Where did those days go?

I didn't sleep well last night, so I am up early - well, early for me.  I'm not really a morning person - not a good trait for a farmers wife.  Anyway, I visited all my usual morning websites and blogs and nothing had changed since yesterday so I decided to look through my iphoto library and realized I took a bunch of pictures I hadn't realized I had!  Since this blog is aimed mostly at keeping family and friends updated on what is going on here at Goodness Grows Farm, I thought I'd just post pictures and some little stories inspired by them.

This boy just melts my heart.  He works harder than most grown men.  Everything he does, he does with all of his heart.  He's kind, responsible, caring, and sensitive.  In fact, there are times I fear he is too sensitive.  I worry about his heart and am afraid it will be broken many times in his life.  He is innocent and everything a little boy should be!

Did I mention how much I love his freckles?  These photos were taken back in March, right after a hair cut - his hair has grown out a lot since then and on humid days, it gets really curly.  He hates it and wants to get a buzz cut for the summer, but I keep putting him off.  I fear he won't stand for it much longer.

This little boy also melts my heart, but he challenges me in ways I never would have imagined.  

He is stubborn and strong willed and at times quite a bully.  He is independent, yet is fearful of doing things without his siblings.  He, like his older siblings,  has been blessed with impossibly long eyelashes.  We recently had a bit of a melt down because he was having a problem with the new sunglasses he got.  He was telling me they were broken and I couldn't figure out what he meant by "broken, Momma!"  Finally, I had him put them on and I looked all around his face to see where they were broken.  When I looked down on them from above, I could see his eyelashes were smashed against the lenses.  Poor guy's eyelashes were too long for him to wear the glasses so far up on the bridge of his nose!  Who complains about that?  

We're also working on potty training this little guy.  He went through a phase for a while where he always had to be wearing this blue skirt from Maggie's dress up bin.  On this particular day, he has on sweat pants, pull ups, the blue skirt and his muck boots.  I told him if he was going to wear the pull ups he wasn't allowed to pee in them.  Well, that worked, but he decided to pee outside, far away from me and then couldn't get all of his pants back up.  He was pretty stuck.  Of course, being the good mother that I am, I had to take pictures of it before I could go help him.

This little princess is something else!  She's smart and sassy and quite the tattle tale.  She doesn't restrict her tattles to things the boys are doing wrong - she gives me updates on everything that is going on.  She tells her stories with such passion and animation that even when she is being a tattle tale, it is quite funny to listen to her story.

She and Will are my big sweets eaters.  They would eat sweets 24/7 so I have to be very careful on what they are allowed access to.

Maggie & Walker have their very own cowgirl/boy hats.  On this day they were playing cowboys/cowgirls and were wearing their hats and boots.

Will was very disappointed to not have his own hat.  All we had left was a costume type hat that I had to modify to fit him.  He was pleased as punch, which is all that matters in the moment.  However, I have a feeling that when this photo comes to surface sometime in the future, I'm going to get in trouble.  Something along the lines of "sure, typical third child, always getting the left overs!"   Willie J, my consolation to you is only this:  Imagine the short end of the stick your new baby brother is going to get!"  Poor guy - I had to find a super larger rubberband and wrap it around his hat and chin to keep the at on him!

Scenes from fishing camp at my dad's.

Enjoying the last days with the puppies.

Will is obsessed with goggles.

Will falls asleep in our bed.  Typical male.

Maggie exerts her sisterly dominance and applies lipstick to her little brother!

Will isn't such a photogenic model demonstrating his recent lipstick application!

Walker holds Tubby - now named Levi as we say good bye!

I can't express with words how much joy these creatures bring to my life.  We wait with great anticipation for the arrival of this little guy.  We're at two weeks!  But we wouldn't be too disappointed if he came sooner!