Wow! So much for filling you in on Monday, eh?


Well, Charlie brought the tree into the house on Friday night. Which was a good thing, because it snowed quite a bit that night. Later on Saturday, Charlie put the tree up on and Kaila and I decorated it while Blake observed for a while. Come to find out, the tree is actually crooked. Not just a little crooked either. There is only one angle where it looks half way decent. It is a blue spruce, which is my tree of choice. I love the short needles and tighter branches. It seems like you can put more ornaments on there and they can also be heavier. My whole family has informed me that next year they want colored lights. Oh, the groaning that came out of their mouths when they saw the clear lights!




Besides getting the tree decorated, I also made homemade bologna with deer meat, baked white bread and honey wheat breads, and made four pounds of deer jerky. It all turned out pretty well. The jerky is slightly sweet, but is yummy anyway. It's the way I like it. It seemed like I spent a lot of time in the kitchen.

Charlie worked on the basement. We have a little issue with the previous owners never removing the forms in the basement floor prior to pouring the next batch of concrete. The house is fairly old, so as you may imagine the wood (forms) rotted and water seeps into the basement. While he was working on the basement, we discussed our plans for it. It does have potential as soon as it's dry.


Charlie also installed a locking door on my scraproom. This will help for the Christmas season (wink! wink!) and also it will allow the heat from my space heater to remain in that enclosed area. I tested it last night and it works VERY well.


This week has been busy...big surprise! I helped with Kaila's Kindergarten Brunch on Monday, followed by shopping. Then, on Tuesday I received a shot in my elbow (tendanitis), which is always lovely. Hey! At least I didn't almost pass out this time. Again, I followed that up with shopping. I have never shopped so much for the Christmas season. It's very tiring. I don't recommend it. In fact, I normally purchase most of my gifts online. In hindsight, I find that to be the way to go. It's less stressful. I'm also fairly certain that I spend less money that way. The children are loaded up this year. I'm going to have to reevaluate my strategy next year. I have a ton of wrapping to do, not to mention I still have to take a trip to Wal-Mart tonight.


On today's list is the usual cleaning, cooking, laundry and maybe...maybe some packing.


I better get to gettin'!


Thanks for stopping by!


Shawn

Here are the Kraynak's photos that I promised you.

These first two photos are significant, because this was Nick's last year of having to endure the trip to Kraynak's. By this year, Nick was more than ready to head out into the woods to procure some much needed meat for the family. However, according to Lahr Law, he is not old enough for the trip to camp. Next year is his big year! He can not wait! In this first photo, I told Tyler and Nick to show me their, "I'd rather be hunting!" faces. In the second photo, the kids are showing me their, "I'm going hunting!" faces. Too hysterical!

2009 Lahr Christmas Photo - how cute are we? These types of photos are so few and far between - very rare for us, but nice.

I decided today would be an ideal day to eat lunch with Kaila. We had Christmas dinner, which consisted of pumpkin cake, mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey, green beans, peaches, bread/butter and chocolate milk. YUMMO! Quite impressive indeed. I always get a kick out of the little darlings.

I went and picked up the Christmas tree today. This is the first year that I have gone by myself and gotten the tree. I had to walk pretty far back into the fields to choose the tree, tag it and walk back. Luckily, a nice dog (owner's dog) came with me to keep me company. I can't wait to put it up tomorrow and decorate it. To me, it doesn't feel like Christmas until the tree is up.

Upon my return to our home, I proceeded to grind up our deer burger and made 4 pounds of jerky and 4 pounds of sandwich bologna. Once that was completed, I made homemade pizza while chatting with my dear friend, Charlene. I wasn't able to see her this week until today and frankly, I miss her when we don't get to chat a little. So, that was nice.

After dinner, Charlie and I discussed for hours the plans we have to remodel this house. I informed him of his priorities :) I think sometimes he forgets what needs to be done in which order. Communication is key. We're on the same page and it was nice to dream a little.

I have big plans for a productive weekend. I'll fill you in on my impending success on Monday.

Thanks for stopping by!

Shawn

Here are the mighty hunters. Poor Blake didn't get anything, but the other two went back out and got 5 squirrels. There will be other days for Blake to have success.

Thanksgiving was delightful. The food was fantastic, as usual. We really put a hurtin' on the food, let me tell you! I controlled myself as well as can be expected with all of that deliciousness surrounding me :)

We travelled to Hermitage, PA on Monday for our annual trip to Kraynak's. The kids weren't as into as they have been in years past. They were all looking forward to lunch at Arby's. They played with the trains there, but weren't too disappointed we left to go to the dollar store.

After we ate, we all went our separate ways. I dragged my kids to several different stores to get some ideas for what they want for Christmas. I'm still clueless as to what the boys prefer, but Kaila's easy :)

For those of you who are dying to know...my kids LOVED New Moon! Or should I say, the boys did at the very least? Kaila liked it, but not as much as the boys. She has decided she is on Team Jacob. He's cute and dark, she said. LOL! He's closer to her age anyway :) I am dying for the next enstallment due out in June 2010. The boys said, "We have GOT to get that movie!" Really? I will take that under advisement...

