Babies Everywhere!

Yesterday morning I followed Chris out the back door as he was leaving for work because I was going to go feed the sheep.  As he made the turn for the front of the house, I heard a very distinct noise.  I said, "Chris, we have babies!"  His response, "I don't think so.  I didn't hear anything."  "No, we do.  I heard one."  He came back around and we look out to the sheep pen, and sure enough, I was right!! HA! :)

We walked out there and there were 4! We didn't have any jugs built yet (a much smaller pen to put the ewe and lamb(s) in so they can bond for 3-5 days before being put back out into the main pen).  We quickly put a few jugs together and Chris left for work and I had to get the ewes in their jugs with their babies and make sure they were all eating.  So, here I am, out there in my pajama pants, a pullover, and my boots trying to get everything put together.  I'm sure the lady across the street was probably laughing at me.

The set of twins was brand new, barely able to get up, so I kept an eye on them throughout the day to make sure they were eating.  One single was already dry and full and running around the pen.  And the other single, well, he's just stupid.  The ewe is a yearling, so this is her first baby.  So the combination of a stupid baby and a yearling ewe is always frustrating, to say the least.  I had to tie up the ewe, and force the baby to eat.  I milked some colostrum out of her, so in case she was crazy or the baby wouldn't latch, we could either bottle feed or tube him if we had to.  Plus, it's always a good idea to have extra colostrum on hand in case a ewe dies or doesn't have any.  Colostrum is soooo important.  So full of antibodies that the babies neeeed in order to really have chance to survive.

So, finally got the stupid baby full between him eating off the bottle and nursing off his mom.  When he tries to nurse when the ewe is not tied up, she just moves around, so it may take a few days before they both get the hang of it, lets just hope that he doesn't turn into a bottle baby!  We were out there last night at 11 making him eat and back out there again this morning around 5.  When I went out at 9:30 to check on him, his belly was pretty full.  So hopefully they are starting to get the hang of it.

I love the little babies.  So cute.

Even though he is a little stupid, isn't he cute?!

DJ spent the day hear yesterday, and was excited to see the baby sheep!

This boy loves to color!  I have some sidewalk chalk that he loves to play with, so that's what he wanted to do when he woke up from his nap.  It was a little chilly outside, so I pulled out my hunting hat and made him wear it.  This boy has giant head, no kidding, and my hat fit him.  The chin straps were a little long but the head part fit. But he looks pretty darn cute in it.

He was helping me feed and water the new moms. (well he was playing with bailing twine in the bed of the truck & I was feeding)

Hope you all have a fabulous New Year's Eve.  We are heading to my aunt and uncle's house to see my cousins that I haven't seen since last Christmas.  Pretty excited!

Linking up to Farmchick's Farm Photo Friday! 

Stone ages...no more!

In the 7 months that we have been married, we have not watched a single movie on DVD.  Not because we didn't have a DVD player, but because the TWO that we had, didn't work.  I have watched some Redbox movies on my computer, but that just isn't much fun.  My workouts are done in front of my laptop that sits on the couch.  High-class and high-tech, that's what we are. 

Last month my parents asked what they could get us for Christmas...A DVD PLAYER!!  They chose to get us a gift card to Best Buy.  Perfect!!  I love gift cards.  

Tonight we made the 25 minute trek to Best Buy.  Now, neither of us really know anything about this type of technology.  I wasn't in the mindset to have a sales guy try and talk me into the $900 blue ray player that could cook you dinner and mop your floors and play a move at the same time.  As enticing as that sounds, the gift card was for less than $900.  I lied.  I probably would pay that much for something that made dinner and mopped my floors.  I called my brother in law, who is the techno guru in the family.  By a million miles.  He explained to us different options, dvd player vs blue ray vs streaming whatever.  I kind of understood.

Got into Best Buy.  Looked around.  Had NO idea what we were looking at.  We are pathetic.  I know.

Found a sales guy, and he was probably the most helpful person I've ever met it a big chain store like that.  Home Depot is the worst!!  There was no pushing of which ones to buy, just explaining the benefits of certain aspects and the differences between different machines.  It was actually kind of nice.  It's always nice when I don't get irritated.  :)

We ended up leaving the store with a blue ray player that will hook up to our wi-fi, play 3-d movies (if we ever get a 3-d tv), and can stream movies and shows off of Netflix, Hulu and like a bajillion other companies that you can use view stuff on your tv.  It even says it hooks up to facebook.  Don't know how, nor do I really care.  Now this machine can probably do more things than I will EVER understand, but hey, it's time to get out of the stone ages.  

