Two!

Yes, amazingly JJ & Rylie are going to be turning two in just a few days.
We survived!  And so did they!  

WIN!

This life is fun.  Seriously sweet and fun.  And a ton of HARD WORK... but we love it.

This picture is so hilarious for so many reasons

Story time with the cousins

These two love some "watermemmon"

Sister love

Puppy love

Fun times with Nana and Pops

JJ's version of stupid human tricks

Rylie loves "Green Juice"

Birthday pictures coming soon!

How blessed we are.

Crazy little thing called Love

That song has been playing in my head lately, for those of you who aren't fans of Queen... Shame, shame on you. :)

We've had an exciting week or so leading up to the 4th of July. Jon went to Alaska to visit Uncle Ryan and see what Barrow is all about and I was busy baby wrangling and taking care of the farm.  It was great fun for everyone.

Natalie went to visit with Mamaw, Papaw and Aunt Leslie, since she had been *begging* to go see them recently.  From the pictures, it looks like she had a wonderful time.

Sweet girls!

Donut time!

New haircut and hair bows.  Thanks Aunt Leslie!

The twins and I stayed around the farm for a few days playing, taking care of this and that.  We acted cool, checked the garden and enjoyed a visit from Kristen.  It was so much fun playing and enjoying them together.

So cool.  So very cool!

Things in the garden look very good.  And yes, we stayed in our PJs for a lot of the time :)

Silly girl!

It seemed like Jon had a good time in Alaska and Uncle Ryan took him to see a lot of neat things, but I can tell you that there were 4 very happy people to have him home again.  We were all talking his ear off when he got in the truck from CLT airport on Saturday afternoon.

Daddy and Uncle Ryan on an adventure!

We had a nice visit over the 4th with Mamaw, Papaw, Aunt Shanny and Baby Isaiah and the Grab Family.  We even spent one VERY CHILLY evening at the pool.

At least in this picture is all the girls :)  JJ and Isaiah weren't fans of the cold water

In other news the US Women's Soccer Team WON THE WORLD CUP!  USA! USA!  What a great game and of course I was cheering along with the babies the entire time.  Here they are watching in awe... clothing optional. :)

We've been busy lately enjoying our family and friends near and far and are looking forward to a very fun rest of the Summer and to Uncle Ryan's wedding in September!  So exciting! :)

TK Family Farm and news on the Three Knuckleheads

Hi!  The Klimstras are still here and life is so so good.  It is a beautiful and HOT time of year here on the farm but things are good and busy!
Natalie is 4 1/2 going on 24... She is Miss Independent.  The things that girl says are hilarious, frustrating (sometimes) and amazing for her age.  She, right now, is just working her way through the week so she can either go to Nana and Pops' house or go to Mamaw and Papaw's house.  She LOVES the "all to herself" time with the grandparents. 
JJ and Rylie are nearly 22 months old and are absolutely hilarious!  They are crawling between each other's cribs at night and so, so happy.  We've had lots of words, teeth, haircuts and milestones.  Farm life suits us all.
Jon has been busy getting things up and going here, we had piglets!  We are growing vegetables and getting around 2 dozen eggs/day!  We are selling at the local Farm Store and we do 1 farmers market/week on Friday evenings.  The sausage/bratwurst/eggs are the BEST!

Here are a few pictures to get everyone back to knowing what we look like :) and I promise to do a better job of keeping things up-to-date around here.  There is so much love, fun and happiness to share.

Jon set up at the Farmers Market

This is how we roll.  :) Baby wearing at the Farmers Market

Natalie after a recent haircut!

5 of the 7 grandbabies!  Look how happy!

Love these sweet faces!!!

Jon turned 37.  We celebrated with cake and LOTS of singing from Natalie.

Rylie is ALL personality.  So funny and beautiful

This little dude is adorable, devious and an absolute joy

All my sweet babies are getting so big!  Jon and I are loving these days with our wonderful family and look forward to sharing here more often.

Halloween

Hello again! Yes it is Dec 1 and I'm just now blogging about Halloween.  This is now (thanks to my inability to be timely about posting) a journal for me to read instead of a way to keep people updated... but I'm okay with that.

