The Flute...

The Dancing Couple with the "Flute" player in the back playing away.

Yesterday morning, the children were playing with a harmonica that Grandma gave us. Finally Tirzah hands it to Azariah and says: "Azariah, you play the flute so I can dance." The notes of the harmonica drifted through the house as Gil and Tirzah danced with each other. Gil holding Talitha.

It's funny what the children say and think. Later that night Azariah out of the blue said. "Bugs Rabbit is a really big bunny." It was pretty funny.

Talitha's first ride

Talitha, Zebadiah, Azariah and Tirzah

Azariah and Tirzah wanted to go for a bike ride after dinner, so we loaded up and went for a ride. Gil pulled Talitha and Zebadiah behind his bike in the bike trailer. Talitha cried at first and then fell asleep. It was pretty fun. Today they went for another one without Talitha and I. Azariah went down a hill that was a little steep. Gil didn't see it, but goes to check on them and sees Azariah with a bloody face and pushing his bike up the little hill that was pretty steep. He didn't cry and was ready to keep biking. It was funny to have him tell me about it. He said "The hill was about this long" as he held his hands apart about two feet. He is getting to be a good biker.

The Baby Chicks

We have 6 baby chicks that are about one week old. We had eight but two have died. I am hoping to have all six of these make it to their egg laying days which will be in about six months. We will see. They sure are cute and it is fun to watch them go from fluff to feathers. In the picture they are starting to grow feathers on their wings.

My first time...

Today, I went to the grocery store. Gil took Tirzah, Azariah and Zebadiah for a bike ride and I left with Talitha to go to the grocery store. I got out of the car walked to the front door where some kids were selling Dominoes Pizza cards as a fun raiser. I informed them that I couldn't eat Dominoes Pizza and wasn't going to buy one. I then went the store and grabbed a little cart with space for two of the carring baskets. I walk down the produce isle to were the cheeses are and start looking for cheese. Then I think "I wonder how Gil and the kids are doing on their bike ride." Then I think "I wonder how Talitha is doing..." It then hits me that I took Talitha with me in the car and since she isn't with me right now, that means she is still in the car...

I run through the store pushing my partly full shopping cart, I leave it at the front door as I run to the car. Their she is sleeping away not even knowing that Mommy left her in the car for about 5 minutes. I take her in her car seat into the store and grab my groceries to finish shopping. The kids selling the pizza cards ask me again if I want one. I didn't want them to think "She just walked in without a baby and now she is walking back in with a baby." So I just said no and didn't mention I couldn't eat Dominoes Pizza.

I do want you to know that this is the first time I have ever forgotten one of my children somewhere. She was so quite.

In Memory of Pepper

My children were able to experience death for the first time this week. We had eleven baby goats (kids). The children liked to play with them and we were bottle feeding them. One of the little boys was not eating real well. I was thinking he wasn't going to make it. Then on Monday when I went to feed them in the morning, Pepper was dead.

Though I wasn't happy, this gave my children the chance to experience a death. Tirzah was pretty sad and cried on and off that morning. Azariah cried when I initially told him.

In our society were death is something that occurs in a hospital away from people, I believe it is good for children to see death. I put Pepper in an Amazon box so we could bury him. The children came and said good bye to Pepper and touched him. Then later that afternoon we buried him. I believe it was a good experience. Death isn't natural, since God created Adam and Eve perfect, yet because of sin it is an inevitable part of life. May we rejoice when we get to enjoy the resurrection of the dead.

Our Natural Heater

According to our four year old, Azariah, we have a natural heater in our house.

Azariah was sitting next to me and I was nursing Talitha, so her head was next to him.

Azariah: Mommy, Talitha is making the room hot.
Mom: She is?
Azariah: Yes, because she has a hot head.

Twinkie Night

Last night at AWANA was Twinkie night. I guess they want the kids to eat Twinkies so that their bodies will be preserved for the resurrection. Anyway, I picked up Tirzah and she wanted to know if she could eat it. It already looked nasty, she had sqeezed the package and so the twinkie was all mashed. I said no she couldn't because it had wheat in it. Her little eyes welled with tears and I told her she could eat the white cream. She then proceeded to take her fingers and put them into the cream, remove them, and put them in her mouth. I was talking to someone and finally told Tirzah to throw it away. She complied. (I wanted to save our cars interior from the Twinkie and it was getting disgusting).

On my way out, I grabbed two Twinkies thinking I would cut them open and scoop out the cream, so Azariah could have some. When we arrived home I told Tirzah and Azariah to go inside and get ready for bed while I went to get Talitha from Gramgees house. When I came inside the house, Azariah had not done any of his chores and he had mashed (just like Tirzah had done) both packages of Twinkies trying to get the cream out. So much for my well thought out plan of how to remove the preservative laced cream from the center of a yellow dyed sugar loaf. Needless to say, Azariah had white preservatives all over his face and hands. The Twinkies ended up in the trash and I did not have a taste of the white cream.

I'm Losing It...

I came in for a break from cleaning the garage and found that I put the milk, which is in a mayonnaise jar, in the cabinet instead of the refrigerator.

