The Farm of Hale

Esther Playing With Clara Video

2012-02-15T20:27:00.000-06:00

Here is a little video of Esther and Clara. Turn the volume up. Esther is playing with and giggling at Clara. And at the end Esther says her name for Margo.

Something in the Water

2012-02-08T17:38:00.000-06:00

It seems like there is something in the water at our church and with our friends. I don't know the official numbers but there have been approximately fifteen babies born since June at our church. Even before that there were tons of kids being born. I think there are like nine kids at church that will be in Esther's grade in school. There were four babies born in ten days when Clara was born. It is crazy. We are going to have an awesome youth group in a few years. Specifically we had several really close friends pregnant. We had five girls in our community group all pregnant at the same time. Have I mentioned how crazy it is. Back in June we got a picture of four of the girls in our group together. Here they are back in June in order of due date...

And here they are last week with the kiddos.....

Big Update

2012-02-04T23:00:00.000-06:00

It has been a long time since I have posted on the ol' blog. It seems like we have had lots going on but I am not sure what. People have been rioting in the streets for me to give an update on our girls so here it is.

Clara is growing like kudzu. She will be two months old in a couple days. I am not going to lie, the first 4-6 weeks were tough. Esther was a really easy baby, hardly ever cried, ate good, was happy being put down anywhere, etc. We thought we were just really good parents. Turns out that is not the case. Clara likes to cry, a lot. She wants to be held all the time, and is not a fan of taking a bottle most of the time. There were several times I wondered what have we done, and I threatened Margo that I was going to take Esther and get out of Dodge for a few months. But luckily she has been doing better the past couple weeks. She is sleeping 3-4+ hours at a time at night. She is starting to let us put her down in her bouncy seat for 20 or so minutes without throwing a fit, and she is just overall a lot happier. She is smiling and cooing a lot. And she is getting big. At the doctor visit last week she weighed over 14 pounds which puts her in the 50th percentile for a 5 month old (she is not 2 months yet). She does not even register on the 2 month percentile. She does not look fat because she is really tall. She just looks like a normal 5 month old. We had a follow-up with a cardiologist to check out her heart again last week and everything looked perfectly normal so we are happy about that. They don't think she will have any more problems. We may have some problems with our pocketbook though, we got her bill for being in the NICU for 5 days. It is not cheap.

Esther is doing really good. She is awesome and difficult. She is learning all kinds of things like crazy. She is very independent and pushes the boundaries like crazy. She says tons of new words and learns new ones everyday, last night I taught her the word clavicle just for the heck of it. She will say her numbers (1-9) and knows them by sight, she knows some colors, and some letters. She knows her name and lots of other peoples names. We think she is so smart. She loves to play outside and play with all the animals. But she also likes to whine a lot and do things we tell her not to so it is not all roses with her. She can really get on your nerves at times. She is a typical toddler.

Now for some pics. I will try to put up some videos later in the week.

Crazy

2012-01-05T21:42:00.000-06:00

Everyone has been asking for more pictures. Sorry for the slow updates, things are a little crazy around here. We have found having two kids under 18 months makes life really busy and does not leave a lot of time for extra things like blogging. Last week was ridiculous, besides having my grannie's funeral, Esther had an ear infection, sinus infection, and pinkeye. And I had a viral infection of some sort and got pinkeye from Esther. Needless to say it was not a fun week.

Clara is still doing good, she is a month old which is crazy. She weighed 11 pounds and 5 ounces at her checkup on Tuesday. She is still a big one. She is a typical baby, has good days and bad days. Cries a lot at times, sleeps good sometimes and bad sometimes, etc. I will say again that things are crazy with two kids, but we are surviving.

Here are the first cousins on Josh's side right before Christmas.

Here they are with the grandparents.

Here she is today.

Here is Esther letting Clara talk on her play cell phone.

Grannie

2011-12-26T19:39:00.000-06:00

Christmas this year was very rememberable but in a sad way. My (Josh) grannie died at her home on Sunday morning. She was 87. She was the last of my grandparents still alive.
She was the classic grandmother. She was very sweet, loved her family, cooked good food, gave good hugs, etc. She lived in Little Rock so I did not see her super often but always loved my time with her. She almost always made me chicken and dumplings when I went to visit because she knew it was my favorite. Other family members would always show up also when I came because they knew Grannie would be making me chicken and dumplings and her's were the best. She also loved to play games and was always up for playing them with her grandchildren. She was especially good at Boggle and I always loved playing Rack-o with her when I was younger. We will miss her.

Family

2011-12-20T19:36:00.003-06:00

I know, I know, it has been too long since I posted some pictures of Clara. It seems that having two kids under 17 months makes things very busy. It seems like we don't have time to do hardly anything. We are very thankful for the days that Esther is at daycare during this time that we are off work. It helps us to rest and catch up.

Speaking of Esther, she is doing pretty good with Clara. She is overly helpful most of the time. She hands us the pacifier at least 100 times a day. Some of the stuff she does is very cute like helping us to burp the baby. And it is awesome when we go in to get her up in the morning and the first thing she does is say "baby?, baby?". She also gives her kisses and rubs her head. But there are also times when she is a little too rough because she does not realize just how careful she needs to be.
Clara is doing good. At her check up last Friday, everything looked good. She was within an ounce of being back to her birth weight. She is starting to be awake for longer stretches in the day which is good. She is a good crier for sure, she can really get going.

Here we are the day we brought Clara home

Margo's parents

Margo's dad with the girls

Josh's Parents

Margo's grandmother

The cousins (Margo's side)

Sweet sleeping Clara

Silly Esther

One week? Seriously?

2011-12-13T10:00:00.007-06:00

Clara is one week old today and today is her due date. She has actually been home for a couple days. It has been a little crazy around here so I am just now getting to blog about it. She got released on Sunday afternoon. She was able to spend the night Saturday night in the same room as Margo with only the heart monitor on. Everything still looked good on Sunday so they let us go. We will just have our normal pediatric clinic follow-ups and one follow-up in a couple months with a pediatric cardiologist to make sure her heart is still doing ok. It was nice to all be able to be home together.

Although the first night (as all first nights are) was really rough. Clara thought night was day and decided to be awake the whole night so we did not get any sleep. I had forgotten how hard it was to go without sleep. And because Esther does sleep in the night and not in the day, we are not able to nap during the day. Luckily she has daycare three days a week for us to catch up on chores and sleep. We started working on "training" Clara to the daytime/nighttime and working on her sleeping without us holding her. So, the second night was much better. I know we will still have many hard nights ahead but overall things hopefully will start getting better.

However, Esther's adjustment to a baby may take the longest. She says baby and points at Clara all the time. Most of what she wants to do is be close to her and touch her. But Esther's gentle is a long ways away from baby gentle, she is more cat and dog gentle. She wants to pat and rub on her very hard and poke at her eyes, pull at her arms, use her as a step to get closer to mommy and daddy. Her gentle is way to rough so we have to be on top of her all the time. I am not going to lie, we have missed her a few times and she has swatted/pulled/pushed on Clara pretty hard but I think Clara will survive. Luckily she is not old enough to be super jealous, at least that I can tell.

I wanted to thank everyone who has helped us this first week. Lots of people watched Esther for us while we were in the hospital and when we were taking trips to the hospital. And thanks to everyone who brought us food at the hospital and at home. We have really awesome friends and family that we are very thankful for. Now for some pics.

Mama and baby

Sweet Clara

She has eyes

This might be my favorite so far

First touch

First pat

More Pictures

2011-12-09T22:54:00.006-06:00

Clara is still making progress. She got her oxygen taken off and her stomach tube taken out today. Most of her labs came back good also. As long as she keeps making progress and doing well, she might get to come home on Sunday or Monday. She is nursing over 20 minutes each time, just a few minutes ago she went 33 minutes. She is a big girl so she needs to eat a lot. They had an open mother/child room (for people who have a baby in the nursery so they can stay at the hospital) in the nursery so Margo is staying there tonight and tomorrow night so she can nurse Clara during the night. It is wearing us out going to the hospital every 3 hours so hopefully she comes home soon. Below are some new pics from tonight, she looks a lot better without the oxygen and stomach tube.

Clara Pete

2011-12-07T15:03:00.003-06:00

In case you have not got an email from us or seen Margo's facebook updates, we are now a family of four. Clara Pete was born yesterday at 8:25pm yesterday. 9 pounds 3 ounces and 22.25 inches long. She is a big baby but a little less than we thought she would be. It was a stressful delivery. Margo pushed for 3 hours, which is super long. Everyone was impressed. Clara was not making progress and we were basically a contraction away from doing a c-section and she came out. It was very hard on Margo and she is going to be sore for a while. Clara had some issues right after birth and they wisked her to the nursery. She was having a hard time with getting enough oxygen and her heart rate was really high. They put all kind of tubes in her. Her lungs had some junk in them and they did not know what was causing her heart rate problems. By this morning her lungs had cleared which was good but her heart rate was still high. They spent a good part of the day trying to figure out was causing it and finally concluded she had an abnormal heart beat. The fix for this is to electrically shock her into a normal rhythm and hope it stays that way, otherwise we would have to go to Arkansas Childrens Hospital. They told us we could come see her before they shocked her. So we went down there to see her for only the second time. And right when we went in to see her, she coverted into a normal rhythm all on her own. This was the first time she had been in a normal rhythm. The nurses and doctors were all in awe because they were just about to shock her. They did a big EKG to verify she had converted and it came back that she was for sure in a normal rhythm. So they are just going to watch her and keep her here for 5 days or so to make sure she continues to do well. It has been very emotionally draining but we are so thankful everything is looking better. We go home tomorrow. It will be sad to have to leave her here without us. Here are some pics.

Right after being born

Here she is all hooked up in the nursery, the orange and white patch is the patch they were about to shock her with.

Measurement

2011-12-02T15:40:00.000-06:00

Well, it seems most people did not want to guess Margo's girth because they were worried about guessing wrong and Margo being sensitive, blah, blah, blah.

Anyway, the big number is 44 inches.

Stay tuned for the baby reveal sometime soon.

Go Big or Go Home

2011-11-30T22:15:00.003-06:00

Well, the day is almost here.....the day our family grows by one and as my brother-in-law says, we start playing man on man defense. Two girls under 17 months should be fun.

It seems that we grow big kids though. Clara has been measuring big, really big. We know her due date is correct but she is measuring 2+ weeks big. We are at 38 weeks currently and most of her measurements by ultrasound are measuring at 40-41 weeks, a couple of them the machine won't even compute the weeks because they are so big. We told the ultrasound tech that she had been measuring big and she told us she measures really conservatively so we would see. When she was done and computed it, Clara estimated weight was 9 pounds 8ounces. I think that is pretty big. Anyway, because of her size we are planning on inducing labor and the earliest we can do this is next Tuesday. They are going to try and let Margo try to have her naturally but there is a good possibility of a c-section (which we don't prefer). And if she is able to do it natural there is risk to Clara of breaking a clavicle or having nerve damage. It is a little nerve racking. And there is always a chance that we could go into labor before then, who knows. Anyway, seeing that Clara is ginourmous, I thought it would be fun to play guess Margo's diameter/girth/how big around Margo is. Leave your guesses in the comment section and if we don't have a baby I will post the official reading in the next day or so. Here is a picture from last weekend to help you out. Not that it helps a lot because it is kind of far away.

Blood

2011-11-09T20:50:00.002-06:00

There are lots of things you learn about while pregnant, several are not appropriate for our blog. But one of them I want to pass along is about cord blood. Cord blood is blood collected from the umbilical cord and placenta after the baby is born. Normally, it is just discarded as waste with other birth leftovers. But, it contains stem cells that can be used to treat some cancers (leukemia) and hereditary disorders. And it is being used in research for use on many other diseases. There are a couple options for collecting and storing the cord blood for use: public and private. Private cord blood banks charge you a fee to store your child's blood in case that child or a family member needs it in the future. It costs several thousand dollars for the initial fees and a few hundred a year to store it. There are tons of private banks that try to get people to store their cord blood. A lot of medical organizations don't recommend doing it this way because the likelihood of a child needing their own cord blood is very low. This brings us to the other option...donating to a public bank. Donating to a public bank enables the blood to be used by anyone it is a match with for use in treating disease. It could go to another kid who needs it to be treated for leukemia. Or it can be used for research to find ways to use stem cells to treat other diseases. The best thing is that it is free to donate to a public bank. And unlike a private bank (where it most likely will never be used), the majority of blood in a public bank are used to help people.

