Calving

We're in the thick of calving season. Calves have been dropping right and left. We have about 70 on the ground now. The weather conditions have been favorable so far. Lately, the kids and I have enjoyed riding out through the cows, looking at the new babies. Dalanie loves all the cute babies and always wants to say a prayer for them. It's fun to watch the calves play around like typical kids. The cows are typical moms: calling them for dinner, mooing for them not to run off, and tidying them up.

We were especially lucky to watch a birth. There's just something about the miracle of birth that demands reverence. Hudson could recognize how special it was, Dalanie on the other hand just saw it at face value- gross.
There is just something about maternal instincts and motherhood that deserve respect in the animal kingdom and human race. It was a wonderful opportunity to talk with the kids about our Heavenly Father and his creations. I remember being pregnant with my first child during calving season some six years ago. Anticipating his upcoming birth, I was sensitive to the struggles of those "first time calvers." Now I'm more seasoned, but the miracle of it all leaves me in awe and humbled.

Butting Heads

One of my aunts once told me that "we often butt heads with our kids over what is actually their greatest strengths."
This couldn't be more true of my little Dalanie. She is both determined and persistent. The other night after insisting that she could pour her own milk from the 1/3 of a gallon remaining- she was quickly thrown a dish rag to clean up her waterfall of milk.
She is also a wonderful helper. . . to a fault sometimes. Like when I'm soaking the dishwasher with LemiShine and she comes running to tell me she put soap in it and started it! Or when I enter the bathroom to see the toilet and surrounding area dusted in a nice coating of Comet. I'll have to admit, my first thought was not "She'll be a great roommate and immaculate housekeeper." No, instead I grrr internally and think of all the work she just created for me.
Next time I'm butting heads with my kids I'll try seeing things differently.

Getting Out

We finally climbed out of our cave and decided to enjoy the winter weather. We snowmobiled into the cabin and went snowshoeing and sledding. It was great retreat to the cabin with a roaring fire to warm kids up.
First blue skies in quite awhile.
Ruby entertained from atop the counter. What a ham.
Dalanie's favorite part of the day was eating popcorn and drinking hot chocolate by the fire.
Hudson suffered his first sledding injury, a bloody nose.

Reigning Dance Champion

We have been known to hold dance-offs at our house. I think you'll agree, we've got a winner here.

We Survived

It was anything but pretty around here this past week. We have all had Influenza to one degree or another. (And to think we faithfully washed hands, used Lysol and hand sanitizer.) No wonder Hudson's class has been a cesspool of illness.

Tuns out I was the weakest link and did not suffer so graciously. Needless to say, I was the guinea pig that had a worthless dr. visit. And then an urgent care visit the following day. They tested me for influenza and gave me an IV for fluids.

The swabbing for the culture was brutal, like up your nose to your brain. So glad it was me, not any of my kids. I'm pretty sure they never would have forgiven me. Once we had the results, it was a blanket prescription for the household. Tamiflu for everyone.

Apparently we're still contagious as long as we have symptoms. Nice. Because we need a few more days of being cooped up in the house alone.

See

The first of a new year brings hopes and dreams for the future year. Dreams of becoming better and improving ourselves. I rarely write down resolutions, just silently hope my wishes will come true and that I'll find myself a better person in a year from now. This year, I hopped on the bandwagon and started thinking of a word for my mantra.

At first I thought of look because we most often find what we are looking for. But look didn't sound very content. It seemed unsatisfied and always searching. Then I realized that I didn't need to look at all, I have everything I need and want right now. I just need to SEE. My word for 2011- SEE.

So despite the chilly temperatures and my grumbly attitude, I bundled up the kids and went outside. It's amazing what I saw.

Three beautiful children that are my world.They love and adore each other . . . most of the time.A beautiful place to live and raise a family. Where there is plenty of room to roam, teach values, and grow dreams.Yes! There is so much for me to see.

Handmade Holidays

This year I tried to focus more on heartfelt and handmade gifts. And since it had been awhile since I had been creative, I remembered just how much I enjoyed the process.

I decided to make stamped necklaces for my mom, sisters, and Hudson's school teacher. I enjoyed personalizing each one. You can get the stamps quite inexpensively at Harbor Freight and I ordered the discs online.My dad and nephews were recipients of some fun face plates. I followed this tutorial and they worked up pretty fast. My dad received a set of four Papa Plates so the grandkids can use them when they visit.
In other news, our Christmas cactus bloomed this year. We were given a start as a little neighbor gift two years ago. It goes on my list as "best gift" for sure.
I'm still having a hard time convincing myself that it's time to take down my Christmas card display. It's got to be one of my favorite "decorations."

Hillman Christmas: Island Park

We spent the remainder of the holiday week up in Island Park with Brent's side of the family. Fifteen new inches of snow fell the day we got there. With the snow and it being dark, getting to the cabin was a little interesting but we finally made it. Once we were there, there was plenty of time for having fun.

Some of the highlights included the magic show, Family Feud, the food, the sledding, the snowshoeing, and the snowmobiling.

Parish Christmas: Amazing Race

After opening gifts and hanging out in our pajamas all morning, we headed to Burley for the Wilkins' family Christmas party and some time with my side of the family.

My parent's had planned an Amazing Race style adventure for all of the girls and their spouses. They kept the grandkids and sent us overnight, in their Suburban, and footed the bill. We had to perform acts of service to get our next clues. The challenges took us to AMI, the Twin Sisters, Pappa Kelsey's, the River of Life Rescue Mission, Cafe Ole, Gardens-A-Glow, the Boise Temple, Winco Foods, and Ginny and Pappa's. There wasn't much time for messing around, but we did get to spend some quality time together in the Suburban.Here are a few things we learned along the way:
-Ty makes a great bus driver. He handles pressure well, especially the drive-by eating decisions.
-eight hungry people can eat on $50 when Nik does the negotiating
-Chris has got your back at the homeless shelter. Don't let his size fool you.
-Tameka likes parrots
-$20 a carload is definitely better than $8/person

The sisters and their spouses.

