A Cow Lick

Reeve's Mohawk got a real cowlick! We visited our neighbors down the hill and around a bend and their steer Ricky is VERY friendly.

 I was laughing so hard and then running around to the other side because I was facing the sun that I missed capturing the actual lick to the back of Reeve's head!

Reeve preferred feeding Lady, their 20 year old mare. They just got her, so we had never met her before. She is very smart and gentle...someday in the near future...once Lady gets settled in...Reeve and Kyle will get to ride her!

They have 2 steers...Ricky (the licker) and Hank...Hank is a tad more reserved, but still very friendly. Meet Hank:

Kyle spent his time running around with their dogs. Zeus is the German Shepard and Angel is the Doberman. Kyle was playing "keep-away" under the picnic table. Fear not...Kyle was giving a fearful look in this pic for dramatic effect. Zeus and Angel could not be nicer dogs!

Stella was SQUEALING with JOY at every turn where we greeted a new animal. She LOVES dogs and I can honestly say I've never seen a baby get more excited to see a dog! We saw rabbits, but I had to keep Stella at a distance...they were worried that her excited squealing might give the rabbits a heart attack! Reeve got to go into the chicken coop and gather 5 fresh eggs. All in all it was a great play date!

At home Stella has been enjoying her toy car. She's hard to capture in pictures because as soon as she sees the camera she goes on a mission to get it.

In this pic above you can see her saying "Hey there's that gal with the camera...I want it!" The hat I knit her still fits!

Kyle still fits in the car and had fun with the static electricity!

In addition to playing in cars Stella LOVES to talk on the phone. We have a corded phone...so no worries about radiation around her developing brain :-)

Business & Baby

We have been busy weeding in the garden, working for our renewable energy company, raising 2 boys, and enjoying the last month or so before Stella officially turns 1!!!

Tom and I are getting into the groove and accepting the fact that our company is finally a permanent gig. We've been together 20 years now and sprinkled throughout those 20 years we've had a few self-employment businesses, and many, many, left-over business cards.

The picture above is just a sample of the business cards we now use the backs for small notes, phone messages, and book marks. I don't know how many we ordered...I want to say it was a box of 1000 for our first business together...See More Clearly. We still have a ton of these cards left.

I remember hand drawing the design of the window, frame, and sparkle shine (note Tom's initials TC in the shine). It doesn't seem like 20 years ago! Reeve and Kyle crack up when they see Starving Student Rates. They thought that sounded horrible...after they discovered the cards they come up with new questions about starving students: "Who wants to hear about starving students?" they said, and "Why are students starving?", and "Was Papa really starving?".

A couple of businesses we started we didn't bother getting business cards. Like the food cart business we started with our friend Cory in Madison. (Cory now owns and manages his own Grill & Malt Shop). Here is a sample menu...complete with little rainbow magnets in the corners!

 A picture of Tom and the food cart parked on MLK in Madison...

 Cory, Tom, and Cory's Dad built that cart in freezing temps on our old driveway on Lacy Rd. I think they did a fine job. It was a fun business, but soooooo much work! I remember Tom getting up a 3am to get to the certified food kitchen we rented from La Brioche Bakery to start making all the food he was going to sell that day. It wore him out! One of the coolest things about that business was buying from local producers...like Tipi Produce, Shooting Star Farm, and Nature's Bakery even made us a custom pita bread. The kids LOVE to hear the story of when we vended at the Badger State Games. It was a baseball game and we had hand-made over 200 veggie burgers from scatch! They were delicious! BUT we only sold a handful there...not even 5! However...I had listed on the menu HOT DOGS...I didn't say what kind of "hot dogs" they were. Of course they were vegetarian, but not one single customer questioned it and we sold out! We must have sold 100 veggie hot dogs and no one even suspected they were vegetarian and we had people coming back for more!

Okay now we track forward to NOW where we are a thousand times busier than those fond memories and our little angel Stella will be one year old soon! I'm already starting to tear up about her not being a "baby" anymore. She's started to take her first steps (unaided) all on her own. She's LOUD...she screams with joy...she screams with angst, but overall she's just plain happy. She makes me Reeve and Kyle happy. She makes me & Tom happy.

We set up a tent that my Auntie Mary Lea gave Kyle. She LOVES it!


Her latest thing is she likes to try to put clothes on...doesn't matter whose clothes it is...and then look at herself in the mirror. Too. Cute!

Reeve's Snow Couch & Mohawk!!!

Our snow is all gone (almost...pretty much!) and so I should post these pictures of Reeve and his snow couch and table.