Something else we recently discovered was that Arkansas now has it's first public cord blood bank at UAMS. You can find more info here.....http://www.cordbloodbankarkansas.org/

I realize it may be a hard decision for people to decide whether or not to donate their child's cord blood after birth but I wanted to put this info out there for people to at least know this option is available.

Dress Up

2011-11-06T21:59:00.005-06:00

Much to our surprise, Esther kept her Halloween costume on for a long amount of time at the Halloween party we went to. She has always been one to not want to wear barrettes or headbands (or shoes, or socks) or anything so we were in total shock when she kept on a crown for a couple hours. It seems that she is starting to warm up to the idea of having stuff in her hair and to playing dress up. Here are a few pictures from the past couple weeks. She is not very easy to get a good picture of these days because she is always on the move and when she sees the camera she either stops what she is doing or comes right to the camera, trying to grab it. So, the pictures are not amazing but show her recent interest in dressing up.

We had a Halloween party with a bunch of friends. Esther is too young to understand dressing up for Halloween so we just decided to make her a part of our costume. We dressed her up to look like a toddler who's parents put them in those ridiculous beauty pageants (Toddlers and Tiaras). Our family costume was we went as a white trash family. Here she is sporting her costume: zebra print pants, fake fur vest, crown, and sash that said tiny miss USA.

The next day she was "helping" Margo do laundry and kept bringing me articles of clothing from the basket so I started putting them on her in funny ways. She enjoyed it and left them on for a while.

And then a few days ago she brought us all her barrettes, flowers and headbands one by one and we started putting them in her hair and she just kept bringing them until we got them all there. This was the first time she had ever shown interest in putting stuff in her hair and wanted to keep it there.

Hello Kitty

2011-10-25T19:54:00.003-05:00

Everyone enjoyed the last video so much, I decided to post another one. These days it seems we take more videos than pictures because Esther is doing so much new stuff and is really fun to watch.

Esther really likes all our animals. She will stand inside at the glass door and watch the dogs and holler at Macy (our dog) over and over, which sounds more like Shacy when she says it. But I think her favorite animal right now is our cat, Hello. She loves to pet on it and follow it around. We got a good video of her the other day with Hello. You can hear me hammering in the background on the barn I am building.

What? A Video?

2011-10-20T20:58:00.004-05:00

That's right, we are putting our first video of Esther up on the blog. Why has it taken so long? Good question. Here is the thing.....we have really slow high speed internet (the slowest they sell) because we are cheap, and our video camera shoots video in HD. This means it takes forever for us to upload a video. For the minute video below, it took like 2 hours to upload. I am going to try and start putting up more videos, no matter how long it takes. Sometimes videos are just better. Maybe one of my technologically/video savvy friends (Walt, John, Jason, etc) could give me some tips on how to upload video faster or how to downgrade my video to SD so it will upload faster.

Esther is growing by leaps and bounds right now. Not in size so much but in learning new things. New skills, new words, etc. It is really fun to see all the new things she does and understands. She is doing better at understanding us and what we are trying to get her to do. She helps pick up her toys and books before bed. One bad thing she has learned is how to unbuckle her car seat. But one of the funnest things she has learned recently is to spin. She will spin and spin in the kitchen until she gets dizzy and then she will fall down a bunch of times, the whole time laughing and giggling. In this video she had already been spinning for a little bit and was dizzy so she is falling down a lot. It is really fun to watch her.

Here's the first Esther video on the blog........

Niagara - Canada Side

2011-10-10T09:28:00.005-05:00

For part two of our Niagara trip we were on the Canada side. Everyone always says that the Canadian side is better. I will say I have to agree. The reason is that the views are 100 times better on that side so more people go there which means the have more tourist stuff too. It is also very clean and nice looking over there. There are some negatives though. There is this one area that is the biggest tourist traps I have ever seen, it was like Branson, Las Vegas, and a theme park game area all rolled into 3-4 blocks. It was ridiculous and sad. But it was fun to experience the falls. And once again on this side it was not peak season so we never had to wait in line for anything. We did two main fun things while there, the Maid of the Mist and Journey Behind the Falls. One other amazing thing we did while there. Let me remind you that my sister was keeping Esther for us during our Niagara adventure. The amazing thing we did was TAKE A NAP in the middle of the day, at the same time. We both fell asleep in the hotel room and when we woke up we were really confused as to what just happened. So, it was a fun trip to Niagara Falls. It is definitely worth seeing but is not anything I would spend a lot of time at or want to go back too often.

First we went on the Maid of the Mist boat tour (as seen in Bruce Almighty and the Office wedding). I think it was the funnest thing we did. A couple hundred people pack on this boat and they take you really close to the falls. They have been doing this for a long time. We once again got to wear raincoats and got really wet.

Here is the boat like we were on going to the falls

Us having fun and getting wet

Rainbow bridge that connects USA and Canada

View of American Falls from the boat

The other thing we did was the Journey Behind the Falls. For some reason the Canadians built some tunnels behind the falls and you can go in them and see the falls from behind. It was pretty cool. The best part was they had a part that went outside and really close to the falls. Once again we got rain coats and got really wet.

Here is us in a tunnel with the falls behind us.

It was hard to get a good picture of the main Horseshoe Falls because there was a big cloud of water vapor. I think it depends on weather as to how bad it is. And you would randomly get rained on while walking along depending on the water coming up and the wind. The whole time we were there it was impossible to see the entire falls.

Niagara - American Side

2011-10-03T21:51:00.006-05:00

As mentioned in the previous post, as part of our vacation we spent a couple days at Niagara Falls. I will break this into a couple posts so it is not too long. My sister was super awesome and kept Esther for us so it was just Margo and I (and Clara). It is something I have always wanted to see. First let me educate you that there are three different parts of the falls: American Falls (you guessed it, on the American side, Bridal Veil Falls (American side), and Horseshoe Falls (Canadian) We first stopped on the American side and checked out the Niagara Falls State Park which was pretty nice, and we went on the Cave of the Winds tour. This is basically a walk on a boardwalk that takes you close to Bridal Veil falls, really close. We were given special raincoats and shoes to wear. You go under part of the falls and it is crazy, it is supposed to be like hurricane forces. One thing that kind of freaked me out was the fact that they have to rebuild this boardwalk every year because it takes such a beating from the water and the fact that it is not permanently attached to anything, they just wedge the supports into the rocks. Anyway, this was a fun little tour to go on. We went at the perfect time of year because it was not crowded and we never had to wait in line to do anything.

This is America Falls with Rainbow Bridge in the background(view from American side). There is even a rainbow in the picture (you see a lot of those at the Falls(the cool people just call it the Falls)). We should play a game and see how many rainbows you can spot in all these pictures.

American Falls (view from the Canadian side). Bridal Veil Falls is the little one on the right that is kind of separate.

Proof that we were there.

Good shot of Margo and Clara

This is looking down at the boardwalk for the Cave of the Winds tour.

We took a waterproof disposable camera with us. I think we got some of our best shots with it. This is on the tour. I like how happy we look.

This is the craziest part on the boardwalk where it is hurricane like. Margo was too chicken to go under it. But you know me, I had to try it out.

I like this shot also just because of how happy Margo looks

Nice shot of me.

Last Vacation

2011-09-27T20:11:00.004-05:00

Let me start by apologizing for the lack of posting on our blog. Life is definitely more busy as Esther gets older (I can't imagine what it will be like with two). And we have been extra busy the past month or so with hardly any extra time to do anything. But, I am hoping that I can start posting more often on here.

Back to the main point. Last week we took a little vacation. Margo was having to go to Pennsylvania to speak at the Mother Earth News Fair and her work was paying her way. So, we decided to pay for me a ticket and take Esther with us and stay for some extra days. We figured this would probably be our last vacation for while since Clara is coming soon and man on man defense is going to be much tougher than 2 on 1. We decided to fly to Cleveland and stay with my sister for most of the week. The conference was only 2-3 hours from her house and we only had to be there for a couple days. We also decided to tack on a trip to Niagara falls for a couple days with is 3-4 hours from my sisters house. And my sister was even nice enough to keep Esther while we were in Niagara.

For now, I will just post one picture. Esther and her first plane ride. I will post more pictures and description of our trip in the next few days, we still need to get some pictures developed from our waterproof camera we took to Niagara.

1 Year Anniversary

2011-08-31T07:00:00.001-05:00

Today is a big day in our lives and will be for the rest of our lives. Today is our adoption anniversary day. One year ago today we went and got Esther and brought her home. You can read the story here, it is quite a story. Oh man, have our lives changed in a year. I can't even come close to telling you how blessed we are to have Esther. She is so amazing and we can't imagine life without her. She is the perfect example of how great God's plan is for our lives. I can not imagine any greater gift than Esther and I have learned so much about myself and about true love. I can't wait to see what the years to come will be like and what kind of person she will become.

Here is our first family picture the night we got home with her and surprised our church community group.

And here we are in the same location a year later.

Famous?

2011-08-18T21:02:00.004-05:00

I have mentioned on here about a friend of mine's band, Heypenny. Ben was my roommate and best friend in college. We used to go listen to him play all over Fayetteville. He started a band called Heypenny several years ago and they are based in Nashville. They have really good, cool, fun music and put on an awesome live show. Anyway, they play all over the place and are somewhat popular but had not a had a real big breakthrough. But we found out today that one of their songs got chosen to be the music for a new Honda car commercial. And not a crappy local car commercial (although those can be pretty entertaining) but the national corporate Honda commercial. Anyway, it is a pretty big deal for them and we are hoping this gets them some awesome exposure and gets them their big break.

You should check out their tour stops coming up and go check them out, I promise you will enjoy it. Or buy their new album on itunes. They are actually stopping in Fayetteville to play a show next Friday night at Rogue on Dickson for all you NWA folks.

Here is the commercial if you want to check it out.

Heypenny "Parade" in Honda commercial from Terrorbird Media on Vimeo.

1 Year Pictures

2011-08-01T09:53:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, we had some 1 year pictures taken of Esther. A friend of mine that I work with took them. She did pictures for us previously and these are the best yet. It was approximately 1,000 degrees outside. I am super happy with how they turned out, they really capture Esther well. I am especially happy that we captured the awesomeness of her eyes and her faces. And it is hard to get a good picture of Esther because she is on the move all the time and she is fast.

You can check out some of the pics on her blog. Alishia Snook Photography - http://www.alishiasnookphotography.blogspot.com/

Three against one...unfair odds

2011-07-26T16:39:00.006-05:00

We had our sexting (Margo doesn't think that's the correct use of that word) appointment today. And we are not into keeping stuff secret, it is too hard. Drumroll................we are having a girl. We are very excited. We are already having proposals for arranged marriages because so many of our friends have boys and very few girls.

We have also decided on a name for her, Clara Pete Hale. We like old names and Clara is the one we narrowed it down to. It was actually the 7th most popular name in the U.S. in 1885. Slightly shocking middle name we know, let it sink in. I realized today that being a joking/non-serious person that people don't believe you when you tell them something that does not seem right, like a unique middle name. But I am serious. Clara Pete. We wanted to use a family name of mine with this one since we used a family name of Margo's with Esther (middle name Louise - Margo's grandmothers). One of my most favorite/most influential people I have ever known during my life was my grandmother on my dad's side. She lived the next town over when I was really young and we would see her often and I would stay with her for a week during the summer. When I was 12 or 13 she moved to Mena where we lived. I spent lots of time at her house and I would always stay with her when mom and dad were gone. She was one of the most fun, loving, and Godly people I have ever known and I can only hope that I can be half the person she was. I have lots of great memories of her and I think of her often. One of the saddest days of my life was the day that she died. I won't forget her funeral, instead of somber talk about her, everyone told funny stories about her and the things she had done. That is the way she wanted it to be. Anyway, her name was Wilma, which is itself a cool old name. But her nickname was Pete from the time she was little. Just about everyone who knew her closely called her Pete, or Aunt Pete, or Granny Pete.

