Six Months Old!

And have a good day we did. We celebrated this little blue eyed girl's 6 month birthday! SIX months...holy moly!

The weather has been so nice and warm these last couple of days. Like shorts and flip flops warm. We started the morning off walking Luke to school. While I put Ruth in her stroller Luke made toast for himself and Ava. We walked together in the warm sunshine and enjoyed toast. Luke stated that life doesn't get much better than this. :) Aunt Em took the kids to The Lorax movie after picking Luke up from school, while Ruth and I ran a few errands and got her a birthday balloon and some teeny tiny flip flops. Then we made applesauce cupcakes at Grandma and Grandpa Barker's house and played on the swings. It was a good day. Happy half birthday little Ruthy!
At six months she can roll over (from tummy to back). She can sit up. She loves to give people pats. She loves to kick and splash in the tub. Her only word so far is gee. She cries at Jeremy's loud sneezes or if she even slightly gets hurt, I think she's a sensitive one. She is still getting over her shyness of being held by anyone other than mom or dad.:( We just started her out on eating a little baby food, so far she just mills it around in her mouth but she seems to like it. No sign of any teeth yet and no sign of sleeping through the night anytime soon....grrrr. Her crazy bird hair makes us laugh, there are a few strands that are a good four to five inches long. We now call her the little white marshmallow because of her fair almost translucent skin. I went all picture crazy again, I just really wanted to capture all of that sweet birdhead-marshmallowy-ness that is our little Ruth.







Eating her cupcake.

At first she just smashed it around and played with it...notice the drool all the way down her tummy.

Then she finally tried it.

But I think it was still more fun just to smash it.

First day sitting up (about a week and a half before she turned 6mo.)

Happenings down at the farm...

I don't think they come much cuter than these two little rascals. Sarah's goat had twins, a little boy, Alastor, and a little girl, Opal. Just as sweet as can be!




It's good to see our old Tom-Tom loving life on the farm. I'm pretty sure he thinks he's died and gone to heaven. Speaking of cats that have died and gone to heaven...Karen told me something that happened to her a while back, it's a sad but strangely hilarious story that I have to share...sorry Karen.

A pretty fluffy kitty named Mrs. Norris once lived down at the barn. She lived there until she found herself a better home across the street with a sweet little old lady. Every once in while she would venture back to the barn for a quick visit and she always smelled of sweet apple cinnamon muffins. Over the years she became to good for the barn and never ventured to far from her wonderful muffin home. Fast forward to a week or so ago as Karen drove down to the barn one morning to feed. Nearing the barn she notices a fluffy lifeless cat lying on the side of the road. Quickly she pulls over. Her worst fears are confirmed...it's sweet Mrs. Norris. With tear filled eyes Karen lovingly gathers up dear Mrs. Norris in her arms. Keep in mind the cat is dead but still warm. Back in her car she drives to barn dead cat in hand. Little Thomas has now unbuckled to get a better look at what his mom is holding and crying over. She explains to him why she is holding a dead cat in car. At the barn the dead cat is placed in the tack room and Karen calls Sarah. She tells her about poor Mrs. Norris and something about how the ground is to frozen to dig a grave. Karen then feeds and drives home where she notices she has mascara streaked all down her face. Later Sarah goes down to barn discovers that the cat is not Mrs. Norris only a close resemblance and buries the look-a-like Mrs. Norris in the not frozen ground. She calls Karen to tell her and later Mrs. Norris is spotted very much alive on the porch of her muffin home. Something like this would only happen to Karen.

The things she says....

Ava smashed her big toe yesterday and I mean SMASHED it! Poor little thing is still hobbling/hopping around today. After looking at her extremely black raised toe nail, I told her that her nail would probably fall off.
This was information I should have kept to myself.
Tears immediately welled up in her horrified eyes as she cupped her poor toe and cried, "It's gonna fall off!? No, no, no I don't like it when things fall off!"
No one likes it when things fall off. Trying my best to keep a straight face I told her that it was just the nail that would fall off but it would grow back good as new...didn't help.
At lunch time she had this to say about it -"My hurt toe, that the nail is gonna fall off, well, it was on my favorite foot."
I know I hate it when things happen to a favorite foot or hand.
I'm not sure why but the words that come out of this girls mouth make me laugh so hard as of late.
Like just a minute ago she was holding Ruth, telling her in her most high pitched sweet mommy voice- "Ruthy you're getting sooo big, yes you are, yeees I could just scratch your back."
And now I'm holding Ruth because apparently Ruthy "bunny scratched" her? Today Ruth has sharp little bunny claws like Karen's bunny who scratched Ava on the tummy. Poor girl has a smashed toe and is covered in bunny and Ruthy scratches.:)
I'm watching her now hobble away to go fetch me the nail clippers for Ruth.

Sunday Drive

Last Sunday we ate dinner early and took a drive down by the Lake. I told my mom later that it reminded me of when I was a little girl. Jeremy let Luke and Ava drive the truck on the dirt road, something my dad always let my sisters and I do. We let Fred get out run next to truck to tucker him out a bit, something our old dog Sundee loved to do. My kids are also pros at spotting dead animals, something my sisters and I used to do and it drove my dad crazy...we would be in the most beautiful place and the most fascinating thing we would notice was a dead deer or horse.:) Fun memories. We had a really great time together, throwing rocks in the lake and looking for sweet little new born calves along our drive. Everything was great that is until Duce rolled in poop.

The Puppy Nurse

"Mom can I have a piece of toast with some of that apple pie on it?" -Ava

We made apple butter and I'm pretty sure that's what she meant by apple pie.

Yesterday we enjoyed some fabulous 60 degree weather. Ava spent most of her time outside scooping up dog poop and training Fred. You think that's sad...she begs me to let her clean out Duce's ears. Duce is getting over an ear infection and Ava has been helping me take care of him. And that is how a puppy nurse spends her days. She also learned how to do the monkey bars all by herself at the park yesterday and little Ruthy enjoyed her first time on the swings.

I love these two.
They're so funny.
I was cleaning out my catch all stack of papers the other day and came across a few funny Luke and Ava quotes that I remembered to jot down. As I am reading over these quotes now, I'm am beginning to feel like a pretty crappy mom. These "quotes" from my kids are mostly just missed pronounced words that I have, for I guess my own entertainment, never corrected. Why are kids so cute when they say stuff wrong or should I say, mispronounce words. Wow I'm getting a little self conscious about my writing now. I know I'm not very proper in the way I talk and write and spell. I just thought of the wheelbarrel vs. wheelbarrow episode of Til' Death. :)
Back when I was a teenager, that's right a teenager, I called Draft horses- Giraffe horses. Hopefully as teenagers my poor kids won't still be saying things like, "look I signed my name in crossive (cursive)"-Luke. "Wow you took a really hot shower it's all froggy (foggy) in here now."-Ava. "When I grow up I want to be a cheerleader, a bus driver, a puppy nurse (vet), and a restruction (construction) girl."-Ava. She learned restruction from Luke. They're just cute. You know what else is cute when my dad calls Monday- Mondee and Tuesday- Tuesdee. Heck that's why we grew up with our family dog named Sundee, you know because Dad found her on a Sundee. Ha ha ha, well hope you all have a wonderful Thursdee.