Christmas

Some Christmas PicturesReady to open our stockings...

Tirzah with her cowgirl hat and horses.

Zebadiah on the tractor with Tirzah's hat on...

Azariah and Zebadiah enjoy their Ford pedal tractor from Gramgee and Papa.

Christmas was good. The children enjoyed opening presents, but we also made sure we reflected on why we celebrate Christmas which is the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

All I want for Christmas are my two front teeth...

Tirzah is excited...over the last month, she has lost all four of her front teeth. Let's take a look at what each of these holes have made...

The first hole...

The duck...

The turtle...

Tirzah informed me what animal her hole created after she lost the two bottom teeth.

84 year old Grandmother

My grandmother is 84 years old. We are moving her to our town this weekend. Last Friday my mom, kids and I went to her house to start packing. When we left one of the toilets was clogged, but we didn't have a plunger so we left it to fix when we came back on Monday. We went back on Monday and fixed the problem.

Today, I took my wet laundry to my mom's house to dry and I heard the tail end of a message from a very frantic Grandmother. I called my mom to let her know that Grandma called to say her water was running and wouldn't shut off. I pictured her toilet over flowing and water, water everywhere.

Mom called and my Grandmother said that the toilet wasn't overflowing, but that there was water running and she couldn't find where it was. Hazel, a neighbor came over and couldn't find it either. By this time my Grandmother was in the crawl space under the house. Finally, my mom called my Dad's father to go and see if he could find it. Now, you have to understand that my 84 year old Grandmother wears hearing aids sometimes and my Grandfather wears his sometimes also. I am not sure about Hazel. So we have three senior citizens, two of which can't hear very well trying to find water that is running. My grandfather looked in the bathroom and then went under the house into the crawl space. He couldn't find any water anywhere. Finally He decided it must be the fan in the bathroom. Sure enough, he shut off the fan switch and the water stopped. We were just thankful that someone figured out where the water was coming from, who would have thought a fan ;-)

Your sins will find you out...

This morning, we did school. After our worksheets, Azariah was under the little table. He had green on his lips. I asked him if he ate a crayon. He lied and said no. He was disciplined for lying.

Well, my children have been sick with a 24 hour bug. Today was Azariah's day and the first time he threw-up, it had bits of green crayon in it. Have you ever seen what bile does to a crayon? Well let's say it isn't very fun trying to get it out of the carpet. Stomach acid does wonders on wax.

What is that on your foot?

Today as we were getting ready to go to a birthday party, Azariah comes in wearing my hiking boots. This isn't totally unusual but he doesn't do it that often anymore. I asked him to take off my boots and get ready to go. He then informs me that his foot is dirty. So taking his foot out of MY hiking boot I glance at it and see mud on the bottom of his foot squished up between his toes. I continue washing dishes as I tell him to wash it off in the sink and that he shouldn't but shoes on when he has mud on his foot.

Azariah dutifully gets up on the bathroom sink and cleans his foot. He then gets down and I asked where he got the mud on his foot. It hasn't rained here for awhile and so most mud puddles are dry. Azariah then informs me that it wasn't mud but dog poop.

At this point I am thinking of my defiled hiking boots and bathroom sink. I take him into the shower and I wash his foot and hands and then scrub down the sink. He was also told not to but shoes on if he steps in dog poop with bare feet.

The joy of little ones.

Hot Chocolate Anyone?

I made my children some Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa. They like to drink it with spoons which I am not thrilled with because of the mess. Usually down their front from tipping the spoon before it is to their mouth. I left them for a few minutes as I put a load of laundry in the dryer. I came back to find Azariah with Cocoa in his hair and running down his face. It is also all over his shirt and Tirzah's shirt. Now I realized that this arrangement on Hot Cocoa on my son was not what is usually produced by drinking it from the spoon.

Mom: "Azariah, what happened to you?"
Azariah: "Tirzah spilt her hot cocoa on me."

It wasn't until the next day that I finally found out that she didn't spill it on him, she actually spit it on him...

Breeding Goats

I have always heard that one of the best ways to teach children about the birds and the bees is to have animals. Well this last week, we have been breeding our goats. I have two male goats and six females. Three of the females have come into heat and we have put them with the appropriate buck. (No incest here.) Well tonight I thought one of my females was in heat so we put her with the buck. As we were getting the buck and walking him back to the barn Tirzah was talking to him...

"Hi big boy, your going to like this...you're going to have fun riding Sugar."

Gil and I laughed at her evaluation of watching the other goats be breed and what was going to happen. However, Sugar was not in heat and very fridged toward the buck so he didn't get to have any fun tonight. We'll see what Tirzah comes up with next.

The Hair Cut

Zebadiah is 18 months old now. Going to the store was fun, he could be in all blue and because of his long hair people would say "She is so cute." After going to Wal-Mart and having some cashiers play peek-a-boo with him because he was crying, they said "She is so cute." as we were leaving. That was it, the next day I cut his hair. I had been putting it off knowing that once I did he would no longer be my baby but a little man. So here are the before and after pictures.

Before the hair cut...

After the hair cut...

What my kids are going to be when they grow up...