We ended up getting the player, the hook up cord, and 2 movies that were on sale (Blazing Saddles & Sandlot) (they were Chris's choices) and we only had to pay $17.  Pretty amazing!

So thanks mom & dad for our new blue ray player.  Now I just have to figure out how to use it :)

Good TImes!

So I spent last Thursday with an amazing person that I have known for a long time and am so happy to be able to call her a great friend!

Dana {pronounced 'Dan-uh', nont "Dane-uh') :) and I go waaaay back.  She married the son of good family friends & her husband was my preschool Sunday School teacher.  Or something like that.  Anyways, you get the idea.  They then had 4 a.m.a.z.i.n.g. children whom I have babysat since their second child was very young (he is now 13).  Yikes!  Their kids are the most hard working, respectful, sweetest kids you will ever meet.  We spent a lot of time together while I was in high school.  I loved when they had date nights because I was able to hang out with her kids & then when they got home, Dana and I would sit and catch up while Mike slept on the couch :).  Dana was also our wedding coordinator, and let me tell you, she rocked it!  Could NOT have done it without her!

Dana and I hadn't seen each other since the wedding.  I made the trip to Modesto to hang out with her and the kids on Thursday & we had a great time addressing her Christmas cards & decorating cookies.  Later in the day her and I went shopping and out to dinner.  It was great to catch up and just hang out & enjoy amazing Thai food.

Thanks for letting me come hang out for the day, Dana.  It was great to get out of the house & hang out with you guys.  We need to not wait 7 months for the next visit! :)

Cookies, Pies & Bread. Oh my!

Wow, 2 weeks.  That's pretty lame.  Especially around Christmas when there is so much going on that I could be sharing.  Lots of stuff I want to share, just haven't had the time I guess.  I made some of the Christmas gifts this year, so I want to share those as well.  

Last Wednesday, my good friend Kelsey (also one of my bridesmaids) came over to do some Christmas baking.  Chris's work potluck was on Thursday and he volunteered {me} to bring 2 apple pies.  So that was on my list.  I wanted to bake some cookies to take to my parents house for Christmas & I was heading to a good friends house the next day so I wanted to take her and her family some zucchini bread.  We didn't get started till the afternoon because Chris had my car keys, so I couldn't make the last minute run to Wal Mart to get the last of the supplies.  We got a late start.  Oh well.  

Kels reading the recipe

Slicing apples for the apple pie while I was making the crust

2 finished apple pies.  Whew.

It was a fun day.  It had been a while since we had hung out.  It was long overdue!  

I was lame and didn't take pictures of all the cookies we made.  But trust me.  The kitchen was covered.  

Thanks for coming over Kels! 

Seasons change

EDIT:  The app sucks!  You can't adjust the size of the pictures, can't change the font, color or size.  So really, the post comes out all kinds of messed up.  Don't use it.  I've already deleted it off my phone.  Just FYI.

First, I'm using the new app I downloaded on my phone. It's the blogger app, so we will see how easy it is to post pictures and such.

With a couple of really hard freezes, the vines are looking pretty sad, about a month earlier than usual.

Way back when, the vines were all pretty and nice and now they look like this.

Welome to the world!!

Our very good friends Darrel and Jamie are the parents of this sweet boy.  Last March, they announced that Jamie was due in December.  Last Saturday night, I had the privilege of being in her delivery room to welcome miss Shyanne Elizabeth to the world!

Stats: 8 lbs 9 oz 20" long.  She is perfectly healthy and Jamie was in labor for only 3 hours.  Amazing!  She is so sweet and looks just like DJ when he was born.

Here she is!

Mom & Baby

Sucking her thumb

Daddy holding Shyanne for the first time

Grandma meeting her first granddaughter

I got home from the hospital around 1:30 Sunday morning.  Got some sleep and then Darrel brought this little munchkin over to hang out with us until they were able to bring Shyanne home from the hospital.

We absolutely love him!

