Annual Year End Cattle Drive

This morning we did our annual cattle drive, moving the cows home from the quarter section in the sand, or three-ish miles south of home!  It was again a lot of fun!  We enlisted the help of three of our neighbours daughters who ride horses and made it so much easier!  My sister Arren and Buck and their kids came out to help, and Dave and Char and their kids were all there to help!  My mom and Mark stayed with Calum and Armin in the house and finished getting my ham chowder ready for lunch!  It went very smoothly, and I thought the hour and a half it took last year was exceptionally smooth, this year it only took us an hour!  Jared and Buck each rode a quad, Dave drove the tractor with a bale on it up ahead to lead the way, the three horses...plus their two Great Pieranese Dogs stayed behind and a little to the side of the herd, Char and all the girls walked and my sister and I drove a truck...someone had to take pictures!  Once home we had a super yummy lunch and visited!  I love having the cows home, and I love it even more now because I can see them whenever I look out the windows!  Jared jokingly said it will make checking them much easier, all he will have to do is look out the window!!  I hope this is a tradition for us at the end of each year!

Buck and Gilbert on a quad

Cora, Leah and Lily 

Char with all the girls!

Lily

Catching Up!

Emry driving a quad with Lily and Leah

Gil and Lily

My Favorite Gift!

Every year there is always one gift that stands out above the rest!!! This year Jared gave me something I will always remember, actually I don't want to take it out of the package because I will lose the saying he wrote on it!!

My gift was a chef's knife, quite a nice one! And on the package with a black sharpie Jared wrote "Do what you gotta do?" this is a line from our very favorite show Dexter, just as he was about to kill his latest "bad" guy she said this line and instead he cut the plastic wrap she was tied to the table with and kissed her! They became a couple because she was able to understand his need to kill!!

Anyway!! It was very cute and I could tell a lot of thought went into that gift!! I love Jared so much and he seems to understand me!! No, I don't have a need to kill...it was the meaning behind the saying that touched me!! Thanks lovebug!!

Christmas Recap!

Well, this really has been a wonderful Christmas!  Despite our furnace not working and Jared having to haul water to the cows, it really has been fun!  Our celebrating started on Friday evening with our Ward Christmas Party!  Armin performed the best ever "Once There Was a Snowman" so good in fact that Myrna said in the 40 some years that she has seen it done in our ward Armin was by far the best!

Calum was the best little elf I have ever seen and could very easily fit in at the North Pole! He did get a little embarrassed when he said his part in the mic because he could hear his voice through the sound system and everyone laughed because he was so cute!

I was happy to have my Dad and my Mom and Mark there to share in the fun, as well as Rachel and Jared, Liam and Jonas and Dave and Char, Cora, Leah and Blake! Always so much fun to celebrate with family!  Santa came for a visit and young and old and everyone in between got a chance to sit on his knee and put in their last request for what they really want for Christmas!

Armin giving Santa a high five!

Calum always taps his cheek when he is thinking of what he wants to say!

Saturday Jared and Dave took off to go skiing, the first time for both of them this season!  And they had a blast!  Skiing is Jared's biggest passion and when he broke his knee he was sure he would never do it again, yet he pushed through and even though it still hurts he loves it and he needs it!!  The snow was amazing and there was hardly anyone there for a Saturday, the storm the night before must have deterred them!  Meanwhile I took the kids to my moms to celebrate Christmas with her and Mark and Buck and Arren!  THey had fun playing and opening presents!  The best was when Mom and Mark had us cover Armin's eyes while they brought out his present!  A handmade wooded Harley Motorcycle!  The woodworking instructor at the Prison Mark works at  made it.  Armin was beyond excited and rocked on it for 15 minutes straight!  He would pat the back fender every so often to have anyone who was within a five foot radius to come for a ride!

Sunday was spent at Church and then the afternoon was to relax...we watched "The Christmas Story" with the kids and decided we never would again!  We were a little surprised by the language in it and we really didn't find a heartwarming Christmas message in the story!  But it was still fun with the kids!

Monday, Christmas Eve!  Jared had to work in the morning so I took the opportunity to finish cleaning our house, I made Marshmallow Rice Krispie Balls, and icing for our sugar cookies.  When my dad arrived he helped Emry, Calum and Armin ice the cookies, they looked like they had a fun time and the cookies looked adorable!

By 4:00pm Myrna, Jared and Rachel, Liam and Jonas, and my Mom arrived so we could have our traditional Christmas Eve Clam Chowder!  Myrna brought the Clam Chowder and I made Baked Potato Soup!  Both were really yummy with only a bowl full of the potato soup left!  We had cupcakes and treats while the kids played!  Emry was missing her girl cousins so she ended up locking my Mom in her room with her to play barbies!  My dad left to go and see Gil and Lily in their church Christmas Eve Play, but came back just after we got the kids into bed.  We loaded up our Christmas Eve presents and took them over to Myrna's to open them and have a little story before putting the kids to bed!  We opened our traditional Christmas jammies, Emry told us a story about the Nativity complete with little people to set out at the right part. and Rachel read the kids "T'was the Night Before Christmas"!  Then off to bed!  Calum took quite some time to settle down but once he did he was out!  Myrna set out tons of yummy treats and then all of us adults played pictionary!  It was so much fun!  Around midnight we loaded up our kids and headed back to our house...brrrrrrr!  It was so cold, I felt so bad for our little guys being drug out into the freezing cold, but they didn't seem to mind and soon went right back to sleep!  Jared finished some last minute wrapping while I got our breakfast ready for the next morning and then we were all snuggled up in our beds!  Calum was so excited to have Grandpa Glen sleep in his room on the bottom bunk!  

