Where did that year go?!

I'm am so very behind on posting here....I've been meaning to post about our baby girls 1st birthday and it just hasn't happened!

It is just amazing how kids all have such different personalities. And the closer and closer they get to their first birthday, it really starts to shine through! I believe we have another saucy, bossy farm girl on our hands. I'm not sure if we can handle two of them!! LOL.

She has spent countless hours in her stroller in the barn, either sleeping or patiently watching and waiting till Mommy is done doing chores.

 In the barn here.

She loves riding on the side by side (just around the yard).

She loves her Daddy!! Such a Daddy's girl, gets very upset when he has to leave the house in the morning. And the second he is back in the house, she is in his arms giving kisses.

Well before her first birthday she was giving kisses, open mouthed kisses. Now she puckers her lips and does the whole sound effect and everything! So cute.

She mostly still just crawls everywhere. She can walk but still chooses to crawl.

She LOVES our blue rocker recliner chair. If you leave the footrest out she climbs right up and sits down - or not! Such a little daredevil! One day I heard screaming and I looked and all I saw was two feet sticking out between the chair and the wall. She has fallen off it many times already.

She loves to sit and stand on the little table and chairs that the kids have. I've had to set the chairs in the porch many times so she wouldn't fall and hurt herself.

She is an animal lover. Trooper, our Jack Russell, sleeps on the couch and she snuggles (and sits on him, and bites him, and hits him and pulls on his tail lol) him every chance she gets. He is very patient with her.

She is slowly getting more hair....Ali had more hair at this point in her life.

She weighs close to 30 pounds.

Also loves her Grandpa Nelson. But which grandchild doesn't?

I pretty much rocked her to sleep till her first birthday and then she just wouldn't rock with me anymore, she goes in her crib and puts herself to sleep now.

She slept through the night till about 7 months old, when she started getting teeth. Then she would get up to nurse 1-2 times a night. Right around her first birthday she started sleeping through the entire night again which is SWEET!!!! ha ha. Her older sister still doesn't sleep though the night! She basically has one nap a day.

She is not very picky about her food - loves food BUT is very picky about how she eats. She doesn't really like help, she wants to do it all herself. So right now I try to give her food that she doesn't really need help with. Independent little fart.

I nursed her till about 2 weeks past her first birthday. Bittersweet.

 This is Easter...She is wearing her sister's running shoes. She is obsessed with putting on shoes/slippers and jackets/sweaters!

I wrote this quite a few weeks ago.....She has been walking for a month plus now, has QUITE the temper, loves being outside. She can say Mum, Dad, Cheese (pictures) and Ooooo (Moooo). She has been cutting her second molar so she's been pretty crabby. She is such a loveable girl. Her siblings adore her, especially Tanner. Ali does too...She just has a not so lovable way of showing it.

 

 They change so much in one year!

Have a great night!
Ashley

  

Homemade Vegetable Soup & other shenanigans

There are many times I feel like blogging by the end of the day all I want is my bed. What's been going on here? Well we are in full swing with chores with all the cows home and winter has hit. We have all had some form of sickness. Fever, sore throat, sore all over, runny noses - Thank goodness NO puking as of yet. Hoping the bugs leave us soon. My farmer has been sick for five days now and his taste buds have pretty much disappeared. Yesterday he commented that some of my homemade vegetable soup would hit the spot. (Unfortunately being Celiac he can't even has chicken noodle soup when he is sick!!) So I started making soup. He is not a big soup fan and so when he requests it - I make it! This is one of my favorite soups.

You will need:

-A large stock pot
-Water
-Soup bone, beef or pork
-Carrots, diced
-Potatoes, diced
-Celery, chopped
-Peas
-Tomato Soup
-Bay leaves
-Parsley
-Salt & pepper
-rice, macaroni or barley (optional)

Put your soup bones in the pot and fill with water. Bring to a boil and let them simmer for at least an hour. Probably more like 1.5 hours. DO NOT add water to the pot when you see it boiling down. When that's done take out the soup bones and discard. Strain the broth to get rid of miscellaneous from the bones.

You will notice that I did not add amounts of stuff on the ingredient list. I do not measure, especially with soup. The wonderful thing about soup is that if you feel you did not add enough, you just add more!!

Now add your bay leaves, parsley, salt and pepper and tomato soup. Now for the tomato soup, I added 2 quarts of my own homemade. You can use canned from the store as well. (it has gluten in it so I can't do that) You could also add canned tomatoes instead and I think it would be good too.

While the broth simmers with the greens chop up your veggies. For my large stock pot I probably did 8 cups carrots, 8-10 cups potatoes, 1-2 cups celery and 2 cups peas.

Add veggies and simmer till they are cooked through.

When the kids and I eat it we add whipping cream to the soup, my farmer does not. All depend son your taste buds and what you like. You could also add onions to this soup and it would be good. I can't cook with onions so I leave them out.

Then because it makes so much extra, I fill quart sealers and put the extra soup in the fridge. It will stay sealed in the fridge for a long time and is soooo handy for days when you don't feel like making lunch.

I am trying to get into the Christmas spirit but I'm having a hard time getting into it. Not sure why. Maybe I'll feel it when we get our big tree up. I'm making myself finish Christmas shopping because we're still not done. And the kids have been asking to make snowman cookies.....so I will have to start Christmas baking sooner than later!!

We had a great 50th Birthday Party for my Dad last weekend. Most of the Friesen family and a few friends made for a full house!! It as faspa and cake and coffee. My Auntie Trudy and family made this awesome semi cake for my Dad. It was a great evening.

