A few photos of the kids...

Duke & Duchess

Introducing.... We have new kids!!!

It was Tuesday afternoon...Imagine our surprise! We had friends over and one of their children said to one of our children "So, how many goats do y'all have?" To which our child began pointing and naming goats only to realize...

THERE ARE TWO BABIES IN THERE!

Lady and the kids

Appropriately named Duke and Duchess

Duchess!  Isn't she beautiful?!

Duke, he looks like his mother :)

By now we had figured out that our attempts to neuter Bucky must have failed (LOL) and that must mean that Lucy is pregnant too.  It's so hard to tell with goats, they are very round anyway.  Sure enough, Wednesday morning we awoke to:

Lucy and her new kids!

Now we need names for these, a boy and a girl.  :)

Life on the Lewis Farmette... never a dull moment!

The Friendship House

And for a little story about the name... the home we lived in when we lived in Mississippi was called The Friendship House.  It was built in the early 1930s and many homes in that area are named. It was also used as a restaurant in the mid 60s and again in the early 90s. It was a gorgeous house. Sigh. Anyway, when we moved we brought one of the signs with us.


We had this storage building, 20x24, right outside the sewing room door. (Which is relevant when you get to the bathroom part of the story. LOL)

Matt and Jennifer had lived with us off and on for two years. We decided to renovate it to make it a small 'guest house'. We did all the work ourselves and with some friends from church. (That is the reason is has a half bath and not a full bath. LOL.  It’s a short walk to the sewing room door and there’s a full bath just past the sewing room. :hn: ) The plan was for M&J to live there and save $$ so they could buy their own place. That happened sooner than we expected and we found ourselves with an empty FH. We talked about what would be the best use for the space and decided we wanted it not only for guests but that it needed to be a useful place for us too :hn:


The front half is living room/kitchen and the back is a large bedroom with half bath. We are going to put a full-sized stove in the kitchen and use it for a summer kitchen and for baking overflow! Molly and I are SO excited about this!!! The boys wanted a place to exercise and a ‘rec room’ so that’s what the back room is for. All these things can be pushed aside to make room for several air mattresses for when we have guests. The futon in the living room makes a nice bed space too.

From the front.

Looks like a harmless storage building, right?  hhmmm... let's look inside!

The living room/kitchen.  LR is to your right, kitchen to your left.

And the back room and half bath.

It was decorated to match their colors (notice the “accidental” Dr. Pepper kitchen colors ROFLOL ) Molly and I have decided we want to go with a beach theme color scheme in there. We can recover the futon easily and maybe I can beg a friend to help recover the loveseat.  That will be a project for later but it’s fun to plan it.

Now taking reservations for the Friendship House, The Lewis Family B&B! Come one, come all!  We love to have company!!!

Woohoo!!!! Movin' on up!

Remember that song on the Jefferson's?  I'm dating myself, aren't I?  lol

We now have DSL.  woohoo!!!!  Thank you to my sweet husband for his patience and diligence getting this all set up.  It's not only Faster than what we did have, it's CHEAPER too!  A win/win situation for us!

Maybe now I'll blog more regularly?  Well, we also got a new computer and all of the photos are on the old one so ... ;)  Tony got a transfer cable, I just have to ask him what goes where. 

Everything is good around here.  School is going well, everyone is healthy, life is good.  God is good!  (Well, He's good no matter how things are going around here, amen?!)

Caleb is a little lighter now... :)

He had all four wisdom teeth removed yesterday.  The surgery went well and he is healing nicely.  Thanks for praying :)

The Great Backyard Bird Count

Fri:
3 Canadian geese
2 pied-billed grebes
1 turkey vulture
2 red shouldered hawks
2 American coots
2 mourning doves
1 Eastern phoebe
1 brown headed nuthatch
1 Eastern bluebird
1 American robin
2 Northern mockingbirds
1 Eastern towhee
41 chipping sparrows
6 Northern cardinals
1 Red winged blackbird
2 Brewers blackbirds

Bird count:  69
Species count:  16

Sat:
8 Canadian geese
1 pied-billed grebe
2 turkey vultures
3 American coots
2 mourning doves
2 red-bellied woodpeckers
3 bluejays
1 Carolina chickadee
2 tufted titmouse
2 Eastern bluebirds
1 American robin
2 Northern mockingbirds
1 Blackpoll warbler
1 black and white warbler
1 Eastern towhee
27 chipping sparrows
10 Northern cardinals
1 redwinged blackbird

Bird count:  70
Species count:  18

Sun:
8 Canadian geese
2 pied-billed grebe
1 osprey
3 American coots
2 mourning doves
1 red-bellied woodpecker
1 downy woodpecker
1 Eastern phoebe
1 bluejay
1 American crow
1 Carolina chickadee
2 tufted titmouse
1 American robin
1 Eastern towhee
35 chipping sparrow
7 Northern cardinals
1 red-winged blackbird
9 Brewers blackbirds

Bird count:  78
Species count:  18

Mon:
(In our backyard - early morning)
6 Canadian geese
2 pied-billed grebe
2 mourning dove
1 red-bellied woodpecker
8 bluejay
3 Carolina chickadee
1 tufted titmouse
1 brownheaded nuthatch
1 American robin
1 Northern mockingbird
1 orange-crowned warbler
35 chipping sparrow
11 Northern cardinal
1 red-winged blackbird
6 Brewers blackbirds

Bird count:  80
Species count:  15

(at T.H. Stone Memorial St. Joseph Penisula State Park, St. Joe, FL)
9 brown pelican
8 great egret
4 snowy egret
1 white ibis
1 Wilson's plover
8 willett
15 laughing gull
15 ring-billed gull
2 mourning dove
1 belted kingfisher
2 fish crow
1 American robin
1 Northern mockingbird
1 song sparrow
4 Brewer's blackbird

Bird count:  73
Species count:  15

TALLY:
Total Bird Count:  172 (most seen at one time per species)
Total Species Count:  36

Large Family Logistics... book giveaway

My friend Chautona did a book review of Large Family Logistics by Kim Brenneman.  Hop on over and read the review and you can get a chance at winning a copy of the book!

http://paradoxology.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/book-review-large-family-logistics/

It Is Done

Well, it's been eight days, I'm calling it done. 

