Just so ya' know...

I am working on my posts about my children. So far I only have one partially done. I will post them in age order, beginning with Rose, and work my way down to Abbie. I am very surprised at how much trouble I am having with Rose's post. I expect the same level of difficulty with all of them though, because I am still facing the "What I want the world to know about my children" thing

In other news... all is well here. We bought a house in Owen county on 4 acres right next to 15 acres of land that is currently only being used to house horses. We're working on it on the weekends and plan to movein, in early spring. Things really seem to be looking up.

Stay tuned for further updates!

True Love...

Rose and Lacey-Bell meet for the first time.

Remember Estrella?

This is her when she was only 3 days old! Three other babies had already died. So I syringe fed her. When she and the other babies were only two weeks old her mother passed away! Then we began doing the same with all of them. We managed to save 4 of them (Estrella included). It's hard to believe that she was ever so tiny!

Now here she is at 2 months! She has good type and a nice semi arch... when her feet aren't slipping out from under her! She is just about the sweetest rabbit! The fact that she was a Flemish lended toward a naturally gentle disposition anyway. The fact that she was bottle raised only made her more sweet!

A free verse... of sorts...

Oh Chocolate Bar how I love you
on this cool fall day.
while children
run shooting and flying;
creating chaos.
You, oh Chocolate Bar,
you are my pool of peace and bliss.
You are the cotton balls in my ears.
You numb the rattling of the house
and the sound of wizards at war.
You silence bickering
and discussions of Halloween costumes.
You are the provider of patience,
the reward I seek.
With your smooth milky texture
on my tongue
I close my eyes and smile.
There is no smell of dirty diapers in the air,
no sink full of dirty dishes before me.
Thank you Chocolate bar,
giver of warm and happy feelings.
Thank you

Okay, Okay...

So, my husband says I'm grounded from Facebook until I've posted on my blog again! So here I am... posting... on my blog... This is me... posting... on my blog...

In all seriousness, I am feeling a little repentant about the lack of attention I've been paying to all 3 of my devoted followers! LOL!

I have to admit that I do sometimes feel silly typing when I don't know who is reading my blog. For instance, a couple of weeks ago we were at the Covered Bridge Festival. John ran into one of his high school classmates. My children swarmed her table of goodies. Now, mind you, none of them were misbehaving they just seem to overwhelm people when they're all together. I said, "Hi I'm Erica. Sorry for the chaos. They can get a little crazy sometimes." Then his friend says to me, with a smile, "Oh, I know, I read your blog."

Really? Hmmm. How come she never made any comments or said "hi" or anything? Please, if you read my blog let me know sometime... That way I don't feel like I'm typing to... um... myself. Trust me, I do not need a keyboard to talk to myself!

On with the updates...

THE CREW:

I want to do an update on all of the kiddos but to be honest I need to wait a day or two. A lot has gone on over the past two weeks and I am beat. I want to have a clear head and really think about the things I want the world to know about my children. For now, I'll just talk about what's on my mind...

The thing about having so many children is that they often get lumped together. Comments like, "Your children are so well behaved.", are thrown out by unknowing family members and friends. The truth is that I have some children that ARE well behaved and some that are not as polished in the art of obedience as I would like them to be. Of course, I'm sure the negative comments are there to but never said to my face... even when they are deserved. :)

I really wish that more of our family and friends had the opportunity to really spend time one on one with each of them. That way they could learn to appreciate the little personality traits. They could take in Ammon's thoughtfulness, and maybe take something from his easy going attitude. Or perhaps they might catch some of Gabriel's Fire for life!!! One might want to be careful what they take from my Chi... I wouldn't want anyone to blow up their house or any thing. Super geniuses have a tendency to do that you know?

More to come on my kiddos in a few short days. I think I'll write a separate post about each one. I don't promise a new one every day, but get to all of them... maybe I'll even have pictures or something! :)

ANIMALS:

In bunny news: 4 of the baby Flemishes survived after their momma died when they were just a couple weeks old. We have also had another litter of Mini lops. Juliet gave birth to 3 healthy and happy bunnies which have all been successfully weaned.

We are looking to purchase a few more of both breeds in the very near future in order to have the stock for the shows next year.

*Rose and Sarah have begun "working" with our farrier. He is teaching them how to care for his two, and his aunt's 15-ish horses. (That number chances because she is always taking in rescues and re-homing them.) They don't get paid or anything. They are just doing it for the experience and time with horses. It's a fair trade I think, He gets help and my girls get to do what they love!

Dreamer is turning out to be the perfect mini-horse! He rode Hannah, Maggie and Abbie around the field yesterday for quite a while. (All at separate times) We have discovered that he likes sugar. So if he gets loose, Rose just shows him her hand and he comes right to her. She doesn't even have to have sugar in it now! YAY!

Well it's late, so I'll call it a night. I take no responsibility for the improper use of grammar or sloppy content of this post! I figure it's just better to get it out there than to not post anything at all!

Why I shop at Once apon a Child...