When I told Margo that I would really like to use that name for a middle name if it was a girl, she was totally on board which made me happy. We like the uniqueness of it and that it does have meaning for our family. I will enjoy telling Clara and Esther about their great granny. Here are some pics that we got today and scanned in.

Profile

We were able to do 3D pictures also. They told us the 3D and 4D are better when they are a little older, right now it is more skeleton looking. The pictures look better in person also. The 3D and 4D are pretty cool.

Face

Hand over face. You can see the little lips also.

Here is my granny at our wedding

Birthday Party

2011-07-24T19:51:00.004-05:00

Saturday evening we had a little party for Esther's first birthday. She has not told us who her friends are yet so we just decided to invite our friends over. Our friends Billy and Savanna let us have it at their place since our place is a little small. We are so thankful to them for letting us invade their house. It was pretty fun overall. Although it seemed like we should have been doing more since it was a bday party. But Esther can't do a whole lot so we can't play games and stuff like that. So, we basically just sat around and talked.

Unfortunately for Esther, she was sick and did not get maximum enjoyment out of her party. She was still running a fever from her ear infection and basically just sat in someone's lap with a straight face. This is highly abnormal for Esther, she is normally smiling, talking, and on the move. We felt very sad for her. When we got her home she had a 102 degree temperature and that was with tylenol on board. She is a tough cookie. Hopefully the antibiotics knock out her ear infection and she feels better soon.

We are not really big on Esther eating sweets. But we finally decided we would let her have cake for her birthday party. I don't think she enjoyed as much as she would have if she wasn't sick. But she really liked digging around in the frosting.

Here is her little cake after we decided she was done with it. As you can tell from her eyes, she did not think she needed to be done with it.

We told people not to bring presents but it is hard for grandparents and some others to resist.

This is a picture just to show you how Esther felt, her face says it all.

Margo and I decided we wanted to get her something for her birthday that would last her a long time and hopefully she would still have it to give to her kids. We really enjoy getting her this kind of stuff. One of our close friends who just had a baby had a kids rocking chair that her parents gave her when she turned one. We really liked this idea and decided to do it. As you can tell, Esther loves the rocking chair.

Happy Happy Birthday

2011-07-22T20:55:00.004-05:00

It feels so crazy that Esther is a year old. It seems like time has gone by so fast. It is kind of happy and sad at the same time. She is so much fun and we can't imagine life without her. Today was kind of a bummer day for her though. She was running a fever so we had to get her from daycare. We took her to the doctor because she has been running this fever off and on for over a week and has been more fussy. It turns out she has an ear infection so they gave her some antibiotics. This is her first ear infection and her first medication. Hopefully she feels better for her party tomorrow. Here is a little slideshow of the year in pictures.

Happy Birthday

2011-07-16T13:28:00.007-05:00

Happy 29th Birthday Momma

Without you, life (and taking a picture) is harder.

Tattoos and Daycare

2011-07-14T21:46:00.004-05:00

I like tattoo's. If they are good ones and done well that is. I know the older generation was not a big fan of them (except maybe military guys) but they don't bother me at all. Anyway, one of our friends recently opened a store in Fayetteville, The Mustache. They sell interesting and fun gifts, and cool clothes and shoes. The other day he got some fake baby tattoos that we could not pass up. They are really funny, they look like classic tattoos but are baby themed. We tried a simple one out last week for church and it was a big hit. We will definitely be using them in the future for special occasions. Here is a pic.

Today was a big day in our lives. Esther started her first day of real daycare, up until this point she has been staying with friends. But we came to a point where no one could continue to watch her for us. So, we toured some daycares around town. Most of them won't do part time but we finally found one we liked and felt comfortable with leaving Esther at. It is called the Sunshine House. (funny side note: the daycare I went to a kid was called Sunshine House also) I think she is going to really like it, she is very social and enjoys being around others. I also think she will learn a lot. I think her first day went really well, except for one thing. She got bit by another kid. She is in the 12-24 month old class so she is the youngest. One of the kids is in that biting phase that most kids go through, and she got Esther. The teachers were really upset that this happened especially on Esther's first day. But we totally understood that this happens and thought it was a little humorous. The teachers were also surprised that she did not cry at all when she got bit. But we were not surprised, Esther hardly ever cries when she gets hurt. She's a bruiser.

Here is a pic of the bite mark. I guess we can consider this another type of tattoo.

Pregnant Women

2011-07-12T22:15:00.005-05:00

I keep forgetting to post this picture. A little info first though. We know lots of people who are pregnant right now....lots. I am not sure what the count it currently because some people have had babies now. But as of a couple weeks ago we had somewhere around 15 girls at our church pregnant (and our church is not that big). Just in our Community Group (Bible study group of about 15 or so people) we had 5 girls pregnant and we already had 3 kids under the age of 1. And we know several other people who are pregnant as well. Anyway, we had some of these good friends over to hang out a couple weeks ago and took a pic of the girls.

Left to Right: Savanna-15 weeks, Margo 16-weeks, Ashley-6+ months, Emily-13 months (not really, but it looks like it)

This is their miserable face picture, Emily's is the most realistic because that is really how she felt.

And here is Benson who was born June 27th, 2 days after this picture to Evan and Emily.

Seriously? Nine?

2011-07-06T21:24:00.003-05:00

That's right folks, today was Margo and I's 9th anniversary. It is very hard to believe. It makes me feel old. I do have to say that this past year was pretty amazing. Not only did we get the amazing gift of Esther, we also had a miracle happen and will have a second amazing gift from God. I know that all you all really care about is pictures of Esther so here you go.

She gets into everything and "no" does not register with her.

Breaking Records

2011-07-05T13:46:00.002-05:00

On Sunday we had our 4th annual Fourth on the Farm. I love the Fourth of July and I especially love fireworks. We always throw a big shindig to celebrate. I was not sure how it would go this year with the new place which is a lot smaller of house and less land. We decided to invite less people this year to test it out the new place. That did not work so well, it seems that our numbers grew bigger by the day as we got closer. But we had a lot of fun and we now know we can handle a lot of people if they are mostly outside. And we got to test out the new deck and grill with a lot of people and they both worked out well also.

Anyway, we broke a record this year. Our previous record was like 63 I think. This year we had 74!!!!!! and if you could unborn babies 79!!!!!!!

I hope everyone had a good time. I would show you pictures but I was so busy that I did not take any. If anyone out there took some, send them my way.

Chicken Coop

2011-06-23T21:58:00.003-05:00

One of my big farm projects to do at the new house was building the chicken coop. We really enjoy having chickens and were anxious to have the again. It finally surfaced to the top of the to do list so several weeks ago I got started on it. I finished it a couple weeks ago and we finally got chickens last week. It is nothing fancy but it will serve it's purpose. Since we are not planning on being at this house forever I am building this more functional than what my ultimate dream would be.

The actual coop is 8'x6' and the enclosed run is 8'x18'. We will eventually let them free range during the day and just coop them up at night and when we are gone. We plan on keeping around 10 chickens.

Anyway, my plan is to also build a small barn on the back side of the coop (they will share a wall) so I built it so that I could add that on later in the year.

Here it is after the main framing was done

Finished product

The goats love to rub on the chicken wire to scratch themselves which tears up the wire and stretches it out. I decided to try adding a couple barb wire strands around the run on top of the chicken wire to see if that what help. So far it is working great.

11 Months

2011-06-22T21:12:00.003-05:00

She is getting older and growing up so fast. It is so crazy to look at pictures from when we first got her to now. She is babbling a lot more these days which is really cute and funny. She is also getting really close to walking we think. She pushes her little walker car around walking behind it, sometimes only holding on with one hand. She will stand for a few seconds without holding on to anything and take a step between things without holding on.

Here are a few recent pics of her.

This is before church on Sunday. She got her sandal off and was chewing on it. Everything goes in her mouth these days.

Here we are on Fathers Day

And this picture is a true depiction of Esther these days. There is a lot going on in this picture. Esther at the baby gate wanting to get to something on the other side that she can not have/ watching me work on the deck out the back window. Also using one of her toys to stand on to try to get a boost over the baby gate.

She is always on the move. She wants to be crawling/cruising around trying to get into whatever she can. Everything has to be baby proofed because she can open any door or drawer she wants. She would love it if we would let her play with power cords, the computer, or the trashcan. She definitely keeps us on our toes.

Winner

2011-06-13T19:46:00.006-05:00

A couple of weekends ago we went down to Mena for a visit. While we were there the Lum 'N Abner Festival was going on. It was really hot, but we spent a few hours there walking through the car show, arts and crafts, and other festival activities. One event that we were excited about seeing was the All American Lumberjack Show. Two lumberjacks competed against each other in various lumberjack activities, like log rolling and speed sawing. They also did a chainsaw carving demonstration. The guy carved a little chair out of a log using a chainsaw. He said he would give it to the youngest person in the crowd. He started with two years old and then started working his way down. He got to 9 months old and there were no babies that young in the crowd. So he asked for 10 months old and there were two, Esther and another little girl. So it came down to the birthdate. He asked the other parents first, their little girl was born on July 21. Esther was born on July 22, so she won by a day! It was pretty exciting to win. The little chair fits Esther perfectly right now.

Josh and Esther collecting their prize.

Esther sitting on the chair (it was really hot and nap time, hence the face)

Let's Play

2011-05-31T21:21:00.002-05:00

My parents have a house for sale just over the border in Missouri. With the bad housing market it has been on the market for a while (they don't live there anymore, it is just empty). Anyway, there was a swing/play set that my dad built at this house. It was not getting used at all and I don't think it was helping a whole lot to sell the house so they told me I could have it. We thought that sounded good to us. So, they took it apart and brought it to us a few weeks ago. And I finally got time to set it up yesterday.

Our friends Russ and Kristy came over for lunch so we had their daughter Sophie give it her stamp of approval. It is a little big for Esther yet but she will grow in to it and we know lots of kids who will enjoy playing on it. I had to do a little leveling with blocks since our land is not flat.

Esther really likes to swing. Hopefully soon I will get a little sandbox area set up under the platform that she can enjoy also

Ch-ch-ch-changes

2011-05-30T07:37:00.002-05:00

Esther is getting big, and getting there fast. It is crazy to look at pictures of her when we first got her. This weekend we reached another milestone in her short life so far. Car seat upgrade. We moved up from the infant car seat to the convertible seat. The infant seat only goes to 22 pounds but the convertible goes to 65 pounds and can face back or front. Side note: New car seat guidelines were released a couple months ago. They now recommend that babies stay rear facing until they are two years old (it used to be 1 year old). Studies have shown that kids are 75% less likely to be seriously injured or killed in a car crash if they stay rear facing until 2 years. Okay, back to the post. Esther was looking really big in her infant car seat. One negative about switching her to the big seat is we can not take it out of the car with her in it like the infant seat. Usually if she fell asleep in the car we would just take her out in the car seat and let her continue to sleep, now we can't do that.

Here is an old pic of Esther in her seat, this is the day we brought her home. I wish I had got the whole seat in this pic for better comparison but you can look at the size of the tag next to her head for size comparisons.

Here she is on Saturday, she's a giant.

And her she is in her new seat.

A few pictures

2011-05-22T22:36:00.002-05:00

Thought I would throw a few pictures on here to tide you over until we can put up a longer post.

Well

2011-05-10T22:04:00.005-05:00

We have some big new on the Farm of Hale. We are growing again. It seems that we are pregnant. Seriously, not kidding. As some of you know we have some issues in the department of getting pregnant and were basically given an almost zero chance of getting pregnant. We tried for several years and were on some potent drugs for a while. Last year we stopped all the meds and decided to adopt. Which was awesome. What else can we say except that Esther is the best thing that has ever happened to us. Getting pregnant was not even a thought or consideration for us anymore. Well, we had us a good old fashioned miracle and got pregnant. It was quite a shock for us and very unexpected, but we will take it. Margo is 9 weeks and is due in mid December. We have had a couple ultrasounds and Margo is on some medication because she is at a higher risk for problems with her previously mentioned problems with her baby making parts.

