Bray Family Farms

I feel like I have been really focused over the past few weeks on finding ways to bring more healthy, local food into our house.  I recently found out that a friend of mine from college was diagnosed with lymphoma and I am finding it very difficult to "ignore" the fact that what we put into our bodies affects our health in a major way.  I have made baby steps over the past few years...using non-toxic household cleaners (thanks mom & Shaklee!), growing my own, and buying organic, locally grown veggies, and my next hurdle to overcome is meat & dairy.
I started looking online to see if there were any farms nearby that I could get meat, eggs & milk from and I came across Bray Family Farms.  I loaded up the kids this morning so we could go pick up some eggs to try.  I thought we would just drive up, pick up the eggs and head home...little did I know, it would be a really fun morning!  After driving 30 minutes to the farm, then driving past the farm about 5 times b/c I was "lost", we finally made it to our destination.  We pulled up and there didn't appear to be anyone inside the house, so I looked out back toward the farm and saw a man standing near a fence talking on his cell phone.  I walked up to him with the boys and told him why I was there.  His name was Andy and he was excited that we stopped by, but his wife had forgotten to tell him we were coming.  He showed us around and let us hang out with the animals while he drove over to his actual house to pick up the eggs.  They had 2 pigs (about 500 lbs each!), about 300 chickens, a bunch of cows, some goats, and honey bees.  Harrison had so much fun watching all of the animals and when Andy came back with our eggs, he took Harrison on a tractor ride around the farm and then took him into the hen house to pick out a freshly laid egg.
After about an hour or so, I decided we needed to head on home so Andy could get back to work.   When it was time to go, Harrison did not want to leave, so I told him that we had sandwiches waiting for us in the car.  Andy told us we could have picnic at one of their picnic tables, so we got to eat right there with him on the farm.
It was so interesting to talk to him.  The farmland has been in his family for quite a while and they were hit really hard with the floods a few years ago.  He said that their farm was 12 ft under water and they lost all but 36 of their 350 chickens.  All of their crops were destroyed and they are just now getting back to normal.  They now do meat and vegetable CSA's so I think I am going to sign up for a 3 month meat CSA.  I was so mad that I left my camera at home.  Hopefully next time I will remember it!!  We had such an unexpectedly fun morning and it feels good knowing that we are supporting our local farmers!  Since I forgot my camera, I thought I would just post a pic of the farm:

OOPSIES!!

My apologies to anyone who saw the half naked picture of Harrison reading to Davis!!  I was deliriously tired when putting up that post the other night and clearly did not proof it before I posted!  oops!  The post has been edited and is now "G" rated again!

2010, A year in review...

This has been one of the fastest and fun years of my life!  Raising a 2 year old and giving birth to his little brother has kept me busy but mostly has made me wonder, where did the time go????  I decided a while ago that this blog would be an easier way to track the boys than the actual baby books, so I wanted to post a few pictures of the boys to see how much they've changed over the year.

Harrison:

Harrison started the year just about to turn 2 years old.  He could speak pretty well but the biggest change that I've noticed in him in the past year has definitely been in this area.  He is so fun to listen to because he uses a bunch of phrases that always catch me off guard.  Its so hard to believe how much he picks up just from listening to us.  Some of his favorites right now are "maybe", "probably", "now we're cookin'!", which usually sounds like "now we're tookin'!", "make me like a bug"...his way of saying "snug as a bug in a rug"...it took me a while to figure out what he was asking for this.  I didn't realize it, but when he gets out of the bath tub, when I wrap him up in his towel I always say "snug as a bug in a rug!".  My other favorite phrase is "four  minutes".  This one cracks me up because what he means to say is "for a minute"....as in, "hold this for a minute", or "I'll be back in a minute"...he uses "four minutes" for both of these..."I will be back four minutes".  He also likes to use his manners...he will say "no ma'am, no thank you".  Yesterday he wanted me to play with his remote control bulldozer with him so he had put 2 of his chairs right next to each other.  He sat down in one and said, "mommy, you can sit here (pointing to his other chair), if you like!".  I just smiled and thought...he sounds like such a grown up!!
Harrison also likes to say the blessing at dinner.  He learns a new one each month at school so I try to do the prayer of the month, but his favorite is "God our father, God our father, we thank you, we thank you, for our many blessings, for our many blessings, a-men, a-men".  Anytime I try to say a different one, he always says that he wants to say this one instead.  I think its because he knows all the words..I need to get a video of him singing this, because it is so sweet.
Harrison's favorite songs right now are the ABC's and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  His favorite foods are buttermints, skittles, candy canes, gummies, chicken nuggets and french fries.  These are all usually special treats, but if it were his choice, he wouldn't eat anything else.
November 2009

