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....

Another Parade? You betcha

The Storybook Cavalcade was two weekends ago. This parade is exactly what the name implies...... all things storybooks. We met the gang at our parade meeting spot. These kids are so funny Kolby sees them everyday but they still all hug like long lost friends as soon as they see each other. (probably a good lesson for adults to learn)

This parade had "Parade celebrities" such as Tigger.

 

You don't see enough Star Wars peeps in Santa hats.

Its hard to tell from this picture but there was a band marching past, all the kids were marching in time with the band.

Another parade celebrity....Mr Incredible.

 As you well know story books are not made up of super hero's alone but also include princess's and various critters of a female sort. The mere sight of the above mentioned females sent a number of the boys in our group (Kolby included) running for cover. They did this EVERY single female that came by. I think I even caught a few tongues sticking out in this picture.

The Tarzan float was a big hit.

Towards the end were the Christmas floats, the Grinch and Cindy Lou Who waving from their sled.

Rudolph walked by and was immediately covered in kid hugs

Kolby happy as can be.

And at the end the Big guy his own self.... Santa!! Clearly this was the highlight for the kids.

A fun end of the season parade, with good friends and perfect weather for November.

 

Have you heard the saying "Until the cows come home......" Well they came, didn't stay but walked past. Our neighbor called to tell us the cows were coming. (I have no idea how he knows stuff, he just does) We all walked out to watch the cows walk past our house on their way to winter pasture. (north of us) Hey we live in the country thast good country fun.

Dew and the boys walked to our neighbors to help keep the cows from wandering onto their property.

How sweet are these cuties? I'm pretty sure they are looking at me because I'm telling them I promise not to eat them .

Our horses ran our pasture the entire time the cows waked past. Stuff like a hundred cows wandering past their field makes the horses CRAZY. Made for some pretty good pics for me though.  

Ha, cows at our stop sign. There has to be a joke in there somewhere.

 

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We were blessed to spend ours with wonderful family. A good time had by all. We have so much to be thankful for its easy to get caught up in life and forget that.

 

Farm Life

I realized it has been awhile since I posted farm pics. Its not like we are lacking in them, believe you me.

For those of you not living on a little farm did you even wonder how hay is delivered? Your in luck I'm here to show you. Everybody has their own way of doing things, for us we "like" to write a great big check once a year. So every year in August we have our hay delivered that will last us until the next year.

The hay truck arrives

backs up and dumps the hay against our hay stand. (ha I just made hay stand up I don't really know what those woods beams and boards are called)

While this is going on the boys have to stay in the fenced part of the yard, this is Kolby claiming he is still inside the yard.

While Luke climbs the trees...yes barefoot.

A short time later the truck is back with the second load, see how the tilty thing works? (I'm sure you all appreciate my official farm lingo :)

And second load done.

And do you think the hay gets to stay there looking pretty as you please? No it has to be moved to the barn to protect it from all things weather related. (p.s there is a cat on top exploring)

And speaking of cats I thought this was a cute pic of our barn cat tractor. (remember the cat that just showed up and was standing by our tractor when the boys saw it....)

Back to moving the hay one bale at a time........

Into the horse trailer to drive it around to the barn to unload and stack..... every stinking one of them.

Kolby was taking pictures, I swear I was helping even though every one he took of me has me standing there with my hands on my hips. I swear I helped see I'm even wearing gloves. I will admit that Dew did 85% of the work, those suckers are heavy I can't very well heft something up that weighs roughly the same as I do. Mostly I rolled, pushed and pulled to do my part.

And why all the work you ask......

For these beauties..

Our two horses spent the summer at dads since he has a green lush yummy pasture (because of the epic community well water war a few years ago we do not have a watered green pasture)

In addition to our two horses we have dads two visiting for awhile. 

This is twister when he sees me coming me runs from where ever he is to follow at my heals as I walk to the barn. I know he feels bad about throwing me and giving me my one and only broken bone a few years ago.  

Hay is also good for chickens to climb on to look around the yard.

One chicken...

Two chicken. Told you it was farm pics.

Hay is also good to use as target practice. Remember the Hay stand from above we left four hay bales there to use during archery practice. It would make more sense if I had a picture but I'm sure you can use your imagination.

Luke is getting really good with his bow.

I would say I am learning how to shoot a bow, but am far from being good.

Dewey is very good.

Kolby likes to watch from the fence :)

In case your wondering no its not a Hunger Games thing. Dewey met some people who competed in the Olympics years ago in archery and thought it would be a fun family activity we could all do together.