Christmas Number One

We had Christmas at Ryan's mom's house.  She made a turkey with all the trimmings.  It was very good even though there was a bit of a time miscommunication and we were a little late.  After lunch we opened presents.  Of course every ones favorite part.  Honestly, I like watching everyone open their presents more than opening my own. 

Great Uncle Gene playing with Danica



Sawyer helped Grandma and Danica open presents. A job he enjoyed very much.







Victor (Ryan's "adopted" dad and the kids "adopted" grandpa)



Danica loves stuffed animals and babies. I think its the faces. She loves to talk to them.





One Christmas down...three to go.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Landon was in a play at the Ogema Town Hall.  The kids from the elementary school do it and its separate from the school's Christmas program.  Landon played the part of Max, Grinch's dog.  He had two lines that we practiced all week.  He needed to wear all brown for the his part.  Do you know how difficult it is to find a completely brown boy's shirt?  In our area...very difficult.  I ended up buying him a white shirt and some brown Rit dye and dying it in the kitchen sink.  It turned out very well considering I'd never done it before.

Landon did an excellent job playing his part!  I was so very proud of him!

The Creek

I pronounce it crick.  Apparently its an up-north Wisconsin thing. This winter we're trying to keep it open for as long as possible to help with the electric bill.  The last 2 years its been almost $300 a month for December, January, February, and March between the house, the fencer, the lights and water heater in the chicken coop, and the stock tank heater.  During the summer months its less than $200 a month and the only difference is the heaters and the coop lights.

So every day I walk the quarter mile through the pasture down to our creek and break open the ice with a splitting maul. Sawyer went with me today while Danica was napping.







I am not a strong girl...my arms get tired fast swinging that thing.  Ryan makes fun of me because its a pretty light splitting maul...I think he said 15lbs when he was picking on me today. Usually the ice is pretty thin and it breaks through easily with one swing.  Last night it got down to 22 degrees below zero.  The ice was probably 3 inches thick on the upper side of the culvert today and it took more swings than I really cared for.  My arms are going to be sore tomorrow.

Top side of the culvert.




Bottom side of the culvert.




I could barely carry that splitting maul and hold Sawyer up through the deep snow on the walk back to the house because my arms were so tired. 

And of course, because I am not one of those people that was blessed with coordination or grace, I managed to slam my hand between the handle of the splitting maul and the ice during one of my last swings.  It feels amazing...really.

And We're Up!

She was pretty excited with this new "position".  She stood there a good 10 minutes and is now constantly trying to figure out what else she can grab on to-to get up.









She even showed off her one-handed skills.

Anabel's First Birthday!

Anabel's birthday was actually December 7th but since that was a weekday we celebrated on the following Saturday during the worst snow storm in my memory.  We got close to 20 inches.  Ryan was home so we braved the roads in our pick-up.  The roads were actually better on the way home than on the way there.

Amber and Jake played the Xbox Kinect.  It was very entertaining.  They did some track and field games.  Hurdles, discus, javelin, long jump, and some sprinting. 





Anabel was trying to get in on the fun...



We sang Happy Birthday. Anabel was perfectly polite eating her cake. She picked off little puffs of frosting and ate them one by one.  Even after Amber stuck Anabel's hand in the cake she still ate very neatly.









And then the best part! Presents!



A little backstory...For the last 4 years I've been the only "child" in my family with kids. So every year my siblings find it amusing to buy my kids the noisiest most obnoxious toy they can find. Unfortunately they forgot that one day they would have their own children and I would return the favor. On Friday, Ryan and I went up and down every toy aisle at Walmart and played every single toy and then picked the two loudest for Anabel..one for her birthday and one for Christmas. Anabel LOVED her rock-n-roll guitar! It plays lots of loud obnoxious rock tunes...they sound like sweet, sweet revenge to me.

One of "Those" Days

Yesterday I picked up Landon from his dad and then went shopping.  I had to get some groceries and I wanted to get some craft supplies for the kids to make some Christmas decorations.  Sawyer decided to throw a huge embarrassing tantrum throughout Walmart because he wanted the toy from the McDonald's Big Kids meal he and Landon shared.  I told him he couldn't have it because he was throwing such a big fit, which of course, added fuel to the tantrum fire.  I would have loved to just grab all the kids and leave but I live 25 miles from town and going home and coming back later just isn't an option for me.  We got home a little later than I had planned and it was already getting dark.  I got all the kids in the house and situated.  A gate up for Danica and the boys each a drink and a snack.  I went outside to get chores done.  I got on the 4-wheeler to take it down to the creek so I could open up the ice with the splitting maul so the cattle and ponies could drink.  I got just inside the pasture and the 4-wheeler died.  I got it started a few more times but it wouldn't run long enough to get it to move.  Frustrated, I left it there.  I walked back to the house and hooked up the hose to the outside faucet.  Mind you it's -200 degrees Fahrenheit with the windchill and my fingers can barely get the the hose threaded on the faucet.  After finally getting it screwed together I turned on the faucet to discover that the faucet was froze and the water wouldn't run. GREAT!  I brought the hose in the house and hooked it up to the kitchen sink and started running hot water out it for the animals.  I did the pigs first.  While the water was filling up I went in the garage to get them a bag of feed.  As I pulled a 50lb bag out of the old metal stock tank we have them stored in the bag caught on an edge and ripped open.  I spilled a good 15lbs on the ground before I realized what was happening.  I finished feeding and watering the rest of the animals without incident.  After turning off the hose in the house I have to drain all the water out of it or it will freeze and it won't run the next day. I was frustrated and cold and I didn't do a thorough job so as I type the hose is on the kitchen floor thawing.



And the 4-wheeler?  Its going to freeze in the pasture til Ryan gets home to deal with it.  That'll teach it to mess with me, hmmph.

Almost Vertical

Danica has been working on pulling herself up for the last week.  She stands bent over on the step between the playroom and the living room and on the bottom shelf of the coffee table.  Yesterday she pulled herself up to her knees on Ryan's legs trying to get to his beer can.  (She has a fascination with any sort of beverage can.  Ryan is sure it is a sign of a future obsession with shiny things.)

This morning I brought down a tote of Christmas decorations and Danica continued to add merit to Ryan's shiny things theory.









She's still working on the balance part.