Tirzah: "Mommy, I know what we are going to be when we grow up."
Mommy: "What are you going to be?"
Tirzah: "Well Azariah is going to be a Daddy farmer, Zebadiah is going to be a veterinarian and I am going to be an Artist."

Azariah agreed with her about this. I asked her what exactly is a Daddy farmer. She informed me that it is a farmer with children. That was good to hear because I was a little worried about what it might be.

Biking near water...

Here it is for those of you who have waited for my next blog...

Tirzah and Azariah both learned how to ride there bikes without training wheels. Tirzah is doing really well accept that she uses the toes of her shoes as breaks. Azariah, after he figured it out and is doing well wants the training wheels back on. He is our lazy one and since he can't go as fast without them yet, he wants them back on. It could also be that he liked getting his training wheels high centered so he could spin the back wheel really fast.

We decided to take a bike ride with the kids. Tirzah rode her bike, Azariah and Zeb were in the bike trailer that was pulled by Gil and I was on my bike. We were going along a ditch that is pretty good sized and swift. After going 2 miles, we turned around and started back. I was staying next to Tirzah to make sure she didn't go into the ditch. Well, I got a little in front of her and from behind me I here her start screaming and yelling. I knew exactly what was happening, she was going into the ditch. I immediately hit the brakes to stop and I totally crashed on my bike. With the adrenalin pumping I didn't realize how hard I had actually hit the ground. I ran to where she was going over and watched. She chose to go over a section of the ditch with a bank that is 8-10 feet down to the water. Plus it is adobe and so you just slide down. She yelled, "My bike, my bike." I told her to let her bike go and she did. She clung to the bank crying. The Lord was gracious because there was a shelf under the water she landed on so she only went up to her waist in the water. I was down in the water and behind her and helped push her up to Gil. Then the question was, do I look for the bike or leave it. This was a nice bike, but we had picked it up off the curb when we lived in Texas so it was a free bike. I waded out into the ditch and started feeling around for it. I felt it and then I lost it. This happened three times until I was able to finally grab it. Tirzah was very excited about having her bike back.

The Lord was very gracious because there are other places along this ditch the would not have been as forgiving. I ended up with a major tension headache that afternoon that lasted until the next day. I didn't realize how hard or how exactly I hit the ground when trying to get off my bike until the next day when my whole body ached.

I went over the handle bars while mountain biking when I was pregnant with Azariah and now I have done the same thing during this pregnancy.

A soggy wet carpet...

Sorry it has been so long since I have blogged. It is amazing how fast time flies. All morning, I have been walking around on wet carpet. I found one little spot and then a few minutes later another spot. Till now it seems the whole floor is wet.

What caused such a wet floor you may ask? Was it a leaky pipe? A leaky swamp cooler? A spilled glass of water? The answer lies with the Three-year-old.

Mom: "Azariah, why is the floor all wet?"
Azariah: "Because we were motorcycle racing."
(Like that explains everything.)
Mom: "What do you mean motorcycle racing."
Azariah: "We were racing motorcycles on the train track."
Mom: "But why is the floor all wet?"
Azariah: "Because of the dust."
(Realize this is a hard plastic Geo-Trax train set.)
Mom: "I don't understand..."
Azariah: "Well mom, we had to put water on the track to keep the dust down."

Then the light bulb goes on in mom's head. Last Friday night, we went to the motocross motorcycle races. All the children loved it and Azariah, being the perceptive little boy he is, saw how they put water on the track to keep the dust down. So of course his motorcycle track needed the same things.

Now I get to walk around on a wet carpet all day. What is going to happen when we go to the shoe store this afternoon?

The reasoning of a three-year-old

We started school this week. It takes us between 30-45 minutes to "do" school. Today is my cleaning day so we didn't do school until this afternoon. Tirzah and Azariah put on there swim suits this morning to play in the sprinklers. Tirzah had changed back into her clothes but Azariah was still running around with swim trunks on. We sat down on the couch to start school and Azariah smelled like urine.

Mom: "Azaraih did you have an accident in your pants?"
Azariah: "Well mommy, these are swim trunks and they are suppose to be wet."

I then had to explain that there was a difference between water wet and potty wet. I changed him before we did school. He did get himself wet outside so that was better than inside.

A Little Poem

A Poem from Colorado

We feed our goats hay,

We enjoy the horses neigh,

We don't have chickens that lay,

But Gil's job does the bills pay,

And a fourth little sweet heart

we will have around Valentine's Day

Family Camping Trip...

Camping, what fun. This last weekend we went camping with my parents as well as my mom's sister and brother and their families. When we go on trips, this means I get to pack for 5 people. My husband is the hardest because I never know exactly what he wants to take, but neither does he. So I put what I think he should take and lay it out on the bed. Then he comes along and exchanges, adds and takes away things. The system works pretty well.

After I packed everyones clothes I gave my husband his choice of two tasks. Neither of which he likes doing, but both of which needed to be done before we left. We could clean the kitchen or pack the car. He choose to clean the kitchen. You have to understand, that my husband was a janitor for six years and is a very through cleaner. So even after I had the entire car packed, he was still working on the kitchen. And now, the stove display is really shiny and the entire counter is clean, not just up to things, but behind them as well. I love my husband.

