A Glimpse into my Life.

I love snow. I love the crisp air, the frost patterns on the windows, and when we are lucky enough, icicles hanging off of anything and everything. Rynie and I took some pictures when we had the farrier trim the horses hooves last week and here they are. It was about 0°F/-18°C that day but beautiful in spite of the cold.



I did get my car stuck in a snow drift, but thank goodness it was easy to dig out. Rynie had fun taking pictures to show Hubby how stuck we were.



Here he is surveying the car to make sure there was no damage to it.



I love going out to my parents' old house. The views are incredible, and I love to watch the seasons change on the mountains.












Even though it was freezing, it ended up being a very good day with an awesome little helper guy.

We have been decorating our house for Christmas and even though we are not done yet (really, how much more can we do?) we have a lot of stuff done. The tree still needs the gingerbread people put on it, but they are made. The gingerbread house is being finished as I am typing, and the cat hasn't eaten too much of the popcorn off the garlands.

Rynie is studiously concentrating on coloring his gingerbread boys and girls.

And here are two of Rynie's people!

Little Miss is doing something. I wasn't fast enough to get her coloring her gingerbread girl, but she sure was fascinated with getting to use markers.



Here are some of our finished gingerbread people. They were a lot of fun to do!

Here is Little Miss admiring the Christmas tree. She kept pulling the jingle bells and bows off the tree and trying to put them back on. She was completely fascinated with the tree and lights.



Here is Rynie's cheerleader. She isn't sure she likes what we are doing with the gingerbread house, but she'll watch and clap.

Here is the gingerbread house:









I'm not really sure what the fixation with green windows was, but hey, Rynie enjoyed it!

Rynie decided he wanted to make some bread today. I couldn't find the recipe that Aunt K gave me that we really like, so we just did the dough recipe with the bread machine. Not doing that recipe again!!!! First off, the dough was crumbly in spots, so I had to mix more water into it to make it feel like dough. The consistency was really odd, a silly putty consistency, and it wouldn't beat down or anything. I tried to knead it and it wouldn't. Then Rynie wanted to have a go at it. He took a rolling pin to it and whacked it for a while. We had some rather um, lumpy things and he wanted to put them on a baking tray instead of in a pan. I put them in the oven and hoped for the best. This is what it looked like going in:

Here is the 'bread' once we got it done. No idea how long it took to cook because I didn't time it. I just left it in there until it was golden brown.

The proud little chef Rynie with his bread!

Guess what folks! This bread is actually edible. Oh, don't get me wrong, I've had a lot of better bread, but it was bread consistency inside, crisp (read really hard) on the outside, and although it was lacking on the flavor, once you dunked it in your soup, it was like putting croutons in it.

All in all, even though it wasn't a great bread, my little guy got to learn about making bread.- He also did a ton of dishes by hand and helped make soup because he wanted to be a Helper Guy!

After seeing this Meme on Sarah's blog at Romantic History, I thought this was a fun one!

1. Eggnog or hot chocolate? Hot Chocolate! Not saying I don't like eggnog, but there is just something about hot chocolate that reminds me of curling up in front of the fireplace with my cat Princess as a girl.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Neither, but just setting them under the tree would be closest. They usually get set near the tree but it depends. When we had a lot of family visiting, we'd put them on the sofas and chairs for some reason. I really don't know but it works for us.

3. Colored lights on the tree/house or white? On the tree: white lights or oddly enough blue lights. Other colors are nice, but those two really remind me of Christmas. My mom loves multicolored strands so she does that but white, blue, or white/blue mix are Christmas lights to me. On the house: mainly white, but tastefully done accent colors look beautiful. NASA should not be able to see your house from space.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No, but I wouldn't be opposed to hanging it if I found fresh mistletoe.

5. When do you put your Christmas decorations up? Anywhere from the day after Thanksgiving to two weeks before Christmas. Any earlier than that and I feel like Thanksgiving is overrun and forgotten and any later than that it just doesn't seem like the holidays.

