Cutting the Tree! (alternate title: Yay! Snow!)

Off to find our tree!

All lot of snowballs went flying!

Who likes this tree? Misha does.

Why God made boys.

Taking home the prize.

My pretty Hannah.

Watch out! She's got a snowball!

Hannah took a bunch of pictures too.

Ivy liked the "baby" trees.

We all really enjoyed warming up with hot chocolate when we were through. Mmmmm!

Good Morning!

One of the big thrills each day around our house is playing with the animals. The Animals being 23 chickens and one very tolerant cat. Little Ivy has a favorite chicken and everyone agrees that Whitey is "Ivy's Chicken".

Good morning, Ivy! Good morning Whitey!

Houdini is our former kitten. Now he is officially a CAT. He has the prestigious title around here as being the most tolerant cat in the world.

See? He didn't complain one bit about this. In fact, he never stopped purring!
Steve says his purrer is just broken.

Another Chicken. Angel or Pinky, I can't tell.

Ivy loves all the chickens.

And we all look out for this one in particular. Pinocchio, with no top beak is even allowed in the back door. There she happily shovels her food while standing in the green bucket designated for that purpose. When she is done, she hops out of the bucket and looks out the back door until someone opens it. Here, Annette is feeding her grass which Pinocchio sucks down like spaghetti if we stick one end in under her nose.

We are weird. But we enjoy our weirdness.

Finally! Pictures of THE CHAIR.

Any of you who follow me on Facebook may remember me working diligently on reupholstering an overstuffed chair recently. The chair was given to me as an adoption-fundraiser-yard-sale-leftover from our friends, Dominic and Tiffany Moro a couple of months back. My good friend from long ago and still into the present, Heather, helped me, well, more like directed me in a hands-on kind of way. I couldn't have done it without her help! Really!

Also, it was fun getting to spend so much time with her this visit. She was able to come almost every day of her ten-day visit (She and her mother stayed at my mom's house). Each time we slaved over this chair. Several times we enjoyed cappuccinos first, or as Steve calls them, Redneckachinos, because they come from the gas station machine.

I remembered to take a before picture. This is a major accomplishment. (sound of me patting myself on the back).A few during pictures to tell the story:
I bought a pair of fabric scissors. I thought this was funny, I actually needed scissors to get at them! I didn't end up using my scissors anyway because Heather brought hers and they cut like a hot knife through BUTTER.

We tore that chair apart, limb from limb. We made a mess. Actually, I think I will blame Heather for the mess. Heather made a mess. There.

Paused to admire the fact that Annette could fit a whole, live chicken into that little box. And the chicken loved it! Or so she said.

Heather finally made some excuse about having to go home. And try as we might, and hammering furniture tacks until the last moment, we didn't quite finish. This left me with the back to put on, a few more tacks to tap in, and the legs to refinish. None of these things took long but it did seem to take me forever to get to each individual task!

Finally I finished the tacking, then the back, and lastly, those pesky legs! I used a gel stain so that I wouldn't have to strip the wood first. It worked well and I am pleased with the results!Here is the leg. In this picture you will enjoy the I Spy game of finding two popcorn kernels and one white chicken feather. You will not, however, see the vacuum cleaner.

The finished product!! Oh! and in this picture, more I Spy! There is a My Little Pony toy hiding under the curtains! Oops. Now I told you. Sorry....

Nobody is allowed to sit in the chair. Ever. Heather said so. So don't tell her that I let Ivy sit there today while I took a million pictures of her because she has a dress that matches the chair and I just love matchy things.

Also, she's such a cutie. Ivy, that is. Heather's okay too.



Thank you so much Heather! I sit on the couch and look at my chair while I drink my coffee in the mornings. I'd sit in the chair, it does look comfy, but I might spill and besides, you said not to. Sigh..... :-)

Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights,

with whom there is no change,
nor shadow of alteration.

James 1:17

A day on the farm!

We had a great time with the kids a couple weekends ago when we joined our co-op on a field trip to tour the Mayfield Dairy and then to visit a farm that was all set up to entertain families for the fall season!
We enjoyed a host of activities on the farm including a hayride, animal-feeding, learning how the milkers work, a hay jump, seeing the sunflower field in bloom, a corn box to play in(think sandbox but with corn), pretend cows to "milk", walking in a silo, a corn maze, the faceless characters painted onto plywood just begging for little faces to fill them for photos, and other exciting things that I am sure I have forgotten!Vitali in the corn box. The corn box was a big favorite!

Even the big kids enjoyed the corn--for that matter, Steve was in there too!

Children of the corn.

Steve offered to take the day off and go with us.
We were so thankful that he did. It was a great family day!

One of the things I forgot to mention--a giant stack of tractor tires.
Perfect for a little boy whose main dream in life is to be
BIG!!

The hay jump! Max's favorite spot.

Ivy enjoyed it too.

And Vitali, AKA, Tigger, also loved the hay jump.
Though he nicely paused his bouncing to pose for a picture for mommy.

Ivy in a pumpkin. I love this little pumpkin head...
See? Told you.

The hayride was a lot of fun, too. Notice all the smiles?
More hayride-prompted grinning.

I am amazed at what huge strides Misha has made since he joined our family! Anyone familiar with sensory issues will appreciate the fact that it is a giant accomplishment for this little guy to let a donkey eat out of his hand!

All the kids. Look at Vitali. That pretty much sums him up in a snapshot! Haha! That boy is all entertainment and funniness!

It was a chilly day. I didn't notice how chilly till I got into the car and realized that my fingers were stiff! But no one wanted to leave and all were chattering and smiling on the ride home, overflowing with happy memories of the day.

From the shoebox blog