Birthday Party Times Two!

We don't things small around here. With Kenzie turning 4 on the 12th and Lillia turning 2 on the 22nd, we needed a couple of parties to celebrate the big occasions. So instead of having two small parties a week apart, we decided to have one HUGE party. Complete with homemade gingerbread houses and all the cake and candy that goes with it! Everyone decorated their own houses, and we had icing, candy, and coconut everywhere! It looked like it had snowed in my dining room, there was so much coconut on the floor! So, without any further ado, here's the pics of the party!

Kenzie's Gingerbread house cake

Lillia's Gingerbread girl cake

Kenzie working on her house

Lillia eating some of her house!

Opening presents

And we ended the day by eating ice cream cones. Great idea at 9 pm, Uncle Gary!

It's December...So It Can Snow!

Those were Kenzie's exact words last night. She was so excited about today being December, since we've told her 3 big things happen in December - snow, her birthday & Christmas! Well, imagine her absolute delight in the fact that she woke up to snow this morning! And its been snowing all day! Not a lot of accumulation, but at least there are some pretty decent patches of white!

And, we finally got the Christmas tree decorated. It has been up since Sunday night, but I've had a small battle with the lights.

After lighting it all on Sunday, I decided it didn't have enough lights on it (600 lights on a 7 foot tree just didn't seem to cover it! Evidence that my first job was at Village Green, the home of the ultimately lighted & decorated Christmas trees, where 100 lights per foot was minimum!) We thought we could replace a couple of the lights that had gone bad on one particular strand, however, that made the entire strand go out. I guess 5 years is the life expectancy of cheap Wal-mart lights. And since they were that old, I can't find the half blue/half clear bulbs anymore.

Putting the Angel on Sunday night - prior to the light problems!

So, I thought instead of investing in brand new lights for the entire tree, I could make it "work" with a strand of blue & clear lights, which I would have to replace half the lights with the opposite color. Didn't work out so well. After I started switching out lights, the brand new strand wouldn't work anymore. So I gave up and dug thru my endless boxes of Christmas decorations and came up with several strands of multi-colored lights. Not my first choice, but I do have to admit that 500 lights is ok on the tree, and multi-colored are much prettier when my almost 4 year old's eyes light up with excitement and starts singing, "Red, Yellow, Blue, Green!" It's a rainbow!" So, I guess we are sticking with multi-colored lights this year!

The actual decorating part was a treat. Lillia insisted on picking up every ornament and attempting to hurl them at the dogs, across the table, or run off to far corners of the house with them! If I would have let her have her way, Bo & Dakota would have been decorated, the bathroom would have ornaments, and the kitchen would have its share of ornaments! Kenzie did a good job, however, there is a section of tree that has many many ornaments on it - I've been restraining my OCD self into leaving all the ornaments where she put them! After all, seeing Christmas thru her eyes is alot more fun than having everything neatly in its place on a Christmas tree!

The Girls Decorating the Tree!

Oh, and we started our Advent Nativity book tonight! Love it! Kenzie was so excited about it when she saw me pull it out of the tote on Sunday night, she insisted we read it then, but we convinced her to wait until December to put up the first character. Another reason she was excited that today was December! And picture this, Doug, Kenzie, Lillia & I are all cuddled up on the couch reading the book before bedtime. In the middle of the story, Lillia crawls onto Kenzie's lap and does her little fishy face and kisses Kenzie on the nose! It was adorable, and sent all of us into a case of the giggles! Priceless!

Road Trip

Well...the time finally came - our family vacation that also involved a pig sale. In Oklahoma. Which we took pigs to. Let's get started. After loading up 2 kids, 4 pigs, and a ton of stuff, we were on our way!

The pigs

Kenzie all ready to go!

Lillia all set to go!

We left our house Wednesday afternoon about 2 pm, and drove and drove and drove. Shortly after we got thru St. Louis, it started to rain. Not a hard driving rain, but a steady steady rain. Most other times I would have been glad for the rain, except the part that somewhere between St Louis and Sullivan, MO, I took over the driving. By this time, it was about 10 pm, and this was also the first time I drove this truck. We borrowed a friend's quad cab pickup with a topper so we wouldn't have to pull a trailer for the pigs and still fit everything in it. Anyway, here I am driving an unfamiliar truck, in the rain, at night, on unfamiliar roads. Roads which are not straight and flat, but roads that are hilly, curvy, and downright unnerving! I'm also the only one awake, so while I'm trying to stay on the road and not get run over by semis that seem to appear out of nowhere, I read billboards to keep myself occupied. Let me just tell you that Missouri is a pretty interesting place. This is what I saw:

* Just outside St. Louis, there are a couple of Indian teepes along the road. I tried to get Kenzie to look at them, until I realized it was a bar. A bar in a teepe.

* Billboard for Bamboo Gardens - Chinesse, Seafood, Sushi Buffet. Drive thru. How can it be a buffet AND a Drive thru?

* A sign says "Last Missouri Welcome Center before State Line" - I was pretty sure I was in the middle of the state of Missouri - why is there a welcome center in the middle of the state? Wouldn't it make more sense to put it near a state line? Or at least just call it a Visitor's Center.

