Merry Christmas

Wallace with my Dad Jim on 12-24-12. The boy is laughing and in the other photo stroking my Dad's beard. Wallace loves to brush his own "beard".

 Wallace with Alexis, Dylan's Mama on 12-25-12

Wallace with My Mama Linda on 12-24-12. He is enjoying his dinner!

Wallace with Dylan and Craig, Dylan's Dad on 12-25-12

We have some happy news about our livestock! This sounds sad at first: our buck ran away. He climbed out of his cage and vanished. We were set to move in a few days and resolved to buy a new buck once we were settled on the new property. When we went to move the two remaining rabbits Dylan put them into the same transport cage and put them on the trailer. They immediately started mating!!!!!  I was overjoyed. Dylan had already got the rabbits a large warren for the new property instead of the smaller cages we had them in. The rabbits are now in love and they live together in a great big pen with lots of space to hop and play. They cuddle and kiss and groom each other. We are hoping the female Bonnie is pregnant. I made her a nest box and I plan on giving it to her at the end of the month. The gestation of a rabbit is 29-31 days. Most rabbits will give birth on the 30th day. Our buck is named Snowball and he is the sweetest.

We got a wood stove for our house. Even with two heaters we were having a hard time keeping the house above 45 degrees. Wallace had a fever and we were all ready for a solution. With our stove the house easily stays in the 70's. The other night it was even been up to 94 degrees accidentally. With 100 acres of deadfall there is no shortage of wood to be gathered! I like to watch my handsome husband chop wood from the bedroom window ;)

 Wallace is talking a lot more; he also has more signs he uses. As of today he has 12 teeth, is 33 inches tall and weighs 24 pounds. He is learning to use the potty. He sits on the potty with all his clothes on and makes farting sounds with his mouth and then we change his poopy pants. He makes animal sounds. He moos and barks and he makes a ribbit sound. He spends most of his inside time eating, playing with puppets, dancing, looking out the window mooing and barking or reading books.

 Our new property is wonderful. Our main road is a dear highway of sorts. Every single time we are leaving the property we see dear. We have even interrupted two four point bucks battling. They just stopped and moseyed off to finish their fight.

Every day we see at least 5 deer most days it's more like 15. We see cows every day and Wallace loves to MOOOOOOOOO at

 Just this past week I went out side to talk to Dylan for just a minuet and when I came back onto the house I found Wallace sitting in the bowl of our toilet pooping. I was horrified! Dylan was very proud.

This is Willow keeping an eye on her chickens at my in-laws house this morning. We have many streams and small rivers on the property. Some if them even have drainage tunnels laid across them and road built on top. Here is a picture of one when the weather is fine. When it's storming it flows over the road and is easily 30 feet wide. This particular river has a lot of debris to clean out of it like old tires, appliances and even parts of car bodies.

 

This picture is of an old cellar from one of the demolished homesteads. There is an uncountable amount of old appliances inside of this pit.

 On Friday 12-21 we drove up the mountain about 20 minuets to the town of Paradise and it was snowing. We decided to drive up the Skyway a few more miles through the town of Magalia up to Sterling City. They were snowed in up there with no power. I keep giggling at the idea of the Mayan 2012 end of the world prophecy being for that day and these people waking up snowed in with no power. I wonder if any of them thought the world really had ended? All that snow was only a half hour away from our farm. I wonder if we will see snow in Oregon City this year?

Wallace went to see Santa at the Home Depot. He wasn’t scared but he was not his usual smiley self. He sat very still with his hands together and just stared at Santa.

This is my belly today 12-25-12

 We have chosen the name Helena for our baby girl. Helena pronounced like Helena of Troy. I can tell she is going to be a small baby. I feel her moving all the time now. Wallace either kisses and hugs my belly or hits and kicks at it. He understands that there is a change coming and that my belly is the source of it. When I'm not feeling well he knows it's my belly’s fault and he is mad at it. I have been showing him photos of myself when I was heavily pregnant with him and pictures of him as a new born. I explain that I have a new baby in my belly and he hugs sister and gives her kisses. I think he understands what is going on.  My main complaint is headaches. I am tired and I have heart burn like every other pregnant lady but these daily headaches are the worst!!

Wallace eating Ketchup for the first time

It's a Girl!!!

Once again this entry will be comprised of journal entry’s from newest to oldest. We are in Winters today. There is a massive storm here!

We moved this past week. We moved onto a 100-acre cattle ranch. It is very primitive and isolated but so far we are loving it and getting used to it. We have no Internet yet sadly.  We have been looking into satellite Internet but we have not made any decisions yet.

It's Thanksgiving today and I have a lot to be thankful for!

Wallace is big and healthy. He has 12 teeth. He walks, runs and climbs. He jumps and throws stuff. He knows some sign language: eat and more. He says some words: Chick, stick, Chicken, cheese, yes, Mama, hi, bye, teeth, that, uh-oh, wow, Papa, yummm, weeeeee. He has more words than that but those are the ones he uses often.

Wallace Is a definite challenge sometimes. He is strong willed and smart. He will follow nearly any command except "stop". Today he grabbed the iron off the counter. He got in big trouble. It's hard on Dylan and I having to be the disciplinarians. When Wallace is acting up I feel like all I am is the mean Mama. Yelling and swatting. Holding  down, and talking sternly. It honestly blows, but it is not a constant.

 Dylan is looking good. His leg if still broken but he gets around well.

We are moving! We are leasing a 100-acre ranch. It is on Table Mountain in Oroville. It has five old homestead’s from Oregon City, a demolished mining town, on it. The property has a large roofed hay barn area that's fenced in on it.

It is a cattle ranch. Grass fed cattle. It has a pond dug onto it that will soon fill up and be stocked with tilapia!

 We were gone from home for nearly two weeks this September. Jordan and Becky got married. We went down to Winters for the bridal shower and we got sick :( We decided to stay until after Dylan’s Dr app in Sacramento. We got to visit with lots of family who came up for the wedding. It was such an unlikely blessing to get sick. The wedding was lovely! Jordan wore a kilt and they had a bagpipe player. Wallace did a lot of dancing at the reception. Nearly the entire time there was music playing Wallace was cutting a rug either in someone’s arms or on the floor.

 We have chickens now. We lost our Buck, he ran away and we have lost 5 ducks and a chicken to a bobcat. Dylan sold 11 of our ducks. And we bought a canoe with the money. We have had a good time paddling around on the after bay here in Oroville.

 Wallace and feed the ducks in the mornings. Wallace throws food to them and he also let's them take food out of his hands. We let them nibble our fingers and Wallace likes to put his face against the fence so they nibble his nose and his hair. They are harmless and very friendly. Po-Po and her 4 ducklings are the sweet ducks that we play with. Bon-Bon comes over for food with Po-Po and her brood but she still doesn’t take food from our hands. We bought feeder goldfish and put them into the pond for the ducks to eat. Dylan even hand fed Blue a fish. She really is an exceptional duck.

Wallace and I have also started feeding the rabbits. We pet them, Wallace loves it.

 I like being a farmer’s wife. It took a bit of getting used to for sure but farm life suits me well. I am fit, I eat well and I'm happy. I live close to the ground. I feel a profound connection to my creator God living this way.

“God may not always come when you call, but he's always on time.”

-       Lemon

 I made a quilt for cousin Jessica. She had her baby Brooklyn on October 17^th. I haven’t seen her yet but from what I know she is amazing!

  

Wallace is 16 months old now! He got his 9th tooth today. He weighs 23.6 pounds and he is 33 inches tall.

Wallace has been hungry all day! He has literally eaten more food today than ever before. He ate one and a half string cheeses, about 20 oat meal squares, a quarter cup of peas 2-3 peas at a time, grapes, a box of raisins, baby carrots, avocado, a small tomato, pear, peanut butter and jam, corn chips and an entire hash brown. He took a two hr nap right after he ate the hash brown.

He said 'eat' tonight after he woke up from his nap. He was pointing at the cupboard "eat," then he turned and pointed at the fridge and said, "eat, eat!" I said, "do you want something to eat?"  He started shaking his head yes and stomping his feet.

  

Wallace speaks his own sign language. He shakes his head yes and no. He has other head and hand movements (some with sounds) that mean: what, more, bite, want.... I'm sure there's more.

