The Mitten

Hannah and I did a little craft project this afternoon. Ok, so it was mostly my craft project but I was hoping Hannah would help. I traced her hand and made this mitten from the tracing. I broke out the buttons and ribbon and we started to decorate. Hannah didn't actually want any buttons on her mitten. She thought it was more fun to put them in the jar. I also broke out my puffy fabric paint from high school and wrote her name and the year on the back. I was excited to find the paint was still good since it was pretty old as far as paint goes.

A pair of mittens would have made more sense but I hope we can make this a yearly tradition, and I think we will end up with quite a few before Hannah and the new little one lose interest. Admittedly this was not my original idea. The original post is from here. I have been visiting Crafy Crow to find ideas that might liven up our lives a little bit and that's where I found it first.

It will be fun to watch the mittens get bigger over the years and see how the girls decorate them.

Happy Thanksgiving & A Tree

Happy Thanksgiving! I forgot to take my camera so I don't have any pictures. It was a great day with family and good food. We had dinner with Ben's family and then my parents came down for a visit later in the evening. Hannah had a great time playing with her cousin Colton. She is still asking about him.

On Friday it is tradition to head up to the mountain to cut a Christmas tree. Most of the family came and we had a great time picking out a tree. There was disappointingly little snow but it made for an easy drive up the mountain. It was cool but sunny and quite a bit more pleasant than last year. Hannah got to explore snow and be in the forest for awhile. We packed a lunch of sandwiches made from left overs, hot chocolate, and cookies. Often times we have a bonfire, go sledding, and have snow ball fights. The younger generation isn't up for it yet and I guess as adults we were in a hurry this year. In a few years we will be spending most of the day playing in the snow with the kiddos.

Favorite Outfit

This is hands down Hannah's favorite outfit. Some time during the morning she asks to go oppy (potty). When she gets done she races out of the bathroom before I can get a chance to put clothes or a diaper on her. She runs to find her boots and sometimes her hat...and then it's time to ride!

Pictures & Check-up

Hannah had a check-up last week. She has been any where from the 10th to the 25th percentile for her weight. This time she moved up the 50th percentile, which translates to average. She's a little over 30" tall and her head seems to be growing well. Basically she's doing well. Here are some 18 month pictures for your enjoyment. Do you have a favorite picture? I always have a hard time deciding which ones to have printed.

Visitors

This group of antelope, I presume all gals, ran through our field the other day. They didn't stop long enough for a picture. I was out later where Ben was planting grain and I saw they were eating and laying in another field. We live pretty close what we call "the end of the earth" but don't get much large wildlife hanging around our place. I guess I can be glad that the trees and plants around the house aren't constantly being eaten. It was nice though to see these antelope passing through.

The Festivities

Little Miss Hannah was not excited about being a little lady bug. I tried wearing the antenna and putting them on her stuffed animals to help her warm up to them. She didn't like anyone wearing them including Papa's dog Sadie. We made our trip around to see the grandparents and she wore her costume for a few seconds at each place. I didn't get a picture of her wearing her entire costume where you could see her face so here's it is in two pictures.

Removing the shell.

Wearing the antennae for a bit longer than normal.

The carved pumpkin.

Catching Up

Here's what we've been up to the last couple of weeks.

Baking cookies. Doesn't she look pitiful. I think she was on the verge of getting sick. As a result I got to finish cutting out and decorating the cookies.

Watching the backhoe (a new favorite word) take out a tree and dig trenches for the septic lines.

I thought it would be more fun for Hannah to paint her pumpkin than watch me carve it. With all of the coloring that has been going on on the walls I thought painting would be right up her alley. I guess not. It must be more fun to do art on things that aren't supposed to have art on them. Paint doesn't seem to be her thing and she ended up watching me paint. So, before it dried I washed it off and decided to carve it.

Hannah thinking about helping carve the pumpkin. When I got the top off her first response was "yucky." It's a good thing we had Hannah because I must have been becoming a boring adult. The last time I carved pumpkins was with my college roommate and it had been a really long time before that. I guess having kids allows you to keep being a kid!

