doctor said his top teeth are coming in.

He has been cruising around furniture for about 2-3 weeks.

Always bothering Amelia! Here he is trying to steal her Little Debbie cake. If he isn't stealing her food he is pulling her hair or messing up her games or dolls.

Walking around the living room with his little cart. He does great in forward but doesn't have reverse. :) We have to help out when he hits the wall.

His special "lovey" is a fuzzy blanket my Aunt Jean made. He loves it and for some reason sucks on it to go to sleep.

You would think that most kids would be scared of the vacuum. Not Elijah, he zips right up to it and puts his hand on the top to feel it vibrate.

Fun with Amelia.

I have another mess-maker!

Trenching with Dad

This trencher was a winter project for Mark and his family. They spent many hours building it with their friend Rob. Today Mark and Rob came to our house to do some work. Mark had just unloaded the trencher and Ethan quickly jumped on board. He didn't want to get left at home with Amelia! He stuck close to dad all afternoon. As for the ugly machine shed in the background, that will be my summer project. Anyone want to paint with me? :)

This is just a little snake Mark found while working.

Mark and Ethan watching Rob get started.

Sticking close to dad.

The next location, fixing a tile connection at the bottom of the field.


This is Ethan helping move some mud. All this hard work makes a boy very thirsty. So thirsty that he decided he would drink water from the tile. Mark caught him right away and mentioned this wasn't the best choice. So gross! :)

Mark searching for the broken tile in the mud.

Our feathered friends

Last Saturday the kids and I picked up 6 chicks and 3 ducks. This is our third time raising chicks so I knew what I was getting into with them. It's our first time with ducks and it's turned out to be a lot more work than I thought! Chicks are pretty easy, about the only annoying thing they do is scratch and spread their feed though the pine shavings. Ducks however splash in their water making everything soaking wet in a hurry. Chicks don't like to be wet so I have been changing their bedding 2-3 times a day to keep them healthy and warm. We have them all in the house in a large Rubbermaid. This morning I power washed and moved my large chick box the shop, so hopefully tomorrow I can relocate them to a larger area.

Our flock.

We chose 2 Pekin ducks. They are big and white when they are full grown.

I put a pan of water in the pen for the ducks. It was so cute to watch them splash and clean themselves. The black duck is a Rouben duck. He is basically a larger version of a mallard.

If I can't find Elijah I just look by the chick box and he's usually there. He loves to watch them . Thankfully he can't reach them in the bottom of their box!

"See my chick" Amelia is holding one of the Buffed Orphington Chicks.

Ethan claimed the Rouben duck as his.

This is just a picture of a black bird I caught on Saturday. He flew into the window of Mark's shop and got knocked silly for a few minutes. The kids thought he was kind of neat.

The Kid Hauler

After squeezing 3 kids and two adults on the 4-wheeler last summer Mark and I decided we try a more roomy approach to riding around the farm as a family. So after many Internet searches, several recommendations and bunch of shopping around we found the perfect way to get everyone around safely; a Polaris Ranger equipped with a passenger seat! We found a perfect ride on e-bay the problem was the seller was in eastern Pennsylvania and wanted more for it than we wanted to pay. Long story short the Ranger didn't meet the sellers reserve and Mark called and offered him a more reasonable price which he took. Our next dilemma was to affordably get the machine from Pennsylvania to Iowa. Large carriers were over $1000! So we took a chance on a private shipper we contracted on UShip, an Internet site were you put out the info. on your shipment and shippers bid for the job. It worked great and we had it shipped to us with no problems for less then half of what the big guys wanted! I would recommend this site to others if you need something large shipped. Anyway, we were very thankful to see it pull on the yard this week! It's always nerve wracking dealing with strangers over the Internet thankfully we had two honest people to work with!

The e-bay picture showing the kid's back seat.

Unloading after a long ride to Iowa!

Ethan and Amelia checking things out.

Elijah strapped in the back seat.

Ethan's Birthday Party

Ethan had a few friends from his class go to the Fun Factory for his birthday. We spent about 2 hours playing in a big jungle gym type thing. The boys were hot, sweaty and hungry by the time we finished! So we headed to Pizza Ranch for the buffet! It was so fun to watch them play together and listen to their stories. We will defiantly have them over again!

Ethan had been talking about having a Transformers birthday cake for a long time. I wasn't thrilled about the idea because this is a movie we won't allow him to watch plus I didn't know how to decorate the cake. I was very excited when he went with Mark's suggestion of a soccer theme! Ethan likes about any cake if it has some sort of topper that he can play with after we eat the cake. The cake doesn't so much of my decorating skills but it made him happy and was quick to make.

Boys playing on the jungle gym thing.

Aunt Ang got in on the action and took Elijah down the slide. Elijah looks slightly stunned but Ang is having a good time

Grandma holding grandsons Elijah (8 months old) and Logan 3 months old).

Starving boys quietly eating. :)

Gotta have the picture in front of the cake.

Blowing out the candles.

Ang got Ethan a soccer ball for his birthday. This turned out to be the best entertainment. We had the back room so they played soccer in front of the buffet line in our room. Yes it was loud, but they didn't break anything and had a good time!

Mark played a little soccer to keep everyone in line. :)

Ethan's Birthday

Ethan turned six years old on March 4th! I can't believe how fast time has gone! He spent his day enjoying the beautiful weather. We also made soccer cupcakes for his kindergarten class. Ethan's job was to put the little soccer balls on top of the "grass" cover cupcakes.

Ethan sampling an extra cupcake.

The finished product!