Brrrr!

Unless you are hibernating you know that the Midwest

has had one nasty snowstorm named Ion.

These pictures were taken before the brunt of the storm.

The wind was blowing the snow so hard at times you couldn't see this

tree line which is about 250 feet from the house.

This was before the wind kicked up and blew all the snow off the railings.

Since it was so nasty outside we decided to try a new recipe.

Homemade Oreos.

They turned out pretty good and we think we'll try making them again.

One of the cows heading to the ditch for a drink before it got real nasty.

The drifts on the porch before the wind picked up.

Even had some snow hanging over the roof in spots.

Casey's new doghouse.  Thankfully it's insulated...

and yes that's Puppy-cat's tail.

He sleeps in there with the dog.

I suppose they keep each other a little warmer.

Actually she's plenty warm with a nice think layer of straw inside...

and the kitty-cat heating blanket!

Looking east at the field behind the house.

You can barely see the old Christmas tree

patch just to the right of the downspout.

That's about half a mile.

More snow drifts before the wind blew it around.

This morning we woke to -11 and this beautiful sundog.

Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

We had a very relaxing Christmas day.

We did all of our family traditions.

We loaded up on candy... because we could.

This year we found all sorts of chocolate things Connor could eat.

Here you see the rarely seen and shy mother Kiss caring for her young...

I couldn't resist taking this picture.

When I was younger, I got a large Hershey's Kiss every Christmas.

We discovered Connor could have them and got one for each boy.

The boys sporting their new flannel shirts from Grandma Knapp.

Log Cabin and Stalactites

What do log cabins and stalactites have in common?

Absolutely nothing except for sharing this blog post. :)

A few years ago we made a ginger bread house from scratch.

That's right, walls, roof pieces, all of it.

It was fun but I wanted something a little easier this year.

Graham crackers are easier but Connor is allergic to them.

So we decided to make a log cabin out of pretzel rods and frosting.

I'm going to spill the beans about the ones you see on Pinterest.

Most of them use milk cartons for a base and glue the rods in place.

That's cheating.  I want the option of being able to eat every piece!

It was fun to make but I think next year we will go back to real gingerbread!

I'm glad we kept all of the pattern pieces!

Nolan has been studying caves and other geological wonders God has made.

One of Nolan's science experiments is to grow stalactites!

How fun!!!

It's supposed to take more than a week.

What better time to do this than Christmas break!

We'll try to remember to post more pictures as they grow. 

The boys were also working on some bas-relief (baw-ree-leef) art projects.

They will paint them in a few days when they dry.