New Years

New Years was quiet this year. My brother Tyler in California went into the hospital on Christmas Eve, so my Dad flew out the day after Christmas to be with him. Then Mom and Cody flew out on Friday. So it was just Owen and Ashley and us around. NYE was a Saturday night anyway, so we decided against a party. So these pictures are just around New Years. 

(Tyler is perfectly fine now and Mom and Dad had a teensy vacation! So it all worked out!)

Owen riling the kids up by stealing Orianna's knitting bag. They so love to be outraged and riled up by Uncle Owen. 

We hope he is pretty much recovered from his appendicitis. Otherwise, he might suffer a relapse from having a lot of kids hanging off him. 

Ashley made sugar cookies for the kids to decorate. They adored them and all their brightness!

Our New Year's Eve Party. Bird Bingo. 

Elsie jumped up and down every time Daddy called one she had.

Side note--have you met our light yet? This is a pretty bad picture of it. My aunt gave it to us a few years ago when they were moving and needed to downsize "stuff." I hung in our basement for a few years getting covered in sawdust. As the days got darker earlier, we realized we had no light for our table, so.... we put this one to use! It has a marvelous 1970's vibe that fits in nicely with our single wide paradise. 

Bug Bingo is gorgeous. And the kids love it. 

My New Year's Eve--making crepes and finishing a library book.  Do you like my Jackson Pollack crepes? I am not the best crepe maker. But I feel more confident about crepes now that I have actually done them. There was a lot of trial and error this night. I was making a crepe cake for potluck the next day. I finished crepes at 11:40 when I decided my crepe cake was tall enough and dumped out the rest of the batter. 

Because I am still young enough to stay up until midnight. But I am definitely old enough to go to sleep by 12:05. 

I had just brought my camera in from the cold, so the lens was foggy. But I love this picture of the two Allies laughing together.

More sedate Allies

Hoyt was being a bull.

Abilene in her ruffle-y skirt with Orianna. 

Ashley bought a kit of gingerbread houses. So we spend New Year's Day evening making gingerbread houses. 

The grown ups played Blokus

Lily's house

Orianna hard at work.

The grown ups progressed to Progressive Rummy. 

The kids were still working at their houses.

Lily's house with icicles 

They were quite delighted by the final result.

Abilene reading Grandma's bible. Isn't she adorable? 

When she came in to meeting that morning, she was grinning to beat the band--pleased as punch to see everyone!

We love her. And her skirt.

Last day of break morning!

A good way to spend it!

Dominion. With a wolf guarding the estate cards.

Elsie was busy while we were playing our game.

Daisy girl

Owen feeding cows

The kids wanted to help feed cows, but with round bales, it isn't really safe for them to go with Owen. So we took the Suburban on a field trip. (Get it? FIELD trip. I am a riot.)

Owen

Dad got home from California the day after New Years. The kids were quite excited to see him!

Dad and Owen talking

Beauty keeping an eye on things

Dad getting the mail. 

(Because we weren't very good about getting the mail while he was gone.... Oops!)

Halloween. And some other things.

I like posting things in the proper order. However, when I didn't have a computer, my pictures were downloaded to several different computers. And some insistant people want pictures of the kids on Halloween. So I am just going to put up a few pictures and ta-da! They will be recent. 

Abilene was a charming old lady. She was so adorable. 

All the kids! 

Being fabulous

Isn't Abilene the cutest little old lady ever? She really got into the part by being slightly grumpy from not napping and then promptly falling asleep. 

Tori and Ashley came trick or treating with us! 

Trick or treating at the funeral home. I was a little leary about the candy--I mean if those people want job security....

At this point, Abilene was very concerned about the lack of napping in her life. 

Halfway through trick or treating. We went a little early this year and actually got home before it was full dark. I was apologizing at the first few houses, but I was quite pleased to be done before dark. 

I love these boys! 

These three pictures are all the pictures I have of this entire past weekend. Lindsey is home, Clover and Evan were up, it was union meeting, and I sprained my ankle. Somehow it all conspired to make me not picture-takey. 

Saturday morning, we went on a quick trip to Martin's Store for various things. (I bought a little gold bell in the shape of a lady.) On the way home, we realized it was the local craft fair. I was just going to run in, and the next thing we knew, we had spent a full hour and a half there. It was a lovely girls shopping trip. And we got all kinds of fun things that I didn't take pictures of. 

Just believe me--it was great. 

Being a kid in November--pushing strollers with rock babies into mud puddles and trying to jump over little muddy spots. 

Abilene all suited up for a walk! 

Turkey's and frosty fields. 

This flock has about 30 birds and hangs out on one particular stretch of road on the way to work. I almost always see them coming or going. 

This morning I had to stop by Mom and Dad's to pick up my laptop computer cord and while I was there, the cows came rampaging onto the lawn. So I got in on some cow catching. 

As in, I drove the suburban over there and prevented the cows from running back onto the lawn. Vital, I am sure. Still, there were a lot of beautiful early morning sun on the cows pictures to take. So I focused on that. 

The sun was just right for making everything slightly dramatic looking.