Wintertime Loves

This past week or so I have been able to take in a bunch of things I love about winter. 
Here are just a few:

There is absolutely NOTHING like a day outside when there is snow all around, no wind, and the sun shining.  So peaceful.  Absolute quiet.  Content.  Ahhhh.

I love to shovel snow.  There is something about breathing in that cold fresh air while breaking a sweat beneath all your warm clothes.  Maybe this has to do with the fact that I get some much needed alone time when I shovel snow. 

Gingerbreadman cookies.  Enough said.

White christmas lights strewn all about the house creating a feeling of absolute coziness. 

Appetizers.  Again, enough said!

Oranges being in season and getting a huge 40-lb box of those succulent little sweets makes my day (or month...well, as long as they last!)
 Speaking of oranges...this is one of my favorite sights to see.

 

It means FRESHLY SQUEEZED ORANGE JUICE!  Mmmmm.

"I'm shree."

"I'm shree."
That's right.  It has happened.
Our Natalie has turned the big three.
This was a hard one for Tony and I to believe, yet we are so excited for what this next year of life will bring for our eldest daughter.

Here are some pictures from her birthday celebrations.
Yes, I said celebrations, with an 's'. 
Plural. 
Let's just say she is a little bit spoiled loved!

Her first birthday celebration started off with some Minnie Mouse cupcakes.

Papa and Nana hit that one right on the nose...she LOVED them!

Look at that excitement!

"Cheese."

Her first roller skates.

 

A balance bike from Dad and Mom.

A jammie dress from Gpa and Mimi.

She had been requesting a princess dress for some time now.

 

A birthday dinner...complete with chocolate milk and water...at the same time!

Natalie, 3, and Momma

Three generations.

Mimi, Natalie, Mommy

Diving into her birthday brownie.

 

MORE princess dresses and the accessories. 

Brian and Sarah did a great job with their gift for her.

Aleah enjoyed this one as well!

She, of course, wanted a princess crown for her birthday cake.

Unfortunately we didn't have any candles to put on the cake...so a big one off to the side had to do.

Time to dig in!

 

Love that grin.

Puzzles from Great-Gma Colleen.

A birthday bonfire, complete with roasted marshmallows and family.

 

Roasting marshmallows and toasting cold hands.

Lovin on Gpa John.

 

Happy Birthday Natalie Grace! 

You have brought so much joy to our lives over the past three years. 

We are excited to see how much more you will bless us with in the future!

So far in December...

 

I was able to do some crafting for a gift for a ladies Christmas program. 

Pinterest has so many ideas...I took a couple different ones and made them my own and ran with it.

Loved the results!

Will be making some more of these in the future!

 

I decorated the house a couple weeks ago, but never got the ornaments on the tree.

We wanted to do it as a family together in the evening and were having troubles finding the time.

The girls asked every day to decorate the tree and I kept saying 'we'll see.'

Well that night finally arrived...it was so fun!

 

So proud of their accomplishment!

 

I am not changing a thing on our tree this year...LOVE IT! 

The majority of the ornaments ended up around the bottom 2-3 feet of the tree, with some branches containing up to 4 ornaments.  Any ideas as to why this might be?  ;)

The girls helping Daddy celebrate his 28th birthday.

We made him a giant cinnamon roll cake.

 

SMOKE!

Time for gifts.

The girls helped me wrap each of the presents...the amounts of tape were absurd!

Then they decorated each package with stickers.

Daddy felt so loved!

Natalie requested that I take a picture of her sporting her robe this morning.

Such a ham!

 

Making peppernuts with the best little helpers around!

Look at those skills! 

They loved rolling the dough into 'snakes' and then getting to use a knife to cut tiny pieces.

Time to read our Bible before bed. 

Daddy had two princesses in his lap on this night.

So stinkin' sweet!

Love these three!!!

Little Miss Matchy

So I own a pair of ugly crocs. 
Ugly brown crocs.
Ugly brown crocs that are supposed to be seen only by the eyes of my family while at home. 
They are sole-ly for comfort.  (Catch the pun?)

Well, this morning Natalie hollered at me to come upstairs and (beware...) wipe her after pooping. 
While bent over, with her head near the floor right next to my ugly brown crocs, she stated the following:
"Mommy, your crocs match my poop."

I couldn't keep it together after that one!
Had to share that laugh with you all!

Stuck in a Rut, Making tracks (2011)

 

 Our 2011 farm year started with a record snow fall, nearly 10 ft of snow.

Snow around our bins in early march.

Our roads

Farming begins and not what we expected to find in the fields.
The worst parts were the side hills where springs showed up.

 

 

Natalie even played in the mud like daddy.

 

Heavy rains caused the creek to almost come out of the banks.

 

Many of our fields were flooded in spots.

 

And made spraying really intersting.

These tires are about 6 ft tall.

Some spots were still wet at harvest time.


Yearly tally

12 times stuck with the sprayers
4 times stuck with the air seeder
2 times stuck with the combines



2012 Farm

Here are a few pictures of what 2012 looked like.

We wanted to set up a one man spraying operation, so we set up this trailer to haul the sprayer and hold a lot of chemical and water.



Pre spraying the fields to kill all the weeds before we seed.

Seeding directly into CRP

Seeding into last years stubble.

 

Lots of rain in June. Natalie standing in the winter wheat at heading stage.

With lots rain brought disease.  I had to spray for stripe rust.

Over last winter my guys in the shop built hoppers for us too.  Here is a picturee of putting the bins on the hoppers.

The Finished bin yard.

Cutting an unreal yield of winter wheat.  We dropped some of the straw for baling.

 

The trucks waiting to be filled.
It took
4 Truck drivers,
2 Combine drivers, and
1 Grain cart driver
to keep everything moving.

We took time on Sundays to relax at the lake

Your eyes are not playing tricks on you.....that is dry land corn in Montana.

 

 

 

After a month and half of harvest we went camping as a family.

 

 

Now it is time to haul the grain to the elevators.