Lucky Me

Just thought I'd share another photo. I categorize these types of photos in my "Lucky Me" photos. So I opened the fridge yesterday to get something and was reminded of just how blessed I am to have my beautiful children. I love these little reminders. Sometimes being a Mom isn't all that fun, so I often need reminding of how great it really is. I have wonderful children and a super life. I hope all of you are feeling blessed as well as this year comes to a close. Happy New Year to all! ....and Happy Birthday to my sis, Erin (yeah, I spelled your name right!)!

Little More...

Aaron cut down our Christmas tree over Thanksgiving, and Elder Crawford put up a garland on our banister, so as far as Christmas decorating went, we were way ahead of the game. During the day, our tree looked cute, but at night it was fabulous! The kids did a great job decorating it. We also had fun dressing up in Biblical dress for the Ward Christmas party, and caroling to our neighbors (although everyone only got half a song because it was insanely cold and windy). Of course, Christmas was great! We feel so blessed this year and hope that all of you too feel happiness in this season and into the New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Shouldn't we have the Christmas Spirit all year round?...so let's pretend I'm filled with the Christmas Spirit and not that I"m late in my well wishes! Yes, another catch-up post. Luckily, I haven't taken too many pictures this month.
First off we actually took Christmas pictures before the New Year this year. This one has our missionaries. The bigger one is Elder Kay and the other is Elder Crawford. We still have Elder Crawford for about a week along with his new companion Elder Scholes (pronounced Skulls), but we call him Elder Shoelace.
Lanny had a Christmas program at school. As soon as he walked out onto the stage, Kessie started shouting, "Brother, Brother, Hi Brother!" She was pretty excited to see him. He did a fabulous job, and other than them all looking terrified, it was fun to watch.
The same night as the Christmas program, Lanny lost another tooth. He is super fond of the tooth fairy and concerned about her welfare, especially since it has been so cold. He made her his own recipe hot cocoa and left it for her. He also made me some, and wow!!! it's great if not interesting.

Cold...

Thought I'd show you what the kids made on Saturday. I saw these on the Scrapbooks Etc. website and thought they were adorable. Since my kids have all had colds and we couldn't go to the work party on Saturday, we crafted instead. I think they did a good job. All I did was cut the circles and glue on the snowflake.
It's been very, super, completely, amazingly cold here. Most nights with the windchill it goes to at least -20 F. Currently it is -2 but with windchill it is -16. Yippee!!! On Sunday, Lanny asked if we could go home and knit some sweaters for the chickens. If only I knew how to knit, oh well! But in case you are concerned, they are doing fine, but do wish we would let them out of their house! Hope the rest of the universe is staying warm!

Safety First

I bought Kessie a skirt at Walmart yesterday, mainly because it was on sale for a dollar. She put it on this morning, and as I suspected, it was too big around the middle. So holding her skirt up so it wouldn't fall off, she came out of her room and said, "Mom, I need a seat belt!" Yeah, she wasn't too happy at all my laughing..."Don't laugh at me, Mom!" I had to assure her I wasn't laughing at her and that something hysterical was going on outside our window. I got her a ribbon and we tied it around her to hold up her skirt. She looked pretty cute and was super proud, she even showed our missionaries, "Look, Elder Kay, I got a seat belt!"

The Stockings were Hung...

So last Sunday Aaron put up the Christmas tree. It's not decorated yet, but Lanny was really getting into the spirit of things and was trying so hard to get everything ready for Christmas. So, since I wouldn't put up decorations, he took matters into his own hands. He drew cute little decorations and hung the stockings! It was so cute, I want to leave them up, but I'm sure once I get out the real stockings, the kids will want those instead. Don't worry, the socks were clean!

;)

Yes, More

A few more. The point of the trip for the girls...riding the horses. They rode Maggie and Hoodoo. Grandma had to go catch the horses and bring them to the house. Kessie pointed out into the field, and said, "I like the blue one!" I agreed, he was my favorite too, unfortunately, he belonged to Slim (and was actually a buckskin). She still enjoyed riding the other ones. Louie is a natural on a horse. Grandma gave her a mini-riding lesson and she did great. Lanny also does great. He went from being terrified to asking to ride in just over a year! Unfortunately he didn't get to wear the hat while riding, since Maggie has a problem with things flying past her head and it was a bit breezy. He still looked like a cowboy to me.

...Beauty...

I love taking pictures of my kids. I went crazy with the camera while up at Karen's for Thanksgiving. The kids were happy, the weather was great, and of course, nature is beautiful. We had a great trip. We rode horses, fished, I went and saw "New Moon" with Debbie, ate turkey, had a game night (if you ever have the chance to play games with Grandma Clark...do it...she's hysterical!), and as you'll see from the picture, all of Karen's kids were there...so fabulous! So, on to pictures!

Bountiful Harvest

I'm falling behind in my pictures because we've taken so many lately. Aaron, Lanny, and Louie went hunting last Monday and Tuesday. It is becoming apparent that we now have to have a wild turkey for Thanksgiving. They loved it. Not only did they get both a turkey and a white-tail deer, they got to see some awesome scenery...I'm a bit jealous about that one. On Tuesday when I talked to Lanny on the phone, he even mentioned all the scenery...something to the effect of.."I guess we're just gonna take pictures for our whole lives!!!" He was mad at Aaron because Daddy kept stopping along the road to take pictures and Lanny wanted to be hunting those turkeys. No wasting time, just get to the hunting! We did eat the turkey, but compared to the 27 pound turkey that Karen cooked, ours looked a bit undernourished! Still tasted scrumptious, though! Happy late Thanksgiving! I'm thankful for all of you!