~Happy Valentine's Day/Snow Day/ Flat Stanley Week~

 Gotta love Flat Stanley!  Both of my kids made a  Flat Stanley in grade school and yesterday in the mail we received one that my nephew sent.  We get to play with him for a week then send him on with a story of his weeks adventures. He picked a good week to come with calving season starting, valentine's day and many other activities this week.

Kole and Flat Stanley Sleeping in the Sheep Camp at the calving shed



Flat Stanley joining the kids for a Valentine breakfast

Happy Valentine's Day

My parents have chickens that are producing around 24 eggs a day. They are kind of fun with all the different colors. Come Easter we won't even have to decorate them. :)  What a time saver! Haha..

I told Morgan as soon as calving season started the snow would show up.  Hmmmm.......guess who's right.....AGAIN! :)  My mom and I and my nephew took advantage of the moisture packed white stuff and built a snowman.  I guess the reason people rake their leaves in the fall is so they have nice clean snowmen.  Unfortunately my parents didn't rake their leaves so ours is VERY dirty. :)

Gus helping to build the snowman







~Skeet Shooting~

Last Saturday Morgan decided to take us over to my dad's gravel pit for a little skeet shooting and family time. (Since he had been spending so much time at work and finally had a day off.) I must admit that my kids are pretty good shots. I think if we had to live off fowl, we'd be okay. :) I myself only hit 1 out of 5...or 6 but who's counting. (my KIDS!!!) :) Anyway, everyone was taking turns throwing the skeet with the little "hand skeet flinger" (not sure what it's called) which didn't look complicated at all when my kids were doing it. That was until it was my turn. When prompted to "pull" I gave it my best shot and the little bugger stayed in the flinger! I tried it again and still nothing. After SEVERAL attempts Morgan said, "just give it all you got" so I did and..........the whole thing launched from my hand. The family was getting a pretty good kick out of it. Morgan grabbed the camera and started shooting my numerous failures. (Thanks Honey :) I never did accomplish a successful fling but my family sure had a good laugh. :) The next day I could hardly use my right arm my muscle was so sore. Andy Monroe offered me his automatic flinger for next time. I think I just might take him up on it. :)

she's an awesome shot!

with these two we would NOT go hungry :)

need more ammo dad

sharp shooter

not shooting at a moving target here.  And yes, I did hit what I was aiming for. :)

Super flinger

Pro-flinger

waiting again......... for more ammo

after many attempts at a single hand fling I decided to try it like a baseball bat :)

still didn't work





VERY FRUSTRATING! :(

~ Cowhands on a Rainy Saturday Ride~

All the cowboys and the cowgirl, left early Saturday morning to vaccinate my dads cows.  Us wives/mom's were suppose to meet them up to the ranch with lunch. We decided to leave a little early and was at the ranch by 10:30am.  Needless to say the rainy wet weather made them want to work faster and they were done when we got there.  So I took a couple pics instead and returned home with lunch so they could get dried off and warmed up.  :) 

My Brother Dan



She was wet and freezing but gave me a smile anyway :)

My Little Cowboy......that's growing up too fast!

my brothers and daughter

ready to get out of the rain!

~A Foggie Frosting~

 I went out to water the cows the other morning after the fog lifted and everything was covered in a glittery white frosting. It was so pretty!

~Fabulous Colors and Family Traditions~

Autumn has got to be my most favorite season of the year! What a beautiful pallet of colors God blesses us with!

and what better thing to do then go camping out in the splendor of it all!

A spectacular full moon, which these pictures do not do it justice, was also another wonderful gift for the eyes.

And then we move into storms brewin',

a Thanksgiving Feast

with good food,

lots of laughter,

and lots of chaos and kids, :)

Followed up by our traditional "Black Friday" Christmas tree cutting.

It's a VERY dangerous sport!! 

The one below almost took me and a few of my nieces out. :)

these ones to be specific. :)

all decorated :)

But, what Holiday isn't complete without a family work project???

NONE! According to my sweet husband. :)

So up the new calving shed went with the very much appreciated help of some of Morgan's co-workers and Dad.

Then on to Scout advancements and Birthday parties.

Now a Webelow! :)

And a shared birthday party with a cousin. One turning 10 and the other "sweet 16"  MU-WAH...  :)

and of course you have to have your "Buddie's" party!

Then came a blast of snow where my daughter had fun creating artwork on the back lawn.

and finally thanks to Thanksgiving :) we were able to get a Christmas card picture of (almost) the whole family. Everyone was home but my brother's family.  He's spent his Thanksgiving in Texas fighting fire. So we added a little pic of them when he got home. 

Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Oops, this sunset was actually suppose to go with the fall pictures but thanks to my blogging

abilities I wasn't able to get it there. :)

See ya next year!