After he finished the kitchen, he brought out his bag of clothes, I put it in the car. I then turn around and he is holding 5 pairs of shoes. I look at him and he says, I don't know which ones I might need. Understand, we left on Friday and came back on Monday. I thought it was pretty comical. He did have a good reason for each pair of shoes he held, but I did get him to leave one pair behind.

We then went on our journey. It was a great time with family. The children enjoyed it even though we never caught any fish. The man in the camper space next to us caught six finish on Sunday and we didn't get any. He did allow Tirzah to reel in two of them, which she enjoyed.

The trip was fun and God's creation is always beautiful.

Stacking Hay....

The truck with 46 bales of hay on it. It barely fit inside the barn.

Living on the farm has its works of art, the above being one. Gil and I, O.K. Gil mostly, picked up the hay from the field to stack in the barn. It is quite a work of art to get all the hay to stay on the truck. He did a very good job, I has impressed and glad I didn't have to through the bales up on the truck. It is a sweaty, scratchy dirty job.

Than today, there were twenty bales still in the field so I hooked two tow straps up to the back of the four wheeler and then hooked up a pallet. The children and I then went into the field and picked up 5 hay bales at a time and drug them back to the barn. Tirzah and Azariah each had a turn pulling the four wheeler forward so I could load the hay.

The vocabulary of a three year old

We were heading to church on Sunday and Tirzah had a purse. She was swinging it around and hit Azariah with it.

Azariah "She hitted me!"
Tirzah "I didn't mean too."
Dad "Azariah, hitted isn't a word."
Azariah "She whacked me!"

Laughter and smiles ensued in the front seat.

TBFS

This last weekend, we had an exciting time. The children went with their Aunt and Grandpa, Gil's sister and dad, to Durango. It is about 4 hours away. They travelled their to see Thomas the Tank Engine. They had a good time. They road on Thomas and sand with a Banjo player. Well they were suppose to get back sometime Friday evening. I received a call from Margaret at about 8:15 PM telling me that Dad had been transported to the hospital in Montrose. He had a pain shoot through his face. He has a lot of different health issues.

The Lord was gracious and he is O.K. they admitted him and ran a couple of tests. On Saturday as we waited for the doctor to release him, we found out that he had drank something really cold and really fast about 5 minutes before this pain occurred. So Gil diagnosed him as having TBFS. The doctor laughed and agreed though she said her colleagues wouldn't go for it.

So what is TBFS you might ask? "Traumatic Brain Freeze Syndrome". It was an exciting evening and day.

Helping Mommy

My boys helped me mop the floor yesterday. What a joy to see them with the mop.

Tirzah saying hi to all of her friends in the tri-mirror in the bathroom. She found that she could see herself infinitely

Do You Have A Parrot at your House?

Do you have a parrot at your house? Or maybe a better name would be a half-sized mother.
Mom: "Azariah go get your pajamas on."
1/2 Mom: "Azariah go get your pajamas on."

Mom: "Zebadiah, don't get on the table."
1/2 Mom: "Zeb, don't get on the table." (followed with a pull of his arm, then he screams.)

Mom: "Don't get all muddy."
1/2 Mom: "'Riah you are getting all muddy you need to get out of there."

And so it goes all day. My five year old feels like she is there to back up EVERYTHING I say. Well, at least I know she will be a good mom someday, though I hope she doesn't imitate everything that I say and do. May the Lord be gracious to me as I raise my children.

Mommy, mommy I know...

I go over to my parents house and feed their animals. I come back and Azariah is naked and Tirzah has no shorts on. (She had accidentally overshot the toilet and got her pants wet.) The bathroom floor is wet and when asked why, I am informed that Tirzah told Azariah he didn't wipe very well and so he washed his bottom in the sink. Then Tirzah says...

"Mommy, we know why it sometimes hurts when we go poopy."
"Oh really..."
"Yea, it is because our hole is so small."

What do you say to the scientific thoughts of a five year old? That was also the first thing they told Daddy when he got home from work. We both had to try not to laugh.

Then later, during family worship time, Azariah says "I have to go potty." So he heads for the bathroom while Gil asks him a question. Azariah stops to answer, but was doing the potty dance in the process. Gil says "You can answer while you are going potty" At this point I had to laugh, because this was coming from the man who can not multi-task and he is asking his three-year-old son to multi-task. Azariah is a lot like his daddy in this respect. Azariah did get the question answered and to the potty on time.

What fun, what fun.

Marker, Marker everywhere

Saturday afternoon Tirzah asked if she could mark on her hands with a gel pen. I informed her that she may not do that because tomorrow is Sunday and we are going to church. She was fine with that and we went on with our day.

That night, we told the children they could only get off of there beds to put books back and get new ones. They were suppose to be going to bed.

About 9:30 PM we walk into their room. Tirzah has eye shadow on...but it is actually red marker. Azariah has marker on his face, tummy and back. What fun it was giving my son another bath that night, but the red marker did not come out very well. Tirzah still has red eye lids, o.k. they are more pink.

Did I mention that we were greeters today at church? Only one person commented on Tirzah's eyes, but he has three little girls himself and has been there and done that :-).