*Vacuum Cleaner Outlet Mall & Museum

*World's Largest Gift Shop - We're Famous for our Clean Restrooms!

*World's Largest Rocking Chair

Oh, and why we are on the topic of crazy road signs, here is one from Oklahoma:

* Hitchhikers may be escaped inmates (Don't you feel really safe now? This one was in Lawton, where we stayed. Also the home of Fort Sill, where they were shooting off artilery to impress some visiting members of the Singapore Military.)

There are no billboards in Oklahoma. It's pretty flat and all you see are cows, and the occasional oil pumper randomly placed in fields.

Overall, though, the trip went well. We sold the pigs, the girls had a blast - even Lillia was petting pigs by the end of the trip. She had a breakdown when we unloaded the pigs on Thursday Morning. Screamed her little heart out, but by Saturday, she was walking up to the pens, petting and talking to the pigs. Kenzie did a great job selling one of the pigs in the auction, and she looked adorable doing it too!

Kenzie and her new show stick. She HAD to have pink.

Love this pic of the girls walking thru the barn!

Lillia watching "nemo" - which actually means any movie. By this point (somewhere in Illinois on the way home), she was ready to get out of the car seat!!

It was a long drive, but we all had a good time. Don't know if I'd do it again next year. We'll have to see!

Not So Fun Country Life

Last night, I went out to feed the dogs & cats before Doug & the girls got home from picking up pig feed. Should be easy enough, I thought. Well, I wasn't counting on a little critter that had taken up residence in the big barn. Since we feed the cats in the barn, Tippy, the dog, isn't allowed in there. She really loves cat food, well, she loves any and all food, and she's getting to be a bit on the tubby side. Anyway...I call for the cats and head into the barn. They know what to expect, so they jump up on the big table where the food is kept, and as I'm about to stick my hand into the bag of food, one of the cats falls off the table. That in itself makes me laugh, then I hear a hiss that didn't come from either of the cats. I cautiously look into cat food bag. I see enough white to know that something is in the bag that doesn't belong! After screaming & jumping back, I take another peek into the bag and realize its a huge opossum! At this point, I let Tippy into the barn and call Doug (from outside the barn). Thankfully, Tippy kept the opossum in the bag of food until Doug got home and was able to take care of it. After laughing at me, of course.

I don't think I'll be feeding the cats for a while. At least not at night.

Playing Catch Up

Since I haven't updated the blog in a while, ok, a long while...here is what's been happening in our lives!

At the end of September, the girls went to spend a week with Nana & Papa, so I got busy tearing the house apart! Things needed to be done that were pretty much impossible with kids around. First thing to go was the tractor-themed playroom. I didn't repaint it when we moved in 2 years ago, and I was ready for it to be gone!

It is now a pretty girlie pink, green, and white. I painted the walls, bookshelves, put up chair rail, put up new shelves in the closet, and got rid of some toys!

Since I wasn't busy enough, I decided to paint the living room too. I tried my hand at "rag rolling." Let me tell you, it's not as easy as it looks! We don't have a lot of wall space in the living room to start with, so what took me about an hour to paint the base coat, took from about noon until 10:30pm (with an hour taken out for supper & a trip to the store to get more glaze). I was exhausted when I got done. My legs hurt from numerous trips up and down the ladder. But, I have to say, it looks pretty good. Its hard to tell in pictures, since its a very subtle color and effect, but here's the finished product.

Doug & I headed up to Illinois to pick up the girls very very early Friday morning, and made it there in time to take a trip the apple orchard that afternoon. It's been a tradition since before I was born, and I think that there has only been one year that I haven't gone to Edwards' Orchard at least once a season. The girls love the orchard and Kenzie talks about picking apples and riding the ponies all year round!

Lillia getting her first apple of the season! She loves apples - every fruit is an apple to her!

Kenzie and her first apple!This is one of my favorite pictures of Lillia - shows her fun, playful personality perfectly!

The last two years, Kenzie has ridden a pony named Riley - and we heard about Riley ALL the time, but this year, Riley was back at the barn, so she rode Timmy. One of these days, I wouldn't be surprised if she talks her dad into buying her a horse!

