Costa Rica part 1

Being that I have about a zillion and four photos from our trip that I'd like to post, I am overwhelmed at which ones to post and which ones not to. So randomly I'm selecting pictures not necessarily my favorites just so I can move on with this months excitement.
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On the morn of Sept. 20th, the birthday boy, his birthday girl mom and the rest of the clan piled into a jet plane and sailed the blue skies for the first time in all of his four years of life. Outside of the womb anyway. He couldn't have been any more anxious about taking a ride on a REAL airplane and was so excited about all the details of the day.
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As for me, my heart was as full as it could possibly be on my birthday. It was all a flutter as I boarded that plane just as my belly was four years earlier when a nearly full grown baby was stirring inside of me. At the time I had no idea what an incredible little being was preparing to emerge from me. A person so full of spunk, thoughtfulness, and love. And such a fun boy! This would be our first baby that we'd be surprised at birth by the gender. I was the least bit concerned about the gender and was just so grateful to have the chance to be mama to another little person whom God entrusted me with.

So to celebrate the fourth birthday of our sweet little guy, we made plans to venture back to the amazing country of Costa Rica. And it wasn't too bad of a birthday gift for me neither. Now that my brother Brian, sister in law Kelly and two darling nieces are living there, it was the perfect opportunity and reason to take a visit.
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We had such an incredible journey and are already dreaming of when we can go back again. Costa Rica is like eye candy to us. Everything is so green, lush and full of life. We couldn't believe how dull Florida looked on our ride home from the airport. Our eyes were so adjusted to seeing color and lots of it! There is beauty everywhere and especially in the people who live there. Oh my goodness they are so genuinely nice over there. Not only do they have such big hearts but are overall very happy content people. It seems that it didn't matter their circumstances, they were just as grateful and full of joy as they possibly could be. The kids did a research project on Costa Rica after returning home and learned that they have one of the longest life expectancies. No surprise there! Stress doesn't seem to be in their vocabulary like it is here. After spending some time there we have a deeper level of respect for the country and it's people. And we understand much more now how my brother managed to pack up his family and leave us to move to another country. We can't blame him a single bit and we feel very blessed to be able to go there and visit them. Hopefully as often as possible!
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Colton has already let us know that if Uncle B. is still living there when Colton becomes an adult then he's moving there too. After hearing my brother say the same thing after he visited Costa at a young age, I know that anything is a possibility. I am already preparing myself mentally to be a supportive parent no matter how far my children choose to move. As hard as it may be for me I would never want to hold them back from living our their dreams. My mom was always Brian's number one supporter about this dream of his and I know that she is smiling from heaven and as proud as she can be that he followed that dream and made it come true. Life is just to short not too! I know that God has a plan for each and every one of my four precious children and I'm excited to see where He takes them. And I have already promised myself that I will stand strong and be their number one cheerleader through it all!
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Here are random pics from our trip, not really in any order. I seriously took more photos than I knew what to do with. It was slightly mind boggling going through them all and trying to decide which ones to keep and which ones to toss. I'll try to post a part 2 of our trip to add more photos. We were able to do some really neat things. I especially need to blog about the birthday boy's adventure in zip lining. That kid is crazy!!!
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For Fletcher Eli and I, 9/20/10 will be a birthday we will never forget!

After getting off the plane and getting our rental van, we stopped for a bite to eat at a restaurant and they even sang us "feliz cumpleanos". It was a fun start to our trip.

We arrived to B and K's house really late that night. But the toucans and howler monkeys woke us up bright and early to the most beautiful view.

There house looks out onto the beautiful pacific ocean. They frequently see humpbacks frolicking in the waters from their back porch.

uncle b. and fletch (and little domi) woke up early to play some cards

the view from their bedroom balcony

bright beautiful colors everywhere

more birthday celebrating

manuel antonio beach

isn't this piece of driftwood beautiful?

in the rainforest there is so much to see


yummy lychee's

Not sure what this pose is all about but it makes me laugh. She is only seven right?

monkeys everywhere

check out that monster forming behind them

so glad C got a little surf in too. He loves it.

fletch and his buddy "uncle" Clint

some monkeys are almost too tame but it was super cool to get to see so many of them up close

G bought this necklace made of coconut the day we arrived at Costa and took it off for the first time yesterday, exactly one month later. Guess she really loves it.


"I spy..."

I love this picture of a rainforest tree. They were beautiful!

Me and my Magnolia

cattle drive across a river. yes they still do things the old fashioned way there.

mountain road

lobster claw heliconia

I'm starting to believe that we're a little too infatuated with our baby

The whole crew. We all survived 10 days together!

this cute shirt was a hand me down from the Sylvester girls

maggie loved the rocks and the freedom to explore

a costa rican swimming pool a few minutes from their house

Pura Vida is Costa Rican saying meaning "pure life" in other words "all is good"

Fletch was playing poporatzi and took this picture of us while out to lunch at Los Suenos.

Stay tuned for more....!!!

Rainbow Party

My cute little side kick turned seven last month. In celebration of her sweet life we had fun at a rainbow dance party in her honor. The girls danced, feasted on Gracie's favorite pizza from Anna's, painted treasure boxes in all colors of the rainbow and ate the most delicious cake that even Rainbow Brite would be proud of. Here are the glimpses of her day.




