While the upstairs remodel makes slow but steady progress toward a ground-breaking, I finally convinced Aaron to let me do a bit of nesting in the basement. More specifically, to let me refinish the fireplace. Our designers recommended keeping all the natural stone in the house. In the basement, though, the fireplace was planned to get a bit of a …
Cutting the First Crossley Farms Christmas Tree
For the past 3 years, we’ve ventured to Fulk Farms in Platte City, Missouri, to chop a spectacular tree for celebrating the season. Last year, we hadn’t quite moved yet, so our Hyde Park house was our holiday home. That means that 2020 will officially be out first Christmas on the farm. As we do, we loaded up the truck …
Thanksgiving Chores
When all of our other jobs go on vacation, we can fully rely on the farm to keep us busy. Thanksgiving morning arrived with a blast of chilly, frosty air. Despite the holiday and very much in spite of the cold – the chores still needed to be done. Aaron jumped on the side-by-side to get fresh water to the …
These Sunrises Tho
Aaron let the dogs out for their morning jaunt with a mild freak-out today. “YOU GUYS HAVE TO SEE THIS SUNRISE!” He grabbed his phone and sprinted around snapping photos. Naturally, by the time I rolled out of bed and gathered baby, the view was not at all what he had managed to capture. It was still really pretty, to …
Feeding the Bottle Babies
On the occasional chilly morning, I get to go out and feed the bottle babies. The morning chores with the animals typically fall into Aaron’s hands while I wrangle our human beast through morning routines in the house. Today, though, the pretty sunrise creeping through the farm was all mine. Benning, as usual, came to join in. As did the …
Play Forts in the Living Room
We’ve repeatedly reaped the rewards of not actually having a living room where our living room is supposed to be. This week, Aaron’s newest acquisition for playtime finally arrived and we shockingly had the perfect place for it: the living room. Now – a two-story kid-sized cardboard fort fills the space. It’s an absolute hit with the kiddo. Honestly, I can’t …
A Tractor Ride for Isai
One of the many perks of growing up on a farm is getting a tractor ride pretty much anytime you choose. When harvest kicked off a few weeks ago, the combine rides were aplenty. Unfortunately, we missed most of our chances for one reason or another. Grandpa Dave, though, made up for it all with Isai’s very own tractor ride …
Frosty Mornings Have Arrived
The chilly frosty mornings are here to stay. We woke up to a near-Winter wonderland this morning. After yesterday’s cool rains – the ground early this morning was covered in a pretty sparkly frost. Sahara, of course, loved it. We joked that she definitely went sprinting about in the yard screaming “The snow is growing! The snow is growing!” during the …
Even More Crossley Family Photos
In the past few years, I’ve hit a handful of moments where I schedule far too many family photo sessions for Aaron’s liking. I, however, freaking love it. Before we met, I used to take tons of photos all over KC. Adding Aaron to my life also added an exceptional amount of always-going-ness in which I haven’t taken as many …
Archie Goes Back to the Sale Barn
After the chaos of chasing Archie across the neighboring fields a couple of weeks ago, we decided it was time for him to head back to the sale barn. Today was the day. We’ve had Archie on the farm for about a month. When he arrived, we intended for him to join our goats on the Goat Trails. But he …