Anyway, we are super excited and wanted to share the news. See ultrasound pic below.

I also want to go ahead and educate everyone really quick on something. I am not trying to be harsh here but more of just something that people should know. Fertility problems are hard. There are several things that people say that drive couples with fertility problems crazy and they can be hurtful. I know that people think they are being nice so we try to just smile and go on. Anyway, I wanted to share a couple things with you of what not to say to couples like us. First, when a couple is adopting because they can not have kids, don't say "I bet you will get pregnant after you adopt" "you will relax after you adopt and have a kid and get pregnant" and other statements that are similar. People who have dealt with infertility have dealt with a lot and had to go through realizing they will not get pregnant. It is hard, and these statements don't help, at all. There is a medical reason we are not able to get pregnant, adopting a baby does not change this. Second, if the couple does happen to get pregnant (like us), don't say "I knew that would happen", "it always happens to people who adopt". Again, these statements drive us crazy. We adopted because us having kids naturally is a very low chance, like 1% (it will vary from couple to couple). So not impossible but very unlikely. We found statistics that show that only 5% of people who adopt because they can not have kids get pregnant naturally down the road. So, that is my education of the day. If you have already said these things to us, we forgive you and there is no need to apologize. Just remember it the next time you are talking to someone like us. This was a total miracle for us and we give the credit to God, it wasn't "us relaxing" it was a God thing.

Here is our little blob

Happy First Mother's Day

2011-05-08T07:29:00.003-05:00

Happy first mother's day Margo.

9 months!

2011-04-22T07:52:00.004-05:00

Esther is 9 months old today. We can't believe how much she has grown and changed and how fast it happened! She is more like a toddler than a little baby now. She has a personality and likes to show it! She had her 9 month Dr. check-up yesterday. She weighs 19.5 lbs (70th percentile) and is a little over 27 inches (50th percentile). The Dr. gave her an A+, said she looks great and developmentally she is doing things that 12 month olds do.

Here are some of the things she is up to:

Crawls everywhere, and she is fast. We've had to put up several baby gates to keep her out of trouble!
Pulls up on everything! She loves to stand and has now learned how to get down from standing too.
Cruises around the furniture. She walks around the coffee table, goes between the table, couch, and recliner.
Will walk if you hold her hands. We know it won't be too long before she takes off on her own.
She has mastered the "pincher" grasp, so she can feed herself. She still loves all baby food but is eating some real food. She will feed herself pieces of avocado, banana, beans, cereal bars, green beans, puffs and more.
She can drink out of a sippy cup.
She babbles all the time and likes to screech and squeal.
She loves all of our animals. She squeals every time she sees one of the dogs or cats and loves when she gets to pet them.
She is finally cutting her first tooth. It has just popped through her gum.
She is so fun and we are loving every minute with her.

Esther's New Friends

2011-04-11T09:06:00.002-05:00

We finally got all of the fences up and ready for our animals. We went down to Haletown this weekend to pick up our sheep and goats. They'd been with Josh's parents since we moved. They have been having babies the past month or so, so we were excited to see our new additions.

Esther loves our dogs and cats. She loves to pet them and squeals when she sees them. So we were curious to see what she thought of the baby goats. She wasn't so sure when they would cry/bleat really loudly, but overall she loved the baby goats too.

I wanted to share this funny picture of Esther. Josh was feeding her some baby food last night and she decided she need to talk and spit. This was the result!

Our Protector

2011-04-03T21:00:00.004-05:00

We are getting close to getting the fences and shelters done on the new farm so that we can get our goats and sheep back. I am ready to have them back. We have five baby goats and two baby sheep that we have not even met yet. Hopefully this weekend we will be able to go get them.

Anyway, I was offered a deal on a farm animal that I could not resist this weekend. We bought a donkey. Someone at work knew of one for sale and we have always kind of wanted a donkey so we thought we would try it out. So, we went and got her today. She is like 5 years old. She is pretty tame and is supposed to be broke to lead and ride. She is still getting used to her new environment but she will let us pet her and stuff. We are going to get a halter tomorrow and try to get that on her. It is fun to have her, I hope she turns out to be a great addition to the farm.

One of the reasons we wanted a donkey is they protect goats and sheep. They have a natural hatred of dog like animals (dogs, coyotes). And actually domesticated dogs are one of the biggest killers of goats and sheep. So, the donkey will chase off all the dogs that might try to get in to the pasture and chase the goats. As an added bonus, this donkey is supposed to be bred which means we could have a baby donkey in several months.

We are having a hard time deciding on a name for her so feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments.

Margo hates it when I play with fire

2011-03-27T21:44:00.008-05:00

My project (actually several projects involving the same thing) the past couple weeks has been dealing with the storage sheds. I had to do this before I could put up the yard fence. It took me a while to decide what to do but now it is done. There were two sheds on the property when we bought it, a big one and a small one. They both were in not very good shape. I had thought about trying to fix them back up but ultimately decided to get rid of them and build a whole new shed.

First, I tore down the little shed. It was in ok shape but had just been built on top of the ground so it was leaning and rotting on the bottom and the door had fallen off. Here is an old pic of it.

I used some parts of it to build the new one.

Next, I built the new shed. I used almost all recycled wood and recycled sheet metal. It was mostly from old chicken houses that had been torn down. I had never really built a shed exactly like this but it worked out pretty well. It is 16'x12'. I used stacked blocks to get it level and set the main beams on. My goal was to build it in a week just working on it after work and on the weekend. I got really close, I had everything except the doors and windows done in a week, those took me an extra day. Here are some pics.

This is during building. The tallest wall was about the max of what Margo and I could lift and set up. For those of you who know about building, you may notice my walls are a little strange. That is because I recycled the walls from the old shed. The front wall is the two side walls from the old shed stacked on each other.

This is after it has all been framed.

And here is the finished product.

And here it is with the window and door open. I especially like the door because it is a sliding door.

After we moved all our stuff into the new shed, it was time to get rid of the old big shed. It was a really big shed. But it had not been built correctly, the roof was not sloped enough so it was rotting. There were several holes in the roof from rotting and there were rotting areas in the floor. And the yard fence was going to go right at the front edge of the shed. I decided it was not worth salvaging and it would take too long to tear it down. So, the next best option I could think of is burning it down. Which I don't really think is legal but seemed like fun and a little dangerous.

Here is an old picture of before.

I decided that it would not make quite as big of a fire if I tore it down a little, so I hooked it up to the truck and started yanking.

I had to wait for ideal burning conditions which happened to be on Saturday (it was misting and raining most of the day). I did a little pre burning of leaves around the shed a couple days before to help prevent the fire from getting out. I started it early in the morning so that most people would probably not be out and about and see it and call the fire department on me. Because that could result in a fine.

Here it is at first, all catching on fire, which happened really fast

Here it as maximum burn. Margo took this picture from her view from the house. It was really big with lots of black smoke, Margo was a little nervous and I was worried about someone calling the fire department.

Here it is starting to collapse down

This is after it had collapsed and looking more in control.

And here is the final picture.

It is much better with it gone, it was kind of an eyesore and now we can see our pond completely out the back window which is nice.

Buses Beware

2011-03-14T21:53:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago, Margo had a wreck. She was pulling out onto a busy highway during rush hour. It was one of those places where you pull out any chance you get. Well there was a vehicle that had it's blinker on like it was going to turn on the road she was coming out of. So, she pulled out, but that vehicle was not turning and it hit her in the front drivers side. It was pretty scary for her especially since Esther was in the car. Esther never knew anything happened though. The wreck was Margo's fault and she got a ticket for failure to yield. Here is the kicker though....the vehicle that hit her.....a SCHOOL BUS. Holy crap batman. I think that is the worst thing to get into a wreck with. Luckily no one was hurt, except the CRV. But it did give me plenty to give Margo a hard time about, and I won't let her live it down for a while.

Anyway, the CRV was totaled.

It was kind of sad. It was the first car we bought together and the first new car either of us had ever had. We went tons of places in it: New Orleans, Denver, Cleveland, Nashville, St Louis, the College World Series, and tons of other places. The best place we went in it though was to get our new daughter in Little Rock.

Our insurance company gave us a good amount for it, more than what I was expecting. So, last week we got a new (used) car. We got a 2004 Honda Pilot. It is the same age and has the same miles as the CRV did and we got it for less than what we got from insurance for the CRV. I think it was a pretty good trade. It is a bigger than the CRV and has 3 rows of seats, seats 8, leather seats, dvd in the back, and Margo's favorite- heated seats. And it was even the color we prefer for cars.

Finally, the house update

2011-03-06T20:06:00.011-06:00

I know a lot of you have been asking and waiting for before and after pics of our new place. Sorry it has taken so long, but I have been super busy with getting the farm part of the new place set up. I have been working on fence the past couple weeks. Anyway, it is pretty crazy how much the inside of the house changed with the renovation. It went from super crappy to pretty nice in 3 weeks. And I learned a lot about house renovation while doing it. Overall I really enjoyed it all.

So, here are a bunch of before and after pics. I will try to tell you what all I did in each set of pictures. Some things we changed throughout the house. I hired a guy to hang new sheetrock throughout the house. There was wood paneling everywhere and then 1-2 layers of wallpaper on top of the paneling. There were 11 different ugly wallpapers throughout the house. We did not sheetrock the closets or laundry room so you can still see a sampling of them in there. We also had new carpet installed in most of the rooms. And we had new windows installed. The old windows were single pane and the new ones are energy efficient.

Before: This before pic actually does not look that bad. But that bar thing was huge. It took up a lot of space and made the kitchen seem really small. It made it impossible to have a refrigerator and use that doorway on the left because it took up that whole space.

After: No more huge bar which left space for the refrigerator, microwave stand, and china cabinet. I also installed beech laminate flooring over the ugly and ripped linoleum.

Before: Living room

After: New carpet, new A/C return vent, new paint on the new sheetrock. Also I put a nice new light fixture in. This house has low ceilings and I would hit my head on all the fan lights.

Before: Another view of living room, front door.

After: New front door, new light, beech laminate in entry space.

Before: Kitchen. What can I say. Oak cabinets with fake oak butcher block countertops and fake oak butcher block laminate between cabinets.

After: New countertops, new paint between cabinets, new beech laminate flooring, new sink faucet, new stove.

Before: Ugly kitchen close up

After: Kitchen close up

Before: Laundry room. There was a section of floor under the hot water heater that was rotten that I had to replace.

After: New maple laminate floor, new hot water heater. I left the ugly wallpaper since this room is closed and no one beside us goes in there.

Before: Master Bedroom. Awesome pink carpet

After: New paint, carpet, windows, light (light not yet installed in this picture)

Before: Spare bedroom

After: (Actually the other spare bedroom but the effect is the same.) New paint, new carpet, new light.

Before Bathroom: It was bad, plastic tile on wall with a hole that had a rat's nest.

After: New walls, paint, removed broken shower door and replaced with curtain, new window, new bathroom fixtures. New light with a fan.

Before Bathroom #2

After Bathroom #2: New toilet, new sink and faucet, new over sink light fixture, new medicine cabinet.

There is tons more that we did that is not shown in these pics. There was a half bath that was in a weird place that I totally did away with and turned it into a pantry for the kitchen which has been awesome. This involved widening a doorway from 24" to 32" so we could get our freezer in. I also had to fix several plumbing issues and electrical issues. I did new baseboards throughout the house because most of them broke when I was removing them for the new sheetrock. New floor vent covers and blinds throughout house.

I really appreciate all the people (everyone in our community group, my dad, other friends) who helped me with the renovation. There were lots of people who helped do all kinds of stuff. And a really big shout out to my friends Evan and Rick, they came out for several days and nights to help on the house. I also want to give a shout out to the Lowe's guys, especially the plumbing guys who really helped me a lot. I did not know what I was doing on the plumbing but they totally explained stuff to me when I asked them and they helped me a lot. At one point I found a leak under the house and I jiggled the pipe that I thought was leaking and a whole big piece of pipe with connectors and a P-trap and stuff just broke off. I took it to Lowes with me and the plumbing specialist got every piece of it that I needed to replace that section and set it up on the floor in Lowe's for me to show me how to set it all up.

7 months!

