Cousins

The "little" boy cousins like to hang all over Courtney.

Courtney and her "little" cousins...they like to play with her cell phone.

Dawson and Courtney are "buds"...she likes to snuggle with him.....and Mitchell is trying to get in on the action.

New Tradition

I wanted to start a new tradition at my family Christmas this year. So....I bought a gingerbread house kit and had my kids and my niece and nephews all make one together. Nikki, Jeremy, Courtney, Nolan, Mitchell and the finished "house"!

The even got Grandma involved!

Where is Jeremy? Mitchell was on top of it and made sure everyone helped.

Mitchell had a great time! We let him mix the icing with an electric mixer and he thought that was pretty great. I didn't get a picture of it though because I was helping him at the time.



Next year I might buy one for the girls and one for the boys and make a contest out of it.

Christmas Sling!

Chad had a little mishap on Tuesday and I ended up rushing him to the clinic for x-rays. They cannot find a fracture (even had the specialist look at the x-rays) so they think he tore a tendon in his bicep. So......he is in a sling for awhile. The kids and I have been doing the cattle chores and it is driving him nuts to just sit still and watch. I have feeling I will be taking him back in next week because it doesn't seem to be getting better at all and he is still in quite a bit of pain. Oh well, it could have been much worse!

Merry Christmas

May we all remember the true reason for the holiday and celebrate the birth of our Savior....Jesus! Merry Christmas to you all!

Hubby Tag!

I saw this awhile ago and thought it would be fun to do.

Hubby tag!




1. Who is your man? Chad




2. How long have you been together? together 26 years, married 21 years




3. How long dated? forever....5 years




4. How old is your man? 41




5. Who eats more? probably me, I am a big eater




6. Who said “I love you” first? He did




7. Who is taller? He is much taller, over a foot taller.




8. Who sings better? I do




9. Who is smarter? He is




10. Whose temper is worse? That's a tie...we both have a bad temper




11. Who does the laundry? I do the mine and the kids....he does his own




12. Who takes out the garbage? He does...and burns it too




13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do




14. Who pays the bills? He does...he won't let me near the bills




15. Who is better with the computer? Me...he is terrible on the computer




16. Who mows the lawn? Our daughter does....I do occasionally when she doesn't have time




17. Who cooks dinner? I do




18. Who drives when you are together? He does most of the time




19. Who pays when you go out? He does




20. Who is most stubborn? Um....me??!!




21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? ME!




22. Whose parents do you see the most? His....they only live a mile away and we farm with them.




23. Who kissed who first? He kissed me first




24. Who asked who out? I asked him out




25. Who proposed? He did....on one knee




26. Who is more sensitive? ME!




27. Who has more friends? ME! He's a quiet one.




28. Who has more siblings? I do




29. Who wears the pants in the family? I hate to admit it but he does




30. How did you meet? In junior high school

Basketball Pictures

The boys and girls basketball teams had a double-header with Deubrook on Tuesday night. Courtney's boyfriend Ben is from Deubrook so we got to see him play too.

Ben in the dark colored uniform (#4) at tip-off.

Ben #4

Courtney #14


Courtney on defense.

Courtney sang the National Anthem with Amber right before the games. She is hidden behind Amber but you can kinda see her.

Her team won again on Friday (now 4-0) and play away tomorrow night.

Boring!

I have been pretty boring lately, I know! Nothing extremely exciting going on around here.

Courtney has had 4 games now and her team has won all 4....yeah.

I have been busy selling cookbooks and other fundraisers for this years Prom (the Junior class parents are always in charge of that).

Jeremy is taking finals this week so he has been back and forth a few times. He gets bored not having class so he comes home to help out here.

My poor pigs are sick so I have been spending alot of time with them. I don't know what is worse, sick kids or sick pigs!!

All the Christmas gifts are bought and wrapped and I have all the fixin's for Christmas dinner bought but I still need to do some more baking.

And......I really need to get my house cleaned!

50 things about me

I saw this at Susan's and thought it would be fun to do.

