The Little Darling

Jordan sent us some pictures of Victoria enjoying her bouncy swing!  We all loved this when we were babies, so we were glad to see that she likes it too!

 

 Look at how little she looks in the doorway!

Swinging and smiling!

We Were On the News

About a month ago, we had two news reporters come out from News Channel 19 WLTX in Columbia to do a report on our farm. 

You can view the News Report here

 and you can view the whole interview with Dad HERE

 

Here are a few pictures from our side of the camera!

 

Filming the kids...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The report aired the following week and it ended up being a pretty nice one!  Both the reporters did a wonderful job and we appreciated the advertisement!

Life on the Farm

So what else has occupied our time, you ask?  

Well, dear friends, enjoy the following pictures because these are sights that greet us each day!

The kids....

Zoe, a Nubian/Saanen cross with her adorable airplane ears!

Twins

 

We have several babies for sale right now, waiting for just the right home for them.

One of our Great Pyrenees Guard dogs, Rainy, patrolling her area.

Clancy, our house pet!  He just got a haircut today, so I'll have to try to post a picture of him sporting his 

new 'do!

And what could the dogs be looking at?.....

A mama bird who built her nest in our carport is greatly annoying them on a daily basis!  The birds build a next there every year, but the dogs have never gotten used to it!

One of our milking does, Rose

The "girls" enjoying their hay rack...

What a minute, who is this?  

Ahhh, the Shepherd!

And the Shepherd's son....building some football hoop thingamajig so that he can test his aim by throwing the football threw it from a distance and seeing if he makes it in.  I'm sure he has a name for this contraption, but it escapes me at the moment!

So,...that's been our life up to date...well, almost up to date!  My next post will be about the news interview that was done on our farm a few weeks back.  I'm a little behind, but better late than never, right?

Family, Friends & Fun: Fourth and Final Part

Here are a few more pictures from Jordan, Caleb and Victoria's visit!

Uncle Ethan and his little niece

While they were here, they came up with the great idea to do a group birthday party.  They had bought us each gifts while they were down in Florida, and decided that they would give them to us while they were here so that they could see us open them and enjoy it with us!  It worked really well and we all enjoyed the unique gifts that they found us!  They are both so thoughtful!  That might be how we decide to do all of their children's birthday gifts as well, so that we could enjoy it with them!  We'll see.... 

Victoria meeting the goats!

Auntie Kelsey and Victoria

Auntie Savannah and Victoria

This shirt says it all...."Auntie's Crazy About Me!"

Jordan and Caleb were here on Easter Sunday, so we enjoyed getting Victoria her own little wind-up bunny!  She enjoyed watching it hop around, and we enjoyed watching her!

My handsome brother, Noah, all dressed up and ready for church Easter morning, helping out in the kitchen.  He had to wear an apron so that he didn't get anything on his church clothes, but we thought he looked mighty fancy! 

 I didn't get any pictures at church, (I know, I know....I forgot my camera again!) but the Girotti family joined us for church as well.  Everyone at church enjoyed meeting them and getting a chance to talk with them!  They were able to stay for our fellowship meal following the service and then headed back to pick up their grandmother later that afternoon.  We were so glad that they stopped by and spent some time with us.  It always nice to spend time with another like-minded family!

Victoria getting her picture taken on Easter.  She wasn't so sure if she liked it or not!  But she sure did make some funny faces!

Ain't she so cute!?!

It's been Noah and Ethan's tradition every year to go swimming ON Easter.  Since Caleb was here for Easter, he decided to go with them!  It was quite cold though, and Noah ended up being the only one who didn't get in!  He made up for it by going about a week later!

One worn out, but adorable little girl!

Sunday afternoon, guess who decided to stop back by our place?????  If you guessed the Yuck family, you're right and we couldn't have been more pleased!  They were heading back home from their month in Florida, so they all came sporting some very nice tans and big smiles!

The next morning just happened to be April Fool's Day, right!?!  So what better than to get some people good! 

I called Dad early that morning from the dairy and "informed" him that one of our does had gotten mastitis, and that he would have to come take a look at her.  None of the does had, but it made for a good joke! 

 Gram came running in that afternoon, huffing and puffing, letting us know that one of the does was kidding and we'd better get out there right away.  We all jumped up from the table and started heading for the door when she announced, "April Fool's!".  Arrghh! 

