Oh Thunder!

During the winter months, Thunder is horrible! She has been known to destroy puzzles that aren't even finished yet, get inside boxes, sleep on clean clothes, and now, curls up inside blue prints.

White Out Rodeo

We actually made it to the White Out Rodeo. 

It felt great to get out and do something since we literally missed Christmas with being sick.

 

Santa's Elves

These two are sort of like Santa's Elves except they would eat everything that was baked or chew all that was made. So I guess not. This must have been early December before we got horribly sick. Because one, there is no snow on the ground and two, I wouldn't have been outside taking a picture.

I do remember Jasper not wanting his picture taken. On the other hand, Merk was like, so what are we doing next? He's always up for whatever we are doing. He didn't even care that he wore those Springy Christmas trees on his head. He's so cute.

 

Design Team Training

We had the best time at 4H Design Team Training. We got to stay in a Log Cabin Lodge. Sheri and I discovered that we were born the same year. There is just something about finding someone who shares a birth year when you are an adult. 

These two crack me up. They are both highly competitive yet not against each other. They laugh so much it makes me laugh just listening to them.

These girls were exhausted by the time we drove the 4 hours home. One was really grumpy, one just wanted to sleep, one got super whiney and the other one kept giggling over ridiculous things. It was very entertaining on the way home.

The 

 

What??

This was the face Kaleb made when Nana sent a picture of the creeper that Kaleb drove over at Poppa's shop by accident and didn't know it!

 

Snowshoeing

Kaleb took the dogs out snowshoeing.

They love going on adventures with him. Jasper loves the snow. He's so bulky that he stays plenty warm. MarkTavitch on the other hand is so skinny that he needs a coat from Alaska to stay warm.

I couldn't go with them so Kaleb took this picture so I could marvel of the beauty....or maybe it is to make me jealous!

 

Covid and a Gingerbread House

The boys brought Covid home from a client of theirs at the beginning of December. I'm glad that Victoria had it the least. She kept all the animals alive. Kirk and I didn't fair too well. Kirk ended up with it the worst. He came down with pneumonia, then blood clots and then a CT scan caught Kidney Cancer. So now we are dealing with that. As for Christmas, this is the extent of our Christmas. Nothing got bought, wrapped ....Jared and Victoria put up the tree. They never fluffed the top so it looked like it was smashed out of the box for the whole month. And I was too sick to care. I did manage to pick up this Gingerbread kit before we all got sick which Victoria did an amazing job of decorating. It was my favorite...only.....decoration out for Christmas.

I think the semester of Cake Decorating she did in 4H when she was 8 has paid off.

BRAT!

The little house to the left is a dog house. It turned out so cute.

 

Trick Titles

We have the best 4H Dog Program. And these Teen Leaders make it even better. Jasper got his intermediate Trick Title, Winnie got her Advanced Trick Title, Lily got her Canine Good Citizen, Callie got her Novice Trick Title and Luna got her Novice Trick Title. Way to go Girls and Dogs!

Victoria and Jasper also won First place in a AKC Novice Trick Competition in the Fall that went to the National level and won first place there as well! She and Jasper danced a routine to the Git Up. Now every time Jasper hears the music, he gets all happy!

 

More Random....

I have never been this late posting photos like this. Kaleb and Jared have worked in Bear Lake since October coming home on weekends or 5 days then going back. Jared walked in carrying his coffee maker in the box. The essentials in life. Must have coffee.

Lightning has missed Jared.

I love the sun shining after a snow storm.

The bad part of snowstorms is that with the change in barometric pressure, it wrecks havoc on Victoria's head and body. She's like a human barometer. She can tell when a storm is approaching. She gets a headache, brain fog, major fatigue. She can barely function. That's when Sammy is happy because he will sneak up on the couch with her. He just wasn't prepared to dress up as a reindeer.

Jasper giving me the Evil Eye! He wasn't thrilled with the reindeer disguise.

Merk is definitely Kaleb's dog. He thought it was great fun and even smiled!

Random Stuff

My boys are forever finding me heart rocks. I have quite the collection.

And now MerkTavitch is finding too!

Jasper takes the funniest pictures. He's wearing a mullet wig for Howl-o-ween. He's trying to get my attention which is why he's making that face. He cracks me  up.

Hiking is a dog's favorite sport! Especially if they can run off leash!

The girls and I took the dog boys out for a hike. It was Daphne's first time out hiking since being sick for months and months with Ulcerative Colitis.  Merk was CRAZY! We aren't fast enough for him.

Proof that I was there.

Jasper checking in on the chickens. I wonder what they think when they see him pop his head in the window.....We're not afraid of the Big Bad Wolf.....

 

Twinsies

These two crack me up.

They are 4 years apart but yet people get them mixed up all the time.

They are very tolerant of each other and respect each other.

They have a brother bond that I have never seen before.

They had no idea that they had worn the same shirt to work that day.

It was a shirt from Youth Camp with Alpine Church when they were in Highschool. I think Kaleb finally grew into his about a year ago or so. I don't know if they noticed that they were wearing the same shirt or not but we noticed.

I think they were too tired to care. These guys were hard.

 

Circus Dog

Sammy the Circus Dog.

When he was just a puppy, he would stand like this on the kids step stool in the kitchen. I'd turn around to use it and there was a dog standing on it. We figured that he felt much taller when he stood on something since he had such little legs. He's getting up in age at 14 1/2 years old now. I'm going to miss my little guy standing on the step stools.

This is the other thing he just recently started doing. He seeks out places to sleep. I have no idea how he gets in such a small basket without tipping it over.

Here he is sleeping in the cat bed.

He's so old now that he didn't even realize that I was standing there taking his picture. 

Our little old man.

 

What a Mess!

This all feels like a blur now but when we were in the thick of it I thought I was going to die. I didn't.....obviously. With the upstairs walls open we were hard pressed to get insulation shot down into the walls below which were the living room walls. So, we did this in October and with it being January now, the insulation works. We don't have to wear jackets, blankets and have a portable heater running to just watch a movie. I will say we barely use our living room because of it being so cold. My nose would be like ice. Now it is much more comfortable. I think it was worth the mess!

My job was to keep the machine full with insulation. It cost more to rent the machine than it did to buy the insulation bags.

The boys insulated behind the wall and had to cut this huge hole in the wall. Good thing though, because Kirk got back there and blew insulation down into the other living room wall. His shirt was black but you couldn't tell. It seems every job we have to do involves filth!

Along with the upstairs project, was closing up walls through out the house. Our goal is to not have any open walls anywhere. It was bad enough that we went about two months without a door knob. We didn't have to worry about burglars, the dogs would temp anyone to just try to rob us. 

This is a horrible job. Who ever in their right mind thought that covering up hard wood floors with linoleum squares and black tar paper stuff was stupid. I can say it here because I am the author of this blog and this is the most horrible job ever. First off, I don't have enough strength to scrape the crap off the floor once it has been softened with the steamer. HUGE job. AND HORRIBLE. We have one more room to do.

The boys have been freezing in this room. There were times that Jared said he could feel a breeze in the middle of the winter. They slept with layers of clothing on and were still cold. They even reset the window a couple years ago to seal drafts around the windows. Once the walls were off and the outside wall was exposed, I walked in to see Jared sealing up every single "potential" crack with the insulation gun. It was kind of funny, because by golly, he was not having any crack exposed to allow air to blow through. Their room is much much more comfortable. It is amazing how badly this house needed insulation.