Inspiration

In case any of you were wondering… I just wanted to share my inspiration for the name of my blog.

A Day At The Farm

As many of you know, my sister, Meg, and I are involved in a play group that meets on Wednesdays (or if you didn't know that before, now you do!).  There is consistently between 6-8 moms and a bunch of kids all between ages 2 months to 3 years old!  Each week we take turns on who hosts so not to burn out one mom every week.  Except last week all us moms were off the hook as we went to Fun Forest play ground in Ionia and the kids played while the moms were soaking in the beautiful sunshine (still keeping an eye on the kiddos of course!). Here's the exciting part… One of the moms is Stephanie Tubergen and her husband's family owns a dairy farm here in Ionia and she offered us to come out for a field trip and see the farm, especially the new baby calves!  So here is a picture narrative of our super-special "day at the farm"!

The first three pictures are in the "Milking Parlor"

Next are the new calves!  We even got to feed them! Our boys absolutely LOVED this.

And what would be a day at the farm without seeing a huge tractor/manure spreader?!  

 

The newest farmer in town

We got to take a walk through the huge cow barn… awesome!

Jude is a little unsure about being THIS close to the cows!  His sweet little face melts my heart

The best "group shot" we could catch… haha  (minus a couple kids)

Jude and Liam sitting on the BIG TRACTOR!  I think this was the highlight of their day!

As you can see we had an awesome day at the farm.  I feel so blessed right now to be spending this time with my boys (especially Jude since he actually appreciates this sort of thing… Cal slept through it all!  Can you imagine?!  haha..).  To see Jude's face light up as we walk into the huge barn of cows or him seeing the big tractor puts a smile on my face and makes my heart overflow with joy to the point of tears.  To me, there is nothing better in the whole wide world.

I'll keep you updated on any other fun play-group activities we partake in!

I just wanted to also share a picture of the first Play-Group we had about 5 (or so..) weeks ago because it's just so stinking cute! This was taken at Caety's dance studio in Ionia (one of the moms in the group).  We had a dance party!

St. Paddy's Day

In celebration of St. Patrick's Day this year, Meg and I decided to be totally corny… We started with breakfast which included green pancakes, "pot 'o gold" scrambled eggs and Lucky Charms cereal with green milk!

The festivities continued later in the day as we invited a hand-full of friends over… munchkins included!  It was so much fun!!  Here are a few pictures to get an idea.  :)

Let's Review...

Ok, just to catch you up on our life up to now I'm going to give you a quick re-cap on the milestones of the last three years.  Ready?  Here we go!

6/13/2009- We're married!  What a perfect day… We were married under a big oak tree in the Leipprandt Apple Orchard with our family and friends as our witnesses.

9/2009-  We discovered the wonderful news that I was pregnant! 

6/18/2010- Our beautiful son, Jude, was born.

1/2011- After much consideration and prayer we decided it was the right time for me to go to nursing school…yikes! 

4/2011- Here we go again!  I'm pregnant!

6/18/2011-  Happy 1st Birthday, Jude!

8/2011- Took a wonderful vacation to Northern Michigan…ahhh

9/8/2011-  The worst day of my life so far.  We lost my dad unexpectedly and my heart and mind still don't believe it's real… Missing you every day, dad.

12/15/2011- I graduated Magna Cum Laude from nursing school…what a year it turned out to be.

12/2011- We packed up our life and moved back to Ionia to start a new chapter… Joel starting Seminary in January and me finding my first nursing job (after baby is born of course).

1/18/2012-  Welcome baby Patrick Calvin!!

1/31/2012- Happy 27th Birthday to me!  How incredibly blessed I am.

2/2012- I passed my State Boards for nursing!!!  I am OFFICIALLY a nurse :)

Drawing done by my brother-in-law, Justin :)

I think we're pretty well up-to-date now.  The job search continues but I am hopeful!  Stay tuned...

The new girl

Hi all!  
This whole blogging thing is a new adventure for me... it might take a little while to get warmed up!  Not to mention I'll be trying to update this thing all while tending to an almost-two year old and a two month old.  Let's just say my time is limited.  I just thought this might be a good medium to keep people updated on the life of the Leipprandt family!  Hope you enjoy.  xo