November 2010

DAVIS
Davis made his big entrance halfway into 2010, but has totally shaken things up around here. He clearly likes to be noticed, considering he made his debut on July 4th.  He is such a sweet baby and LOVES to be held!  Even though he has only been here for 6 months, he has changed so much and is growing way too fast!  Right now Davis loves to lay on his tummy.  its so funny to me how different the two boys are.  Harrison learned to flip from his stomach to his back very early on but didn't flip from his back to his stomach until pretty late.  Davis on the other hand, will only flip from his back to his stomach.  He loves to be on his belly and now sleeps that way every night.
His most recent achievement, is that his teeth are starting to come in.  His bottom 2 teeth came in on Jan 3rd and I have a feeling that the top ones will be coming through any day now.  Because of this, he loves to chew on anything and everything.  His favorite thing seems to be washcloths.  Anytime he is in the bathtub, he grabs the washcloth immediately and starts screaming if you try to take it away.  I simply can't help but laugh when he does this!  I think his gums are bothering him, because he has not been wanting to eat much solid food lately.  I brought out the food teether and have been putting bananas and homemade teething biscuits inside and he LOVES it!  I hope he is at least getting a few nutrients this way since he isn't wanting to eat very much.
Davis' favorite activities right now seem to be jumping around in his exersaucer and watching his big brother.  Harrison is so sweet with him and Davis just can't get enough of him.  Harrison is always climbing all over him and hugging him...everytime I see him doing this, I always think Davis is going to start screaming, but he usually starts cracking up laughing.  Davis is starting to learn how to sit up and can do it with a boppy behind him.  I know babies grow so fast, but I just wish I could slow time down a little!  I love this phase and I know it is just going too quickly.  I am trying to soak it all in and I am just so thankful that I am able to spend my days with my boys, watching them grow and learn!
Here are a few pictures of Davis from July to now:
July 2010

Such sweet brothers:

October 2010

November 2010

December 2010

January 2011...so sweet...

is it groundhog day...again???

We are now finishing day 3 of being caged up at home.  The boys are doing exceptionally well - I think its just Lance and I that are itching to get out of here and see the real world again!  You can tell you're desperate when you beg to go to the grocery store to get out of the house!  After breakfast this morning, Lance said, "Jenny, I should probably go to Publix to get some more food.  I think if I shovel the driveway I should be fine on the roads"...me - "no, I can go"...Lance - "no, really, I can go!"...me - "okay, but can I go to CVS when you get back???".  Don't get me wrong, I am actually going to be sad when things go back to normal and I don't get to see Lance during the day.  I have a feeling that Harrison is going to have a hard time as well.  It took him 2 weeks after Christmas to get used to Lance being back at work and he is already starting to tell me, "mommy, I don't want daddy to go to work".  Poor little guy - its always so hard to explain why he has to leave everyday. 

On a more cheery note, we have had fun getting to play outside in the snow each day.  Yesterday I braved the elements and walked over to the Mayfields' house to go sledding down their hill.  I blew up a few pool floats, packed up the kids in the all-terrain stroller and got a workout trying to sludge through the snow and ice filled streets.  We made it over there, but unfortunately since there was such a thick layer of ice over the snow, the floats wouldn't sail down the hill very well.  They kept getting stopped on the way down by big chunks of ice.  I think, amidst all the fun, we may have officially lost the crab float.  Oh well, at least we tried and had a great time while we were at it!
Here is Harrison's first attempt...Lance is playing "goalie" at the bottom of the hill!

How cute are they??

Ben, aka "Spiderman", wanted to get into the action too!

