Niagara - Canada Side

For part two of our Niagara trip we were on the Canada side. Everyone always says that the Canadian side is better. I will say I have to agree. The reason is that the views are 100 times better on that side so more people go there which means the have more tourist stuff too. It is also very clean and nice looking over there. There are some negatives though. There is this one area that is the biggest tourist traps I have ever seen, it was like Branson, Las Vegas, and a theme park game area all rolled into 3-4 blocks. It was ridiculous and sad. But it was fun to experience the falls. And once again on this side it was not peak season so we never had to wait in line for anything. We did two main fun things while there, the Maid of the Mist and Journey Behind the Falls. One other amazing thing we did while there. Let me remind you that my sister was keeping Esther for us during our Niagara adventure. The amazing thing we did was TAKE A NAP in the middle of the day, at the same time. We both fell asleep in the hotel room and when we woke up we were really confused as to what just happened. So, it was a fun trip to Niagara Falls. It is definitely worth seeing but is not anything I would spend a lot of time at or want to go back too often.

First we went on the Maid of the Mist boat tour (as seen in Bruce Almighty and the Office wedding). I think it was the funnest thing we did. A couple hundred people pack on this boat and they take you really close to the falls. They have been doing this for a long time. We once again got to wear raincoats and got really wet.

Here is the boat like we were on going to the falls

Us having fun and getting wet

Rainbow bridge that connects USA and Canada

View of American Falls from the boat

The other thing we did was the Journey Behind the Falls. For some reason the Canadians built some tunnels behind the falls and you can go in them and see the falls from behind. It was pretty cool. The best part was they had a part that went outside and really close to the falls. Once again we got rain coats and got really wet.

Here is us in a tunnel with the falls behind us.

It was hard to get a good picture of the main Horseshoe Falls because there was a big cloud of water vapor. I think it depends on weather as to how bad it is. And you would randomly get rained on while walking along depending on the water coming up and the wind. The whole time we were there it was impossible to see the entire falls.

Niagara - American Side

As mentioned in the previous post, as part of our vacation we spent a couple days at Niagara Falls. I will break this into a couple posts so it is not too long. My sister was super awesome and kept Esther for us so it was just Margo and I (and Clara). It is something I have always wanted to see. First let me educate you that there are three different parts of the falls: American Falls (you guessed it, on the American side, Bridal Veil Falls (American side), and Horseshoe Falls (Canadian) We first stopped on the American side and checked out the Niagara Falls State Park which was pretty nice, and we went on the Cave of the Winds tour. This is basically a walk on a boardwalk that takes you close to Bridal Veil falls, really close. We were given special raincoats and shoes to wear. You go under part of the falls and it is crazy, it is supposed to be like hurricane forces. One thing that kind of freaked me out was the fact that they have to rebuild this boardwalk every year because it takes such a beating from the water and the fact that it is not permanently attached to anything, they just wedge the supports into the rocks. Anyway, this was a fun little tour to go on. We went at the perfect time of year because it was not crowded and we never had to wait in line to do anything.

This is America Falls with Rainbow Bridge in the background(view from American side). There is even a rainbow in the picture (you see a lot of those at the Falls(the cool people just call it the Falls)). We should play a game and see how many rainbows you can spot in all these pictures.

American Falls (view from the Canadian side). Bridal Veil Falls is the little one on the right that is kind of separate.

Proof that we were there.

Good shot of Margo and Clara

This is looking down at the boardwalk for the Cave of the Winds tour.

We took a waterproof disposable camera with us. I think we got some of our best shots with it. This is on the tour. I like how happy we look.

This is the craziest part on the boardwalk where it is hurricane like. Margo was too chicken to go under it. But you know me, I had to try it out.

I like this shot also just because of how happy Margo looks

Nice shot of me.

Last Vacation

Let me start by apologizing for the lack of posting on our blog. Life is definitely more busy as Esther gets older (I can't imagine what it will be like with two). And we have been extra busy the past month or so with hardly any extra time to do anything. But, I am hoping that I can start posting more often on here.