6. Favorite holiday dish? I really don't know, I just love all the traditional foods that come up during Christmastime.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? Cooking in the kitchen with my Grandma, Mom, and Aunt Kish. We made a LOT of food every year and it was so nice just to cook, bake, sample, and listen to Christmas music while we were at it.

8. When did you learn the truth about Santa? I really don't know. I think it was a natural evolution of things. After we got to a certain age, we just knew it was more about the spirit of the season and not about getting stuff for YOU.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? A small one.

10. How do you decorate a tree? Mainly with things that are kid friendly. I have some ornaments that are treasures from when I was younger, but those are not going to be pulled out while I have extremely young children and a wild and crazy cat. We do a lot of garlands, bows, and we are amassing quite the collection of jingle bells. There is a popcorn and cranberry garland on our tree right now and Spitfire is in love with eating the popcorn. We still have a few more decorations to make and put up though.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Love it! It makes winter worth it.

12. Can you ice skate? Yes I can! I love it even though I haven't done it in years.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? A round, metal disc sled. It was sky blue and wonderfully fast! It lasted about a decade until one rather untimely rock put a massive dent that couldn't be hammered out. My brother and I had a blast on it.

14. What is the most important thing about the holidays to you? Spending time with my family, reflecting on the blessings in our lives and how blessed we are to have a Savior who loves us so much that he was willing to Atone for our sins and die for us.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Chocolate fudge. Again, it's a nostalgia thing. My Grandma and my Uncle Randy taught me to make it, and now, if there is fudge and sugar cookies, it really is Christmas Time at our house. (Sugar Cookies are courtesy of my other Grandma)

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? On Christmas Eve, we have a Mexican Feast (literally) and after everyone is completely stuffed, we go into the family room and read one of the Gospels about the Savior's birth and talk about what Christmas really means in context to life and in our own personal lives. We sing Carols and Hymns, it's one of my favorite evenings of the year.

17. What tops your tree? Usually an angel. She isn't up right now because we got distracted in decorating the house and need to finish.

18. Which do you prefer-Giving or Receiving? Giving. I almost can't stand it, just ask Hubby. I almost have to forget I have gifts for people or else I want to give them to said people as soon as possible.

19. Favorite Christmas song? Either No Golden Carriage, No Bright Toy or Candlelight Carol. They are so evocative of the meaning of Christmas to me.

20. Candy Canes-Yuck or Yum? In small quantities, YUM. I like to take a miniature one and stir hot chocolate with it.

21. Favorite Christmas show? I don't really have one. Shamefully I haven't seen a lot of Holiday movies. It is something I intend to rectify this year though. My friend just about died when she heard I had never seen White Christmas or any of those old ones.

22. Saddest Christmas song? Any of the intentionally tear-jerker-ish ones that really (to me) do not convey the meaning of Christmas and who Christ is and what He did for us.

As much as I love Winter, snow, icicles, frost, and all that; my least favorite part of the cold is when I am so cold I can NOT warm up. It is a whopping 12°F/-11°C and the only part of me remotely warm is the spot on my tongue I burnt with hot chocolate!!! Thank goodness for hot chocolate and herbal tea otherwise I'd be a popsicle before Spring!

My little Miss is sick right now. At first we thought it was just a teething fever because she has been working on some molars, but now it doesn't seem like it. Unlike some kidlets who like to throw fits or whine when sick, she just likes to snuggle and sleep. Needless to say, not a lot has been accomplished when she is awake, but that is just fine with me. Honey is going to come over and watch her when I get Rynie from preschool today.

Rynie and I need to check fences and water troughs for the horses and remaining steers right now. We have a break between the storms and today is about as sunshiny as we are going to get for the next few days so it needs to be done. When I went to drop Rynie off at school the five larger steers were out and on the road so I put them up. That'll teach me to to not take a coat along just because it's a short jaunt over to his preschool and I'm not really getting out of the car!!! At least I had some work gloves though. And I have a farrier appointment at 3:30 so we will be doing lots of outdoor work today.

