A Warm Spot

I happened to glance out the basement door and saw Lightening keeping warm.

It constantly amazes me how he finds warm places to hang out. He will spend all day outside. The other day Jared found him sleeping in the hay bales. When he came in for the night his little ears were barely cold and he smelled sweet....like hay. He also has a habit of losing his collar with tag so now he is wearing a heart tag because I didn't want to make a special trip to Petsmart to get him his little fishy tag. We are thinking about making him Shrinky Dink tags so we don't have to blow 5 bucks for an engraved tag. Who knows where he loses them. 

 He lives a mysterious life.

Sunny

It was a warm 39 degrees Saturday morning. 

With no snow on the deck it made for a pleasant breakfast on the "veranda".

I think Poppa gave Kaleb those sun goggles quite a few years ago when he found them while cleaning out his garage. Kaleb pulls them out every once in a while to be goofy.

The funny thing to know about Kaleb is that he does these things without telling anyone or drawing attention to himself. He just does things and then we happen upon the situation and just shake our heads. He is a funny guy loving life.

Say Cheese!

Kaleb, the instigator.

Victoria, the crazy partner!

They took a fruit peel like grapefruit, cut teeth in the inner flesh and wedged them in their mouths.

There is NEVER a dull moment in our house.

What?

I think our puppy thinks he is a Cat!

A Warm Lap

So I found this awesome chair for $25 at the thrift store. 

When I called Kirk about it, I said that everyone will probably gross out that

it was from the thrift store or they will all be fighting over who was going to sit in it.

Well, I am relieved to report that everyone loves the chair. It must be the most

comfortable chair we have!

Jared sat down to take a load off and Thunder decided that she wanted to sit too.

You gotta love how cats just take over.

He told me he couldn't get up because Thunder was taking a nap.

OH NO YOU DON'T

 Look what walked up to my back door!

This is why we are going to be adding a mud room on to the back of our laundry.

For the mud monster!

These are the days that he wants to give his Mama a great big HUG!

Thank you....but NO!

Ice Skating

Let me put on my sunglasses!

Happy Birthday!

 Where did all the years go!?

Jared is 22!!!!

For the first time EVER....

we celebrated Jared and Poppa's birthday on the same day.

That's what happens when everyone has their own schedule and you try to find at least ONE day that everyone can be together to CELEBRATE!

Happy Birthday Poppa!

We were afraid if we added 74 candles to the cheesecake

 that we would need a fire extinguisher!

We love both these guys!!!

Beaver Mountain

 I love Homeschooling.....and Homeschool Ski Days!

These guys got lessons on Beaver Mountain. It is so awesome to 

have this available so close to home!

The boys learned to ski and Victoria is learning to snowboard!

 My little dare devil daughter with her clan of snowboarders!

She is in the middle with the red coat and her braid flying up.

 Victoria's last lesson they were going backwards down the hill leaning up on their toes.

She said she fell backwards down the hill and did a somersault!

I'm kind of glad I didn't see that! 

Our very own handyman

 I love having boys who love to tear things down!

I love having boys who don't balk at getting dirty!

I love that Jared woke up early one Saturday morning and 

decided to remove the plaster from the remaining chimney. 

Now both chimneys have been cleared of plaster revealing a 

pretty yellow brick known to this area, chimney!

Notice how Sam is wedged between my leg and the trash barrel.

That is how Sam is, always having to be touching me.

Guess Who Is 18!

There is never a dull moment with Kaleb!

Happy 18th!!!

Kaleb is almost always happy, goofy, weird, crazy with creative ideas.

He is embracing adulthood with a pizazz that I haven't seen from other kids.

He is now assistant Scoutmaster to his brother the Scoutmaster and is 

ready to help mentor young men into adulthood!

What better way to do that than in the great outdoors!

We love you Kaleb!

Snowshoeing

 We found an awesome spot to snowshoe in Franklin Basin...

It was quite a climb and I couldn't do it too fast because my knee is still healing from the injury last summer. Either way it was enjoyable.

We had our lunch nestled between trees. There were lots of snowshoe rabbit tracks. No bunnies to be seen. I would have loved that!

 Kaleb made inuit goggles out of duck tape that he was testing out.

They worked pretty well. They were in place of his sunglasses. We never

know what Kaleb is up to. 

It snowed on us the entire time we were out.

It was awesome!

Camouflage

 We counted 9 deer in our neighbors yard the other morning.

They looked so peaceful as they made their way gradually through the property to the canal where they cut across.