2011-02-25T13:28:00.003-06:00

Esther turned 7 months old on Tuesday. She has grown up so much in the past month.

She now sits completely unassisted. She will sit and play with her toys for long periods of time.

This week she started crawling. She was already pretty mobile--rolling, scooting, inching around. But now she can really go wherever she wants! She loves to pull the DVDs off of the shelf.

She loves baby food, and will eat a ton! She is such a happy baby and a joy to be around.

The Return of Learn to Farm

2011-02-17T21:50:00.002-06:00

This could also be titled, I am doing a lot of hard work if anyone wants to help. This weekend is going to be all about getting fence up at the new place. This includes clearing fence line, moving some fence, taking down old barb wire, putting up new posts in places, and putting up new fence. If anyone is interested on learning about putting up fence or helping put up fence, let me know.

By the way, spring is almost here. I heard the peepers for the first time last night. Click here for a sample.

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T08:59:00.002-06:00

From our sweet little Valentine.

Snowpocolypse Now

2011-02-09T19:07:00.004-06:00

For those of you who don't live in NWA, we got a crazy amount of snow today. At our house, we got 18 inches. Some areas got up to 24 inches. It set the all time record for snow in a day and we should break the record for snow in a year also. It is amazing, and annoying. I thought we would post a couple of quick pics of us in the snow.

I know we have not blogged in a long time. We have had tons of people wanting to see before and after pictures of the house. I promise it is coming. It is just going to take more time than I have tonight. We are still working on finishing up stuff on the inside of the house and that takes up most of our spare time. As soon as the snow is gone, we will start on the farm type stuff. So, stay tuned for the house posting.

Now for pictures.

This is Margo's car.

Here is our dog, Jake.

And Macy

Margo stood Esther up in one of the truck tire tracks to show how deep it was on her.

Margo standing in the snow.

Me and Esther.

I also wanted to share a picture with you from last night. We went to a John Travolta themed skate party. It was lots of fun. Esther wore her CareBear shirt and a flower headband. We are not big fans of the big flower headbands on a baby girl thing usually. But this one is really cute and it kind of made her look hippyish I think so that was ok with us. I have to say, she was super cute and a hit at the party.

Moving Again

2011-01-28T09:07:00.002-06:00

Well, we have our new house move in ready. So, tomorrow we are going to move our stuff from storage into the new house. If anyone out there needs something to do and feels like helping, come on over. We will take all the help we can get. I hope to post before and after pictures of the new house on here soon when we can get back into some normalcy of a life.

6 months!

2011-01-21T08:28:00.005-06:00

Esther is 6 months old! We can't believe it, it seems like we brought her home just a few weeks ago! Here is what she is up to:

Rolling and scooting around like crazy. She isn't crawling yet, but she is fairly mobile. She makes progress in all directions, though she tends to scoot backwards more than forwards!

Getting better at sitting up by herself. She still topples over a lot, but she is getting more stable every day.

Still sleeping 9-10 hours at night!

Eating cereal (and loving it!). We'll be starting her on some other foods this week.

Starting to teeth. You can tell her gums/teeth are bothering her. She wants to chew on everything and drools constantly. Hopefully we'll see some teeth soon!

She babbles and talks all the time. I'm working with her on "mama"!

She loves to play in her exersaucer.

She is super smiley and sweet. I know I'm biased, but I think she has a great personality. She is generally very happy and content. She has been a trooper through all the moving, living with friends, remodeling, etc. She's been happy to play on a blanket or sleep while Josh uses the power saws and drill!

We go for her 6 month check-up next week. So we'll have her updated stats then.

Renovation Weekend

2011-01-13T22:23:00.002-06:00

This weekend is going to be a big weekend of doing work on our new house. I wanted to let everyone know in case some of you out there might be interested in helping. The finished the sheetrock work today so the big thing we will be doing is painting the whole house. Other things to do include....installing laminate flooring, installing commode and sink, electrical work, plumbing, installing counter tops, and much more. So, feel free to come help so we can get it done and move in. We will be there all weekend (including Monday because it is a holiday)

Craziness

2011-01-11T21:54:00.003-06:00

We closed on the new house last Friday, moved the rest of our stuff out of the old house and into storage, moved in with some friends, and started renovation on the new house. Needless to say, things are a little crazy right now. It is going to be super exciting to see the change in the new house. I can't wait to post before and after pictures on here. I am really enjoying doing work on it. The house is nothing amazing, just a small plain house. And it was in major need of an updating. Our hope is to move into it in a couple weeks but there is a ton to do before then. We got this house as a foreclosure for a really good price. Our plan is to live in it for a few years and save money towards building a house, then either rent this one out or sell it. Here is an picture of the outside of it....

As someone I work with said, it doesn't have a lot of curb appeal.

Farm Relocation

2011-01-05T21:07:00.002-06:00

It is in the process of happening. We closed on our current house this past Monday. The Farm of Hale as we have known it for the past 4+ years is no longer ours. The new owner is letting us stay here for one week to get all moved out. We have moved a lot of stuff already but we are moving the rest this weekend. We are supposed to close on our new place on Friday. Then the remodel begins. We are doing a remodel on the new house that will take 2-3 weeks (I hope). We are putting up sheetrock on top of the wood paneling that is throughout the house, putting in new carpet, new windows, new hotwater heater, new countertops, and much more. Since we are doing all this remodel stuff we are not moving in until we are finished. So, we are putting all of our stuff into storage and living with friends for the next few weeks starting this weekend. Definitely not the ideal way to move but it will be for the best in the end.

If anyone is interested in helping remodel a house, we should be starting on it this weekend and working on it for a few weeks.

More Christmas

2011-01-03T21:42:00.003-06:00

On Christmas day, we drove down to my (Josh) parents house. My whole family was there. We usually only get to see my sister and her family one time a year and this was that time. This was their first time to see Esther. We had everyone under one roof. There were 8 adults and 7 kids. Some of you who know family may know the children number seems a little high and that is because my brother had a couple foster kids with him. I can't put their pictures on here but they were really awesome girls and fun to have at our family Christmas. I hope we have more family gatherings with non family being a part of our family like that in the future, I really love it.

Here are a few pics I can share with you...

This is my niece Isabelle

And my nephew Patrick

Here are the 5 cousins

Here is the whole family. Starting at the back left: Joanna sitting on Zack's lap, Keylor sitting on my mom's lap, dad, Christy, Philippe, Margo holding Esther, me. Front: Isabelle, Lincoln, Patrick

Merry Christmas

2010-12-23T21:47:00.004-06:00

Hope everyone has a great Christmas. I know ours is extra special this year.

Blog Yard Sale

2010-12-16T17:52:00.003-06:00

So, I keep trying to find time to write a long post. What would this post be about? Well, it would be about the fact that we are moving in a few WEEKS. A lot of you who read this blog already know but some of you may not. I promise I will try to post more about this soon. We are moving close to Fayetteville (YEAH!!), to a lot cheaper place (YEAH!!!!), and we will still be able to do farming on a small scale (YEAH!!!!). But we will have to do a remodel (BOO), it is a smaller and older place (BOO), and we will have to get the land set up for animals (BOO). But I will talk more about all of that in a future post. It is definitely going to be a positive move for us in the long run.

Right now we are working on trying to pack up our stuff and get organized for moving. We have some stuff that we either don't want, don't need, don't want to move, or want to replace when we move. So, I thought I would post some of that kind of stuff on here to see if anyone wants it. I am sure there will be more to put on here in the next few weeks as we go through stuff, but I thought I would start with these two things.

#1 - BBQ Grill - This is a propane grill that I bought a few years ago. It is still in pretty decent shape. It is a 3 burner grill with a 4th side burner. It has a little rust in places, the burners might need replacing sometime, it has a broken knob on the side burner, and the temp gauge does not work. This is all stuff that has not affected me in grilling pretty often with this grill. The propane tank is not included. Did I mention that it is free if anyone wants it, just come and get it or I might even deliver it for free (or in trade for some cookies or something) if you live close.

#2 - 24" Apex TV - This is the old type of tv (not a digital flat panel) that we have had for a while. It still works great and has no problems. It is also free.

Esther Update - Rolling Over

2010-12-13T18:43:00.004-06:00

Esther is growing up fast. She is really starting to get a little personality. She is starting to react to us a lot more which is fun. It is really easy to get her to smile and giggle at us. That is pretty much all we do these days, try to get Esther to smile and laugh at us.
A big thing happened today with Esther. She rolled over for the first time!!!!!!!! She went from her back to her stomach and then kept rolling the same direction back onto her back. She did it today at home with Margo and she called me at work she was so excited.
I know everyone thinks their baby is the best but I really think we got the best kid in the world. Esther is such a great baby. 99% of the time she is happy and content wherever she is. She is good when we leave her with other people, we always get comments about how happy and easy she is to take care of. She is super smiley and super cute. And she sleeps through the night which is awesome. We absolutely love her and love being her parents.

One great thing about having a good friend watch Esther during the day is that she truly cares about Esther and is just not caring for her. And she is excited about all the new things that Esther does and all the cute moments. One amazing bonus about Kristy is she likes to take pictures and video. So, she has been sending us pics and video of Esther while she is keeping her. This has been such a blessing and a huge deal for us.

Now for some pictures. WARNING: Extreme cuteness that you may not be able to handle.

Here is Esther sleeping at Kristy's

Esther has started sucking and chewing on her hands all the time. Seriously, does it get any cuter.

Here she is checking out Kristy's Christmas tree

It was super cold on Sunday so we got to bundle her up in a super cute warm clothing thing.

Here she is today, being happy

Esther Update

2010-12-01T18:08:00.004-06:00

Sorry that we have not been updating very often lately. We have been extremely busy with some things going on around here. More on that in the future. For now, I thought I would give you an Esther update.

She is growing like kudzu. She is starting to get a little personality. She coos a lot, grins and laughs, plays with her toys, and more. She has started doing this really cute thing where if you are holding her, she will smile really big at someone else, and then turn her head and bury it in our chest like she is bashful or flirting.

Last week was the first week with both Margo and I back at work. Margo is going to work part time (three days a week). We decided to leave Esther with a good friend of ours, Kristy, while we are at work. It was kind of hard/sad to leave her there for the first few days but we are getting used to it. It feels like there is someone else raising your kid and that you are going to miss something. But, I would much rather that person be Kristy than a random person at a daycare. I think she is probably getting tired of me calling a couple times a day though.

She had her 4 month doctor visit today. She weighs 14 pounds (50th percentile) and is 24.29 inches tall (40th percentile). She has definitely grown since her last visit.

Now for pictures!!!!!!!!!

Here is Kristy with Esther

Here is Kristy's daughter Sophie with Esther. Sophie started kindergarten this year so it worked out perfect for her to watch Esther.

Last week for Thanksgiving we went down to Waldron and spent the day with my parents and my aunt and her family. But, we made a little detour down to Mena on the way to see some friends. This is Esther being inspected by Audrey (daughter of our good friend Sarah)

Here we are on Thanksgiving

Here is Esther in a new shirt that was sent to her from good friends of ours, Dylan and Molly, who live in India. It is really cute.

Getting Old

2010-11-22T18:33:00.003-06:00

I am not the only one getting old around here. Esther is 4 months old today.

Lots of Pictures

2010-11-21T20:45:00.005-06:00

We are still trying to decide what the plan is for the blog and if it will be private or not. So, until we get all that worked out, I thought I would go ahead and post some new pictures of Esther.

Cute pumpkin hat

Seriously cute

Razorback cute

Esther has been doing a lot better at grabbing her toys and playing with them

This is her in her exersaucer, she laughs and laughs at the lion

Lots of big smiles these days

Yesterday we went hiking with some friends. I wore our moby wrap and put Esther in it and she did really good. She loved looking all around. After a while though she fell asleep and slept the rest of the time.

30!

2010-11-19T07:00:00.002-06:00

Happy 30th Birthday!
We love you,
Margo & Esther

Help People

2010-11-17T17:24:00.002-06:00

I wanted to tell everyone to go eat at the Chik-Fil-A on 6th street (MLK Blvd) in Fayetteville tomorrow (Thursday Nov. 18th) from 5pm-8pm. A portion of all sales during that time will go to LifeSource. Just tell them you are there for LifeSource. You can also buy party trays for the weekend and pay for them that night so it can count also. LifeSource staff will be there with information and volunteer opportunities. This is a good chance for you to help some people in need just by not cooking supper and going out to eat some good food.

