Snow days

These pictures are actually from last week, but it's been snowing off

and on so it could have been any day recently.

 Oops,  they rolled this one downhill, but their snowman was in the

opposite direction.

 And the snowball was really big, and the snow was really heavy.

 They had to call in reinforcements.

 Ahhh, success!

 Andrew specializes in cute, tiny snow guys.

 The crowd of window watchers.

 Francis looks pretty happy about staying snug and warm inside.

 Adding a few decorative details, like arms and such.

The grand finale!

Oops, took this picture through the screen.

Sorry guys.

O Happy Advent!

Every year we receive a box of fruit from Clare's godparents.

 

This year, the box has become a ready-made nativity.

 



Puts all those tubes from toilet paper to good use.

 

(The lighting is kind of cool on this close up.)

 

Our three wise men have been moving across the kitchen

 

counter top for a while now

 

and everyday, when we light the candles on our advent wreath,

 

Marianna sings happy birthday.

 

We. love. advent!



Hunting Season

Dan's been cleaning and purging again.

 

Latest find...a hunting target.  Add a few nerf guns and this is

 

otherwise known as fun, fun, fun to our crowd.

 

 

 

Only one casualty and it wasn't the deer.

 

Aw, Andrew's just playing dead.

 

The Gift of a Warm House

 

Someone from Dan's Saturday Morning Men's Group gave us 20 cords of

 

pre-cut wood for our boiler.

 

We just had to load it up and haul it home.  That comes to 4 loads on this handy trailer

 

 we borrowed from a local homeschool family.

 

 

Just back up the trailer (Dan's job!!)

 

and push a button.

 

Voila!

 

Huge piles of wood, ready to burn.

 

 

 

Pretty awesome!

Like Mother, Like Daughter

This is me, at 7 AM, going to check on the boiler.

Marianna, later that same morning.
(I happen to really like this new fashion statement of winter wear and pj's. Trendy!)

Thanksgiving Revisited

Be Warned!

 

  This post is FULL of pictures.

 

  What can I say?  I was camera happy that day.

 

 We had a blast!

 

Little kid billiards

 

and big "kid" ping pong

 

Hanging out and watching football

 

The "non-competitive" bunch

 

Posing for Mom

 



 

Grandma loving on our hyper-kitty

Auntie Tammie loving on Marianna

 



Stephen loving on pumpkin pie

 



More ping pong

 



 

More talking

Even more ping pong

 



 

Weird alien party crasher!

 

 

And there was even time for a family picture

 

compliments of my brother in law(thankyouthankyouthankyou)

 

Hurry...it's c-c-cold out here

 

And another big thank you to my sister for making sense out of the jumble of people

Whaddaya think?

 



 

B/W?

 

 

Hmmm?  Still haven't quite decided

On Personal Hygiene

Gabriel:  I used some of that wash mouth last night.

Eggs and Chickens and Chickens and Eggs

And Johnny, my busy egg checker.

These girls got it made.

He's out looking for eggs at least every other hour throughout the day.

Must be squeezing our girls to improve production!

Whatever he's doing, it must be working...we're getting 3 to 4 eggs/day now.