Back to the main point. Last week we took a little vacation. Margo was having to go to Pennsylvania to speak at the Mother Earth News Fair and her work was paying her way. So, we decided to pay for me a ticket and take Esther with us and stay for some extra days. We figured this would probably be our last vacation for while since Clara is coming soon and man on man defense is going to be much tougher than 2 on 1. We decided to fly to Cleveland and stay with my sister for most of the week. The conference was only 2-3 hours from her house and we only had to be there for a couple days. We also decided to tack on a trip to Niagara falls for a couple days with is 3-4 hours from my sisters house. And my sister was even nice enough to keep Esther while we were in Niagara.

For now, I will just post one picture. Esther and her first plane ride. I will post more pictures and description of our trip in the next few days, we still need to get some pictures developed from our waterproof camera we took to Niagara.

1 Year Anniversary

Today is a big day in our lives and will be for the rest of our lives. Today is our adoption anniversary day. One year ago today we went and got Esther and brought her home. You can read the story here, it is quite a story. Oh man, have our lives changed in a year. I can't even come close to telling you how blessed we are to have Esther. She is so amazing and we can't imagine life without her. She is the perfect example of how great God's plan is for our lives. I can not imagine any greater gift than Esther and I have learned so much about myself and about true love. I can't wait to see what the years to come will be like and what kind of person she will become.

Here is our first family picture the night we got home with her and surprised our church community group.

And here we are in the same location a year later.

1 Year Pictures

Yesterday, we had some 1 year pictures taken of Esther. A friend of mine that I work with took them. She did pictures for us previously and these are the best yet. It was approximately 1,000 degrees outside. I am super happy with how they turned out, they really capture Esther well. I am especially happy that we captured the awesomeness of her eyes and her faces. And it is hard to get a good picture of Esther because she is on the move all the time and she is fast.

You can check out some of the pics on her blog. Alishia Snook Photography - http://www.alishiasnookphotography.blogspot.com/

Three against one...unfair odds

We had our sexting (Margo doesn't think that's the correct use of that word) appointment today. And we are not into keeping stuff secret, it is too hard. Drumroll................we are having a girl. We are very excited. We are already having proposals for arranged marriages because so many of our friends have boys and very few girls.

We have also decided on a name for her, Clara Pete Hale. We like old names and Clara is the one we narrowed it down to. It was actually the 7th most popular name in the U.S. in 1885. Slightly shocking middle name we know, let it sink in. I realized today that being a joking/non-serious person that people don't believe you when you tell them something that does not seem right, like a unique middle name. But I am serious. Clara Pete. We wanted to use a family name of mine with this one since we used a family name of Margo's with Esther (middle name Louise - Margo's grandmothers). One of my most favorite/most influential people I have ever known during my life was my grandmother on my dad's side. She lived the next town over when I was really young and we would see her often and I would stay with her for a week during the summer. When I was 12 or 13 she moved to Mena where we lived. I spent lots of time at her house and I would always stay with her when mom and dad were gone. She was one of the most fun, loving, and Godly people I have ever known and I can only hope that I can be half the person she was. I have lots of great memories of her and I think of her often. One of the saddest days of my life was the day that she died. I won't forget her funeral, instead of somber talk about her, everyone told funny stories about her and the things she had done. That is the way she wanted it to be. Anyway, her name was Wilma, which is itself a cool old name. But her nickname was Pete from the time she was little. Just about everyone who knew her closely called her Pete, or Aunt Pete, or Granny Pete.

When I told Margo that I would really like to use that name for a middle name if it was a girl, she was totally on board which made me happy. We like the uniqueness of it and that it does have meaning for our family. I will enjoy telling Clara and Esther about their great granny. Here are some pics that we got today and scanned in.

Profile

We were able to do 3D pictures also. They told us the 3D and 4D are better when they are a little older, right now it is more skeleton looking. The pictures look better in person also. The 3D and 4D are pretty cool.

Face

Hand over face. You can see the little lips also.

Here is my granny at our wedding

Birthday Party

Saturday evening we had a little party for Esther's first birthday. She has not told us who her friends are yet so we just decided to invite our friends over. Our friends Billy and Savanna let us have it at their place since our place is a little small. We are so thankful to them for letting us invade their house. It was pretty fun overall. Although it seemed like we should have been doing more since it was a bday party. But Esther can't do a whole lot so we can't play games and stuff like that. So, we basically just sat around and talked.

