It "Dozen" Get Much Better Than This

Well, as I was going through the pics on my camera I realized we didn't take very many pics this year!!!  What happened???  Aaaaahhhhhgggg!!!  Oh well, here are the few we have!

Saturday we were busy, busy, busy!  One of our many projects was turning our bulls into 'steers'!  Ouch.  And of course, I had to take the camera out with us.  But don't worry, all the pics are rated "E" for everyone!! 

Sometimes I love the pics that I find on my camera!  Usually taken by a small child, they can be quite entertaining!!  I was cleaning off the scan disk tonight and came across a few that I just had to share!

Well, we had an amazing day!!!! Doesn't get any better with good food and family!!!! Here are a couple of pics from dinner and finally the much awaited pics of the calves!! They are adorable and a huge thanks to Sabrina for going out in the beautiful sunshine today and taking some pictures of them!!

Today will be a busy day!  The boys are building a barn!  Well, more of a loafing shed, that's like a 3 sided- open barn.  It will have 4 stalls and a tack room.....I think.  That's what the plan was last I knew but Scott, the "engineer" might have changed the plans since I last spoke with him about it.
The bulls are actually feeling a little better and are out running around the field, poking their noses into everything!  Yay!!  Now maybe I will take a pic to post of their cute little selves!

It's a cold, windy day here but thankfully no rain!  In fact we have not had rain since we moved here!!  Well, there was one day it came down a little but other than that it has been dry!!!  Now that is the kind of Fall I love!!!

Well, I better get busy, it's baking day!  Apple pie, pumpkin pie and loads of Chex Mix will be made today!!!  Mmmm.

That would be an understatement!  Saturday night we brought home 3 Jersey bull calves that were anywhere from 2-4 days old.  We brought them home in the back of our 15 passenger van.  Does that sound familiar?  When we brought home Sabrina's Holstein bull calf just over a year ago (when we were still in Oregon), we brought him home in our van as well!  Who needs a truck??? 

Anyway, who knew Jersey calves were to fragile/temperamental?  We just assumed they would be like the Holstein......so wrong on that one!  Jersey's are like, "Oh, I'm not feeling well, my tummy hurts.....Ok, that's it, now I'm dying!!"  Haha, sounds funny but it's true!!!

Of course, they all got scours after being home a day (for you city folk, that's cow diarrhea!).  That can kill a calf in just a few days!  You have to get it under control FAST! 

Thank goodness Sabrina has a friend from school who's family has a small dairy farm.  His mother offered lots of helpful advice and even sent him over with home remedies and medication last night!!  Quite possibly saved their lives....not sure if we're out of the woods yet but at least they are still alive at the moment! 

Scott rigged up a heat lamp for them tonight, so at least they will sleep warmer tonight!!  It's cold here!

All the kids are eager to help feed them and help take care of them! 

We're also checking Craigslist for a chicken coop and laying hens.  If anyone has suggestions on the types of chickens we should get or avoid, let me know!  Please!!  :)

We started working on a loafing shed for the calves as well as the horses that will soon be joining our little farm!  Hoping to get it finished up this weekend!

I haven't taken any pics of the calves yet.....if they make it through another day or two, then I will post pics!  Here are a couple of the kids heading out the door to feed them!  Also, I will have to post a pic of our purchase today....11 pairs of black rubber boots!  We had kids out in the pasture, wearing their school shoes and that wasn't gonna fly, so I headed off to the Feed store this morning to fix that predicament!

I can honestly say that the best years of my life have been spent with the man of my dreams!!!  I am so blessed to be with a man who loves me unconditionally, a man who sticks by me through thick and thin, a man who would do anything for me, a man who is concerned about my happiness and comfort at all times.....a man I call my husband. 

We are celebrating our wedding anniversary today.  21 years of joys and sorrows, of learning and growing, of laughter and tears.  I wouldn't trade a day of it!

Happy Anniversary to my Sweetheart!

I'll like you forever
I'll love you for always
Forever and ever my Sweetheart you'll be!

On Friday night we went and saw a movie for date night.  I had been looking forward to seeing it as I had watched the trailer and also heard from lots of people that it was a great movie......what I didn't realize was that it would change my life!!

If you haven't had the chance yet, go see the movie, Courageous!!!  It can change your life! 

Well, I guess it's fitting that this post is about adoption since it just happens to be National Adoption Month.  I'm almost positive that I have the only children in the world that beg me to adopt 'just one more child'!

Vanessa has been on a kick lately (for about 3 years) and to be honest, she has a good point!  She wants a sister.  A sister that is 8-10 years old.  A girl her age that she can play with, share her room with, hang out with, sing with, be silly with, dance with and whatever else sisters do!  Her sisters are either much older or much younger.   She has brothers very close to her age but....they are 'brothers'.

So there ya have it, we need a sister for Vanessa.  Anyone know of a sweet little girl that needs a family?  She begged me tonight before she went to bed to 'please post that we need a sister and maybe someone will know of one for us!"

 If life was really only that simple......

Last night I went to get my hair trimmed.  As I was sitting there, a kid came in to get his hair cut.  He was about 19 or 20.  After his hair was cut, the stylist asked if he wanted it washed.  He said "No, but can I get my eyebrows waxed?"  He actually just needed his unibrow waxed, he said.  As he sat down in the chair, they stylist kept telling him to relax.  "You need to relax your whole face", she said, "Or it's not going to work!"  As she yanked off the wax strip, he yelled "Ouch!!"

