December 23 - Adopted Family Visit

The Carroll/Bell's cousins were here for Christmas, so they came out today to spend the day with us. Even though it was very cold, we all went outside and rode horses for quite a while. Cowboy got ridden by someone else besides Kacy for the first time today. Jenna and Austyn rode him first then Addy and Andi. All they had to steer him was a lead rope around his neck, but they did awesome. He is coming along really fast. We hadn't seen the Carroll/Bell's cousins since we had puppies, so they were having a lot of fun seeing how much our babies had grown. Addy asked me where the calf was, because she didn't realize that Jenny was the same calf we had when she was here last. 

Austyn giving Rusty another turn around his pen.

Jenna fell in love with our "baby" chicks. They aren't so much babies any more.

Mrs. Lacey's youngest sister, Kalie, riding cowboy. This was the first time she had ever been on a horse bareback and the first time she had ridden in six months.

Jenna and Austyn trying to get out of the cold.

Libby and Banner watching all the fun. Isn't he growing?

Andi, Addy, and Quincy posing for a picture on the hay bale.

 After it got too cold, even for Jenna and Austyn, we all went up to the house to play town. Everyone has their own "job" and our city limits are the house. It is a huge favorite. Usually we will play for about an hour, but today we played for three or four hours and had a blast!!

Sheriff Andi and her deputy Ethan putting Garrett in jail.

Shea kept busy with his game arcade.

Austyn and Jenna were the doctors and made everyone come into a checkup every 30 minutes.

The proud soldier/deputy.

 It sure was a wonderful day and we all can't wait until we see them all again!!!

November 30 - Cousins!

Dad's mom, Ruth, has been staying in Wisconsin for the past year and a half. For this winter she wanted to be in a warmer place, so her daughter, Barb, and four of her kids brought her down here. We had a lot of fun with our cousins that we haven't seen in quite a while. We played lots of games, giggled a lot, and looked at lots of old pictures. 

The whole crew playing Mafia, In the orange jacket is Ruby the youngest, in brown is Lydia, in camo is Harvie, and standing up in green is Rachael. 

 Before coming here, Grandma went to go see some of her other kids and got lots of old pictures of her family.

Grandma's second oldest daughter, Bonnie, her husband Stephen, and her kids. Tallest to shortest boys; Sean, Scott, and Sam. Girl is Christy.

Daddy as a very young man.

The two youngest sons, John and Paul

Grandma and Grandpa Pogue

 Plus many many more that I didn't put up.

November 20 - The Thanksgiving Turkey

When we ordered Royal Palm Turkeys this spring we ended up with two toms and two hens. We were aiming to get one tom and two hens so we were very happy with this arrangement...this way we get a Thanksgiving turkey out of the deal. Mom's parents had butchered their turkeys for Thanksgiving, but this was the first time we have ever butchered one. It was quite an experience. We also had the Neufeld girls over for the day, because God has blessed them with another little sister. Their mamma needed a break so we took care of them. They were so excited to butcher the turkey we could hardly contain them until it was warm enough to butcher. 

Kacy and Mamma tying the turkey onto the swingset.

Gabriel and his collection of feathers...

..."I have one too!"

 The butchering quickly became an anatomy lesson. We learned about their tendons and Shea found out which tendon ran each toe. It was really quite amazing the design that went into a simple turkey's foot.

Cami learning His design.

One of Jocy's favorite game is giggle battle. We all try different things to make her laugh the hardest, Shea won when this picture was taken.

Kaci and Garrett getting ready to learn about the turkey's digestive system. 

Everyone gather around.

The little doctor in training.

 Later that evening, when Mr. and Mrs. Neufeld came to pick up the girls, we met the little one. It was so much fun watching the bond those girls have with little Rebecca already.

Congratulations Neufeld family!!! I hope you have many more such blessings!!!!

November 6 - Peevys!

We got to babysit the Peevy girls today! They are so much fun to have around. We have a chick that we bought living in the mud room until its big enough to be outside with the other chickens. It was a huge favorite with them.

November 1 - Jenna's Party

For Jenna's 11th birthday party, she wanted to invite her friends over for a day of horse riding at our house. She had 3 friends over and all their families. We had a wonderful time! Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the ride. 

Molly and Andi mending up their dresses so that they can play dress-up.

A new cowboy hat and silver earrings from the Pogues. 

A journal set from the Dowells.

She got very nice gifts from the other girls, but she was so excited about them that I couldn't get any good pictures.

The guests of honor.

Everyone eating icecream bars and goofing off after a good day.

Happy birthday Sweet Jenna!!!! Love ya!!

October 28 - Fence fixing

The Neufeld girls came over today so that their mamma could get a check-up with the doctor on her baby. It was such a beautiful day, not too cold and not too hot...ok, ok the cold wasn't an issue until November. Everyone wanted to be outside, Jocy and Cami hadn't ridden horses for a while and they really wanted to. Kacy had to fix a fence post in one of the pens, so we all headed out. Rusty, as always, did most of the babysitting with Kacy looking on.

A beautiful young lady.

Quincy is "helping" with the fence.

Quincy and her best friend, the rooster.

Cowboy is well settled in his new home.

In the middle of the afternoon, Kaci woke up from her nap and wanted to come outside. Kaci is a very interesting baby. When we first started taking care of her we couldn't do anything to keep her happy other than walking with her the entire time. And even now that she's a year old she still can't hardly stand being inside. But she LOVES being outside! She doesn't mind Quincy getting right in her face, in fact she thinks that's funny. She doesn't mind the cats "sharpening their claws on her pants, she thinks it tickles. Today she wanted to play with "tcy", but having no shoes we couldn't just put her on the ground, we thought. She got down and sat on Quincy for quite a while. I don't know who enjoyed it more, Quincy or Kaci.

I love all of these girls!