Update from this year

 It has been crazy long since I blogged. I decided to include several photos from the beginning of the year till now. my baby has grown a lot since the last blog posts.

 Cousin and sisters time.

 Yes that's my helpful baby. she is quite a willing helper and full of energy. she keeps me hopping just trying to keep the house in near-order.

 One exciting event so far this year was the young people camping trip. This time my hubby and I joined in and it was very rewarding. Above is a pot of beans thats cooking.

 More cousin fun times.

 Another very exciting trip that happened was going to Costa Rica. It had been a long time since only hubby and me did such a thing. It surely was a blast.

 I could not get over how much being up there in the mountains reminded me of our Tennessee home. for a bit I felt like I was up in the smokies again.

 We've had some pretty kitties. And some birthdays.

 

Cattle feeding time is special time on the farm. 

 Time spent on our future farm, climbing the plum tree.

And very special to us is that our kids still have the privilege of visiting their great-grandma. She was quite ill but surprised us by recovering again. She is a treasure and loves visits from all her family.

After hurricane Earl

 A road downtown is flooded the morning after.

If you click on this link you will see an awesome photo of the flooded river at Iguana creek bridge. the high as well as they could estimate it was 23 feet above the bridge.
http://iguanacreekbridge.blogspot.com/2016/08/a-picture-from-yesterday-aug-4.html

 Our corn field. a lot of corn seems to be lifting again so it will not all be a total loss but it is still a big loss for many farmers and the biggest loss the hurricane incurred.

 The rain trees on our yard were severely broken up. they are easy breakers.

 Mangoes and more mangoes. There must have been a thousand on the ground. I see a lot of work with mangoes ahead of me.

 

The house shook a few times but other than those broken trees and a few beds getting a little moist we have had no issues. we mostly enjoyed hearing the wind howl and the branches being torn from the trees, knowing we were safe in our beds.

Our long weekend staycation

This April long weekend we wanted to do something special. Something fun. Being a little careful where our money goes lately, plus having a one and a two year old that can make a vacation extra busy, we decided to stay home. It was the best idea ever. We had so much fun I would do it again in a heartbeat!

I tried to capture some of the special moments. We have proved again that it does not take spending lots of money to make our children happy. just some careful planning and spending time together is all they need.

 Watermelon slush. Whats better on a hot day.

The most time was spent finishing up my lil museum. It got done enough for me to move in! Update coming soon...

A trip to the field to see how the beans were doing was fun too. Almost ready for harvest.

Some time was spent working at our land. Landscaping is taking place!

Those watermelons!

Someone gave us a bunch of pumpkins so we did this too...

We had a picnic outside under the tree. I had planned for special meals that I prepared for as much as possible before the weekend.

What I did not take photos of is a time of swimming at the river. It was certainly a highlight for the kiddos.

the first picnic after baby!

 

 two weeks ago I could have only dreamed of something like this. thankfully, things change, get better, and slowly return to a more normal here. Marianne is still not quite where she should be with weight and nursing, but definitely better. 

I decided it was time for a picnic! After baking a casserole out of the freezer and making sweet iced tea and a few more dishes, we packed up and headed out, which was only about 8 minutes from home!

 It was fun just watching the kids be their young innocent selves, enjoying childhood at its best.

 Climbing trees...

 running around barefoot in that hot sun, getting red cheeks...

Jessica comes back from hunting for rocks.

 Building boats out of foam plates, looking for life in the water...

 relaxing...

It has been a great day. 

Cattle Day

 Trying to see if this old girl still had it in her to saddle a horse. It worked. 

(you can safely blame little Victoria for the loose baggy pants. )

 Its good to see my that daughter has the same taste for photos as I do, as it was she took this photo.

 Ah it felt good to be back in the saddle again, something I haven't felt since oh about two years or so ago. Just like the good ole days when it was just the two of us.

 Little miss sherriff didn't feel too great. She has the chicken pox.

 Joseph might just turn into a cowboy yet.

 Besides roping little brother, he's also good at calf roping.

 Action in the pasture.

 Stubborn, stubborn head. But stuff like this always adds to the fun of the cowboys.

 Cousins watching.

 My handsome cowboy.

 Yeah that hurts but just for a little while.

This is how we decided to cook our chili beans for cattle day. I obtained this homemade cookstove recently and decided I wanted to use it to cook my chili.

 My dutch oven is a perfect fit for it. 

That was cattle day for the family. We all had loads of fun. Hope you enjoyed the shots!