Resurrection Sunday

We had a good Resurrection Day on Sunday. The night before, we made resurrection cookies for Family Worship Time. It is fun, but for some reason they never turn out the way they are suppose to. Oh, they are very tasty, they just don't look correct. Oh well, the children like them.

My mom did an egg hunt with plastic eggs. We were getting ready to leave for Gil's sisters house when my children inform me that they were hiding eggs for the adults to find when they had the great idea of hiding an egg in my grandmother's (their great-grandma's) tail pipe. I figured I needed to let her and my grandfather know, so when they hear strange sounds from the muffler they would know what was going on. When I told them everyone laughed and they said it would either get blown out or melt. Good thing it wasn't a hard boiled egg.

I hope you had a good Resurrection Sunday also, celebrating the resurrection of our great God, Jesus Christ.

Lost dogs

We have a dog named Blackie and my parents (actually my little sister) has a dog named Jasper. Blackie is not fenced in, but hangs around overall. Jasper is in the backyard. Tirzah let Jasper out this morning because we put the baby goats in the backyard. My mom arrived home at 2:30 PM and the dogs were gone. I had been inside with the children, so didn't realize they had run off.

Well, my mom and Tirzah left in the car to look for them in the neighborhood. Azariah said he knew where they were.

Azariah: I know where the dogs are.
Mom: You do? Where are they?
Azariah: They went to the forest to look for bears.
Mom: They went to the forest to look for bears? Where is the forest?
Azariah: It is where we went seed hunting with Gramgee.
Mom: O.K.

About10 minutes later both dogs came back home. So we will never know if they really were in the forest looking for bears.

Three more kids...that makes eleven

Sugar had her kids last night. She had three of them, two bucks and one doe. The first one came out tail first. I have heard of that before, but this was the first one I witnessed. I did help her a little with it. Anyone want a goat?

Max

Sammy

Charlotte

Talitha Anne at 1 Month

Talitha Anne is growing well. She has started smiling some.
It is still rare when she smiles, so when she does smile it is pretty special.

This comparison picture shows the difference between Zebadiah age 2 and Talitha 1 month.

Hands

Tirzah and Dad

Talitha and Daddy

Two Beans

Vanilla our part Nubian part Nigerian Dwarf Goat had her kids last night. She had two, a buck and a doe. So we now have 8 kids, 4 does and 4 bucks. They are going to be in the paper for sale this coming week. Please pray that we can sell them and make back some of the money he have put into this project.

Vanilla Bean and Anne

Vanilla Bean

Vanilla Bean

Azariah's answer

In our house, each night we have family worship time. This time consists of singing, reading the Word, usually reading some type of devotional and prayer. Tirzah is always quick to answer the questions and she is usually correct with her answers. This is due to the fact that she listens better than Azariah. If Azariah would listen better he would probably be a better question answerer. Because of this, we ask our questions first to Azariah and then let Tirzah answer correctly or fill in the gaps Azariah left out. He is getting better and learning to listen. Yet, he still has some work to do.

This evening, during family worship, I was reminded what I say many times a day to our son. I read James 1:19-20

This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

Gil proceeded to ask Azariah a question to make sure he was listening.

Gil: "Azariah, we are to be slow to speak and quick to what?"
Azariah: "Quick to pick up."

I had to turn my head away and stifle a laugh. My son hears me say "Quickly, Azariah, quickly" a lot during the day and many times picking up toys is the subject. I guess it is sinking in that I want him to do things quickly, now if he would do things quickly...

Bubbles...

Hi Mom look at me!

A happy little boy blowing his very own bubbles. This one lasted a long while. Long enough for me to get some pictures of it. I'd say Zebadiah is a professional bubble blower.

Talitha Anne at 3 Weeks

Here is our little girl at three weeks old. She is doing well.

More Kids...

Tirzah asked to go out and see the baby goats this morning. I said yes and sat down to feed Talitha. Tirzah was gone for about thirty minutes. I would normally have checked on her, but since I was feeding Talitha I didn't. She came in and said that Mocha had three kids and that the other goats were being mean to the little black one.

I put Talitha in her swing and went to the barn. Sure enough Mocha had her babies probably about an hour to an hour and a half before. I kicked the other does out of the stall and moved Mocha to a cleaner stall. They are all doing well. She gave us two does and one buck. So currently we have 3 does and 3 bucks. I put an ad in the paper and we will be selling goats, so if anyone is interested let me know.

Cutie

Brownie

Black Beauty

Two more does will kid this month.

Another Birth Annoucement

Fructose, one of our kids from last year, had her kids this afternoon. I was inside with the window open looking at books on Amazon and feeding Talitha when I heard a bleating that I was pretty sure meant one of my four does was having labor pains. I can't blame them for the bleating...having just had Talitha three weeks ago :-).

