Christmas Card Olympics!

So I am a snail mail junky, I LOVE to get mail in my little metal box across the road. Even better when the mail man beeps his horn to tell me it is a package!! Back to this though, I love to get Christmas cards to hear from all those who I don't get to chat with often enough; it is one of the highlights of the season for me! I use to send out almost 70 cards every year, I have downsized quite a bit in the last couple years. Unfortunately I had to delete a couple cards from my list for next year, a couple older people are no longer here. :(

So every year I put up all the cards we received on the wall to enjoy them past mail time! And inevitably there are a few that I just really enjoy and look at quite a bit, and so here is the first annual Christmas Card Olympics!!! Yea!! Now no hard feelings if yours is not here, I enjoy ALL of them!! ;) This card won for best "seasonal" I just get too few cards with the true meaning! This was from my sister in law Laura's family.
This won two categories, first Danna's eyes bugging WAY out, and second making Danna feel REALLY old! This is a family I grew up with, these are the kids left at home (plus mom & dad). The boy on the far right is the baby I learned how to change a boy diaper on, and the gal in the middle was one of my Brownie Girl Scouts when I was a co-leader with her mom (she is 21!!). And the little boy next to his mom I am sure should still be a little baby!! CRAZY!!
This is the best fun card, it is from my sister in law Amanda's family. The heads are thumb prints with the antlers drawn on then googly eyes and pom pom noses glued on. Too cute!!
This one is the HOTTEST mama card! This is my friend Cathy we walked together for HS graduation and she was one of my bridesmaids, and now she has 3 little babes a husband in school and look how good she looks!! Of course her husband and kids are not eye sores ether!!
And this is the one that gave me a good giggle, it came just a bit late, on the inside it says, "And it's not even Christmas"! Ha, Ha, this one is from Grandpa Mike!

So thank you everyone for the great cards, there are so many more I could include, but I have better things to do than sit here gabbing about cards!! :)

MY TOE!

When Dan bopped me on the head and talked me into moving to New England I had 2 stipulations; I needed a new tea pot to make hot tea to keep me warm, and I needed warm slippers to keep my toes warm. I LOVE my beautiful blue tea pot, and I have worn my wool sheep slippers nearly everyday since we moved here. But sadly look what I found in my slipper the other day... MY TOE not inside but peeking out!!! What am I to do!?!?! I wish the art of darning was a skill I had, maybe I could fix it. But I am afraid they won't make it until next winter!!

I know you all are laughing or rolling your eyes, but darn it my toes can not survive without my slippers!!!! :)

Sorry we have no cute kid pictures, we have all had a bit of a cold, so we are not much fun and the chores have not been getting done so my house is a disaster area. No pictures!!! :) But we are feeling a bit better, although the kids still have a horrible barking cough. Just in time for Dan to head out, of course! :)

But stay tuned there is an up coming contest, well at least awards, or maybe I should say accolades. :) Are you curious??

Toasty!!

So this last week we had a couple days when it got all the way to 60 degrees! The first it was raining, but the second was just a bit muddy so we got to go play for a bit in the back yard! The tree house is the center of the fun!!
Fern beelined to her swing and stayed there for about 40 min!! She was so happy!
Jake ran like a crazy monkey! As you can see from that grin he had a great time!!
And Riley, if he is "exploring" he is happy!

We are all doing well here, we have been enjoying Dan's airplane being broken! :) This morning we are enjoying Saturday morning cartoons (a PBS tape Grandpa made for us)! And soon I will be enjoying green Tabasco sauce again!! I have not been able to buy it out here, I can find the red at one store but not the green! But have no fear Daddy saves the day!! He was going to bring me some when he comes out next month but since he does not check luggage it was not going to work, but then he found out you can order it online!! So My Daddy is saving me buy sending be 4 bottles!! (He almost sent the gallon jug!!!)

So that is our fun here!

Not Too Many Today!

It has been quiet around here, well not quiet but nothing too noteworthy! Yesterday we had the day of raging tempers, the kids were trying to kill each other. So it was quite appropriate that our Family Home Evening lesson scheduled was on anger. I hope it sunk in maybe a little bit!!

