Saved from the Stew Pot

Well there is some good news from the Langer urban farm today. As you may know 2 of our chickens (the Buff Opringtons) started laying eggs in early November, but our 2 Arucaunas still hadn't started laying until TODAY!!! I keep hearing the reference that chickens that don't lay well or at all will get sent to the stew pot, well these two were a narrow miss (not really nice we have a mostly vegetarian home). The fun about Aracaunas is that they lay blue/green eggs. They are called Easter Egg chickens. So below are a couple pictures of the first eggs. All of the eggs we are getting are still a bit on the small side, but getting bigger. I don't really know when they will start coming out 'normal' sized. This has been a fun adventure thus far!!

It's Christmas time...in the country

We spent our Christmas with Veronica's family in SD. Due to the snowstorm of the century, it was quite eventful! We got to SD on 12/23 and enjoyed time with family. The snow started falling, the wind started blowing and the snow started drifting. We had a little break from snow overnight, but by mid-morning on Christmas Eve, the weather was getting bad again. Christmas Eve mass was canceled, so we had family church at home. We continued on with our traditions of a chili dinner and opening gifts around midnight (Isaiah was the lucky one, he got to open gifts before his bedtime!). :)

Christmas Day, mass was canceled again, so we hung around the house playing games (Veronica got the game Bananagrams, which is really fun), having some great meals and wondering what the rest of the day would bring weather-wise. We were supposed to head over to Veronica's aunt's house, but we stayed put because the roads were not in good condition.

The day following Christmas, we were supposed to head to Nathan's family's house, but we were not going anywhere! The tractor would not start, so plowing the 100 yard driveway was not an option. In fact, Veronica's mom got up early to start shoveling the driveway by hand...it took her about 3 hours! We were all packed up just waiting for the plows to come through so we could head North to St. Cloud. Little did we know, the interstates were closed! We really were not going anywhere! Again, we played games, ate great food and relaxed. It was wonderful time with the Gaidelis family; having everyone home with nowhere to go, made us stay put and enjoy each others' company. Everyone seemed to enjoy time with Isaiah and with each other.

Sunday, we packed up the car and got out of the driveway at 7 AM. Little did we know that when we got out of the driveway and headed onto the gravel road that it would be drifted shut! We reversed the car back into the driveway and began brainstorming. My mom and Nate went out and shoveled the gravel road! At 9, we attempted to leave again. After lots of reversing the car, pushing and more shoveling...we made it onto the county road! WHEW!!! It was only 9, but already we had a lot of excitement behind us. The drive that normally takes us about 5 hours ended up being 7 hours of white-knuckled, 35-45 mph driving. Since Veronica is not comfortable driving in those conditions, Nathan got to drive the whole way. Isaiah was wonderful in the car. Often after a few hours in the car he is just done and ready to get out, but this time he stayed happy almost the whole ride. Yay Baby!

We had a wonderful though short time with the Langers. A lot of wonderful food, family time and giving (did you notice how I started with food? Not by mistake, the food was wonderful!). We arrived there around 4pm and most left around 8:30 p.m.. So the visit was short but we were all glad to at least have made it for that short time.

Monday morning we headed back to Duluth. Once we got home we were happy to see our beautiful city and the 24" of snow that we got. Thankfully a couple friends came over to help us shovel or we still wouldn't be out. We also hired some neighbor boys to help shovel the front, best $5 we have ever spent (though he offered to do it for $3).

All in all it was a wonderful though unexpected week of Christmas celebration. A first Christmas for Isaiah that we definitely won't forget.

Africa girls get together

Last weekend we had the opportunity to connect with three of the four women I studied abroad with in South Africa. We try and all get together at least once each year. One of the women is a flight attendent and it can be hard with her schedule to get her back to MN. So, she happened to get into a moped accident with a tree in Thailand (long, hilarious story...and she's okay) and is off work for a few weeks. It was wonderful to get together. Kim (the flight attendant) is the only one baby-less at this time, so it's a little more lively at our gatherings.

