Where in the world??

I am back to blogging. Our life has been busy, busy, busy...and blogging got put on the back burner. So, I was checking out my last blog posts, the personal ones, and I last posted when my daughter, Katja was born. She is now almost 16 months old. She is walking, talking, and a sweet little monkey (loves to climb).  I will post a few pictures to give you a snap shot into the last year with her.

Big sister, Madelyn, loves her baby sister. She knew that she was going to have a baby sister when I was pregnant, and wouldn't even talk about the possibility of the baby being a boy. :)

Christmas Day 2011. Dressed to match with dresses courtesy of Grandma!

I love this face she was displaying at bath time!

Toes in the mouth to suck on. Can you do that? HA!

Easter 2011...in Dad's coat...safe like a baby kangaroo.

Four of the kids, spring of 2011. Caleb was in Awana last year, a church kid's club, and he had a Float-a-boat race. So, this is Caleb, Katja, Cole and Madelyn.

Katja enjoying the Duplo Legos at Mall of America's Lego World.

Oldest brother, Nathaniel, holding Katja in a bounce house this summer. She loved climbing in there with him and going down the big slide!  (He enjoyed it, too)

First time at the pool in a hotel. She looks so cute in her suit and robe.

McDonald's playland with one of her best friends, Kayla.

Katja and Caleb in the playplace toddler section.

Minnesota Zoo this summer in the play area.  We were just taking a break from walking around.

We have moved a few times in the last year, too.  We moved from our home of 5 years, to rent from my relatives for a few months. My husband build a house for us on a piece of land that we purchased through C4D.  He built the house with his own hands, with the help of the neighbors and a few close friends.  We moved in this spring, in March.  We are still in the building and will be working on it for quite awhile. Our goal is to be self sustaining, living "off-grid" and to implement a life style to live more simple.

Currently, we have running water, with our own well. We have a generator that we turn on to pump the water. We heat up water on the wood stove, now that it is colder outside, but this summer we heated the water on the gas stove. We use a cup to shower, scooping the water and pouring over our heads. Yes, we will have running hot water, someday, but everything costs money...so, we are saving up.

I wash clothes in my wash machine, and this summer I hung the clothes out on the clothesline, that Terry made at work for us. :) We have to figure out how to run the dryer yet, because ours wouldn't work well with the generator. So, we are still wondering what to do with that. 

This is the garden that Terry planted this spring. He put up all the fencing and did a great job! We were quite impressed with the results that our garden produced this summer. It is so good to eat the food from your own land!  We look forward to next summer!

 This is the truck that Caleb build. The kids enjoy the new adventure of our home, too.

The kids love playing outside here. We have so much acreage to play on and explore!