Snow & Cold

Being that its January 16 it should not come as a shock to me that its winter. Not to mention the fact that I have lived in Utah for the past 100 years or so, I should know the drill, winter means cold and snow. But people it has been WEEKS since the temps have been above freezing.....WEEKS.

Here's the thing with a farm, even when the temps drop to the double digit negative you still have to go outside. Even the cats who normally follow me around when I'm outside have been staying in.

 The chickens find whatever "warm" spot they can to hang out during the day, then hurry back to their heated chicken coop as soon as the sun goes down. When I go out to feed at night its like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock "The Birds". I think every bird in a mile radius hangs out trying to warm up and sneak the chickens feed. When I walk in there is a mass exodus. You will know if/when one hits me in the head because I will freak out. The only reason it hasn't happened so far is that I have been quick on the ducking of my person.

We took these pics a few weeks ago when we were still able to step outside without turning into a people-cicle.

Luke just couldn't let fresh untouched snow go without leaving his mark

Silly, happy kid.

 Both boys love the snow and have been asking when we can build another igloo.

Notice anything wrong with this picture??

That's right -22 degrees is very very wrong. Let me do the math for you, the temperature has to go UP 54 degrees to get to FREEZING. 

Every morning when the weather comes on the news I check to see if we are the coldest place in the state. 3 out of 4 times we are. To which I then jump around saying woop-eeeee we win. I'm sure that Dew never tires of this and appreciates me reminding him that we have made our home in the coldest place in the state of Utah.

The satellite guy is coming out today to fix our dish which apparently froze and snapped its "hold together on the roof" parts. (pretty sure that's its official name)  The water is slowly running in our faucets to try to avoid the big pipe freeze of 2007 which involved a backhoe digging up most of our yard and us not having water for a week. The heater runs constantly to keep the house at 68 also to avoid the pipes freezing.

Good times people good times.

Zoey!!

I'm sure it will come as a huge surprise to um.... NOBODY that we got a new dog. 

On Dec 30th I decided it was time, I needed another dog in my life. So I logged onto KSL classified (a local Utah news/classified website) and checked for dogs in a 100 mile radius. I made a bunch of calls (nobody answered) I then put it in fates hands and waited for the right dog for us. I received a few calls back and set up meeting times all of which were in St. George. 

Zoey was the first dog we saw. She is a 3 month old Parti Pomeranian. I had to google Parti Pom as I had no idea what that meant. Apparently Parti doesn't mean woo-whoo lets go to Vegas, but does mean a Pomeranian with two colors.  

As we were driving home it occurred to me that the chances of me not taking the first dog that was placed in my arms was slim to none. Just to be sure I asked Dewey

 Me"were you worried we would be looking a dogs all day"

Dew "No, not at all". 

Me "What, why not I had set up a few appointments?" 

Dew "I knew we were taking the first dog you saw".

 Bust just as I thought..... But I still say fate had a hand in making sure Zoey was the first dog we saw.

And can I just say how stinking cute is she?

She is a very sweet dog who the boys are thrilled with because she is "nice". Bailey was and Skip is in the grumpy grandma/grandpa stage. They always asked why we couldn't have a nice dog. Added bonus, being that she is a puppy she has almost as much energy as they do.

She has done really well considering there has been nothing but snow on the ground since we have had her. And the temps have been below zero more then they have been above freezing. 

 She weighs a whopping 6 pounds and is 90% fur ball, with these teeny tiny little paws. She is also the perfect snuggler, one of my top priorities :)

 And again just so stinking cute.

The perfect addition to our wild little farm in the country.

Luke turns 8!

  January in a small town with below zero temps doesn't lead to a lot of options for birthday parties. Luke decided on the bowling alley for his. I may or may not have not put the dates together in my head until the kids were already on Christmas break that his birthday came before they went back to school. So it was a little tense in us not knowing if there would be 1 kid or 20 at the party. (poor kid having a birthday so close to Christmas and a mom who apparently struggles with walking and chewing gum at the same time :)

 As it turned out we had a pretty good turn out with 12 kids and a few parents. And who doesn't love bowling? The kids all had a blast.