I think our snow days are over for awhile. Temps here will be in the 50's all next week!
March always brings a bit of madness into our lives...Reeve decided long hair was not for him, and asked me to give him a Mohawk haircut. "Really? Are you sure?", I asked him. Why? ...because he said it would be cool. There are only 2 places that I know of where Reeve has seen a Mohawk and that's on our friend Tim and in the Little House on the Prairie book series.

After it was complete...I goofed up the back and just shaved the back off...Reeve thanked me for giving him the best haircut he's ever had. He spent hours making goofy faces at himself in the mirror. Stella and Kyle were thoroughly amused! Reeve said it made him feel like a real Native American...like the ones we've seen in the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. I wonder how long he will want to keep it? He's itching to show the world and absolutely cannot wait until our home school group day on Tuesday.
No one had any help for our camera...I have a new one ordered...hopefully more pictures are in the future for this blog...more pictures without the blurry~green~tinged~look!

Day at the Kickapoo Valley Reserve

We are enjoying a sunny February, that's for sure! I love the longer days and warmer temps...now in the 30sF! At this point a sunny day in February with little to no wind and temps in the mid-30sF really does feel like T-Shirt weather!

On Friday the kids and I went to the Kicapoo Valley Reserve in La Farge, WI. It's right across the street from Organic Valley's Headquarters. (Yes, we know we are super duper LUCKY to live so close to an amazing resource of organic food!) We did not go on this field trip with our home-school cooperative and it just did not have the same feel. We missed our friends! Reeve felt isolated. He went on a cross-country ski trail and got lost!
His group returned, instructor and all, and Reeve was no where to be seen! The instructor said he wanted to go further and she let him!
I was worried that he went over the edge into the river. After 30 minutes and no Reeve, Stella and I went searching. Ahhh! At last I spot him.
He was very mellow and told me he got lost and that he just "didn't get it." He didn't understand which way the trail went and he kept searching for other kids in his group.
He was very hot and tried to cool off by rubbing snow on his forehead.
Kyle enjoyed his time in the Geology class.
If you didn't know this Kyle is CRAZY ABOUT ROCKS! He sat in the front row and answered every question the instructor asked...he was VERY ENTHUSIASTIC!
Here is a picture of our house, so you can get an idea of how isolated we are:
Stella is now 10 MONTHS OLD! Can you believe it? In just a few short months our little babe will be a toddler! We're all giving her lots of extra hugs, knowing that she's not going to be a baby much longer!
Her morning routine is to crawl over to where her brothers are sleeping and wake them up.
Well, Reeve is usually awake reading, and Kyle is snug under the covers.
She LOVES her brothers. She also loves the camera and came crawling after it.
This was her reaction when I didn't allow her to grab the camera...
Nah! She's not spoiled...she doesn't know how to get her way!

February Snow Pictures

Long time between posts...we are all well and healthy here. I misplaced the cable that I need to download pictures to the computer. I found it this morning. The first set of pictures was taken from our Canon Powershot Camera, and I'm pretty sure it is not working correctly. Most of the pictures end up with a green tinge around them, and it always happens with the automatic flash...any ideas as to what the problem might be? Any solutions?
Reeve and Kyle enjoying their metal red sleds:

Here are the blurry pics...Tom took the boys to Cascade Mountain, located about an hour south of us, for a fun-filled day of snowboarding:
Kyle Stylin' down the hill:

Reeve:


Kyle reading to Stella in the PC (play center). The PC is Reeve's creation, and it is our living room blocked off with storage bins. The bins are great for keeping Stella contained and happy. She can stand to play with things on the bins and she can walk around holding onto the bins. It's also big enough that Reeve and Kyle can play in there with Stella and she doesn't feel like she's in a pen.


On Valentine's Day we had fun at a birthday party with a HUGE sledding hill:

and lots of love:

Lately it's all about teeth around here. Stella has two bottom teeth:

Kyle has had two front teeth loose for a couple of weeks now. We went to the dentist for a regular check-up and the dentist showed me that Kyle's adult teeth were coming in behind his loose front teeth. This was not good, so the dentist pulled 3 of Kyle's front teeth.
This is Kyle on laughing gas:

This is his new toothless grin:

What do you do in February when there is still tons of snow on the ground and you're bored with making snowmen??? You make your own snow chair, to sit in and contemplate what snow furniture to make next. Reeve's idea and Kyle helped to build:




The other night Kyle got a hold of the camera and took some pictures of Reeve and Stella. Stella is playing with the phone, and she already loves to pretend to talk on the phone. She even gets animated with hand gestures, and "are you kidding me?" looks: