Alegra's Fun Birthday Winter Party Weekend

Alegra is 12!!!!!  How can it be?  I know, I know.  Time flies so quickly the older we get.  We spent the whole weekend at our good friends, The Epletts, up north of Lansing, Michigan.  A weekend with a houseful of friends and people we enjoy spending morning, noon, and night with equals a splendid birthday weekend for Alegra.  It wasn't planned for her birthday but happened to be planned the weekend of her birthday, so we had cake, a few gifts, and lots and lots of fun!  The temperatures were cold, but children don't mind as long as they are bundled up good.  They wouldn't have stayed in for anything when there was copious amounts of snow waiting to be played in and grand adventures to be experienced.  So much fun for everyone!  Me, I chose the warmer place to hang out, inside with the other ladies.  We enjoyed warm drinks and wonderful chats about raising our children into wonderful, pure, servant's of God.  It's such a blessing to glean ideas, knowledge, and different perspectives from others who have children a bit older than our's to prepare us for the young adult stage ahead.  Alegra's 12, so it's just around the corner.  

 Alegra on the far right with her girlfriends, minus a couple that we greatly missed having with us.

 Way too much fun!

 We hadn't seen our friends, The Brothers, in almost two months, so we all soaked up the time with them and enjoyed their newest baby who we hadn't seen for that long as well.  Two months sure changes a lot in a little one!  

 Zeky enjoyed some quiet time in the parlor reading with a couple new friends.  

The snow kept falling the whole weekend and it was truly a perfect winter wonderland outside.

 Saphira and Aviyah getting reacquainted :) and picking up right where they left off.  

 Most all of us at lunch.  Thank you Eplett girls for the delicious food you prepared for your guests!  It was all greatly appreciated!

We also enjoyed having a mini Sabbath service here.  We had a time of worship and a time of discussing the Torah portions for the week.  The worship team added a new member to their band.  A cute little member.  Benaiah sure enjoyed playing Mr. Steve's little bongos.  He didn't do half bad either for his first time playing along with them and as a 4 year old.  :) 

After the service time was over, they had planned an evening of fellowship and food with others that they fellowship with from different areas.  It was such a blessing meeting new people and hearing about their walk and how the Lord directed them into keeping Sabbath and the Feasts and other areas of their lives that He's guided them in.  So much to learn from others and much we can share to encourage others as well.  Our last night turned out to be a late night, but filled with much visiting, getting to know others, and rejoicing in meeting more families with similar mind sets.  Maybe not completely the same but very similar.   What a blessing of a weekend!

We left after breakfast this morning to get home before it was too late.  The winter storms seem to not want to give up on dumping snow and making it blow.  This of course leaves horrible road conditions, so we just wanted to get home safe and sound.  Thankfully, it was an uneventful drive home.  Lots of vehicles in ditches, but we stayed safely on the highway.

It sure is a blessing when we can get out and meet other believers and share in the joy of where He has brought us as individual families.  We're all in this journey together, yet separate.  But we can all learn from one another one way or another.  Enjoying filling up our cup with more and more people that we can call family.

Another wintry day at the Bovees

We've had so much fun on these super snowy days!  I hear so many saying how they are ready for school to be back in session and their children out of the house.  Since that is our norm here (my children always being in the house), we just soaked up the extra "in" time and learned new things we like to do and got creative.  When snow comes, we take that as a sign that it's time to make sugar cookies.  It takes time, is fun, and the children enjoy being artsy with cookies.  

 Diella in "wiggle my loose tooth with my tongue mode".  It finally came out!

 So many fun cutters we've accumulated over the years from deceased grandparents to aunts to friends.  We have fun with them all!

 Initials always get done!  Don't eat my "A"!

 The boys found a new use for the scarves.  Horsey or chase and lasso or something like that.  Yes, they ran through the house a lot, and yes, I did say to stop running several times, but you know what, they had the best time doing it.  Can't ya tell!

 With the cold temps and snow to play in, Alegra set out to making these handy face covers.  Riding on the sleds behind the tractor proved to be a cold ride, so she sewed, by hand, some face scarves.  They worked perfectly and her siblings lined up for their's.  :)

 Josiah doing a fine job modeling how his works.  

