Auntie Lydia comes for a visit

You'll remember from my last set of posts that we drove to the farm with Auntie Chloe in her vehicle. So, the question is, how did we get back to our house, since we didn't have our vehicle at the farm?

We came back with Auntie Lyddie!!! We were delighted when my sisters made independent plans to visit us  two consecutive weekends this summer, one sister each weekend. :o) It worked out so perfectly for us, allowing the girls and me a short visit to the farm in between while Josh was away from us on a business trip.

We were going to make time to paint fingernails and toe nails while Auntie Chloe was here, but it just never happened, until Lydia's visit!

Hope wanted this colour because that's what is on my toes at the moment, and she wanted to be "just like Mommy."

My dear sis was here for peach-time again this year. From the first 40 pounds we made half a dozen pies and froze a bunch of peaches for smoothies on Saturday, followed by canning an additional 90 pounds on Tuesday.

While Hope helped Lydia fill the pies, Joy tagged along with me, rolling out the pie crusts.

"Dump!" Uh, let's just say that pie didn't lack for sugar. ;o)

Joy did pretty good as my helper, actually letting me guide her hands...

....and her just watching me when needed.

Hopey after naptime one day.

I had wandered out onto the front step to dead head the petunias, and she helped me. :o) She also had a fun time talking to Granny on the phone while sitting on the step.

More stories! Lydia read to Hope a lot while she was here, which was both a blessing and a help to me!

I wasn't planning on taking her picture, but she saw me with the camera in my hand an immediately started posing.

And so, I obliged. 

And she kept posing, and looking up expectantly at me. :o)

Okay, cute child. That's the last one.

While Lydia and I undertook the task of peach canning, I had a young friend from our church come over and play with Hope and Joy. It was a tremendous help not to have them underfoot and "helping" us too. We had the last canners on by 2:30 that afternoon, and Lydia and I even took time for a Scrabble game together before tackling the floors and stove top, which were in need of cleaning after the canning was done. :o)

We've had such a moist year here, the task of mowing the lawn has been quite a rewarding job. And unlike last year when I did most of the mowing, Josh owns the job this year, as I'm busy growing a big baby and can't be pushing that big old mower around. :o)

Unlike Hope, Joy loves the sound of the lawn mower. I think she mostly just loves being with her Daddy, and doing whatever he's doing. Just before I grabbed my camera, I saw her walking right behind where he was mowing, pushing her little toy mower like a pro.

But I guess maybe keeping straight lines got boring for her or something... :o)

...and up she toddled to me. :o)

Summer fun at the farm, Pt 2

More trampoline time!

I must admit, those little jeans of hers look rather cute rolled up like that!

Her hat was in the laundry for a much-needed de-soiling of the chin straps, so Mum pulled out this old hat that used to be mine to protect Joy's fair skin from the sun. 

Just Gran and the girls.

Back to the other hat again. Let's just say, they went through at least two outfits a day on the farm! Hurray for modern washing machines.

Thanks for the funny face, kiddo!

"Down?"

I think they were watching the dogs or something.

Coming from some other part of the house I found Joy merrily occupied in Uncle Luke's lap with his iphone! First, he had her playing on the little keyboard app that he's got on there...

Then they moved on to better things, like listening to some of Uncle Luke's favourite songs. :o)

Joy gripped that thing like she owned it... :o) The look in her eyes tells me she must have been concerned that I was going to take it away from her or something.

Joy and Granny had been out picking flowers in the garden, and it was so cute to watch Joy come trotting in, carefully holding onto her bundle of sweat peas. She was very gentle with them, and didn't let any of them move until Granny took them out of her hands to put them in the vase. I was rather amazed.

Then came the opportunity I had been waiting for - time to take both girls to the field at once.

We dropped Hopey off to ride in the combine with Auntie Lydia who was driving it that day, while Joy and I went to hang out with Uncle Avery in the tractor with the grain cart behind.

Love my littlest girl and littlest bro, and oh-my-word, does he ever look like my Dad!!!

I told Ave to put Joy down and see what she would do in the stubble.

Smiling to myself, I told her to smell the wheat like she smells flowers, just to see what she would do. :o) Another moment of cuteness captured = supreme mother-heart-happiness. :o)
"Thank You Lord for such sweet blessings like late afternoon sunlight over fields golden ripe for harvest, and cute little girls in pink and blue and bonnets." :o)

For the walk over to the tractor, I asked Ave to carry Joy, as it would have taken us a very long time to get there if she had been walking on her own short legs.

Aww. She loves her Uncle Ave.

Here come the combine drivers!

Joy had to find something to do while we waited in the tractor cab between loads. :o)

She was a little teary-eyed and distraught over not being allowed to touch the yellow ether button....

