3!

Look who turned 3!

 Happy Birthday, my sweet baby boy!

Here is sweet Maeve, newly without her cast:

 Ryan gets into the swing of things:

 One of the highlights for me, was Lizzie giving Martin her present.  She decided about a month ago that she wanted to buy Martin his own sliced cheese for his birthday.  They usually get all the cheese they want, though we are known to get local, raw milk cheese whenever we can. She wanted to get him the store brand sliced american cheese.  She was so excited to give this to him.

 He was so excited to get it from her!  He feeds off her energy and has just realized his present is cheese.  What a cute couple of kids!

 After the cake and the gifts, cam the pinata.  The kids all at fun trying to bring it down:

 Rosa got the hang of it.

 Lizzie finally broke it down.  The kids were very interested in the noise makers (and clearly had already eaten cake as they couldn't have cared less about the lolly pops).

Thanks to everyone who was able to come! Thanks to Mom and Dad for hosting - camp road is practically impassible without all wheel drive this time of year.

Tractor

This winter weather has held on extra long this year.  We are all ready for summer weather and are bundling up to spend time outside whenever we can. After we visited the new piglets a few days ago, we took a side trip to the barn and visited the tractors. Marty has always loved tractors and he has learned the names of the tractors at the farm (here he is on the big 3020. I have already forgotten the names and numbers for the others, so he is far ahead of me. I remember them as "the one I use when I help tedder" or "the one with the bucket on it". Good enough for me!).

 He is pretty high up there!

 This reminds me of my dad.  If he is using this tractor, it usually means he is haying, and if he is haying, that means he is turning around, looking behind the tractor to make sure the baler is working as it should. When I think of this tractor, I think of dad with one eye in front and one eye behind. Marty seems to have figured it out pretty quickly!

 Lizzie also loves a good tractor. I heard her race up the stairs yesterday with her brother yelling "let's use our John Deere speed!".  Are John Deere tractors known for speed? I have no idea, but clearly kids learn tractor loyalties early.

Scarlet

Scarlet has done us proud again! The piglets were born this past weekend.

 What a lot of hard work in bring these 12 little darlings into the world!  She deserves a break.

Spring!

Some sure signs of spring around the house - Ryan's new kayak and the kids playing in the mud!

House

We have been busy this winter, doing our best to buy this house. We first tried to buy this house back in June, but were not able to get the thing closed until this past March.  We are going to do some work on the inside before we move in and hope to do some more on the outside once the snow melts.  Here are the before shots.

Marty with his paint brushes, all ready to tackle his new bedroom.

 Lizzie's bedroom:

 The kitchen:

 Dining room space:

 Living room:

 Master bedroom:

I can't wait to get some "after" pictures (and to finish the move!).  Stay tuned! Ryan is working hard to get it done before things get even busier on the farm.

Big haircut!

Ryan and I have talked a lot about giving Marty his first big haircut.  We have asked him before, and he has always said that he was not interested.  But, last night, Marty decided that he was ready to have a haircut like Daddy does. So, not wasting a minute, we gave him the big chop this morning.  I have trimmed his hair with scissors in the past, but it was not even enough to braid (though it looked great on his head) - we needed to start from scratch to get the curls a bit more even.  Here he is this morning "before":

Here is Lizzie "before" too - she was pretty nervous about it and seemed to want to talk him out of it.















Here Marty is after!  He was pretty pleased with it and was glad to start showing it off right away.  It was hard not to cry when those baby curls came off, but I think they will be back, in one way or another.  So handsome!

February

Not much photo taking this month! Here are the kids watching out the window for the pizza to arrive.

 We celebrated Ryan's birthday (kids did a great job decorating!)

 I finished Martin's new quilt (thanks to Mom for the binding!)

 Ryan spent some great time in the greenhouse:

This weekend, Marty and Ryan tapped the maple trees: