Christmas photos anyone?

It has been a struggle. Ever since this summer, it has been on my list of things to do, and yet I can't seem to get it done.  We are too busy, too tired, not wearing the right thing...

But today, I finally did it!  I finally got Jeff to dress up, stand still, and take a nice photo with me LOL!


I sat down the last week of November and started putting together my christmas cards.  Picking out a design that works (its not as easy as you might think to find a format with the proper about of picture spaces) and filling them in with corresponding photos.   Thats when I really started to worry.  Jeff and I had NO pictures of the two of us.  NOT EVEN ONE! well ok, maybe a crazy one here or there that the kids have snapped, but NOTHING nice! Hardly any without our heads cropped off a little, or us as a big blur, or jrff makeing a face!, or some such problem.

see, he is always making a face!

The kiddos got their photos taken this fall by a new friend and they turned out LOVELY! Ever since then, I have been hoping, asking, nagging, begging, pleading.... for Jeff to have a moment long enough for us to get dressed up a little and take pictures together.  I wanted to go out in our pasture and let one of the kids take a few nice pictures of us, hoping that the background would be similar to the kids' so that they would look nice together, but it hasn't worked out.

Aren't they just adorable!

And now it is CHRISTMAS TIME!  AHHH!! I NEED a picture of us, like now!  As the weeks of Dec fly by, we still hadn't gotten a picture.

So today, I set my foot down.  We were going to take a picture if it killed us both! :)  Ok, it wasn't really that bad, I actually just asked him if he would be home most of the morning and if we could take pictures, and he agreed, but still ;)

Here is what we got:

  

  

Ah, here is one that is usable!

Now I just needed to fix it up a bit.

First: I cropped out all the mess in the background :)

Then, I got rid of the background color, and cut out our silhouettes so that I could layer us on a new background.

Next, I cropped out a section of the background from the kids' photo shoot

and lastly, placed us on the background!

Voila! Now we at least kind of look like we coordinate!

If there's a will, there's a way! ( it just took me until 5 days before Christmas!)

Oh well, the cards look nice, and that's all i wanted. ;)

Merry Christmas all, and blessing to you and your families!


 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....!

Usually, come Dec 1st, we pull out all the Christmas bins and put up the tree, lights, and everything else Christmas.

This year however, its been a bit more of a challenge.  You see, my wonderful hubby packed all of our Christmas items in the VERY BACK of the trailer we used for moving.  The trailer is still over half full of things that have not found homes yet.  That means my Christmas stuff was buried :(  BUT yesterday we had a bit of a reprieve from the wind, so my oldest and I were determined to find at least the tree.

Hubby took the middle 4 kiddos to church (matthew had been sick with the flu the night before, so I stayed home with him and the baby), and I wanted to surprise them when they got home with a Christmas tree.  As soon as they were out the door, we ran around tidying up the house, and trying to figure out were to put the tree.  If you hadn't noticed, we don't have a lot of extra room right now.  Ok, really we dont have any room for anything more, but that didn't deter us.  We WERE going to find a place for that tree!  After some thought, this was the brilliant idea.  We would put the tree where the treadmill was sitting.  Ok, then were does the treadmill go?  Its not like i can just stash it in a closet for a while.  It doesn't fit through any doors without tearing the whole thing apart, which I wasn't about to do (again!)  Well, then we would just have to get rid of the end table and put the treadmill in the corner between the couches.

All good there, but now, were to put the end table? (this is my life right now)  Like our solution?

We just stacked it on top of the other one, and are going to use it as an extra space for Christmas items.

Nice!  Now we just needed to un-bury the tree and such.   (Matthew informed me that the little tree in the picture would NOT be acceptable as our main tree ha!) So, I put Little Will down for a much needed nap, and Matthew and I headed out to the trailer.  

It only took us 30 min to un-bury the tree and two Christmas tubs.  That was good enough.  I wish i had told Matthew to take a picture of me climbing around in the trailer. I had one foot on this stack of boxes and the other on whatever appeared semi stable, and was reaching across and down to get these big tubs out.... on second thought, its probably better that no camera was involved. ;)

Whatever. I got them out!  So we quickly set up the tree, and put on the lights. Just as we were finishing, the rest of the family got home.   You should have seen their faces!  It was like Christmas morning!  They were so excited!  Instantly they had to find the ornaments, and put some on the tree. Next came the lights for the windows and walls.  Definitely worth every one of those minutes that I spent in the trailer to see and hear their excitement.

