Christmases...

Our first Christmas was with my family the day after we got back from Vegas - Tom and I had a case of jet-lag (if that's how you spell it)...It took us seven days to get (sort of) back on track. Vegas is only two hours behind us, but we had been going to bed at like 1 or 2 Vegas time which was 3 or 4 our time, so it was tough to get back on schedule. Dylan looked so handsome in his plaid and oddly he was in a great mood until he had to sit down and open his presents - he really could have cared less - he just wanted to be up and playing!!

Our second Christmas was on Christmas Eve with Miss Molly and Little Elsa - the girls looked so pretty in their (matching) Christmas dresses!! It was a long night and by the time we were done opening presents these little girls were pooped!

Happy Anniversary to us!!

Where is the only place you can go (as far as I know) and see the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, and the Pyramids all within a mile of each other?

Las Vegas of course! We had a fantastic Anniversary week! Thanks to Tom's aunt, who let us use her time-share, we were able to spend seven fun-filled days in Las Vegas, NV - our third trip there in the past three years! We took 537 pictures while we were there, and since I can't possibly put that many pictures on here, I chose a few of my favorites...*NOTE* Tom took the one of the waterfall and the gondolas below.

These pictures are from the wax museum...it was a lot of fun, especially since it was a museum where you could actually touch the figures - and take pictures with them...Notice in the middle picture, my husbands dirty mind....He insisted I put this one up...

The food in Vegas is fantastic! The first 3 pictures are from Toby Keith's Bar and Grill - we ate there twice while we were in Vegas. The top right hand picture is the deep fried twinkie (with strawberry topping and whipped cream) it was the best desert I have EVER tasted!!! The bottom middle was at a sports bar called Blondies - it was excellent, I would say the best meal we had (Pilly Cheese Steak Sandwhiches and Chilli Cheese Fries) - it doesn't look real appetizing in the picture, but it was great!

I apologize...

I am skipping ahead a couple weeks to this morning...yes, I have other posts I will be putting up from the last few weeks, but I don't feel like doing that just yet. The only thing I love more then waking up to a fresh blanket of frost is taking pictures of it. Quick note: After my initial disgust with the huge spider web on the side of our house - I thought it was pretty cool all frosted over, however, my favorite picture out of the ones I took today is either the Christmas wreath with the lights on it or the leaf.

Next, I have a little story about my cats....WARNING: If you have a weak stomach do not read the following paragraph.
I assume that those of you that are still reading this have read and understand my warning. Four (ish) weeks ago, (the night before deer season) I was sitting in bed watching t.v. and I heard a HUGE bang outside - Tom thought it was a poacher out early "getting the big buck" but I assumed it was a car hitting a deer...so, both of us in our pajamas get a flashlight and jump in the truck and drive about a quarter of a mile down the road and find nothing so turn around...we are turning back in our driveway when I notice a deer (a doe - not the big buck that Tom was going to get hunting the next day) in the ditch right by our driveway...well of course the next day is opening day so we (Tom) are too busy to move the deer so it stays there through the snow and ice storm until this week when it finally starts to thaw a little bit. I notice our cats are not as hungry as they usually are in fact they are no where to be found when I go out to feed them in the morning...So I am on my way home from work and as I am pulling into our driveway I sort of glance towards the deer and there is a big hole in the stomach - gross but not too bad, you kind of expect that other animals are going to start eating it....however, I did not expect to see three of our cats walk OUT of the hole in the stomach of the deer. Now that's gross!

25 years

Happy 25 years to my mom and dad on December 11th!! I love you guys!

When it rains, it pours....

I haven't posted anything for months and now all this sudden I post three times in one day...oh well, you take what you can get...Anyways, our Thanksgiving get-to-gethers gave me the opportunity to take some family/couple pictures...Here they are...Ann I will email yours tonight and if someone has Tony and Renee's email address I would love to have it! Thanks.

Also...

On Becky's website she said I might have some pictures of her first party in her dining room..I didn't get any pictures while everyone was there...the first two pictures are our game - time after everyone left and the last two are her dining room before everyone got there...it is absolutely gorgeous!! And I thought the Thanksgiving dinner (party) went very well - Thanks for having us!!

This one is for Becky..

Hey Becky! Here are a few of the pictures that I took last week, three of the best ones, but if you want to see all of them let me know and I will post them on here too..I messed with the one that I thought was the best, however, I still think you should use the one with Molly crying front and center, in a few years, you will look back and laugh even though it may not have been funny or fun at the time, haha! Anyways, if you aren't satisfied with these pictures I would be happy to take some more. Don't feel obligated since I took time to make a card out of the one (it only took me about ten minutes)...Anyways, let me know what you think and we will go from there...Thanks!

It's that time of year...

Christmas is here...well, at least it is at my house. I admit it, I am a Christmas fanatic...I am completely obsessed with the Holiday. Last year I decorated for Christmas the day before Halloween, but I didn't put any decorations up outside because I had nothing to decorate...This year, I waited a while (November 2nd) but I didn't put the outside decorations up until Monday the 12th. I was really excited because I have a huge porch to decorate...I lit the lights Monday night so I could see what it looked like in the dark (it looks awesome by the way)..but Tom said "you aren't seriously going to leave those lit, are you?"

