Jake's raccoon

Joe & Jacob went out small game hunting last weekend and came back with this!  He was so proud of himself, he came in and said guess what we got?  So we were guessing squirrel, bird, so on.  We went out there and found this monster raccoon!!  Per Jake: "It's big, it's 35 pounds.  It was shot at 11:00 and we had no dogs and were lucky & spotted it." 
I'm guessing he'll love to tell this story for some time to come =)

Not just ANY piggyback ride

With these 2 nothing is as it seems ;-)
I wish I had taken a video of this it was too funny! First they each went and drank a glass of water. Then Meri climbs up on Carolyn's back and says "ready" and Carolyn takes off and they both give a couple big burps!  Then of course they just cracked up!  It was so funny!
Ah...girls...?! 

Smile for your Monday

Larissa Pearl

Happy 6th Birthday Larissa!
Have fun being 6!!!!!

Our Winter Wonderland

I love how the girls are enjoying the snowfall

BEAUTIFUL.  I just am loving this winter wonderland.  The snow has been on the trees for a couple days now! Every day I wake up it just really takes my breath away at how beautiful the snowfall is.  I'm amazed again at the beauty of nature, that God created it that way. 


And of course, we couldn't have a winter wonderland without kiddies having fun in it!

 Crash!

Emily helped James load his dump truck.  So he tries to push it, but it doesn't go to well in the snow. Then he decides it must be because of his mittens, so off they go ;-) I love his reasoning right now!

All the cousins sledding at grandpa & grandma's house after mtg.  they would have stayed out there all day if they could have! 
And, I have one more video to upload that will make you smile but for some reason it's not letting me right now.  I'll try later today maybe. 

more than pictures

It's been a while since I posted more than a few pictures.  On other updates around here:

**The kids are anxious for the snow predicted to become a reality.  We'll see about that!  I've heard around 4"+.  So in preparation today we hauled in a TON of wood.  Seriously, our basement is as full as it can be.  And then we pitched a bunch under the porch roof so it doesn't get full of snow.  It's always fun digging out firewood.  Now, it won't snow ;-)

**Our school year is going super fast, we've got into somewhat of a routine, we usually start with our reading book "Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons".  I am amazed at this book and so very thankful I found it!  Miss Meri even fights with Emily over who gets to do their lesson first ;-) Funny, in a way....then onto phonics, lunch, reading, math. Then science, ss, a couple times a wk.  It's amazing how fast the days FLY.   Seriously, could this year have gone any faster???? 

**We're getting excited to go "up north" over either Xmas or NY.  We'll see which one it ends up being! We tend to make plans last-minute.

**We had a busy hunting season, the kids got together and worked on a few fun Thanksgiving projects.  And of course played and played!  unfortunately I got very few pictures.  This one is from Linda =) Jacob spent quite a bit of time hunting with daddy and the guys and Benji.  He LOVED IT.  That about sums it up.

**I've been slowly working my way through the house and organizing, cleaning out junk, so on.  I seem to have a box of stuff we're done with to drop off at Savers every couple weeks when I go to Eau Claire.  Maybe I'm catching up on my fall cleaning for the past few years ;-)

** A few weeks ago a special couple stopped by at my in-laws on their way back to MT.  James really hit it off with Cedric.  He sat on his lap quite a bit that evening, which is a bit unusual for James.  Usually it's Mama he wants! We were getting ready to head home and I grabbed his boots and set him on the table to put them on and he got mad and pushed me away..."Noooo" and handed his boots to Cedric =) 

**That's all for my exciting news. =)  

Happy Thankful Day

From all of us...to all of you!
Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, lots of turkey, and family and friends close by!

Life around here.

 These 2 love to play meeting lately.  It's adorable. 

Little boy enjoying the sink.  And I do mean enjoying.  He'll stay and wash his hands (play in the water) until I drag him out =)  He's been wanting to sit on the potty chair lately, (& has gone potty a few times!!!) I think this may be his motivation...washing his hands ;-)

A few of our favorite things

 Applesauce...not the messy house ;-)

 I had 2 excited helpers and we ended up with a lot of applesauce.  I decided to freeze it this year.  ( I love Emily's outfit here;-)

 Pumpkins got painted this year, that was the girl's choice.

And Daddy...of course =) Can you tell?!!!

Huh. He learns fast.  Just sweep the dirt under the dishwasher heehee ;-)

Mr. "I-Can-Help-Myself-to-My-Own-Snack"

Benji

Have a very Happy 8th Birthday BENJI!

3 people, 2 parties, 1 post

I'm for condensing a bit lately, so here it is all wrapped up into one post....

 Meri turned 5 right before Menom. Conv.

Jake turned 9 and had a 'hunting' party along with his dad's 30th! 

And yes, he's Thrilled he's "finally" 30. heehee

Happy 30th Birthday to my honey

❥Happy 30th Joey! ❤

Happy 9th Bday Jake

Wow, it's hard to believe he's 9!  9!!  To sit and talk to him right now you'd find out pretty quick his favorite thing to do and talk about is hunting.  He'll tell you in great detail about the deer him and Joe saw bow hunting or the squirrels they shot or turkeys he scared walking down to Grandpa and Grandma's house.  And, I mean, in great detail, he remembers it all ;-)  He loves to be outside, preferrably hunting with daddy, also target practicing with his gun or bow.  He's getting pretty good.  When he "has" to be inside thank goodness for Joe's hunting magazines, they're getting their use!
Happy 9th Birthday Big Jake!

One Fine Fall Day Up North

 One of the gigantic piles of leaves we raked that day.  I think we had 5 rakers going and the wind to help us ;-)

 A little boy loving the pile of leaves

 Girls in the pile

 The 3 boys---buried

 Then, come eve we had 3 big leaf piles burning.  It took a little over 2 hours to burn all the leaves, so it was quite a bit of fun =)

 Getting it burning

Jael stirring the fire, Luke getting a head start on marshmallows!

Maria roasting marshmallows 

 Yep, I was there, mostly taking pictures and keeping baby out of the fires

 Erika and the s'more station!

"I just need 1 more" and so on

 This was just ONE big leaf pile.  We dragged tarp after tarp of these to the fires to burn

Luke & Seth roasting some mallows.

All in all it was a great time together!

Meredith Jane

Happy Birthday to our sunshine, silly girl Meri.  There is always a sparkle in her eye, and mischief and fun where she is involved!
She is 5!!!  It's hard to believe.
Happy Birthday RillaRae ;-)

CAT work

Joe did some work on the Cat for a few days.  The kids loved it.  I was slightly surprised James wasn't a bit scared.  He stayed on there for QUITE a while (30ish minutes) and would have stayed on longer if he could have!

Bye bye Curlie-Q

 Before!

After...aww...

I realized it was past time to cut James curls when the older kids & I were sitting at the table doing school the other day and in walked James followed by a proud Meri.  He had his hair nice and slicked back with a ponytail in a clip.  hahaha =)  He thought he was something!  So when I do the girl's hair in the a.m. they sit on the edge of the couch and he had taken to climbing up to take his turn on getting his hair combed.  So, he was all too glad to sit up there when I cut his hair.  Well, that and the mini marshmallows may have helped a bit ;-) 
So, I miss his curls but he's still a cutie I think!