A Work in Progress

Kaleb, Victoria and I are painting a nativity of peg dolls this past week.

We aren't quite finished yet. We are looking for a wooden box for them to be in that we are planning on painting the inside like the stable in Bethlehem.

We are also in need of more animals, a manger and they all need to be sprayed with sealer, which will need to be much warmer outside to do that.

We researched various options for their clothing.

 Kaleb was inspired by Raiders of the Lost Ark for a shepherds attire. 

I am impressed how the kids drawing and painting skills have improved over the years.

They added highlights and shading in all the right spots.

A perfect project for Christmas.

I am so thankful that we have Jesus nestled in our hearts.

I can't imagine not having that relationship with our Messiah,

Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace,

the King of Kings.

Look Mom!

I remember the days when Victoria would bring me a rock or a fistful of 

dandelions when she was just a little thing.

 And now at 13, she is still bringing me things.

 Except now I can say....you are NOT bringing that in the house!

Gotta Love Carhart

This is how Jared dresses when it is 11 degrees outside.

It just amazes me how this guy will work in freezing temperatures building houses in the winter.

It cracks me up that when it is in the 40's....it's considered warm.

Who knew that this desert rat would weather the cold like he does.

Where is Chloe?

I didn't see Chloe until I saw these little legs sticking out from under the hay feeder.

All the goats have loved to stand up inside the hay feeder, even Lizzy did it when she was a baby.

Jasper loved Snow!

 There are a few things that Jasper absolutely loves.......

Cats,

Goats,

and

SNOW!

Pals

Jasper is fascinated by the cats, but Thunder is really the only one who will put up with him herding her around the house or sticking his face in hers.

Jasper truly loves them.

And Thunder is tolerant....until I saw her sit next to him at the window.

Now I think she finds a friend in him as well.

Sibling Rivalry

I caught Lightening trying to curl up on a washcloth that was sitting on the bench in the kitchen so I brought in their basket from the garage that has a little kid sleeping bag in it.
He instantly curled up in it and spent the day in it.

Oh the life of a cat....

All went well until Thunder wanted in.

They don't always act like they love each other.

Well....now we have two baskets on the bench in the kitchen.

Hmmm.....I wonder why?

First Signs of Winter!

I love being warm.....

I miss Summer......

BUT

I love Seasons.....

And I love the SNOW!!!

Bring it ON!!

Winter Figure Skating Show

Victoria and Daphne were both in the Winter show.

I will never forget the first Christmas we were living in Cache Valley.

We drove down the street to the ice rink for an awesome ice skating show.

I had tears in my eyes watching these skaters of all ages performing spins and jumps to music.

We have not missed a year.

And now our own girls are in the shows.

This year Victoria decided that she wanted to be the Beast and skate to Evermore.

Victoria, not being a girly-girl, didn't want to be Belle! No....she wanted to be the BEAST!

So we got busy, her Dad created the horns out of cardboard, wire, masking tape, glue and paint.

Awesome! 

I was in charge of make-up. It had to be something sparkly not scary!

She blew her coaches away. They loved it and she nailed her performance too!

I am so proud of Daphne. She has come so far and has gained so much strength. She skated again with the USU Figure Skating Class. She even did a catch-foot! 

And we ordered the DVD of the show so now we have it on DVD!

The Beast!

Tabitha and Beastie

Janusz, Beastie, and Hiroe

Her coaches skated with Disney on Ice so they loved the fact that she played the part of the Beast!

Janusz (yaun-oosh) was showing her how to move like a beast....before his shoulder surgery.

It cracks me up how small they are. Without her skates on they are the same size.

Not only are we proud of the girls and their figure skating accomplishments but we are super proud of Kaleb. He had a dream come true.

He and one of the Dad's announced the entire show. They took turns to test it out to see how Kaleb would do. He did awesome!

He has such a wonderful, deep voice for announcing over the loud speaker. 

When he found out last year that the guy who normally did the announcing of the skaters was retiring, he said...."I want that job!"