 Who knew taking pictures of constantly moving kids would be so hard. I finally handed over my camera as I was on "I'm thirsty, hungry, need to use the bathroom" duty.

 Being the local bowling alley it wasn't deluxe accommodations but we did have a little semi-room and table.

 Much like the lack of Christmas cookies baked (shush I'm sure the neighbors liked their generic box of chocolates) I admitted defeat and ordered a cake from a local grocery store. Nobody complained so it must not have been to bad. Luke is so funny when the spotlight is on him he gets so serious. This was his face as everyone sang Happy Birthday.

 Kids are so stinkin cute, they got so excited watching Luke open his presents.

 Luke showing off his glasses from the little goodie bags. So all in all the party was a success, he had fun and that's all that matters.

 His actual birthday was Sunday so he woke up to streamers and balloons on his bed.

We went to Applebees for lunch and had them sing for him. His face during the singing was exactly the same as the above picture. This was him as soon as the servers walked away. We are not desert ordering people so a hot fudge Sunday was a huge treat.  (which he very kindly shared with his brother)

 Said brother photo bombing Luke's picture.

I did make cupcakes for him on Sunday.... why pink you might ask, let me explain. Me.. ok I need to bake something, box of cupcakes check. Frick no frosting, that's ok I'll make my own. Frick no powdered sugar, that's ok I'll make my own out of sugar. check add vanilla....gross brown frosting, hum add red food coloring...keep adding... frick pink cupcakes it is. (A little peak into my brain, its a struggle people)

 But Luke declared them to be good so all turned out well.

More opening of presents from family...

One very happy 8 year old. 

Happy birthday Luke! We are so proud of the amazing boy you are, you make us laugh every day and bring endless joy to our lives.

More Christmas

In looking at the last Christmas post I noticed not one picture of our tree. I simply couldn't let that happen our Christmas tree is one of my favorite things about Christmas.

And the boys wanted to show off the Lego projects they have been working on so it gave me the perfect chance to take pictures of both.

 

This is the biggest Lego project Luke has put together and he did it almost all by himself.

This morning we made it a family project to put together their marble race tower. As you can see there were only a zillion or so pieces. With a few other random Christmas toys thrown in.

So back to our tree. It is a wonderful collection of mismatched ornaments. Every homemade ornament the kids have ever made. (yes I have a gold macaroni ornament which I love) We try to pick up ornaments from every place we travel to. Which makes it so fun every year to unpack them and talk about the memories they bring. We also add picture ornaments every year and any other thing we think of. So there is absolutely no rhythm or reason or theme or color scheme to our tree and I LOVE it.

This year the boys got me this ornament in honor of Bailey. (of course I cried)

I found this globe that I put a small heart over every place each one of us was born. (to the right is a camel ornament we brought home from Kazakhstan)

Me and Dewey's picture this year was on the beach in Jamaica.

Luke's ornament me made at school, so cute.

And Kolbys cutie school ornament, love them.

Dewey and I went on our first cruise this year so of course we needed a ship ornament.

The boys picture ornament was from one of our Christmas card pics.

And finally the boys and I went to Texas this summer and got to visit the Alamo, tada.

I'm sure I'll spend tomorrow carefully packing up all the ornaments to pack away until next year. I hope this coming year brings as many adventures and wonderful memories that last year brought us.

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful blessed Christmas and hope the same for you.

Our tradition every year is to have the boys sleep in our room. When they wake up (obviously way before we normally would) Dewey goes out to make sure Santa came (and turn on lights and start the coffee) Then I try to take pics as the boys come out.

Look at these happy excited little faces.

 

 Checking out what Santa brought.

The week before Christmas we painted the boys room and had new carpet put in. We planned to do a Star Wars theme this time. We think that Jolly the elf must have told Santa our plans because he did a little decorating while he was here.

This is the boys seeing it for the first time.