Privatization

2010-11-14T22:27:00.003-06:00

Not of Social Security, but of this blog.

I wanted to let you all know that we are thinking about making this blog private. This is something we had always talked about doing when we had kids. I don't like the thought of random people that we don't know out there knowing all the things I put up on here about our Family. It seems like in a worse case scenario some creep could use the information to do something bad. I know that may seem like crazy thinking to some of you, but I just don't like knowing that any crazy person out there can have access to Esther's life through this blog.

If we do this, it means there will be an added step of signing in, in order to read our blog. And you probably won't be able to read it through a feed reader or rss feed (if you don't know what that is then that won't matter to you). I know this means that we are going to lose readers. Even I tend not to read some blogs of our friends because they are private. But I think it may be worth it. I will continue to have this blog even if we lose all of our readers because I think it is a great way to document our lives and have a record of it for the future.

So, let me know what you think. And let me know if you would like an invite to be able to continue to read our blog.

I will let you know later in the week when we decide for sure about this and send an invite to whoever requests one.

Orphan Sunday

2010-11-04T21:50:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that this Sunday is Orphan Sunday. A few organizations that help orphans throughout the world decided to have a day each year that churches could focus on helping orphans. A lot of orphan organizations, adoption organizations, churches, and others are supporting it. It is a Sunday for churches to focus on orphans and promote helping them. It is a very important duty that we have as Christians (for those of you who are Christians) to take care of the orphans as the Bible tells us to.

There are approximately 143 million orphans in the world. Half a million kids in the U.S. live in foster care and around 125,000 are up for adoption. In Arkansas there are 7,000 kids in foster care and over 500 available for adoption. Arkansas ranks #1 in the U.S. in the number of moves a child will make while in foster care. They will move an average of 30 times while in foster care. 30. An even more shocking statistic is this....In Pulaski County (most populated county in Arkansas) there are 600 churches and in Northwest Arkansas there are over 300. So if just one family out of each of these churches from just these three counties would adopt that would be over 900 adopted kids which is almost twice the number of waiting kids in Arkansas. JUST ONE MORE FAMILY IN EACH CHURCH AND WE WOULD NOT HAVE WAITING KIDS IN ARKANSAS. And that is just 3 counties.

There are lots of ways to help. There is an organization in Arkansas that seeks to help these children in Arkansas. It is the C.A.L.L. which stands for Children of Arkansas Loved for a Lifetime and their vision is to have no waiting children in Arkansas foster care but instead to have families waiting to take them in. On their website you can find all kinds of ways to help. But the best way is to become a foster parent or to adopt one of these kids.

I wanted to also post some videos about Orphan Sunday in case you are more of a visual learner.

This one is from the CALL

And this one will make you cry.

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for the orphans and widows in their distress..." James 1:27

Halloween

2010-11-01T08:17:00.003-05:00

Our community group had a Halloween party this weekend. We came up with some last minute costumes and decided on "things from the 80's" for our family.

Josh as Mr. Rogers (complete with the creepy King Friday puppet) and Margo as a Glamour shot.

Margo made a Smurfette costume for Esther.

And here is a shot of the whole group (minus Esther, she was sleeping).

Esther's new favorite toy

2010-10-28T21:45:00.005-05:00

Several years ago, Margo and I bought our future child something. I am guessing it was 5-6 years ago. The Razorback shop was having a big 50% off sale and they had something for a baby that we could not pass up for our future baby. We never would have thought at that time that it would have taken so long to get to this point but it was worth the wait. And we finally get to use this awesome toy. We put it on her changing table to give her something to look at when we are changing her diaper and dressing her.

It is a razorback mobile. The little hogs go around and it plays a nice little tune that is supposed to be the fight song but Margo and I can't really make it out. Esther loves it. She kicks and smiles and watches the hogs go round and round. It is a lot of fun to watch her watch it.

3 Months!

2010-10-22T12:21:00.003-05:00

Today Esther is 3 months old! We can't believe how much she's grown and changed. She is such a sweet baby and is so fun. We are loving every minute with her.

Here are a couple of pictures of Esther sporting her Halloween outfits this week.

Toys

2010-10-20T18:47:00.002-05:00

Margo and I went to a couple consignment type sales for children's clothes and toys. We found a few clothing items but we also came across a couple toys we could not pass up. As some of you may know, Margo and I really like old stuff/antiques. I don't know if Esther will also, but we will do what we can to push her in that direction. I think these types of toys are much better than the electronic noise makers they make today.

Margo and I both had one of these growing up. It is a Fisher Price School Days Desk. It has a magnetized chalkboard and comes with magnetic letters and cards with simple words you can trace with chalk on the chalkboard. It is missing a few letters but we were really excited to find it. It was made in 1972

This one Margo found. It is the Fisher Price Two Tune TV. It is from 1966 and you wind up the yellow knob and it plays row, row, row your boat and london bridge while the picture stories with words scroll across the screen. They still make this today as a "retro toy"

Sleep!!!!!!!!

2010-10-17T18:19:00.005-05:00

I don't know if it is a fluke or not but on Friday night, Esther slept for 7 hours straight. And last night she went 6 hours. She had only been going 4 hours for the past few weeks. If this continues it would be awesome. She is now sleeping in her own room which helps me sleep more because I am such a light sleeper, which meant I did not sleep much when she was in our room. We have also started swaddling at night when she sleeps. We could not do it when she was younger because she could get out of it so easy but now that she is bigger it works better.

Here are some new pics. Which by the way, I have a random question for you pertaining to pictures. I feel like we (and people in general) take too many pictures these days. For instance, we have taken over 300 pictures of Esther so far. After I take them, I put them in a folder on my computer and then at the end of the year I back them up on my large capacity external hard drive. I just wonder if I will ever look through all of these pictures in the future. And it is just not of Esther. Pictures of the farm, vacations, holidays, etc. Will Esther ever care to look at all the pictures we have taken over the years? Will they get passed on to future generations? I cherish old pictures of my ancestors. It is really awesome to see how they looked back then. But there are very few pictures of them. If there were hundreds of pictures I think I would still be interested but only of the good ones/interesting ones or the ones with lots of people in them. I am just worried that we have so many these days that it is just too overwhelming to go back and try to look at them. Any thoughts? I know, I know you just want me to shut up and to show you pics of Esther.

She is so very sweet, how could you not love this little girl to death.

Rockin some awesome hair

She smiles a lot at us these days but it is hard to catch on camera. She also likes to smirk.

Out like a light

Here is the baby burrito in her swaddle blanket

Esther's World

2010-10-11T18:40:00.003-05:00

I thought I would post some pictures of Esther's room now that we have it pretty much set up (it was one of our guest rooms before). I still need to hang some stuff on the walls. It took a while to get it set up since she was such a surprise and we had nothing ready. I was in the middle of painting the furniture for her room when we got the call about her.

We bought the little bookshelf for her. We love books (even though I don't read a whole lot) and have got a pretty good collection going for her. We have started reading to her some, I can't wait until she gets old enough to understand. The rocking chair was my grandmother's rocking chair so it means a lot to me. It is kind of hard to see but the canvas on top of the bookshelf with Esther's name was made by a good friend and is really cute.

Here is her crib and changing table. Some awesome friends gave them to us and I repainted them. I also repainted the dressers that were in this room to make everything the same color and somewhat match.

The little wooden cross above the bed is a dutch cradle cross that one of my good friend's dad got for us. We really liked it.

This is a canvas painting a girl at our church did and gave to us. It is really awesome, Margo cried.

I also thought I would post a picture of Esther's favorite place to be, from her perspective. She loves her swing and this is her view. It is a toucan, a monkey, and a frog that spin around.

I might be a felon

2010-10-11T09:06:00.003-05:00

Before I get to the felon thing I wanted to share a funny video. Do you remember the funny old spice commercial that came out several months ago? Here is a link. Well Sesame Street made a spoof of it that I thought was pretty funny so I thought I would share.

Now to the felon thing. Over the weekend, four kids (ages 17-21) got arrested and charged with a felony for making a sparkler bomb and setting it off in an empty field on private property (read news story here) in Farmington. If you don't know what a sparkler bomb is, it is when you tape a bunch of sparklers together with duct tape or electrical tape and light them. It makes a loud explosion. You can search it on youtube and find hundreds of videos of it (you might even find one of me and another guy(who I won't name since we might be felons)). I can't tell you how many times I have made these. I think it is ridiculous that they would be charged with a felony. I think the Farmington police are being stupid like small town police can be and I hope the prosecutor does not follow through with the charges.

Family

2010-10-07T21:15:00.005-05:00

We took a little trip down to Little Rock on Wednesday to spend a couple days seeing my (Josh) extended family. This was Esther's first time to meet her great grandmother (my grandmother on my mom's side) and some of her great aunts and extended cousins. It was a fun time seeing family.

Esther with great granny.

Esther with Great Aunt Diane

Esther with Great Aunt Sherry (I know she will love being called Great Aunt)

I am not sure how the cousin numbering/naming works but this is Esther with my first cousins Kelly and Nikki

Again not sure about the cousin numbering thing (are they second cousins, third cousins, or great cousins? it is too confusing, can someone help me with this) but this is Esther with one of my first cousin's two girls (Sydney and Lorelai)

Here she is with another of my cousin's kids (Jacob), who is 3 months older than Esther

Cutest Picture Ever and a Visit to the Doctor

2010-10-05T10:39:00.002-05:00

Esther had her first doctor visit with us yesterday. She saw Dr. Jackson who was great. He said she seems to be doing great, no problems. She weighs 10lbs 11.5oz, and is 21.81 inches tall. She is around the 20-30 percentile in height and weight and everything is proportional like it should be. She weighed 6 pounds at birth (and 7 pounds when we got her 5 weeks ago), and was 18.5 inches at birth.

Here is the super cute picture. She is in her little monster hooded towel after a bath.

Recent Pictures

2010-10-04T09:32:00.002-05:00

Esther and I swinging on the front porch.

Esther is getting big, not only in size but in development. She is doing really well holding her head up. She still does the bobble head thing some but she is doing good enough we can set her in her bumbo for a little while.

Her cool tie-dye shirt that she wore to the car show we went to on Saturday.

Our good friends Adriel and Emily and their daughter Eliana were in town this weekend. They moved to St Louis a few months ago. This was their first time to meet Esther. Eliana is 10 months older than Esther. I am sad they do not live here anymore so that the girls could grow up together but hopefully they will know each other and be friends in the years to come.

Today is our first doctor appt with Esther. Stay tuned for details.

Esther's New Ride

2010-09-29T15:32:00.003-05:00

We got a new (used) truck today. We needed something that all of us could ride in. I had planned on upgrading to a full size truck soon anyway because it would make my life a lot easier on the farm. My old small truck struggled some with hauling heavy loads of hay, mulch, gravel, etc. We have been looking for about a week for a new one. This one we found in Oklahoma and it met all of our criteria. I did not want to spend a ton of money so I knew that I would have to get one that was a few years old and with mileage on it. I got a really good deal on this one, the owner had just gone through a divorce and needed the money pretty bad. I got it for approximately $5000 below private party blue book value.

It is a 2005 Ford F150 XLT 4x4 Quad Cab. It has a 5.4 liter V8 Triton engine and has 97,000 miles on it. (It is 3 years newer than my old truck with 40,000 less miles) It has a custom hood and grill on it. I am not a huge fan of the hood because it has the fake hood scoops on it, but it is not so terrible that I want to pay a lot of money to get a regular hood. It also has big tires on it, but they are not the huge ones that are ridiculous so I can live with them also. It has lots of room inside. The backseat is big enough that we can fit Esther's car seat in without scooting up the seat.

Temporarily a one car family

2010-09-28T17:58:00.003-05:00

Well, we sold the truck yesterday. It sold a lot faster than I thought it would and we got a good price out of it. It was kind of sad to sell it, I have had it for 6 years. I have used it for lots of stuff over the years, especially on the farm. I have used it hauling hay, goats, chickens, mulch, wood, rocks, even a calf a couple times before I got a stock trailer, and lots more. It has been down to south Arkansas with me hunting a few times, along with lots of other trips. It was a really good truck, it never needed any work and never let me down.