Charlie was able to shoot a deer, so we have more deer meat - wahoooooo! That really makes Blake happy, because that is his favorite and he will ALWAYS eat it.

We are currently gearing up for Christmas. We have gifts to buy, the tree to choose and cookies to bake. Before you know it, it will be 2010! I'm looking forward to celebrating Jesus' birth.

I'll post some photos of Kraynak's later. They're on the other computer :(

Thanks for popping in!

Shawn

I had the pleasure of viewing the New Moon movie early Friday morning for their midnight showing with a couple friends. It was AWESOME!!! I can't wait to see it again. I'm thrilled and anxious for the third installment in June.

I have an adorable layout of my darling son, Blake to share with you. The sketch is on my other website - http://www.nutsaboutsketches.blogspot.com/




The boys are all out squirrel hunting. It's Blake's first time and I'm not sure how he's going to like it. He doesn't even like to eat squirrel! I'm hoping he gets something to spark his interest in hunting more. They all look so handsome in their hunting gear ;)


My darling daughter, Kaila is with Aunt Cathy painting the town red I'm sure. She loves going over there and has looked forward to it for a week.

I'm getting ready to do a little shopping. The shopping I should have done yesterday, but I slept 'til one o'clock after my night out at the movie.

So, I'm off.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope to have some hunting photos to show you later.

Shawn

Neilon Daily Alexander - 1928 - 2009

May you rest in peace and find your place in heaven. You are already greatly missed...

Halloween Festivities - carving pumpkins at Grandma's and trick or treating. The kids were exhausted by the time we were able to make it to Grandma's to carve our $2 Wal-Mart pumpkins. They did a good job and really looked forward to the roasted pumpkin seeds from the pumpkins. I had never made them before, but my MIL told me how and I did it the next day. The kids have already put a hurtin' on the bag of seeds and I have to admit that I've had a few as well :)




















Nick decided not to trick or treat this year, which he has since figured out was a bad decision. You see, if you don't go trick or treating...there is next to no candy for you :( I think he's already choosing what to be for next year. Kaila was a Bratz Pirate and Blake was the Grim Reeper.

Are you looking for a great Fall scrapbooking kit? Well, The Scrapping Spot has put together another gorgeous kit that's just gone up for sale. Zip over there and get one before they're gone. And for some beautiful layouts created using this kit, visit the forum for the November Design Team.






Thanks for stopping by!

Shawn

Check it out! These are the grandkids on the Lahr side with Grandma on her birthday. It's safe to say that it's difficult to get 8 kids to cooperate all at the same time. This is the best one I was able to get.

These are a couple recent layouts. It is so sparkly clean! - is one of my sketches. Peach Cobbler - is a sketch from Pagemaps.com.

Here are a couple photos taken when we went to Noah's Lost Ark with Charlene and Kyle. It was so great! I can't wait for our next adventure...hint! Hint, Charlene! :)

On to the eggs of it all! This bucket, complete with a paper towel and dryer sheets, is what the kids use to collect the eggs. On this particular day, the White Rock chickens decided to start laying thier eggs on the hay bail that we use to feed the cows. I think it was lucky that Charlie caught them in the act, because really...who's gonna look there??? We finally had a large egg that had triplets - see photo. I believe that Nick ate that one. Talk about excitement in the household! It was very cool.

The picture of Blake is showing the difference in the size of eggs from the Rhode Island Reds (left) and the White Rocks (right).

And lastly, we have the darling little ones with their Rock Star attitude going on. They had a slightly different party at school. Instead of the usual Halloween party, the school took a day, or part of the day to study geology. The kids had a great time and did get some candy, for which they were grateful. Obviously, they were allowed to dress all Rock Starry :)

Birthdays...getting older...Kaila...WOW! I can not believe that 6 years ago I was on my way to the hospital to deliver this lovely girl. It blows my mind how fast the time has gone. Kaila chose chicken wings, cookies 'n cream ice cream and strawberry cake (if anybody will eat it, she said) for her birthday dinner. She received a Yorkie in a bag (as she says), a nail/tattoo craft kit, magic wand, tierra and a ballerina dress from us. She also got her first Webkinz from Grandma/Grandpa Stiles. She received all of her other gifts at the big birthday party in August.

Here are some layouts I created for October THAW over at Willow Traders. There are some great challenges over there. We have a lot of fun and get quite a few layouts completed. The "sparklers" layout was created using a Pagemaps sketch.






I have created a message board for my sketch site. It's a place to display your NAS layouts and just to chat. So, if you get a chance, zip over and say, "Hi!"

We don't have a lot going on this weekend, which is nice. I hope to get to scrap with my good friend, Angelina tomorrow night. I always look forward to that.

Thanks for popping over!

Shawn