It seemed to take forever with Nehemiah but I think that's because he's so much younger than our other sons were.  He's asking to go 90% of the time, no day time misses and dry overnight.

Seems wierd to close that chapter and pack up the diapers.  I've had a child in diapers for eighteen years and three months.  :)

... and so the Potty Journey begins...

Monday:
Nehemiah decided Saturday that he wanted to wear underwear and not a diaper. He said diapers hurt his tummy... lol

He had one pee miss Saturday. Wore unders all day Sunday (even at church, where he pooped in the potty once and in his unders once) and slept in unders.

I don't think he's really ready though. But if he wants to go potty I'm not gonna say no .

Tuesday: 
No misses, dry overnight

Wednesday:
Two pee misses and I told him he had to go back in a diaper. He just cried this sweet little pitiful cry... he wanted his underwear and not his green diaper. ;) Wore the diaper for a few hours and had a bm and then back into unders. Dry again last night.
 
Thursday:
I just don't think he's ready because he doesn't come and tell me when he needs to go.  if I ask him if he needs to go potty he will either say "yes", "no" or "not yet" LOL
 
I guess we'll just see how today goes...

No misses today, dry overnight as usual.

Friday:
Well, had a pee miss last evening and we put him back in a diaper.  He just cried and cried... he loves his unders.  He wore the diaper all evening and night and woke up dry again.  He's back in his beloved unders!

Saturday:
No misses, asked to go potty most times

Sunday:
One miss but Daddy takes the credit for it... lol, asked to go potty most times

Monday:
I guess this is it.  I sure didn't think he would be ready so young but he is. 

It.Is.Done.

On another note... we have one child who has secondary nighttime enuresis so we purchased a Malem Bedwetting Alarm.  I will post our journey here:
So we got the Malem bedwetting alarm recommended for our very deep sleeping son. Tony wanted to try this before trying the chiro and then the ped.

Sat night: he was dry


Sun night: alarm went off at 5:15 am. Woke us up but not son. That thing is LOUD. Tony finally got him awake but, of course, he was soaking wet.


Mon night: 2:15 alarm went off. Did not even phase son. Sound asleep and soaking wet.
Someone give me some hope that this will eventually wake him up


Tues night: 2:15 and 5:30, wet again and alarm did not wake him the first time but did the second time


Wed night: woke up at 5:30 when Tony's alarm clock went off, thought it was the Malem and went to the potty!


Thur night: woke up to his alarm by himself, small wet spot on unders but he stopped the flow and went to the bathroom himself.


Fri night: successful, woke up on his own to the alarm


Sat night: 2 am, half wet before Tony got him up.


Sun night: dry all night, no alarm


Mon night: got up to the alarm himself, still dry


Tues night: woke up to alarm, tiny drop of wetness, went potty


Wed night: wet, alarm went off


Thu night: stayed dry all night


Fri night: stayed dry all night


Sat night: alarm woke him up, already wet


Sun night: forgot the alarm, dry all night


Mon night: woke up on his own, no alarm, to go potty in the middle of the night


Tue/ Wed/Thu: Dry!!!


Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon: Dry!!!


DRY FOR NINE NIGHTS!!!

It was neat when I started...

I promise!  Why is it that one always has to make a mess in order to reorganize and rearrange... ?

I had this idea.  But I was only going to move one shelf.  Really.  And then this happened...

I decided to redo the way I had patterns organized.  So I made a color copy of the front of all these patterns (almost 300) and organized them, put them in a binder with dividers.  I wanted the patterns to be in open totes (used like drawers) in the closet which meant I had to clean out the closet. 

Right in the midst of this the little ones got sick and have wanted me to hold them off and on for several days.

And now it's my turn... I have the head cold and feel miserable.

I just need to get this finished, ya know?

Jr Triple Bunks - All "Forted" Up!

The little boys wanted a 'fort bed' so this is my version... ;)

It will be painted brown with some fun touches.  It's not against the wall completely because we have to put sliders on the bed and then paint it before it's firmly in it's place.  This thing is really heavy and very sturdy.  It won't get painted until the new year though.  Stay tuned!

Jr Triple Bunks

Our latest project.  Part whateveritis in the boys room... the 'frontier fort' (aka Boonesborough) bed!


Designing and building as we go.

I think this was after I said "Cut three 2x4s 32 inches long..." and then said "Oops, unscrew those and cut them 29 inches long!"  I'm married to Job!  LOL

Patient laborers -- Sam and Luke

Elijah, just hanging around... (yes, he needs a haircut! lol)

The bones are done... now for some fun touches and then paint!

side view...

little ones distressing the boards for the front of the fort... discovering that MDF is very hard!


More as we progress... nothing like step by step progess pics, right?  :)



A new page is up!

http://tonyanddanalewis.blogspot.com/p/beagle-fyi.html

Lots of really interesting information about Beagles! 

2010 Family Pictures

Matt, Jennifer, Landon, and Michael
Caleb
Caleb
Molly

Molly

Sam

Sam

Luke

Luke

MaryVance

MaryVance

Elijah

Elijah

Isaac

Isaac

Isaac

Joseph

Joseph

Nehemiah

Nehemiah