 Of course there was also some cleaning to catch up on.  The girls cleaned the bathrooms for me, Jonathon took the broom all the way around the ceilings in every room, and the boys picked up toys.  I got busy upstairs cleaning bedrooms.  I was loudly at work with the vacuum when I turned around to see that I had a little helper.  She crawled her way upstairs, up the boy's bunk bed ladder, and started trying on their hats.  Oh, she was so cute!

 And so proud of her new attire.  :)

 Another game they discovered was playing horsey with Saphira. She has mastered the walking (as much as a beginner can master walking), and found that she liked to walk behind them holding the reigns.  The cutest part that you miss by only seeing a picture is her staggered walk and hearing her say, "Giddyup" all the while walking behind the horse.  So cute!

Today I decided it was time to clean some outside stuff up a bit.  Saphira was sick all night, and after I got a good nap in with her this morning, I felt pretty rested and felt like it was time to tidy some things outside.  I love to have a welcoming porch, but often times it gets cluttered with bikes, shovels, tools, cats, etc.  I can't keep the cats away, but their mess I can live without, and the added snow just needed to be gone.  I shoveled it off, put away things that were cluttering it, and thought it might be more presentable now if we were to have company.  :)

Then I tended the chicken coop.  Ugh, now that was unsightly!  I didn't clean it to my satisfaction, but that kind of cleaning will have to wait until spring.  Our broody is back to sitting.  I got a few good pecks for trying to take all of her eggs she was sitting on.  It's hard for the children to collect eggs because the rooster likes to stay in where it's warm now, so they can't go in and gather.  I took a snow shovel to him and booted him out, along with the rest.  Some fresh air will do them all good.  Excited to see if, when spring rolls around, the broody can hatch more chicks.  She's such a good mama!

Anyways, I came back in to the picture above.  Saphira fell asleep and Diella, my babysitter, placed her in the laundry basket for napping.  So cute!  She's slept a lot today.  Hoping that tomorrow will bring healthier days for that girl.  She's had it rough the last week.  Maybe nobody else will get it and we'll be done with sickness for the winter!  Yes, that's how I think it should happen!  We'll see how it really goes though.  :)

Praying you all have a happy and healthy winter as well!  Enjoy the snow while you can and stay safe on those roads.  

Winter in January 2014-Lots of snowy fun and freezing temps.

The winter storm has brought families home and lots of warm family memories to be made.  While the temps were still warm (well, that's relative) the children got their fill of sledding behind the tractor.  Through the field they go and bounced around and bounced off.  What fun they are having this winter on the farm!

 The snow stopped last night and left us with windy conditions that caused big drifts and freezing temps.  Literally freezing temps.  The children were allowed to bundle up and go out for a science experiment and feed the animals in the barn, but then right back in.  And of course the littlest of us had to stay inside even though she was getting dressed for the adventure too.  Everybody should wear 2 hats on days like this.

 Early this morning Jonathon set out to get things plowed around our place.  With a cousin getting set to bring a tractor over to store in the barn, he wanted to get the barn arranged for that and the snow moved out of the way.  Benaiah is super excited about the new tractor coming to stay for a bit and keeps asking when Roy will come.  Roy is a well liked guy in Benaiah's world.  Saphira enjoyed standing on a pile of laundry to watch Papa out there working too.

 The children finished their school lessons (sounds like public schools don't have to make up these days off, so maybe I should take back today for them, so they can count it too :) ) and headed out to do a bubble freezing experiment.  They found that outside it was just too windy to blow bubbles.  Inside the barn it worked okay.  Diella blew one that got pretty big and when it burst, it burst into pieces of bubble instead of a water splat.  It was fun for them anyway.

Back inside to watch a movie while Jonathon and I worked on building the girl's loft bed to fit the mattress they have.  After living here for a year, I guess it's time to get some things finished up that didn't get finished when we moved in.

The summer herbs (all from plants that we grow or found growing around the farm) are all crushed and put into labeled jars, a letter written to my brother, and a couple magazines read have caught me up for the day.  The sugar cookies will have to wait until tomorrow, uh, wait, I believe the girls are setting out to stir them up now.  Love these winter days in our wood heated house and so many blessings around us in our family and friends.