Yes, even the dog had to be decorated.

We spent the rest of the day getting lights on the outside of the house, and pulling out all the other Christmas stuff. I am still missing a few boxes though, most importantly their Nativity, so I will soon be back looking for the rest, but as i sit here tonight, with the tree lit up and the first gifts under the tree, I am reminded why Christmas is so important to our family.

Its not all about the gifts or the lights or the tree. It is about celebrating the birth of Christ. That tiny baby born so many years ago.  He came to save us, and it is for that reason we get excited for Christmas.  It is for that reason that we light up the tree and the house.  We want to celebrate the most wonderful birthday of all, Christ's birthday. Happy birthday baby Jesus, may we never forget the true meaning of CHRISTmas.

What are some of your favorite Christmas decorating stories?  I would love to hear!

New Puppy

For the last few years, we have told our kiddos that one of the first things we would do once we bought our own place would be to get a puppy.

Last week, we were able to achieve that dream!  This beautiful little girl is Penny, a 9 week old Golden Retriever. Isn't she adorable?!

The kids are completely in love with her!  She has a sweet temperament, and naturally has good manners.

 Kristi 9, Penny 9 weeks

William is probably the funniest to watch with her.  He has no fear of her, but is gentle (most of the time)

Often you will find him sneaking her food, or laying on her tummy while she is trying to nap.  My favorite is when he lays down next to her to give her kisses.

Penny is very patient with him, and lets him "mug" her without complaint.

She will be a great addition...as soon as she is fully potty trained! ;)

The first couple of weeks.

Our first weeks here were COLD.  We are talking negative numbers with a windchill of even bigger negatives!  And if you haven't heard me say it before, there is a LOT of wind around here!  So we kind of just layed back, caught up on some homeshool, and made as few trips as possible outside.  Lately though, the weather has been almost beautiful again.  Temperatures were up in the 50's, which felt like a heat wave.   So with better weather around, we were able to get a few things done around here.

First off... Getting the bunnies transfer into their new homes.   Our oldest son helped me drill a whole in the top of one of the cages so that we could insert a mini heat lamp for the smaller of the bunnies. I showed him how to calk the edges so that it stays weather proof, and he was excited  to give it a try.  It might not look professional, but there wont be any water getting in around the hole LOL.

Eventually, I plan on having an area at the edge of our lawn (we don't even have any grass yet, so this may be a while) That is similar to this:

    Where my bunnies and ducks can have an area to play.  But, first things first.

Like a chicken house....Ya thats its own story.

So, we bought this DIY shed kit from Menards.  We knew it wound't be anything fancy, but thought it would be a quick and easy shelter for the chickens we hope to soon have.

RIIIGHT!  That thing has a gazillion pieces, and once you get most of the frame pieces bolted together, guess what the instructions say..... This next part may take several hours to complete and must be done all at once.  DO NOT attempt these next steps if any wind (even a small breeze) is present or expected. ...  Ok, those aren't the exact words, but that is what it says.  We live in WYOMING!  There is always a "slight breeze" present or expected!
Anyway, the other morning is was actually fairly breeze free, so i gathered my older three kids, and we headed out to tackle this project.   We were going along pretty good.  After about 45 min, We got all four corners attached correctly, and propped up so that the breeze wouldn't bend them should it decide to come along before I could get the braces put on.

Thats when the trouble started.  See those lovely braces on the inside of the shed in this photo? (this is a stock photo, I only wish mine had looked like that)  Ya, mine wouldn't fit! None of the holes would line up, and even the lengths weren't quite right.  I tried them every way possible. I even rechecked the corner pieces to see if we have put them on upside down or something. NOPE.  It was together correctly, but still wouldn't go.  Hmm.  So i sat down with the instructions (anyone who knows me knows i prefer not to use instructions unless necessary) and read through them step by step from the beginning. Everything was done right, those braces just would not fit.   Of course by now my kiddos are losing interest in the project, and of course, our breeze starts turning into a much stronger wind. So guess what, we tore it all back apart.  1hr and 30 min worth of work.  Needless to say, I was none to excited.