 He understands a great number of things. We talk all day; he knows his nose, mouth, head, feet, tushie. He knows cup and hat. He knows his different toys and brings them to us. We read all day long.

 So for Halloween Wallace was an elephant. Nicole and I took the babies to the library for a Halloween party. We baked pumpkin pie from real pumpkins and made a delicious dinner. It was a lot of fun!

 I have made a friend! Her name is Nicole and she has a little girl named Tari 6 months younger than Wallace. It is so strange to tell him, "be careful of the baby!" She lives about one mile away from me. We go over to her house to play. She has become a real sister for me and I am so thankful for her and her family.

 Dylan's leg has not healed at all in 4 months. We are waiting to see if he has any more progress before more surgeries are scheduled. He is using a bone stimulator that is FDA approved. We are praying for healing! God is good!

 Wallace feeds himself with a spoon now!!! he is such a big boy! This picture is from today 12-2-2012.

 I am half way through my pregnancy with our first girl. We could not be happier about our growing family! I am doing very well. I'm not gaining much weight. I have a lot of headaches. I felt much worse with my last pregnancy. I feel the baby move a lot and Dylan has even felt her jumping around

Happy Birthday Dear Wallace

Aunt Laura made Wallace's beautiful cakes!

Wallace eats pepperoncinis with us now, at first we were letting him lick them but he decided to take bites. He has been enjoying hot food since he began eating solids. I think kids like what they are fed, and Wallace likes sweet chili sauce and tapitio like his parents.

We got a digital antenna and now we get 7 t.v. channels! We have three PBS channels. I have been loving them!

On our anniversary (6/28) we went to a wild animal show at the library. All three of us got to pet an alligator. I was so surprised by how soft it was. They have buttery soft skin and they are really fleshy. I didn't feel any fear or nervousness about petting the alligator. It's handler stayed in physical contact with it just petting it's face.

I got over a fear recently -my fear of dark water. When we were last camping with our friends I went out on the boat. I jumped into the water and swam around and then I went tubing!! I was so scared at first! I was starting to panic and my friend Megan held my hand and walked me through it. I talked about what I was feeling and what I was really scared of happening. I started to calm down and let the life vest I was wearing support me and just float and enjoy the water. It was really empowering to just get on top of my fear and get over it! Tubing was so fun. I went two times and I stayed on the tube for a few miners each time. The next day I was so sore, my arms were week and I had bruises on my knees and shins from slapping the water. 
I really felt I needed to confront my fear head on to overcome it, and it worked. When we went to Loafer Creek for Sam's birthday I didn't think twice about getting into the dark water! It was cold and I was mostly aware of that. I just sat down in the water to get my whole self wet and then swam out to Dylan. He told me he was proud of me and I said, "for what?"

"For getting into the water," he said. Like I said, it hadn't even crossed my mind.

Wallace checking out the ducks when they first arrived

For Wallace's birthday his Great Grandpa got him a really nice life preserver. He can swim in it and also float on his back. We have gone swimming at Forman’s Point with it and it was a great time! I have my water shoes, Wallace has a good life vest- we’re all good!

We love living so close to lake Oroville! We are 8 miles from it. The largest dam in California holds the lake in. I got a little off coarse driving home from story time and I drove past the dam when it was flowing really heavily and it was truly awe-inspiring! I have never seen anything like that before. I went to the Hoover Dam with my Grandma May when I was 11 but the water wasn’t flowing. I felt like I was going to run off the road because I couldn’t take my eyes off of it.

Monday (7/23) was a hot hot day! We got a pool from Rayle’s for $9! We all played in it for 20 minuets or so and Wallace was naked. He splashed and played. He got in trouble for pulling on the sides and the hose.

Wallace holding disk golf disks

When it was close to bedtime on Monday he started spinning in circled to make himself dizzy. It was so much fun to watch him "be dizzy"! He would stumble around or loose his balance with his arms above his head and kind of wooz down onto the floor. He is so big and cute. In the pool Dylan and I spent some time marveling at our beautiful boy. He is so strong and clever.

