Baby goat playdate

The girls and I had a fun afternoon today. We got to play with baby goats! It doesn't get much better than that. I'm not "kid"ding. (Yes, that was lame, but you know you laughed. Even if it was inside. *smile*)

My husband is an NRA instructor and teaches classes around our area. At one of his classes about a month ago he met a really nice couple who have a goat farm. He was telling them how much we love goats and they said that we could come out and visit after the babies are born!

So today was that day! I think I fell in love with goats just a little bit more...if that is possible. Baby goats  have got be some of the cutest creatures...EVER!

They are so entertaining the way they hop around and run and skip and butt each other. They have such personalities and are just plain cute!

I took a lot of pictures, because, well, who wouldn't? The only problem was I couldn't decide which ones to share, but I'm sure you can forgive this enormous post of goat pictures because of the cuteness involved. 

The girls were in their element on the farm.

These little guys were nibbling us to pieces! Adorable!

Cuteness!

Happy day!

Sweet babies

Hannah my farm girl

My little kid with some kids

The goats loved jumping up on this thing. One of the mamas got involved once and hopped up and started butting the babies off! They love playing king of the hill!

"Can we keep one pleeeeaaaase????"

Little climbers

The two most unique goaties in the whole herd.

My future goat farmer

See what I mean about nibbling??? They would find any part of us they could get their mouths on and start nibbling. 

Blessings!

Amber

Catching up...

Well, this portrait a week thing isn't going like I planned. I do have pictures (which happened more by accident), but haven't gotten around to posting since the first time. Hopefully this gets better. Maybe I'd be better doing a picture a month! Or maybe I should just stick with the annual Christmas picture! LOL!

Anyway, here's the next 3 weeks worth of pictures.

Week 3

Ellie dressed up in Daddy's referee gear. The cutest ref ever! :) (January 29th, 2014)

Hannah, the "tough ref". (January 29th, 2014)

Week 4

I didn't get separate ones of them this week, but at least go this one. My cute little Bronco fans. They were so excited to wear their Bronco shirts that Daddy got them. Unfortunately, the Super Bowl wasn't nearly as exciting. (February 2, 2014)

 Week 5

Ellie giving me one of her silly grins. I just love the expressions that little girl makes! (February 9, 2014)

Ellie took this picture of Hannah this morning. Still in  her jammies and bed head, I just love this one! She is so intent on reading...or playing on Daddy's phone. :) (February 9, 2014)

52 Project: A portrait a week

Recently, in one of my moments of wasting time on the internet, I came across a really neat idea. This gal started a project where she takes a picture of each of her kids each week. I've tried things before of taking pictures each day of the year, and never made it through. Maybe got through the first month. I thought this would be a good way to help me still get some camera time in, but not have so much pressure to do a picture a day. Once a week is much more doable. So I am going to give it a shot. I am already a couple weeks behind as I didn't discover this at the beginning of the year, but I figure I will still get several photos over the course of the year. Even if it turns into more of a once a month thing. :)

I do have pictures from last week, and this week. Both were taken with my iPhone as my hubby has been using my camera for work lately. Hopefully I will get a chance to take some with the real camera sometimes. 

(There probably won't be too many pictures of James because, well, he is too cool to have his picture taken. I guess that happens when you become a teenage boy??? :) I will attempt to get a few thrown in there, but the majority will be of the two little ones.)

WEEK 1

Ellie and her snowman (January 8, 2014)

Hannah and her "friends" (January 8, 2014)

WEEK 2

I couldn't pick just one for this week. She has so many wonderful expressions! (January 18, 2014)

Hannah lost another tooth this week! She is quite hole-y! (January 18, 2014)

 If you would like to find out about the 52 Project, go here. I am excited to continue doing this and see how much they change over the year!

Blessings!

