Seth's 13th Birthday

Seth had a big birthday this year - 13 - wow!! My little brother is growing up so fast (and not so little anymore - he's almost taller than me!!).

Wrapping paper rolls make the perfect swords!

Seth was so very blessed by the many letters of exhortation and encouragement that he received from the men and young men in his life. 

Seth wanted to explore a new part of our property...

...so we did!

The cats came along. :)

Delicious homemade ice cream!

These pictures have become a tradition. We had to find a new place now that we don't have the china cabinet any more!

Seth's coming into manhood gift was a traditional Scottish claymore!! 

He also got a boar hunting spear!

Lemon meringue pie was his dessert of choice.

Mmmmm...

Fellowship with the Emmert Family and Bringing Our Cows Home!

When we went to pick up our cows from the Emmert family, they had us for lunch and fellowship!

The parents

We enjoyed music, fellowship, and Dutch Blitz!

They make kefir water too! :) Their pineapple is my new favorite flavor!!

Getting the cows loaded up.

On the way home we had to get some hay!

I think the dogs were happy to have the cows back too.

January 2016 in Review

Yay!! I'm actually on 2016!! :) Here is an overview of some things we did in January with a few more in depth posts to follow.

Baby Andrew "O" was in the hospital the beginning of the month. There was a possibility he was going to be needing surgery, but praise the Lord, he didn't have to have it!

Early morning sunrise.

An evening in the Cochran household.

Trenching to get water set up for the animals!

Putting final touches on our electric fence.

Building shelves in our laundry room!

We got a very *little* bit of snow!

Organizing the shop.

LOL - I know the feeling... :)

Sunset on the Cochran place.

Some of the crew enjoyed a trip to Bass Pro. 

We investigated a new part of our property and discovered that we have a really neat creek!!

Julia and I had a fabulous evening of coffee, brainstorming, and project planning! We're so excited about what we're working on and are looking forward to sharing it with all of you. More on that to come!! :)

We enjoyed an evening of fellowship with the Benders!

The fathers

The mothers

Some of the Bender/Cochran clan!

Mathias

Thaddeus 

Building the desk for the office space.

Sisters

Sarah and I had an awesome afternoon of "girl" time! It's such a blessing living close enough to do things like that now!!

Sabrina made some amazing whoopie pies - sugar and gluten free!

Healthy and delicious!!

Funny kittens.

Making kefir water.

Building the lean to for the animals.

Our helpful nail holder!

Awwww...

The finished product!

We had a wonderful evening of fellowship with the Ford family!

Sabrina made pizza!!

Elijah blessed us with a beautiful painting of our family crest.

Sunglasses - Stasia's solution to teary-eyed onion cutting! :)

The cows and goats came home!! Special thanks to the friends who took care of them for us!!

I'm Back!

Hey everyone! I'm really not sure that anyone reads this blog anymore, but in case you're out there, I'm back! :)

It has been a CRAZY couple of months around here and I *think* you'll agree that I have a couple very good excuses for not posting in so long...

First, we had internet problems. Yes, apparently we live farther out in the boons than we did before (even though it doesn't feel like it!). That was quite the fiasco and it's still not great, but it's better. Daddy and the boys even built our own internet tower (pictures to follow)! Obviously, it's hard to blog without internet connection!!!

and secondly...

The end of April (shortly after we got internet back) our house (or rather, TLF) was hit by a tornado!!! No kidding!!! What an experience!!! That's one of those things that always happens to everyone else but you. Not this time. We've lived in Oklahoma for 16 years and never even seen a tornado - and I STILL haven't seen one - but now I can say I've heard one (from the storm shelter)!!!

As you can imagine, that set in motion a whole new chain of events! The tornado took our roof and let me clarify that statement - what the tornado didn't take, the rain did. So, needless to say we had to move out - after we had practically just moved IN!!! It feels like we've stepped back in time as our TLF had to be taken down to the studs again because of all the rain damage and mold (it's amazing how fast that stuff grows!). The Lord is good though. Through all of this we've been so blessed to have so many friends who have helped us and prayed for us. We truly couldn't have done it without everyone who has blessed us in so many ways!! Most importantly, we're all safe!!

More tornado story to follow (especially since this is kind of an ongoing adventure!). For now I'm going to start back at the beginning of the year and work on getting caught up to the present. Posts should be more consistent for a while now!

One last thing - thank you so much to everyone who voted on our name. "Young Patriots for Liberty" it is! More on this to follow as well. :)

More coming soon!

~ Savannah