Today (Wed), I finally got around to making a snowman with Harrison.  I wish I would have done this on day 1, because most of the snow wouldn't stick together since it was all mixed with ice.  I was only able to use the snow that was over the landscaping since it hadn't been touched yet.  I don't ever remember having such a hard time trying to build a snowman growing up!  Apparently I've lost a few of my "yankee" skills from growing up!  I was able to make a small snowman and Harrison helped me decorate him.  It was funny because Oakley kept coming over and eating the Hershey kisses off the snowman and it was driving Harrison crazy.  I couldn't help but laugh!

Proud of our hard work!  Oakley just looks mad that I wouldn't let her keep eating the Hershey kisses!

Aside from playing in the snow, Harrison's other favorite activity is playing with trains.  Thankfully Santa listened to Harrison's Christmas list and brought a bunch of train track and tunnels and bridges for him.  Lance has mad spacial planning skills and got so excited the other night to build an awesome track using all the new pieces.  Here is the most recent track that he built for Harrison...I still can't believe that he was able to fit that many track pieces on one train table!

"Its Snowing! Santa's coming!!"

When Harrison woke up this morning, he came into our room and, as always, said "mommy, can you get up and make me some cereal?  Pullleeeeze!"  I told him, yes, but first he needed to go look out my window.  I'm not sure what he was thinking, because he looked at me like I was crazy.  He finally did and when he saw the snow, he said, "ITS SNOWING!!! SANTA'S COMING!!!"  He was so excited, but we quickly had to explain to him AGAIN that Santa only comes once a year.  (The entire week or 2 after Christmas, he would ask everyday when Santa was coming again). 
The snow started last night around 9 pm and continued through the morning.  Lance and I walked outside last night when it was really coming down and it was just beautiful!

 

 I think we got around 6 inches or so and since we had freezing rain after the snow, there was a layer of about 1/4" of ice on top of the snow.  The roads were "treacherous" as the meteorologists like to say, so Lance was snowed in.  He worked most of the day, but we were able to get him to come outside to play in the snow for a while.  Thankfully, when we were in Cincinnati for Christmas, we bought some snow pants for Harrison at the Gap Outlet, so he was set!  They are a size 4/5 b/c I really wasn't thinking he was going to have a chance to use them until next year - ha!

Once we were all up, we put on about 4 layers of clothes and headed outside.

Davis wasn't crying, but I think he was just trying to figure out what in the world we were doing b/c he had the most serious look on his face all morning.  Harrison, on the other hand, could not stop smiling!

Harrison and his cousins made a bunch of snow angels in Cincinnati, so I told him to make one in the snow.  We all started laughing because since there was a layer of ice on top of the snow, he was basically just waving his arms over the snow, he couldn't break through the barrier.  I love this smile though!  Pure joy!

Harrison wanted to help clean the snow off of Lance's car...

Harrison had so much fun stomping around and even made a new friend, Rebecca.  She lives just up the street and came looking for our neighbor.  The neighbor girls didn't want to come outside, so she came and played with us instead.  I was surprised that we were the only ones playing outside all morning.

 Oakley even had fun too.l  She was so cute to watch b/c she would bunny hop through the snow.

Action shot...

On the hunt for a good stick...

Found it!!!!

And you always have to warm up with a nice cup of hot chocolate...extra marshmallows, of course!!!

We then had some homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.  Lance said, "why are you making grilled cheese?"  I said, "Because that is what you eat after you play in the snow!".  I'm not sure how or why that tradition started, but for some reason, we always had hot chocolate, tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches after a long morning of sled riding.  Such a fun day!  School is canceled tomorrow so it looks like, we will have a round 2!

