Subtle but significant blessings

Our little family has reached many milestones since my last post. First and foremost, this little beauty, Miss Heidi Alice, turned two!

We had a fun birthday for her. She got a homemade dolly and matching skirt, some cowgirl boots that she wants to wear allll the time,

and two little kitties. Okay, so we were going to get them anyways as mouse catchers, but her birthday seemed like the perfect day to get them. She loves those "kickies". And the "goggy" Ranger. And the "shee".

Thank you for joining our family two years (plus a couple months now) ago!

And Elijah started 1st grade. He never ever wants to go, but he almost always says he had a fun day. And he is SUCH a great reader! He loves to read books. And he's the best little artist. I really should do a post of his amazing art work. (Note to self: do a post of Elijah's amazing art work.) He's also incredible with math. Last night we played a game called Pass the Pigs. Some math is involved in the game, and I said, "What's 16 plus 5?" Elijah almost immediately blurted out, "21!" Sheeeeesh, kid.

We had a wonderful General Conference last week, in which we were reminded that the Lord blesses us with many, many subtle but significant blessings when we pay our tithing, which is exactly what has been happening with us. Those blessings are the whole reason we have this sweet little 5 acre homestead, a cute little home, good health, nice vehicles, fun animals, all the food we could wish for, and so on. We also learned so much about families, missionary work, how to be meek, and much more. It was uplifting and it inspired me to do better and to be happier. It was also fun to get to lay around in the living room together for two days straight. :)

This morning we woke up to about 4 inches of snow! It was gorgeous, even though I'm not ready for winter. Fall will be back, right? (Right? Pleeeease.) The craziest part about this snow is, it's about the 4th snow storm we've had this month! Yeah. Serious. We've also had, oh, maybe 10 rainstorms in the last month. See the pattern here, subtle but significant blessings. In August our sheep were completely out of grass and we thought we'd have to feed hay all through fall. Nope. They've been eating grass in the pasture for a month now! Since when does grass grow so well in the fall!?

And last but CERTAINLY not least, this sweet baby boy turned 6 months. Okay, and now 7 1/2 months. He army crawls all over the house and smiles at everyone. He is the happiest, loviest (it might not be a real word, but it should be) little guy. What a joy he is!

P.S. Ranger, the kitties, and the lambs are all 6 months old now too. Lots of babies on this homestead.