Goings on..

Since it's been awhile since I posted, I hope this doesn't get too long!

We have been staying busy and going, going, going! Not much new to report on our end so I'll just post some pictures.

Emily finished cheerleading. Not sure if she loved it, but she did like it and we didn't have to fight her to get up and go except a couple of times. She got a nice trophy that is now collecting dust and a set of pom poms that are shedding all over the house. Emily is in the back row on the far left of the group picture.

Emily has now started horseback riding lessons. Not sure who wanted this more, Mike or Emily. She gets an hour lesson, but usually only lasts about 30 min and Mike took a couple of the second 30 min of her lesson. He's got his confidence up so now we are just going to extend her lessons for longer than 5 weeks with 30 min at a time. Noah LOVES riding the horses too and usually runs around the stables feeding and petting the other horses out there. He has been able to ride a few times too. This is the only picture I could get that was decent of the 2 of them with one of the horses she can ride. This is Bianca.

Here are a few more of the kids from September and some Halloween pictures. We went with a Toy Story 3 theme at Emily's request. Noah was more than happy to be his favorite, Buzzlightyear, although he was a very grumpy Buzzlightyear that evening. He did come around after he got a few pieces of candy in him. He also loves Spiderman and is beginning to really like Optimus Prime (from Transformers). Emily just wanted to get some pink cowboy boots which is why I think she really chose Jessie the Cowgirl.

Emily can ride her bike without training wheels now! Only a few falls and a couple of scrapes.

Noah loves tractors (and big trucks)!

We took a trip to Tweetsie Railroad with the kids on Friday, Oct. 29 since Emily was off of school. http://www.tweetsie.com/ Here are a few pictures from that day

We lost all the original 10 chickens. 3 ended up being roosters, 2 died pretty early after we got them home, we sold one hen to get rid of one of the roosters and the dogs managed to kill 3 of the last hens one Friday while we were at work and school. They never mangled them or ate them, they were just dead when we came home. Probably from herding them or playing too rough. So, Mike bought 4 more hens and 1 rooster from a lady down the road who was moving and had to get rid of hers. They are the Buff Orington (?) and lay brown eggs. The rooster managed to get himself shot (probably because Mike was aiming at him) so we are down to 4 hens. Nice and quiet and we get 1-2 eggs a day.

Not much else going on with us. Work is work for both of us. My company was bought out so we are in a holding pattern to see what the status of my job is.

Emily is doing well in Kindergarten, academically. She just gets into trouble because she talks and doesn't always listen or do what she's told. I have NO idea where she gets that from...it's must be Mike's side of the family :)-. She is trying to be good though and usually has good intentions. Her teacher is quite strict so there are no extra points for good behavior! Hopefully now that it's been a couple of months, she will get in line soon!

Noah talks up a storm too and typical for a 2 year old - loves potty talk! We have some nice conversations around here lately. He is starting to dress himself so we also get some really nice outfits that don't match and I'm battling him on weather appropriate since he doesn't understand why he can't wear shorts and flip flops when it's 50 degress outside, then cries because he's cold! What can you do?

We hope everyone is well and that God continues to bless all of you as He has us!0

Gretchen, Mike, Emily, Noah, Nikki, and Elsie - and the 4 hens - fried, BBQ, roasted, and rotisserie.