So long Nissan Frontier, thanks for everything. (Stay tuned, as soon as tomorrow, to see the replacement)

Smiley

2010-09-26T17:04:00.003-05:00

I guess Esther woke up this morning and decided she was going to start smiling a lot more and even better, smiling at us. It just so happens that we caught some of these smiles and smirks on camera.

This is a little smirk

It is really hard to catch her smiling with the camera. Hopefully she will continue to do it more so we can get more pictures. These pictures are from this morning. We were taking pictures of her new dress she was wearing to church that our friend Kathy got us.

Esther needs a new ride

2010-09-25T12:32:00.003-05:00

We are going to try to sell my truck. We are not really able to haul Esther in it. The back seats are just those fold down from the side seats which you can't put a car seat on and it is really not the best to put her in the front seat. And if we did put her in the front seat, Margo would have nowhere to sit except in the crappy back seat. So, we are going to sell it and try to buy a used full size extended cab pickup that we can put a car seat into the back seat to haul Esther around. It would be much better for us to have two cars that we can use for the whole family.

Here is what you can do. Spread the word to anyone you might know who would be interested in buying my truck. And if you know of a good used full size, extended cab, 4x4 Chevrolet or Ford truck, let me know.

Here are my trucks details....2002 Nissan Frontier XE, extended cab, V6, 4x4, tow package, running boards, bed liner, sliding rear window, cruise control, CD. Never been wrecked, no major work done, no problems with it at all. 135,000 miles. $7250 obo.

A new discovery

2010-09-23T18:27:00.004-05:00

I thought I would post something farm related. I have been working on the garden the past few days. I did not get to plant a fall garden because of the drought we had. I have been trying to get it cleaned up and ready for fall and I made a discovery.

One thing that I have never had good luck with is getting a compost pile going. We feed all our food scraps to the animals as well as the garden waste. I have tried to make a pile out of wood mulch, horse poop, and leaves but it never worked so well. Well, I think I finally stumbled upon a compost pile of sorts to use for my garden. Let me explain. I do raised bed gardening and when I build my beds, I took off the top good layer of soil from the aisles between the beds and put it on the beds. This helped make my beds thicker but it created the problem of water collecting and standing in the aisles for a few days after a rain. I just put up with it for a few years but this past year I got a load of mixed wood mulch from the city of Fayetteville and spread in the aisles so I was not walking in water. I also put some hay in places after the mulch settled some. It seems that the mulch, hay, dirt washed off from the beds, and the water created compost over the summer. I was not expecting that at all. I went out to get the beds back into shape and when I scraped the hoe in the aisles it uncovered some pretty good mulch. So I have been scooping out the aisles with a shovel and putting on top of the beds. Then I am putting new mulch back in to the aisles so it will do the same thing for next year. I was pretty excited because I am killing two birds with one stone. Here are a few pics to show you.

Here is the before picture. It is hard to tell what is bed and what is aisle in the pic but right in the middle from top to bottom is the aisle. It doesn't look like much and that is why I did not think much about it.

Here is a pic after I have scooped up the dirt from the aisle and put it on the bed. See how nice and dark that soil is.

Weekend

2010-09-21T09:56:00.004-05:00

This past weekend we went down to Mena to see friends and family. It was a really good weekend. It was fun showing Esther off and catching up with people we don't see very often. Esther did really good on the trip considering some issues that came up with her. (turns out we think she really does have a milk allergy, the birthmom told us she did but we decided to test it ourselves and the milk formula gave her really gross poop and congestion so we switched her back to soy formula. This also involved a trip to Mena Wal-Mart at 2am.) Besides seeing friends in Mena, we took her to the church down there that we consider my "hometown" church. We also spent time with my parents and some other relatives.

Here is Esther in a new shirt we bought her. We found some band shirts at Target on sale that we could not pass up.

Here is her cute dress for church on Sunday

We stayed with some good friends in Mena and had a great time hanging out and seeing some other friends while there. Somehow I did not get any pictures of Esther with them, but I did get some good videos of them with her. Here is a good pic we got of the three of us on their deck.

We went to see my parents in Hale Town. Most people don't believe me when I tell them my parents live in Hale Town. It is several miles east of Waldron which is north of Mena. The Hale family settled in that area in like the late 1800's or something like that. All of my ancestors lived there and a lot of my dad's cousins still live around there. My parents built a house there last year on my grandparents old property (my dad was born on the front lawn). Anyway here is proof of Hale Town.

Here is another pic with my parents house in the background

Here is Esther with my Aunt Freddie

And with my cousin Cindy

There is a small country church in Hale Town that my parents go to (my dad went there growing up), and after church on Sunday night a lot of the people came over to my parents house for snacks and to see Esther.

Photo Shoot

2010-09-19T16:31:00.002-05:00

As I mentioned in the previous post, one of our friends who has started doing photography on the side, came out and took some photos of Esther the other day. She put some of them online and they are really cute. I thought I would share her site with you so you could all check them out. Her website is http://www.alishiasnookphotography.blogspot.com/ and there are a few pics of Esther on the main page if you scroll down, but if you click on Babies at the top of the page and scroll down until you see her name, there are many more. I will try to post details about our weekend whenever we get home tomorrow.

Quick Update

2010-09-17T08:39:00.006-05:00

This week has been a good week. We are starting to settle in with having and taking care of a baby. Esther is sleeping about as well as can be expected, and we have figured out our sleep schedule so we are doing good on sleep. We have still been able to see lots of friends who have come to see Esther. Margo took Esther to her work to introduce her there and she was a hit. This weekend we are going to Mena to see friends and family so that should be lots of fun. Here are some pictures.

Our friends BJ, Brandy, and their kids came out the other night and brought dinner. Their kids are really cute. I took them out and let them feed the goats which was a lot of fun. Here is Jordan (4) holding Esther. She is very mothering and did a great job holding her and supporting her head for the little bit that we let her hold her. I was very impressed.

We started using cloth diapers this week intermittently. We are still need some cloth diaper things but our good friends Adam and Sarah are lending us their newborn stuff until we get all of our stuff so we can get started. They also brought us dinner this week which was awesome. Right now we are just doing cloth diapers during the day. Once we get a little more used to it, we will try and do nights also. I think when we travel we will probably just use disposable.

Although you might think this picture is something I would do, it was actually Margo.

Last night, a friend from work, Ali, and her husband Josh came out. Ali does photography on the side and she did a little photo shoot with Esther. This age is kind of tough because she does not stay still for very long but also doesn't have good head control or smiling on queue ability. Anyway, I will let you know when she gets done with those and share them with all of you. I have seen a few and they are super cute.

Busy Weekend

2010-09-13T19:11:00.003-05:00

This was a really busy weekend for Esther. It started on Friday. I will tell about it in pictures.....

Margo's good friend and co-worker Linda and her daughter Kaylee came out to see Esther Friday afternoon. Linda brought us lunch and a bunch of other food and gifts. It was awesome. Kaylee was super excited to see Esther and "hold" her.

Friday night our good friends Rick and Ashley came out and brought us dinner and stayed to hang out and watch a movie. It was fun to hang out with friends for a while like we did pre-Esther. And the big story of the night is Rick held Esther and I have the pictures to prove it. He has always said he would not hold a baby under 3 months because he was worried he would do something wrong. But with lots of peer pressure we got him to do it but only while he was sitting down.

Saturday was our big baby shower at our church. It was awesome. The girls did a great job getting it all set up. It was fun to get to see lots of friends and family and hang out with them. And Esther racked up the presents. Here we are at the shower. The awesome cake was made by one of our friends we go to church with.

Some really good friends of ours drove up from Mena for the shower and to meet Esther. They are really important people in our life so it meant a lot that they came up. We were able to go to dinner and hang out more after the shower which was fun. We are going to try and make a trip to Mena this weekend to see more of our friends down there.

This is a picture of Esther and I trying to recover from the busy weekend.

She's Legal

2010-09-10T11:10:00.005-05:00

Today was our court date to make the adoption official and have the a judge sign off on it. We were not sure what to expect and were a little nervous but it was a piece of cake. Judge Martin was the judge we saw. We went into his office and chit chatted for a little bit and he signed off on the paperwork and we took some pictures. Then we went and filed the paperwork and we should get her new birth certificate in like 6 weeks. Judge Martin was really nice, he has adopted 3 kids (I think) so he is all about adoption. Here is our picture with him.

Esther also made a new friend at the courthouse. There was another couple there getting their adoption finalized also. We talked to them a little bit. Their little boy is a month or so older than Esther but he is a chunk. His name is Cooper, maybe one of these days they will meet up again. We took a picture of them together.

We also went by LifeSource today and let Esther meet our friends Ernie and Terry. Ernie is my brother's father-in-law. Ernie did our pre-marital counseling and he is one of my mentors.

And yesterday, Margo's roommate and good friend from college, Magevney and her husband, stopped by. They live in Memphis and are moving to Kazakhstan soon. Their daughter, Kirsten, is a year old.

Here is Esther today wearing her first dress for her day in court. I am not sure why babies need shoes but they are cute.

Update

2010-09-09T09:48:00.005-05:00

The people are demanding an update.

Tuesday was a good day for us. The adoption paperwork became legally binding on that date. There is a waiting period after adoption to give the birthmom a chance to change her mind. It is 10 days in Arkansas but 5 of those days can be waived by the birthmom (which ours did). That put the day on Saturday so it would go to the next business day which was actually Tuesday because of the holiday. Now we just have one more thing to make it official official. Our court date for the judge to sign off on the adoption is tomorrow. They say that it is more of just a formality but I will be happy when it is all done. Also Tuesday, we talked to the agency (Bethany) we were working with to adopt to let them know we would not need to continue with them since we had adopted Esther (privately without an agency). They were happy for us but sad for them because they really liked us and wanted to work with us. We had already paid there upfront/non-refundable fee to use them (which was several thousand dollars). But they told us they had not yet deposited our check so they were not going to worry about it and not deposit it. So, we got that money back!!!!!!!!! Side story....This was a huge answer to prayer. We had been really worried about the money aspect of adopting. The average cost is $20,000-$25,000 and we had made a lot of changes to our lives to save this kind of money and it was going to completely deplete our savings. Private adoptions are hard to come by but God answered our prayers and provided a private adoption for us that is costing us less than 10% of what we had thought we would have to pay for adoption through an agency.

My work had a shower for us on Tuesday also. It was a lot of fun and totally blew us away how much stuff Esther got there. It was funny because I work with almost all women and a lot of their kids are grown and older so they were really excited about baby Esther and they were oohing and awing over her. I really like my job and the people I work with. Some of them are like family and it was awesome to see how much they already love her. It meant a lot to me.

I am still working on the furniture for her room. I finished repainted the cradle, crib, and changing table that we were given. She has been sleeping in the cradle in our room. We are trying to hold off buying bunch of stuff and getting her room set up until after the shower on Saturday. Right now I am working on stripping and repainting the dressers that are going in her room.

Here is the before picture of the cradle. This cradle was my cradle when I was a baby. It was given to my parents when I was born (almost 30 years ago). Hopefully we can pass it on to Esther when she has kids.

Here is it is after being repainted. I think it turned out pretty good. Much more up to date looking.

Our good friends Russ, Kristy, and their daughter Sophie came over the other day to see Esther. Here is Sophie holding Esther.

More pictures

More Firsts

2010-09-05T19:45:00.005-05:00

Well, Esther got to meet lots more friends and family this weekend. She got to meet Margo's brother and family briefly. They were on their way out of town and stopped by just for a minute. They have three young kids so figured it was better not to unload everyone since they were on their way to a family reunion. On Saturday night we went to some friends house and we got to watch our first Razorback game as a family (and we won). Today, we took her to church for the first time and let me tell you she was a hit. We could not even make it in the door before a crowd formed around us. It was really awesome that everyone was so excited about her. She did pretty good during church, just a couple loud farts. This afternoon she got to meet my brother and his family. They were in town for the weekend. My niece and nephew were really sweet with her. They had even made a video for her on the day they found out we had got her telling her how excited they were to meet her and how much they loved her. Here are some pics, there are more if you click on the pictures link on the right sidebar (I put the newest ones first).