Anyway, I go out to the barn and Fructose was definitely in labor with the nose of one of the kids just coming out. I hurried back inside, put Talitha in her swing and headed back to the barn. Fructose proceeded to have three kids, 2 bucks and 1 doe. After the first two bucks were born I was hoping one would be a doe. She did well with the deliver but wanted nothing to do with them for about the first hour and a half. I had to feed my own little one so I went in and left her alone. But when I went back out she was licking her kids and letting them eat. I was very happy since I don't have a nipple to feed them right now and I wasn't looking forward to milking Fructose today.

Pepper

Coco

Fructose and Snowflake

We have three more does due to kid this month...It should be fun.

What Our Kids Say

Azariah: The only thing that Azariah ever says to Talitha is...
Hi, Talitha, Hi Talitha, Hi Talitha, Hi Talitha, Hi Talitha, Hi Talitha...
This is usually said with his face in her face.

Zebadiah: This is harder so I will say that he would be a good candidate to go to Thailand which is a tonal language. He says words, but often just says tonal parts of the Word.

Tirzah: Says whatever she is thinking...

Three Kids in a Wash Tub

Three Kids in A Wash Tub

Rub-A-Dub- Dub
Three kids in a Wash Tub,
And how do you think they got there?
Tirzah, Azariah, Zebadiah,
They all jumped out of a laundry basket
'Twas enough to make a mom cheer.

For Aunt Mindy...

Talitha wearing the outfit that Aunt Mindy bought for her.

The Birthday Boy

On March 5, 2008 the love of my life turned 37

Zebadiah, Gil (the birthday boy), Tirzah and Azariah

Talitha and Gil

We celebrated Gil's birthday and Zebadiah's birthday on Sunday with his family. Then on Wednesday, we went to Famous Dave's to celebrate his birthday by eating out. I made a Dump Cake which turned out pretty good.

Talitha at 2 Weeks

How to look at children's artwork...

Tirzah asks her daddy if he saw the picture she painted today.
He looks at the picture she is holding and says "Oh it's a rabbit."
Tirzah informs him that it is a horse jumping out of the barn into the rain.

The Moral of this story...always say to the child "Tell me about your picture." That way you can avoid the embarrassment or hurt feelings of saying the wrong thing. It didn't seem to phase Tirzah that he said it was a rabbit.

Gil was correct when he told me later that she painted a really good rabbit head on the body of the horse.

Mommy's Nap Time

Well, my children have learned that when mommy goes to take a nap they need to not disturb me. I allowed them to watch the Jesus movie while I rested. Zebadiah was asleep and I had Talitha with me. I went into my room at 2 PM and fed Talitha while I read for about 30 minutes. Then I laid down with Talitha and fell asleep.

I woke up about 3:30 to the sound of Tirzah whacking Azariah on the head. He then cried. I fell back asleep half thinking he would be in my room at anytime. I then woke up at 4:00 to the sound of screeching. Thinking that I should be responsible and check on my children I get up with Talitha. The older two are under Zebadiah's pack in play which has very low clearance and Zebadiah only has his shirt on. He has discarded his diaper and pants. Everyone was still alive so I was happy.

When I suggested to Zeb that we put a diaper on him he runs to the bathroom, stands on the stool and says potty. Nothing happens of course but he knows that is where he should go. So maybe it is time to potty train him...I just need to get motivated. About 30 minutes later, Zeb informs me his blanket is wet...first assumption is that it is potty so I do a quick load of washing with the beloved blanket so he can sleep with it tonight. It is then chore time so I put Zeb's pants (no diaper) and crocs on him so he can go outside with me. I happily feed all the animals and am getting ready to milk Spice when Zeb starts freaking out in the barn. He is crying and crying saying "wet, wet, wet". Sure enough one of his crocs is wet...can we guess what from? You guessed it, he went potty. I still don't think he made the connection, but perhaps I will be motivated to potty train him pretty soon.

2 AM

Talitha starts fussing to eat and get changed...

Tirzah comes into the room "Mommy, Azariah is crying for you because his pillow and blanket are on the floor. I asked him why he doesn't just pick them up off the floor himself, but he won't..."(Daddy gets up to take care of 4 year old)

Talitha is still fussing so when Daddy gets back into bed, Mommy gets up to take care of Talitha. I change her diaper and immediately she dirties the new diaper. Then I feed her for a while and change her again. She goes back to sleep and all is well.

The Birthday Boy at 2 years old

Zebadiah Tobias

2 Years Old

Getting ready to open presents

Aunt Mindy put this cute little pink outfit in his present...

I think it might be for Talitha, he wasn't too thrilled with the outfit.

But he was very excited about the Tonka trucks...

Earlier in the day, Tirzah helped make and decorate Zebadiah's birthday cake.
She is modeling a hat worn by her Great-Grandma Barron when she was a little girl.

Azariah wants to make sure Zebadiah has plenty of help blowing out his two candles.

Daddy helps Zebadiah eat his cake and ice cream.

Our little two year old is very special. He talks a lot, though we aren't always sure what he wants. Zebadiah has a fleece blanket that he loves. Talitha also has a fleece blanket just like his except with different colors. Zebadiah has decided it is his soul duty to make sure Talitha has her blanket no matter if she needs it or not. So he is constantly finding it and bringing it to her. What a good big brother. Happy Birthday Zebadiah Tobias...