Next time, (because I WILL get that thing put together) it is going to work, one way or another!  Even if it has to be a three sided shed instead! LOL

Settling In

We had this wonderful plan.  We decided that instead of moving everything all at once and having a huge hectic weekend, we would hang onto the rental house for another month, and slowly move items over.

My parents came up and helped me and the kids load up the "heavy" items. ( Jeff has this tradition of always having to work on the day we pick to move, I'm beginning to think he just goes and hides out somewhere...) The beds, couches, tables, that sort of thing.   We also moved over about 1/2 of my kitchen items, and clothing for everyone.  Great! Now we could officially sleep at the new house, and move over the other household items as necessary, or as fit in the back of the suburban (which isn't as much as you might think since it is always full of children).

That was 2 weeks ago. Now I am wishing we had just loaded everything up and moved it all at once.  I am never sure if things are here or at the "town house".  Every time we go into town, I feel like it is my obligation to stop and pack up more things, but, if you couldn't guess, packing with 6 kiddos around, no matter how good they are, isn't an easy task. Everything takes 5, no 6, times longer than you think it will, and the little one is always going around behind pulling out the items you JUST got packed.  Grrr, Its a good thing he is cute!

On a good note, we have gotten everything (mostly) out of the upstairs and brought to the county house, but we still have the basement and the dreaded garage. Now, I am not much of a pack rat.  I don't hang on to very many extra clothes for the kids, or knick knacks in the hopes that one day i will be able to put them somewhere and not have little hands breaking them.  I am not a hugely sentimental person, so I don't keep a lot of momentos, BUT WE STILL HAVE A LOT OF STUFF!  I mean really! What are we going to do with it all?  We do not have a garage or out building yet to store it all, and yet most of the stuff is nessesary (really, it is!) sooo, if you read the previous post you know that we put all the kids into one room to sleep (yup, well all but the baby, whos not a baby anymore) so that we could use the third bedroom for "other things". Well guess what, that "other thing" is storage.  I will have to post a picture once we get it all in there. Lets just hope that it all fits, AND that we will be able to put up the barn we want sooner, rather than later!

Well, I better get to unpacking boxes, my hubby is supposed to be bringing the next load with him soon, so maybe I will be able to find that other box of school books that im missing? After all, it is so much easier to move it a little at a time....... RIGHT?!?! Lesson Learned!

Special thanks to my Cheyenne Friends and MOPS group for being extra patient with my the last couple of months. I might look like I have it all together (wait, who am i kidding, even a stranger could tell I dont lol) But i promise that I will return to my normal self soon....  next month maybe, or perhaps by the new year? ;)

Its a start.

We finally did it!  After 10 years of marriage, and 6 kids, we finally bought our first "country" home!  36 Acres of bliss *happy sigh*.

 Having their first meal in the new house

Well Ok, so it isn't too blissful yet.  As a matter of fact, it is simply a small house placed in the middle of a big, dry field.

 See that yellow rectangle? yup, that is our land!

Front of house

I think there used to be grass around the immediate house, but now there is only a small patch where the downspouts of the gutter have kept it watered enough to survive.  The kiddos are sad that there is no basement, though they are sure we will be digging one out this summer just for them to play in, with shovels! LOL.

There is a "lean to" but it is in desperate need of some fixing up and a new coat of paint.

 But you know what, it doesn't matter.  It doesn't matter that all the kids have to sleep in one room so that we can use the third bedroom for other things,

 it doesn't matter that I can't have my chickens right away because there is no place to house them yet, and it doesn't matter that there are no tree in sight and we live in windy WY (did i mention that the wind almost tipped over our camper trailer the other day!), or that we now live 30min from any "real" town (having a post office doesn't make Carpenter a town, just say'in) This is OUR place. The place we have prayed about for years. The place God has blessed our family with, and I for one am EXCITED about our new adventure!  Bring on the farm life, we are ready!

Sunset from our living room window - breathtaking