kate is 3!

we had fun celebrating the birthday girl. she chose to go to the pumpkin patch for her birthday. it was extra special to have pappy and gammie in town for the celebration, and her best friends were there too!

we jumped on hay bales

we went on a hayride

we fed the cows

the birthday girl rode a pony

we collected "mini" pumpkins (going to the pumpkin patch on october 30 doesn't leave you with much of a selection)

we ended the day with dewey's pizza and purple cupcakes!

happy 3rd birthday kate!

a special day

i was shocked and honored to be asked to be the matron of honor for my friend katie's wedding. it was such a privilege to be a part of this special celebration.

if i could do it all over again (not planning on it) i would get married in the fall. not sure why we picked june, but we did. :) being a part of katie's day was extra fun for me because i got to experience a fall wedding firsthand. i especially loved helping her pick out the flowers :)

jesse said i was "bookin" down the aisle, so he didn't get a great picture.

one of my favorite parts of the day- the kids getting dressed up!

thank you jason and katie for letting me be a part of your special day!

and a special thanks to my husband who spent a lot of time with the kids while i was busy helping the bride.

i'm too tired to think of a good title for this post

just a little update on the happenings on the farm.

kate got a new bike. an early birthday gift. i can't believe my baby is old enough to ride a bike. she looks like such a big girl sitting on that seat. time is flying by!!


if you can't tell by the look on her face, she loves her new wheels.

sadly, we lost one of our hens last week. we suspect it was a hawk. the worst part of this is, she was one of the 2 that were laying. so now we are left with one busy little hen -who averages one or two eggs a day, one mr. cranky pants rooster, and two dud hens who still haven't paid rent.


we have welcomed the cooler weather, and have already had several splendid campfires. (for some reason, i can't help but take a picture of the flames, pretty much every time we have a fire. jesse thinks i'm weird.)


speaking of fire...our local fire station hosted their annual fire safety open house event. the whole family was entertained by the horses, firetrucks, boats, and a blackhawk helicopter!

oh, colorado!

so, it's been, um, 2 months since we took our family vacation to colorful colorado. but, you know, the whole blog thing hasn't been working out for me lately. as promised, here is a short (or not so short) summary. if you want the detailed version, come over for coffee and i will give you a slideshow.

it was a treat to be able to spend 9 days in colorado. we had a lot of places to go and a lot of people to see. i'll be honest, i could have spent a month there! we were joined by both of my sisters and their children, who made the trip from pennsylvania. :)

jacob and kate's first plane ride (since they were infants) was SO exciting!


on our 1st full day in colorado springs, my dad hosted an open house for friends and family to visit with us and meet our kiddos. it was great to see lots of scruggs family that we hadn't seen in years!


that evening, my dad took my sister and i to a bruce hornsby concert at the coolest outdoor concert location, the denver botanic gardens. it was a beautiful colorado evening, with great music!


monday, the kids and i had lunch with my childhood bff and her little boy. :)


tuesday we packed up the truck and headed into the mountains for 3 days. the 11 of us stayed in snowmass village, co, right outside of aspen. we spent lots of time in the pool, hiked up to crater lake at the maroon bells, bungee-bounced, rode a gondola, and played (ah-hem) several rounds of bananagrams. no need to mention who was champion. :)

(somehow kate slept the entire 2.1 mile hike back down. grandpa and i took turns carrying her)

friday we returned back to the springs and spent the reminder of our trip with the vollbracht family. saturday we met cousins and aunts and uncles for a picnic and hike in the garden of the gods. later that night, the grandparents babysat so the cousins could have a night out- definitely a highlight of the trip for me. it was great spending that time together! :)

sunday was a vollbracht reunion. we spent the afternoon out at the farm. jacob was in tractor heaven at uncle fred's house. he even got a ride on the bulldozer!



great trip. great memories. ready to go back for another visit. :)

wait. what?

no, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. it's really me, updating the blog. i think this is the longest i've gone. and for the 3 of you that follow our goings-on, i do apologize. :)

so the past 2 months have been busy! there's been blueberry picking, a trip to colorado, new babies, wedding planning, eggs!, visitors, and now that fall is here- the start of another preschool year.

quick update on the family:
kate is quite the comedian. she is the wittiest almost-3-year-old i've ever met. she's always got something goofy or smart to say. she keeps us entertained and keeps us on our toes. we always need to keep an eye on her because she gets into things she shouldn't oh so quickly. her favorite things to do are change her clothes (we're up to about 3 outfits a day), walk around the house in her church shoes, help me bake, and lay her puppies down for nap (they take more naps than an infant). she talks about best friends all day long and her line at dinner every night is "i don't want to grow up and get big and strong." (we've told her to eat her food so she can be big and strong, so i guess this is her way of saying she doesn't want to eat :) )

jacob continues his tractor obsession. except he's kicked it up a notch and now he can draw them and build them with legos. he spends most of his time building with his legos or digging in the dirt outside. he loves making cars out of the couch cushions and making garages for his hot wheels out of his wood blocks. during the month of august, he received swim lessons from a college student at church. by the end of 8 lessons, he was floating on his back across the pool, jumping in all by himself, and staying under water long enough to search for pennies. this week we have started the 2nd half of our preschool curriculum, and it seems like he is pretty excited about it. let's hope that continues through may! :) also, in the last week, he just started riding his bike with no training wheels! proud moment for this mom and dad. :)


i wrote in one of my last posts about jacob and kate playing together more. they are best buds now, and pretty much every activity is done together. it's been so cute to see them pretend play with each other- things like restaurant and train station. :) it's also brought on a whole bunch of confrontation that i could do without, but how else are they going to learn, right? (keep telling myself this!)

jesse has been keeping busy with the chickens and his paintings. he has completed 2 paintings on commission that are now in colorado with their new owners. his artwork is updated on his blog. all of his hard work with the chickens is finally starting to pay off, as one of them finally gave us the first egg last week. now it appears that 2 out of the 4 hens are laying. boy are those birds filthy!

i have been busy keeping up with the house and the kids. (and in the midst of this post, am realizing i haven't been taking very many pictures!) i don't know how i would get it all done if i didn't work from home! i am daily reminded of what a blessing it is that i am able to do so. i have also been so thankful for the blessing of friends and community that God has given us here. it's been such a joy to share and do life with our friends here- from babies, to birthdays, to holidays, to weddings.

i love fall. i am SO looking forward to cooler temps, campfires, pumpkins, cooking dinner without sweating, more and more eggs, and all the things that fall has in store. so long, summer!

check back soon and hopefully i will have selected the best of the 200+ pics from our colorado trip and post them on here. :)

pictures now, words later

it makes me sad that i have missed documenting the last month here on the blog. we've been busy doing nothing and yet i have no time to write. family, work, friends, tractors, chickens, and keeping cool have kept us very busy. life is good :)

the kids have been playing SO WELL together lately, which has been a joy to see but it has it's pros and cons. one of the pros being, they can entertain themselves. one of the cons being, lots of fights. i knew that was coming...

and right now they are making a mess of kate's room.... so i will end with some pics, and more words another day.