He did it!

Everyone was very pleased with his ability so I think he may have a job for as long as he wants it...or until some other 17 year old comes and pushes his way into that position!

Way to go Kaleb!

Thanksgiving

We enjoyed Thanksgiving at my cousin Kathy's house!

I have no pictures of our thanksgiving feast,

I don't have any of our family in a group shot....

BUT

I do have this awesome picture of a reminder of our intense game of NERTZ!

We had reminded our cousin Wind, that he was really good at Nertz and if he had remembered the last time we played about 6 years ago, AND how he blew us away with winning almost every game!

I think it jogged his memory because all of a sudden we were playing and having an awesome time.

It can be intense!

If games stress you out, don't even think about playing!

Chloe Belle

This little goat is sweet through and through!

I love goats....I am one of those weird people who see an animals sweet personality.

I sure am glad that God created our little furry friends for us to enjoy.

I definitely enjoy them!

Mud Whompin'

The boys went mud whompin'

....at the landfill!

We have had a pile of junk that was waiting for someone to take to the landfill....

with Kaleb, you can't call it the Dump.....

Knowing how muddy it was going to be the boys waited for it to dry out a little.

I guess it was still pretty muddy. They had fun though.

It reminds me of our jeeping days growing up in California.

Big boys and their toys!

The Barn that Kaleb Built!

This is the barn that Kaleb helped build ALL summer!

He had planned to work on the berry farm but was redirected to helping build this awesome barn that will be used for special events like Weddings! It freaks me out a little that he was on the room of this thing, throwing two by fours up to someone in the rafters as well as walking along the rafters on planks. He rode his bike up the hill twice a day since he came home for lunch. His one way of keeping in physical shape. For a skinny guy he has solid muscles.

The Miekle family that owns the Berry Farm/Dairy, were very appreciative of his work ability. He has learned so much working along side his brother. They gave him jobs that not every 17 year old would have because he already knew what he was doing.

We are really proud of Kaleb and his summer job!

Pure Puppy!

Jasper is turning out to be the sweetest puppy ever!

He is a people pleaser so he really wants to do what you ask of him.

Right now his back half works independently of his front half.

It is quite comical watching him bolt up and down the stairs.

We love everything about him!

Bad Dog!

This dog has a horrible sense of entitlement!

Daphne must have left this photo on my camera for me to see.

Random Fallness

I love that we have the colors of Fall right in our own yard.

There is something so exciting about the change of the season. When we lived in Arizona, I thought it was great to have warm temperatures all year round. But it seemed to always be the same. Here, we get the seasons and it is beautiful.

Thunder. 

It's fun having these two kittens. Well, they aren't much of kittens any more. I love how they seek us out when we are outside. They are very bold and can easily stand their ground with the goats and dogs. They even hang out with the chickens sometimes...just watching them with big ideas.

Just by browsing through this blog it is easy to see what is important to us. 

Our family and the many animals that we have.

If you like us I sure hope you like being around animals too.

Sam, the old man that he is at 9, is somewhat jealous of Jasper. I think he'll get over it at some point.

I just keep reassuring him that he is still my baby.

The wooden frame on the grass is an enclosed area that we put our tortoise in on sunny days for a couple hours a day. It makes a perfect spot for the cats to hide in. Notice the ears sticking up.

She's getting ready to pounce the puppy.

In just a matter of days this tree has turned yellow.

Thunder is pretty sure that she can reach the rope......

Sven

A face only a mother can love.

How can this little guy cause so much havoc in our lives?

He lived in the house for 10 weeks, was bottle fed on a schedule,

pee'd down the heater intake

jumped every fence that was ever between him and us....until it was 10 ft high,

ate a magazine, Victoria's homework, an American flag, mail

cuddled with a stuffed horse,

thought he was a dog for quite some time, 

and he pees on his face! 

How gross!

I told him that just because he was a boy didn't mean that he 

needed to pee on his face like all the other billy goats out there. But no, he didn't listen.