But here is cute Fern yesterday with her short lived pigtails!

She was insistent we take her photo in my chair!
And she was sure we all wanted to see the back too!

I hope this new year is starting out well for everyone, we are plugging along. It has been cold so Dan has been in Florida mostly, I am craving the beach!!!

What a Night!!

Well I thought that I would get Dan to set up the toddler bed for Fern before he left yesterday. I figured we'd put it out now so she could get "use to" the idea. Yea, funny mama!!

Now you see Fern has never slept more than 6 feet away from me her entire life, so it was with great surprise and quite a bit of doubt when she said she wanted to sleep in her new bed in her room across the hall from me! I did not think it would happen, but there she was at 8:15 pm after nursing in her room, asleep in her little bed. I said, oh it will not last we will be lucky if she is there until we go to bed. And then we were ready for bed.

I know it is dark but here is Fern sleeping in her bed last night! I was STILL sure it would not last!

Then I got up with Dan at 5am to see him off, surprised she was still asleep and even more surprised that Dan's commotion did not wake her. She did wake around 6:30am, and started crying when she could not find me downstairs. She then climbed in bed with me and nursed and then snoozed until 9am!!

What a night to sleep in her room, here is the window with ice on it this morning!! And her room is the warmest as it is over the boiler!
Here is Fern posing for me in her big girl bed! This is the bed Dan and my Dad built when Riley was a squirt!
All cuddly, she was so excited to have a pillow! It was so cold last night that I put jammie pants under her flannel nightgown!!

There are more icy morning pictures on my nature blog! BURRRRR!!!

The Last of December!!

Well I have a couple Christmas morning pictures, but not many. I was just too preoccupied watching the kids have fun (including the biggest one)!! Here is Riley, can you guess what his favorite color is?

And Jake getting trapped!!
Fern was so happy, Grandma made her doll a nightgown to match Fern's, and Grandpa gave her a purple purse!!



Then today!

As you can see from the Christmas photo Fern's hair has been getting in her eyes, so Christmas Eve she let me put in one little pony tail, and today I got two in!! She loves to say two, and today it was about her hair!! She was not onto standing still, I took about 10 photos, and there was a pitiful couple that were not blurry!
Here is the top, they were flying out so crazily!!

Here is Riley trying to show her how to hold still (aka: hold her still)!! :)

The kids are all excited for the "party" we are going to have on Monday night, we bought chips today, and we are planning to ether have Dan make pizza, or order it if he is not here. They are so excited to "stay up late", we'll see how late they make it, or rather how late I make it!!

Merry Christmas Eve!!

After a great Family Home Evening talking about the true meaning of Christmas we of course opened the Christmas pajamas!! I have tons more photos but these should tide you over!! Grandma J. did a GREAT job, cars pj's and Fern's first night "gown". Everyone was so excited!!

Sorry this is dark, but it was too cute to miss! Fern thought her nightgown was so "pretty", and thought it was great for twirling!! And then Jake walked in front of the camera! :)

We also open gifts from Dan's family on Christmas Eve because that is when they did it when he was growing up. Fern got this new blanket made bu Grandma H. for her doll she was a proud mama and wanted her doll's picture taken!
Here is what Dan and I have been working on for the kids Christmas presents, Fern is getting a doll house (we bought the dolls, we are crazy but not completely insane!), and the boys are getting a shield to protect themselves from the wooden swords Grandpa M. got them last year!
And the scene is set!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

All Since the Snow Storm!

Here is the semi quick low down on the happenings here!!The night of the big snow Jake thought it would be fun to throw a ball at the light on the ceiling in Fern's room. The light broke, and glass rained down on him. He came out with blood down his face and all over his hands! Needless to say I was a bit frantic trying to get the bleeding to stop, worrying about us being snowed in to boot! Thankfully it slowed and a neighbor had some butterfly bandages, and another neighbor with 4wheel drive played courier. So here is Jake all bandaged up, notice the blood on his shirt! BOYS!!!
The next morning we went out to enjoy the snow, we had 5 inches!!
Fern found it quite hard to walk in all her gear, so she mostly sat and ate. She LOVES to eat snow, she is perfectly happy to stay inside if her daddy will go out and bring her a little snow or ice! :)
Our hilly backyard makes for great sledding!!
Here is Hunter, Jake, & Riley playing in the back yard, they had a great time!
Fern enjoyed sledding this year, last year it was not a highlight! At first she only wanted to ride with Mama, but then...
she wanted to ride in the little blue sled all by herself!! She was too cute, I thought I had gotten a video of it, but ended up with a video of nothing! OOppss!!

