London Visit

Here are some shots from Grandma and Grandpa London's visit:
Darnelle and Gunnar:
Gunnar and Daddy for their first Father's Day:
Nick and his Dad fabricated a gate for our garden so now we are able to let the chickens and goats graze the newly replanted pasture:
Here is Nick and Darnelle at the Resort At The Mountain golf course. During their stay they manage to get in 3 outings and a good time was had by all:
Darnelle spending some quality time with Loretta while reclining in the cedar stump chair Nick carved:
It was a wonderful visit and we very much look forward to the day they are in-state.

Up for air

Things have been busy as ever at Londonacres. The Tulsa Londons are wrapping up a wonderful visit with the new grandbaby. We cannot thank them enough for all the sunshine that seems to have followed them out here. I have been super busy with the kiddo but promise to upload some pics soon of their trip.

In the meantime..here is a shot of me and Gunnar hiking last week. Please note I use the term "hiking" loosely. There are some new trails on the BLM land near our house but we mainly stuck to the granny loop and lower walk abouts.


Here is a shot of Gunnar waking from a nap on Monday. I think that is when he is the most precious...

Home on the range

Yesterday Nick went to visit Cascade Buffalo Ranch, meet the rancher and pick out a bison for us. In our attempt to eat better and more responsibly we have gone in with a couple of friends on half of a bison.

The ranch was beautiful and Nick brought home some steaks, blueberry summer sausage and ground patties to get us through until ours will be finished processing in July.

The rancher has an abandoned calf right now which Nick was able to actually pet!

Wind Down

My mom left yesterday to return to Tulsa. Here is a great pics I snapped Tues evening. It is like everyone knew she was leaving. Lap space at a premium!


Here was the big man relaxing on Tuesday:

Notice the leg fat roll! I weighed him on the bathroom scale today and it was registering him at 7.5lbs. If he keeps this up he will be a linebacker in no time! I have yet to measure him yet but can tell he is continuing to sprout up as well.

Major milestone today - he is finally big enough for his cloth diapers! So much nicer to have cotton on his bum. We are currently trying the newborn GMD prefolds and Bummis from Green Mountain Diapers.

Also, in baby stuff we got a wipe warmer today - woo hoo! We use cloth wipes as well and were wasting so much water waiting for it to warm up each wipe. This is a much better solution.

Happiness Is...

Here is a pic of Gunnar napping this afternoon. You can tell he is getting so big, taking up much more of the moses basket:

Home Cookin'

The critters are LOVING having my mom in the kitchen full time spoiling us! Here is grandma and her entourage:

Rock and Roll

With Grandma Janice here to help with the kiddo Nick has had a chance to tackle some projects around the property.

With some of the river rock he rocked off the front "flower bed" area of the house:

And just for fun we now have a new rock stack by the driveway:

Progress Report

Both Gunnar and I had Doctor appointments today with good news all the way around. I thought Gunnar had been growing like a weed and the Pediatrician confirmed it. He is now 5lbs 15oz (up from 5lbs 4 oz) and now 19 3/4 inches long (up from 18). Woo Hoo! His weight is almost on the chart and his height actually is.

Breakfast with Grandma

Grandma Janice is visiting and spoiling the entire family! We had the most delicious fried (homegrown) chicken last night with all the fixins. Here is Gunnar and Grandma at breakfast:

Visitors

Aunt Shanna and Uncle Josh came down from Seattle yesterday to visit and enjoy the sunshine. In true Gunnar fashion he slept through much of the visit...even lunch at El Burro Loco!

Bath time!

It's official - Gunnar is definitely our kid! Last night we decided to give him his first bathtub bath. I was very nervous imagining the crying and trauma that was sure to come. Nick did the in the tub honors with me as support and Gunnar LOVED his bath. I mean LOVED. He liked having the water splashed up on him and when Nick held him in the tub so he could "float" he actually fell asleep. Just like his mama! We are a big bath family so this kid fits right in .

Here are some cute shots post bath:

Hey Ladies!

Get a load of this cuteness:


I am so at his mercy!

Elsewhere on the farm

Believe it or not we have managed to do a little more than stare at Gunnar this past week!

We are very blessed to be part of such a wonderful and caring community! As soon as we made it home Nick's friends were out in force to help with some much neglected chores on the farm. Our neighbor Ray rode his lawnmower over and knocked out the lawn around our house in about 15 minute. So wonderful!

Then our other friend Gene decided to one up Ray with the big boy toys. Gene brought his mini excavator over to help us burn the ENORMOUS brush piles we had been accumulating. It was so cool to watch him use the excavator like an extension of his arms simply plucking brush and rearranging the pile. It was a great burn that lasted for a few days (despite the horrible rains we are having).

Once the brush was going Gene decided to look for more to do (and of course we let him!). Last year a tree was topped in a wind storm and it landed in the ravine by out house. Gene managed with his itty bitty excavator to pull that top out:


That little excavator was holding on for dear life to not topple over!

Once that was out he continued on and dug out the small "creek" that Nick had been trying to trench out by hand. Right tools = short work! He dug the creek out and gave us a pond as well. Right now it is overflowing due to the record rains but you can get the idea.
Upstream view:


The pond:

We are going to fill it with a rock bottom and put a rock-stack water feature in the middle since it most likely will get pretty low as it is merely a run off stream.

Gene built up a little mound so we can plant some cover and have some privacy for a brick sitting area complete with fireplace/pit next to the pond. Another friend has already donated the bricks so we are on our way.

With all this rain wreaking havoc on the crops we are super happy to have the green house. Here are the latest starts:

Looking great!

Home Brew

Here Nick is discussing the virtues of a good brew with the boy:

Squeaky Clean

We gave Gunnar his first sponge bath Monday am. He was not too thrilled but survived. Here is Nick giving him the London comb out:

Part of the pack

Everyone has been asking how the dogs have taken to the new addition to the pack and they really have been amazing. Any time Gunnar is in his basket on the floor Truck makes a point to come check him out that all is well. Since Mack is blind he does a lot of sniffing and seems generally not to mind the baby at all.

What all the animals are in agreement on is that all this new baby stuff ROCKS!
Here is where I found Luke in the middle of the night:


Mack has decided that not only is the Boppy great for breastfeeding but it makes a pretty sweet old dog pillow as well.

The second pose was even funnier but I didn't have the camera. Mack had sprawled across the pillow with just one old man leg dangling out from the pillow!