Potters Way

On Sunday afternoon, my parents took us to the cutest farm outside of Oakes, ND called Potters Way. I was curious as to why it was called Potters Way. The owners pointed out a beautiful bible verse on the wall "We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand." Isaiah 64:8. No better inspiration than that!

We got to browse through gorgeous Fall decor and sample delightful goodies and jellies.

4 ladies on pumpkins: Grandma Rose, Abby, Bella & Kippy

The "bling" pumpkin caught Abby's eye (big surprise there)
Kippy's interest when an entirely different direction.

After browsing through the barn, we headed out to see the barnyard animals.

Bella was terrified, so Steve picked her up and she tentatively checked out one sheep.

My favorite character was Charlie. Charlie has a severe under-bite that cracked me up.

So hard to take this long horn steer seriously with that under-bite!

Kippy liked Jenny, the donkey and her baby named Marshmallow.

Next we entered the Wizard of Oz themed corn maze.

Our two munchkins and Toto found what was left of the wicked witch of the east.

Next we headed out through the maze to find our way. (Bella was absolutely no help at all.)

We met a few friends along the way...

"I'll get you my pretties and your little dog too!!!" Scary stuff, but we eventually found our way out.

Next, we boarded the Pumpkin Express for a ride out to the patch to pick our pumpkins.

Despite the gusty winds that nearly blew us over, we had a fantastic afternoon!

Making fun at the farm

Growing up on the farm, we were used to making our own fun. Our kids get to experience that a little bit when they are back at the Sell farm. Fun can take many forms... in this case, it was a tree swing.
An old tire, some rope and a tree branch are all that is required. Steve got the job of hanging it up.
Kippy was determined to steady the ladder for him because she remembers her dad's previous ladder issues. Plus, when you are at the farm, the ER is 15 miles away.

Kaleb was in charge of using the 4-wheeler to hold the tire up while the knots were being tied.

Let the fun begin!

READY.... SET....

GO!!

Wordless Wednesday

Celebrating 9 years with Kippy!

September 28, 2000 at 10:53 PM, our beautiful daughter, Angelique Grace, officially joined our family. Full of energy, kind of messy and a tish-bit accident prone, we can't imagine our lives without her loving, generous, playful spirit.

Her jet-black hair didn't stay with her, but her beautiful dark, long eye lashes are the same as the day she was born. Angelique's name quickly migrated to Nipper within the first week, thanks to her three year old big sister Abby, who exclaimed, "She's just a little nipper!" the first time she held her. Nipper turned to Kipper and continued to morph into "Kippy", which has stuck with her for nearly 9 years as well.

By the time she was 2 weeks old, we had planted her tree at the farm. It is a Canadian Flowering Red Cherry.

Here she is on her first birthday, beside her tree. I have tried to take a picture of Kippy by her tree on each birthday, but as I looked back, I have regretfully missed it for a few years. Makes me feel like a bad mom... {sigh}. Kippy at age 2. Remember the accident prone comment? Before turning two she had already broken a bone in her foot. Our three-year old daughter charmed the heck out of nearly everyone she met. She continued her accident prone streak and was hospitalized for a MRSA infection in her thigh. By age 4, Kippy was very much a tom-boy. She had me patching and re-patching jeans. She also ruptured her ear drum, but thankfully didn't damage her hearing at all.
As a 5 year old, Kippy would occasionally let me curl her long hair, but mostly she ran around with a crazy, halo of messy hair. It was her running around in the house chasing her older sister that caused the next ER visit and three stitches in the back of her head.
On her 6th birthday, I broke out the camera and got back to the tradition of a picture beside her tree at the farm. Aside from having her long hair caught up in the vacuum operated by her sister, she didn't have any traumatic accidents that year.

Seven, sassy and in the first grade, she is as charming as ever, but continuely messy, bruised and disheveled. Thankfully, her only trip to the ER was to accompany her clumsy mom for X-rays after falling off a chair.
Eight year old, Kippy and her tree are both growning like crazy. Kippy got to watch her dad get stitches after he fell off a ladder and ended up in the ER. She even got to wheel him in for X-rays.

Now we are celebrating Kippy's 9th birthday and are amazed at how quickly these years have gone by. You are a beautiful, intelligent, caring girl and we are so very proud of you!

Let's also hope that your years of being accident prone are now behind you despite having two accident prone parents.

A shiny smile for Kippy

Friday aftenoon was a big day for Kippy. Her upper expanding retainer has done its job with making room on her upper pallet the past 6 months and was ready to be replaced by braces to pull her front teeth together to allow her eye-teeth to come in.

Kippy was really looking forward to getting braces, mostly because she was tired of her retainer which she said was too smelly, no matter how much she brushed it. She had 4 new brackets glued to her upper front teeth.

A special ultra violet light was used to activate the bonding agent to her teeth.

Then there was some wait time for her everything to set up.

Kippy got to choose the color of the bands that went around each of the brackets. She picked blue and purple. When I asked her why she chose those colors, she just said 'cause I wanted to. Kippy also told me, "For Christmas, I am going to have red and green!"

She will have these braces on for 6-12 months depending upon how quickly her eye teeth come in. I am confident by then she will be very tired of keeping them clean.

But for now, she is very excited about her shiny smile.