2012...

So I have been busy! Christmas time flew bye, along with the New Year and 5 birthdays and the birth of puppies! December is such a busy month for me! I'm grateful it is all over.

So here is the run down...

Samantha turned 14! 14...  She is now taller than I am and probably weighs less than Helam. Not really, but holy cow, this girl is a bean poll!

El turned 36. This makes him older than me!!! Okay he is always older than I am... But his maturity level sometimes is younger than me.

Emer turned 9. She is such a little spitfire and most of the time makes me want to take up drinking, but she is amazing!

This is the stack we got from all of the grandparents. This is much more than we were able to get the kids. I would say the grandparents all went overboard! But thank you to all of them for the wonderful gifts!

I turned 33. At least I think that is what I turned. Yep, I just did the math and I am 33. NO, I'm 34. CRAP! I just lost a year of my life!

Our amazing dog Sheba had two puppies! Astrid (the white one) and Thor (the brown one). I really can't believe she only had two. It boggles my mind! But they are SO cute and today they are 3 days old. They are also the fattest puppies I have ever seen!

Helam doesn't like to smile for the camera anymore, so this is as good as it gets! He turned 3 yesterday..  It was a very hard day for me. I cried alot and El had to pull me out of my slump more times than one.

We handmade gifts this year, and the boys each got a homemade rubber band rifle. They are pretty cool and we haven't had any black eyes with them yet!

Here is a random cow..  They are everywhere, and I LOVE IT!

Hopefully I won't be such a looser at blogging anymore. Sometimes I think it is harder than it really is.
Here is to a happy 2012. I am looking forward to all of the greatness it is going to bring.

The muggin of the cows...

So this past Saturday we had the pleasure of going to our Branch Presidents ranch to help them brand, tag, medicate and castrate their cows. It was such an amazing time! I have never before been part of something like this and I must say that I LOVED IT!!!!  I was down in the cow crap helping hold the cows down and helping tag them. I got chased by cows and bulls. It was amazing! One of the really funny parts was watching El tackle a yearling calf that wouldn’t go down. I thought to myself, WOW my husband should have been a football player!

It was really cold and the fog was crazy, but watching the cowboys and cowgirl rope the calfs/cow was awesome. My next goal is to learn how to rope. Then maybe one day I will be able to be that cowgirl who gets to rope… 

I asked Morgan if she would take pictures of us and she was very willing. So this is what she came up with before the batteries died…

YEP.. NOT one of El and I in with the cows.. Too funny! Overall it was such a great day. We were so happy to be able to help out. I hope we get to do it all again in the future!

a calf met our car...

So you all know that a calf ran out of the brush and hit our car. The calf lived! HE LIVED!!! You have no idea how happy that makes me. I really don't have money to pay for a calf....  Here is the damage to the car. The windshield is being fixed today. El has fixed the door,so now it opens! YEEHAW!

What do you think of the "MacGyver" tape job? Totally awesome! Also, you are totally awesome if you know what I am referencing when I say "MacGyver" tape!!!

Not only has our car met a calf, it has also had some trauma with our oldest child. She ran it up and embankment the other night, the night she turned 14. She blew a tire, dented the bumper and broke the muffler... I'm just grateful it wasn't my van.. O and I am grateful that everyone survived... 

Keepin Warm. Or at least tryin.

Out here in the wilderness we don't have a furnace...  I'm not to sure I like not having one, but I do like not having a gas bill! :)

So we have to make our way out (mostly EL makes his way out) to get our firewood for our wood burning stoves. I really love having the wood burning stoves. They make it nice and cozy in our home.

Here are some pictures of our recent adventure on gathering wood. Luckily this wood has been curing for a couple of years. We were super good planners on making sure we had wood when we were finally able to move out here! :)

Kylah showing off her mad wood gathering skills!

Morgan showing off her muscles! 

Emer being a cutie and trying to console Gannon who didn't want to gather wood. 

The boys should be working, but playing is much to fun! 

Korban finally helping!

Me being awesome with a chain saw!

El being super gorgeous! I love his lumberjack look! 

Making the wood gathering fun! 

All of us with our final load of the day.