He decided to join the other big boys and 

act like them thinking that he was spraying himself with lovely musk cologne. How could he?

Awww, we still love him!

I love this tree

I love this tree!

I love the leaves!

I love seeing it out my back window every single day!

I love this tree in the Spring,

in the Summer,

in the Fall

and in the Winter!

October Birthdays

October is a very busy month for us. It always seems to just zoom past us if we aren't prepared. This year we celebrated the girl's birthdays on the same day... which is always interesting. They are so different in so many ways. Where Daphne's favorite color is pink, Victoria's is blue. Where Daphne loves cats, Victoria loves dogs. 

We had two monumental occasions.

Daphne turned 25!

And Victoria is an official teenager at 13!

We celebrated in the Canyon with grilled hamburgers! It was an awesome day even though it was a little chilly and windy. It had been warm all week until Saturday....figures.

Nana was all bundled up. She had just had another back surgery a week earlier so we 

wanted her to stay warm.

It was fun to be away from home, listening to the river, watching the leaves fall, visiting with each other without the distractions. Our family has grown up and I am so thrilled that they still like to be in on another's company. They don't want to miss out on family time.

That means so much to me.

I baked this awesome gigantic cake per Victoria's request!

Guess who won on the color of the frosting? Not that Daphne would have demanded pink.

A perfect tree for a nap.

Fall Leaves

There is just something about a pile of leaves that makes you want to jump into them!

 It's hard to be annoyed when you are raking up leaves to have someone or some creature making a mess of it all. The lovely part about all these leaves is that they aren't wasted. We rake them up and bag them for goat and chicken bedding to keep them warm in the winter. 

The funny thing is that the goats will eat their beds.

 We are training Jasper to help with the goats out back. So far he is doing pretty good. He makes a nice distraction so we can actually get something done while the goats are out. Goats are extremely curious and bossy creatures.

 Sven had to check out this really cool pile of leaves!

 So Kaleb knocked all the leaves off the swing platform and down the slide. Jacks passed up ALL the leaves on the ground because the one in the trough slide look far more appetizing.

Goats are actually very picky eaters!

 Jacks loves to try to head butt you when someone is on the swings. More fun with a moving target.

 It always amazes me how much of a time suck it is when we are outside and all the animals want to get in on all the action. Our cats are not afraid of anything but cars and Jasper is doing pretty good with the cats. He just wants to play with them.

 Jasper and Lightning

 Lightning loves to hang out on our shoulders. They love to be held and cuddled. Lightning went from Kaleb's shoulders to mine to the fence post. 

 Victoria was jumping off the swings and into the pile of leaves. Everytime she did this Jacks would get all excited and either run through the middle of the pile right over top of her or run up to her and start chattering goat talk. It was hilarious. We got it on video.

 Lightning laying on his back next to Daphne thinking that he is well hidden.

 Goat grooming. All you need is a leaf rake. These guys love to be raked, brushed, rubbed, scratched...if you have leather work gloves on, Jacks loves, loves, loves for you to rub his face and eyes. You just need to be prepared to take a few extra minutes with him if he sees you with leather work gloves on. 

 Frederick watching from a distance.

 Sven had to come over for some raking too.

 We couldn't leave the girls out. Lizzy started to fall asleep with her raking.

Having goats have been a total pain in the butt sometimes! Like when they have gotten out and practically destroyed the peach trees, the boys push hard on the fences and can bow out cattle panels. If they want something, they will find a way to get it. Or if you have a jumper like Sven. Wow, that little guy was a challenge when he was little. On the other hand, they eat weeds, they are sweet, they provide great responsibilities to kids, you can play with them, they love to interact with you, you can milk them. We have more plans for their uses like making soap, cheese and eventually have them pull a cart. Either way, they have been a wonderful experience for our family.

And we couldn't have done it without all of Jared's building expertise in goat house building, Kaleb's ability to repair any fence, and Victoria's strong muscles in feeding and watering. Daphne is the baby sitter filling in when we aren't home. It's a family affair.