Castleman time!!

Last Tuesday one of Anna Kate's best friends Katie Castleman whose mom happens to be one of my best friends (Teresa) came for a visit. They also brought along younger brother Micah. They stayed for 6 night and just left this morning. Everyone had a great time, mainly playing outside and playing dress up. If you kept up with my blog from the beginning you'll remember seeing Katie on one of the first entries as Anna Kate's first sleep over. The girls have been tight since they were two years old. They moved to South Carolina 3 years ago but we have managed to get them together at least once a year since. The moms are hoping this will be a relationship that will last for a lifetime. If it doesn't it won't be for lack of trying. The first night they got here the girls decided they would pretend they were sisters the whole week. They did a great job sleeping in Anna Kate's bed, whispering late into the night and sharing lots of secrets. Teresa and only wished we could hear what they were saying.

Here they are last year ages 4 1/2.
Here they are this week 5 1/2. Katie still has those fingers when she's tired.

Blake and Claire escaping from the younger ones.

Bestest of friends!!!

Baby brother Micah age 1 1/2 and a very, very, very busy little man.

This week we saw lots of animals in the Farley yard. One morning we looked out and watched two deer for about 30 minutes. They got really close and the kids loved watching them. The next we looked out a saw a wild turkey and then Saturday we found a turtle. They kids loved playing with the turtle.
Nose to Nose... Come out and play Mr. Turtle.

My nature lover Claire of course has to pick up every animal she can get her hands on. She wanted to keep it but we finally convinced her to put the poor turtle out of its misery and let go near the trees. I'm sure that turtle ran the race of his life.

Ready for church.
Sunday night we had the Wyatt's come over and grilled burgers and dogs for Todd's birthday. This is Katie, Lainey and Anna Kate. Lainey and Landon are our 3 year old twin friends.
The kids lined up on the porch eating their ice cream cake.

Happy Birthday Mr. Todd!!

Landon riding his tricycle.

Mr. Todd and Micah

Parting is such sweet sorrow!!! They truly are great friends and love being together and hating saying good-bye. We were very blessed with cool weather, lots of sunny days and plenty of dress up clothes to go around. We can't wait until September when they come back for a long weekend. Thanks Teresa for all the great food and cleaning my house. We love the Castlemans!

Fourth of July Pics

The fourth of July was my first real outing with friends since surgery. We ate lunch at Mark's parents with the Scott, Ashley, Damien and Megan and Chris, Paula, Jackson and Mia. After coming home for a nap we went to the Traughbers for dinner with the rest of our group that meets on Sunday nights. We did the last year so it maybe becoming a tradition. The kids had a great time playing until we went to Harding for the fireworks.

Here are the two newest Farley cousins. Mia (left) and Megan(right) are 10 days apart. Anna Kate is so excited about TWO babies to play with at Grammy's house.

The kids loved playing at Tod and Jan's house and kept themselves pretty occupied waiting on fireworks.

Here is Anna Kate and Conner a year later. They are still the best of friends. We'll see what happens this fall when the go to kindergarten at seperate schools.

Ms. Jan always has the coolest stuff. Both years she brought the glow stick necklaces and bracelets for all the kids to have while watching the fireworks. Our small group isn't that small we have 15 kids between us all and one on the way.

Here are Blake and Claire watching the fireworks. We are still amazed how good of friends they are. They love being together and love being twins. They usually team up when we're in a group. I hope they always stay as close as they are now.

Here is the wild and crazy bunch. We had one couple of out of town and a few running around but this is as close as it gets with 15 kids 7 years old and younger.

Summertime!!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I had surgery the second week of June and am just now coming back into the land of the living. I still have a couple more weeks of the official recovery time but am feeling better. I thought I would post some random pictures taken at the beginning of the summer and catch everyone up.

Blake is getting lessons in mowing the yard. Now that we have 2 acre yard we more than eager for him to be big enough to help. It still maybe a couple of years away but he loves riding with dad.


Claire and new cousin Mia. Claire has never been our "baby" child but she does love Mia and pays her alot more attention than I would have every thought.

Claire loves to skate. She and Blake went to a birthday party at the skating rink right before my surgery. Claire roller skates at home but Blake never had. Mark took them but the pictures of Blake on skates were all blurry. When I'm completely healed we'll all have to take off for an afternoon at the skating rink.

This Karsen "the birthday girl" whose party was at the skating rink. Blake, Claire and Karsen were in the same kindergarten class when we moved back to Searcy and are the best of friends.

The White County Library had a Star Wars day and Mark took the kids to see what it was all about. Most of it was pretty hokey they said but the storm trooper was cool.

Meet the newest Farley...Lucy. After my surgery I was laying on the couch and saw this cat out in our front yard. Everytime I would go out she would run between my feet and be so sweet. We decided a cat would be a pretty good pet to have to help keep mice, snakes and other critters away since we live out in the country. The kids love her. We laughed and said we would have gotten a cat a long time ago if we knew it would occupy Anna Kate as much as it has. We don't think she's quite a year old and is very sweet with the kids. This morning she had a bird for breakfast which was quite an education for my kids. Cats are such low maintenance...my kind of pet.