Mother Nature's Farm

In mid-October we took another trip to a farm, Mother Nature’s Farm in Gilbert, AZ. We went with our friends, the Cox Family. Karsten loved the petting zoo at the farm where he got to see and pet baby pigs, a mama pig, a cow, some sheep, a goat, some chickens, and other farm animals. We also rode on a tracker hay ride, and Karsten picked out his Halloween pumpkin, ran through a hay-maze, and had lots of fun running around with his friend Eli. Afterwards we went out to lunch and enjoyed some Mexican food…yum!

Trip to the Dairy

In late September we went with some friends to Shamrock farms, where Karsten saw his first cow in person. Karsten really enjoyed seeing the cows, playing at the playground at the farm, and of course getting to see his friends. I thought it was pretty interesting how they make their milk, process it, ship it, etc. We also got to see the organic farm (yum) which I was pretty excited to see…well I got to see the cows making my yummy milk and dairy products.
According to the farm in order to be a cow at Shamrock farms the cow must give birth once per year and they control mating…you know to prevent brotherly sisterly love. So basically they have 10,000 female cows at varying levels of pregnancy and post pregnancy hanging out together…if I thought about this as humans…wow that’s a lot of women together all pregnant or having babies..a bit scary.
The day we were there, and at the time of the tour we took they had 15 baby calfs born since midnight (we went on the 10am tour). Apparently, they have babies pretty constantly there – which is pretty neat. They also said they don’t buy their cows, they just keep the babies and raise them up to stay on the farm.
I expected the farm to smell like…well cows you know…but they keep it pretty clean so the smell was very minimal. I highly recommend taking their tour, it was a lot of fun.

First Haircut - October 2010

At the beginning of October, Karsten got his very first haircut. I put him in his bumbo, got out the water and succors…prayed a little…and went to work at attempting to cut his hair. Good news, he kept his ears and his hair was straight; a successful attempt.

Fun at Home

We had some excitement this summer. I went on 3 week long business trips, one each month this summer. Karsten and Ryan had lots of fun while I was gone and we all had lots of fun when I got to be home.

Karsten got this chair for his birthday and he loves it. He stands on it, sits in it, drags his toys up on it with him, and of course he loves to use it to climb onto the couch.


One of Karsten's favorite toys is a stuffed rat and one of Ryan's favorite things to do is stick toys in Karsten's shirt...so "hey mom look I am having a baby...and it has a tail"!





One day in late July we had a little rain and out came a rainbow...a feww hours later out came a goat...didn't expect that one.




A child's best friend...a box




Karsten had a little misunderstanding with a book.

Karsten’s First Oreo

Well it was bound to happen, every boy must experience his first Oreo….well I will let you judge how it went.

Karsten’s Birthday

In July we celebrated Karsten’s 1st birthday (July 15th). We had a party with each side of the family and a special playdate with Karsten’s buddies.

Here's our big guy eating his first cupcake.


Opening presents



Taking in the spoils...











Buddies








Family Party Westlakes

Father’s Day

So I know it is far from June and Father’s Day but we had a terrific day! Ryan “daddy” got lots of fun gifts that he can use to fix up the house, cook for us, and help us see in the dark…you know to scare aware monsters and stuff.