DJ & I before we headed out to dinner

After dinner we got the phone call that they had made it home, so we gathered his stuff and headed over there.  Thank goodness it takes about 2 minutes to drive to their house because DJ was sooo excited to see his mommy and daddy, he couldn't hardly hold still in his carseat.  He was so concerned the whole time they were gone because as we showed him pictures of his baby sister, he saw the IV's in mommy's hand and thought she was hurt.  He is so tender hearted, it's so sweet.

DJ meeting Shyanne for the first time.  He's still not too sure about her, but he'll get there.

Chris holding Shyanne.  I think it looks good on him ;) 

Our Barn Owls

When we moved in back in May, we noticed the pair of barn owls that live in our, well...barn.  Go figure.  Anyways, they are amazing at keeping our mice population down out there.  When we walk out there, the ground crunches with mice skeletons with every step you make.  It's kinda nasty, but I'd rather it be the bones than the actual mice running around by my feet!

I was working out there the other day, cleaning more crap out, so I decided to take pictures of them before they flew out.

There are two, but one of them is kind of bashful

Anyone know how to the tell the difference between male and female owls?

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like...

CHRISTMAS!! 

I love this time of year.  The smells, the decorations, the family time.  Let me tell you, it's a lot easier living out in the country this time of year.  There is no crazy traffic and insane drivers out here trying to get to the mall for the newest, lastest and greatest item.

I made a comment to Chris last night when the Ove Glove commercial came on.  "It's not Christmas season until they start advertising the Ove Glove, Chia Pet or Salad Shooter."  Cha Cha Cha CHIA!

My family has always had an artificial tree.  And that's great with me because of the meaning behind the one that my family has.  Chris always used to go cut down his tree.  That's cool too.  So for our first Christmas tree, we went and cut one down, Sunday afternoon.  I had never done it before, so I was looking forward to it.  

Took us a while to find the perfect tree.  We don't have a whole lot of space in our living room, so we couldn't get a super fat one and we had to make sure it wasn't too tall either.

Regular ol'(d) lumberjack, ain't he? :)

We took Mallie with us.  She needs to socialize with other people.  She's doing halfway decent on a leash, however she thinks it's more fun to chew on the leash than to walk on it.  She was the hit of the Christmas tree farm!  We were walking out to pay for our tree and I looked down and noticed that she had found her own Christmas tree.  It was too funny and the people that walked by were laughing at her.

She will pick anything up.  Her favorite is sheep turds.  Scrumptious.

We went out to dinner when we got home and were set to put up the Christmas tree Monday night.  

One good thing about having a barn full of crap that the previous owners left is that you find good stuff too.  There was an old tree stand out there so that saved us $20!

I love the way it makes our house smell!

Thanks to Chris's aunt, she saved us a butt-load of money and gave us 5 strands of Christmas lights.  Holy cow those suckers are expensive!  I will hit up the after-Christmas sales to stock up for next year!

Tonight I put the last 2 strands around our front windows.  That's all we have enough for this year, and it's perfect...until next year.

Hope you all are remembering the real reason for this season.  It's way more important than an gift you can give or any piece of decoration you can put up.

Oh Pinterest...

I am probably the least crafty person you will ever know.  Sometimes if I see something, I can recreate it.  Sometimes.  But I can never just pull an idea out of my butt and turn that idea into something cool.  Now, my sister is miss crafty.  And thank goodness she is because if I just keep pinning stuff on Pinterest that I want, then maybe she'll keep making stuff for me.  K, Erin?  

While we were in AZ I was given my birthday presents early, so we could celebrate as a family.  A few weeks ago, I repinned something off of my sister's board, onto mine and she noticed.  Like I said before, if I just keep doing this, maybe I'll get the same result :)

This is what I pinned.

And this is what Erin made me

  

I l.o.v.e. it!  We hung it in our entry way and it looks awesome.  

Since we are on a tight budget this holiday season, we are a little short on Christmas decor.  I saw this wreath on Pinterest the other day.  Couldn't count on Erin to make it for me since we won't see them till after Christmas. :) So I headed to the lovely Dollar Store yesterday and bought the supplies.  Lots and lots of Christmas ball ornaments.  Big ones, small ones, glittery ones and ones that jingle.

I picked up our friend's little boy from day care today and when we came back to the house, I decided I wanted to work on my project.  I opened the trunk of my car to get the supplies out and DJ yells, 'CHRISTMAS!'  I wish you could have heard it.  It was adorable.

