Kezia's Baby Shower

Kezia had a very nice baby shower. Her cake was as delicious as it was beautiful.












Kezia must be a very popular and well liked person, cause she had the most gifts. I think she married into a very likeable family!!!

Here is Kezia opening her gifts. She had several nieces right there to see all her nice gifts. It seemed like most people sort of thought that she would have a boy. But... strangely enough, by what several of her siblings gave her , they must have thought she was going to have a girl. :)

Kezia's sister, Joella Bradford, was in charge of the games. She had some good ones.

These little clothes lines filled with baby clothes, shoes and toys were displayed in the room and were for a baby-spy game. They made such cute decorations, also.

Here is another line of baby clothes that was displayed

This was a joke Anita Morley pulled on Kezia and all of us. Elon and Anita & family were away in Colorado for about 2 weeks, but got back here to Illinois just in time for Kezia's baby shower. Most of the ladies and girls were present waiting for the shower to start when Anita walked in with a maternity blouse on and as fat as can be. The lady who sat next to us said, "I know it can't be because I just saw her 2 weeks ago".

She sure made us laugh. So we got this pictures of the "two" pregnant ladies.

After the picture, Anita's bulginess ended and she pulled out the pillows and shed her blouse and gave it to Kezia for a new outfit.

"Mother & Father-Of-The-Year"

Now Craig was chosen for the "Father-of-the-year". They celebrated a week early because the pastor would be away for camp on Father's Day.

Elon's family showed up, back from Colorado, just in time to get in on helping to honor their brother-in-law. And of course, we were there, so both Elon and Fain got the privilege of saying something. (They said that the difference between out-laws and in-laws was that out-laws are wanted and in-laws are not) :) However, they did have some kind things to say about their brother-in-law.

There were also a couple of letters that were read from Craig's brother and father.

The children sung a special song for Craig--"Dare to be a Daniel".

Then he was presented with the same plaque with the Bradford family name on it.

Joella, who was chosen as the "Mother-of-the-year" received a beautiful plaque from the church.






Every year our church , Palestine Pilgrim Holiness Church, where Bro. Paul Gray pastors, take a vote for who to honor on Mother's Day and again on Father's Day. It is suppose to be a surprise to the one chosen and special letters and songs and honors are put together from family and any friends who want to participate.

For Mother's Day, Joella Bradford, (Fain's sister) was chosen. There was quite a lot of family members present to help honor her. Elon's family were here (after just returning from Mongolia), our family and Grandma & Grandpa Morley, and of course, Joella's family--the Bradfords.

Pastor Gray handed her the microphone and said, "Now we are going to hear from Joella". And they turned on over the intercom Joella singing when she was about 4 years old. It was so cute. It was a surprise to Joella---she didn't know what she was going to say or sing. :) Then there were letters that were read from her brother Gabriel and sisters Iva and Anna who were way far away and couldn't be there.

Also, Joella's little 4 year old boy surprised her with a song he sang about, "Oh, I love my mommy's cookies". It was so cute!!

The church gave her a plaque with the Bradford name on it.

Elon & Anita's visit here in IIlinois

The Elon Morley family the first Sunday they were here, back from Mongolia.

Elon & Anita, resting after a Sunday afternoon special singing/bell playing service with the Morley/Bradfords. It was held here on the campus at the dining room. It was the first time, for some of us Morleys and Bradfords who are learning the bells, to perform. It was a lot of fun playing bells and singing together. For the Morley siblings, it bro't back old memories of good times.

Having a picnic lunch down by the pond. Grandma Morley was able to be here with us- Elon's, Craig's and us.

Sitting out in lawn chairs, visiting and eating our picnic lunch down by the pond.

Pearl, Susanna and Natasha sitting on a wagon eating their picnic lunch.

Cousins just back from a walk---Charity Bradford, Pearl Morley, Natasha Morley, and Susanna Bradford.

This is in front of the barn. Susanna and Pearl have just filled their basket with eggs.

Here is the bridge that Fain and Craig built across the revene between the barn and Craig & Joella's house. They had to always cross where it was muddy or even through water besides go down the hill and back up on the other side to carry water to the animals. Now it is so much more convenient to go back and forth to take care of the animals. This bridge is really narrow and even sways with movement on it, so you see, I just can't imagine how Ezra was even able to drive across this narrow bridge. What youngsters won't try to do!!

