Ford and his tools!!!!!

This is my BOY! Showing all the tools in his belt and pockets! This kid loves tools. It is funny to watch him walk! You can't tell in this photo but he is also wearing his snow boots, his choice of footwear lately.
Helping Dad pour a cement border for my garden, I don't know how those shorts are staying on with a rubber mallet, hatchet(see it next to the mallet?) and some sort of other tool.

So far Easton likes tools too! Here he is with his shovel, that if anyone gets close to it he screams. Must be scared Ford will take it from him.

Izabel pretty in the spring!

Easton trying to push the wheel barrow.

Ranch trip Spring 2010

Going on a high to look for bones and explore the old chicken house.
The ranch's cool old chicken house, still has nesting boxes.

Easton had fun at the ranch watching the cows and horses was his favorite thing to do.

Look cold? It was, but we had fun anyways!

Ford loves the ranch, now that we are home he loves to pretend to brand by holding down his stuffed animals while Izabel pretends to brand, hilarious one time they tried to brand Easton!

Here are all the kiddos watching the cattle in the corrals, it was so much fun playing all week!

Adam, Izabel and Ford on a horse going for a ride. Always a good time at the ranch, love that place! Can't wait til the 4th of July!

Easton is 1 year old!

This is the beginning....

He sucked his fingers in between bites, he wanted to savor it!

Now he is shoveling it in, loving it!

Our Happy Biggie! He is such a Joy! He takes about 5 t0 6 steps on his own, says daddy, ma ma, dog, doll and many other sounds that sound like he is singing. Love this cute little guy!

Izabel's 5th Birthday

This is my tiny pretty baby! Hard to believe she was so tiny, this was an outfit my mom made for her when she was a couple of weeks old for her shower. Even the preemie clothes did not fit. Looking at it now, it looks like a dolls outfit!

Here is Izabel showing how much she has grown in the last 5 years.

Here she is with Elly at her birthday party. She requested chili and a blue Cinderella cake. She is going to school in the Fall!?!?! Crazy how time flies!

Here is Izabel and aunt Micaela blowing out candles. Izabel shares her birthday with aunt Micaela! So grateful for my helpful, happy, smart, and beautiful little girl Izabel. So glad she came first into our family, I know she was meant to.

We Love you Izabel!

New Additions to the Family

Just Kidding! These are the coolest dogs though! I am not a real dog person but we rescued these dogs in front of our house running along the road. Adam and I caught them and put them in our yard, where they hung out all morning and afternoon. They are Basset hound mates, slow moving laid back dogs, love them. When their owner came to pick them up that afternoon we asked how much for a puppy and she said they go for about $900, YIKES! Cool dogs though. Here are the real additions to our family. Introducing the Chicks!
That is George(hopefully he is a rooster) the big one standing on top of the feeder. We started out with 10, but unfortunately we have only 7. We had an incident with Ford and him thinking they were biting him, he thought he would show them, so he got a stick and poked some of them. It was a traumatic learning experience for our little boy. He now knows he has to be soft and gentle with the little chicks. We buried the little chicks and the kids feel better knowing they went to heaven.

Easton loves the chicks too.

Ford was excited about having chicks, too bad he had to get the stick out.

Izabel really loves the chicks she checks on them everyday and she was the one who picked them out of the big barrel of chicks at D&B. She is also naming them, so far George, Lee Lee and one that went to heaven was Vadilee. So fun, learning experience too!

Making Butter

So all you need is heavy whipping cream and just mix it until you get butter and buttermilk. First it starts out looking like whip cream. And turns a little yellow.
It gets thicker and now is a good time to add salt if you want to.

Now it is really starting to separate. See the buttermilk collecting at the bottom.

Here is the butter, nice and yellow and creamy and delicious. The butter milk is delicious too. I make awesome whole wheat pancakes out of the buttermilk and then make honey butter out of the freshly made butter. I crave this every morning!

You then put the butter in cheese cloth to squeeze out the buttermilk. I would recommend squeezing it out with your hands only. You lose a lot of the butter when it sticks to the cheese cloth.

Squeezing out more buttermilk.

Here is the finished product. I made half of it right away into honey butter and the rest I froze to save for cookies. This butter makes the cookies have a smooth texture that is delightful.
Making butter is so easy. All I need now is to find someone with a milking cow who has a lot of cream on their hands. So fun trying new things and discovering ways you can be more self sufficient.
This process all together only 20 minutes. With my bosch is doesn't take long at all to mix it up.

It is fun watching the process unfold and then eating it right after.

Give it a try your kids will love it and you will too!

This Kid loves to Work!

Working with a smile on his face! Adam brought home a bunch of cardboard blocks for the kids to play with. Fords favorite part was unloading them and then later making a chicken coop out of them with mom.
Four at a time what a big strong boy!
Ford is up early every morning and goes right outside to play or I should say work out at the shop. We need to get some animals soon so he can feed them first thing in the morning.

Izabel got in on the action too.

Here is a big load thanks to the help of dad.

Stacking them up tall. The kids loved these big blocks. Ford played with them for hours.