High School Recess

More snow and fog this morning. The mountain has disappeared. The snow load is accumulating on the tire swing.  

High School Recess? But, of course, everyone needs a study break now and again.  ::snort:: 

We've discovered the best bet is to fill the wheelbarrow with snow and move it! Maria, thanks again for the housewarming gift. It's proven to be the all-weather gift. LOL 

Evenings are for reading (Narnia at this point), Netflix (Father Brown) or games. Here they play a creation of the house - RisCatan. 

"Oh, CUUUUUUTE!" Another Sunday - Another Family Dinner

Sunday nights have come to mean family dinner. It's been fun to have the boys come out, the girls and their families come up and simply "be."  The first Sunday night of every month is planned to be our celebration of birthdays for the month.  February was full of birthdays.  I try to make the birthday person's favorite meal and dessert...with four birthdays in Feb it ended up being a dinner two chose, and 3 desserts on the night of the dinner. Then we had Jamin's dinner the following week. The big Family Celebration Dinner was on the actual date of Alex's birthday, 11 Feb. He opened gifts on 22 Feb and tonight, 25 Feb we had Alex's birthday dinner choice. He wanted a BBQ - I was thinking it might be warmer at the end of the month. LOL  

Bella wonders what the men are doing outside! 

 She's a native in the land of technology! 

"Oh, CUUUUUTE!" This is one of Bella's favorite phrases. She says it about her photos, Gideon, puppies, and most of all Benny!!!!!

Gideon loves Uncle Nolan

I am in awe of the fact that these kids will be raised near cousins. I wasn't. Our kids weren't. What a blessing for this generation. I love that Sunday night Family Dinners are becoming common place....such a blessing to be in the same spot.....I love that Krista has a heart to stay connected and sends cards and gift cards for every birthday celebration. Basically, I love family. 

Another Great Wintry Saturday

  Saturdays mean Jamin will show up and work in the shop with Michael. The shelves they are building will fill a whole wall in the basement study. They'll be big enough that Michael plans to build them in the room. 

While they worked the kids introduced Bella to the igloo/snow cave.  

Caught in a snow ball fight - Stacia rebounded some ice from her eye

Bella and Izaak 

 Izaak had the idea of the kids sliding down the driveway - which was great fun. Video to follow. 

Josiah stopped by and told them to use the Snow Machines. 

Alex

Stacia and Nolan

Cory

CoRielle 

 Arielle's first solo run

Beautiful winter sunset

Igloo in the Yard

The kids used to have great times in Misawa during the winter! They longed to move where there would be a winter. They've gotten the desire of their heart. They have fond memories of building sledding hills and igloos in the snow. Today, they built an igloo, or ice cave. I'm happy they could do it. 

Nolan surveys the land

Work in progress!

Big enough for three young adults! 

 Bella - our sweetie

Alex's Birthday Part 2

Alex turned 16 on 11 Feb. It happened to fall on the date of our big Family Birthday/Anniversary Dinner. Birthday celebrants get to pick dinner and their cake. They also wear the pig hat and get gifts. Alex wore the big hat and had his cookie dough ice cream cake on the 11th. Today, the 22nd, we  opened his gifts after baking and before Life Groups. On the 25th, he will have his birthday dinner. Usually the "at home family" will have their birthday dinner ON their birthday, but his happened to fall on the extended dinner...and we were hoping his choice - a burger burn - would land on warmer weather on the 25th. 

We gave Alex a toboggan, a few fishing things and a vest. The others gave him fun shirts. As Nolan said, "This is what happens when you put one thing on your birthday list."  

We are no strangers to 'rolling birthdays'. One year we all put off our birthday until Michael got home from the Middle East. LOL

Winter and Baking

 Just when I thought winter may be losing it's grip we woke to 8 inches of new snow and lots of baking orders. The ruler was slipping - the back shows 8 in, the front had caved.....

 Thursday - nowhere to go; host Life Group in the evening. I love our down day Thursdays. Some worked outside.....

Cory, Alex, Nolan, Michael 

World's Best Snow Removal Crew

 Some played outside....

Auntie Arielle and Bella 

Bella (10 1/2 months) knows she is not supposed to have her pacifier unless she is sleeping. She has taken to putting it down her shirt. She seems to think we won't notice it's there. LOL 

We see you Bella 

...while they worked and played outside, Stacia and I had orders to make a cheesecake and 11 dozen cookies. We planned the cheesecake for Saturday and went to work on the cookies.  Stacia was excited to see how the orders collected collected overnight. She commented, "God really does know the times of our days. There is no other day this week we could have spent the day baking." She woke up early and was done with school by 0900. It was an "at home" day....we baked and packaged until a couple of hours before Life Group. 

Chocolate Chip 

Macadamia Nut/White Chocolate

Making memories with Stacia 

 These 7 dozen went into a box and shipped to Afghanistan....others went to VA and one dozen found a local home. 

Shew....all done with time to clean up before Life Groupers arrive. 

All this baking is part of our seed project. Michael and Nolan are making some pretty pine coasters. Well, Michael is making them....Nolan, true to his business bent,  invested in the project.

Coming Home

I'm not always excited to leave home early in the  morning - but I do enjoy this view coming home!  We have about seven more sessions left of swallow therapy.  Michael will have reached the maximum sessions approved by the VA and have a swallow test to show where he is at. Michael loves barium swallow tests - NOT. ::wink::

The rest of life consists of schooling and researching. I've read a zillion books on mini-farming, chicken raising and canning. I've decided we can't do EVERYTHING this year. We'll have to do what we can. It's a process. We'll learn about the soil and plan a few beds this year....experiment with plastic and soil.....we'll get a few chicks and pray we keep them alive and get eggs.  We'll establish a composting system. We'll plant some trees. We'll take out more dead fall and dead trees. That's enough for this year.  Well - I'd like to get some sort of paving down out the basement door and a hot tub too. LOL  Anyway - I've been trying to learn via books, and FB groups, before we branch out and start buying things.