Jared was teaching Emry how to play pool!

Our traditional Christmas Eve jammie picture!

Jared woke up first that morning only because he was freezing to death and thought he should turn the heat up only to find it wasn't working!  It was ten degrees in our house Christmas morning!  My dad said he could hear Jared in the furnace room fiddling and what shocked him more than anything was Jared was whistling a Christmas carol while working!!  A Christmas Miracle...he got it working and without any foul words!  The kids were excited opening their presents and it was so fun to watch them!  The excitement on their little faces truly was priceless!

Calum got his Batcave!! When his letter from Santa came he thanked him for being a good boy and Calum was so excited he screamed, "I'm on the nice list!"

Armin loved his John Deere truck and trailer Santa brought him....we are most definitely a John Deere family!

Emry has been wanting the Lego Friends house forever, Santa came through!!

Armin is patiently waiting for Grandpa Glen to open his truck!

Totally worth the wait!

After breakfast we all headed downstairs and watched Brave!  It was so good, even the second time!  My dad left to have Christmas dinner with Buck and Arren and their family so we continued to have a lazy day!  So lazy in fact that we were not aware of the time until Myrna came in with the turkey!  I jumped up and got the potatoes boiling while Jared ran the water down to the cows!  Lalainia, Jason and the boys and Rachel and Jared and their boys all came over to and we had a super yummy turkey dinner!  I loved having everyone over at our house, it is so nice to be able to get together!  The kids had fun playing as usual!  After dinner we headed over to Myrna's to open our stockings and other gifts!  Again we were all spoiled and had a great time!  Emry stayed overnight but Jared and I decided to take the boys home instead of transferring them in the bitter cold again!  On Boxing Day we went back over to Myrna's where we were treated to a super yummy pancake breakfast made by Ashton and Jason!  By noon everyone had dispersed to other family celebrating and we again headed home to relax!  Lily came over to play with Emry while Jared fed and watered cows!  We had yummy leftovers for supper and the relaxing continued!  Emry spent the night at Arren's and got up super early this morning to go skiing with Grandpa Glen and Gilbert!  They went all the way out to Fernie!  I think she will have a great time, she was super excited!  The boys and I are trying desperately to stay warm while we wait for someone to come out and fix our furnace!  Our celebrating with family continues on New Year's Eve!  All the Puzey siblings and families, and Myrna of course! are going to go and see "Wreck it Ralph" in the afternoon and then out for Chinese Food in the evening!  I am also hoping that Buck and Arren will come!  I love all our family and truly enjoy spending time with them!  The holidays just wouldn't be the same without the love and laughter of family!  Merry Christmas with wishes for a very happy new year!

Christmas, Christmas, Christmas!

I LOVE Christmas!! It truly is the most wonderful time of the year! Our celebrating started Saturday with my Mom and Mark and Arren and Buck! The kids played and we opened presents and had my very favorite meatloaf!! Mom and Mark had bid on rocking motorcycle at a silent auction at the prison Mark works at and they won it!!! So they gave it to Armin and he absolutely loves it!! When Jared packed it into the car Armin was very upset with his daddy!! When we got home Armin and I were sitting on the step taking off his boots and he was telling me that his "bi" was "gone", but then Jared came in the door carrying his bike and instantly he started laughing and was waving his hands because he was so excited! We had such a fun time with my mom and it was a great start to the celebrating!!

Christmas Eve my dad came early in the afternoon and the kids enlisted him to help them ice sugar cookies and they did such a good job that I am going to leave this job to them every year!! Later that afternoon my mom, Myrna, Jared and Rachel came and we had our traditional clam chowder for dinner...so yummy! After dinner we loaded up our traditional Christmas Eve presents and took them over to Myrna's where we opened our jammies, Emry put together a little Nativity game for everyone with a little poem for each piece of the Nativity!! Liam and Calum had fun with it!! Then Rachel read the kids "T'was the Night Before Christmas" and they were captivated!! Then it was bed time!!! Calum was so wound up it took him quite awhile to finally drift off!! After the kids were nestled all snug in their beds the adults brought out the treats and played pictionary!! It was a game of three teams...mother and daughter against father and daughter against "the Jared's"!!! We had lots of laughs, Myrna and Rachel did win with the Jared's coming in second and my dad and I dead last!!! After the game we loaded up our kids and took them home so Santa would find them! Jared had presents to wrap so dad and I watched a show! Just as I was about to get into bed I remembered the overnight French toast I wanted to make for breakfast! So I quickly put it together and climbed into bed trying desperately to warm my cold hands and feet on Jared!

The first out of bed this morning was Jared! And not because he was so excited to see what Santa brought, but because he was cold!! Our furnace had quit!! It was only 10 degrees in our house when he got up!!! After an hour and a half of fiddling he got it going....a Christmas miracle!!! The kids were so patient waiting for daddy so they could open their presents! It was fun to see their beaming faces opening their presents! Calum was adorable...he would hug everyone after he opened a gift and say thank you! After all the presents were opened we had our breakfast, the overnight baked French toast, which despite it being soggy, it was quite yummy! I also cooked bacon in the oven too, so much nicer than frying it and still nice and crisp!! After the kids played with their new toys and now we are watching Brave! This afternoon Lalainia and Jason and the boys will join us and we will have a super yummy Christmas turkey for dinner!

It has been a wonderful Christmas so far, our first in our new house! I have loved having my dad here with us, something I always imagined, having my parents spend Christmas with us!! And despite waking up in the frigid cold this morning and Jared having to haul water to the cows and then feed them on his only two days off, it is truly a magical Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year!!