Christmas

Our magic camera caught Santa putting presents under the tree. Most of our wishes came true.
Dalanie was a bit disappointed. . . at first.

I spent rest of the morning sewing up doll clothes for her naked baby. Her new eyeshadow helped camouflage the black eye she got earlier in the week from falling out of a shopping cart.
Hudson was excited for everyone and very happy and content with his remote control helicopter and Legos.Ruby couldn't have asked for a better Christmas. She had her bottle and the rocking chair all to herself.

Christmas Jiingles

Hudson might as well adopt "All I Want For Christmas. . . ," as his theme song since his second tooth came out last night.

It doesn't help that I saw Ruby kissing Santa Claus underneath the mistletoe last night. She has become a kissing fool. You never know quite what to expect from her smooches, but they're sweet anyway. She crawls around smacking her lips.

We've hung a mistletoe up in the house and the kids love to stand under it and draw attention to themselves. Even though Hudson takes off running when I come, he still enjoys being loved by his mom.

Dalanie is quite terrified of Santa. She clung onto Brent and buried her head in his shoulder as they waited in line for Santa. When it was her turn, she suddenly turned around and blurted out "I want a baby doll," and then went back in hiding. Hopefully Santa did listen what you'll bring to me, tell me if you can.

Brent might as well be singing "On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me. . . " a bended fender on the Suburban. Now we're even. Dang it, so stupid! Backed into a car taking the babysitter home.

The weather outside has been frightful, but too bad it's been rain instead of snow.

Our children have adopted the policy: We won't go until we get some! They can con treats out of more people when we're out visiting.

We wish you a Merry Christmas! And hope you've been enjoying the songs of the season too!

Believe

Our house is full of believers. There is something magical about kid's wishes and and dreams of Christmas. Little ones' faith conveyed with wide-eyed excitement as they share their secret desires with Santa. The hushed reverence when they stop to get you to listen for the tinkling of a bell. Their reasoning behind a haphazardly place elf and blinking red light in the sky. Oh, kids make Christmas fun!

If only adults believed like children.

Forgiveness, healing, and hope would not be forgotten with stored boxes of decorations. But the entire world would rejoice in the knowledge that He lives! He is real, this I believe.

Something nice to watch.

Reason for the Season

On the way down to the community Christmas concert tonight, Dalanie asked if Santa would be there? I told her probably not and reminded her that Santa's not the reason that we have Christmas. She quickly responded, "Will Jesus be there?"

Lucky Day

I got a phone call the other day notifying me that Hudson's name had been drawn as the bank's quarterly Kirby Kid's Club winner. We've had prior success with the bank. The kids each won a potato decorating contest entitling them to a box of Dots and a kiddie cone. In addition we've enjoyed the free lunches they occasionally provide. It is a very small-community oriented credit union. But when the lady informed me that the drawing was for $50 I was even more satisfied with our little bank.

The bank asked what bills Hudson would like. With little thought he repeated the "five tens" option. Now he's trying to decide what to do with his fifty bucks.

He also got McDonald's coupons from school that day. What a lucky day.

Tradition. . . Tradition!

Traditions are some of the things I enjoy most about the holidays. The kids were over the moon when Ojo, our elf, arrived. He's been a busy guy as of late. Oh the questions they ask about him and Santa! It's a race in the morning to find where he's chilling. Ojo can always be called on to help end an argument or motivate one to do their chores.Yesterday we ginger-ed the day away making gingerbread men and then decorating our "graham cracker-bread" houses. The kids love the opportunity to get their hands dirty and get creative. Hudson rolled out lots of gingerbread snakes and worms. They were his favorite. Both kids decided their houses were going to be hit by a big ice-ing storm.
Meanwhile, Ruby watched from her trusty high chair. She is most content up where all the action is. Here's to many more days creating traditions.

Charlie Brown Tree

With all of the snow, we decided the best option for Christmas tree hunting would be down at Stop n' Shop. We loaded up the kids and drove down. While they looked at the bushier trees with their dad, I found the scrawniest one there and declared it my winner. Without further discussion, Brent went inside and purchased the tree. Once standing in the living room, Brent surveyed the embarrassment. I tried assuring him that it would be fine.

Hudson helped with the decorating and declared it the most beautiful tree ever. I suppose that's all in the eyes of the beholder. But to me, a scrawny Christmas tree like I grew up is best.

Hooray For Ruby

Today we celebrated her first birthday. It was equally exciting for all of the kids.
I made Hudson and Dalanie eat breakfast while Ruby got some time alone in the bath with her new toy. She loves it. It was a low key birthday, but we finished the day by going swimming. (We've tried to make birthdays special by doing something out of the ordinary.) She is such a splashing fool. It was hard to keep a hold of her because she wanted to take off swimming.
Things we love about our Ruby-Doo:
-her happy disposition
-playing peek-a-boo and patty cake (love watching her clap her chubby hands)
-eating her neck and listening to her giggle
-listening to her mooo when you ask where the cows are
-the way she begs for food as soon as I sit her in the high chair
-pulling her around on blankets
-confidently watching her approach stairs, turn around, and maneuver down them like a pro
-the way she snuggles her blankies
-her 5 crazy baby teeth
-that she finally says "Mom"
-that her hair and lips are still the object of conversation