"I was thinking about it, why?"
"we always used to make fun of people who had Christmas decorations out so early"

Soo...I unplugged the lights and went outside to pout, but soon forgot about my problems and harrassed my cats with my new laser pointer.

In keeping with the Christmas theme here, I was on the internet the other day, searching for A Christmas Story..If there is anything that I love more then the Christmas Holiday is the movie A Christmas Story..I have already watched it three times since Sunday. So anyways, I was searching google for anything a Christmas Story (I was making out my Christmas list) and I came across the actual house that they filmed the movie in. Turns out it has been turned into a museum (just opened last Thanksgiving) it has been renovated into what it looked like for the movie and the guy also bought a house across the street and turned it into a gift shop.

So, I told my husband that that is where I wanted to go on vacation this year - Cleveland, Ohio. I even told him that we could eat at the Chinese resturaunt where the Parkers had their Christmas dinner (hoping that would entice him since he loves Chinese) "Are you kidding me?" he says, "I hate that movie!"

How could anyone hate that movie?!?! Doesn't look like I'll get to go to Cleveland anytime soon.. :(

3 1/2 months

Finally after three and a half months I got Molly to be close enough to her sister to get a picture of them both (not crying)...It took a little begging, but when I asked nicely she said she would do it...I only got one without her sippy cup though, so it's a good thing niether of them blinked..

Relatives..

This past weekend, my husbands aunt, cousin and his cousins son came to visit. Cale is four months older then Molly and they were not at all too sure about each other. (I realized after I already had all the pictures up on this page that the "2nd cousins" part is wrong...technically, my husband and Cale would be second cousins, so Molly & Elsa and Cale would be 3rd cousins - I think I did that right) Anyways, the first picture is of Molly "checking him out"...she was peaking around/under the table. Cale is going to be a big brother in February, and got to practice by "holding" Elsa...Yes, those are bananas in his hair in picture 6 - apparently he was full..
Cale brought Elmo (me-mo), Cookie Monster and Big Bird, and boy was he upset when Molly had his me-mo...after a tense stand-off (they were both giving each other the "evil eye") Molly caved and gave Cale back his me-mo.
Cale must be around the camera as often as Molly, because he was quite the model...however, it made Molly very jealous and she would step in front of him when I would point the camera at him. She also sat down on my lap and would not move. When she wasn't sitting on my lap she was hanging on my arm or holding onto my leg - which made me one happy aunt - she is not usually so clingy to me (or anybody for that matter when I see her) she is usually happiest just kind of running around, so it definitely made me feel good that she wanted me all to herself! I did get a couple pictures of them together, the wouldn't get very close, but they did a good job! (My communication skills teacher would be very disapointed in this paragraph - my sentances are choppy and they don't really "mesh" (as she would say)..I go from one subject to another..Sorry Ms. Regal!
And of course you didn't think I forgot about Miss Elsa this weekend!? She has the biggest smile she is absolutely adorable (and she doesn't cry when I hold her) She is such a sweet little baby..

Chasing goats

I watched my nephew Dylan one afternoon so his mom could go to a doctor appointment - I told her not to put him in nice clothes because he was going to go out and help me do goat chores. That weekend, Molly was at her Grandma and Grandpas and her uncle Tom and I took her out to see the goats...Both of them LOVED the goats (Dylan wasn't quite sure at first)...however, the goats didn't so much love either of them...

I am still here...

For those of you who missed me, I have been keeping busier then ever - I am no longer working full-time for my mom, but I have kept very busy this harvest with the nannies kidding. My husband and his dad thought it would be a good idea to have 40 goats kidding while they were in the field (apparantly they were wrong). I keep telling myself it's not my fault, we lost seven kids in the last three weeks and my mother -in-law is bottle-feeding one. One nanny laid on two of her three, one nanny didn't bother cleaning her set of triplets off and two nannies wouldn't accept their kids to nurse. The one my mother-in-law is bottle-feeding, I think was a "premie"...her and her twin were very tiny and she couldn't even hold her head up, no one thought she would make it, but with my mother-in-laws love and care, three weeks later, she is running and jumping with the best of them. Anyways, I have always like the useless little facts, and I just read one right now: A group of goats is called a herd, trip or tribe. I am having trouble with my moms computer not wanting to upload any pictures, out of six tries I only got one picture to upload, so this is all you get for now.

My three favorites out of this group of kids

(the bottom two are twins)

A couple more...

Finally finished...

At least for the most part. We aren't quite sure if they forgot about the third door they were supposed to put on, or if they just didn't have it in stock and had to order it. Either way, our porch is done, and I LOVE it! We will most definately be having a 'porch party' sometime, however, the invitations haven't gone out yet (Becky - you weren't left out). It's getting to be that time of year (harvest), so we will probably have to wait. We don't have to be having a party though Becky, you can come see it whenever you want!!!