Just a cute picture

Floppy, Cream and Zeb

A trip or two down the dirt hill...

Oops, facing the wrong way...

That's better

A different angle

Common Phrases Heard in our House

Sit down.
Get off the table.
Get out of the sink.
Honey, do you really need that?
No, you may not eat the dog food.
Mommy, tell me a story about Tirzah, Azariah, Zebadiah and Jessica.
Tell me a story about when you were little.
How much milk did you get today?
Owwwww
Noooooo
Not me.
Can I have a snacky?
I'm hungry. (We finally taught them not to say "I'm starving" since they really weren't)
Are you glorifing God?

The Chores of my three year old

I recently bought a product called Accountable Kids. It is a board with pegs on it and the children have cards that go on the pegs. As they complete the chore they turn the card over on another peg. It has been working well, the children can look at the pictures and do what they need to without me needing to tell them what to do next.

This morning, I was in the barn doing my chores and Azariah came out in his PJ's crying while asking if I sold his goat. I told the children yesterday that we are going to sell our new buck and he doesn't want to, he afraid I am going to sell it without him knowing. I assured him I haven't sold it yet. He begged me not to sell it. I told him we needed to and that he needed to go do his chores. Tirzah came out with Zeb. She had done her chores and dressed Zeb for me. I was very pleased. Azariah went back in the house.

When I was done with my chores I went in the house and found Azariah with his chores done. There was only one problem, he isn't real good in choosing clothes to put on.


Azariah put on one of Zeb's sweatshirts and a pair of Tirzah's capri's. I believe he looked at the pile of clean clothes on the couch and chose a couple of items he liked and put them one, even though the sweatshirt doesn't really fit and the pants aren't long enough. I haven't told him he isn't wearing his own clothes because I was so pleased he did what he needed to do.

If we go into town I will make him change.

We have baby goats...

Azariah with the Buck and Tirzah with the Doe

Mocha, finally decided to have her babies last night at about 10 PM. She had a buck and a doe. They are light brown with some white on them. Everything went well. Here are some pictures of the cute little things. Names are yet to be given, though Tirzah has some ideas.

Two Children, Two Goats and One Bucket...

We arrived home from church to get ready for a get together. I sent the older two children out to fill up the goats water. Azariah wanted to go help daddy, but I informed him that he needed to help his sister and as soon as they were done he could go help daddy. This job for one child would probably take about 5 minutes, but with two it was a twenty minute comedy routine.

I looked out the window and saw that the bucket was not upright like it had been when they first ventured out. Tirzah held the hose but since the bucket was sideways no water was going in it. So Azariah decides to climb the fence right there, but that was a bad idea because it is only a wire fence and not real stable with a person climbing on it. He showed some thought and figured that out, so he then travelled to the other side of the pen and tried the fence on that side (right next to the gate). He had the same problem. By this time his sister had stuck her hand through the fence and put it upright. She was now filling up the bucket. Azariah did not notice so he decided to go through the gate. I was watching in case the two goats escaped (they didn't). Eventually Azariah went back to where Tirzah was on the same side of the fence and then the fun began.

Tirzah took a drink of the water (ditch water that is). Then doused her brother with it. After getting 'Riah wet she then decided her feet needed washed so she picks up her foot and washes it, not realizing that she was going to put her foot back in the dirt and this water would make her foot dirty once again. Azariah was not happy at being wet and tried to turn the water off. Some how the water bucket, I think due to the fence hitting it, was on it's side again. Tirzah was able to set it up right and did the same thing a second time, take a drink, wash off her feet and fill the pail. Finally the water bucket was at least partially full. I am not sure if it had anymore water in it when they finished then when they first went out but it sure was fun to watch.

My Father and Grandpa (Grandpa decided to sit in a chair instead of the ground...)

We also had the privilege of playing Crochet with the grandparents. Grandma Peg at 83 was comical to watch.

Grandma Peg palying Crochet...

When she wasn't hitting the ball more than once on her turn, she was pointing out someone else that would. And she also enjoyed hitting the wickes more than her ball. It was an enjoyable time. Grandpa, my grandfather, almost needed the backhoe to get up after he ate his hamburger on the ground, but he made it O.K. He did have this weird reaction to the Homemade Goat Milk Ice Cream that I made. It seemed that after he ate it, he started bleating like a goat. So did my Uncle Wylie, but then again they are my dad's relatives.

Grandpa at the game of Crochet...

A Family Get Together

Nighttime Wanderings...

First the three year old comes in to sleep with me, being his mother I immediately check his clothes for "wet". Sure enough the pull-up leaked and I am up changing his clothes and putting him back to bed.

A few hours later my mom ears hear something...that wasn't the one year old throwing up was it? Surely not. I stay in bed for another 30 seconds willing it not to be so...I get it up and sure enough he threw up. But he is happy so I change his sheets and PJ's, put him to bed and go back to bed myself.

Forty minutes later my five year old comes and and says that she just threw up. She did not get any on herself, but it is all over her bed and beloved Oliver, a stuffed dog. The distress at that time was that Oliver was wet and icky. I rinsed him off, but he had to be put on the washer to be washed the next day. That was the most stressful part for my little girl.

