Showing posts with label pictures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pictures. Show all posts
Summer has gone by in a blur. Lots of Farmer's Markets to go to, although I didn't go. But there was bread to make and bake, tortillas, pretzels, and sometimes something else. By the end of the season, I figured out I could mix up 12 loaves of bread at a time by hand. Definitely saved some time with all the mixing! :-).

This past Sunday, Momma, James and I went to Atlanta for James to get his g-tube out early Monday morning. He was actually Dr. Parker's first surgery for the day. When Dr. P came to tell us James was in recovery, he also said that he'd had to make a bigger cut than usual, because of the gastric-colic fistula he'd had in March 2007. James, he said, would need a stronger antibiotic, but could take it at home. I asked if it would cause diarrhea and he said it would. Dr. P then told us that he could also admit James for an overnight and give him IV antibiotics that wouldn't cause diarrhea. We opted for an overnight. James was a huge apple juice fiend while we were there. On Monday alone, he drank 20 or so 4oz. boxes of apple juice!
I slept with him in the hospital bed, so Momma could rest for the trip home on Tuesday. I seriously think that the nurses and tech turned on ALL the lights everytime they came in. But what surprised me most, was the tech waking me up to ask if I minded changing James' diaper.  When he had his ileostomy take-down in June, the nurses and techs would change his cloth diapers without waking us up. And this time, I didn't bring enough diapers since I thought we wouldn't be there that long and he was in pull-ups. He's doing fine now, but has a small diaper rash.


I've been working on my math. With all of James' stuff in the last couple years, we've all fallen behind. I'm 'racing' through my current math book to finish it by my goal of Thanksgiving. I'm enjoying algebra, but sometimes I struggle with algebraic sentences.

I was reading through some old posts on this blog and noticed a post where I said my least favorite task was meal planning. I don't think it was intentional, but I've been doing all the meal planning lately and actually enjoying it. Momma even let me make the shopping list and do the shopping at Dekalb International Farmer's Market on Tuesday. It worked out well that we met a online friend of Momma's on Sunday at the Market and I was able to get prices for my list and work out how much I could get with the money I had. I did end up $1.58 over my budget because I'd forgotten about tax for the bag of rice. Oh well, something to remember for next time :*).


We also enjoyed visits with several families this summer. One family came a couple times... they have two little ones. Zeke is almost 3, but his speech is so much clearer than James'. James loved to play with Zeke and he doted on Lily Beth, their little girl. I think everyone loved having them visit. Becca and Carrie thought it was fun to take Zeke outside and run races up and down the driveway. He's a pretty good runner and kept up to them most of the time.


In October, we took a day trip up to North Georgia to see Nona and Poppa and pick up apples. Momma, Katie, James and I sang most of the way up and Daddy, Owen and Becca worked on math. Carrie decided to read a book!







I also got my hair cut late October. Katie wanted her hair cut and I wanted to get mine cut to send to Locks of Love again... So we cut each others' hair. I didn't realize how much mine would curl after we cut it. We thought it would end up shoulder length.  Apparently not.

For my 17th birthday, I was able to do something I've been thinking about since I was 15. Turns out that I could have done it when I was 16, but... I wasn't sure how it all worked and didn't want to call and ask. Momma had to make a trip to Macon and since Katie didn't have to go, she was able to keep everyone else and I was able to donate blood. I was a bit nervous that my hemoglobin would be too low to donate since it has to be 12.5 or higher, but it was fine. I was excited to be able to do it and it went quicker than I thought it would. I did learn that it's a good idea to take some sort of snack because water isn't quite enough. I'm hoping that it will work out so I can donate again in the beginning of December... Anyone want to join me? :*). 

Hoping everyone enjoyed their summers too.

♥, Hannah
From a photo shoot the other day with James... which wasn't exactly to take pictures of James, but of the diaper he's wearing. (for this). He's an awfully cute little guy... and a real stinker!

I was going through pictures tonight and downloading some old pictures off of CD's and came across several old ones and some new ones of James and I. We were all watching some of the videos we'd taken of James and Carrie especially and I couldn't get over how little James was then!



