Welcome, Little Tib

When it comes to introducing a whole new person on my blog, I find it a little overwhelming.  So much so that I’ve avoided doing it for the past 4 months.  But today I decided I would bite the bullet and share some of my favorite pictures of our newest addition with y’all.

This July we were blessed to welcome yet another beautiful baby girl into our family.  Wow! I never would have guessed that I’d ever be the mom of 3 wonderful little girls, not to mention one terrific boy!

Tabitha Grace arrived safe and sound, five days ahead of her due date, at a healthy 7 pounds 6 ounces.

Of course, the monkeys were thrilled to meet their new little sister.

No discussion about Tib would be complete without a nod to her thick, dark hair.  I just love it!  Unfortunately, the older she gets, the more hair she rubs off.

Now this.  This is the sweet spot!  See all those wrinkles under that little chin?  That’s Mama’s favorite kissing spot.  It’s so warm and soft and sweet.

Tib could not ask for two better sisters.  Lucy and Tacy love her so much.  Tib is just like a real, live baby doll to them, and they really are a big help taking care of her.  The only problem is that there is only one of Tib and two of them, so there is some arguing and fussing over who gets to hold her sometimes.

I always enjoy making a hanger for our hospital door.  This time the Tool Man help me by cutting out a wooden angel for Tib.  I added a string of battery powered lights for an extra special touch.

No one is prouder of Miss Tib than her daddy.  I think I have a picture of the Tool Man with all of our babies in this pose.  I really should print them out and have them framed all together.

I have hundreds more photos and stories of little Tib to share, but to avoid becoming totally overwhelmed I’ll stop here.  I just recently went through older posts here on the blog and was inspired to start utilizing my camera more and blogging more.  Hopefully I will be able to do so.  Life is quite crazy with four monkeys running around, and blogging takes a backseat to household chores and school.  But I am going to try, try, try to post more often.

Lindsey

Life on the Farm

*Note:  I originally wrote this post waaaay back in April of this year.  However, when I tried to publish it online, I received an error message and have been unable to post anything in the last 4 months.  Thankfully, I finally fixed my technical issues today, so I am officially back in the blogging business!  So even though this post is terribly out of date, I decided to go ahead and share it with y’all anyway.*

Hey, y’all.  Remember me?  I know it’s been months since I lasted posted anything on this blog, and I feel just awful about that.  I could spend a lot of time apologizing and giving excuses and filling you in on the last 4 months, but I won’t.  Let’s just talk about the present, shall we?

Thanks to the arrival of my favorite season, spring, our family has been spending a lot of time out of doors lately.  We have all been enjoying the warmer temperatures and longer days.  I just don’t know how people who live “up north” deal with all the cold.  I need heat!

So what have we been busying ourselves doing?  Well, like all good country folk, we’ve been hard at work gardening and farming.  And by “we” I mean mostly the Tool Man and occasionally the monkeys and rarely me.

The last couple of years we have taken a break from gardening.  The Tool Man was just too busy to keep it up.  But with a new job and schedule this year, he was eager to dig in once again and exercise his green thumbs.  In an effort not to overwork ourselves, we decided to keep our garden small and simple.  We planted six short rows of our favorite vegetables – one row of potatoes, one row of tomatoes, one row of squash, one row of peppers (for pepper jelly and salsa!), one row of zucchini, and one row of snap beans.

When it’s time to hoe or weed, the monkeys magically disappear, but when it’s planting time they are super excited to work in the garden.  They love digging their fingers (and toes) into the soft dirt. 

Even little Tacy Mae was eager to get some dirt between her tiny toes.

You might can tell from our wardrobes that these pictures were taken a couple of months ago.  It’s just taken me that long to write this post.  Our garden actually looks nothing like these pictures any more.  It’s now lush and green with huge squash plants and head-high snap bean vines.  We’ve also harvested our potatoes and have planted a couple of watermelons and cantaloupes.

We’ve had several new animal additions to our farm this year.  I’ve been begging the Tool Man for a goat for years now, and he finally gave in.  Back in January we bought this little pygmy goat when he was just 2 weeks old.  My super creative monkeys decided to name him “Goatie.”  How original is that?!  We just love Goatie.  I guess you could say he is a free-range goat.  He can push through his gate, so he comes and goes as he pleases.  Honestly, it’s a bit like having another dog running around the yard.

Of course we have several new feathered faces strutting around our yard this spring.  In addition to a dozen more chicks, our coop now houses 1 turkey, 2 rouen ducks, and 3 geese.  Whew!  That’s a lot of birds, but we sure do love having them around. 

The only negative to having all the birds is that the ducks and geese were wreaking havoc on our garden.  They mowed down an entire row of peppers and zucchinis, so we were forced to build a fence around our garden to keep out our feathered friends.

