Wordless Wednesday! (kinda)

All Hands On...

BABY!!!!

Oh the F.U.N.!

Here is a sneak peek into our fabulous Thanksgiving week

 of cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

Here are the 27 cousins.

Tons-o-fun!

More to come.

Mush! Mush On!

Our own private Dog Sled Team.

When I say "dog" - I do mean A dog.

A single dog.

So, really, there is not much of team.

Anyways, my dad left his dogs with us for a day.

Leaving them was not his initial plan but when they ran off and were nowhere to be found, he left for his home - dogless. His hopes were that they would show up eventually.

They came back that evening.

My children loved playing with Rocky.

He is a very strong dog.

So, the girls put a horse halter on him like a harness and hooked a sled onto him.

Oh, the fun rides he provided.

They had a blast!

Rocky, well, not so sure, he had as much fun as they did.

Maybe that will teach him to run off.

Thanks Rocky!!

Awesome-ness

"How awesome is the Lord Most High,

the great King over all the earth!"

Psalm 47:2

"Hanging in there"

Things are looking Christmas-y around here.

Part of that is putting up the tree and "hanging" ornaments.

If you have been following our blog for over a year now than you know

our ornament tradition.

For those of you who are new to our blog....

Each person gets an ornament that represents the year.

Then when they move out, they will have at least 18 ornaments to hang on their own tree with lots of memories.

So, here are this years ornaments:

Brian -  a barn

Finished our barn this year that we LOVE!

Caleb - a football

played on the HS football team

Hudson - a football
Played on the freshman football team

Abbi - violin and "Braces On"

Maggie - violin and cross
The cross for being baptized!

Elizabeth - a cross
She was baptized!

Weston - a cross

He was baptized!

Dani Rae - a school girl

Learned to read this year

Tessa - swimmer

Took (and LOVED) her first swim lessons

DONE!

70 Pounds...

of elk meat

in the freezer!!
(no, that's not how much I have gained...
although it does seem like it at times)

Caleb quartered the elk, washed it and cut the meat off

Brian, Hudson, Abbi and Weston cut off the fat and cut into small pieces.

Then the small pieces went over to the girls. 

They ground the meat with my wonderful Bosch.

They weighed and bagged it.

THEN... came the sealer! (that was my job)

I sealed and dated the bags while drinking my yummy Pregnancy Tea.

Packaged with a SMILE!!

 The product line.

What a team!

Even the dogs helped out this year.

They did their part by cleaning the bones completely off.

Phew!

Job done.

And done well.

Let the feasting begin.

Another Great Day...

On the mountain!

I am going to have Caleb tell the story of his hunt.

Keep on reading...

My grandpa and I both had a cow elk tag, thanks to the generosity of my dad.  I am not even sure what day it was, all I remember, I was stepping out of the door and thinking, "This is a good morning to get frostbite".   My brother and I met my grandpa in the barn and loaded up our six wheeler with our hunting gear and headed off to a place where I had spotted some elk the day before. About half way there, the six wheeler started acting weird and on the last biggest and steepest hill, it broke down. Of course, none of us were too thrilled with this, but with no other choice, we grabbed our guns and packs and trudged up the hill. This was not our first attempt at harvesting an elk and I just gotta say - my grandpa is a real trooper! He let me hike him all over our mountains stalking what seemed to be imaginary elk until his legs felt like jello. He also put up with my crazy backwoods 6-wheel driving. He was even a good sport when I ran into a fallen tree and a branch punctured his face. I hope I am as tough and has in good shape as him when I am his age. 

Thanks grandpa for putting up with me!

Hudson, Brian, Papa and Me

Anyways after we had hiked for over an hour (uphill) we reached our destination and began glassing the hillsides for life. After a couple minutes, I spotted a cow elk on the other side of the canyon and estimated it to be a little over 400 yards which is a long shot, especially with a .270 ( the gun I was shooting). We could hear some elk directly below us in the brush so we decided to wait for one of them to present themselves but after a while my trigger finger was itching to pull the trigger so I decided to try and kill the elk 400 yards away and I was also hoping that if I shot, the noise would scare the other elk out of the brush and allow my grandpa to get a shot off. Thanks to quite a bit of target practicing and some research I felt pretty good about this shot and I got set up, she was in some brush so I put my crosshairs in an opening where I thought she would walk out. Finally, after several minutes, she walked into the opening and because my gun is a not quite powerful enough to kill an elk at 400 yards, I aimed for the head and pulled the trigger. She dropped in her tracks and rolled down the hill. The elk below us scattered but never stopped long enough for my grandpa to get a shot. We were all excited and slapping each other on the back. Then a thought suddenly hit me "the six wheeler is broken down and I just shot a elk on the highest point of our property in the bottom of a canyon".  I am not sure why I think of these things when it is too late.  I then remembered the outfitter I work for owned a six wheeler. I called one of the guides I work with and he said I could use it for the day. Relieved. (sigh) I sent my brother several miles back down the canyon to pick the six wheeler up and meet us at the bottom of the canyon where I shot my elk. Me and my grandpa hiked over to the elk. We took some pictures, gutted it and then drug it to the bottom of the canyon where my brother and dad met us.  

We loaded her up and headed home.

My Grandpa was finally able to harvest a elk on Thanksgiving morning, 

he definitely earned it! 

Also, a big thanks to my brother and dad for helping me out and saving the day.

84 days...

to go!

I am exactly 28 weeks pregnant today.

And feeling great!!

Even though the sidebar on my blog and the calendar say 84 days to go,

that does not mean much to the baby. 

It's probably more like 90 - 95 days to go.

You see, I have never had an early baby
nor have I had one on my due date.

Our babies like to make an appearance at least a week late.

Regardless of when this baby arrives - we are all anxiously awaiting!

The girls were looking at these pics of Tess when she was a baby 

and it made them very excited to have another one in our home.