Why did they throw up? I have no idea, but both were fine. These events happened Wednesday night then last night I am awakened by cries of "Mommy, I can't find Oliver, I had him and now he isn't there." As if a little stealer came in the night and took him just for fun. I go out to her and look for Oliver when she says "I have to go potty." She goes potty and I can't find the stuffed animal. Finally I find it above her on the table. But not just at the edge but the middle. I put it by her, but she is already back to sleep even without her precious Oliver.

I go back to bed and enjoy the sleep until the alarm goes off at 5 AM. I tell my husband in the morning "I can't figure out how Oliver was were he was." He informs me that she was probably making him do acrobatics and she threw him up and left him. Until of course the middle of the night.

Like a friend of mine says "I think the children get together before they go to bed and say 'you take 1 AM, you take 2 AM and I'll take 4 AM.'"

What a gift from the Lord. As we were waiting for the children to get there beds put out on the floor last night, we had to keep saying "Enjoy the children, enjoy the children." What were they doing you may ask? Well they sleep on crib mattresses that we place on the living room floor. During the day, we put these mattresses up. They were putting them out. The three year old put his flat on the ground and then both the three year old and five year old put their faces to the ground and pushed the bed where it needed to go using the tops of their heads, while the one year old took a ride on it. This was only stressful because it was taking a long time, but we did enjoy the moment nowing this is a precious time.

Home, home again

Well I am back in Colorado. I am so blessed to have the family that I have. The children and I arrived home at Midnight on Tuesday. We left Texas at 7 AM and arrived in Colorado at Midnight. I did not plan on travilling the whole way like that, but the Lord was ever so gracious in allowing me to be alert and awake to make it. We have enjoyed spending time with Daddy the last two days.

On our way home Zeb threw up four times. I am still trying to decide if it was McDonald's hamburger or if it was car sickness. It wasn't fun, but it helped keep me awake.

Still no goat kids. I should have some by Sunday.

Some pictures...

Peanut Butter?

Yesterday morning, I woke up early so I could make breakfast for the boys and take them to some friends house for the day. I went to the Homeschool Bookfair all day and some friend watched them. It was 6:30 AM and I made a peanut butter sandwich for Azariah and got some bread ready for Zeb. I then put the boys and the things they needed for the day in the Suzuki.

As we were driving, I gave them their breakfast and started thinking. "Do I have enough diapers?" Since the kids had beans and rice at a mexican restraunt the night before, I knew that he would probably have a few big diapers.

Azariah finshed his sandwich and Zeb was eating his bread. I looked back and saw Peanut Butter all over Zeb's hand and car seat. I am going 65 MPH down the highway. I then realize, "I didn't give Zeb peanut butter this morning, he is only one year of age...that's not Peanut Butter all over his hand...that's..."

I then quickly take the next exit off the hightway and pull into a gas station. As I clean up my sons blow out diaper I reminded myself "Make sure to put a lot of diapers in his diaper bag for today..."

Mommy, how do worms go poopy?

The wonderful questions of three year olds only get better as you are on an 18 hour drive. We travelled from Colorado to Texas in two days. On the first day of the trip, the children earned enough points to get something at the gas station when we filled up. My son, Azariah, chose gummy worms. As we were driving and it was his turn to sit up front with me, he looks over the gummy worm and in a contemplating voice asks "Mommy, how do worms go poopy?".

The drive was long, but the Lord was good to us. Once, we arrived in Texas, we unloaded the vehicle and went to dinner with my younger sister Kristy. She then went and took her last final while the children and I killed two hours playing ticket games at Mountasia. We won 265 tickets and got about $5.00 worth of cheap toys from the tickets. It took us a lot more than that to actually get the tickets to buy the $5.00 worth of toys. But we had fun. It is kind of hard when your son wants to play and trucking game and mom gets sick from watching the video screen, but I had to press the gas pedal and help steer so I was stuck, with a turning stomach.

We then took a drive to the airport so Kristy could catch her plane. It was a long day, but the Lord was gracious and allowed us to get here safely.

Mommy, I love Texas

Azariah "I love Texas."
Mommy "Why do you love Texas?"
Azariah "Because that is where my car hauler is."

We had some toys that we gave to GRACE when we left Texas and one of them has a purple Matchbox Car Hauler. He has not gotten over the fact that we gave it to charity, thus the above comment. I am trying to prepare him that even when we get to Texas we will not be seeing the car hauler.

The wonder under boy...

We had the delight of eating at Chick-fil-a. It was Gil, me, Tirzah, Azariah and Zeb. After eating the chicken and waffle fries, the children were delighted to have some strawberry shake. What a treat. Tirzah had finished and scampered off to play in the play area. Azariah, wanting to play also, but not willing to leave before every last drop of shake was gone, continues to eat his shake. Finally between bites, our little boy who at times thinks it is easier to go potty in his pants then it is to stop doing what he is doing says, "I had an accident."