• winter coat (Abbie)
• winter coat and matching snow pants for (Maggie)
• 4 winter hats (Abbie, Maggie, Hannah, Gabie)
• 1 pair mittens (Abbie)
• 1 pair Spider man snow boots (Gabie)
• 1 pair Hannah Montana snow boots (Hannah)
• 3 brand new pairs of Sketchers tennis shoes (Ammon, Chi, Gabie)
• 1 hoodie sweatshirt (Abbie)
• 2 long sleeved shirts (Abbie)
• 1 pair Baby Gap jeans (Abbie)
• 1 pair Children's Place jeans (Abbie)
• 1 pair purple tennis shoes (Hannah)

______________________________

Grand Total $83.27

WaVaHo Field trip!

For those of you who don't know... (drum roll please...) we HOME SCHOOL! (Gasp!) I know, I know. but don't worry... it's perfectly legal and we DO socialize. One of the things we do for school is a weekly History Co-op. This is where all the stir crazy homeschooling moms get their kids together and have hands-on activities that have to do with the history subject for the year. (As if schooling our children and regular household chores wasn't enough right?) Any way, this year is all about American History. So, our entire group of homeschoolers went on a field trip to Dobbs Park last Tuesday, to visit their Native American History Center.

This is what happened while we were there...

Even Abbie got in on the fun!!!

The director of the Center had a nice activity planned for the kids.

When the kiddos were done slathering paint on their sticks (and in some cases themselves) they were given a tour of the History center and then we went outside to eat under the pavilion. Sorry there are no pictures of this, I had left my camera inside.

Many thanks to April for arranging everything! All the kids had a blast making their coup sticks and sand art! I tried to get more pictures of the older kids but they all came out really blurry.

A Star is born...

Well we did end up loosing 3 babies but we still have 6 that are healthy and strong! They will be two weeks old tomorrow. This is the little one that we bottle fed for a few days. She is doing very well (I say she but it really is to early to tell). We have named it Estrella. It means "star" in Spanish. It might end up being show qualitybut not breedable. He has to much black, blue, and grey in her genes.
I'll put up some more pics of the other bunnies soon but I thought you guys would like an update!

A Little Bunny Heartbreak...

As I posted last week Ebony Had 9 bouncy baby bunnies. Sadly, three of them passed away on day 4. Today is day 6 and I think we might loose another one. He is pretty weak but has a big personality. I have begun supplementing it's feeds with a homemade formula (recommended by our vet) and it has a very vigorous appetite. All of the others are very healthy and strong! Most of them are twice the size of this little one, and are rapidly becoming the cute little rabbits I was hoping to see!

I'm not sure that my stepping in is going to save this little guy but I figure that not helping at all... well... won't help. So here's hoping! Updates soon!

Goin' on a hike...

Monday was Labor day and john had the day off. Abbie actually woke up sick so we took her to Aunt Missy for the afternoon and took the rest of the seemingly healthy children on a hike at McComick's Creek State Park. We hiked trail 3 down to the creek and followed the creek up to the water falls.

Gabriel decided to scale a cliff just for the fun of it. John and I had to actually stop him because I think the little stinker would have actually made it to the top!

John pointed out a snake on the path...

and it took quite a bit of convincing to get the kids to leave it be and not take it home as a pet!

About 3 minutes into the hike we discovered that Abbie wasn't the only one feeling under the weather! We carried Maggie most of the time. She would perk up every now and then but most of the time this is how she felt!

I don't think the boys appreciate my need to do a photo shoot on nearly every hike we take. But some of my favorite pictures of them are during times like this!

Hannah thought this was the Water fall we were looking for and was very excited to point it out to Maggie! I was nearly ready to turn back just so I didn't have to disappoint her!

You should have seen how excited she got when we got to this set of falls! She was sure we were there!

Malachi found some fossils of some kind of shells. I tried to get a good picture but they just didn't come out very clear

Ammon and Chi got to show off their agility by crossing this fallen tree.

When we finally reached the falls and the pool at the bottom we all rolled up our pants and waded a little. It was really to cold to get really wet. Poor Gabie fell twice and ended up soaked!

John opted NOT to get in the water (shocking!) So he sat on a nearby fallen tree...

and took these wonderful pictures!

When Rose and Sarah climbed up to the very same cave that I remember sitting in when I was their age I HAD to get a picture! John wasn't to happy about them being out so far on the ledge of a cliff. This picture doesn't do the height justice because I was actually on a stair case leading up the cliff.

This picture shows it a little better.

Funny thing... We didn't get a single picture of the actual falls while we were at the foot! Oh well, Guess we'll just have to go again! This is the view from the top of the cliff that we climbed via the stairs. (Now maybe you understand Johns concerns with the cave!)

Just some pictures...

Malachi the wizard!

Malachi made a swing out of a couple of jump ropes and a log! It's actually pretty strong. The boys have been enjoying it for a few days now.

Gabie taking his turn!

Abbie-snail loves to draw on our patio.

This is Sarahs latest artwork... she loves to draw with chalk pastels... sidwalk chalk is the next best thing!

Rose's has begun training Dreamer. He is doing really well!