...but Uncle Ave helped her get the horn to sound with the black button, and that was good. :o) She also had to take out the red key and find all the different places where it could fit. :o)

Me and my munchkin and "Sidekick." :o) (that's our unborn baby's nickname...)

Showing Joy the combine coming closer to us...

... when they stick the auger out that means they're full and need to dump on us!

And then we had enough to fill "Moose" (the big red truck) so we meandered our way down the field and watched Avery unload what he said was one of his best job's at filling a truck. :o)

Joy liked to be right by the window.

This was a moment of history. Except for my dear Mum who was slaving away making an amazingly delicious supper meal for everyone, all Collin's present on the farm that day (which included Great-Grandma, only Chloe was absent) were in the field at the same time. Luke swung out to pick up the truck Avery had just filled, and Dad and Grandma stopped in on their way to the nearby Colony where they were picking up eggs and a large air-compressor Dad was borrowing to clean out the combine. It was very special.

Our time at the farm couldn't have ended more happily. :o) And we got to have lunch at Auntie Chloe's on our way back to Edmonton the next day, which made for a peaceful completion to the family-time we were blessed to soak up.

A short visit to the farm, Pt 1

Josh was to be away on business immediately following Chloe's visit, so the girls and I took advantage of the free ride Foremost-way and hopped in Auntie Chloe's van to go to the farm and get in on some harvest-time fun!

We were supposed to go to the Hutterite colonies the first day we were there, which is why I got the girls dressed up a bit, but it didn't end up working out. Oh well. Pink and denim will always be an adorable combination. :o)
While Hopey played with Granny's miniature measuring tape...

Joy and one of the Uncles got down to business with the big one!

The trampoliiiiiiiine! Hurray! The girls spent many hours at play on it during our four-day stay at the farm.

Hello cute child!

Oooofph! Bouncing down means you also gotta get back up again.

Here she goes again. :o)

My tall brothers getting the morning instructions from Dad. Avery runs the grain cart in the field and Luke runs the trucks to and from the yard while Dad drives the combine.

Meanwhile, Joy thought she should drive the golf cart.

I laughed out loud at this... catching her trying to see if she could reach the gas pedal. Short legs are a mother's mercy sometimes!

The girls like the little Tupperware cup/pitcher set at the farm, so Granny let them eat lunch with it one day.

Helloooooo durum. :o) With no sandbox currently available at the farm, and with 12 dozen cobs of corn for my Momma and me to shuck, we needed something for Hope and Joy to do outside.

As girls, my sisters and I used to play in the wheat pile inside the big hopper-bottom. Dad pulled it out for Hope and Joy, but it looked pretty greasy and grimy to use anymore, so... we had to be creative.

The girls were thrilled. They literally played there for over two hours while Mum and I shucked corn in lawnchairs beside them. :o)

Of course, Granny's Monster Cookies make everything better... Hope told me "Mom - I'm relaxin'."

Oh right - all was grand except for the part about Joy not liking chocolate. Oops. Her face, hands, and shirt were rather decorated with dark blotches. Oh well. Granny cleaned her up. :o)

We weren't the only ones at the farm that week....

Much to my brother Luke's delight, (and everyone else's too) his lovely friend Pilar (that's her on the left) and some of her family were also able to visit for a couple days. Pilar and Chenoa graciously jumped in and helped de-cob all those dozens of cobs of corn, and Mum and I were very relieved to have the extra help, as we would have turned into corn cobs ourselves by the time we got it all done if we were doing it just the two of us. Especially since I had to take a nap as things were getting going... :o)

YUM YUM YUM! Oh my - fresh Hutterite grown super-sweet-corn-on-the-cob.... makes me wonder how old the stuff in the grocery store is when I buy it, because this stuff just about melted off the cob into your mouth... you didn't have to bite and pull. :o) Oh well. I'm thankful for the produce we do have available here.

 More fun comes to the farm - Auntie Lydia and Auntie Chloe pulled themselves away from their jobs in Lethbridge to join the party down at the farm for an evening. :o)

They had the girls bouncing to Sunday school songs for nearly an hour on the trampoline before supper.

Then Auntie Lyddie asked if Hopey wanted to go see the kittens in the barn... Didn't take long to answer that one!

Enroute to the barn with my camera I had another picture to take... :o) Luke and his girl backing up the cart to unload it together in the yard. :o)

Hopey was de-lighted!

Joy, not so much.

Things went a bit better for Hope once she learned how to hold the kitty.

Listening to wise Auntie Lydia recount stories of when she, Chloe, and I would spend hours in the barn looking for kittens to tame as children... mostly Lydia. Chloe and I didn't always last as long as she did.

Hope wanted me to take a video of her holding the kitty.

"Joy - don't you want to hold a kitten too?" "NO!" Okay then. Glad she knows her own mind, I guess.