And now for a formal introduction!

As mentioned in the previous post, last year's move brought us the adventure of farm life!  I do use the term loosely, but living 30 minutes outside of bustling Atlanta, this little piece of Heaven definitely falls into our farm category! And being on a "farm" you have to have farm animals!  So, say "Hello" to our friends!

This is Beulah!  She is an Ameraucana chicken and lays the prettiest blue-green eggs!

 This is Baby!  We love her black and white feathers!

This is Larry and Curly.  (Yes, we know they are girls...) They are two of our original chicken group that were left after something attacked and ate 3 of our lovely ladies.

This is Rosemary; she is such a pretty buff color!

This is Ramona! She's kinda pushy!

And this is Nemo!  She is the smallest of the group.  You can't tell real well from the picture, but she has feathers around her feet. She's pretty prissy when she walks!

And these are the pretty things these ladies hide for us to hunt for every day!!!! 

And our latest additions....Biscuit and Gravy!  We got these two guys about a month ago and they have been a fun addition!  They are miniature donkey brothers and are about one year old.  To watch them play, you'd think they were puppies!  They run around and chase each other and nip at each other...and even better, when you walk out into the field, they come right up to you and cuddle their head into your arm and want you to rub their ears!

So that is the official introduction to all of our feathered and furry friends.  Oops, don't let me forget this guy:

Our sweet Zac.  He so wants to be friends with the donks, but they are just not interested.In fact, he pretty much falls into their category of "prey".

So there you have it, that's our little world!  We love every inch of it!!!

E-I-E-I-O~

Laurie

Farm to table: Moore style

Last year for Earth Day, I went into Sam's class and helped with a seed planting project.  The students planted cucumber, cantaloupe and tomato seeds. They got to take these plantings home, plant them in their yard and hopefully have a harvest during the summer.  We also went to a local restaurant's garden and planted tomato plants for the restaurant to use in it's dishes. Well, I was floored by how many kids could not grasp this idea and had never had the opportunity to grow something.  They REALLY didn't know that it was possible to do this in their own back yard.

And, as you all know, (all 4 of you who may read this) our move last May took us from a residential neighborhood to a farm-type environment.  We're on about 4 acres, but believe me, this home has made us feel like we're on a 100+ acre working farm. Last summer, we got our first taste of growing our own fruits and veggies and the luxury of farm-fresh eggs.  It was great being able to run outside and see what there was for us to eat that day! We really feel so fortunate to have this wonderful experience for Sam and Lily!

So for 2014, I'm getting them involved in the whole process of growing a garden full of things that we love to eat.  We made a list of what veggies we want to grow, I researched the planting and germinating times and have now turned my office into a seed sprouting operation!

These are the first seeds that we planted.  We have several more veggies, but Mr. Farmer's Almanac says to start with these.

We set up shop on the kitchen table and got down to business.

We gave the seeds a happy home in my sunny office....

and lo and behold...look what we already have, just one week later!!! 

Putting our green thumbs to the test~

Laurie

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Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and I'm still a slow-poke!!!

 Well, the holidays have come and gone and what a wonderful break it was! The kiddos were out of school for almost a month and we were able to fit a lot of fun family times into those days!  Still recovering from my foot surgery, (have finally been able to start light exercise this week!), I was still moving around pretty slow, but that didn't keep the fun away.

We kicked the break off with making and decorating cookies.  Sam and Lily always love this and they were very delish!

Does this batch make you smile or what?!?!

My family came to celebrate the weekend before Christmas!  Sam and Lily love having all of their "Givens" cousins under one roof!

Some of John's family comes over for a Christmas Eve and Christmas morning celebration! And once again, I barely have any pictures to show.  This is Sam and Lily before the Christmas Eve service.

And the Christmas morning walk!

It was so fun to decorate the new house! 

We headed up to our cabin for New Year's Eve, then onto Chattanooga to celebrate a late Christmas with all of John's family.  I felt lucky that we got to stretch Christmas out to a 3 week celebration!