J has mild-moderate hearing loss in one ear and profound hearing loss in his other ear.
Recently we were blessed to receive some Love and Learning dvds and books from another family of a child with Ds. J really enjoys watching his 'school work'


I hope you all enjoy listening to J 'read' and hopefully, we'll be able to add more videos of J reading his other books!

O, B, and C dug a small pool two or so weeks ago and filled it with water. The next day, O and I dug the 'pool' deeper and made a slide out of dirt.


J thought it would be fun to play in the water.... that is until he actually got into it! Believe me, that boy has quite a healthy pair of lungs! :) In the end, J decided that as long as I held him, he was fine. He did eventually get off my lap to play with a plastic toy boat C brought over for him.


O very thoughtfully put up the canopy to shade the pool and James from the sun!
B caught reading a book!

K's birthday dinner... just waiting for the salmon. It was an absolutely delicious meal!
And now, I have a 18 year old sister! my goodness, how time flies!

Momma has more pictures of what country children do when they don't have a swing set over on One Big Adventure, plus an update on J's recent trip to Atlanta!



Meet Gusty.... aka Gustavus Adolphus snoozing on the side porch.

The treats after chicken processing... We had two families over who wanted to learn the 'how-to'.
We just did 75 chickens, since all of the 150 weren't big enough for slaughter yet. It made for a quick day. Although, we were all exhausted by the end of the day. J decided to finish up the day with some excitement by cutting his hand on a lounge chair on the porch... Poor baby! It's looking much better now, but we are still keeping it cover and putting antibiotic ointment on it.

So that's what we've been doing around here lately.... Hope you all enjoy the quick visit around the farm!

~Hannah
Around March 24th, we put 10 turkey eggs in the incubator... We were a bit apprehensive if the turkeys would actually hatch, since we had messed up several things during the 28 days. This past Monday, Momma, J and I had come back from the day's trip to Atlanta and we were making dinner when I checked the eggs. I was thrilled to see that one of the eggs was hatching!

The second egg that started cracking actually hatched out first and most of us got to see it happen.


Tuesday evening... so cute!

We moved them to a small brooder in the mudroom and they are already feathering out.... They're growing so fast! On May 5th, we have another batch of 20 turkey eggs in the brooder that, Lord willing, are due to hatch! We are hoping that the turkeys will lay more eggs to have another clutch, so far we have 4 eggs on the counter waiting for their turn in the incubator!
Or the nests, for that matter! B found a old bird's nest while helping Daddy with brush clearing. She brought it inside for all of us to see it. Of course, we took pictures after we positioned properly in a bush in front of the house.

The proud finder of the nest!

That's actually a plastic bag that was woven into the nest.


Look at her short hair! She cut it off, so she could donate it to Locks of Love.

Ah, the beauty of God's creation!






J really loves to dress up in a suit and tie (the tie is probably the most important, since he thinks it makes him look like Daddy, even though Daddy rarely wears one.) Yesterday, we were looking for an outfit J could wear today to Atlanta for an appointment and J found a tie. We pulled out a suit J was given back in 2007 (he was almost 3 then) and it still fits him, probably because he's gotten taller and slimmed down from all the steroids.

B, C, and I took J outside and got some pictures of him all dressed up with the new camera from Grandpa John and Grandma Nan (Thank you so much!)

I do have some more pictures to post, but they are on the other computer, so they will have to wait for right now! But they are some great pictures of things we've been doing around here! 

Hannah
 

I got up this morning... 

 

got dressed... to the shoes!




Then the mail lady came... in the package was this apron. I put it on!

 

and started  these new recipes for bread, cookies, crackers and chocolate cobbler.
 

and soaked the flour and oats in bowls on the table, because I had leftover whey from making..


this! 

 
Then I made dinner... with a side of 


mexican roasted potatoes and 
 

these, from the freezer.

 

In the evening, we read and sang.

 

and J played 'throw the blocks on the floor and have Hannah pick them up'.

 

Then some went to bed....

 

and K listened to some videos of Sissel singing on youtube....

 
then she went to bed.

 
and I stayed up... finishing up some projects....

 

and writing a blog post...

 

I was going to tell you how I sneaked beef liver into....

 

Monday's dinner and no one knew...
 

the looks on their faces, when I told them...

 

was priceless!!!

 

And then she said: 'And to all... a good night!'