Gardening

My seed planting helper

Well, it's getting to be that time of year again! Garden season! I am sooooo excited!! It has been hard for me to wait and not rush to get things started outside since we've had such warm days lately. But I know I am in a different garden zone now and have to plan accordingly. That was one nice thing about Oregon. We could grow just about anything and at pretty much anytime. We'd be eating lettuce and spinach from our garden by this time of year back in Oregon. Here, not so much.

But we were able to start some seeds so hopefully if all "grows" well we'll have some starts for the garden. We have a bunch of heirloom tomatoes started from seeds we saved from a couple years ago. We also have some lemon cucumbers, zucchini, broccoli, herbs and some lettuces. Most everything has come up nicely, though it looks like there may be a few things we either have to try planting again or just get starts from a nursery.

The girls have been good about helping me keep the soil moist with a little spray bottle and they are so happy to watch the seeds sprout and grow.

 We also planted some wheat seeds and lemon seeds for fun in our kitchen window. The wheat has grown so fast and looks so pretty! However, I think we are going to have to try some more lemon seeds as we haven't seen any signs of life and it has been a couple weeks now.

Little gardeners.

 One thing we did end up planting outside already was some early carrot seeds. Since our soil is pretty hard out here (I REALLY miss my raised garden beds!) we decided to try growing carrots in 5 gallon buckets. The girls each got a bucket and planted their seeds and make sure to keep them moist. They get plenty of sunshine as the backyard faces South and we have the buckets close by the house so they can't really get frosted. Hopefully we'll see some results, but if not, it will be a good lesson in perseverance and we'll just try again!

Some of our little sprouts. They are already much bigger than when I took this picture a couple days ago.

 This week I also got out the power tools and built a trellis for growing peas and beans on. I had a lot of fun and hopefully the trellis will last for many more years of gardening.

So, that's pretty much how our garden is growing right now. I will be trying to post regular updates as the season progresses. In the meantime, I'm off to read some books on gardening. There is always so much to do and learn!

Blessings!

Farm Tour

 Today the girls and I got to go take a tour of a local raw milk dairy. It was a blast! We are all such country girls that we loved every minute of being out in the fresh air with the animals! Hannah was concerned that we'd only see cows since it is a dairy, but I told her that there was sure to be at least a few other animals since it is a farm. We saw the cows of course, calves, pigs, chickens and LOTS of goats and baby goats! I think we all decided that we need to have our own goats someday. :) 

It was a great afternoon hanging out with the animals!

(Sorry the pictures aren't that great...once again, I left my real camera at home and had to depend on my phone. *sigh*)

King of the hill!

Sleepy pig

More sleepy pigs. The animals had just eaten before we got there so they were very contented.

Practicing being goats. :)

This was the girls' favorite goat. I think mostly because she was the one sticking her head through the fence to lick their hands.

"Dinnertime!"

One of the pretty cows. Love the big, dark eyes!

LOTS of goats!

Lots of the babies were all huddled up together. They are soooooo adorable!!! I really wanted to take one home with me. Our landlady said we couldn't have dogs here, but she never said anything about goats, so it'd be okay, right??? :)

How could you not love that face?

Hello!

Hannah the goat whisperer.

Ellie giving them more "dinner".

Blessings!

Winter is still here

 Just when we thought Spring was here, Winter decided to send in a little more white goodness for us to enjoy! And that's exactly what we did today! 

Last night we got a few inches of unexpected snow (though much needed!) and so after breakfast we bundled up to go outside and play...and shovel the driveway. :)

 It was fairly warm outside so it made the snow perfect for snowballs!

 And snow cakes!

View out the back door this morning.

 And GIGANTIC snowballs!

Hannah was going to make a snowman and then just decided it would be more fun to just keep rolling it and see how big she could make it. She did a pretty great job!

Most of the snow was gone by this evening. In fact, the kids were playing with some neighbor kids in the backyard tonight kicking a ball around in the grass. That's Colorado for ya!

It's supposed to be in the upper 60's the next couple of days and maybe even reaching 75 on Friday! I guess Spring is still on its way!

Queen of the snowball!

Blessings!