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. =)