Geagen's First Christmas

Geagen talks to her Auntie Lori

Geagen models her new John Deere outfit with Auntie Robin's assistance

Auntie Robin fixes Geagen's outfit on the fly

Geagen doing two of her favorite things: sucking her fingers and jumping in the jumper

Geagen really likes the jumper she got from Santa

It has been a big year of firsts for us- especially Miss Geagen Grace. Today we celebrated a relatively quiet Christmas with our family. Jon, Geagen and I opened our stockings and presents together before Grandma Jeanne, Auntie Robin and Uncle Scott came over for presents and breakfast. Later on Jon's sister Lori and her family came over for presents and visiting. Jon's brother Mike and his wife Kim came over later too.

Geagen got lots of presents: she got her jumper, some books and toys as well as her very own John Deere ensemble. She wasn't really sure what to do with it all but she seemed to take it in stride. Hopefully in the coming weeks she will start to play with her presents. Now Jon and I have to figure out what to do with all the toys that seem to be multiplying at an alarming rate. Jon may be out in the wood shop making a toy box soon. If so- there will be pictures.

These boots are made for walking...not so much

Geagen at 4 months

Geagen in her red suede boots

As of yesterday Geagen is 4 months old. She got weighed and measured. She now weighs 14 lbs. 6 oz. and is 26" long. She also got her 4 month vaccinations so we had a long day yesterday.

Today we went to Costco with Aunt Robin and ran a few errands. Naturally Geagen had to look her best so she sported a navy blue and white striped sweater with her jeans and red suede boots. They are absolutely precious! Geagen was a good girl and kept them on all day- it was nice to not have to worry about losing shoes or socks for once.

A Productive Day

Jon & Steve planting a honey locust tree in front of Steve's house

Jon & Steve planting a maple tree in front of the chicken coop at our house

Jon puts the finishing touches on our maple tree

View of the house looking northward from the tree

Jon and Steve had a busy Saturday morning this past weekend. They planted 8 trees at Steve's house and 1 tree at our house. Not only were the trees large and mature, we had a severe rainstorm the night before which turned the soil into mud. They had to wrestle some of the trees to get them into position but the overall effect is really nice now that they are all planted. We are excited to have a new maple tree on the south side of our house. It will eventually mature and provide much needed shade for the hen house.

Now that fall is upon us we are preparing for winter and trying to get as much as we can done before the ground freezes. We will be busy winterizing the garden as well as planting new bulbs for the spring. It will be exciting to see how it all turns out next year.


The onion field across the street

Jon & Robin gleaning onions in the hailstorm

onions!

These pictures really do prove that we live in East Podunk. We have an onion field (this changes from year to year), a small pasture with steers and a mobile home across the street from us. We are lucky to be good friends with the farmer who farms our the land on our street. He let us glean onions from his field after it was harvested. Unfortunately this coincided with the aforementioned rainstorm and we had to get the onions out before they rotted. Geagen and I even went out with the Baby Bjorn before the rain started again. Spike even followed us out in to the field to lend a helping paw. Jon and Robin got caught in the hailstorm and were absolutely soaked. We got lots of onions (2 twin sheets full) and we will let them dry out and then get them into our root cellar so they will last all winter. I guess we don't have to worry about putting onions in our food storage. Now we can concentrate on other things in our food storage.


Spike strikes a thoughtful pose