I have to include the story of Tiger, the miracle cat. Doug & I still cannot believe that this cat is still alive. In August, we got 2 kittens, Tiger & Patches. They are definately very playful kittens, and they are very brave. We knew from the beginning that we'd have to watch for them when we started the cars and left. But that wasn't the beginning of Tiger's escapades. Less than a month after getting the cats, Tiger snuck into the husky pen when the girls and I were in the barn feeding them. Unfortuntaly, Bo spotted the kitten and cornered her against the barn wall. I'm not exactly sure of what all happened, aside from Kenzie screaming that Bo had her kitten and Lillia crying because Kenzie was screaming and I was yelling at the dogs. He at some point had Tiger in his mouth, I don't think he intentionally was trying to hurt her, he just likes to play, and pretty roughly, I might add. It was pretty touchy that evening, not knowing if Tiger was going to be ok. I moved her into the other barn, where the cats are fed, and hoped that she would survive. Slowly, over the next week, Tiger was getting back to her old self - following us around and up to the house. Fast forward a couple weeks - Tiger decides to hitch a ride under a friends car as she was leaving our house one night. We discovered she was missing when we went out to feed the cats later that evening. Doug had seen a cat down the road when he came home, so he went to make sure it wasn't her. It wasn't Tiger, because she ran out in front of him, and would have gotten hit, had he not been on the look out for a cat and driving slowly. So now, Tiger has nine lives minus three. But she's not done yet. Just a couple weeks ago, Doug calls me from work and asks if the kids had been outside yet and played with the cats. It was a little chilly that morning, so we hadn't been out. When I ask why, he informs me that Tiger was at work with him - about 5 1/2 miles away from home. He had been in the office and happened to look out the window and see a black calico cat out in the barn lot - where a couple of the guys were talking. Doug went to see if it was one of our cats and sure enough, it was Tiger. And just last night, Tiger had her greatest trip of all. I had a few things to pick up at the store, so we decided to just eat out before we to the store. Fifteen miles and 45 minutes later, we finish up at Wendy's. As I was fastening Lillia into her carseat, I hear a meow (not a common sound when we are in town right at the busy street). I look down, and who else is at my feet but Tiger. At first we thought she had been inside the car, but we soon realize that as wet as she was, and we hadn't heard anything the entire trip to town that she had to have been under the car. Unbelievable. So the count is now - Tiger - 9 lives minus 5. The question is now, how far will she ride the next time?

The last couple pictures are from out trip to the pumpkin patch Sunday afternoon. It was a gorgeous day and we had a blast! And, isn't Indiana beautiful in the fall! I am so blessed to call this my home, and God reminds me everyday with the beauty of his creation in the changing seasons.

Returning to Normal

We made it thru the fair. Finally. I survived the Pre-Fair activities and the Fair. It was fun, I'll admit, and the girls LOVED it, especially the Children's Barnyard. Even Lillia was brave enough to stick out a hand and pat a baby chick. Her favorite night was the night they had the baby kittens. She wouldn't let them go. Kenzie, of course, jumped right in, trying to pick up the baby pigs, get in with the newborn calf, and hop away with the little bunnies. I don't think we'll have to convince her to be a 4-H'er when she gets older. She was quite upset when we told her that we couldn't take Belle, her pig, to the fair for her to show, since she isn't old enough yet. "Can I show Belle when I'm 5?" she asked. "No, sweetie, you'll have to be almost 10 to show a pig." That didn't go over very well. I have a feeling we'll be having this discussion every year between now and 2016 when she finally is old enough to show animals at the 4-H Fair. And yes, Kenzie has a pig, actually, sometimes she even claims the other 2 pigs as hers, sometimes though, they belong to me & Doug. Aren't we lucky? As I slowly get back into a normal routine, maybe I'll post a few pictures of the girls at the fair.



Well, I promised myself that when the fair was over, I'd get back to going to Zumba class every week. And I did it! I'm so proud of myself. I went two times last week and two times this week! It feels really good to get back to exercising - to be completely honest, it has been over 5 years (gasp!) since I have actually dedicated a whole hour to exercise - not just walking the dogs or riding the bikes, just exercising. My abs are sore, my legs muscles are sore, but I feel really good. I guess that's a good sign, especially after tonight and I showed, once again, how completely uncoordinated I am. I had been getting better, learning the moves and routines, but tonight, there were several times I just had to stop and try to figure out what I was doing! Even though some of the routines remind me of high school and the Homecoming or Senior Night cheerleading routines, it has been quite fun. I think it makes me feel better that there are several older ladies whose kids are either in high school or college and some with kids my age that are trying this out. We have done everything from Latin music, country music, rap, Britney Spears and N'Sync, to music that make feel like I'm doing a hula girl dance. If you can find a class near you, try it. You sweat alot, laugh alot and hopefully burn 1000 calories in an hour (at least that's what we've been told).

Bathroom & Landscaping Pics

Since I've been asked for pics of the new bathroom, I thought I'd share a few before it's completely finished. Going by a comment Doug made when we realized the first counter top wouldn't fit on the vanity, I thought it might be awhile before he got to the shelf and pictures. He said, "It really won't bother me that there isn't a sink in the bathroom for three more weeks. I can just wash my hands somewhere else." Obviously, he's only home for about 5 waking hours while I'm home all day with kids that need their hands washed constantly. There is still a shelf and a few pictures to put up. As well as curtains, but it really doesn't seem to matter since its just acres and acres of farmland behind us. So, I guess I might be lucky if the shelf gets put up by Christmas.

Old Bathroom

(Its the only picture I had from when we first bought the house, the bathroom isn't really something you take lots of pictures of when you buy a house! lol!)

The New Bathroom

The empty wall will someday have a glass shelf & a couple of pictures!

Lillia was "helping" and calling for the dogs. She loves to climb up there and watch the dogs in the back yard.

The Front of the House Before we started redoing the landscape

(This was also in early spring before all the shrubs and perennials were coming up)

"During" the Re-landscaping

The Whole Front

The South Side

The North Side - with my new weeping Cherry Tree

The new lamp post and flowerbed