{i made her this super cute and easy hair tie by tying strips of ribbon to an elastic band}
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{what's better than a rainbow fabric flower hair clip? well an overly large rainbow lollipop that's too large to possibly eat of course!} whew... try and say that five times. I dare you!
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{the cake masters suzanne and katie (aka grandma and aunt katie) did it again!}
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{it wound up being so tall that the top red layer had to get left out!}

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{i've been making the kids these shirts by ironing on felt letters or numbers and stitching around them with the machine followed by hand stitching a yarn border. another super quick and easy project. love it!}

{my favorite home school friend danielle with her little pumpkin faith who happens to be only 3 days older than my girl.}

My little lady has one of the sweetest yet toughest hearts I know. She has a heart to serve others and does acts of kindness not for rewards or acknowledgements but just to put a smile on the face of another. I adore that about her. She joyfully helps out around the house often without being asked to and rarely turns down an offer to help with her baby sister. She has made having a baby so much fun because she really helps out when I need a hand with Maggie and gives me much needed breaks throughout the day to be able to juggle all that I need to do.

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But on the other hand she is also one tough girl. Not too much bothers her and she easily brushes off situations that would most likely have our boys in tears. She is known for coming back with a positive remark about a negative situation as she always seems to be looking on the bright side. Josh thinks she's going to break boys hearts one day because it isn't hard for her to just tell it like it is about how she feels and then move on with her business. She'll probably say "Oh dry your tears you'll be fine. You'll find the right girl eventually just keep looking." Ha! I can hear her now!

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She still continues to do really well in school and is in the second grade this year. As far as her interests and activities go she is going to start a weekly horseback riding camp soon and is also starting piano lessons. She will continue with dance but we haven't decided on staying with ballet or switching to jazz. She really likes the fun fast paced jazz style of dance but she's been taking ballet since she was three and I don't want her to just walk away from it completely at this point. She still really enjoys it but with ballet alone being two days a week how many activities can a girl have! She also recently started girl scouts with our home school group and will also be in 4 H this year along with Colton.

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I am big into being home as much as possible because when families get overly busy and are running hectic lives going this way and that I don't feel that it's beneficial to anyone in the family. When we are home we have so much here to do on the farm to keep us busy not to mention the many projects with crafts, sewing and cooking that we love to get to only if time will allow. When our schedules fill up we just don't have time for anything extra that we enjoy and it seems like everyone gets cranky and life just doesn't flow as well as it could.

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With that being said I am trying to be very selective in what activities we commit ourselves to and if it requires too much time from us than I have to think long and hard if it will help develop their character or make a positive impact in their lives long term. When my kids are grown their character, morals and values will be of number one importance and that is what I feel God wants me to focus on. That makes them who they are. Sure it won't hurt for them to be a graceful dancer, to have a little rhythm, to be able to hold their own during a sports game and maybe even stroke some keys in sync on a piano so that is why I try and make some time in our lives for those things. But they certainly will not rule our lives and take over our weekly schedule.

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We've got milking to be done, chickens to be fed, family sports in the yard followed by a quick dip in the pond before we end the day with story time in mama and daddy's bed. That's the simple life I know and love and don't want to ever let that go.

The Three B's

We have new B's on our farm. B's as in Blair, Bonnie and Bliss, our three new Alpine triplets. We were fortunate to meet an awesome lady near Alachua who has been raising Alpine's and Oberhasli goats for many many years. She was an incredibly neat lady! And her farm. AH! I could go on vacation there and be in heaven. It was GORGEOUS! She had a beautiful log cabin set high upon a hill on many, many acres filled with the most amazing shade trees I'd ever seen. I was nearly drooling. This lady was like a Mrs. Dr. Doolittle. I'm sure she understands what animals are saying when they talk. Her goats are so very loving and I could sense a state of peace among her farm the moment we stepped out of the truck.

The sad part of the story is that she has a bad back that's getting worse as she ages. And her sister is very sick with cancer so she is leaving her farm for some time to go take care of her. So for these reasons she can no longer care for her goats and this is where we step in. She gave us an amazing deal on the three youngest members of her farm family. Three triplet girls whose mom died of Ketosis after she delivered them. What is Ketosis? This gets sort of scientific but it is the result of the high energy demand of multiple fetuses in late pregnancy. Does carrying triplets have a 240% greater energy requirement and when this demand exceeds the supply, fat is metabolized into glucose. The kids health is secured at the expense of the dam and because of this her health fails. To complicate matters, multiple fetuses produce more waste products, which leads to the doe becoming toxic if she does not flush them from her system. So these three girls were bottled fed from the get go and think that us humans are their mama. They adapted to us very quickly and seem to feel right at home on our farm.


So let's meet the three B's shall we?

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First we have Blair. Meaning: Child of the fields. Pretty fitting I'd say.

Blair is strinkingly beautiful. I love the strong contrast of darks and lights on her.

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Next we have Bonnie which means "pretty"

A note about Bonnie. She is the calmest, quietest one but she is always the first to get in front of the camera.

Yes Bonnie, we think you're pretty

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And last but not least is Bliss which means joy. And that she is. She is such a joy and is so pretty as her white self prances around the pasture.

These girls certainly are loved.

I think we might have a goat whisperer of our own in the works.

Either way we make sure they know they're well loved.