Halloween was so fun!  Natalie celebrated all week thanks to Nana and Pops.  She got to go to Auntie Erin's concert in costume!

In her "costume" and painted hair!

Enjoying the concert with Pops

I love this picture of Natalie with Erin!

Acting silly with Nana, Pops and Erin at dinner. 
This little girl LOVES being closer to her grandparents!

The weather on Halloween day was terrible but thankfully we have some very kind neighbors who invited us to join their church's Halloween Festival (indoors) so after baby school we went over and "trunk or treated" and met so many nice people.  They had a little photo booth set up so we snapped some cell phone pictures of all three together in their PJs/Costumes.

 

 

 Such sweet babies!  JJ and Rylie wandered around and made friends with everyone while Natalie at AS MUCH CANDY AS POSSIBLE while I was busy giving chase.  Everyone left happy!

When we got home we took a few more pictures on the hearth with the "good camera" but as you can probably tell, everyone was pretty tired by that point.  But still so cute!

 

Three little monkeys

Just a quick post from a hotel room of pictures from my phone.  Anyone sitting next to me on a plane knows that the only thing I'm looking at on my phone are pictures of my children.  I re-live the past 12-15 months of my life, every flight. Flipping through all the pictures of these sweet faces. 

 

 

This face.  Whoa boy, we are in trouble.  She was just laying on my legs hanging out last weekend and I asked Jon to hand me my phone so I could take a picture of this sweet girl... I'm so glad I did.  One day I will show it to her when she's down on herself, as all girls get, and show her how very, very beautiful she is.  Her insides match her outsides and I'll always remind her of that.

Thanks to Mamaw, Papaw, Nana and Pops our house is all decorated and Natalie is READY for Halloween.  We are so thankful to be so close to family now.  We are all really enjoying the family time!

Jon took this while I was away one day.  He handles all three after working all day on the Farm.  Hero.

And somehow he still knows *just* when to bring home a beautiful bouquet of flowers to his
over-stressed, under-rested wife.
HERO.

Rylie is so very entertaining.  She is wild and emotional and thankfully those emotions are usually on the happy end of the spectrum.  She's just a wonderful little light in our day.
 

This boy.  My goodness I love this little man.  He is into EVERYTHING and is such a charmer about it.  The red is ever so slightly coming back to his hair but it never left his personality. He's a big boy with a big personality and we are so very thankful for him.

In other news, this little girl, THIS LITTLE GIRL, is going to be FOUR in a couple months. 
How?  How on earth did that happen?!?!
She is still just as happy and loving as she was in this picture.  So full of life and love.

These faces!

We've been busy growing up and learning new tricks... walking!  talking! getting lots of teeth!
We went to see Thomas the Tank Engine and Natalie was leaping through the air she was so excited.  Here are a few pictures of the day. 

These faces! 

She is such a doll!

They had SO much fun.
I love that they are getting to see each other more often now.

This!  5 sweet babies all eating dinner together. 
My heart just swells!

This little dude is just JOLLY, and DEVIOUS.

I think this takes one item off Natalie's bucket list. ;)

Home Sweet Home

Hello!  We are still here!  Great news, we have finally moved in (and settled in) to our new home - "The Farm".  We absolutely love it and feel like it is a bit of a dream.  We don't have internet at home yet - which is why the silence on the blog - but its coming and hopefully soon I can update more regularly with pictures and stories of our happenings around the house.

Until then here are some brief updates on what's been happening the past month.

Jon and Natalie planted our first "crop".  Raspberry bushes!



I picked a BUNCH of blackberries from the back pasture - the cobbler was tasty!

I love it here. 

And so does Natalie.  :)

These three... and JJ's face in this picture. 
My heart could just burst.

JJ likes corn.  And everything else. 
"Don't bother cooking it, just shuck it and hand it here!"

 We are loving every minute of being here.  I promise to take pictures of the house/barn/etc and post them soon.  Thanks for following along on this adventure of ours!