Yoga Mama Christmas Party

This evening we had a grand time with my yoga mama friends, partners and their babes. It is amazing how quickly time flies and how big our babes are getting!! This month trying to take the picture was even MORE challenging than it was in September. Babes are beginning to crawl and get on the loose. ;) Quite hilarious I must say! We had a wonderful time catching up and sharing stories and getting advice. Isaiah is in the red sweater and green pants.

By the way...Isaiah appears to have FOUR teeth breaking through at the moment....whew!! He's haging in there though!

Peek-a-boo!

I thought it was only fair that if I put a post about the chickens that Isaiah get one too! :) Isaiah is growing and growing each day. I can't believe how quickly time goes...he's already 8 months old! No crawling yet, but he's starting to do a little scooting on his bum, which is easy to do on our wood floors. :) He loves standing tall or walking with the help of mom or dad. He had a fun Thanksgiving with his Grandma and Papa Langer, cousins, aunts and uncle...no turkey yet though; just some squash and potatoes.

My How They Grow!

The girls have become ladies...well, two of them have! We have officially been eating farm fresh eggs for a couple weeks now! Very exciting to go to the backyard and come back with a couple eggs. :) They are not quite full sized yet as you can see in the picture (the larger one is from a carton we bought at the store). It is amazing to see how yellow/orange the yokes are...and they taste great!

Our Anniversary Weekend

We headed to Bayfield, WI Friday afternoon for a long weekend. We stayed at these great cottages for our 1st anniversary, and thought it was worth coming back to celebrate our 3rd anniversary. The weather leading up to the weekend was supposed to be pretty crappy, but it sure turned for the better! We enjoyed a nice evening walk around town Friday night before enjoying a yummy dinner with fabulous dessert.

Saturday we walked into town via a wooded path that followed the shore of Lake Superior. We browsed some shops and came back for a restful afternoon. We started our evening Halloweening (see post below) and then came back to the Cottage for dinner and to reminisce about our wedding day and the three years since. We watched our wedding slideshow, wedding video and looked through albums...it's amazing how much has changed for us in those three years!

Sunday we made it to a few apple orchards and Isaiah was patient with us while we picked two bushels of Cortland apples...believe it or not, we paid $3 a bushel; less than 10 cents a pound! So, don't be surprised if we come to visit you with apples (in one form or another) in tow! :) We have a lot of freezing, canning and eating ahead of us...YAY for fall. Next in store is the Vikings/Packers game. We need to be careful about our cheering since we are in Wisconsin this weekend! go vikes! :)

Hoot and Hollerin' Halloween... Sort of

Our third anniversary was this past Wednesday (the 28th for those unwilling to look at a calendar or do the math :) ) so we decided to go to Bayfield, WI to celebrate; meaning we would be out of town for Halloween. So before we left we went back and forth as to whether we should get a costume for Isaiah. On one hand we weren't going to see anyone that we knew so what was the point of a costume? On the other hand, what kind of parent doesn't have a picture of baby's first Halloween? So we decided to be creative. Isaiah dressed up as a farmer and did a great job keeping his hat on. One other thing to note: Veronica put argyle leggings under his costume. Do you know any farmers that wear argyle leggings? Either do I! :)

We had a pretty quiet evening. We went to a pumpkin carving contest, toured a mansion and got a little candy. We thought since Isaiah didn't eat candy yet that it may be best to keep our candy intake to a minimum...

Baby Food

Since Isaiah is at the age that he can eat real food, we thought it would be a fun activity for a Sunday afternoon. Though he is at the age of eating real food, we keep forgetting to feed it to him. Does that make us bad parents?!?

We successfully made potatoes, sweet potatoes, pears and squash for him to eat. Here are a few pictures from our food making adventures and one of Isaiah attempting to eat it. Enjoy!

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When on the Farm...

Isaiah had the opportunity to see Grandma Sam, Grandpa Mike and Auntie Pearl twice in one week. A new world record!!! After seeing them at the Baptism last week we traveled down to SD for the Deacon (Sam's maiden name) Family Hay Ride!

So on Saturday Isaiah got his overalls on and was all ready for life on the farm. Though Grandma and Grandpa promised some Mutten Busting (sheep riding for all of you not familiar) it was decided that it may be best to wait a couple (or five) years for that.

