!!!!!!2010!!!!!!

To all my blogger friends:
Ahh, what a year 2009 was!  This may be a decent sized blog post here....but I have lots to say!  First, let's have a picture recap of this amazing year.

Our foster girls.  They left our home in February.  We still pray for them and ask for your prayers as well.

 

 In February, our kids began arriving.  Our last one hit the ground on March 30th.

Little Ellie joined the farm in early March.

Spring came with all of it's beauty and urge to get outside!

We made 3 cuttings of hay, beginning in May and baled the last in August.

Abigail and I worked at Harvey's Farm from April - August.  We are so blessed to have such awesome employers!

We attended 4 shows this year, 2 in Michigan, 1 in Ohio and 1 in Indiana.  We were really excited on how well our goats did.

 

 Rachel had an open heart surgery in late July.  We were so thankful that she did great through the surgery and bounced right back to her ol' normal self.

 

 I had a great time getting my hog ready for fair this year.  He was so much fun!

 

 Fair was a great week for us.  Here Elizabeth and Ben show in Showmanship.

Abigail did quite well with her steer "Zeb".  Now she is having fun working with her new steer for 2010, Charlie.

 We were blessed to host a fall fest at our home in October.  Over 160 people attended.

 

 In September, we go two new little boys added to our family.  They still live with us. 

 

 October was a way cool month where I got to compete with my Livestock Judging team at FFA Nationals in Indianapolis.  What an amazing experience, and how much I have learned!

 

 Cutting down our Christmas tree for 2009.

Those are just a few pictures of our life through the year of 2009.  As I look back, I realize it had it's ups and downs like usual but it was an amazing year.  I learned so much, from my family, from God, about life, about agriculture, the list goes on and on.

2010!  Wow, it's amazing that its come on so fast.  2009 just flew by and it has made me realize that time is fleeting, it doesn't stay around forever.  You gotta live each day to it's fullest.  That means, serve my family, serve God, learn all I can, and enjoy life.

My Dad encouraged us to write down some goals for 2010.  I'm looking forward to this year and all it may hold for me and I want to share a few goals of mine.

1. Learn to serve God and my family to my best ability.

2. Learn to play my guitar
3. Bow Hunt
4. Get to American Dairy Goat Association Nationals
5. Place at least second with my homebred hogs
6. Place in top 6 in hog showmanship.
7. Show dairy cattle
8. Become an FFA officer
9. Win the State 4-H livestock Judging Contest with my awesome team
10. Go camping with the family.




Okay, last but not least.  My New Year's Eve story.  :)  Okay, so the morning of New Year's Eve, we invited like over 20 teens to come to our home for a party.  Only 2 showed up.  It was still a great time of playing games, eating some awesome food and talking and talking and did I mention talking?  We played "Life on the Farm" from 9:30 'till 11:45 ( we talked most of the time, so sometimes it was like minutes between turns!) and then just hung out playing "Truth or Dare".  We ended up doing that until mom came out around 1:00 to tell us that our pony Daisy was in her herb garden.  Well that is totally not where that pony is supposed to be, so we all pull on coats, boots, hats and gloves and head out into the cold.  We found that not only was Daisy out, but so where the other two horses, Hoss and Angel.  So we started after them but they decided to make it a little more tough and head out onto the road.  I hoped they had headed to our neighbor's house (they have horses as well) but wasn't sure.  So a two took the truck down the road and two of us went to their house out by their barns.  We found all 3 of them safe and sound getting reacquainted with their friends (even though they see them like every day over the fence).  It took a little bit to catch them, but we managed (with a scoop of grain someone had thought to take along). Of course they were all quite jittery and the roads just had to be slippery, so it was a slow, "take-it-easy" walk home.  :)  We finally got to bed around 2:00 and slept in until a blessed 8:00.  (side note; I haven't slept in that late since I was sick a few months back).  What an amusing way to begin the new year with!


Well, I guess I will close here.  I hope that you have had a wonderful 2009 and are welcoming 2010 with great joy!  Hopefully you have made a few resolutions and will keep them all.


In Christ,
~Bethany~