All Gone

Both boys got personalized mugs from their Grandma Knapp for Christmas.

This is Connor's.

Most people who know us know that we have chickens and ducks.

This is our fourth year raising chickens and our first for ducks.

We truly enjoy our feathered friends.

Connor is our resident chicken whisperer.

When he's outside he almost always has a chicken in his arms...

even if we're trying to leave for town.

Sometimes I'll holler instructions as we go out the door for Connor

not to pick up a chicken because we're leaving.

Why do you need to pet a chicken when we're getting in the van?

(I guess it's just evidence of children.)

We've really enjoyed the ducks too.

It's fun to watch them play in the puddles when it's raining.

Meanwhile, all the chickens are under the carport watching the ducks as if they're crazy.

Not to mention that Connor can eat their eggs.

Unfortunately, our feathered friends have had a tragic ending.

Sunday, as we were leaving for church,

I opened the door to let the chickens out and

discovered there had been a chicken massacre.

My heart sank as I discovered more and more chicken/duck horror.

I'm glad the boys didn't discover it.

As I opened the back door we realized the varment that did it was still in there.

Pepper made a valiant effort to get the angry little critter.

It put up a good fight and ran under the chicken coop.

After a time of coaxing it from under the coop, it ran to Dwayne's car.

Of course it climbed up under the hood.

I'll make the long story short: the angry villain came to a timely end.

We thought it was a weasel but later learned it was a mink.

By the time we got the stinking mink (and it really did smell bad),

it was too late to make it to church.

Not to mention that we were all shocked and upset at loosing our entire flock.

All of them.  All gone.

That's a rooster, six hens, and two ducks.

Connor took it the hardest, which upset us even more.

Christmas

Christmas snuck up on me.

I knew it was coming and I thought I would be fine.

Then the crying started the morning of Christmas Eve.

I think I cried off and on for two days straight.

That's not how I wanted to spend Christmas.

I did enjoy the times between the tears.

I also realize that this was just how this Christmas was.

I needed to cry through it and that's OK.

I'm eternally grateful for the birth of our Savior.

That's what Christmas is about.

That will never change.

There is hope of a future without this sting of death.

No pain, no sorrow.

No more sin.

Just to be with Jesus.

Forever.

I can't wait.

~

So between the tears we enjoyed a visit to my mom's.

We enjoyed pizza and a movie.

Gifts and laughter.

Silly socks.

And pretty paintings.

***

Christmas morning we started with our tradition of reading about the greatest gift of all.

I didn't take many pictures.

Random

I'm guilty of not making a post in a while.

I don't like it when the blogs I read go a long time without a post.

So that's why this post is full of randomness.

I made anise cookies over the weekend.

This was my first failed baked batch.

It was at this moment that I realized I did not put the right amount of flour in the dough.

Oops.

I gently forcefully scraped the cookies from the pan.

I haven't had a batch like this in a long time.

(I've had many failures over the years trying to bake Connor safe cookies.)

Thankfully, all I had to do was add in some flour and all was well again.

I can't tell you how much we're enjoying using duck eggs to bake with.

Especially Connor.

He claims these are his new favorite cookies.

We even threw on some frosting!

Yes, we have cookie cutters in the shape of a foot.

Nothing says Christmas quite like a frosted foot.

We had a beautiful rainbow in the west.

Both my brother-in-law and my father-in-law called me to tell me.

They wanted to make sure the boys saw it.

The boys had been sick so I was letting them sleep in.

(It's awesome to have that flexibility when you homeschool.)

So I took pictures.

(OK, I would have taken pictures anyway.)

I'm diligently working on Nolan's quilt.

I'm not neglecting the house/boys too much...

Surprise

Over the weekend I finished quilting the bottom half of Nolan's quilt.

I'm celebrating the fact that this part is finally done.

I had a nice surprise when I rolled it.

I thought I was only half-way done.

Turns our that I'm almost done.

I only have some sashing, one row, and a border left to quilt...

basically the matching top portion of what you see here.

I can't tell you how excited I am to see that!

I'm guessing another month and I'll be done!!!

:)