Category: Uncategorized (Page 12 of 118)

I had to get chicken feed, so I went to IFA. Luckily, I went alone, or I may not have been able to handle the temptation! You see, the tiny chicks are in, and they are JUST. SO. CUTE.

I to reach in and pet them, and look over what breeds they had and what color eggs they would lay and all that. But I DID NOT BUY ANY. We do not want to go through all the work and the stink and the mess that little chicks take. I want to buy some teenage ugly chickens so they can live outside sooner.

As I was walking back to the front of the store, an errant little chick was just out walking on the floor! I picked it up and cuddled it for a moment before I took it to the girl at the checkout desk. It’s just so fluffy! I could have just slipped that little chick in my pocket and brought it home, and then been surprised to see what kind of chicken it grew into, but I was strong.

NO CHICKS!

I don’t know if could have been quite as strong if I’d had any kids with me. Must avoid IFA for the next month.

Remember those old posters that we had at about the jr high era of the cat hanging in the tree that said, “Hang in there, baby”? Now with the internet and facebook, it seems pictures like that are shared all the time. This is how we found the kitty the other day. She looks like she’s just about given up.

You may remember that this kitty ‘joined’ us last July when she just started hanging around the house, and when Marie, our exchange student from France was worried about the cat that had been there for 3-4 days, we fed it a little bit. Well, now I guess we have a cat. A 3 legged cat.

I have been a little worried about her this winter. There’s been a LOT of snow, and so MANY nights WAY below freezing. I just wondered how she could survive when it’s so cold. I bought her a little cozy bed and put the heated pet mat below that, and gave her an old wool blanket. But more often than not, when I see her outside, it’s not in her cozy bed. I brought the heated dog dish out of the chicken coop (they were just making a mess of it and I got them a new water dish) and plugged that in on the porch so that her water won’t freeze. I guess she does ok with the cold. The other day when we had SO MUCH snow, and I spent many hours shoveling, she padded out through the falling snow to say hello.

Her feet left little paw print melt marks in the snow, and she was happy to play in the snow.

After that snowstorm, by the way, things looked like this.

With snow up to the swing, I don’t think anyone felt like swinging.

Or jumping on the trampoline.

And that sidewalk that I had shoveled twice already looked like this.

But we made it through January with it’s inversion and it’s really really really cold temps. So, hang in there baby, it’s only a couple of months until spring, right?

I didn’t really tell much about our Christmas. We’ve been so busy I have hardly had time to go through all the pictures.

Christmas eve we changed things up a bit. We decided to go out to dinner at our favorite Mexican place, Los Hermanos.

We had hosted back to back parties, and I didn’t want to do another party for Christmas eve, so it was just our family. It was snowy and icy all day, too, so I didn’t want to make the grandparents travel.

On Christmas morning, the kids were all up by 7, waiting for us. Don’t you love how some of them can’t even wait a FEW minutes without a book?

Santa had come, and been kind.

And so had Mom and Dad.

Chaos? Yep, pretty much.

The kids all got pretty much spoiled, what with gifts from Santa, Mom and Dad and all their brothers and sisters. I don’t know if Larissa had experienced such a big chaotic Christmas with so many people ever before. As part of the family, she exchanged gifts, too.

Later, the grandparents came over for dinner and game playing.

Ryan had made my dad and his dad a cribbage board. Made it himself!

As for my gift, Ryan got me about $500 of paint.

Awesome!!

Right after Christmas, he and Cole went to work.

They got the walls primed, the ceiling painted, and the trim painted. Unfortunately, my computer is not recognizing my camera anymore, so it’s difficult to get more pictures up, but soon I’ll tell you about our painting COLOR and the disasters that ensued there.

It was a wonderful Christmas season.

To assure that I wouldn’t just pull this skirt out of the donate bag and wear it in a pinch, I cut it up and made some wheat bags.

Because I seriously have loved this skirt. It’s been my go-to skirt for about 8 years. I wear it to church, I wear it to rehearsal, I wear it to school. It doesn’t roll up on the ends, it doesn’t need ironing, and it goes with everything. But sadly, it ripped up the back (not on a seam) and I guess it’s time to move on.

Merry Christmas! May we remember who brings us the greatest gift of all.

Our ward put on a wonderful night in Bethlehem activity. It was so well done! I was totally impressed. Please ignore the stupid look on my face. I came late and was just eating my chicken and pita bread when this picture was snapped.

There were even animals out in the stables.

These pictures are all from our neighbor Steve Goering. You can see more on his photo share site.

My applause go to all those who planned and carried this event out. It was tons of work, but such a special night.

Some stuff that’s been going on here. I don’t really have time to elaborate on everything, but I’ll show some pictures.

Now that they have a cozy warm house, the chickens have been more regular in their egg laying. But every once in a while we get an especially small or large one.

Here’s the little gift that the cat left on the doorstep for us. I guess that means she has accepted us as her family?

John felt he needed a mustache. Not sure why he had to do it with a sharpie, but it eventually came off.

We took the family to Thanksgiving Point to see the lights there. There were even reindeer!

I took the kids bowling. I was really only going to bowl ONE game, but they had a special text in offer so we got two games for the price of one. Fun times, even though we were NOT the best bowlers. Halfway through our second game, a whole group of cute guys came in and all bowled together. A league of some kind. We weren’t intimidated at all.

A portion of the Bells on Temple Square were there last Sunday in the conference center to record a little something in response to this..

I don’t exactly know where or when that will air, but we did it.

Here’s my lovely Natalie right before her choir concert. I hemmed her annoyingly slippery dress this week for her, and she did GREAT in her concert.

We had a wonderful Christmas present delivered this week…sheet rock!

The hangers came and got the whole basement hung in one day. Wow! I think they are coming this week to do some mudding and taping. Woo-Hoo!

On December 7th, it was St. Nikolaus Tag, which is when St. Nikolaus comes and brings candy and gifts to the good children. So, in our shoes were treats, and we even woke to little stockings with our initials on them.

More pictures and stories to come!