Sunday, December 14, 2008

Winter is here!!

Winter is finally here. Fall seemed to kinda go on for alittle too long for me. ut now with he 45 mile an hour winds and below zero temperatures, i am changing my tune.

We woke up this morning to 52 degrees in the house. Most of the kids had climbed into bed with us because of the wind storm or the cold. So we are all hudled into the livg room until our stove gets hot enough to heat the houe. With the wind though it is tough for it is taking the heat right out of the chimney.

We have had a raccoon around the neighborhood stealing ducks, apples, grapes, and ect.... And the other day we finally caught the guy. The trap had been empty for almost a month so when i was out feeding te cows i jumped when i walked by the trap for there was a very large and overweight raccoon staring at me as i went by.

Mike has also started duck hunting with the neighbor. So we are slowing filling up the freezer every weekend. He is having a great time and since we live on a hill surrounded by pastures, it is good pickins. Well, it is off to the neighbors to pick up all of our items that blew over to their house in the storm.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Thanksgiving weekend

Had a family dinner with extended family on Thursday. I cooked mom's turkey in our roaster on the counter and it turned out wonderful! No brining or any other new fangled thing this year, just good old sage butter under he skin and basting. I have to say it turned out awesome! I also made a pecan pie for the first time too with pecans from Rosie down in Texas and was very pleased!

Friday morning we all packed into the van and headed down south to seattle. We had a great day at the aquarium, eatting lunch along the waterfront, and going to the childrens museum. By the time the childrens museum came about, everyone was getting alittle cranky and tired. So we decided to call it a day since we had been so busy and head out to our hotel. On our walk out of the children museum, we stopped at the water fountain that had classical music water works. The kids got a kick out of that and even though it was freezing, stayed for as long as they could to watch the other crazy kids down below dodging the sprays of water. When we got back into the car we asked them what their favorite part was and they said the water fountain! : )

Mike had told the girls about the pool at the hotel, so everyone was excited to go swimming. But when we got there they had the water heater off so the kids got dunked into cold water and then wrapped up and back into our room. But dad didn't dissapoint so when they got back to the room they kept their swim suits on and filled the bath tub.

Then everyone snuggled under the quilts on their beds with their juice boxes and watched cartoons in bed! They got a big kick out of that!

The next morning we got ready and packed up for a big breakfast at Ihop, which shallon ate evryones pancakes including mine and hers. Then off for alittle window shopping in bellevue and Issaqua and then to Aunt Kelly's for another family dinner. We got home about 7:30 pm exhausted but had an amazing time with the kids!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Had a wonderful weekend! Our friend Lindy hooked all 8 of us up with Hotel and transportation down to Seattle for a girls weekend getaway! Had a great time hanging out with the gals and doing window shopping in down town Seattle. On our way home we hit the outlet mall and my composure diminished greatly : ) Got some Chrismas shopping done and some much needed time away to regroup and bond with my friends. Mike had the girls all weekend by himself. The girls are still raving about the pancakes he made for breakfast and the movie night they had with snacks and popcorn! I actually got o sleep in till 8:30 the last morning which is unheard of. Guess i am going to be making this a permanent trip!

Mike's mom Donna had gotten Erawyn a computer game awhile ago with Nemo the fish. At the time she was too little to play so we packed it up and kinda forgot about it. Out of the blue i pulled it out and was so pleased that Erawyn loved it! She picked up on moving the mouse cursor in about 15 min. She played all the games and when dad got home, he was so tickled he ate his dinner at the computer desk so he could watch all that she learned that day. For about half the time she was using her left hand-so we will see: ) I find it so amazing that the kids are developing so fast. I think this will be a more special time for mike and erawyn since they both LOVE the computer now!

We have been leaving the gate open for the ducks to wander during the day. They have stayed on our property eating bugs and weeds. They have been circling the house so we all run around inside the house to see what window we can see them out of. I wouldn't doubt if they start barking at cars coming in our driveway. It is kinda cool to have so much entertainment outside!

Sunday, November 9, 2008

This week went by fast thank goodness. We had another mystery sickness going around that didn't really affect anyone during the day, but at night time was very difficult to endure. Poor kids would start coughing as soon as the lights went out, so it was a switch between Mike and I distributing honey and putting on the vapo-rub at all hours of the night.

We seem to be slowing down on the projects. It is nice to have our weekends back to resting an playing with the girls. We finally had to break down and have a roofing company come out and repair some spots. It has been an on going thing for almost a year but the peace of mind now is great! Occationally Mike or I will stop what we are doing and listen to the phantom dripping that we think we hear! But thank goodness it is only our imaginations now.

Our neighbor is really into hunting brought us 2 Pheasants, deer sausage, and goose jerky. He is an avid hunter and loves to share. It is really fun to come up with the different ways to cook these treats. When we drive down our driveway we see grouse, rabbit, pheasant and deer standing in the blackberries.

We also had family staying with us this weekend so we were fed well. Terry loves to cook so he did authentic texas chili (by the gallons), pork roasts with all the fixings, Roast duck, Roast Pheasant, Pizza, and pie. I love to cook too but nothing tastes better than someone elses cooking.