Gil looked over and didn't see his pants wet. I walked around the table and found a nice puddle on the floor under his chair. Gil was hoping that when the lady had mopped the floor earlier she had missed that spot. She hadn't. You know the nylon wind pants that don't absorb water? Well, Azariah had a pair of those on. So instead of soaking into his pants, it ran out his pant leg onto the floor.

I picked him up and took him to the car. I started scrounging around, trying to find something to put on him. Since we still had to go shopping, this was a desperate search. There was one problem though. Some people enjoy using their vehicles as a type of storage place. I am one of those people, so usually in an emergency like this, I could find something to put on him even if it might be a skirt. The problem? We had just spend the morning cleaning out the van. And yes, that morning I had taken out a pair of Tirzah's pants that would have worked perfectly, but they were now in their proper place, the laundry basket. I did find a pair of Red underwear at the bottom of Zeb's diaper bag and put those on him.

So now "wonder under" was at least decent. We ran a couple of errands and then went to Wal-Mart. The big question, do I go in buy a pair of shorts come back out and then take him in or do I just figure, it's Wal-Mart and much stranger things have gone through the doors of Wal-Mart than a little boy with a shirt and underwear on. We chose option two. We made him sit in the cart or on Gil's shoulders. Our little "wonder under" boy made it through the Wal-Mart experience with no lasting scars. However, I am sure someone was saying "I can't believe those parents would bring their child to Wal-Mart with only underwear on."

Mountain Biking

A typical Gil look when his wife says, "I think we went the wrong way."

Gil while mountain biking

Gil and I were privileged to go mountain biking this morning. We went to Rabbit Valley and did Loops #3 and #4. Since we had never been on these trail before, we were not sure what to expect. #3 has some good continuous uphills, so we ended up walking our bikes up more than we want, but you do what you have to do. Then we had some nice technical down hill and narrow single track along a ledge. For those of you who don't know, single track is a trail that is 12-18 inches wide. It makes riding the trail seem like a roller coaster. We had fun and enjoyed the time together. No spills, but some good thrills.

Gil looking at the trail map after we arrived back at the truck.

Tirzah's Stuck

I volunteer at the Pregnancy Center on Wednesday afternoons as a counselor. My mom watches the children while I go. Well yesterday, I was getting ready to leave and Azariah comes and says, "Tirzah is stuck."
I asked "Where is she stuck?"
"In the crate."
"How did she get stuck?"
"I shut the door on her."

The excitment of living with a three year old and 5 year old.

Then today our 1 year old decided to feed the dog and himself. The only problem was that it was with the dog food. Now I do have a friend in Texas who said she and her siblings would grab a handful of dog food on their way out to play. But that is Texas and this is Colorado, so I did a couple of dog food rescue missions on Zeb today :-)

Still no baby goats...

Still No Baby Goats...

I feel like I am waiting for Christmas, but don't know what day it will be. Mocha still has not had her babies and I am anxious for her to have them. The children and I leave next Monday for Texas and I want them to be more than a day old when we leave. Every hour yesterday I went to check on Mocha, in hopes of her delivery. Every hour there was no change. I don't think I would have checked her so much yesterday, but she had one possible delivery sign which obviously wasn't a delivery sign since she didn't deliver.

When Sugar had her baby in February, the children and I missed it since we were at church. By the goodness of the Lord, Gil was here. I really don't want to miss Mocha's delivery, I know she has more than one kid and if there are any problems, I want to be able to help her.

Another day has started, it is rainy. I love the way Colorado smells after a rain. Have you ever heard how the berometer can cause mammals to go into labor? I am hoping today might be Mocha's day.

Another Day

Today was fairly normal. I worked on figuring out what we are going to do for our first official year of homeschooling. Tirzah will be in Kindergarten and I am hoping to tag Azariah along with her for Pre-K. Then this afternoon we went to Clifton to see some of our friends new baby goats.

Before we went to our friends house we stopped at Murdoch's, a ranch supply store. As I pulled into the parking lot I saw Grandma and Grandpa's car. I figured they were at Murdoch's getting something, so we went in the store to find them and also buy a tarp. As we looked we saw baby chicks and found the tarps I needed. Tirzah then saw the toy section and asked me if she could look at the toys and I said no. She then said "I know why mommy, because people are more important than toys, so we need to try and find Grandma and Grandpa."

I was so happy with her. We have talked to her multiple times about her love for things over her love for people, so it is always a precious gem when one of the children brings the point home on their own. We did meet up with Grandma and Grandpa in the parking lot. They had actually gone to McDonald's to get some lunch, that is why we didn't find them in the store.

We then went to our friends house. She is the lady who sold me my goats, her Nigerian Dwarf Goat had three kids yesterday so we went and saw them. They were very cute and of course Tirzah wanted to take them all home. I then tattooed the ears of all four goats. Green ink is still on my hands and Zebadiah's legs. Zeb loves the goats also. Tirzah and Azariah played with her youngest boy, John, and they had a blast. Tirzah said John would get a toad and through it in the pond and say "Bye, bye." I guess Azariah and Tirzah thought that was really funny. He also took a goose egg and threw it.

I am still waiting for Mocha to kid. She will have at least two kids and possibly three. I am in prayer that it would be very soon because we are going on a trip next week and would like the kids to be a week old or so before we leave. I will post pictures when they arrive.