50 random things about you! If you opened this, FILL IT OUT! Learn 50 things about your friends and let them learn 50 things about you!
1.Do you like cheese? YES- love it!
2.Have you ever smoked? Yes, but I quit 6 years ago...one of the best things I ever accomplished
3. Do you own a gun? Yes, many! For hunting and for the kids' target shooting.
4. Do you like listening to Christmas music? Sometimes
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? depends on what kind of an appointment
6. What do you think of hot dogs? Not a huge fan of them but will eat one occasionally at a ballgame.
7. Favorite Christmas song for all time? The little drummer boy.
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Coffee....just pour it down my throat to get me going in the morning.
9. Can you do push ups? a few
10. Who is your favorite Grey's Anatomy Character? Have never seen it.
11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? My wedding ring but it shrunk so I don't wear it anymore, I wear my anniversary band that hubby bought me for our 20th anniversary(2nd favorite piece). Ok, my wedding ring didn't shrink, I just grew.
12. Favorite hobby? blogging of course
14. Do you have A.D.D.? I don't think so
15. What one trait do you hate about yourself? I cry way too easy
16. Middle Name? Marie
17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? I have to get my pig chores done...what am I going to make for dinner....I sure could use another cup of coffee
18. Name 3 things you bought yesterday? I paid the processing on a half a hog, and bought a package of buns and some sliced deli ham.
19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? coffee, diet coke and beer.
20. Current worry right now? Getting everything in order for Christmas dinner.
21. Current hate? I hate it when people think they are better than others.
22. Favorite place to be? Watching a ballgame or any other sports event.
23. How will you bring in the New Year? Probably playing board games and eating way too much with our good friends like we have done for the last several years.
24. Where would you like to go? Anywhere...we just started traveling and I LOVE it!
25. Name three people who will complete this? I have NO idea!!
26. Do you own flip flops? Many, many pair, I love flip flops!
27. What shirt are you wearing? an old t-shirt with the sleeves cut off.
28. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? Don't know, never done it.
29. Can you whistle? Yep
30. Favorite color? Baby Blue.
31. Would you be a pirate? um....NO!
32. What songs do you sing in the shower? Whatever song was stuck in my head at the time.
33. Favorite girl's name? Courtney (of course)
34. Favorite boy's name? Jeremy (of course)
35. What's in your pocket right now? I don't have pockets right now.
36. Last thing that made you laugh? I watched Baby Mama with Courtney last night and we laughed at quite a few places in the movie.
37. Bed sheets as a child? Just plain old sheets
38. Worst injury you've ever had? Tore my ACL....way too much recovery time for me...I am not a patient person.
39. Do you love where you live? LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!
40. How many TV's do you have in your house? 5...one in everyone's bedrooms and 1 in the upstairs living room and one in the downstairs family room.
41. Who is your loudest friend? Jackie....I love her for it though!!
42. How many dogs do you have? 2
43. Does someone have a crush on you? I highly doubt it!
44. Do you get embarrassed easily? No....but I maybe should, I do some pretty dumb things!
45. What is your favorite book? I don't have one.
46. What is your favorite candy? Twin Bing candy bar
47. Do you know all the words to the Fresh Prince theme song? Sadly, Yes
48. What song do you want played at your funeral? On Eagles Wings
49. What were you doing at 12 AM last night? Waiting up for my college kid who was home for the night.
50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? All the things I need to get done today.

Blizzard......AGAIN!

Yet another blizzard blew through the state yesterday. We have frigid cold temperatures which make things a little challenging around here...doing chores in this cold is absolutely miserable. I don't think we lost any animals though which is a good thing.

UPDATE: ZERO dead animals and the chores are done for the day and the shoveling is also done (both kids are home today so that really helped). Chad does have to push some snow in the yard yet with the tractor but it does have heat so hopefully the heater keeps up while he is pushing the snow.

Done Shopping!

Ok, so I am not TOTALLY done shopping for Christmas but I do have all the gifts bought....whew! It's always a relief to get that done. I have Christmas dinner at my house with my family so I still have some shopping to do for the meal but the hardest shopping is done.

Storm Cleanup

Here is a photo of the "storm cleanup"!
It is really beautiful out but not quite so beautiful for Chad as he has to push all the snow in the yard so we can get around.

The pigs got here safely last night and are now snuggling up in a clean and toasty warm barn. It was pretty nasty out last night when we unloaded them and they were hilarious coming off the truck into the snow. I am heading out to check on them in just a little bit.

More Snow!

Not only did we have freezing rain this morning and school got called off at 12:30, it is now snowing on top of the ice covered roads....ugh! It has been a really tough year this year with the weather. I have 1100 little pigs coming in this evening too...ought to make for a real interesting evening for us!

Basketball

The high school basketball season begins this week. Courtney has games on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and the boys have a game on Friday. I LOVE basketball and can't wait to watch Courtney and her team and our high school boys team play!

Christmas Baking

I am looking for some good Christmas cookie or candy recipes. I AM going to find the time to make some this year but I am in need of some good recipes. Anybody have any that you are willing to share?

Madyson

I took a picture of our new dog Madyson last week.....I can't believe how fast she has grown. Madyson in August

4 months later. She is on the right next to our OLD dog. It was hard to get a picture of her because she is REALLY active.

She has been a pretty good dog so far except for the things that all puppies do. We can't let anything lay around or she will drag it off and she likes to jump on people but I am working on that. She is turning out to be a good cattle dog....all instincts too, we have not really worked on her much with that. Chad has really taken to her and even lets her ride along in the tractor with him while he does chores. She also likes to ride on the 4-wheeler with him.

I made an appointment for her to go in Monday to be spayed, the last thing we need around here is a few more puppies. She has to stay overnight and we pick her up Tuesday afternoon. That should be interesting, we have all become pretty attached to her.

Happy Dance!

We were doing the "happy dance" all day yesterday. We finished up with this years harvest on Saturday (it's the latest that I remember finishing in the 21 years that we have been farming)! It was a long, drawn-out harvest with many trials but we made it through and are very thankful for the crops that we harvested. Now for the "clean up" that comes after the harvest. All the equipment needs to be cleaned up and put away and all the corn and debris laying around needs to be cleaned up too. I hate that part but hey, at least it means the harvest is finished!