Stay tuned for the carved pumpkin all aglow and Hannah dressed up (if I'm lucky).

It's A.....

Girl! We had our ultrasound today and found out we are having another girl. I always thought it would be fun to have a sister. Ben had it right and I was sure it was a boy. Anyway we are still due on March 20th. Don't get too excited about the date. It is +/- 2 weeks. As we went along there were times I could see all 4 chambers of the heart (very cool!) and Ben thought it was at times like watching static on TV.

This picture is honestly the only one worth sharing and it's still not that great. This is a picture of her face with her forehead being to the left of the word "face" and her chin to the right. Her body is headed out of the picture to the right. Kinda looks like a picture just in time for Halloween. They couldn't get the 3-D pictures to work and that's fine with me. They freak me out a little bit.

We are pretty sure everything looks good. The ultrasound tech really isn't the expert (or at least claims not to be) so the final "good to go" will come from the doctor next month.

FYI: To make things a bit more exciting since this is the second pregnancy the name (when we finally agree for sure) will be kept a secret until she's born. So, don't even try to pry it out because it won't be worth your time! :)

Farm Girl

All dressed up and ready to do chores. She does still smile but I think she's becoming a bit camera shy.

Things yet to be done:

1. Preg-check cows and vaccinate everyone.

2. Replace the septic lines (again).

3. Attend several fall get-togethers.

4. Get Hannah's picture taken. It's been way too long!

Craziness

Things have been busy around here since my last post.

Thursday of last week we brought home our cows and calves. I was thankful to make it in two loads because I was tired and Hannah hates riding around in the cruddy car seat I bought for the trailer pulling pickup ("The Ford"). The last load was a tight squeeze but we got every one in. It was a slow heavy trip home.

They were all glad to be home but Friday I weaned the calves in the corrals and Ben moved the cows to the pasture right by our bedroom window. I think he had some logic behind that but I couldn't quite remember what it was that night when I was trying to sleep. The cows were ready for their calves to nurse and the calves wanted their Moms. Who can blame them? Needless to say he got to sleep by himself and I went to a more quite room in the house. Light sleeping Mommies don't do well with constant loud noises 20 feet from their bedroom window!

Definition: We-generally refers to Hannah and her Mommy. Her Daddy has been very busy while local farmers work to get 3rd and 4th cuttings of alfalfa out of the field and into barns before the weather gets too bad.

We finished up with the wheel lines on the alfalfa field for the year and they are waiting to be tied down for the winter. We also flood irrigated the pasture for the last time. It was the most challenging irrigation yet with the pump plugging up almost constantly and the irrigation district not having enough time to help keep it cleaned out. Hannah and I spent quite a bit of time out there keeping it running. I guess that's why I get paid the big bucks! :)

Yesterday we sorted the calves. After decisions were made about who to sell, who to keep as replacement heifers, who to keep to eat, and should I really leave the bull calf a bull, I had a load ready. The brand inspector came by for a quick inspection and our paper work was in order to take the calves to the livestock auction.

So today was the "big" trip to the sale. After breakfast we staked the wheel lines back down because they came loose in the wind yesterday. Then we backed the trailer up the loading ramp. I'm pretty adept at backing up a trailer but to get it in this location is no small feat for me. Hannah played in the pickup while I sorted the "calf kept to eat" off from the others and loaded them in the trailer. Calves are young and dumb and for some reason tend to load up really well for me...thankfully. On our way to the sale we ran across the valley to "The Westside" and pulled a hay sample (another one of my jobs) and then ran it back to the post office.

Now it was finally time to head up the highway. Hannah was already acting like she needed a nap so I knew this could be a "fun" trip to town. We got to the livestock yard and got the calves unloaded and the trailer unhooked. Every time I pull the trailer I find one more driver on the road that really shouldn't have a license. Today was no exception. We ran into town to do a few things, got lunch to go, went back to get the trailer and headed home.

I'm almost done (for awhile)...I think. I have two registered calves to get weighed soon and cows to preg-check at some point. There's one other project we have been working on but I want to wait until I'm done and have pictures before I say much more.