On Friday (7/20) we went to our new friends house for dinner. I made my semi-famous pasta salad and we ate home raised ham. Jeremy and his wife Randi have a 4-month-old son named JJ. Randi and I really hit it off!!! It feels so good to have friends out here in the same season of life as us! They live on a 16-acre ranch. Have lots of animals.

Dylan and Jeremy met when Dylan answered Jeremy's add on craigslist about free ducks.

Dylan and I have 31 Muscovy ducks at last count. They are known as the "quack less duck," they sound like doves. We have 8 hens for now, the rest are ducklings and teenagers. We have been enjoying duck eggs and meat. The meat is very dark and the eggs are HUGE and very tasty! We have a good time watching them play in there pond and feeding them bread and bran flakes. The first 5 ducks we got came from a different farm and they are 1 hen named Po-Po short for police duck. She polices her 4 ducklings and keeps them in line and fairly segregated. One of Po-Po's ducklings is a different color than the rest, she looks like she may be a blue or lavender duck, her name is Blue and she is by far the friendliest to people. 

Po-Po and her 4 ducklings. Blue is o the far right.

Po-Po and her 4 ducklings let us hand feed them. Her ducklings run to us and let us pet them- they even climb on Sam. They feel so weird to the touch. They are molting. The Brest is my favorite place to pet them- it feels kind of squishy.  

Bon-Bon is my brown duck

 I have a special duck; her name is Bon-Bon, like a candy. She is our only chocolate Muscovy. I picked her as an egg layer because she is so pretty, also she is the trouble maker in the bunch. She flew the coop when she first came home to us and it took 20 minuets to catch her. She is the only duck with ALL her flight feathers clipped.

We have also enjoyed rabbit meat! I think I want to refer to the meat as "Lapin" it is The genius name for rabbit. If we were going to eat dog I would want to call the meat "canine" :)  I think it will separate the meat from the sweet rabbit I like to go feed carrots to. Lapin Is a delicious tender white meat! We all like it very much!

I have the opportunity to do some modeling again. I need to find a sitter for Wallace before I take the job though. Dylan can't care for Wallace for 5 hours by himself yet. Sadly, his leg is just not up to it.

Speaking of Dylan’s leg, I earnestly solicit your prayers for the healing of Dylan's leg. Please pray for his left tibia to knit back together. I have found that God works well with specifics.

Speaking of God, Wallace has been having a little bit of a hard time in the nursery at church. This last week he was the only baby without a sippy cup and he tried to take other baby's sippy cups. The week before last he tried to take every one else’s snack cup. I think he wanted what everyone else had because they gave him the snack I brought for him in the jar I sent with him instead of putting some O’s in the same kind of cup as all the other babies. 

It is really really hard on a baby to not have what everyone else has, I see why he has been having a hard time and next week I'm going to ask them to put his snack into a cup and bring him his sippy cup.

Speaking of sippy cups Wallace got a sippy cup for his birthday and he has been learning how to drink out of it. He has poring it out on the floor down pat! We are learning how to handle the sippy cup and Wallace right now it seems slow going :(

Happy Birthday dear Wallace

Wallace had his birthday party on Saturday the 14 th of July. It was such a great day! Family and friends came and Wallace got lots and lots of toys and presents. Wallace was so funny with his cake. He dug a little hole into the back of it and looked around confused. He finally started to taste the frosting and then he smeared some on my face so I could taste it. We have incorporated some of his gifts into his life so far. We have to filter things in slowly. 

He plays with his new car! We push him around in it. We "drive" down to the duck pond and then over to his new swing. He loves his swing and so do I. 
Dylan hung his swing on the same branch as the existing swing on the property. I sit in the other swing and push Wallace and swing myself. We spin around together; it is one of the highlights of our day. 
Sam got a big trampoline for his birthday and Wallace and I often drive over to it and have a jump. I mostly just sit or lay on the trampoline and let Wallace play around me. The trampoline has a big safety net around it so Wallace can't fall off. The trampoline feels like the only time I get to rest with Wallace!

At church we are studding Exodus: the story of Moses. It is a good study and it is challenging me to follow God's lead.

Lastly, I would like for you my dear readers to please become "followers" of my blog. It is a way for me to know who is reading and also, if I get enough followers I may be able to get some sponsorship! That money would go towards a private Internet connection for our house. What we have now is desperately slow!!