There's a new addition coming to MommyCoddle...no, not baby number 5.

Not sheep.

Not a milk cow.

Not a pottery kiln.

Though all those things I would gladly accept, the new addition is something a little different.

It's is the arrival of a new face, a new story-teller that is going to join me hear in this space.

I've been telling my sister for years that she needed to start her own blog. Her life is amazing, and fun, and creative and funny. She tells great stories, does cool things with her kids, and is the toughest farm-girl I know.

And this winter, when I stepped into my new, bigger "job" with BabyCenter, it suddenly occured to me that I shouldn't get my sister to start her own blog, I should get her to join me on mine.

A few phone coversations, several emails and MANY google-chats later, she agreed.

So I hope you'll welcome with open hearts, my sister, Mary, to MommyCoddle. Like me, my sister lives on a little farm in rural Maryland. Like me, she lives in a fixer-upper farmhouse--though her house is much farther along in the fixer-upper part as they've been living there for quite awhile tackling projects here and there. (And I'm hoping she'll show us some pictures of her current kitchen-remodel...Mary? Hello?)

She has four kids two boys and two girls and our kids are all long-distance BFFs. (Though Elizabeth is slightly confused and has high hopes of marrying her oldest boy, Caleb.)

The animal kingdom on her farm is a little more extensive than mine: 7 goats, 2 donkeys, 4 cats (thanks to me.), 1 dog, 2 tortoises, 1 turtle, 4 guinea pigs, and 1 parakeet.

Mary is my first call in an animal emergency--from how do I measure out the wormer, to my kids found this baby bird, to how warm do the chicks need to be, to Oh my gosh! The neighbor's dog just killed my chicken and there's a bull in my front yard and the baby is upstairs screaming in her crib. (Her response to that phone call: It's all kind of crazy and fun, though, isn't it?)

She sews. She cooks. She knits. She rehabilitates wildlife and paints in watercolor. She delivers baby goats, can castrate a bull and commiserates on the phone about laundry piles and dirty kitchen floors.

She'll probably read this email and call me tomorrow morning to tell me that I've built her up too much, and now she's even more nervous. (She's nervous.)

But I know you all. And I know you'll love her stories and the heart with which she shares them.

And I'm so excited to have her join me here.

She'll jump in tomorrow. I've already read her first post. (I'm her editor.) And it's a perfect story for this early Spring.

I hope you all enjoy reading her stories as much as I do.

xo.

Molly