Busy, Busy, Busy

From Puerto Rico to planting our first round of vegetables seeds to one-year check ups to chickens to softball to learning to use a spoon to a successful women's retreat and all those things in between, life at the Lawrence's has been busy and full of life!


Keesha and I in sunny Puerto Rico (very beautiful and fun place if you've never been!).


So far we've planted seeds for onions, shallots, leeks, turnips, radishes, beets, spinach, mustard greens, carrots, kale, collard greens, sugar snap peas, regular shelled peas and probably some other things I can't remember!


At her one-year check-up Mary-Michael weighed 19 lbs, 14.5 oz. and was 29 inches long.


They are getting SO big!


Mary-Michael and her buddy, Paden, at the first softball tournament of the year.


On a whim Geoff thought he'd see how M&M did feeding herself, and she did great for the first time though she didn't quite get the scooping concept, so eating this entire bowl of applesauce with just dipping the spoon would take quite a long time!


The women's council I'm blessed to be a part of put on a very sucessful women's retreat this past weekend. We served about 130 women, and had a table decorating contest. Emily and I joined up to decorate this table, and we won thanks to her creativity - notice the real goldfish in the vases!

And now it's off to Alexandria to prepare, feast and celebrate Aunt Keesha and Uncle Brian's wedding!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

May God grant you always...
A sunbeam to warm you,
A moonbeam to charm you,
A sheltering angel, so nothing can harm you.

Baby Chicks Round 2

Here's the lowdown on our baby chicks:

-sadly, we have lost 2, but we were warned so this was not too unexpected
-we didn't actually receive our full 55 that we ordered last week, so a second group was sent and received yesterday - 12 more red stars and 7 leghorns (remember the cartoon with Froghorn Leghorn?! yea, they're kind of like that!)
-we now have 60+ chicks - I'm not sure we'll ever know the number as they race around too much for us to try and count
-we had to separate the new group from the "old" group because amazingly the ones that are a week older are twice as big

And a brief update on the "farm":

-seedlings are growing like crazy, and I need to separate them so they have more room
-plot has been tilled and is ready for planting, which I plan to do as soon as I return from Puerto Rico
-the fields where Geoff hopes to eventually have cows have been seeded with, well, seed!
-bee hives have been painted
-Geoff is still persuading (aka pestering with love) me to be on board with the cattle idea

Signing off - Farmer Geoff and Farmer Terra (in training)

Happy First Birthday M&M!

My sweet cheeks,

It is so hard to believe one year has passed. It feels like just yesterday your daddy and I were in the hospital room showing you off to all our friends and family. We had so many visitors, and on your birthday celebration this weekend we were blessed to have many of those same visitors present. You are so incredibly loved, and we know why. You are sweet, full of laughs, energetic and such a happy baby. And not only are we grateful for you, but also grateful for all of those who have loved, prayed for and supported us in our first year of parenthood. It is incredible when I think about all the support we have had. Below are some pictures from your birthday weekend.

Mary-Michael - we love you.
Momma and Daddy


Sporting your Baby Gap jeggings and birthday party top.


The theme was daisies! Here are your birthday cupcakes - one of which you thoroughly enjoyed.


And the birthday cake made by me! Your Nonnie and Grandma always made your Daddy and I's birthday cakes when we were young, so I want to continue the tradition.


Mary-Michael and Christian.


Aunt Keesha resting after pushing you around the house - you were going so fast you lost a sock!


Happy Birthday to you!


Enjoying some yummy birthday cake! (notice all the flashes - I think the papparazzi were there in disguise...)


Thanks to all of the generous donations we are going to bless some shelter animals in our county!


We ended your birthday with one of your favorite activities - a bath! And thanks to a few of momma's generous coworkers you now have a new toy, which makes bath time even longer and more fun! How can you resist this face?

Drumroll Please...

Our sweet little baby chicks have finally arrived! Here is the afternoon in pictures.


We took a family trip to the post office to pick up what was a much smaller box than we expected! The postmaster said they'd been keeping her company all day.


Their home for the next 4 weeks - 1 inch of wood shavings with newspaper over that for the first day so they don't confuse wood shavings for their food, heat lamp as they're supposed to be in 90-95 degrees for the first few days, waterers with sugar water and chick starter (feed).


Ta da! This side had mostly black stars with a few red stars (light brown) and a Cornish hen (traditional yellow) mixed in. All of the chicks were born on Friday (2/25/11), so, they are just a few days old.


Exploring their new home - Geoff took them out of the box one by one, and I dipped each one's beak in the water, so that they knew it was there. Most chicks that don't make it die from dehydration, so we're trying hard to prevent that. There is only one we're worried about at this point, but Geoff hand fed her some food mixed with water, and we've been checking on her this evening, so we're hopeful she makes it through the night.


Three little chicks all in a row!


Huddling under the heat lamp.


Mary-Michael meeting the chicks with Daddy. She was shy at first, and then was really exicted about petting (aka swatting) at them.


And because of the unseasonably warm weather today and our heavy dose of Virginia Tech agriculture life, we had to sport the UVA outfit.

My Seeds are Growing!

For you green thumbs out there, this might not seem like a big deal, but I can't tell you how excited I was to see some sprouting! My dad and stepmom are both avid landscapers/horticulturalists - they work in the field, they teach classes and they have their own beautiful garden. I love walking through their gardens and eating their yummy produce, but I must admit, I have not appreciated or paid attention to their knowledge of all things green until very recently. I think my dad knows the Latin name to at least half the plants that exist in North America - it's quite impressive. And of course, I am married to a landscaper, so this really shouldn't be that big of deal, but I am amazed at how these little seeds that arrived in the mail could turn into something edible with a little soil, light and water. I feel like I've turned nothing into something!







This weekend Geoff and I are getting away to a bed and breakfast - we need some G&T time as we like to call it. We're hoping to do a little beer and wine tasting while also visiting a nursery called Edible Landscapes where you can find all things green and you guessed it, edible! I'd like to try a few berry bushes this year and see if they survive our massive deer population. We shall see!

Our sweet girl will be taken good care of by Geoff's parents. If I was a betting woman, I'll bet she gets a little ice cream and other sweets while visiting, too. That's what grandparents are for though, right!?

Chicken Update

Today was supposed to be the big day, but yesterday we received a call from the hatchery that it was a bad hatch. Hmmm not sure what that means, but I think I'll take my first chickens from a good hatch. So, now the arrival date is early next week. Hopefully, they'll be here in time for Mary-Michael's birthday. In the meantime, the roof on the coop is finished, we have running water at the coop and electricity officially run out there for the heat lamp. We took a trip to our local tack and feed store (Triple D) on Saturday to pick up feed for the chicks. While they didn't have what we needed, we did get a healthy dose of advice on how to raise chickens, hogs and cows from the owner. Mary-Michael donned her overalls (actually her Uncle Kam's old overalls!) and enjoyed playing with all the equipment. After a quick drive through the Angus cattle farm Geoff worked on the other weekend we landed at Southern States where we found the feed and some more vegetable seeds. My dad accompanied and served as the entertainment in the back sea.

So, is this how many lived their Saturdays when farming was the norm? I think I like it. But ask me in two months when my calendar says I'm supposed to plant a dozen vegetable plants and seeds... it's always an adventure around here! Stay tuned.