Here she is with Uncle Zack (Josh's brother)

With Aunt JoAnna (Josh's sister in law)

Uncle Chris (Margo's brother)

Aunt Megan (Margo's sister in law)

Watching the Razorback game

Her new Razorback outfit

Awesome little bow that JoAnna made for her

With first cousins Lincoln and Keylor

On a side note, our baby shower is officially planned for next Saturday from 2-4pm at our church (the grove church). It is open for anyone to come to (men, women, kids) and is come and go as you want. In case you are going to buy us something, we are mostly registered at Target and Terra Tots, and we registered for a little bit of stuff at Wal-Mart today. Don't feel like you need to get us anything but come if you just want to meet sweet Esther. Also we are having her baby dedication at church next Sunday at the 9:15 service.

Meet the Grandparents

2010-09-03T21:05:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, Margo's parents came out to see Esther for the first time. And today my parents drove up to spend the afternoon and meet her for the first time. Then later in the afternoon Margo's mom brought Margo's grandmother to come see Esther for the first time. I think they liked her.

Margo's Dad

Margo's Mom

My Parents

Margo's grandma

I also wanted to share this picture from the other night when some of our friends brought us dinner. They just had a baby boy on July 25th. We have been celebrating his birth with them since he was born. Little did we know at the time that God had already provided us our little girl and she was actually born three days before him. Here they are on their first date.

And here is a picture of Esther on a baby quilt that my grandmother made for me when I was born (almost 30 years ago). Be sure and pay attention to the awesome hair.

There are lots more pictures on our picasa web album. Just click here. I will also add a link to this album on the right side column of the blog. I will add more as often as I can.

You don't have to buy us stuff, but we sure appreciate it.

2010-09-03T10:13:00.002-05:00

Lot of people have been asking about what we need and what they can buy us. We really appreciate everybody wanting to get us stuff, but it is hard for us to ask people to buy us stuff. I guess that is just what people do when you have a baby. Please don't feel obligated though. Just your friendships and kindness to us is gift enough. But, since everyone has been asking, I wanted to let you know that we finally had time to register a little bit yesterday. We registered at Target and at a local store called Terra Tots. Terra Tots is owned by a friend of ours and they sell cloth diapers and lots of other really cool and natural type baby supplies. We want to try and do cloth diapers as much as we can. So, if you live in NWA you can check that store out, it has lots of great stuff and if Bernice (she is the owner) helps you, she has been a friend of mine since growing up. We will also try to register for some stuff at Wal-Mart at some point this weekend when we get time. I know some of you may not have a Target where you live but most of the stuff we needed we registered for at Target. There is a shower being planned for next Saturday afternoon/evening so if anyone is interested let me know and I can give our friends your contact information so you will get an invite. It will be a casual/co-ed/come and go kind of thing. But again, don't feel like you need to bring a gift if you come, just come and hang out and check out Esther.

I will try to put up more pictures later today.

Crazy

2010-09-02T17:46:00.003-05:00

I wanted to share a quick fact with everyone. Normally I get around 20-30 hits a day on this blog. Yesterday we had 817 !!!!!!!!!!!

Day 2 - Finding which way is up

2010-09-02T09:57:00.005-05:00

So, the first night was a little rough. We did not sleep much. She was having a hard time adjusting to new people, new place, sleeping by herself, sleeping flat. But we had a great day yesterday spending time with her and sorting through stuff. We tried to make a plan of action of what we need and what we need to do to have a baby even though we already have the baby.

Esther did a lot better sleeping last night. She slept for about 4 hours before she woke up the first time and then went back to sleep for another few hours. It was pretty nice, we got to catch up on our sleep a little bit. Some of our awesome friends have already been blessing us. A friend from work stopped by and brought some diapers, blankets, and other needed things. Some other good friends brought us dinner last night which was really nice. And then another friend from work brought us some stuff from her sister's little girl from when she was a baby. It is some stuff we really needed...a swing, a play mat, a boppy, some clothes, and more.

Today, we are going in to town to register for baby stuff (a shower is being planned by our friends). And we have to meet with the lawyer. Later today, she will get to meet her grandparents (Margo's parents) for the first time. And tomorrow she gets to meet her other grandparents.

And then there were 3

2010-09-01T08:47:00.003-05:00

Ok, crazy story. We got a call at 5:30pm MONDAY night that there was a baby for us to adopt in Little Rock. A 6 week old baby. And we could come down and meet the birthmother and if everything worked out sign the papers and bring the baby home. So, we went to Wal-Mart on Monday night and bought a car seat, pack n play, diapers, formula, and bottles. We drove to Little Rock YESTERDAY and met the birthmom and baby, the birthmom signed the papers and we drove home around 3pm from Little Rock with our DAUGHTER. It was totally a miracle how it all happened. God was in complete control of our situation and blessed us beyond what we could ever imagine.

So, we are parents. Just like that.

She is awesome. We have named her Esther Louise Hale. Louise is one of Margo's grandmother's first name and her other grandmother's middle name. She was born July 22nd. She was a couple weeks early and weighed around 6 pounds and now she is up to about 7.5 pounds. She has brown hair and deep blue eyes.

We have lots of stuff to share about how it all happened but I thought I would post a quick note to let everyone know about it and give you a few details. I know, I know, you want more than details, you want pictures. Here....

It's Official

2010-08-26T21:19:00.004-05:00

We are officially in a drought according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. And let me tell you, it is dry here. I have never seen it like this around here before. All the grass is brown and completely dead, all the farmers are feeding hay (including me). The drive out to our house is crazy because of all of the brown fields. My ponds are the lowest I have ever seen them, the smaller one is almost completely dry.

Here is the drought map to prove it (you can click it to make it bigger). We are in the light brown (drought moderate) in the northwest corner.

Where's the Kitty

2010-08-19T22:01:00.004-05:00

As you who read the blog know, we had kittens a while back. We gave away all but one of them. The one we kept is starting to get big and he is at that really playful age so he is a lot of fun. We are still discussing names for him. I think Smalls might be the leading candidate right now, with Goodbye a close second.

Big Milestone

2010-08-15T21:52:00.004-05:00

Something big happened today. We went to Mena for the weekend and on our way back while on interstate 540, between Chester and the tunnel, our car hit 100,000 miles. It is our CRV that we bought brand new in 2004. It is the first car we bought together. It has been a great car for us, Margo loves driving it. I hope it goes for another 100,000

I thought I would give a brief description of where it's been and what it has been through in it's 100,000 miles. Besides taking us all around Northwest Arkansas, it has been to the far reaches of Arkansas, to Mena tons of times, Little Rock a bunch of times, Dallas, St. Louis, New Orleans, Denver, Cleveland, Columbus (OH), Nashville (TN), Omaha, and many other lesser known cities. It has been in a wreck where a guy sideswiped it and it has hit a deer (both while Margo was driving).

Here is a picture of when we bought it and brought it home.

Here is today on the way home. Yes, I took the picture while driving (it is against the law to text while driving, not take pictures while driving). What is most amazing is I am only going 70 on the interstate (I slowed down for safety while taking the picture).

Death of a Farm

2010-08-09T19:14:00.002-05:00

It seems that every year we have a period of the summer where it gets really dry and does not rain for a while. Well, we are experiencing that right now. Every year I think it is the worst it's ever been. I don't know if that is the case or not but it sure feels like it again this year. We have not had rain in several weeks here on the farm. There have been lots of pop up showers around the area but none of them have been here. The grass is mostly brown and dead. There are still a few spots in wetter type areas that still have a little green grass for the animals to eat. If it does not rain soon though, I will have to start feeding hay to the animals. Another thing that is dead is the garden. I tried to keep it going for a little while but it was just taking to much watering so I let it go. Luckily I was able to keep it going long enough to get all the veggies we needed to can and freeze for the rest of the year. If it ever rains again, I may plant some stuff for a fall garden. The only thing that I am still keeping alive is the cantaloupe and watermelon. Here is a picture of the last thing I got out of the garden, the butternut squash and spaghetti squash.

And here is a picture of a couple cantaloupe.

The natives are getting to comfortable

2010-08-03T22:06:00.006-05:00

This is a picture looking out the back window. (that's a deer, not a goat)

Since we moved in and put up fence, cleared land, etc., we have hardly ever seen deer on our property. Sometimes you would see them back up behind the house on the hill in the winter but never near the house. But, the past month or so, two doe's have been right behind the house like it is no big deal. I just hope they don't get so comfortable that they get in the yard or garden and eat our plants. Otherwise, we might be having deer steaks soon.

Chicken Stimulus

2010-08-01T19:43:00.006-05:00

I bought some new chickens over the weekend. Our current chickens are getting older and not laying as well and we have lost some of them to varmints a while back. I am not sure what varmints because I never caught any of them, but I think it could have been hawks. Anyway, back to the new chickens story. I took a couple of our goats that were born this year up to the Centerton Livestock Auction to sell on Saturday. I happened to get up there right when they were having the poultry sale. I decided to check it out to see how much the chickens were going for and they happened to be going for really cheap. So, I just had to buy some to replenish our numbers. I ended up buying 15!!!!! Oops (I am supposed to be trying to save money these days). After buying a few I realized that I did not have a cage to hold chickens with me so I had to buy a cage also. Luckily they had some they were auctioning off and they were pretty cheap. The chickens I bought are a little younger and may not be laying eggs yet but they should be soon. I got them for around $3 each which is really cheap. Usually these chickens go for $10+ each. I am not sure why they were so cheap, I guess the economy effects chicken sales also. And they probably have not been getting any stimulus money at the Livestock Auction......trade in your old inefficient chickens for new energy efficient ones. Now that would be a sweet deal.

Long Time, No Post

2010-07-21T19:24:00.002-05:00

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything. It has been busy around here to say the least. I am going to do a quick catch up for you.

Our biggest time consumers are trying to sell the house and working through the process of adoption. Both seem to be going well but both are just kind of a waiting game at this point.

Another thing that has been keeping us super busy is the garden. It has been at it's peak the past few weeks. We have been canning lots of pickles, green beans, salsa, and spaghetti sauce. We have also put up about half of our corn so far. We have been eating tons of fresh zucchini, squash, eggplant, and cucumbers. Almost every day we are working on something involving the garden.

We also had some missionary friends staying with us for a few months while they were raising support to move. They moved last week to Germany. It was really fun having them around and sad that they are moving but we know they will do great things. We also have some good friends moving to St Louis next week so that is sad also.

I will try to blog more often if I can. The past couple weeks we have had stuff keeping us busy about every day. I will leave you with a picture of the tomatoes we picked yesterday.

Canceled

2010-06-22T22:07:00.002-05:00

I have some very sad news. Margo and I have decided to cancel 4th on the Farm this year. This would have been our 3rd annual. Last year we had 60 people attend and we smoked a whole hog and had big fireworks, along with many other things. We decided to not have it this year because we are trying to save money for an adoption as I mentioned in a previous post, and putting 4th on the Farm on cost us a pretty big chunk of money. We tried to get some corporate sponsors but Wal-Mart, Tyson, and JB Hunt all turned us down. Sorry to all of you who might have been looking forward to it. We will try our best to bring it back next year wherever we are at that time.

FSBO

2010-06-16T18:47:00.003-05:00

Margo and I decided to take our house off the market with a realtor for a little while. We are going back to trying to sell it by owner. This enables us to drop the price some. We now have it listed for $200,000 which we think is a really good deal for someone. We still have our website up advertising the house. The site is westforkfarm.blogspot.com. Be sure and tell all your friends, co-workers, etc. Feel free to put it on your facebooks, twitters, blogs, buzz, etc. Spread the word.

Flowers

2010-06-14T19:14:00.003-05:00

Our flowers are looking pretty good right now so I thought I would post some pictures. These are in the bed out front. A lot of these I planted when I built that bed a few years ago. They are starting to fill that space better and look nice. There are a lot of daylillies, hostas, butterfly bushes, and many others. They really attract the butterflies. We have been enjoying them a lot.