Thanks for hanging in there during my absence.  Hopefully I will get back into a regular blogging schedule soon.  I do miss sharing memories with y’all.

Lindsey

All I Want for Christmas

Surprise! I’m back.  Sorry about the recent break from blogging.  Between schoolwork and housework and prepping for holiday fun, I haven’t even thought about my blog lately.  But when I woke up bright-eyed at 4:30 this morning, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to sneak in a post.

I’m still doing a terrible job of taking pictures of the monkeys.   But there was no way I would miss capturing a few shots of Lucy pulling her first front tooth a couple of weeks ago.

Now believe me when I tell you that it was high time for this tooth to come out!  Lucy’s front teeth had begun to spread apart, and this tooth had migrated to front and center.  Not only had it centered itself up, but it insisted on protruding from between her lips.  Lucy loved to close her mouth with only that tooth sticking out past her lips.  More than one person told her that she looked like Nanny McPhee.  (By the way, we’ve never seen than movie, but I hear it’s a good one.)

After a few unsuccessful attempts to pull the tooth with her fingers, the Tool Man decided to give the old floss trick a try.

Despite our best attempts to get the big moment on video, Lucy snatched out the tooth a split second before the Tool Man could push record.

Good ol’ Tacy Mae was there by Lucy’s side, cheering her along.  She’s such a funny girl.

Now that looks much better.  No more wayward, hillbilly tooth!  Lucy is super excited that she can now drink from a straw without actually having to open her mouth. Oh, the perks of missing teeth!

Lucy’s second front tooth will be ready to come out soon I think.  Who knows?  She may indeed be needing those “two front teeth” for Christmas this year.

Lindsey

Terrific to be Two

Two weeks ago our little pumpkin, Tacy Mae, turned two years old.  My, how the time flies!

Due to conflicting schedules, I came pretty close to not throwing a birthday party this time around.  After all, Tacy did get an all-expense-paid trip to Canton’s First Monday Trade Days and Great Wolf Lodge on her birthday.  What more could a girl ask for, right?  But due to the whining and nagging from Tacy’s grandmothers, I threw together a very impromptu dinner to appease my mother and mother-in-law celebrate Tacy’s second birthday.

The great thing about October birthdays, is that pumpkins and other autumnal decor can easily double as party decorations.  Just paint a glittery “2’' on a pumpkin and you’re good to go.

I also added touches of tulle and a little gold ribbon here and there for some extra special, celebratory sparkle.

I was pleased with the outcome of this tulle-wrapped pumpkin because the sheer covering helped tone down the intensity of the orange.  I realize orange is a fall staple, but I’m not fan of the color.  I would love to fill this bowl with tiny white pumpkins, but I haven’t been able to locate any yet.

Since my children don’t really care for traditional cake I decided to bake Tacy a cookie cake instead.

Tacy was a little unsure of what to do with her birthday candles.  It was only her second birthday, you know.  Mostly Tacy just wanted to touch the flames.  Luckily, the Tool Man was standing close by to grab her hand before she got too close to the fire.

While Dad was trying to coach Tacy on blowing out candles, Lucy “accidentally” puffed them out for her.  When all of the party guests instinctively gasped, Lucy ran out of the room red-faced and crying.  It was no biggie, really.  We just relit the candles and Tacy gave it another go.  But Lucy was totally embarrassed by the whole ordeal, and it took some coaxing to get her to rejoin the festivities.

So much for making a birthday cake my kids would actually eat.  As you can see Tacy was content to feed her piece to the Tool Man, who was more than willing to gobble it up.

A few gifts Tacy received were two, snazzy, fall outfits, her very first Barbie, some princess shoes and accessories, a tiny tricycle, a small slide with a jumbo bag of balls for diving into, some shape matching manipulatives (y’all know I have to give at least one educational toy), and this puppy pal.

I guess that does it for birthday parties around here for the next eight months.  Now it’s time to get serious about holiday decorating.  I’ve just about got my autumn touches in place, but I’m still on the look out for those mini, white pumpkins.  It’s hard to believe than in six weeks I will be putting up a Christmas tree.

I.  Can’t.  Wait.

I’ve already decided we are going back to a real tree this year.  You just can’t beat the look, feel, and smell of fresh cut tree.  But enough about Christmas.  I think now I will go take a few pictures of my autumn décor to share with y’all. 

Lindsey

Mutton Busted

Hello, all.  I thought I’d take a few minutes today to tell you about our exciting rodeo weekend. 

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of ours informed us of a local rodeo in which children were invited to try riding sheep.  Mutton busting they call it.  Years ago the Tool Man was a part-time cowboy, so he jumped at the opportunity to sign Lucy up for a wild ride.  Even though Lucy is 99% princess, she willingly accepted the challenge.  So last weekend our family, along with my mom and dad, headed out in the triple digit heat to watch our little cowgirl in action.