Then this week we had a fun outing!!

We all went to Riley's Cub Scout Pack meeting, here he is with all the scouts.
Here is Riley getting his Bobcat award! The 3 short ones with orange bandannas make up the Tiger den, they were all too cute!

Here is Fern just the other day, she is wearing the hat Grandma & Grandpa H. brought her from Russia, she was TOO cute in it!! And her new favorite sweater/jacket it is a hand-me-down a friend brought us last week and Fern LOVES it. When we go out I do not have to fight her to put it on, which is a MAJOR accomplishment!!! It is really warm too, I want one!! :)


And just a fun photo of Fern today, she was nursing and watching a show. Riley took this picture! And yes we are STILL nursing! :)

I hope you all are enjoying the Christmas Season, the kids and I ran to Barnes and noble today to get a couple books for the new school term coming up, plus a new journal for me; we drove past the mall boy an I glad I am not there! I hope you are not ether!! Actually I have not been there in MONTHS!!! Thank goodness!!

Changes!

Well I got crazy and was playing with blogs, all of them! Our schooling blog is the most noticeable, but this one is much more colorful with the addition of my Mexican Sunflower I grew this summer.

Another addition is a little banner over there on the side, I am usually a quiet person when it comes to politics, but I feel I need to be a little more vocal, a bit more proactive. So that is why I added Ron Paul's banner to my blog, he could truly take the oath to uphold and protect our Constitution. I hope this election you all will research out and listen to the candidates. I want to continue to enjoy my liberty with my family!

For All of You in California!

So this morning well before we were expecting the expected storm, we were enjoying the company of some good friends when I happened to walk past the kitchen and shrieked, "It's snowing!!" So we bundled up her kids and got them on their way! So our day was a bit changed but I documented the snow throughout the daylight hours and here it is!! At least it is now pretty along with the cold!

Here is about 30 min after it started snowing, about 10:30am.

This is at noon, about 2 hours after it started.

At 1:30 just as the boys were going out to play, it turned a bit to ice, and kept falling! But now when you opened the door you got pelleted in the face!!!

Here is Riley out in our "wilderness", he played for a good long time and enjoyed his pioneering!

Jake had to trudge diligently through the snow to get the sled to a good spot, but he made it, and we found out some good info, Jake can not hold it long enough to get his snow gear off!

And at 4:15 just before it got dark I got one last video, BBUURRRR!

Here are my foot prints out front from leaping though the snow to fetch the mail.

And our warm welcoming home from the mail box, I would have left the mail for the night but there was a lovely holiday package sitting on top of the box from Grandma! Thanks Grandma!! When I was out getting the package the mailman was just up the street and he was stuck! But thankfully he was able to maneuver out of the drift and continue on "through sleet, or snow or rain"! It is now after 6pm and it is still coming down well, and the radar shows that it will be a few more hours of this. We are also expecting a "Nor'easter" (more) this weekend, so I am hoping for clear roads tomorrow to get out and pick up our farm box I was suppose to get today! :) If you are wondering where Fern was though this, she was cozy in bed for part and cozy in Mama's arms for the rest!

Hope you are all warm and toasty (especially the one who is in Calif. and not here to shovel my drive, and warm my bed)! Love ya!

What Do You Do In The Wintertime?

