...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.

How much can you squeeze into one trip?

I think we won that contest. We packed in a lot of events, visits with friends, meals, good talks, late night laughing, and more!

We feel like we went non-stop for 3 weeks in CA, with a quick trip back to Georgia squeezed in there. Here are a few pictures of our fun times...

Sadie turned 5! We had a birthday party for her in Lake Tahoe with all of the Fishbein side (we missed you Shane!)
After being in CA for a wedding, we hurried back to GA for Dave's graduation. It was great to have Dave's mom with us at graduation!

With being far away, it is always so special to go as a little family to the cemetery.

Dave and Chris got a chance to play the guitar a couple times and loved it! We loved listening to them play while the kids ran around the backyard at night. It felt like we were camping! The cousins had sooooooooooo much fun playing together.
Oops - I forgot to rotate this picture. Oh well, you can turn your head if you want to see it. When you turn 5, Grandma Shelly takes you on a "5-year-old-date" where you get to go to the mall to ride the carousel, pick candy from the candy train, pick something out at the bookstore, and then finish off the date with the treat of your choice! Sadie was a happy girl going off on her date!
We had so much fun in Lake Tahoe with my family! I think our favorite part was playing razzle-dazzle and the hand game at night when the kids were all in bed (don't know how they slept through our laughing and screams)! We loved going on Sean's home-made canoe in the lake.

It was so great to be at Jason and Krista's wedding and be with Dave's family. Uh...the highlight of this day was most definitely the photo booth with the sisters-in-law.
Lindsay - we LOVED being there for your baptism! What a special day that was for us.
It had been too long since we had seen the Wests...our good friends from dental school! We LOVED catching up, seeing Jeremy's new practice, and of course...enjoying Michiko's culinary expertise.

Missour-EE or Missour-UH?

That's what a pilot asked us as we were boarding the plane for Missouri. Which will you call it? Ashlyn decided that she will switch off. I haven't yet decided.

After three fun weeks of vacationing in California, we are now settling in to life in Missouri. Just a few quick snapshots from our first couple days in Missouri...

We think we have a little deer family that has made our backyard a home. Two days in a row, we have seen a mama deer with her two babies. We love watching them run across the yard and play in the trees.

On our first walk through the trees in the backyard, I looked back at Ash to find her slowly crouching to the ground to catch this baby frog.

Other than a swim at the little neighborhood pool, we have been cooped up in our house unpacking box after box. We have met some really nice neighbors, and have heard that there are about 30 young kids in our neighborhood.

Rolla looks much prettier with leaves covering the many trees here. I hardly recognized our house with all of the trees surrounding it when we pulled into the driveway.