Rachel's 14th Birthday! (and many other things! :))

So many things have happened these past few days it's hard to know where to begin. And since my usual blogger helpers have been busy the past few days I haven't got much posted.  So after a few quick lessons from Em I think I've got it figured out. (If you seeing and reading this it worked...If not I'll try again tomorrow! :) )   On the 18th we celebrated Rachel's 14th birthday. We spent the day in Peoria shopping and she wanted to eat at the Hometown Buffet.  We also spent a HUGE amount of time in Barnes & Nobles. (Don't you just love bookstores. :)) Anyway,  It was a great day. It has been a wonderful blessing to have this creative, adventurous (an understatement), smart, quiet, responsible, beautiful young lady in our family for these 14 years!

Later on there were motor cycle rides with Dad, which  is always fun.

Hmmm...you may be asking why Sarah is riding the motorcycle holding a plastic bat?? Hmmm....

See this little dog? It hates the motorcycle!!! And consequently bites the ankles of unsuspecting riders!The bat is to ever so gently tap the ferocious puppy if it gets too close.  :)

Liv is always the first to try for a ride, and since she is small and doesn't take up much room, she usually gets to go on ALL of them.

Sam, giving me one of those "Mom what are you doing?" looks.  :)

Rachel paroling the area looking for the nasty birds making a mess in the barns and on all the vehicles.

The little dog caught this out in the barn!!! Rachel tells me she believes it to be a muskrat. What was it doing under the floor boards in the barn?  We are nearly 2 miles away from any kind of water? We also found another one out by our Morton shed in the compost pile. Which our other dog took care of thankfully!

It has some really nasty teeth. I hope it doesn't have anymore relatives.

Ahaaa!!! Caught in the act!!! We had the basement windows open the other day and Rachels little dog tried to sneak in. He unfortunately could not figure out what to do once he got inside. Poor planning on the puppies part! He of course was rescued once the picture was taken for evidence!

Sarah and Smokey going out for a ride. She was having alot of trouble with him earlier this year (last year), but then she had the vet file his teeth. Kind of like a visit to the dentist for horses, and it must of helped him a great deal. Now he's alot happier and more cooperative. He still is pretty spunky and likes to keep Sarah on her toes.

These are some of the baby goats that came in the last few months.

One of our barn cats. He looks less than thrilled to have his picture takes by one of the kids. :)

A very ugly chicken!

One of those really nice days!!!  I had 4 loads of laundry hanging outside by 10:30 that morning! In the winter it taked me all day to get that much accomplished.  I bet I was quite a comical sight to everyone driving by, since I was wearing my long winter coat to hang out my laundry!!!  Oh well, you never know what kind of things you'll see when you drive by our house! :)

My Emily and Gracie the other night while singing.  Emily has been working everyday for Precision Planting. She loves her job and the people she gets to spend her day with. We are all very happy for her.

Liv and Doug singing? Ok Doug singing, Liv resting in her favorite spot. :)  (mine too) 

 In the past few days Doug has put in the attic door, fixed Graces closet door, put in some transition pieces in our laminate flooring, built shelves in the garage, put new shelving in Graces closet, helped clean out the furnace room, worked on a couple tractors, a fertilizer spreader, marketed corn, bought inputs for the year, payed bills, got the taxes done, changed the oil in a couple of our vehicles, done school with Sam, taken sick kids to the doctor, given medicine in the middle of the night to sick kids, changed diapers, helped with dishes, ironed his own shirt on Sunday, lead his family in singing and prayers at night, made sure the girls vehicles were started and ready to go every morning, read books, played with the kids outside, taken us out to dinner,told me he loved me,held doors open for me and told me how beautiful I was MANY times a day!  And I am certain I have left out alot of things. I could not do this without him. Do we disagree, irritate each other, have times where we may not think life is so wonderful?  You betcha! But if I remember all of the above mentioned things, and realize that I get to be the mom of 8 really great kids,  my husband treats me like a queen, and basically every waking moment of everyday he's thinking of us.  The hard things pale in comparison. And I have been blessed with something I do not deserve and am so thankful to have.

Another great family picture. :)

That's about it. In the past few days we have had celebrations, we have had sicknesses spreading through our kids,we have worked , played, we even got to visit many of our good friends at the Apostolic Church that we haven't seen for awhile. One of the hymns we sang was It is Well with My Soul.  It was so beautiful to have so many voices singing in 4 part harmony. My favorite part is : And Lord haste the day when my faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend, even so it is well with my soul. Someday He will come and we will be able to see what we only believed in our hearts.  For that I am hopeful and extremely grateful. Hope your days are great and filled with many blessings, Good Night. :)