First Foods and First Loves

Its hard to see in the above picture, but John has cream all over his face!  He is eating solids (egg yolks, broth, cream) or I guess I should say he is eating liquids. He has two bottom teeth and so chokes when anything not liquid is put into his mouth.  But he loves food, especially cream!  We put it on a spoon and in his mouth and he just smiles.  We are happy that he finally gets to share in the fruit of the family cow!

I love this profile shot of baby John and Papa

You can see the cream a little better in this one!

Before we got Lucy, our dog, Jason joked how we needed to get Henry a dog because he loves our cat so much and no story ever starts with "Once upon a time there was a boy and his cat."  But Henry is in love with Annie and his love for Lucy doesn't come close.  He loves to snuggle with Annie and sleeps with her at night.  MM asked him the other day what he would do if Annie ran away and he said, "I would STILL love her." 

 John seems to like them both equally right now and enjoys crawling after them and putting his hands through Lucy's crate to pet her. She licks them and he smiles.

John on the move; army crawling across the floor!

Hours Out of Doors

 "As for the baby, he is in bliss: divested of his garments, he kicks and crawls, and clutches the grass, laughs soft baby laughter, and takes in his little knowledge of shapes and properties in his own wonderful fashion — . {Charlotte Mason, Home Education, p. 45}

John is so taken with the outdoors that this calm baby throws a fit when anyone goes outside and leaves him inside (at 7 months?!?).  He army crawls over to the door and hollers to go out, or starts crying and squirming if he is being held.  We are pleased that he loves being outside, but its getting hard to do my chores done inside! Margaret Mary calls mother nature her earthly mama and says that John just wants to spend time with his other mother :)

The kids have a love/hate relationship with Lucy.  She follows them around, playing in their games and then starts nipping them which gets them all crying and begging me to take her inside.  I think Lucy is great with them and puts up well with always being the "dragon" and being chased with sticks!

 

Always "roping."  He is being a silly cowboy in this picture.

Brothers

 “In the first place, do not send them; if it is anyway possible, take them; for, although the children should be left much to themselves, there is a great deal to be done and a great deal to be prevented during these long hours in the open air. And long hours they should be; not two, but four, five, or six hours they should have on every tolerably fine day, from April till October.”

{Home Education, pp. 43-44}

 We are blessed to have nice weather all year round! I am guilty of sending my kids out without me many days, but I can keep an eye on them from my kitchen. Everyone is happier outside. 

Letting the Cows out!

Right now as we are establishing the pasture, we can only let the Cows out on it every once in a while. (They would eat the grass down too much and keep it from growing well).  When we do, the cows leap and kick their legs they are so excited.  We sit back and watch and smile.  Few things are as beautiful and relaxing as a cow eating grass!

The Queen of the Barnyard herself:  Mrs. Abigail. 

Merry Christmas!

This Christmas has been special because the children have really rejoiced in singing Christmas carols on their own accord this year.  I love hearing them playing in their rooms or outside singing "Ohhh sin of comfort and doy" (Henry), "Oh Come little children...", "Gaudate! Gaudate! Christus est natus, ex maria virgine! Gaudate!"  They argue over who is singing the words wrong and merge Christmas songs without meaning to, and sing them to the melody of other Christmas songs, etc. 

Love, the Craigs

John at 6 Months!

John is doing now what John wants to do.  He scoots all over the floor, messing with what he wants and then moving on.  He loves to follow his siblings and grab their toys. :)

Just when you thought John couldn't get any happier...

He does!

Too darn cute.  John was worth every moment of his tough pregnancy!

Concerned look.

back to smiling!

What a big boy! I  know I say this with all my kids, but I can't believe he is so big already.  He has one tooth and is currently cutting a second one.  Jason calls his one tooth his snaggle tooth.

The Big Fall and MM's first concert!

In case you don't know about the fall, Margaret Mary was skipping in our kitchen and fell face first onto our steel milk vat.  She cried for a little while and then calmed down.  I gave her some Arnica and read her a story and she seemed fine.  In about an hour she went to the post office with her Papa and I got a phone call, "Katie, I am coming home. Margaret Mary's face is swelling fast."  My heart beat so fast and I couldn't wait till they got home.  When MM got out of the car, she was crying and her face was swelled up the size of a softball.  It was horrible.  We took her immediatly to urgent care and the doc said it was just bruising and would take three weeks to go down.  She was a trooper and called her face "silly," but it was so hard for me to see her sweet face all black, blue and swollen.  But thanks to amazing friends and family who covered her with prayer and the homeopathic remedy Arnica, she healed very fast and here she is three days after the fall.  her face looks 80% better in this picture then it did that first day.  Bless her heart.   But she was not going to miss her first concert.  She, with some other kids from church, sang songs and recited poetry.  She did great, remembered all her lines and said afterwards "I'm really into this!"

I totally missed this shot, but here she is with her friend Veronica leading the children after the concert out of the church.  She said that this was the highlight of the concert for her: to be first in line! ha!

Thanksgiving 2014

It was just us this Thanksgiving. I was excited to cook and I have to say that I have nailed the Thanksgiving menu.  It was amazing!  Local pastured heritage turkey, green beans, mashed potatoes, gravy, fermented apple/pineapple/cranberry chutney and pecan and pumpkin cheesecake.

Margaret Mary made the decorations.

The kitchen was a mess!

Leisure: the basis of culture.

I did serve the kids on paper plates...i needed the dishwasher for all my mess!

What a joy!

crazy beautiful

Our mountain views!  Spending the day blowing leaves and playing in the pasture.

You can see the half finished barn and the dismantled old chicken coop in the background. 

2014- Almost Missed- part 3

MM falling asleep at night holding a holy card.  :)

MM's heart pillow she sewed by herself!

Big brother, little brother.  I love baby John's pjs, all my boys have worn them!

We got a puppy! People stop frequently by our little farm to see what we are up to and someone gave us a puppy. We weren't exactly ready for a dog, but we had been talking of getting one and she was so cute.  He told us she was a great prynee, but we don't think that is the case.  She is big though, it will be interesting seeing who she becomes!

Not the best pic, but here is our Pig Palace.  It is the home to four pigs we keep on the west side of our house.  Now that the leaves are gone, people from the road can see the pigs running around.  We feed them the leftover milk from our dairy cow and they guy we got the pigs from says that ours are growing twice as much as his!  It's that skim milk!

The pigs have a pretty big area to run around in thanks to electric wire on trees!

2014 Almost Missed- Part 2

Our first garden in our new home didn't do to well. We will have to work on building fertility in the soil before next spring.

Front Patio Jam session.

Jason needed a lot of straw bales to cover the pasture after we seeded it.  But before he needed it, he built a house out of them for the kids.  If you look to the left of Margaret Mary, you see an abandoned sword from some knight play. :)

Seeding the pasture took so much work and we are so greatful to all our friends who helped us.  When one friend's tractor broke down (the one who was going to seed it!), we asked our neighbor Mr. Edwards to come help.  We think he is really cool because he has a hook for hand!  We really have the best neighbors. This pic is of Jason and a friend spreading compost and manure out over the dead dirt. 

Our Henry is quite the snail whisperer.  Durring the summer, he would find villages of them and carry them around on his arm. 

Henry opening up gifts.  Can't believe he turned 4 this year.  He is looking more and more like a big boy everyday.