It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.....

......and it MARCH 31!!!!!!

We are in the middle of a huge snowstorm right now. The kids got out of school at 11:00 yesterday and didn't have it today. And I'm guessing it'll be cancelled again tomorrow. I would also guess that we have gotten at least a foot of snow so far and it's still snowing. UGH!!!!

Here are some pictures of the kids and me playing outside. It was kind of fun.....even though we SHOULD NOT have snow right now!!!

StinkerBell

I have so many pictures that I want to share here. I have some great ones that I took on the first day of spring of the kids playing in the mud. But...............I don't know the time right now to do that. Soon.......

So.......for right now I will post one of my favorite pictures I've taken recently. It makes me giggle. It's one of those that I'll have to keep and show her boyfriend years from now. I love it!

More Deer Pictures

As of a couple days ago "our" deer were still hanging around. In fact when Dave came home on Monday the whole herd was nestled down right on the south side of the trees surrounding our house. He came in to get my camera and went out to see if he could get a picture of them. Here's what he got............(pretty cool huh?)...................

Here are a couple more pictures that I took on my way to town last weekend. I am loving watching these guys! It is fascinating to see them all together. We have been snowed into the farm for a couple of days so I'm hoping the deer are still here when we finally get to go to town.

Our Newest Neighbors

For the last several days there has been a huge herd of deer in the fields surrounding our house. It has been very cool to watch them! I've been carrying my camera around hoping to catch them. Yesterday they were really close but so was the fog. This afternoon I looked out the window and...........they were walking along my driveway!!! So I grabbed my camera, threw on a coat and ran out the door......too bad I forgot to get my gloves.........I just about froze my fingers off! Here are some of the pictures I took. They were all taken from my driveway, which is about 1/2 mile long. I would get in my van, drive a little ways, jump out and shoot some pictures, then drive a little ways more.

Mom's Birthday

So....today would have been my Mom's birthday. It makes me miss her. I figured I write a quick thing here on my blog in memory of her. Several years ago I stopped by her house and was visiting with her. She told me that it had been a hard day for her and that it was her Dad's birthday. Her dad unexpectedly passed away when Mom was in her early 20's. And this day I stopped by was around 45 years later. At the time I didn't think too much about what Mom was going through. I felt bad that she felt bad and we talked about him for a little while. Today......that conversation is precious to me. I know that the feelings I'm having today, on her birthday, were feelings that she went through and struggled with. And........somehow.......that makes me feel somewhat better. I won't write too much about her today.........I'll save that for another time..........but know that she was an amazing lady. Now, that doesn't mean she was perfect........I have many memories of her.......well........not being perfect..........she lived her life in a way that what you saw was what she was. Anyway.........enough of my ramblings about this.

This was taken a couple years before she passed away at a Mother's Day Tea.

This is one of my favorite pictures. I was in college and home for Christmas break. Before bed one night, we started dancing. It was a fun time.

Here is one of my Grandma, Mom and me. I love this picture. I sure do wish though that Mom's eyes were open. Oh well.....

Here are the 4 of us.

Scrapping Weekend

Last weekend I was able to go to a camp I worked at during college and scrapbook the whole weekend. There were 8 of us there, 4 of us who worked at NeSoDak way back when. Here are some of the pages I got done:

The Christmas pictures are from Christmas 2007.

Happy New Year......a little late

So........I haven't posted to my blog like.........in..........forever! I skipped over Christmas and New Year's and am now coming up on the end of January. Time flies!

Let's talk a little about Christmas........

I love the whole Christmas season. Here are a few of the things I really love about it........

1. Jesus - Think about it...........an imaculate conception. I often think of what Mary must have went through when she was pregnant. I would guess that people were not nice to her when they found out she was pregnant. I wonder how many people really believed that Mary's unborn child was truly the son of God. If we would have been one of her peers, would we have believed? Unfortunately, I think not.

It's amazing to think that God would send his son to the earth. Especially when he knew that the ultimate plan was that son dying a very painful death. I guess what I'm saying is that it's impossible for me to celebrate a little baby lying in a manger without thinking of the whole plan. And thinking of the whole plan makes the babe in the manger all the more meaningful.

2. Tradition - I absolutely love all of the traditions that are woven into celebrating Christmas! Growing up my family had many traditions and they became very meaningful to me. I remember sobbing at my sister's wedding when I had the thought that my family's Christmas morning traditions would forever be changed. Now that I am the mom I enjoy seeing my children looking forward to and asking about the traditions we have; our advent calendar (which after about the first week and a half is driving me crazy because I'm not good at remembering to do it every night), picking out and decorating the Christmas tree, going through stocking on Christmas morning (which has always, always been one of my favorite traditions), and, of course, opening presents on Christmas morning. I love Christmas traditions!

3. Gift giving - I am pretty pathetic at remembering Birthdays and Anniversarys. But when it comes to Christmas, I love to give gifts! When my mom was alive she gave Christmas gifts to everybody........us girls (of course!), Dad, every family member, people who worked with her or my dad, the ladies in her Bible Study group, the pastor at church, Sunday School teachers......the list goes on and on. Her gifts were not elaborate or expensive and I know that she shopped the sales and gathered things all year. But they were from her heart. I don't give gifts to everybody like she did, but I try to hit the important ones.

So.......there you have it.........my top three reasons on why I love Christmas! Below are some of my favorite pictures from this past Christmas.

This was the boys' "big" present this year. A fuseball table! They were excited when they opened it. The screech that Jacob let out hurt my ears!

Here is the girls' "big" present......a doll house. It was kind of funny to see my 7 year old boys playing in it with their rescue heros and transformers.

Jacob looks a little too excited here and Debra looks a little too terrified.

Here is our tree. It always has a little bit of everything on it. I love it!

This was taken with the timer on my camera right before we left the house on Christmas eve. We were running behind and I didn't look at the picture until everybody was 1/2 way out the door. It's too bad Jacob and Chris are lost in the back. Next year's picture will be better. =)

This is the picture we used on our non-professional Christmas cards. Five kids and a horse...........I felt lucky to get this one that was "good enough".

This is my favorite picture from Christas 08! Here the kids are showing off some of their stocking goodies.