Baby Judy

Yep - that's her name. Dave really liked the name Jude for a boy (human boy, that is) so he thought if he got a baby goat that's a boy, he would name it Jude. But no such luck for Dave. We have all girls. So we decided to name her Jude-y. The girls say we can call her Judah, or Jude for a nick-name. I call her baby - she is so sweet. She snuggles up when she's held. Wednesday a lady from our ward is coming over to show us the ropes of milking a mama goat and bottle feeding a baby goat. We can't wait to start!

This is Sarah - Sadie's goat (named by Sadie).
Buttercup - the mama - (Ashlyn's goat - named by Ash). This is how we found them this morning. They were all snuggled up after a wild storm in the wee hours of the morning.

The girls ran and got me and said to bring the camera. They were all sitting on one little rocking chair together like this and wanted me to take a picture. Nate puts up with A LOT and usually just goes along with their ideas. Someday that might end. Don't worry - Dave has strict rules about NO make-up, headbands, earrings, pink, etc.
I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked of these butterflies. Karla sent the girls such a fun science project. They each got 4-5 caterpillars in the mail that came in a little container that had food and a home for them. They watched them every day, and then even saw the process of the caterpillars spinning their chrysalis. It was so cool to watch! Then one day, they emerged from the chrysalis and started trying to use their little wings and fly. They held the butterflies like little pets and walked around with them. Poor Nate REALLY wanted to get his hands on them. We just let the last one go off into the real world today! We'll miss you little friends! I would list all of their names, but I can't remember them. The girls made up some wild, wacko names that I could hardly say let alone remember.

...and on his farm he had some...goats

All week the girls have been picking blackberries from our bush in the back. We've been saving them for today to make a big blackberry crisp. They had a huge bowl full of berries...and there are many, many more berries to come. We just read up on freezing them - the girls want to freeze them so we can have some to make a berry pie for Grandpa John when he comes!

Working hard as a family on a home for our chickens, turkey and goats. Sadie is working especially hard.
Nate worked hard playing with this bag of nails. Earlier in the project, it was a box of nails that Nate dumped out, and then filled over and over. Don't worry, I sat with him so he didn't eat one or poke his eye out. I was thouroughly entertained watching Nate play with nails. I could have sat there for hours watching his little mind so wrapped up in filling this box of nails...and then quickly dumping it out to start over again. He was sooooooooo happy shaking this bag of nails. He thought he was so funny, too!

Sadie working hard again - trying out the chicken door.

Of course, we had to celebrate our day of getting a goat with goat cheese. I was pretty excited about our "fresh" lunch. We got goat cheese that morning from a farmer's market (from a lady who milks her goats and makes the cheese), tomatoes from our neighbors' garden, and basil leaves from someone at church. It would have topped it all off if I made the bread...but I didn't.
Dave worked hard all week on this project. Every night after dinner and then he worked til all of the light was gone. Dave worked all day Saturday, and by 8:00 that night, it was ready (Dave still wants to do a few finishing touches to make it look nicer, but the animals could be fenced in, and that was the important part!). The left side is for the chickens with a little door. The right side is for the goats. Meet...don't know her name yet. We're still working on it. We planned to get 2 boys, but the ones we looked at were too big (they were only half pygmy) so we decided on this 7 month old, and are getting another girl tomorrow. We had decided to NOT get a milking goat, but now we are a bit tempted to breed and make our own goat cheese. We'll see...
Nate about went nuts watching our new goat run around her little house. And then chickens running around everywhere...was about more than he can handle. I know most kids like animals...but I'm having a feeling that Nate just might be an animal lover like his dada (which name, I might add, Nate says. Hmmm...when will he say mama????)

Our new little friends

We sang "Old Macdonald had a farm..." on the way to get our chickens. And we had pancakes and scrambled eggs to start our day of buying chickens and in a few months having fresh eggs!

We got 14 chickens and 1 turkey. Once we find out which ones are hens and roosters, we'll get rid of the roosters so we should end up with about 7. I couldn't resist getting a turkey. And it should be full grown for TG, so if anyone wants to eat fresh turkey, come on over!
Ash and Sadie held them like babies all day.
Ashlyn named this one "Puff-ball."

This is their temporary housing while they are little and while Dave is building the coop. Nate was about hyper-ventilating sometimes when he would peek in to see the chickens. He LOVES animals.
We took the little guys on a field trip in the backyard to hunt for insects. It was so entertaining watching them peck in the ground for little critters. And it was cute how they all stayed together.
Sadie gave them a ride through the yard on our hunt for food. One chicken lucked out to eat the grasshopper Ashlyn caught. The rest enjoyed beatles, termites, ants, and spiders. Yum!

Friday Family Fun Night

At our house, Friday nights are family fun nights. Sometimes we watch a movie with popcorn, other times we play games. Last night we decided to have s'mores for FFF night and try out our fire pit.

I'm ready for the campfire. Let's go!!
The drivers are ready.

Carefully roasting her marshmallows.
Showing off the finished product.
Putting out the fire.
Let's do that again SOON!

Want to see my most favorite trick?

Hi! I'm Nate and I just had my 11 month birthday. Lots of little things make me happy, but this is one of my favorites. Let me show you.
First, I grab hold of this blocks bucket that my mom got for me at a garage sale (I love the blocks in it, but the bucket is the best!).
I check to make sure that I have the open side of the bucket facing me.

I bring it close to my head.
Then, I stick the bucket right over my head.
Sometimes I stick my tongue out during my trick. I laugh and laugh when things are on my head. I think everyone else thinks I'm pretty funny, too.
Then I tip the bucket behind my head, and start all over again. Sometimes I do this over and over for a long time. Like I said, it's one of my favorite tricks.

4th of July - Missourian Style

The girls woke up soooooooooooo excited for it to be the 4th of July. They got dressed first thing (unlike Ash, especially) and tried to find only red, white and blue colors to wear. Sadie was upset because her blue jean shorts had a tiny bit of light brown stitching that showed. I assured her it wouldn't ruin her patriotic outfit.
We got a fun housewarming gift in the mail just after we got here - a checkerboard cake set. So the girls and I went to town making this checkerboard cake for 4th of July. We planned to do red and white checkerboard with blueberries on top, but we only had blue food coloring...so blue and white it was! The girls decorated the top themselves and were so happy with their little design.

We had a fun day of bbqs yesterday. For lunch we went to a family's house in the ward for a swim/bbq. They had the biggest backyard pool I've ever been in! For dinner we had a bbq with a few families in the neighborhood. The kids were at home with the trampoline (they miss G and Gs trampoline!) and had so much fun playing with all of the kids.
We saw some serious backyard fireworks. They had tonz of sparklers for all of the kids to do. Then when it got really dark, the guys put on quite a show. I was amazed that our neighbors knew how to put on a firework show like that. It was so cool! And even cooler to walk home afterwards instead of waiting an hour in the car to get out of the packed parking lot. Dave bought a few for our family to try, so we came home and set off a some more fireworks in our backyard (nothing like the neighbor show). It was funny to walk home and see/hear fireworks almost every direction. There is a firework show in town, but I think most people around here just do their own. ...after a late night for Nate. He was sleepy, but not asleep. I love that little hand holding on to Dave.

p.s. And the reason I am blogging so promptly about our day yesterday...because Nate decided to get up at 6:15 (didn't he remember that he stayed up really late last night and he should want to sleep in like the rest of the family?) So with Nate on my lap playing in the desk drawer, we blogged together bright and early.