Their favorite part other then the bunk beds is this huge Millennium Falcon on their wall.

Every Star Wars room needs a Yoda. The boys are thrilled with their new room. And to recap it started as a Winnie the Pooh Nursery. Then we went to a Cars and now a gasp big boy Star Wars.

 

Liz and Gary (my sister and brother in law) drove down from Salt Lake to spend Christmas with us. It was so nice to be able to spend the holidays with them. I'm sure they appreciated the boys getting up at 6 am and pounding on their door to wake them up :)

Poor Dewey got sick a few days before Christmas, we are pretty sure it was the flu. He was so sick but rallied and powered through with a smile on his face. Love that man of mine.

Grandma and grandpa came over Christmas morning to open presents with the boys. Then we had a big Christmas breakfast. Winnie made a huge wonderful Christmas dinner for everybody so we spent the afternoon at their place.

 

A wonderful Christmas that came way to fast. It seems like December just flew by and now we are on to New Years and Lukes Birthday.

 

Jolly the Elf

Is back!!

He showed up a week ago with a Sunday morning surprise breakfast Elf style.

The boys were excited to see Jolly had come back this year. And of course happy to eat doughnuts for breakfast.

Every Elf is different, our Elf likes to hide somewhere different every night so the boys have to find him the next morning. Sometimes he brings little treats for them. He has hid in the Christmas tree, sat on the ceiling fan, hid in a house plant and played with star wars figures in the boys bookshelf.

He also went for a chicken ride.

Its so fun to watch the boys jump out of bed to try and find the elf every morning.

Last night Dewey and I were working on Christmas cards while watching Monday night football. Every so often Luke would yell out "Why didn't he just run the ball he was wide open" and various other football sayings he has likely heard Dew and I yell out. (warms a moms heart :)

I hadn't heard anything in a few minutes and looked over at him, hum looks like he is watching the game.....

On closer inspection..... fast asleep. I ask you how sweet is this little face?

These are all phone pics (as you can probably tell) It's been that kind of week.

Bailey

 

 

7/2000 - 12/1/2012

 

It was a beautiful September day in 2000 when I first saw the cutest little wiggly ball of Lhasa Apso fur. It was love at first sight, I simply melted when I held Bailey in my arms. She was hardly bigger then the size of my hand. From that point on we were inseparable. She spent her youth as a city dog but adapted very nicely to being a country pup.

Our family joke was that we put up a fence for the dogs in the backyard. Skip won't leave the yard unless you force him and Bailey learned how to wiggle her way through the fence whenever she wanted.... thus no point to the fence.  

She followed me everywhere in the house. She slept in our bed next to me. As soon as the garage door opened when I came home everyday she was waiting. She would run to my car and poke her head in as soon as I opened the door. That is love in its purest form.

  

 

At 12 years old she started to have health issues which have gotten progressively worse. Thankfully she went down hill rather quickly. I don't believe she suffered. On Sat Dewey and I made the decision that it was her time to go. As fate would have it the Veterinarian on call was the country vet just down the road from us. I had never taken Bailey to him as I had heard from numerous sources that he is a farm doc and very gruff in nature. (and the honest truth is that I didn't want a lecture about my pampered little princess pup) So this stranger saw more raw emotion from me then people who have know me my entire life have seen. But as it turned out he was incredibly compassionate and respectful with Bailey. As hard as it was I'm blessed to have been by Baileys side as she took her last breath.

 

I spent the weekend in tears. There are a million little things that are different now that shes gone and its so very hard. But I also know that she is in a better place now happy and healthy. And I am a better person for having had her 12 and a half years of unconditional love.

Dewey has been amazing, he is as ever my rock. Everybody handles grief in their own way. He understands that I am not OK and not handling this very well. He has been there every step of the way letting me go through the emotions involved in the loss of a constant companion. I'm thankful beyond belief for his love and support. 

The boys have been wonderful offering up lots of hugs because they know mom is very sad and misses Bailey now that she is in heaven.

Goodbye my friend , until we meet again....