We went to visit my Grandma in New Mexico for the weekend. It was a nice trip, but a bit sad since she'd fallen down three or four times in the last week. She had a blackened bruise on her hip, her chin was yellow/green/purple and cut up, I think she broke a finger (She doesn't think so, but it hurts to touch and can't stand mild pressure on it) on her right hand, has a goose egg the size of a chicken's egg on her forehead, and massive bruising on the left side of her face. For some reason she is having blood pressure problems so they are trying to get her blood pressure up. Low blood pressure runs in the family, but it shouldn't drop 40+ points when you change from laying down to standing up. She now has had her medication adjusted and is wearing the circulation nylons and it seems to be helping. We are hoping and praying this works and she recovers well from it. It was really nice to let the kids visit her and see family this weekend. My cousin Sierra and I cleaned her house for her since it's getting harder for her to do the deep cleaning and since she's been so dizzy lately.

Now the random bit. I think the pseudonym Pink Princess is a bit much for Little Miss, and truth be told, I don't really like it much and Rynie no longer calls her that so I'm trying to come up with a new pseudonym. I am open to suggestions at this point since I am drawing a blank.

No pictures, because I have to run, but more posts and pictures later!

I know I've been on a bit of a blogging hiatus, but I think life has settled down enough for me start to reclaim my life and do some of the fun little things I have missed doing.

We have all of Jake's hay sold, almost all the farm equipment is moved back to my parent's house, the remaining steers and horses are also moved to the home farm. Most importantly, we are done dealing with unscrupulous people. The former owner of the land we leased tried to charge us the yearly lease at the same price for less than half the land. We found out it is because he hasn't been totally honest in his dealings with us and others and is now in bankruptcy and was trying to recoup whatever money he could wherever he could. My dad was able to work things out with him to everyone's satisfaction though, so thankfully we are done with that.

Jake and Shannon decided that they wanted to learn to make apple jelly and syrup. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work. We also had to say goodbye to our canning buddy, the water bather for the steamer, but after 20+ years it had a good run. We had some very good little helpers who taste tested, sorted, and all around just had a good time.

Our little taste tester:

The sorting crew:

And here is part of the sorting crew sorting through the canning rings:

Is she singing, or trying to taste test???


We now have 6 of the 11 steers sold off. Thank goodness since some of the people changed their mind after we'd already taken the six steers to the butcher and they were waiting to process them. I will be glad once we have the rest of them sold off.

I have been working on a black corduroy jumper for the Pink Princess. I found out I am out of black embroidery floss to work the eyelets though so I need to run and get some. Other than that, it is done. When I tried it on her to check the fit, she just smiled and then wouldn't let us take it off her. It took both Hubby and I to convince her it wasn't ready yet.



Unfortunately for my hair, I ended up cutting off about four inches of it. The last four inches just would not untangle. It would take me over 30 minutes to comb through that section so after quite a bit of debate with myself, and talking it out with Hubby, we decided I should cut that part off, and just wait for it to grow again. I feel like my hair is so short now!!!! I know it really isn't, but I just miss those inches!!! It was getting so long and I hope it won't take forever to grow back.

Our little Mister absolutely loves pomegranates so much, we love when we have the chance to get them. It's quite the treat!!!!


Pink Princess loves my shoes. She stole my house slippers and wouldn't give them back!


We have started decorating our house for Christmas. Rynie wants to make all our decorations so we have made paper chains that we are going to hang from the ceiling of his room and then hang snowflakes off of it. We have also made a popcorn and cranberry garland for the tree. I've decided that garland would go a lot faster if Spitfire wasn't attacking it and eating the popcorn while I was stringing it. Pink Princess also was biting the cranberries and putting them back with the other ones. We have another garland on the tree, and a bunch of jingle bells and bows on the tree. We are going to make some stars and put them on the tree after we decorate them. I am hoping we are finished by the weekend so I can take pictures of everything.

I know this was random, but I hope that by starting again, I can get back into the habit of blogging and then I'll finish pictures from my trip and getting caught up on life.

Goodnight and Sweet Dreams!