Grandpa milk

Payge has decided she will only drink milk from grandpa's farm. After confirming the milk she was offered was from the appropriate source, she improvised the following ode (sung to Motzarts tune often used for the ABC's or twinkle, twinkle, little star):

Grandpa, Grandpa, Grandpa milk
Grandpa, Grandpa, Grandpa, milk

Grandpa, Grandpa, Grandpa, milk
Grandpa, Grandpa, Grandpa, milk

Grandpa, Grandpa, Grandpa, milkGrandpa, Grandpa, Grandpa, milk

Tueller Family Reunion

The view of the lake at night.  Sigh.  So pretty.

Bed-head!  Payge had just woke up.

The kids and their cousins.

Us!  But the wind was blowing right then, so it was hard to focus.

Running at Bloomington lake.

The pond before the lake at Bloomington.

View on our hike.

Hiking, hiking...

The snow at Bloomington lake never melts.  Permafrost.  But, it's not cold outside, hence, our t-shirts.

(Other) Precious Cargo

It's been a while since we've had raw milk....Jillian decided we had to protect the white gold from my parent's farm.

The beds

We found the camera and will catch up on pictures. Here are the beds Jillian made for the girls:

And here are their beautiful occupants, sleeping.

Oh, Yeah....We are here, just sort of busy.

And the camera is missing, so if you've seen it, give us a jingle would you?

As an update, we love the home we are renting.  It has beautiful landscaped flower gardens, space for a veggie garden (which we've already planted with tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, garlic, onions, potatoes and basil.)  There is a raspberry patch, strawberry patch, and gooseberry patch, all of which are either in bloom, or we've harvested since being here.  There are grape vines with teeny-tiny grapes on them, and we are just waiting to see what happens.  There is also a very happy and productive apple tree, and a few smaller fruit trees that probably won't produce this year.

We've found a great CSA that allows us to get completely local produce, including canning quantities of beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, etc.  This is a big deal because our little garden isn't that huge here.

I spent the first three days building beds for the girls so they'd have wooden beds (yes, built, not bought and put together), and I love them.  I have great photos of them...on the camera...which is somewhere.

We've been to both Rexburg and Geneva, ID once to visit both sets of grandparents AND both sets have visited us at least once already (a much higher average than we had in NC!). 

We L-O-V-E our new neighbors.  The neighborhood is so peaceful and quiet that the children are able to run back and forth to each others' homes to play.  My kids are rarely inside, which I love.  Yesterday, as the neighbors decided to irrigate their lawn (they flood them rather than use sprinklers, each family gets a turn), the kids spent the day outside eating Otter pops and splashing in the grass.  In the first two days of being here, we'd met them all because they came to us and introduced themselves and brought either cookies or bread.  That being said, I can't wait til Christmas around here, and I'm grateful I'm gestating then and not watching my weight...hee hee!  Plus, I look forward to repaying all the kindness with some traditional cookies from the Tueller home.

There's more, but I have much to do.  Like find the camera.

ABC Cereal!

Have you ever heard of Alpha-bits cereal?  Well, my kids have heard of it, and I didn't realize what an impact knowledge of it's existence had on the youngest.  We bought some Cheerios (because cold cereal is easy to eat while packing!), and she exclaims, "It's the A-B-C cereal!  See!  O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o (to the tune of the ABC song)."

I love having a toddler around. 

Home Schooling

So, it's almost June, and there are kids everywhere (school's out, eh?).  It's not a bad thing, but it does keep the library busy (which I think is awesome, kids in libraries!  YES!).  However, today really made my day.  My children were interacting with each other at the library, and an older gentleman (probably my children's grandparent's age, so not very old) came up to me and said, "I'm going to venture a guess based on how your kids are treating each other and acting in here, that you have home schooled them from the start."

I smiled and said, "Yes, I hope you mean that as a compliment."  He replied that he did, that he was impressed with the way they spoke and behaved.  I must say, that on days when you just wonder if things are going well, the kindness of a stranger really can make a big difference. 

Plus, what you, as a stranger might not realize, is that when a compliment is bestowed in a way that all of the children overhear you, it makes the rest of the day EVEN better, as they try to live up to what they have heard about themselves.