Anyways, have a great night!

Ashley

Half a Year Already!?

I cannot believe she is six months old already!!! It has gone by so incredibly fast. I feel like before I know it we will have another Christmas behind us, snow on our boots and her birthday will be looming in our faces!!!

 First taste of rice cereal. Don't you just LOVE the bib???? I do!

 Hamming it up with Great Grandma!

 Too hot for clothes ;)

 Sitting with her oldest cousin! (Whit is the youngest and B is the oldest.)

Snoozing on the wagon ride.

She loves swimming.

She's a smiley, happy girl.

Sleeps all night.

Likes to be rocked to sleep.

Doesn't really care for her suckie, only uses it to go to sleep.

She in size 18-24 month clothes.

Loves her exersaucer.

She will roll from her tummy to her back but not from her back to her tummy.

She is very sensitive. Any loud voices or noises and she will start to cry. Especially more sensitive in the evening close to bedtime. Gets very overwhelmed when she has strange faces all around her. 

We love her so much and can't wait to see the rest of her personality unfold. We're just hoping she's not quite the tornado her sister is! (But if she is, we'll still love her just the same LOL.)

Have a great day!

Ashley

Look who's three?!

 So hard to believe our first baby girl is three years old! We started the day off right with a birthday present. Her reaction to getting cowboy boots was awesome!! Ever since her brother got boots for his birthday she's been talking about how she's getting her own pair for her own birthday LOL.

 She gets her good looks from her Momma.

 We had cake and coffee after supper for her. I made a cupcake horsey 'Blossom' cake. It turned out not too bad.

Me and my first baby girl. I made someone take a picture of her and I, somehow Mom's are never in the pictures........I'm trying to change that.

She still wakes up every night and comes to our bed. Goes to bed and sleeps with her brother right now.

Loves her grandpa's. Definitely a Grandpa girl.

Loves her pony Blossom.

Love Kraft Dinner and hotdogs. (but won't eat pasta with white sauce or alfredo sauce....weird)

Loves bath time.

Loves swimming.

Doesn't really play with anything in particular. She has no favorite toys. Rarely plays with babies. If she does, it's usually her cabbage patch doll. Plays kitchen and farms with her brother. Loves jewelry, dress-up and painting her nails.

Loves loves loves her blankie, has to go to bed with her every night.

Hates having her hair brushed. Never lets us put clips or ponytails in it. I'm sure people think we never comb her hair...

Loves to press the buttons on washing machine.

Never quits moving or talking or asking questions. We like to call her our 'Threenager'. The house seems extremely and strangely quiet when she is sleeping.

Doesn't nap anymore but will fall asleep on the couch or in vehicle if she's had a few late nights or particular busy days.

Love her to bits and even though she drives me insane most days, we wouldn't change her for the world!

Love you sweetheart.

Love Mommy

5 years & 5 months

 Last week one day our oldest, our son Tanner turned five whole years old! And on the same day our youngest daughter turned five months old!! So crazy how the time flies. Didn't I just give birth our first child???!!! Anyways, Grandpa took the kids and I on a wagon ride that day, the kids were excited, finally a wagon ride. They were so excited to help Grandpa drive the horses. Nice little treat.

 Whitley was on the wagon too, sleeping in her seat.

 Tanner excited about his new cowboy boots...he has been wearing them everywhere since, with shorts and all ;)

 Five months old!!!!!! Such a happy little girl. She's over 20 pounds, healthy and happy! Smiley too. She pretty sleeps all night every night. 9 pm - 6:30/7 am. The odd night she might wake up to eat once and goes right back to sleep. She spoils us rotten.

 She loves her cowie cow. (her brother named the cow lol)

 He requested a combine cake. With a bucket tractor and grain cart......this is what Mommy came up with. And just as we're ready to light the candles and sing Happy Birthday, someone pointed out that I had six candles on the cake! He was turning five!! NOT six. Sheesh. I have as lot of mommy brain lately it's scary.

 He was very excited about his gifts. More to add to his farming collection and some nice games.

 Note: There are now five candles on the cake! LOL.

Spent most of the birthday party on the deck, the mosquitoes got bad around 9-10 pm.

Happy Tuesday!

Ashley

Spring

 I'm back!! I know I have not posted in forever!!! I don't know how many times I sat at the computer with full intentions of posting and I get interrupted and now all of a sudden it's 5 weeks since I posted!! Crazy. We have been sooooooo busy. Getting the crop in, cows out to pasture and out with the bulls, birthdays, baseball and everything in between! Here is most of the last five weeks in pictures.

 Grandpa's birthday! He here is with his grandchildren minus the two out west. We had a bonfire with hotdogs and s'mores and then this delicious cake Grandma made.

 Processing the cows and calves to go out with the bulls.

 It was nice outside so I managed to help the whole time with all three kids in tow.

 We have great immune systems around here :)

 All the mamas looking for their babies.

 Calves turn to go through!

 Almost four months old here!

 My loves.

 We went to the Wellness Fair a couple weeks ago and this was Tanner's first ride on a school bus.

 Ali enjoyed the stations as well.

 Grandpa and his girls.

 Starting to love her exersaucer.

 My birthday flowers.

 We have three baby foals this spring, here are two of them.

 Planting canola here. We started seeding a month earlier than last year.

 My Mother's Day gift from my boy! I'm glad I took a picture....it doesn't look like that anymore.

 Four months old!

 His first year of baseball.

Sorry for the long post! I'll try to get on here sooner from now on.

Ashley