Sam wasn't able to be here, because she was in town. We sure did miss her! 

The Gathering...

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful! We had just a few guests out here in the wild country and we are so happy they all came!
I am so grateful for this wonderful world that I live in. I am so grateful that our Heavenly Father has a plan for us and I am loving this plan he has for me. I am so grateful that El's brother Mike was able to come out with his wife Holli and their two beautiful babes. I am grateful for El's mom and dad for also coming out...

I was saddened by this last Thanksgiving also because it was the first Thanksgiving in my life that I wasn't able to spend it with my Grandpa and Grandma. I am just grateful that I was able to all 30 or so years of Thanksgivings with them. Hopefully my Grams is enjoying Tennessee to its fullest! And hopefully Gramps is enjoying heaven!
I was also saddened because I wasn't able to do our girls night of Black Friday shopping...  But my mom was a sport and called me and gave me updates!
I am so grateful to my beautiful Mom and my wonderful Dad. They are both such amazing people and I am grateful they brought me into this world! I am also so grateful for all of my wonderfully, amazing, crazy, spaztic, loving children! They are what make my days better!

Now onto getting this house ready for Christmas... We have decided that we are going to cut our own tree this year... I can't wait!!!!!

Yummy Goodness....

Take a wild guess as to how often I made things from scratch in my life up until now.... Go on, guess..  Maybe like 3 times. I am that girl who looks for the quickest way to get a meal done. Mostly because Little Ceasers was right around the corner. Talk about yuck. Just thinking about eating that pizza makes my stomach turn. 

So now, I am taking on the world of cooking. Not just cooking, but cooking from scratch. I have this really awesome cookbook that El got me last Christmas and I love it. It is the Better Homes and Garden New CookBook 15th edition. I have really wanted one of these cookbooks for a long time. My Grandma has one that is who knows how old. Not only does it have really good recipes, it has so much information in it. Along with step by step pictures, and guess what, I love pictures... You can purchase it here...

One of my first adventures was homemade biscuits with gravy. Now I didn't make the gravy from scratch because I didn't have any sausage but I found these really good packaged gravy's at the bread store and they are yummy... But you can order them here and it looks like they are cheaper here than at the bread store.

 Getting everything prepared....

 Getting ready to cut in the butter. Cutting butter in isn't as hard as I thought it would be.

Who knew that Ikea cups would also work as a biscuit cutter...  :)

Getting ready to go in the oven....

Fresh homemade biscuits..  O they were SO good...

The final outcome. Yummy Goodness.

El and his goofiness.. He defiantly approved!

O and guess what else, Pumpkin the kitten has been earning her keep!

Have an awesome day!

the Mice of Pleasant Valley

How many of you have seen the Secret Of Nimh? Its one of my favorite movies of all time! I love Mrs. Frisby... She is such a good little mouse momma. All of the rats are so smart and cunning. The cat Dragon is a total meany pants and Jeremy the crow is a nut job. 

I bet your wondering what on earth does this have to do with living out in the country. WELL, I am learning to deal with and coap with mice....   EEEEK MICE! These are no ordinary mice. They are like to mice and rats in the secret of nimh. They are smart! TOO SMART! 

Your probably wondering well then why don't you get cats?. Well, I did.. TWO of them. They are precious. They were ment to be outside cats. That is until I found out that our precious dog Sheba likes to eat cats. YES, eat cats! Why in the world would that happen? Dogs love Cats, right? NO. They don't... Tom and Jerry taught me that. 

So we have two cats. Ninja and Pumpkin. I bet you can't guess which one is which. :) 

Well these cats have been pretty awesome. Other than we can't let them outside to do their sworn duty. But the do work some of their mad hunter skills in the house. 3 mice have met their ferocious jaws. But there is ONE mouse (at least I think it is one) who illudes them. So, we got traps. 4 traps! Have had them up for a week. NOT one of these traps have gotten a mouse. This is what leads me to believe they are like the rats/mice in the movie. They are SMART! 

Have you had mice? How did you take care of them?

PS. Crows...  They are so interesting! I have never seen crows like I do out here. I'll write a post about that later...