Category Archives: Family Fun

Flying High

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That was Greg and Zoe last week as they went on an intro to flying class.  Zoe was in charge of photos.  I’ll share with you a few of the many, many pictures that were taken.  It was so much fun to see all the places they were able to fly over.   Let’s start off with the irresistible self portrait.

Zoe’s view from the back seat.

This is the plane they were flying in. 

And a view of our house.  The blue roof is us.  I got a call from Greg just as they were approaching the house.  Zeke and I ran outside to see them circling us.  He didn’t quite believe that dad was in the plane.  When asked where dad was he would point to the plan but then get a funny smile on his face and say “No.”  Although now when we hear a plane outside and dad is gone he asks “Daddy?”

And here’s Zoe with the instructor Miss April.  With the exception of a little motion sickness from some tight circles Greg and Zoe had a blast.  The ladies at the terminal even brought up some cookies for Zoe before they landed to help settle her stomach.

She is here!!!

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Proudly introducing the new member of our family…….

Abigail Louise Thames 7lbs 3oz

She was born April 30, 2011 at 11:18pm.  She is 20 inches long (tall).

God is good all the time!!

First family gathering

Our TWO girls!!! 🙂

Baby Update

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I realized I haven’t done any baby/pregnancy updates recently.  With less than a month to go I figured I better do one quick.  So things are going pretty good.  Baby is still super, super active.  No worries on that front.  All measurements are text book.  At my last appointment the doctor said this may be my 8 pound baby.  To which I just said, “hmm”.  8 lbs is big for my babies (I know Ruth, sorry)  I like my small babies.  They start out small but grow fast.  Works for me. 

I somehow didn’t plan my schedule too well for my last month of pregnancy and have one of my busiest months ever.  At least it feels that way.  My brain is more gone this time than any pregnancy in the past.  Normal I guess.  I actually had to get a planner and write everything down the second I plan it.  I was even loosing tract of Greg’s work schedule.  It’s a crazy one I know but we’ve been doing it for a few years now and I had it down.  In the last few weeks I draw a complete blank.  I feel like Dori on Finding Nemo.  “Nothin’ in my noggin.”

We do not know if we are having a boy or girl.  I think some posts I wrote ‘he’ but we have no idea.  I don’t suspect either way this time.  Zoe is so excited for the baby.  Her big test is to give me a hug and see if she can touch her fingers.  At last measure she was off about an inch.   We haven’t done much to get ready for baby.  I have a few baby clothes left from Zoe but I don’t know what. We got tired of moving them over and over again so we did get rid of quite a bit when we moved this last time.  If it’s a boy we are definitely set and I actually know where they are.

Our little flock

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Well, Greg and I had talked about getting sheep…in the future.  The purpose of the sheep would be for meat.  We are not into the wool thing or milking (sorry Jen).  We had done a little research on the kind we would get if we went that route but that was about it.  Well, remember how I said we rushed to get the pig pen done and then we were without pigs?  Greg made one last attempt to find pigs at the animal auction.  There were no pigs but I received a text from him a little while after the auction started stating I was now the new proud owner of 2 sheep.  Sheep?  What?  I thought that was a future prospect.  Folks…the future is now!

We are indeed the proud new owners of two sheep.   They are Katahdin or African Hair Sheep.  They don’thave wool but hair that is shed each year.  I teased him he just wanted an animal to put in that great pen he made.  Didn’t really matter what it was 🙂  Turns out it was a mama and baby combo.  No idea how old either of them were.  He came home to pick us up and the truck to bring them home.  Now, on they way there he tells me “I don’t know if I can eat them Merriann.  They are really cute.”  That’s what I was afraid of!!!  Pigs and cows are nasty when they get big.  Easy to put in the freezer.  Sheep…still cute.  The other thing.  Their names.  The mama is Lily (named by Zoe) and the baby is Shannon (named by Greg).  Do those sound like food names to you?  Nope.  We had an agreement.  Any animal we were going to eat was going to have a food name.

Thank goodness for the Internet because we had to give ourselves a quick study on sheep care and run to the feed store for some food.  At least they were safe in the pen and had water.  I am also thankful for friends that didn’t think we were totally insane for getting an animal we knew so little about.  We have had a lot of fun learning as we go.  We have a guesstimate Lily is about 4 years.  Shannon is a little more confusing.  She seems so small but what looking at her teeth she looks to be over a year.  Somewhere between 12 -18 months.  We will have to look into that one some more. 

Greg has made them a pen of their own so when we do get pigs (hopefully in May) we’ll be ready.  Their own house is on the list of things to do.  We are trying to decide if we will be breading these two or eating them.  Lily is a bit on the old side for eating and Shannon is so cute!  Again, We’ll see how that goes.  Sheep are pretty easy (at least from what our vast knowledge and experience has shown us) so we wouldn’t mind getting a little flock going and breading. 

Lots of Changes at the Thames Farm

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Yeah, I guess you could call us a mini farm now.  We have been busy, busy these last few weeks.  I will attempt to update on all the fun changes and activities we have been up to.  Here’s the list I can remember so far.  I will expand on some of them later.  We took down (with the help of a professional) a 60 ft fir tree, finished the fencing to keep kids and dog in the back yard, fenced a pig pen with hog panels and electric fencing (they better not get out this year), built a pig house and chicken tractor, fenced off the remaining “animal area” for the sheep, dug a trench to get water to the back of the property, got power to the back, made soap, gone on field trips, and just picked up our meat chicks today.  We still have quite a list on the white board but they it is reducing.  Well maybe not reducing but the list is progressing.  Amazing how new things keep getting on it.  And of course when I say “we” I mostly mean Greg.  He has been working so hard to get things done and I keep getting in trouble for trying to do too much.  It is not in my nature to sit and watch him work on these things but as he says “I don’t want the baby coming out right NOW.”  OK, OK, I get it.  So, we go out there to keep him company, provide moral support and hand him tools.