Here's my little helper

He kept putting the balls back in the plastic containers them dumping them out and saying "Christmas, Christmas trees."  I love him.  

The beginnings of my project.

And the finished product!

I knew I never should have joined Pinterest.  I'm hooked.  

Handy-man? Nope, Handy-woman!

Well, part of buying an older home with a lot of 'originals' is that some are easy to replace and some, not so much.  This was an easy one.

About a month before our wedding, our friends/Chris's former employer/our vet gave us an extra shower head (a new one) that they had from when they remodeled their bathroom.  It has been sitting in our cupboard for a while and I totally forgot about it until our trip to AZ last week.  AZ has some crazy water conservation laws, and the shower head that is in my sister's new home is...well...very low flow.  And with my incredibly thick, curly hair, it took a while to even get it wet.  This reminded me that we had a brand new shower head sitting in our bathroom cupboard that hadn't been installed yet.  I decided that that was going to be my project for Monday.

Old showerhead...

Typical shower head.  Flow and pressure was decent, but it was old and we have really hard water out here so it was all corroded. 

Now, I've never done any type of plumbing work by myself, so I was just hoping for the best.  

This is what I ended up with...

Then of course I had to take a shower that afternoon to try it out.  

Quite wonderful!!

Thanksgiving Trip

We hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  

Ours was fast but enjoyable.  We made a trip to AZ to see my sister, brother in law and two nephews.  My parents were there too.  Left Wednesday, came back Sunday.  Not a whole lot of words this time, but lots of pictures.  

In RANDOM order...

G wearing 'Oh Kiss's' hat (Uncle Chris) We kept laughing cuz it almost sounds like he is saying "Old Chris"

Mallie did soooo good in the car.  Slept almost the whole way...both ways

My dad & G in the Milo field across from their house

Baby S all wrapped up

G & Chris holding hands in Wal Mart.  So cute! 

We went out to dinner for mine & my dad's early b-day.  Mongolian food.   So yummy.  They had a cardboard cut out in front.  G & Chris had fun in it.

He just stood behind there and kept smiling.  Even when we weren't taking pictures of him.

More to come tomorrow! 

DIY?? Who me???

Sitting here enjoying a peach margarita after a fun, successful day.

Started off with us taking a ewe lamb to the sales yard.  She just didn't make the cut & with feed prices so high, we can't settle for "I like parts of her".

I was talking to my dad yesterday and he asked what my plans were for Saturday.  I told him I didn't really have any plans and Chris was going hunting for most of the day.  He suggested that we do something together since my mom is in AZ with my sister and sweet baby Sawyer.  I suggested that he come down (a 2 hr drive) and help me with a project that I saw on Pinterest.  I told myself I would never join that site because I didn't need another excuse to sit in front of the computer.  I caved on Friday.  SO many good ideas!  He willingly agreed and he was going to be here sometime in the morning.

He got here about 10 this morning and we got to work.

These are the ideas that I saw on Pinterest, and knew we had to make something like this, this, or this.  If you don't have a Pinterest account, you may not be able to view the last 2.

We have so much extra wood behind our barn.  I had an idea of which wood I wanted to use, but my dad and I headed out there to take a look.  Amazingly enough we found what probably used to be an old barn door or something but it was pretty much already put together and we just had to cut it down to fit.  The color was nice, it had worn pretty evenly so there wasn't any bleached spots or really bad boards.  We hauled it over to shop and started working on it.

First, we had to remove some of the old nails so we could make it all the right size.

Then had to cut it down to the right size

Then nailed on the legs that were to be attached to our bed frame

(And for those of you who think I just stood around and watched, oh no.  This girl knows how to use a hammer.  When I was probably about 6 my parents bought me my first tool belt for Christmas.  Not one of those plastic play kinds either...a real one!  There are some fun pictures of a much, much younger me helping my dad add on a master bedroom to their house)

AND Taaaa Daaaaa...this is the final product.  I LOVE IT!!

My grandma was a very avid quilt maker.  She made quilts for everyone and I have at least 3 of hers that she made.  This one on our bed is the largest one I have from her and she made my sister and I one specifically for when we got married.  I love her quilts.  Reminds me of when we were growing up.

I love the rustic-ness of the headboard.  It fits well with our house and our room.

Thanks dad for coming down for the day and helping me with this project.  It was a great day!