eat sleep and farm

I didn't realize Jason grabbed our actual camera {as apposed to the cell} on Kara's birthday! I found a bunch of fun pics from her party to share.... we started singing to her and she got this huge smile on her face!  She's been waiting all year for the Happy Birthday song to be for her :)      Ash and Ethan     Juliet and Kara.     Poor Juliet ended up in the hospital this week with Pneumonia!  She got to come home today though and is doing much better.  We're thanking God for keeping her safe!     Mr. Elliot, who is 6 months this month :)

Rachel lost her 1st tooth!! The night of Kara's birthday, I was in the kitchen making dinner and she walked in crying and told me "Mommy, my mouth hurts very bad." I noticed some blood and realized right away, her once loose tooth was ready to come out! Rachel has been "teething" for the past few weeks and its been rough. On her and on us. We realized about 2 weeks ago, she has an adult tooth already growing in behind her baby teeth. So I was glad to see the baby tooth ready to come out. I brought her into the living room and tried to act as casual about it as possible. Not sure she even knew I was gonna pull it, but I know Rachel and if you can keep the drama down, its better for everyone. So I put the napkin in her mouth and grabbed it a few times and out it came!  Now I'm hoping her big tooth moved forward a bit. We're going to the dentist next week to have them checked. She woke up to $1.00 under her pillow and was SO thrilled about it. S...

It broke. My crock pot broke :( I decided to dig out my Fix it and Forget it cook book for the month of October, making lots of new soups, chilis, breads and oatmeals. Oh, and lets not forget the pot roast. We love those. When I married into the Arnold family, they passed on a grand tradition of making a big pot roast and then shredding the meat for burritos. Then you use a bunch of odds and ends from the fridge and make the most delicious burritos. My mouth just watered thinking of it. Anyway, just as I got all ready to make a slave out of my crock pot, it broke! I wasn't fond of this crock pot, so I'm wondering, if any of you LOVE yours, will you let me know the brand? I'd like to get a better, more reliable and sturdy one. Mine was from Costco... I think I bought it 3-4 years ago. The lid on mine was always very loose and not secure, the timer didn't ever work accurately and I felt like stuff easily burns to the bottom while cooking. The one in the picture is...

 The kids got to go on a Auntie Anne's pretzel tour! We had a lot of fun and the kids especially enjoyed themselves.  I thought the tour itself was awesome. The lady who gave the tour did  a fabulous job and I even came away learning a lot of pretzel history I never knew!  After we did the tour the kids learned how to shape the pretzels with the dough.  After pretzels came out of the oven, we got to eat them - with lemonade :)   I was really impressed with Kara's!  She did this one by herself.   I love how Ethan decides whatever we're doing is going to be  his future occupation :) I'm guessing its an age thing... its cute and silly.   and they sat still to listen during the story time! 

I hate to say it, but I didn't capture many pictures on Kara's birthday.  I used my cell phone the whole time  {getting lazy, I know}   this is Kara's first Bible! I found the BIG Storybook Bible  on Amazon and added it to her wishlist and my parents bought it for her.  She was very excited to have her own Bible.  Ethan and Rachel practice memory verses every day for Awana  and Kara has been aching to get her own Bible so she can memorizes verses too :)   she got lots of books off her wish list from my parents :)   her owl hat - my Dad's nickname for Kara is Civetta  and in Italian, Civetta means "owl"   I was SO bummed this picture was blurry :(  Aunt Jenny and Uncle Jeff sent Kara the memory game!  She had this on her wish list too. I used to think those lists were so lame, but they're definitely working out for us!  Kara was beyond thrilled to ge...

Dear Kara,    Today is your 3rd birthday! For some reason it seems appropriate for you to be turning 3 and yet, it seems like it got here way too fast.   People typically ask you if you're 3 or 4 when we're out and about and when you tell them you're only 2 1/2, they tell you you're very tall, with a good vocabulary :) You are most excited about turning 3. I think its because this is the first birthday where you're old enough to really get it. You know gifts are coming, you know a treasure hunt is planned, and you know {best of all} there's cake involved.  You're definitely a joy to our family. You live up to your middle name quite often. Being the baby, you get probably way more attention than you need, but so far its not had a bad affect on you.  I laugh when you do something very "every day" and simple and your brother and sister don't only cheer for you, but hug you, kiss you, tell you how amazingly smart and talented you are and so...

What I'm thinking:  How I cannot believe 3 years ago today I was holding my newborn daughter in my arms, amazed by her beauty and God's creation.  What I'm/we're reading: I'm reading Sarah Plain and Tall to the kids and Ethan is reading Dragons Before Dark to us.  What I'm listening to: Jason, my Dad and Ethan watching football :)  What we're learning:  We've been learning a lot about weather patterns, clouds,  barometer  readings, etc... Ethan is thrilled with this stuff and I'm finding I have quite the interest in it as well. Makes for some fun experiments as well!  What I'm watching:  I recorded all those Love Comes Softly movies from the Hallmark channel and I'm slowly making my way through them. As with most movies, the books were better, but the movies are well done.  What's cooking: lots of stuff this week, but Honey baked ham, mashed potatoes and salad is getting prepared today, for Kara's birthday dinner tonight!...