Apparently that’s all my brain will handle at the moment because it has stopped working (I hope it comes back soon).  But for now I will leave you with some pictures of some darn cute hard working kids.

 

Oliver 1yr

Zeke 2 yrs

Zoe 6 yrs

Gingerbread House

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Hey, I’m a better late then never type of person.  So, we didn’t get our gingerbread house done before Christmas so we did it new years day instead.  And I didn’t get it posted right away but looking back the pictures made me smile and this blog is about recording our memories (no mater how late).

To keep the younger two busy while Zoe and I decorated the house they were each given a gingerbread man with frosting and a pile of candies to put on.  Oliver ate his candies and then licked the frosting off the cookie.  Zeke did actually take the time to put the candies on his cookie and pose for a picture before eating it up.  The difference a year makes.

Zoe and I started in on the house as soon as the boys were busy.  I was squirting on frosting and she was piling on the candies.  Our house was soooo hot this day (yes, Ruth, hotter than normal hot) that the frosting was melting off the gingerbread house and the candies were having a hard time staying put.  We had to open some doors and windows to cool down a bit.  I guess the dripping frosting looked a little like icicles.  Zoe finished up with more frosting and the last of the candy while I put the boys in the bath.

Tree Hunt 2010

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This years tree hunt took us into the trenches of our back yard.  We have a row of trees in the back that I love having for privacy but they are planted a little close now that they are quite a bit bigger and need to be thinned out.  Even before we bought the house Greg saw these trees as future Christmas trees.  So, on a frozen morning we bundled up and headed out.

These trees obviously wouldn’t fit into the house whole so we were going for a Home Alone thing and just going to take the top.  It’s really hard to see what the TOP of a tree looks like when it’s tall and crammed in with others.  We did our best checking to out from all sides and committed.


We usually have this “tradition” where everyone gets a turn cutting the tree with the HAND saw.  This year we started a new tradition…chain saw!  Greg was not about to put hands on a hand saw when we’re at our own house.


And down she came in record time!

The man with his kill…I mean tree.

Greg, Zoe 6, Zeke 2

Aren’t they a sweet bunch.  This is the part we kept.  A little different close up.  And one thing I would recommend (if you should ever find yourself cutting large Christmas trees from your back yard) don’t do it when they are frozen!  We lost a couple of branches when it came crashing down.

Oliver 1

This is what Oliver thought of the whole process.  He does not like being cold and despite my best efforts this is how he felt when we got back into the house.

Here she is all decorated.  A slight Charlie Brown resemblance.   I asked Greg if we could glue in a few extra branches but being the practical one that he is he assured me they would die.  Honestly I did not like the tree at first but it is growing on me.

The Start of School

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This year we started school with a bang (don’t worry, this was back in September!).  We piled into our friends van and headed down to the zoo.  We were even on it enough to print out packets for the kids to work on on the way down as well as some questions after the zoo.  We had just recently been to the Portland zoo but the one thing we missed seeing there were the lions.  That was the main thing on Zoe’s agenda and they did not disappoint.  It seemed they knew an anxious little girl needed a good look and were ready and waiting when we arrived.  We were joking it looked like a wedding photo.  The groom lovingly gazing upon his new bride.

Ezekiel’s favorite part was the orangutans.  We spent a while hanging out in this area but when the other kids were ready to move on we had to coax him out of there.

We picked a great day for the zoo (maybe it was the rain) it was the first time the bird feeding house was empty.  We had run of the mill of the place and the birds were excited to have some treats.


This is as close as Ezekiel got to holding a bird.  He was close a few times but would freak a little (OK a lot) when they came to him.  Trying to hold Oliver, take pictures, and help Zeke proved to be a challenge.

Oliver was a great trooper hanging in the stroller most of the day.  At the end of the trip we headed into the Zoo-nasium to let the kids play.

The Oregon Zoo

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One of our camping trips this summer took us to Southern Washington/Northern Oregon to visit family and friends.  Most of the days were spent just relaxing, visiting and watching the kids play.  One one day we trekked to the Oregon Zoo.  The day started our rainy and gross but cleared just enough for us to enjoy the morning and lunch there.  It started to rain again just as kids were starting to loose it.  Always a good time to stop the fun.

Despite Zeke’s “smile” in this picture he did not enjoy this particular spot to pause.  The zoo had a new exhibit with dinosaurs that moved and roared.  This one of course did both and this was way to close for his comfort.

One of my favorites were the elephants.  The little guy is only a year or so old and was quite entertaining.  As with most kids they are way more active than adults so he gave us quite a show.

All and all a great day.

Oh, Baby!

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That’s right folks.  We’re having a baby!  I am due April 27.  I had no idea how far along I was so we headed in for an ultrasound.  I was already already over 12 weeks!  Not that I hadn’t known at all.  I have the constant nausea thing going on.  But it is still nice when all things are confirmed and your 1/3 done.  We looking forward to a spring baby.  Warmer days, less bundling and another family member to share a spring B-day with Greg.