Unfortunately for Esther, she was sick and did not get maximum enjoyment out of her party. She was still running a fever from her ear infection and basically just sat in someone's lap with a straight face. This is highly abnormal for Esther, she is normally smiling, talking, and on the move. We felt very sad for her. When we got her home she had a 102 degree temperature and that was with tylenol on board. She is a tough cookie. Hopefully the antibiotics knock out her ear infection and she feels better soon.

We are not really big on Esther eating sweets. But we finally decided we would let her have cake for her birthday party. I don't think she enjoyed as much as she would have if she wasn't sick. But she really liked digging around in the frosting.

Here is her little cake after we decided she was done with it. As you can tell from her eyes, she did not think she needed to be done with it.

We told people not to bring presents but it is hard for grandparents and some others to resist.

This is a picture just to show you how Esther felt, her face says it all.

Margo and I decided we wanted to get her something for her birthday that would last her a long time and hopefully she would still have it to give to her kids. We really enjoy getting her this kind of stuff. One of our close friends who just had a baby had a kids rocking chair that her parents gave her when she turned one. We really liked this idea and decided to do it. As you can tell, Esther loves the rocking chair.

Happy Happy Birthday

It feels so crazy that Esther is a year old. It seems like time has gone by so fast. It is kind of happy and sad at the same time. She is so much fun and we can't imagine life without her. Today was kind of a bummer day for her though. She was running a fever so we had to get her from daycare. We took her to the doctor because she has been running this fever off and on for over a week and has been more fussy. It turns out she has an ear infection so they gave her some antibiotics. This is her first ear infection and her first medication. Hopefully she feels better for her party tomorrow. Here is a little slideshow of the year in pictures.

Happy Birthday

Happy 29th Birthday Momma

Without you, life (and taking a picture) is harder.

Tattoos and Daycare

I like tattoo's. If they are good ones and done well that is. I know the older generation was not a big fan of them (except maybe military guys) but they don't bother me at all. Anyway, one of our friends recently opened a store in Fayetteville, The Mustache. They sell interesting and fun gifts, and cool clothes and shoes. The other day he got some fake baby tattoos that we could not pass up. They are really funny, they look like classic tattoos but are baby themed. We tried a simple one out last week for church and it was a big hit. We will definitely be using them in the future for special occasions. Here is a pic.

Today was a big day in our lives. Esther started her first day of real daycare, up until this point she has been staying with friends. But we came to a point where no one could continue to watch her for us. So, we toured some daycares around town. Most of them won't do part time but we finally found one we liked and felt comfortable with leaving Esther at. It is called the Sunshine House. (funny side note: the daycare I went to a kid was called Sunshine House also) I think she is going to really like it, she is very social and enjoys being around others. I also think she will learn a lot. I think her first day went really well, except for one thing. She got bit by another kid. She is in the 12-24 month old class so she is the youngest. One of the kids is in that biting phase that most kids go through, and she got Esther. The teachers were really upset that this happened especially on Esther's first day. But we totally understood that this happens and thought it was a little humorous. The teachers were also surprised that she did not cry at all when she got bit. But we were not surprised, Esther hardly ever cries when she gets hurt. She's a bruiser.

Here is a pic of the bite mark. I guess we can consider this another type of tattoo.

Pregnant Women

I keep forgetting to post this picture. A little info first though. We know lots of people who are pregnant right now....lots. I am not sure what the count it currently because some people have had babies now. But as of a couple weeks ago we had somewhere around 15 girls at our church pregnant (and our church is not that big). Just in our Community Group (Bible study group of about 15 or so people) we had 5 girls pregnant and we already had 3 kids under the age of 1. And we know several other people who are pregnant as well. Anyway, we had some of these good friends over to hang out a couple weeks ago and took a pic of the girls.

Left to Right: Savanna-15 weeks, Margo 16-weeks, Ashley-6+ months, Emily-13 months (not really, but it looks like it)

This is their miserable face picture, Emily's is the most realistic because that is really how she felt.

