Dolly and Molly's new kids

Dolly's babies born December 8.  Two males, Jacob and Esau.  She rejected Esau about an hour after he was born, so he's been in the garage.  We are milking Dolly every morning (and sometimes evening) and giving him a bottle 5 times a day right now.  Hubby built me a milking stall today which is going to be a big help!!!

Molly had her babies this morning while the kids had their dentist appointments.  I can't believe I missed BOTH births!!  Molly had a boy and girl.  Still working on names for them.  The one with white is the male and the brown in the female.

She's 1

Happy First Birthday to our girl!!   Thanksgiving Day was a time of thankfulness and celebration this year.  How quickly this year has gone by!  Here are a few of her birthday pictures.

Photo shoot

This little gal was just too cute today not to take a quick photo shoot!

10 month update

A little late on her 10 month update but here it is:
18.5 lbs
starting her first solid food (prunes, sweet potato, squash, blueberry, apple, pear)
gets into standing position (but cries because she can't figure out how to get back down)
5 teeth, 6th visible
favorite word: dada
loves to cover her face and play peek-a-boo
crawling, sitting, clapping, smiling, laughing

Birthday pic

 Our boy turns 10 this week!!  The double digit birthday!  While at the Ark, we took his birthday pic for the year.  It's funny to look back through pictures of him in years past because he doesn't change much at all.
 He is very diligent with his school work, he looks up to his older brother, he is a little comedian, sensitive, loves being outside, not as much of a reader as his 2 older siblings, enjoys setting up army men bases and acting things out, still into Star Wars, and just a lovable boy :)  Happy birthday!

Ark

Finally made it to the Ark!  The kiddos were sure happy to get to see it (and have a day off school!)  Made for a nice field trip :)

9 months

Baby girl turned 9 months old!  Her updates are :
17.5 lbs
exclusively breastfed
clapping her hands
sitting
trying to stand
beginning to creep forward (not a crawl yet)
'mama' 'baba' and other babblings
Mama's girl for sure!!!!
4 teeth
does not like being alone

     In other news, we are getting our school year under way.  Still finishing up a bit of math from last year but the kids are mostly into all their new studies for the year.  Grade 9 has been interesting as we now have to plan her credits and prepare a transcript.  We switched everyone to a different math course this year (Saxon).  I think it will be more effective than what we were using.
     Nothing else to really update.  We have a birthday next week and plan on finally going to see the 'Ark'!  The kids have been waiting for that field trip for awhile :)  We are getting ready to close the pool for the summer.  The weather has turned cool.  I love fall!  I need to take an updated family pic soon.  Time just seems to go by so fast these days.

Birthday pic

Finally got this one done!  Sometimes birthday pics are a little late in coming :)
12 years old

New room!

Daddy built our oldest her very own room in the basement!  She is so excited :)

closet space behind double doors

7 month update

Baby girl is now 8 months old.  Time is sure flying!  What has happened during her 7th month?  She is still exclusively breastfed, 16.5lbs.  She has 2 top teeth now (so 4 in total).  She starting getting up on her knees and rocking back and forth.  She can sit unassisted for short periods of time.  Still no words yet but lots of babbles.  She loves to laugh at the kids and her laugh is so contagious.  She is such a happy girl but is still weary of strangers.  Definitely a mama's girl right now.
We also had excitement and an ER visit as our boy let a staph infection in his finger get out of control before showing us what was going on!!  He had it lanced and drained at the ER and put on a strong antibiotic.  We did use herbs and homeopathy as well, and his finger is healing up nicely.  Hopefully this has broken his habit of nail biting now!!!  Not the way he was hoping to spend his 12th birthday :)

Updates

    Baby girl has already turned 7 months!  She got her first 2 teeth (first one on her 6 month birthday) and got her first cold.  Fortunately it wasn't a bad one but she did have a croupy cough which sounded horrible.

    Hubby also had another surgery on his throat.  It's been 5 years since the last one, so we are very thankful for the extended length of time this time around!  We were able to visit with family whom we haven't seen for several years.  

    Kids are all doing well....getting through their school year, enjoying the outdoors, growing like weeds!!!  I think I now have 2 kiddos taller than me.  Our 11 (soon to be 12) yr old has been going through such a growth spurt lately.

Here's some updated pics of them all!!!

My beauties

baby girl

Hard to believe she will be 6 months old next week!!!

Ephesians 2:8-9

Doing some memory work with the kids.  So sweet to hear these little ones.

Visit to Grandma and Grandpa

Here are a few pics from our quick trip to Canada!  Baby girl was getting close to rolling over while we were there and finally did as soon as we got home.  She is so proud of herself :)