To me winter is the perfect time for reading and sewing, I may love the outdoors but I just can not play long in 10-30 degree weather!! Yes I am a cold wimp living in New England! :)

So I am an avid library goer, you will RARELY find a time when we do not have a load of books borrowed, but every once in a while I get an itch for a new book of my very own. If you have been to our house you maybe laughing seeing as we are not short on books "of my very own", but I still get it! :) So this time I indulged myself and took a whole whopping $7 out of my budget and splurged!! Barnes and Noble have a great line of inexpensive paperback classics. Who's classics list it is I have no clue, as the definition of a classic is a book you would read more than once and still enjoy it. But I digress, so I bought myself my own copy of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. What a lovely book, their descriptions of home are the most pleasant I could imagine, I would move there tomorrow! I am trying to read it more slowly and "savor" it longer, I do not get to do that with library books- there is always the due date looming over my head, plus the dreaded fine!!!! Another thing that is fun about it this time is that it takes place in Concord, New Hampshire which is not all that far from here. Through the whole book they make reference to the book "Pilgrim's Promise", it is am allegory of getting through the trials of life and making it to heaven, I have recently heard a few homeschool moms make reference to reading it, and so I think it will have to be on my "to read" list this year. Jake is all about Franklin books, when ever we go to the library he makes a bee line strait to where they are! I found a couple at the library sale for $.50, they are a treasure! Riley enjoys the Color Kitten's Grandma J. bought that for him and it is a treasure! Fern loves her Owl Babies book I bought her, when I read it I change the 3 owl manes to Riley, Jake, & Fern, she has been longer to warm up to being read to than the boys did, but now she is often found "reading" or singing to her baby dolls! :) Dan, well he enjoys his corporate pilot magazine, the Liahonia in German, and he is working on a homeschool book I asked him to read, but it is hard to get him fired up about a book. But I am slowly working on him! :)

And if I could ever get my sweet little one to sleep early, or if she were just not permanently attached to my hair I would be at the sewing machine. Here are a couple great FREE patterns I am longing to try, when budget and little ones allow. I am overly ambitious and dreadfully lazy, so if you feel so inclined they would also be great homemade gifts for our family! :) Maybe I should pick up my crochet hook and try to make something too, we'll see after the hussel of Christmas toy making is over!

So to the tune of "What do you do in the summertime?" (I can only hear John Bytheway's version in my head right now!!)

What do you do in the Wintertime?

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Some Christmas fun!!

Here was our house last night, our first accumulating snow! If you look closely you can see our Christmas tree in the window!! The white blobs in the picture is falling snow and the cloud is Dan exhaling!
Here are the guys earlier this week at the Christmas tree farm near our house! We found a good one! As we got there it started snowing, but it did not show up on many of the photos. :(
It is only a 10 min ride to the farm but Fern fell asleep, so here is what she did while we found a tree! :)
Jake thought we should not "kill" the tree, but he smiled for me anyway! :)Here is part of the farm, it is just on a couples property. When Dan and I were first married we decided we would like to do this someday, we have now also added a pumpkin patch to the farm! :) Here is Riley and Dad going to the barn to return the saw, Riley is now quite the helper he stayed outside and helped Dad get the three on the van!Jake had different plans! :) I joined him soon after snapping this shot!! The heater never felt so heavenly!Just so you do not think it is all Christmas-y around here, here are our two "karate-ers" as they put it! Don't mind the mess behind them Dan spent the entire day baking! His Mama's granola for breakfast, 4 loaves of bread, and 2 pizzas!! Our house was toasty and our tummys VERY happy! :)

A Slew of December Pictures!!

I know I have been MIA, but Christmas is quickly approaching, Dan has been home and we have been busy. This will be a continuing theme (maybe not the Dan being around) through this month so do not expect too many post! Here is some fun that has been had! The Munchies under their new lap quilts!
Our VERY proud Tiger Cub in his new shirt & book! It looks like he will earn his Bobcat this month and receive it at the Pack Meeting on the 19th of this month!
And Riley and I just this last Saturday, we went and saw the Nutcracker together, it was his first Ballet! Mama had a great time and Riley enjoyed it in retrospect! :)

Here is Riley busting a move to his favorite song on our new Veggie Tales Christmas CD!

Jake needed a turn too!!

And Fern, not dancing but having fun to her Christmas music!

If you need new pictures more quickly than I can get them up then I would suggest coming over and watching my children for a few hours so that I can get caught up on things and then have time for the slow loading blogger! :) Love ya Mary! When should I expect you???