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year

This has been a crazy, fun-filled, exhausting holiday season, as it generally is around here since my family is so spread out.  It was our year to spend with my family, so the original plan, and try to keep up with me here, was to drive the family to Tuscaloosa the weekend before Christmas for my nephew Jack's birthday party.  I found $29 tickets on Southwest from birmingham to Louisville (1.5 hrs from Cincy), so my parents (who had come down for Jack's party), my sister and her kids and me and my kids were to fly up on Dec 22nd.  After the party, Lance was to drive back to Atlanta, work for 3 days, then drive up with Oakley and all of the presents on on Dec. 23rd.  Then, after Christmas, the boys and I would drive back to Atlanta with Lance.
Well...I started "trying" to pack for the boys and myself and in the middle of a break down in trying to determine what to pack and what not to pack, my mom called and told me to stay put...Trey came down with the flu and there was no chance of bringing the baby anywhere near him for a week! Ahhhhh!  The only good part was that it would give me 3 more days to procrastinate on the the stress of packing!  Harrison was bummed that he couldn't go to Jack's party and I was bummed b/c I wanted to see my family and I wanted Harrison to build his first gingerbread house (the activity for the party).  Now came the added drama of figuring out how to get the boys and I over to Birmingham for our flight.  On top of all this, both of my boys came down with colds and we visited the Dr twice in 1 week.  They kept saying Davis was fine, just a cold and nothing they could do for him, but they heard some mumbling in Harrison's chest, so he had to have his first breathing treatment (NIGHTMARE!!) and then they gave me an inhaler...translation - me having to hold down my 2.5 yr old in a head lock with arms trapped at his sides so I could hold a mask over his face that he had to breath into.  And this had to be repeated everytime he had a coughing fit.  Not fun.  boo.  To keep this story from getting any longer, Dad met us half way in Anniston, dropped the boys and I off at Teresa's in Birmingham and she drove us to the airport on the 22nd.  Surprisingly, the boys did exceptionally well on the plane

Once we got to Cincinnati, we had a great time.  Harrison just loves getting to play with his big cousins.  Of course, they are bff's for a few minutes and then screaming at each other over toys the next, but that comes with the territory, I guess.  The best part was that there was a ton of snow!!  I wasn't very good at taking pictures, but here are a few to capture the big hits of the trip.
Christmas morning was just crazy...presents for 12 people all in one room!  When the boys woke up on Christmas morning, we had them wait at the top of the stairs so we could capture the expressions on their faces...

Thanks to the help of Mungojerrie (our Elf on the Shelf), Harrison really got into Santa and the whole holiday this year so he was so excited on Christmas morning.  This year was just so much more fun than the previous years, I think mostly because Harrison can talk so well now and can really express himself.
He didn't know what to do with himself when he walked into the family room...

Harrison had fun opening presents for about 20 minutes, but then just wanted to play with the toys that he had already opened...

I let him take a little break so he wasn't quite so overwhelmed.  He got pretty much everything he asked for...soccer balls, Thomas the Trains, tunnels and bridges...and then some!

Lance has been obsessed with finding a model airplane lately, so I surprised him and got him a remote control helicopter.  I ordered it online and it was smaller than I expected but it works surprisingly well.

Grandmommy bought these "very special" guns for all of the boys that light up and make such a beautiful ear-piercing sound.  Thanks again grandmommy!!

Davis was grandmommy's little helper this year!

I think Mary liked her Alabama lunch box that we got her...although, I forgot to stuff it was dollars, so thus the look on her face.  If you know Mary, any present you give her, she always opens every pocket looking for dollars to put in her wallet!

Davis then got to help me open a few presents...

Oakley also enjoyed getting in on all the fun.  She got a huge rawhide and a new toy so she was in heaven!

Davis had such a fun first Christmas that he tuckered himself out!

Aside from the presents, I think Harrison's favorite part of the trip was getting to play in the snow.  We have a church across from my parent's neighborhood that has a big hill in front of it and growing up, we would always go sledding there in the winter.  This was the first year that Harrison got to go!  Davis had fallen asleep in my lap that afternoon and he had not been sleeping well during the trip so I didn't get to go, but Lance, Aunt Liz, Aunt Mary and my parents went with him and took a few pictures for me.

At 2 1/2 yrs old, he can sled like a champ!

All in all, it was a great trip!  We had such a great time seeing all of our family.  I also got sick on the trip so I didn't get to see any of my friends, but thanks to the help of everyone, I was still able to enjoy the holiday!  I will post a few more pics later of everyone all together, but I still need to get them from my sister.  It was a very merry Christmas for the Randolph/Koeppe household!!