Farm Bureau Achievement Award

Last spring Mark and I were selected as one of the top three finalist in the state for the Farm Bureau Achievement Award. This is a farm management contest Farm Bureau does for young farmers. After several months of waiting we found out we won! We will represent Iowa in Nashville next month. We're looking forward to this very much!

The Young Farmer Awards Luncheon.

They make a short video of each family, here's Mark on the big screen. 

Temple Grandin was one of the speakers. I really enjoyed her! There's a movie about her Mark and I watched before we heard her speak. I recommend it, it's called Temple Grandin, you can get it at Family Video for $1.

They had several big screens lining the hallway with slide shows. They used a picture of our kids and also one of Mark and his brothers.

We won this Gator as part of our prize for this contest!

November Highlights

Just a few favorite memories of the month of November. 

The kids always enjoy when cousins come over. They really enjoy riding dirt bikes together!  Here they all are ready to ride!

One of Ethan's first big school projects, a cabin on a plot of land. 

My front steps have been falling apart for years. I "fixed" the bottom step myself a couple years ago with a bag of Quick-Crete but the next two steps gave out recently. This forced Mark to finally fix them! Now if anyone wants to come help him with the siding project that has been in process for the last year and a half I would truly love it!!!

We had to rip out a little section of sidewalk, here Mark and the boys are mixing new. The boys always love guy projects like this.

Amelia lost her first tooth!

This is a picture of the ladies that attend the mom's group I help with at church. We have a super group of women, and I've enjoyed being a part of this group for almost 10 years now!

October

October was a great month for being outside! We did most of your typical fall activities like raking leaf piles to jump in, painting pumpkins and just enjoying the outdoors!

The kids worked hard to rake a big pile of leaves to jump in! It's fun to watch their teamwork in getting this job done.

 The boys painted designs on their pumpkins. Then enjoyed cutting them up and taking out the insides with the big kids after school.

WARNING: If you open a can of pop in our house, the kids will hear it, no matter where they are! They will come running with cups, begging you to share. You will be lucky to get the last swig.

This is Allison at nine months. She walks behind this little cart so well!

Mark and I participated in a farm management contest for young farmers through Farm Bureau. We found out last spring we made the top three for our state! Farm Bureau staff came out a couple times to video Mark and  his family harvesting and do some interviews. This picture is of  Mark and his brother making a plan for some dirt work. We look forward to hearing what place we got in December!

 Mark's made the front page of the spokesman twice in the last couple months. :) 

Allison is growing up so fast. In the last month I've really noticed her changing from baby to toddler. She's started playing with dolls!!! I love it! After listening to little engine noises from the boys for the past four years , it's been fun to see girl stuff again. :)

Yes, my kids know how to pick up and put their toys away. 

Like father, like daughter. Both looking very cute in their homemade hats. :)

Kids and Harvest

It's good to have another harvest behind us! I have to say, each year the combine cab seems to be a little tighter fit. Five kids and two adults is quite a squeeze. Things usually start out well, but as the ride goes on, kids start fighting about someone touching someone or someone looking at someone or someone taking someones food or drink... but hey they're only young once so we better enjoy it while it lasts, right! :)

This was Allison's first harvest, as you can see she loved to ride along. She can pull levers and push buttons with the best of them.

Combining beans on a nice afternoon.

I'll admit, I don't find pictures of equipment very exciting but my boys sure enjoy them. Especially in the photo books I make every year for our family. 

My attempt at getting the girls picture together in the combine wheel.

We'll just play "so big" instead of smile at mom.

Anton will ride any chance he gets, it's fun to see him taking interest in what Mark does.

Elijah also loves riding along, and goes with Mark as often as he can.

Two brothers hanging out in the back of the truck. 

September Highlights

September was a busy month harvesting and other full times. Many school and church activities started and there is always lots to do around the house and yard. These are a few pictures with the exception of some harvest ones that I will post about soon.  

This is Allison at 8 months pulling off all the books on the bookshelf. 

It amazes me how different each child is and how they all liked a different toy or kind of play at this age. However, EVERY one of them loved making this huge mess!!!  

Amelia finally gets her own ride!!! 

Two hours after she got her new 4-wheeler she broke her arm. :(  Not riding, falling off a roof, long story, but she's alright and only had to be in a cast for 3 1/2 weeks. The nurses where showing her the nice pink and purple cast colors but she choose blaze orange. You really couldn't miss her. :)

We bumped Elijah to a differnent bike and now Anton gets the TTR, as you can see by his smile he is loving it!

Yes, they do make training wheels for dirtbikes. :)

Farm kids in the back of the truck. They were supposed to be staying clean for family pictures. 

Our 2012 apple harvest, impressive huh. The warm March and late frost froze almost all my apple blossoms off. I didn't have any Red Delicious apples at all. 

Crawling on gravel makes you tough.

Amelia and her real baby doll. 

Mark started riding again after ACL surgery. He's done so well and had a smooth recovery.

I have a new niece, Kaelyn Rose. I'm so excited Allison will have a girl cousin her age to play with on my side!

August Update - Part 2

Now that's it's October I  think post State Fair and Back to School pictures, someday I'll get caught up on my blog. ;) 

Here is Allison at 7 months, learning to pull herself up on things.

Allison likes to hang out under the table, she's pretty good at finding anything dropped during mealtime. Gross, I know. 

We made it to the State Fair for a couple hours. We hit the favorites, like the Little Hands on the Farm. Here Anton is filling up his tractor with Soy Bio-diesel.

Elijah doing a great job hauling his crop in. 

Another favorite is the Animal Learning Center. This little chick just hatched. 

We stopped to see friends at the Farm Bureau tent, and did a tough man contest. They made Ethan try the kids one first, when he got that the first time they moved him up to the big guy one. 

Anton and Elijah sporting some very festive John Deere hats.

I tried to make it without looking at equipment, but we had to pass it on the way to look through campers. Here Mark and Ethan are checking out a skidloader with a side door. I didn't get any pictures of the campers, but it was so fun to look through them with the kids. Each one they went through they would discuss who would sleep were and how we could all fit. It was very sweet. 

We had a busy wedding weekend. Friday night was Mark's cousin's wedding. Amelia was a gift attendant.

All the pretty gift attendants.

Next was my cousins wedding. Ethan and Amelia were guest book attendants. As you can tell Ethan was super pumped about this job. :) 

First Day of School - Ethan 4th grade, Amelia 1st grade.