I am now taking donations!

For anyone who wants to help make my dream come true :) Haha! Ever since I was little I have asked my parents (and for the past four years my husband) for a White Persian Kitten with blue eyes - I have still yet to recieve one. I was looking on the internet last night and came across the Boutique Kittens website: http://www.boutiquekittens.com/ This particular kitten has been sold, but I am hoping to talk Tom into letting me get on the waiting list (no such luck yet). These kittens can run anywhere from $800 to as much as $3000 (plus shipping cost - $250)! I would never pay $3000 for a cat, but I'm thinking that maybe if I win big at the casino some night I know what I'm spending my winnings on. Or perhaps someone selling a White Persion with blue eyes will come across my website and take pity on me.

UPDATE: Sadly, my husband did not take to fondly to the idea of me getting a cat (whether it be a $3000 cat or a free cat). Perhaps next year....

Not so perfect pictures

I have realized that not all my pictures are going to turn out...it's hard to believe that just a couple years ago Bria, Bailey & Isabel weren't exactly cooperating, especially since they did so well this year!
Frist Dylan sneezed and then he decided to head-butt Brooke a couple times, but I finally got a good one of both of them.
Molly wasn't so sure she wanted to hold her sister and she was very sure that she wasn't going to put her blanket down. Elsa did really well the first couple of pictures, but then she just wanted her mommy.

It's that time of year again!

Harvest

I finally caught it on camera!

When Molly was about 11 - 12 months, she would ALWAYS make this face when someone would smile at her or talk to her and I NEVER got it on camera...she would scowl and then laugh, so I always got the laugh on camera - which of course wasn't all bad. Recently when taking a picture of her, my camera couldn't focus, so it falshed like five times. She's not really mad/glaring at me..she's squinting because of the flashes. I've had a couple comments about it..."you have such good pictures of her smiling, why would you want to display the one where she's glaring at you?" My answer to this is because as smiley and happy as she is...this is completely her...and of course a little bit of her dad. I think it's absolutely adorable!

A little bit of re-modeling...

So this is what our house looked like when I first moved in...my husband gets mad at me because I tell him it really looks quite creapy...white is definately not a good color for our house..

So it's not a picture of the whole house, but you get the jist...two summers ago we updated the color a little bit...Someone even told me that they had never noticed the fact that there was even a house here, and that she thought we had just built it. The reason the picture is only of the "porch" is because that is our project this summer (it is supposed to be done today when I get home from work)...

2 weeks ago - I came home from work and this is what I see...not exactly a pretty picture...maybe even a little intimidating...


After 2 weeks, it finally looks like they did something - they started the job on a Thursday and the following week they came only Wednesday morning - we got over 10 inches of rain that week, so they didn't get anything done. Our carpenter says "I'm really starting to get sick of this porch, it seems like we have been working on it forever". To tell you the truth, I agree...lets get something done already...This is not the most recent picture, however, I will probably (hopefully) be putting a "finished" picture up tomorrow. (Cross your fingers)

As promised..

Here are the pictures that I entered in the fair two years ago....okay, so I lied - two of them I entered in the fair, the other two I couldn't find, so I just picked two from the same year...I know the quality is kinda crummy but I didn't have the pictures on a disk, so I had to take a picture of the pictures....The girls look so little!

Bria (not a fair picture)

Brooke (not a fair picture)

Bailey (the picture that got me "best of show")

Isabel

So you're probably wondering....

Where are the goats?! So my website is called Newton Boer Goats, but I don't have pictures of goats on here...I took some pictures this weekend but my computer froze when I tried to put them on, so I am at my moms trying to put a few up. We raise boer goats for meat; NOTE: 80% of the population of the world eats goat meat, the only populations that do not eat goat meat are the United States and Canada. For now I only have a picture or two of our goats to put on here...I am more into photographing people. If you are interested in buying boer goats, let me know - we almost always have some for sale!

County Fair

Okay - so this should have been posted a month ago, but since I didn't have my blog then, I will do it now. A couple years ago I put four pictures (one of each of my nieces) in the fair. I got three blue ribbons and the purple "best of show" ribbon. So this year I had planned to put three pictures in - my most recent niece (before her sister was born) and my first nephew - both just turned one within the last few months. Anyways - I had the three pictures, matted - not framed, and walked into the fair office and to my surprise - I was too late. Turns out they changed the deadlines within the last two years and I was 9 hours too late! Grrr.. My husbands cousin - Kelli (sugar creek farm) said she was glad that I didn't get my pictures in on time, because then she wouldn't have won (yea right, I saw the pictures). So since I couldn't put them in the fair, I am going to put them on here.... I will try to find the pictures that I put in the fair the first year too.

Dylan - no matter what I would do, he would not smile. I did get a few good pictures though.

Molly - you can tell she has kind of grown up with the camera in her face, she poses very well.

Future Derby Driver???.....
Uncle Tom was pretty proud of this one - notice the big smile on his face?