Catch Up

Last weekend Mark and I headed north to Souix City for a Young Farmers Meeting. We were excited to meet three new couples and look forward to growing friendships with them. We also said our good-byes to three out-going couples which we had a blast with over the last two years! As always we have a great year planned with the committee. The state fair contests, Young Farmer Conference and our trip to Washington DC are a few of the things planed for the next year!

Group shot of the guys on our committee checking out Greg's shop. Greg in the red at the far right.

We toured a 2500 head dairy near Souix City. They sell all their milk to Blue Bunny for ice cream. This was a very impressive farm! Very high tech and perfectly clean!

I'm sad to report that our beloved goose was killed this week. He got to the point were he wouldn't go in his pen at night and a coon got him. Amelia blames me for his death. She said if I would have put him in his pen the coons wouldn't have eaten him.

During a quiet evening you will usually see a deer hanging out in the bean field. Last week I saw a group of 5 (2 little bucks and 3 does) grazing along the field. They like to come up to the yard and hang out by the chicken shed. They don't seem to be too afraid of me, in fact they snort loudly and look and me like I'm in their territory.

Elijah eating his first corn on the cob. Unfortunately with only three teeth eating the corn off the cob was little time consuming. After he had his fun I ended up cutting the corn off the cob for him.

Cutie Pies

We had pictures taken at Digital Galleria in Pella this morning (Amelia's 4 year and Elijah's 1 year). The kids did such a great job and look so cute. Here are a few of my favorites!

Stuff from Last Week

I have a variety of pictures in this post. Last week was a busy week full of exciting stuff. First Elijah has started walking! He has been carrying things from place to place and thinks this is very cool! He also got his third tooth, finally! :) We had his 1 year check up and he weighed 20 lb 14 oz. (15%) and was 30 in. tall (50%) I guess we have a tall, skinny little guy! Last thing about Elijah is that he got his first haircut. He did well and sat a still as can be expected for a one year old little boy.

We went from the pool to the salon, Elijah liked swimming better, but sat well regardless.

Mark and Ethan started putting steel on the shop. Ethan is a little slave driver and is always pushing Mark to go work on the shop. It's because he enjoys helping dad and likes to use the scraps for his own building projects. :)
You can't see the colors as well as I would like but you all know Mark of course it's blue and white. We may do the roof in blue, we'll see how the summer goes.

Many of you heard we lost Goose. Tuesday we got him back! After being gone for nearly 2 1/2 weeks he was returned to us! As I suspected our neighbors dad found him and took him home, not realizing he was ours. The goose is two months old and looks full grown.

"Back off! Get your own food!"

"Don't mess with me, I'm bigger!"

Mark's beans look very good around our house!

Swimming Lessons

Ethan and Amelia finished two hard weeks of swimming lessons Thursday. They both did so well. I was very proud of the good examples they were to the three younger kids in the class! Ethan officially can swim on his own and jumps and dives into the deep end! This makes me nervous. :) Amelia can float for a short time but still needs a little more practice. Her teacher told me if she takes one more session she will be swimming on her own.

Amelia loving the water!

The back float.

Ethan hanging out on the side of the pool.

Doing the back float all by himself.