Jubilee Turns 2!!

Our sweet little baby girl turned 2. How time flies! She has been such a joy to our family and we are so thankful for her!

She told us she wanted a sheep cake, but I didn't let her see it till I had it finished . She was all excited and exclaimed, "I like sheep cakes!" :)

She did a good job of blowing out the candles.



She couldn't wait to open her presents. She had been talking about her birthday for days.

Opening her gifts..

Each present she opened she ran and gave to Micah David who was thrilled to be in on all this. She would then run back to open another one. :)

Her expression when she opened her bible. She said, "Oh, wow! That's neat!!"

Lots of fun things! :)

A card from Jessica, Chris and Kezia.. She loved all the stickers. :)

We all love you so much, Jubilee! 

September Happenings

Good afternoon to all my amazing followers!
Hope this finds you all doing well? I apologize for the delay in posting! I am happy to announce that my camera is back in working order!!! Yeah!! I was kinda bummed cause I thought I was going to have to buy a whole new camera, but thankfully I looked into it and thanks to the internet I found out the problem. My lens was completely done for. I clipped on a different lens and it works like a pro. Problem solved!! So glad to find out my camera wasn't the problem! :)

So wow, I am like so far behind in everything. It's like trying to write an entry in your journal about something that happened two weeks ago. Your mind isn't as fresh on all the little details and it ends up just being... well, blah! I will try to keep this post from getting "blah" for you all! I have a lot of random pictures, so enjoy!!

I am off work the rest of the week because of the Cochise County Fair. The boys I watch are in 4-H and are taking their animals. Our adopted Grandpa passed away and they are having an estate sale for all his and Grandma's things. We are going to make an effort to go there tomorrow, so that means no entering anything in the fair for us this year. In a way it is sad, but if the Lord tarries there will always be another year. :) I think the trip to NM will be fun as a family. It will also be sad as it brings back all the memories that we had with the Mosers. All the amazing Christmas days we spent with them. Waking up early in the morning, the woodstove heating the room, delicious smells coming from the kitchen,  breakfast spread on the table, devotions before the meal, Grandpa sticking his finger in a roll as it went past to make sure we knew it was his, gifts around the Christmas tree, exciting time as everyone opens their gifts, Christmas program for Grandpa and Grandma, out to play on the big tree swing, working in the wood shop with Grandpa while the snow is falling, helping Grandma make Christmas dinner, and the memories could go on for ever.

 Grandma passed on a few years ago, and I know Grandpa was ready to go meet her. We will miss them always!! 

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We had a hurricane come up from the coast of Mexico. It passed us, leaving us just on the edge of it. We got a lot of rain!! We got over 3 inches of rain, and have been getting a lot here and there since. Someone told Dad, that when it keeps raining into the fall like this, the Monsoons don't know when to stop. Our rainy season is usually about over by now, but this year it is still raining a lot. We are really enjoying it!! It has been awesome for the garden! 

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Joanna recently bought a AKC Miniture Dachshund Puppy. There is a big demand for the puppies, so she is planning to make a little business out of it. It will be a while till Poppy can have puppies, in the meantime we are enjoying having a puppy around. 

Jubilee adores her and drags her into everything she does.

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Our friend Meda recently got married to a guy from Holland. 

Joanna and I helped set up before the wedding. It was a lot of work, but it was fun helping!

It was a beautiful day for a wedding. I am so happy for them and wish them the best!!

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Our little Golden Rule Dairy has grown to six cows. I am going to make another post on it with more details, so I won't say anything more about it for now.

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Justin and I both had to see a dentist last Thursday, so we made a day out of it. Juliana and Kaitlyn were staying with us, so we took them along. We did a lot of shopping afterwards and one of the places we went was Best Buy. We changed all the computers to www.themessage.com home page. We thought it was pretty cool! :)

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The distance may be great between us, but we never forget about our Canadian family in Canada. Jessica keeps us updated with lots of pictures of our sweet little Kezia. She is growing up into quite the little girl! :)

Such a princess!

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Dad brought home a bunch of pears from a place where they were working.

Pears are always a treat!!

We canned 52 quart!!

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Mom recently bought a brand new batch of Buff Orpington chickens. We have customers ask us if we sell eggs a lot and our old flock just wasn't keeping up. Dad, Micah and I built a portable chicken pen for them. 

We are able to drag it around the field with the riding lawn mower.

We have an extra tarp that goes over the top for more shade and shelter.

Micah came up with this really nifty chicken feeder. It works great and you don't waste any feed this way!

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Time to dig lots and lots of potatoes!

We piled them up and covered them with wood chips last year and they kept really well. We did the same with them this year.

Joshua gathering the chips.

All finished!! :) We will have enough potatoes to last us till next year.

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Curly had a batch of 10 babies. She would've had 13 but three didn't make it.

Out in the sun playing with their half sisters.

Two weeks later and they are already getting big.

Granny is due next.... yeah!! Piglets are so much fun!

This is Captain. The Daddy of all the piglets. I don't think I got a picture of him on here yet.

Talk about spoiled. These pigs love attention! LOL

Poppy meeting the pigs for the first time.

Well, enough pictures of pigs!!

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I had someone inquire about how we keep the flies down with all the pigs around. Well, my Dad made three 55 gallon drum fly traps that work amazing!! You put four entries into the barrel with pipe that points to the bottom inside. I didn't take pictures of this, cause it is pretty disgusting in there! 

You then cut a square in the top and glue a piece of plexiglass or something clear so the light can come through. The flies will go to the top towards the light, later will die and fall to the bottom. We hang rotten meat in the middle and then sour milk in the bottom. Anything that smells really bad works great. The smell is strong enough to draw flies, but isn't strong enough to make it smell bad around the outside of the barrels. We have trapped millions of flies in these traps. We still have flies around, but not near as bad as before.

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Well that's all for today! Hope you enjoyed it! :) Now that I have my camera working again, I will try to be better at getting things posted on here.

Have a great day!!