Tractors, Goats, Water, and Rubberizer

What a beautiful day it was today. I started early with milking the goats. Then some time with the Lord and then back out to the goats. I decided to trim the goats hooves. While I was trimming Sugar and Mocha's hooves, my mom was using the little tractor to stop the water from the field from flooding our driveway. Well, as she was doing this the front tractor tires sank into the mud. She tried to get out, but she was stuck. Azariah and Tirzah were riding on the tractor with her and all of a sudden Azariah started crying hysterically. He is hard to understand even when he isn't crying so it is harder to understand him when he is crying. Therefore, she had to get him calmed down to figure out what he was crying about.

Azariah: "The tractor is stuck..." This said through tears and sniffs.
Gramgee: "Azariah it is O.K. we will get it out with the backhoe."
Azariah: "Oh, O.K." and he was fine. I think he actually was excited about getting to use the Backhoe. But that would have to wait till later, Gramgee had to get to work.

Notice the front wheels stuck deep in the mud

I finished trimming the does hooves and then I went to my bucks. One is very friendly. He was bottle fed as a baby and will come up to you and try to kiss you in his own special way. I trimmed his hooves first. He did a good job of standing still for me. Then came my other buck, Minco. He does not like to be caught and even with the grain to lure him, I missed his collar twice and then he didn't fall for the grain trick again. So, here I am running around the pen trying to catch a silly goat. Tirzah comes out and asks if they can paint. I said yes, as long as they didn't make a mess. (Yea, what mom believes that two pre-schoolers left to themselves with tube paint won't make a mess.) It at least allowed me to finish catching the silly goat and trimming his hooves. After about 10 minutes I finally catch Minco when he went into the goat house. He did well when I trimmed his hooves also.

Then I went into the house. Let us just say, it wasn't a huge mess, but when your daughter comes out before you get inside and says that Azariah is a super hero, you know something must be up. Azariah is in the bathroom leaving black hand prints on everything, including daddies toothbrush. He has black paint all over his face. But what is he doing? Is he trying to clean up the mess? No, he is trying to put toothpaste on his toothbrush to brush his teeth. The mirror is slimed with black paint, the front of the clothes washer has hand prints all over it and the toilet also has hand prints. Overall they did a good job at containing the mess.

Azariah as a Superhero

Gramgee finally gets home in late afternoon and it is time to rescue the tractor. She gets the backhoe and I go out to see how I can help. After some manuvering we finally have the tractor free. I rinsed the mud off the tractor and then sat down outside to read for a little while before milking and supper time. I milked my goat and then went in to get supper going.

Rescuing the Tractor with the Backhoe

As I started to put the ingredients in a small food processor for a marinade for the meat, my daughter comes running in saying, "Azariah can't get the water shut off." I knew they were in the barn and the faucet in the barn does not have a drain under it so I run out to the barn to shut it off. However, it wasn't the faucet by the door, it is the one where all the hay is. If you don't know, wet hay means moldy hay, which means bad hay. So I get it shut off and then take a broom to sweep out the water along with my children. We got that cleaned up and I saw Azariah had a spray bottle of Armour shine for cars. I informed him to put it back and he was not to get anything out of that stall. (One of the stalls in the barn is a storage place for car stuff that came from my dad's car lot when he downsized). The children came back to the house with me to put their hoes away, and then the ran back out to play.

So I start putting the ingredients together once again for my meat. And it wasn't very long before I hear crying from my son and my daughter comes bursting through the door saying, "Azariah sprayed some stuff in his eye." When I see Azariah he has brown all over his face and is holding his eye with an equally brown hand. I sit him on the sink to start cleaning some of it off and send Tirzah out to the barn to find what he sprayed in his eye. She arrives back with a can of stuff to rubberize your undercarriage with. It says "If contact with eyes, flush with water for fifteen minutes and consult your Physician." So I then sent Tirzah to find Gramgee and I had her call poison control. While she doing that I have Azariah in the shower and am spraying water in his eyes. Have you ever tried to spray water in a crying/screamming three year olds eyes, while he is fighting to get away. He was naked, so rather slippery. It was not fun, but kind of comical. Gramgee comes in with the phone and asks does his eye still hurt? How do you get a straight answer out of a screaming three year old who wants you to stop anyway. It took a little while, but he did say his eye didn't hurt anymore. So the lady at poision control says that should be good. Well, I gave Azariah a shower after that and realized then that the orange marker on his leg from two days ago was not from a Crayola marker, but from a Sharpie marker, so he has some kind of patroleum based product on his face and orange Sharpie marker on his legs.

Azariah with the remains of Rubberizer on his face

Finally I get back to dinner and am able to get it put together. Instead of getting dinner ready by the time Gil got home, I was only 1/4 of the way through with dinner preparations.

Later when I was talking to Tirzah, I asked her, "Tirzah what was Azariah trying to spray with the can?"
She answered "He was trying to spray me." I was not able to contain my laugher as I thought of my son holding up the spray can trying to push it down and having it aimed at himself instead of his sister. Just another day of the joy of children. Thank you Lord for your goodness to us.

Mud, Keys and Flowers...

