The Talens' Tales

Well, we have had quite the weekend celebrating with this four year old. In the morning, there were lots of decorations up.  We had cake at coffee time. Joash had requested a farm cake with a barn, two tractors and a farmer. I was pretty pleased to find this nice farm candles at the Bulk Barn.  When then did a little family outing to the corn maze. It was a cool, drizzly day, so we had the whole place to ourselves. I am pretty sure Joash would have been just as please to play in the giant sandbox all day, even with the rain.  Mataya had fun too.  Then we came back home for presents. Joash opened his gifts from Mom and Dad, Mataya, Grandma and Grandpa and Oom Emil and Tante Karisa. He has been playing with them all non-stop.  Oma and Opa came over Sunday for lunch, more cake and of course they had a few gifts too. And today there were a few more presents in the mail from Tante Reina, Aunt Joy and Uncle Chad, and Aunt Dawn and Uncle Nick. ...

Someone is very excited to be turning 4 today! What is your favorite color? Orange What is your favorite toy? Race Track (a Hot Wheels Track one of the uncles left behind in the house for Joash.) What is your favorite food? Grapes What is your favorite tv show? Andy's Airplane What is your favorite outfit? What I am wearing now (it was a pair of track pants and a long sleeve t-shirt with soccer ball on it) What is your favorite game? Shark Attack (another one left behind by the uncles) What is your favorite animal? Cow What is your favorite song? "Peace and Tender All Through the Night" (known to most of us as "All Through the Night" What is your favorite book? All of the Franklin ones  Who is your best friend? Daddy What is your favorite thing to do outside? Ride in the tractor  What is your favorite drink?   Chocolate milk What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Tag blanket What do you want ...

For this part of the tour you are going to need to use your imagination. These rooms are in a bit of an unfinished state yet. However I wanted to share because I wanted all of you to see that we have room for lots of visitors. The first guest area is known as The Apartment. It has its own entrance from the outside, but can also be accessed through the toy room. When you enter form the outside, the first room a nice little nook with built in bunk beds.  Then you enter the living/sleeping area. Imagine a bed along the wall on the left. The door straight ahead leads to the toy room.  There is a fully functional and well supplied kitchen. All you need is food!  And its own bathroom The upstairs is a room known as the Big Room. It has served many different purposes over the years, but it is our intention to make this into a nice guest room. Right, it is storing all sorts of things that we just don't know what to do with yet.  It also has a loft that...

Then there is the second floor, filled with a lots of little rooms. The first room you find at the top of the stairs in my craft/sewing room. This space is working out really nicely for all of my card making and scrapbooking. When you walk through the craft room, you enter the first of the upstairs bathrooms. The next room is Joash's room. He has requested that we paint it orange. We shall have to see about that on. Then there is the loft room, as Joash has decided to name it. Right now it is really a diaper changing station and storage.  This ladder leads up the loft in the "loft room." And Mataya climbed up this ladder twice with in the first week we lived here. Joash has yet to make it past the fourth step. This is grown ups bedroom. Another bathroom And Mataya's room.  There is another bedroom that is currently storing all of the earthly possessions of Wilbert's brother, Jander, and Jander's wife, Tiffany, while they are in Af...

 I promised a house tour, so here it is. I have decided to break it up into three parts so things don't get too crazy. So today it is time for the first floor (or most of it anyway). Since we have only lived here two weeks, I can take no credit at all for how things look, the layout or anything like that. My in-laws did a great job taking care of this place and remodeling parts of it. I do have plans for paint in some parts, but I haven't gotten to that step yet. The entryway. The door we most often use leads you here to the entry way/laundry area. The first door you come too then leads to a bathroom with a shower, sink and toilet.  The door at the end of the entry way leads to this. It was the office, but we are making it a toy room. But the filing cabinet will have to stay where it is because nobody wants to try and move that. We have some of the kids toys here and Joash has some things in the basement. Mostly things that he doesn't want Mataya to get into. ...

Mom: Mataya, I can't believe it, but you are 17 months old already! M(ataya): I know mom, but that happened a few days ago. You are a little late. Mom: I know. But we just moved, and then you were sick and then we had visitors. But I am ready to talk to you now. What is new?  M: Well, I finally got the hang of this walking thing. And you were right, Mom. It is so much better. And faster. I like it when you chase me around. And I have enjoyed moving to our new house. I love seeing everything there is to see out of the windows. Mom: It is nice to be here. And I too and glad you are walking. You certainly got good at it quite quickly. And you are growing so much. I think it is especially neat to see how much your hair has grown. M: I am getting bigger, but I am still not as big as I would like to be. I can't climb up on top of everything that I would like too. Mom: And that is okay with me, Mataya, You get into enough stuff as it is. You are much more brave than ...

This morning we said farewell to the first guests we had on the farm, my Uncle Glenn and Aunt Leanne from Michigan.  They had been planning a trip out east with their motor home for a while, and we are so pleased they decided to come and see where we live. Joash was pretty excited when I told him we had visitors coming, especially when he found out they had a farm and they were a grandma and grandpa too. I guess that is all you need to be to be great in Joash eyes! And they did a great job being fill in grandparents while they were here. It was a short weekend, but we are thankful to have reconnected again a part of the extended family. We certainly hope this is the beginning of a long line of visitors here at the farm house.

As I have eluded to in the last few posts, my family has made a big move...across the road. We swapped houses with my husband's parents, so we now live in the farm house. It is lovely to be here on the farm place. The move went really well. It was a gradual move, but that was good for everyone. The week prior to the actual move date, I began to haul boxes over and putting them in the apartment portion of the house. That's right. This is a house with a small apartment attached to it. It even has bunk beds! So that means all of our friends in other parts of the world can visit PEI and have a free place to stay. Even if you have kids! Anyway, we moved on a Monday. We rented a U-Haul truck for each house, packed them up and swapped house. Monday we were able, with the help of some wonderful friends, get all of the bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens moved. Over the rest of the week, the rest of the things were moved to the new homes. I will do a little house tour soon. I have ...

One of the best perks about living in the farm house now is that there are lots of chances for tractor rides. Joash goes at least once a day and Mataya has now gotten over her fear of tractors and wants to go for a ride in every tractor she sees. She will stand at the window, point and say and sign "please." Thankfully she can go every once and while, so that makes her happy. My farm kids. Joash certainly doesn't nap as well here as he did at our old house. I think the fact that he runs over to look out his window every time he hears a tractor may have something to do with that.

We have been having some wonderful sunsets the last few nights. A great way to welcome fall and a nice welcome to our new house. Enjoy some pictures of our view from the farm.