The Sweetness of Family

This post is picture heavy since pictures contain "a thousand words"....

It's been an eventful ten days here at The Sweetness of Home Farm...Early on Friday, June 10th I woke up to continous contractions.  We called our friend Emily to come and watch the kids, but on the way to the hospital the contractions completely STOPPED....so frustrating....so instead of bringing home a baby we brought home Stripe and Spot

Spot is the closest goat in the picture.  She is a French Alpine goat-just born in March.

Stripe is a one year old pygmy goat.

They are in the outdoor pen that we had built for our now deceased dexter cow.

Jason began tethering them in our tree line this past weekend to help with brush control.

Then this past Wednesday, June 15th at 10:21pm Elizabeth Grace joined our family at 5 lbs 2oz and 18 1/2 inches long:

Jessie's prayers were answered because we were able to sneak her and Joey in before visiting hours Thursday morning so that they could hold their new baby sister before leaving to visit family in Wisconsin:

Katie and Anna think their baby Libby is pretty special as well:

We came home from the hospital to find that the Momma Duck had hatched her eggs!:

Then on Friday we helped out a friend in need.  We are going to graze their Jersey steers in exchange for getting to keep some of the meat:

My mother-in-law Debbie came down to help for the weekend.  It was such a blessing to have her help with meals and taking care of the toddlers while I focused on making myself rest and nursing Libby!

Joey and Jessie are in Wisconsin visiting my first husband's family.  They are all such wonderful people and mean the world to all of us.  We consider them all our family and thankfully they consider all of us family as well.

Joey absolutely adores his Uncle Jakey.  Jacob just graduated from high school and will be attending St. John's in Minnesota in the fall.

Jessie always enjoys her time with all the aunts and uncles.  I love seeing all the pictures.  Everyone always comments how blessed we are that our blended family looks like they are all complete siblings and not step siblings.  While this is very true it's also nice to see how much Joey and Jessie look like my first husband's family:

(Joey and Jessie with their Cousin Reagan above.  Jessie with Reagan and her Aunt Laura below.  By the way, Reagan and Laura both have the middle name of "Elizabeth"-we picked a saint name and a family name for our new daughter.)

My brother-in-law James married his high school sweetheart Amanda this past weekend.  I was really disappointed to miss the wedding, but have enjoyed looking at all the pictures.  We are so happy and privileged to have Amanda join our family.  We wish them many blessed years together and look forward to whenever God blesses them with children.  (Yeah-more nieces and nephews!)

We are looking forward to my other sister-in-law Mary getting married next February to her fiance Joey Sobotka.  Her Joey will be deployed in August to the Middle East, so are praying for his safe return and protection while he serves our country!

I have been blessed with two fantastic mother-in-laws.  Here is my mother-in-law Sherry and father-in-law Larry dancing at the wedding reception:

Here is Sherry with Joey:

Thank you for making it through this long post!  You've shown perseverance....just like Anna did when she insisted on holding her baby sister Libby for the first time.  (She held her for five minutes and cried when Jason picked Libby back up.  This is my favorite picture ever!)

We pray that you are all having a blessed summer and that you are enjoying life....remember to dance as if no one is watching you-enjoy all the blessings of God to the fullest.  Our Joey does this very well:

My mother-in-law Debbie took us out to dinner on Father's Day.  Happy Father's Day Jason-I  am so blessed by God to have found true love with a righteous God fearing man twice...I can't imagine my life without you, farm animals and all!

My goal is to try and make at least one blog post a week-knowing that some weeks this will happen and some it won't.  Just know that from my family to yours we are wishing all of you the sweetness of your home and family!

Always,

Stephanie