Leif's horse

Grandma crocheted some very cute things for Christmas this year! Here is Leif riding his horse with some help from Torsten.
"Whoa there little pony!"

Hailey got her ears pierced!

Hailey was excited to get her ears pierced the same day as her best friend Christina but she was sooooo nervous!

All done!
Hailey told me she's happy she did it but she'd never do it again--ever!

Christmas Concert

Our homeschool handbell and chimes groups, Liberty Bells and Freedom Rings, put on some great Christmas concerts this year! Here is Torsten and some other fellow chimers performing in the lovely sanctuary at the Presbyterian church.
Afterwards, Hailey, her friend Katherine, and Taylor are helping to put the equipment away.
Grandma Clayton and baby Leif came to listen to the beautiful music too.

Patching kids jeans

A few months ago I had just finished making a bib with a bird applique on it, when Heidi walked in with a hole in the knee of her jeans. I thought "hmmmm, why not?" The horizontal length of the bird covers the rip quite nicely.Last week Hailey needed a patch on her jeans too. She wanted a bird that was more nuetral, so this is what I came up with.
I use fusible iron-on backing to adhere the patch to the pants. This keeps the pieces from slipping around while you zigzag the edges.

Best Friends

Heidi loves it when she gets to spend time with her best friends, Hannah and Lucy.

Winter Carrot

The kids were very excited about something one morning.....

While eating breakfast, they had seen through the window something "growing" out of the pump house faucet. (And even though it was most likely 5 degrees outside, I can see in the picture that Heidi neglected to put shoes on when she went out to see it.)
What do you do with a big icicle like that? You eat it! At least that's what my kids say.

Sledding

Not even -7 degree temperatures kept Taylor from working on finishing his sledding ramp before breakfast yesterday. I find it funny that really cold weather only bothers my kids when they have to feed chickens. But when sledding or skiing, they seem impervious to cold. After Taylor finished importing the snow from other parts of the yard and packing it down to make his ramp at the bottom of the hill, he and the little kids tried it out. Woohee!!Yes, believe it or not, sledding on frozen dirt is almost as good as sledding in snow- and it's not nearly as hard to trudge back up the hill! Even so, we are hoping to see more snowy weather around here and less subzero temperatures......

Leif pic's

Happy Baby.
















Really Happy!

Snowflake poetry

I wanted to share Torsten's winter acrostic poem with you. His original version was done with his artistic knack for lettering- but this typed version will have to do.

Snow
November, past
O, beautiful
White blanket
First Christmas
Lake, frozen
Always giving
Kris Kringle
Eager for Christmas Eve

Tramping through the woods......

We decided to give the fake tree a break this year and get the "real" thing! The day after Thanksgiving, with a 5 dollar permit in hand, we drove up to the South Hills to hike around in the snowy woods for a few hours in pursuit of the perfect tree. Hot chocolate, fresh mountain air, and sledding until dark: it all added up to a great family day for 5 dollars and gas money. I hope to make a tradition of it!

Thankful for cheap heat

What were the menfolk doing while the turkey cooked on Thanksgiving day? Getting the wood pile replenished and ready for the winter ahead and destroying the log splitter in the process..... :-)

Cousins!

My brother Tad and his wife had their 3rd baby in November, only a month after Leif was born, and we got our first chance to see him over Thanksgiving. Dallin is so beautiful! How fun will that be to have a cousin so close in age!