 But the icing on the cake would have to go to Miss Debbie who hatched out a plan in her mind for Caleb early that morning.  She tapped on his door that morning, at about 8:00 in the morning, telling him to hurry up.  He rushed to the door and asked what was wrong and she told him that their relief milker who was filling in for them had broken his arm and they would have to get back to milk that night.  She proceeded to tell him that Mr. Paul was catching a flight back home in a few hours and Caleb was going to have to drive his car back, with Miss Debbie, Jordan, and all the girls following at a slower pace in their van.  He said that he'd let Jordan know and he'd be down in a minute.  Dad went along with it and asked if there was anything he could do to help them pack up!  After this, Miss Debbie came out to the dairy where Mom, Savannah and myself were waiting to hear how the joke went.  Well....we didn't know that the joke was still going on!  Mom asked Miss Debbie how it went and she replied that he still didn't know it was a joke!  We were all shocked because we usually tell the "fool" right away that the whole thing was a joke, but we had never let one run on like this before.  We didn't have long to wait though, because out came Caleb to talk to his Dad to find out more details.  I had been out talking with Mr. Paul and so was standing there listening in as poor, sleepy Caleb got had!

Caleb: "So...where...where do you fly into, Dad?"

Mr. Paul: "Ottawa."

Caleb: "Oh, right...I know that,...I meant...when are you supposed to arrive?"

Mr. Paul: "Oh, around 3:00."

Caleb: "Right, and Uncle Jimmy is supposed to pick you up?"

Mr. Paul: "Yes."

At this point, Miss Debbie came around the corner of dairy with Dad and Noah close behind, and just shrugged her shoulders, but then blurted out "You April Fool!"

It took Caleb a few seconds to figure out what was going on, but when he did his face got red and he just kept repeating, "Just you wait, I'll get you back.  It might not be today, it might not be next year, it might not even be for 10 years, but I'll get you back!" 

Then he realized that Jordan still thought that it was true, so he went back in the house, grabbed her shoulders, and said, "April Fool's honey."  As it slowly sunk in to her too, she couldn't believe that she'd been had as well.  She had already started packing and had recruited all of the little girls help with getting everything in order.  What's even funnier is that the whole time, Liberty is running around saying, "Pinch, punch, first of the month."  It didn't register to Jordan though.  Once Jordan found out, all she could say was, "It's a good thing you guys didn't wake my baby up!"

We all had a good laugh, especially when Jordan and Caleb said that they felt like they had an extra day to spend with us since they didn't have to leave till that night now! 

 So Miss Debbie definitely won the prize for the day!

Caleb, Noah and Liberty playing Battleship

Dad and his little granddaughter

Mr. and Mrs. Yuck

Bethany

Ethan, Cherish, Honour and Blessing playing checkers

Victoria "talking" to her great-grandpa!

Victoria enjoying her grandma on her last day with us.   

We went out to eat at the Outback Steakhouse for their last night with us and relished having them here for a few more hours.  We missed them as soon as they left, but we are so thankful for the time that we had with them.  We are already looking forward to our next trip up to Canada!

Family, Friends & Fun: Part 3

On Saturday, March 30th, the Girotti family from Virginia came for a visit.  We met half of the Girotti family at the NCFIC conference this past October.  They were travelling down to South Carolina to pick up their grandmother, so decided to stop in!  We thoroughly enjoyed having them at our house, and we were glad that we were able to finally meet the rest of their family! 

Visiting

Mrs. Girotti made us this lovely appliqued towel.  It has already seen much use!

We gave the Girotti's a tour of our farm and then took them down to the dairy where each of them tried milking!  They all did a wonderful job!  It's too bad that I didn't have my camera with me, but Mrs. Girotti posted a few on her blog over at Mountain Musings as well as here

Caleb talking with Mr. Girotti

The five of us girls

Sarah holding one of the baby goats

A cute baby's feet!



Once we were done in the dairy, the Girotti's shared dinner with us and brought us delicious cookies for dessert!

Hannah and Savannah cleaning up after the meal.

After dinner, we all moved into the living room where we had a wonderful time of fellowship, music and laughter.  Sorry for the blurry photos...



 

I failed to get a family photo of the Girotti family while they were here, so I copied this one off of their blog.

Back row: Granny, Mrs. Girotti, Mr. Girotti

Front row: Jonathan, Sarah, Hannah

The Girottis joined us for church the next day, Easter Sunday, but unfortuanately I don't have any pictures of that either.  (I seem to have forgotten my camera a lot!)  We had a lovely time visiting with the Girotti family and we're so glad that they came to see us.