And here is Benson who was born June 27th, 2 days after this picture to Evan and Emily.

Seriously? Nine?

That's right folks, today was Margo and I's 9th anniversary. It is very hard to believe. It makes me feel old. I do have to say that this past year was pretty amazing. Not only did we get the amazing gift of Esther, we also had a miracle happen and will have a second amazing gift from God. I know that all you all really care about is pictures of Esther so here you go.

She gets into everything and "no" does not register with her.

Breaking Records

On Sunday we had our 4th annual Fourth on the Farm. I love the Fourth of July and I especially love fireworks. We always throw a big shindig to celebrate. I was not sure how it would go this year with the new place which is a lot smaller of house and less land. We decided to invite less people this year to test it out the new place. That did not work so well, it seems that our numbers grew bigger by the day as we got closer. But we had a lot of fun and we now know we can handle a lot of people if they are mostly outside. And we got to test out the new deck and grill with a lot of people and they both worked out well also.

Anyway, we broke a record this year. Our previous record was like 63 I think. This year we had 74!!!!!! and if you could unborn babies 79!!!!!!!

I hope everyone had a good time. I would show you pictures but I was so busy that I did not take any. If anyone out there took some, send them my way.

Chicken Coop

One of my big farm projects to do at the new house was building the chicken coop. We really enjoy having chickens and were anxious to have the again. It finally surfaced to the top of the to do list so several weeks ago I got started on it. I finished it a couple weeks ago and we finally got chickens last week. It is nothing fancy but it will serve it's purpose. Since we are not planning on being at this house forever I am building this more functional than what my ultimate dream would be.

The actual coop is 8'x6' and the enclosed run is 8'x18'. We will eventually let them free range during the day and just coop them up at night and when we are gone. We plan on keeping around 10 chickens.

Anyway, my plan is to also build a small barn on the back side of the coop (they will share a wall) so I built it so that I could add that on later in the year.

Here it is after the main framing was done

Finished product

The goats love to rub on the chicken wire to scratch themselves which tears up the wire and stretches it out. I decided to try adding a couple barb wire strands around the run on top of the chicken wire to see if that what help. So far it is working great.

11 Months

She is getting older and growing up so fast. It is so crazy to look at pictures from when we first got her to now. She is babbling a lot more these days which is really cute and funny. She is also getting really close to walking we think. She pushes her little walker car around walking behind it, sometimes only holding on with one hand. She will stand for a few seconds without holding on to anything and take a step between things without holding on.

Here are a few recent pics of her.

This is before church on Sunday. She got her sandal off and was chewing on it. Everything goes in her mouth these days.

Here we are on Fathers Day

And this picture is a true depiction of Esther these days. There is a lot going on in this picture. Esther at the baby gate wanting to get to something on the other side that she can not have/ watching me work on the deck out the back window. Also using one of her toys to stand on to try to get a boost over the baby gate.

She is always on the move. She wants to be crawling/cruising around trying to get into whatever she can. Everything has to be baby proofed because she can open any door or drawer she wants. She would love it if we would let her play with power cords, the computer, or the trashcan. She definitely keeps us on our toes.

Winner

A couple of weekends ago we went down to Mena for a visit. While we were there the Lum 'N Abner Festival was going on. It was really hot, but we spent a few hours there walking through the car show, arts and crafts, and other festival activities. One event that we were excited about seeing was the All American Lumberjack Show. Two lumberjacks competed against each other in various lumberjack activities, like log rolling and speed sawing. They also did a chainsaw carving demonstration. The guy carved a little chair out of a log using a chainsaw. He said he would give it to the youngest person in the crowd. He started with two years old and then started working his way down. He got to 9 months old and there were no babies that young in the crowd. So he asked for 10 months old and there were two, Esther and another little girl. So it came down to the birthdate. He asked the other parents first, their little girl was born on July 21. Esther was born on July 22, so she won by a day! It was pretty exciting to win. The little chair fits Esther perfectly right now.

Josh and Esther collecting their prize.

Esther sitting on the chair (it was really hot and nap time, hence the face)