The cousins practiced up a play to perform for their aunts and uncles and Grandparents. They acted out the story of baby Moses and also Lazarus. It was so interesting seeing their creativity s they did the story. They even sold tickets (a role they found at a yard sale) to each one that attended for $1 a person and served snacks afterwards to all who attended. They all did such a good job.

The cousins enjoyed riding our boy's peddle cart.

What makes up our little farm.

This is the old barn that has been turned into a lively place. Inside here were made corrals for the three milking goats- Shoshoney, Cheyenne, and Clara, and the boer goat- Camanche. Also a section for the kid goats- Bonnie, Annie, and Willie. Also the chicken pen is in here and another section with our meat chickens that are coming up on time to butcher. Two little kitties have been taken up to the barn to be raised there to feed on the mice that come out there. This is a very important place on the Crest Haven Farmette.

This is our little cottage that we call home. Fain added on to it this winter by inclosing the carport. Now the boys have their own bedroom and the girls do too. Plus an extra room for the freezer, dryer and refrigerator. Recently he added on the porches. We are thankful for this little cottage we turned in to our home.



This is our newest dog on our homested here. She is actually the children's investment for selling AKC Irish Setters. Her name is Chauncey.

Fain is preparing the ground with visions of a big garden.

Hopefully, we'll have plenty of sweet corn because Fain sure planted plenty. There should be enough for who ever wants to come get some. Come visit us and we'll give you some to take back with you.

The Lord has blessed our garden and is really producing. We've been so disappointed in the past with our gardens we've tried to grow in Texas and Mexico, that this year we're forseeing and hoping for a big crop of onions, beets, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, beans, peas, and corn. My!! We've already been enjoying some of them!

We also got some ducklings along with our order of chickies. These ducklings have grown up and are so similar to the geese, that they are about to get their heads cut off too, and roasted in the oven. Instead of enjoying and wanting to stay in the pond, they prefer to be up here at the house and around people. I don't know how much longer we will put up with them. Cute when they're little but a nuisance when they're big (unless one could raise them to stay down at the pond)!

Here are the biddies we ordered by mail. Such cute fluffy little chicks. Now we've already butchered 22. We bagged and froze half of them and canned the rest. Makes some really good Mexican chicken soup with carrots, potatoes, cabbage, squash, garlic and cilantro. Yum, Yum!

We have some smaller ones coming up to butcher soon and yet some younger ones coming up on laying eggs come this fall.

Here Nathaniel is walking his geese down to the pond. You'd think they'd love the water so much, especially on a hot day, that they'd stay down there, but, nope, they follow him back up to the house when he starts walking back. They seemed to prefer to be around people. They also prefered staying on our front porch till we got tired of it and decided to make dinner out of them.

Roasted goose--yum, yum!

Meal time!

And a farm can't be a farm without cats and kitty-kats. With two mommy cats, we have two batches (also almost a week apart) of kittens. These are Candace and Natasha's special pets. This mommy cat, Mindy, is from Texas and the other mommy cat, Callie, is all the way from Mexico. We bro't her across even without a passport!

This is Leo, David's buddy. He is the dad to all the puppies. David likes to have Leo help him with his school work. (I don't think he was getting his work done very fast this way.)

This is our nine fluffy, little, playful cocker spaniels in their new cage Nathaniel built for them. Now we can keep track of them!

Here are our two batches of cocker spaniel puppies eating their morning meal. Sandy, Sugar, Cinnamon, and Spice are the beige ones. Domino, Panda, Coonie, Kelsey, and ? (can't remember) are the black and white ones.

We have two cocker spaniels as our pets and this is Daisy's litter of five. We were happy how they turned out looking like her this time. In the past, she would always have all black puppies. Our children love taking care of and playing with them. Of course, this time, our other female had puppies a week later--so we had two batches at once. They were all beige like their mother.

This is one of our four kids we had to bottle feed. This one especially was attached to all of us and would follow us around. She was born with a lung problem and had to be fed every so often. She was such a cute little baby. However, she lived only 4 wks. and went on to her eternal reward. She was buried out back in the woods and the Bradford and Morley cousins placed some pretty flowers on her grave. Such memories of Shellie.!

Nathaniel doing his daily evening milking of one of our Alpines. We are really happy with the milk we are getting from them. Sure have plenty of milk to drink! and even to spare.

Fain usually does the morning milking of our three goats, but sometimes Samuel and even David do it. Uncle Craig does the milking when we are away which is a big help. Having goats can really tie you down but they are worth it!