Here’s a breakdown of how the evening progressed.

We arrived at the rodeo grounds an hour before show time to get Lucy signed up.  While Lucy busied herself sucking down a grape slush, Dad pinned the number on her back.

Is this not the cutest little cowgirl you’ve ever seen?!  She was so anxious to ride, but we still had an hour to kill before the rodeo began.  I felt bad for Lucy having to wait so long in those dark, hot jeans, but such is the life of a cowgirl I guess.

Did I mention that it was 100 degrees?  And not a cloud nor shade in sight!  At the ticket booth there was a sign that said there would be no refunds in the event of a rain-out.  We joked that we should be so lucky.

Then we waited and waited.

And we sweat, and we waited.

For an hour we melted and waited.

Finally the time drew near for the rodeo to start, but just before show time something strange happened.  The wind started to blow, and the sky started to darken.  Here and there, we saw flashes of lightning.  It was at that point that I hopped off the metal bleachers and ushered the monkeys to the car.

Then the bottom fell out.

It rained and rained and rained.  A good old fashioned toad strangler.

It rained so much and so long that we decided to leave the rodeo grounds and go to dinner with my mom and dad.

About the time we finished our meal the rain let up.  It was nearly 8:30 at this point, so my mom and dad decided to call it a night, but we rode back over to the rodeo area to give it one more shot.

We made it back to the arena about five minutes before the rodeo got kicked off.  We tiptoed to the stands through the wet, squishy grass, carefully avoiding puddles that were deeper than the soles of our tennis shoes.  Luckily, we managed to find some plastic grocery sacks in my car, so we could sit on the bleachers without getting our bums wet.

After all the waiting, it was finally it was time for the show to start!  The rodeo drill team (who knew there was such a thing) opened things up by parading American flags around the arena on horseback.  Lucy and Tacy watched with wide eyes as the horses marched around in figure eights.

First on the program were the boys riding the young horses.  The muddy ground made for quite an interesting show.

After a good half hour of horse bucking, we heard the long-awaited call for the sheep riders to get in line.  Yay!  For an instant Lucy hesitated and flung her arms tightly around my neck, but she was easily convinced to go line up with Dad.

Lucy was about 12th in line for mutton busting.  Ty, Tacy, and I waited in the stands watching as children, one by one, fell off their sheep to their muddy demise. 

Moments before it was Lucy’s turn, I snuck behind the fence and snapped a picture of the happy cowgirl…

In retrospect, I think it was the mud that got to her.

Like I said earlier, she’s 99% princess, and about 30 seconds before her number was called, Lucy’s princess nature took over.  Wild horses couldn’t have drug Lucy onto one of those wet sheep.  She’s one of the most stubborn people I’ve ever known, and there was nothing the Tool Man or I could have said to convince Lucy to mount that sheep.

Trust me.

We tried.

It was a long, quiet ride home.  We pulled into our garage at 10:00 that night, wet, tired, and aggravated.  Nobody dared mention mutton busting.  In fact, it’s been two weeks since the rodeo, and we still don’t talk about it.  I’m sure this will be one of those tales that we will laugh about in the future, but we are not there yet.  Right now all we remember is how we paid good money to wait nearly 5 hours in the heat, humidity, lightning, and rain for a sheep ride that wasn’t.  Talk about anti-climatic!

Lindsey

Snow Day–Part II

Can y’all believe we had not one, but two snow days last week??  Well, technically, I guess the first one was more of a sleet day, but on day two we had really for real snow!

My monkeys had just as much fun playing in the snow as they did in the ice the day before.

Lucy especially enjoyed all the white fluff.  She was less than one year old the last time we had any significant snow, and she has been dying to make a snow angel for years.  At last her wish came true!

She left tiny snow angels scattered all around our yard.

Of course the monkeys had to build a snowman.   Actually, Ty did most of the work himself.  Lucy had a hard time getting the snow to stick together, so she quickly lost interest.

Have you ever seen anyone give a snowman a haircut??

Leave it to Ty, the creative genius, to use grapes for eyes and buttons.  Oops!  Looks like this snowman lost an eye before I snapped the picture.

The Tool Man entertained himself by capturing all the fun on camera with his drone.

You know that no snow day would be complete without a good natured snowball fight.  Even I, the serious, sensible mom, hurled a snowball or two.  Although, I quickly surrendered after I caught one with my teeth!  I mean it.  I literally caught a snowball in my mouth.  (If you’re wondering, the Tool Man is the one who threw it at me.)

Lucy discovered that, in a pinch, a garbage can lid makes a pretty good sled.

If you’re wondering where Tacy was during all this snowy fun, she was warm and toasty in her crib enjoying a long winter nap.  Hmmm.  Sounds like a great way to pass the afternoon if you ask me!

Lindsey