Zac is a great traveler except for one thing...he somehow thinks he's a lap dog.  And whose lap does he tend to sit in?  Well, let's see...

2013 was a great year full of some wonderful changes for our family!  We are so excited to see what lies ahead in 2014!

Happy~

Laurie

Alive and kickin' (well, not really kickin'!)

One day I hope to NOT start my blog with "I know it's been a while...", but with the way our lives go, it looks like that is going to be the norm for a while!

Since school started, our weekends have been packed with sports for both of the kiddos!  Lily is loving her soccer team "The Jolly Ranchers" and Sam has enjoyed his 2nd season of lacrosse on the Milton Eagles.

October brought our annual trip to St. Simons with John's parents.  It was 5 days of perfect weather and lots of fun!  As I look back at the pictures from past visits, I laugh because they all look the same except Sam and Lily Clare are a little taller and have on different bathing suits!  We stay in the same house and set up at the same sandy spot EVERY year...I guess we are creatures of habit!

There is something about fresh salty air that allows brothers and sisters get along!

Sam did a little beachfront lax practice!

John made friends with Mr. Heron as he threw him the minnows he caught in his net!

What...they are still getting along?!?!

October also brought us to our first Girl Scout camping trip.  Lily Clare and I ventured south to Luthersville, GA to Camp Serendipity.  (Kinda makes you think of a spa in the woods with massages and pedicures for everyone, right?!?)  Nope, none of that....but we did have a good time!

Lily learned how to make friendship bracelets; of which, I was a pro when I was her age!

She got to try her hand at leather stamping.

We hung out by the campfire - complete with s'mores,

had some time to horse around,

and even got to go kayaking without falling in!

Then came Halloween!  Sam was able to dress up for school and who do you think he went as???  Hint - Quack, Quack!  Duck Dynasty's Willie!  The beard was a big hit!

Lily was allowed to dress up as a character from a book and she chose - Willie Wonka!  She was proud to be the only girl dressed as a man! 

We were invited to trick or treat in our old neighborhood and the kids were so excited to be able to go be a part of the fun!

Sam was some kind of purple, disco "morph-man" and Lily was adamant on being a mean, green witch.

And we couldn't let the kids have all of the fun...so John and I went as Flo - from Progressive commercials and Mayhem from Allstate commercials.  We were awarded 2nd place, beat out by Woody and Little Bo Peep from Toy Story!

And where can you find me now????  Right here:

I had foot surgery on Thursday and have been laying on the sofa since.  Zac is protecting me and I'm full force in magazine reading, tv watching and Pinterest pinning!

So yep, we're alive! (I'm just not kickin'!)~

Laurie

Rolling into "8"!

This past week, my precious girl turned 8!!!  I just can't believe it that this little nugget:

has been a part of my life for almost a decade!  She is such a happy soul and makes us laugh daily...actually, more like hourly! 

Lily was very successful at stretching her birthday out for a week!  We first celebrated at our favorite Mexican restaurant on Saturday....

Feliz Cumpleanos, Lily!

Then we celebrated on the 16th at home with what else, but...take out Chinese!

She wanted me to surprise her with the desert, so I made her favorite "petit fours" (I use that term very loosely!)

The birthday week concluded with her big celebration this past Saturday with her friends at the skating rink!  

This blonde haired cutie is Abby.  She and Lily Clare have been friends since 3 yr old preschool.  But even better, they share the same birthday and were born in the same hospital!  So, we can only imagine that they were next to each other in their incubators starting their friendship!

Girl fun! 

Lily requested a red velvet cake...complete with cream cheese icing!!!

Such a fun time and such a sweet group of girls!  Happy Birthday my sweet Lily!

May all of your birthday wishes come true~

Laurie

P.S.  The birthday princess was brought back to reality when we went in for her dental check-up.  Someone needed a couple of teeth pulled to make room for the adult teeth coming in.  Guess who?!?!