Zebadiah, loves going outside. He will go out every chance he has and find any water that he can. So this morning when I let him out to roam, he found the mud puddle in the driveway. You know how a suction can be created and your shoes suck off your feet. Well, I was watching him and he looked stuck in the mud. Later I went out and sure enough his shoe was stuck in the mud puddle. He had also tried the delicacy of mud. Tirzah and Azariah joined in the fun as well. The little mud puddle wasn't good enough, so they took their little hoes and rakes that Gramgee bought them and made their own ditches and filled them up with water. They were soaked and muddy. Tirzah put on her swim suit, but later when I checked on Azariah he was naked from the waist down. I did laundry today, and after the mud baths I have about as much laundry now as I did before I did the laundry.

This afternoon the Lord was so gracious and allowed me to find my car keys. I figured they were in the garage, but if you could see all the stuff in the garage you would understand why it would be hard to find them. Once I found them I came in and Tirzah, Azariah and I prayed and thanked God for allowing us to find them. What a gracious God we serve.

After we put the goats in this evening, I wanted Tirzah to find the other hoe and rake. She found them at the far end of our little goat field. While she was their she yelled at me and said something I couldn't understand. Then she yelled again, I couldn't understand her and then a final time, which I couldn't understand either. When she arrived back at the garage she had the rake, hoe and a handful of flowers.

"Mommy, I found the tools, I saw some ducks and look at these pretty flowers. They smell really good. Smell them mommy."

These are the flowers she picked. I am so grateful to the Lord that she looks and admires the Lord's creation. May we all stop and smell the flowers.

The saga of the lost keys... And One Night with the King

Well, yesterday I described my son taking the car keys out to the tractor to try and start it. Well, at the time, I had the thought, I should probably go get the keys so he doesn't do somethig with them. However, Azariah has been doing well at remembering what he did with things... at least he had been doing well.

He lost the keys! Yep, he can tell me what he did after the red tractor, which was to go to the blue tractor, he can even tell me he went in the garage to try and start the four-wheeler with the keys after that, but he has brain fog after that. Three-year-olds aren't the best rememberers. We have looked everywhere and I pray that the Lord would be gracious and allow us to find them soon.

Gil and I also started watching and only he finished watching One Night with the King. It is based on the story of Esther in the Bible. But I don't really know that I can even say "based" on it, because it only uses the same names as the characters in the Bible. I was tired and bored with it so we went to bed instead of finishing it and then Gil finished it today. The story of Esther is such an amazing display of God's sovereign hand at work in His people, that it can't get any better than what the Bible records. As often happens, the film writers seemed to be afraid that the biblical story wasn't exciting enough, and attempted to make it more exciting, but at the expense of accuracy, believability, and in the end, excitement also. The hollywood version compared to the biblical acount became silly and dull in comparison, and also lacks the wonderful hand of God. What did I expect it to be like? About like it was, but there is always the hope that it would be different. When you try to mesh Western Twenty-First century culture and world-view into a film about a culture and world-view so radically different from our own it will never be accurate, and seldom very good. I reference The Nativity Story as well. It had much more merrit than One Night with the King, but the way they portrayed the culture at the time of Christ's birth was woefully wrong with a notable example of the modern feminist mindset given to Mary.

Oh yea, one more thing, if you want to mess up a chicken concoction, just add some canned peas to the mix, it is bound to make it worse than it would have been.

Wet pants?

It rained a lot last night and everything is wet, including the seat cushion for the tractor. Well our three-year-old grabbed the car keys and headed for the tractor. (He knows it takes a key to start the tractor, who cares if it is a car key or not, it's still a key.) Anyway, he climbs up on the tractor and places his hand on the wet soggy tractor seat cushion. After realizing he probably didn't want to sit on that side of it, he flips it over and discovers that side it wet also. Have you ever heard about the fact that putting your hands in water can make you go to the bathroom? After determining the seat cushion was wet and getting his hands all wet he then proceeded to pull down his pants and go potty off the side of the tractor. We have worked with him on when and where to eliminate, but at three, if you have to go, you have to go. He then abandoned the tractor for some other three-year-old activity. At least he didn't come in with wet pants either from the tractor seat cushion or going potty in his pants.

C is for Creator

Uncle John and Zebadiah

What a wonderful day of serving the Lord. We were able to attend church and enjoy fellowship with other believers. Gil and I had the priviledge of teaching children's church. Today's lesson was about how our Great God created all things. The application for the children was to get them to think about God when they see creation. Since most people oohh and aahh over the created things instead of thinking about the One who created it. It went well and we have some very bright children in children church. My prayer is that the Lord would use us to impart a passion to Glorify God with their lives.

After church we enjoyed a relaxing afternoon. Gil's bother, John, came home with us and he played with the children. They were able to talk him into getting on the trampoline with them. It was fun to watch the three of them jump. Then they got him to swing them for a long time. Azariah found a golf club and decided that it was his fishing pole and that he was catching fish with it. Oh, the joy of children.


This morning, Azariah wanted his vitamins. He also wanted to give Tirzah her vitamins but she was still asleep. He went ahead and place one of the vitamins in between her lips.