Introducing............

William Nicholas Anson

William arrived very early Thursday morning weighing in at 8lbs & 12ozs and measuring just over 20 inches long!! Mother and baby are doing exceptionally well!!

We praise God for His abundant goodness to our family with the gift of Little Will.

"I will praise thee, oh Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations." Psalms 57:9

Little Helper!!

Little fingers shaping mini loaves of bread, tiny hands gripping wooden spoons stirring cookie dough; happy faces covered in icing. For me, one of the greatest joys of a large family has been cooking with younger siblings!! Laying on the floor in front of the oven watching muffins rise; watching them try to cut carrot sticks with a butter knife. Their little squeals of delight as they flip a pancake all by themselves!! Sometimes things are a bit too salty after they've helped but it's always worth it!!

With Silas and Phoebe fast growing up, there's no longer very many little helpers in our family!! It's difficult to see that season pass, and our younger ones grow up!!

But now: the joy of little nephews who are excellent little helpers!!

Marcus was helping Esther prepare veggies for the grill one night for supper and I just had to snap some photos!

"Just two more, two more."

"Can I taste this????"

"Shake it gently!"

"Hey Aunt Elizabeth, I'm a big helper!!!"

Chicken Butchering!

It wouldn't be summer at our house without chickens to butchering!! This summer our butchering was broken up into several different days due to plucker difficulties.

When we returned from our trip, we found we had lost many, many birds. So we only butchered around 300 of our original 600 chickens.

Butchering has been a wonderful way for our family to work together and see big projects accomplished by many hands working in unison. Talking time is always precious as we process the birds- topics ranging from chicken anatomy to theology.

We were especially grateful to have Dad home the entire summer. His usual summer job at the local factory was no longer availiable this year. After contemplating alternative employment options, Dad felt the Lord leading him to stay at home this summer!! What a joy it was to have him home every day!! Everything just runs smoother when Dad is there!! And he was certainly a welcome addition to the butchering crew!

The boys do the dirty work;

the killing and hanging.


Phoebe is starting to play a bigger role on butchering day!

Dad scalded and plucked!

Gutting.

This year we were blessed with several friends who helped us butcher!! It sure goes faster when you have friends to help! Thank-you!!! :)

Tabitha finishes the process at the packaging table!!

Trivia Tuesday!!

And the answers to the last trivia are:

Seth Nathaniel

Noah Spencer

Moses Richard

Micah Joel

Silas David

And the new trivia is:

Lydia's Baby is due on Friday, August 21st!!

Is it a girl or a boy?

When (day & time) will he/she be born?

How much will he/she weigh??

Happy Guessing- and hopefully by next Tuesday we'll have your answers!! :)

Trivia Tuesday!!

The answer to last week's question is:

B. Singing!!

The new trivia question is:

The Middle Names are scrambled--- can you match them correctly!?!?!?

Seth...............Richard

Noah..................David

Moses.............Spencer

Micah..........Nathaniel

Silas......................Joel

Have fun matching! :)

Freezing Corn!

It's been a busy summer for our family. We kicked into high gear as soon as we returned from our trip, every day full of summer activities: butchering chickens, picking blueberries, preserving garden produce, mowing yards, walking beans, training horses, celebrating birthdays and visits from friends!

With the past weeks so full, it's been hard to find any spare minutes for blogging!! But this week as we have a break from butchering chickens, I'm going to try and put together a few posts to give you a glimpse of how our summer has been!!

God has blessed us greatly-- we stand in awe of His mighty works!

One project has been freezing sweet corn!! Some friends grow corn for us each year, then we get together to spend the day processing hundreds and hundreds of ears. This year we froze nearly 300 quarts!!

The boys and Dads picked and shucked then brought corn up to the house.

A bountiful harvest!

Washing.

Silking.....

and more silking!

The corn is blanched.......

then dumped in tubs to cool.

Cutting!!

Corn, corn and more corn!!

Lots of corn waiting to be cut off the ear.

Tabitha and Haylie take a quick break from cutting!

The cobs ready to be fed to the steers.

Trivia Tuesday!!

The answer is..........

Charity!

(Who learned to read at age 4.)

The new trivia is......

Which of the following is our family's favorite way of passing the time during traveling?

A. Counting how many red, blue and yellow cars we see.

B. Singing.

C. Playing 20 Questions.

D. Sleeping.

E. Waving at people passing us.

Happy Guessing!! :)