My stylist and I giggled a few times because it was so funny to have this kid be so stressed about getting waxed.

As it turns out, he was a bull rider.  After he left, his stylist said that he usually comes in all beat up.  Double black eyes, missing half his eye brow, road rash covering his face, bruises all over the place and yet when it was time to wax his eyebrows, he could hardly sit still in the chair!!

Had to giggle about that!

One of the best things about having grandparents living with us is the opportunity to have Sunday dinners together!  We love having them join us for dinner.  There is always lively conversation and lots of laughs....not that we don't always have that at our dinner table but when you add a different generation, it just makes it even more fun!

Just another reason why we feel so blessed to have them here with us. 

Now there are 6 kiddos downstairs in Papa and Grandma's house watching a Christmas movie on the Hallmark channel.  Ahhhh, life doesn't get any better than that!

They say we could get snow tomorrow!!!!  Can you believe it???  Wouldn't have seen that in Arizona!  We are totally excited!  It will be so different than the snow we knew in Oregon......dry snow is a concept our kiddos haven't experienced.

The kids got really excited when they heard.  "No school!!", they cheered!  I had to burst their little bubbles and explain that they don't cancel school here.  They couldn't believe it.  Haha...it's all good.  They decided that dry snow is going to be so much more fun than our Oregon wet snow.  I'm sure there will be plenty of pictures on here this winter!  Stay tuned!

There are times when having a big family pays off!  When we got in to town, I looked into Preschool classes that were offered at the local rec center.  We have always done that in whatever town we lived in and been pleased with what they had to offer.  I went in and took a look around and found that in this town, they had soooo much more to offer!!!

The rec center here is huge!  I mean, huge!!  They offer all the same types of classes that we're used to but the actual facility is amazing!  There are a couple of huge swimming pools, including a small one for the little ones, an incredible rock climbing area, several basketball courts, racquetball, bikes, treadmills, weights and my favorite: an indoor wood floor, track!  It's up on the 2nd floor and basically goes around the perimeter of the building!  But being indoors means we can use it any time of the day, in any weather and it's still comfortable!!!

We actually signed up for a one year family membership!  My parents signed up as well!  Even Scott's mom signed up so we all have access to this amazing building!  My parents get up and go running at 5 in the morning!  Sometimes Levi and Tanner go with them!  They shoot hoops, or play racquetball.  Tanner also enjoys running with Grandma and Papa!  Nana enjoys walking on the track and is excited to try out their pool!  She loves swimming! 

Last night Sabrina and I decided to hit the track!  It's been way too long since we were able to get out and go running and we have missed it!  It felt good to run!

The crazy thing is we only pay like $50 bucks a month for our whole family to have access to all these great activities!  The kids that are 12 and older can get dropped off and spend a couple of hours there without having a parent with them!  Tanner and Levi took advantage of that for the first time last night!  They swam, played hoops and wore themselves out for a couple of hours!!!  Now that's what I'm talking about!!!!!

On a different topic, it was 18 out this morning when we woke up!!!  I'm guessing it's still shorts weather in Arizona.  But that's ok because the blue skies and Fall leaves on the ground totally make up for the cold here! 

Tonight was our annual Fall Family Festival!  It was a huge success!  Soooo much fun!  We even had a few extras join us!

After eating chili and cornbread, we jumped into the fun!  We played pin the nose on the jack o' lantern, bean bag toss,  fishing for popcorn balls and a doughnut eating contest (without using your hands)!!!  The great part was, everyone participated....even the grandparents!  :)  Here are a few pics!

We moved into our new home at the tail end of 'fly' season.   The most disgusting season of all!  I didn't even know there was such a season!  We were bombarded by hundreds of flies in our house at all times!  We went through 6-8 fly swatters!  Nothing more disgusting to me than a fly in my kitchen....let alone hundreds of them!  Everyone we talked to about them said it was 'a bad year for flies' and 'it's just that time of the year!'  Oh joy, I can hardly wait until next year!  But we will be wise to them next year! 

Scott already swapped out the hinges on our exterior doors for self closing hinges!  With this many kids going in and out the doors, they were constantly left open!  Not anymore!  But the last few days the temperature has dropped and we're down to a handful of flies in the house in the morning when we wake up.  The change in temperature makes them very slow!  Easy targets now!! 

And to think a few pesky crickets used to annoy me at the house in Arizona....at least they stayed out of my kitchen!

Have I mentioned yet that I love our new home???  If not, let me tell you.....I really do.  Today was the perfect day.  We (and by 'we', I mean all of us including 2 grandmas and 1 grandpa) worked outside.  Papa trimmed trees, grandma's and grandkids hauled the cut branches to the farthest back corner of our property, we stopped to feed the neighbor's horses, mowed the grass and Scott basically spent the whole day working on little projects.   A very productive day indeed!!  Sabrina and I even went and bought 5 little kids winter coats (there went a chunk of change)! 

I love that our kids can be outside this time of year, enjoying the beautiful Indian summer, playing and running all over the yard!  At one point this afternoon, I looked outside and saw Scott, Levi, Tanner, Thomas, Isaiah and Papa all playing football together!!!  Now that was the cutest thing ever!!!!!  I should have snapped a picture but I didn't think of it. 

We are getting settled and it's so nice to have all the boxes emptied and pictures hanging on the walls!  It took a little longer this time around and I still have some rearranging to do.  But I have nothing but time so I'm not worried.....

Here are a couple of pics I snapped with my cell phone while we were out feeding the horses this morning.