Instead Isaiah experienced his first Hay Ride. Though it was a little chilly and a bit past his bedtime he was not going to let these minor things stop him from this experience. So we bundled him up and off we went on the hay trailor with oodles of Veronica's family members. He was great. A couple highlights: Isaiah found the moon to be mesmorizing, Nathan actually enjoyed a cup of coffee (with a little Irish Cream and heavy cream added) and despite nasty windy and rainy weather in the days leading up to the hay ride, the weather was clear, windless and the moon was bright and beautiful.

We won't be back until Christmas time. It is crazy to think that Isaiah may be crawling by then. We have already started to prep the dogs so that they are ready for pulled hair, ears and tail. Should be an adventure.

Family Time

We were fortunate enough to have our families up last weekend for Isaiah's baptism (my grandma even made the long trek up from Omaha!). It was great spending some time with them and we lucked out with beautiful weather. We even were able to enjoy a picnic at Brighton Beach right down on Lake Superior. Here are some great family pics from our weekend together:

Splish Splashing in the Water!

This past Sunday we baptized Isaiah. Our good friend Fr. Kevin
Anderson came up to Duluth to preside at the baptism in our
living room in the midst of a small group of our family and friends.
We were very happy to invite our good friends Jay and Mary B.
to be his Godparents. It was a really beautiful service, the highlights included:

1. Fr. Kevin gave everyone the opportunity to come up to Isaiah and share what they hoped for his life. Who would have thought that this group would hope such beautiful and touching things?!?

2. Our niece Olivia was a barrel of funny comments. Here are a couple. First as we were putting on Isaiah's baptismal gown (more on this below) she was outraged that we were going to put this "dress" on Isaiah. Another great Livi moment came while people were sharing their hopes. She hoped that Isaiah would stay as cute and sweet etc. and she ended her hope/blessing by saying "God and Jesus." Very cute. Finally she wanted to do an interpretive dance with streamers at some point during the baptism. When given the chance, she decided she was shy.

3. The baptismal gown (aka the "dress" from #2) that Isaiah wore is over 100 years old and was worn by many people including Veronica, her sister Pearl, Veronica's grandmother, great aunts and uncles and more. For everyone baptized in it, there was another strip added to the bottom.

4. It was the first big event that we held at our new home as both of our immediate families along with a few friends came for the baptism. All was a big success. A little more work than expected, but all worth it.

5. Fr. Kevin was wonderful as always. He brought his guitar and lead the singing and brought a wonderful prayerful experience for this special day.

Like Father Like Son

Where does baby Isaiah end and daddy begin?

Girls...The update

I am sure that you have been checking back nearly daily to find out how the Girls are. Well, here is what you have been waiting for.

Our 4 girls have been doing really well. And we FINALLY moved them outside for at least part of them time. I finished fencing in the outside chicken run a couple weeks ago and carried them outside for their first experience of the great outdoors. They were a little scared at first but very soon they were clucking away. Below are a couple pics of them during their first hours outside. Aren't they cute?!?

Isaiah's 6 months old!

We cannot believe how quickly Isaiah grows! We hear it all the time from parents, but we are expereincing it for ourselves! Isaiah had his 6 month check up and this is where he stands:

Height: 29" (off the charts)

Weight: 19 lbs. 6 oz. (90th %)

Head: 17" (50th %)

Isaiah finally started solids last week. His first taste was avocado and yesterday he tasted bananas. Not quite sure what he thinks of it just yet; he seems more interested in chomping on the spoon than actually eating the food!

We've discovered that Isaiah is a true thumb sucker! He loves his thumbs; mostly his left thumb, but he has been known to suck his right thumb when his left is not available, or just not tasting right! :) It's really the cutest thing ever, and so nice that he is able to calm himself when he needs it.

Mamas and Papas BBQ

We had another wonderful gathering of Mamas and Papas at a BBQ this weekend. The Mamas were from my Prenatal Yoga group and we all grew very close as we journeyed together through beautiful pregnancies. We gathered earlier in the summer, and decided it was time to gather again. This time, a few more Mamas and Papas joined us, which made our baby pictures a lot more exciting and fun! :) Several Mamas are back to work, but we still gather when possible for walks and coffee with our babes. It's awesome to have such wonderful support and to be able to talk with other parents about the many decisions out there.