Happy 14th Birthday Mason

Today Mason turned 14 years old (March 10). I can't believe that he is 14 years old. We are so proud to have him as our son and so thankful that God placed him in our care. He is really growing into quite a nice young man! It seems hard to believe how quickly the years have went by. It is as if just yesterday we were reading to him about Thomas the train or Wiggly Pig. Now he is into reading about technology and computers! He had a great day yesterday, even if he had to go to school. One of his birthday presents was a new skateboard which he was able to use after school since we had a beautiful day! Happy Birthday Mason!

Mason's Quilt

Mason's Quilt is finally finished thanks to the Heavenly Quilters at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Princeville who did a beautiful job hand quilting it for us (to read about the history behind this quilt just click on Mason's Quilt). Mason is thrilled to have this quilt finally done and loves sleeping under it at night! I think it is probably my favorite quilt I have done! The quilting group quilted moons and stars through out the quilt. Very cool!

An eagle

It appears that a Bald Eagle has moved into the neighborhood~wow! Ted said he saw one last week after a big snow storm had moved through. Yesterday on my way to photography class I saw it in a field eating something. I was thrilled that I had my camera and my zoom lens. I quickly pulled over to the side of the road and started shooting him (with my camera of course). I was amazed at how huge this giant bird was. I was able to see him carry the carcass of the animal with his powerful talons. He then got spooked and flew off into a nearby tree. I was thrilled to be able to get photos of him the bad news is that they aren't very good. Because I was fully zoomed out I really needed a tripod to stabilize the lens. Today I headed down the road with camera and tripod and he was in the tree! The minute I got out and started setting up my tripod he flew to another group of trees. I am hoping he'll be hanging around for a while so I can attempt to get some better photos.

Skiing for the day

This past Monday the kids were out of school celebrating President's Day and we ventured with a group to Dubuque, Iowa for a day of skiing. We have all skied before but it has been about 3 years. Since there was a group going from this area it made the day a bit more enjoyable for the kids as they had friends to ski with. Logan had been begging to snowboard so we finally agreed he could try this. I must admit I did not sleep well the night prior to going as I was afraid that someone would get hurt. But thankfully we all came away without any broken bones, we did manage to come away with sore muscles! We all took lessons to get comfortable on skis/snowboard since it had been a while. The day was really nice, it actually started of sunny but then clouded over and started to gently snow. It was beautiful being on the slopes with it snowing. After the day on this little ski slope I have a deeper appreciation for the winter Olympics! I can't imagine skiing down a one mile ski slope! I think I will stick with our Midwest ski slopes!

LoganLogan, Tim, Colton and Mason

Emily

Emily (in pink coat)

Logan and Nick

Emily and Peyton

Mason

February Updates

Just a few of our recent events that have happened so far this month...

We made a quick trip to Indiana so the boys could go rabbit hunting with their cousin Caleb. Ted, his brother Bill and another cousin Jason also went on the rabbit hunt. This was the boys first rabbit hunt and all the boys (both big and small) really had a great time despite the cold temperatures. Mason and Logan each shot one rabbit. They are still in my freezer waiting to be cooked. I have a feeling they may be there for a while!

Mason, Ted, Logan, Bill, Jason and Caleb

We have recently gotten quite a bit of snow which has been beautiful and fun to play in. I know a lot of people are really tired of winter but being gone for two winters makes this one more special. I will be happy for spring though as I look forward to spring flowers, trees budding, Robbins in the yard, birds singing and mushrooms popping up in the woods! We have had fun sledding, snowboarding (Logan) and four wheeling. I have also been enjoying taking photos! I am currently taking an adult community class in photography so needed to get some outdoor shots today. Cleo the cat insisted on following me all the way today.

Just click on the play button to see Logan snowboarding

Emily recently had a Father Daughter Dance with Girl Scouts and she was thrilled to have her dad take her! She was so excited about it. She got a new dress, painted her nails and wore her tiara! They had dinner and danced the night away. Emily has been taking tumbling the since August and has been doing some fantastic moves! She is quite a natural at it. She is going to take a break for a while and give piano lessons a try.

Some guys bring their wife flowers....

Instead of bringing flowers to the door Ted brought me an icicle! The icicle was huge, almost as tall as Emily. Up until recently it has been really really cold here lately (-13F or -26C) at night and not getting much above 10F in the day. Of course when it warmed up to 25F it felt like a heat wave!



We got quite a bit of snow last week which has been fun to play in. The snow was too light and fluffy for snowballs but we managed to make a few small snowmen. The kids have had fun being pulled around with the four wheeler. Ted bought the four wheeler over the holidays and it is quite fun to play on. It came with a blade as well which helped removing the snow when we didn't want to get the tractor out.

I had tried to post this blog and we lost power due to an ice storm. Now thanks to a generator I can finish posting this! It is odd to have the power go out and no guard to start the generator. Hopefully power will be up soon!

I have compiled a slide show of our holiday season. Enjoy!

One in a billion

Another chicken blog, sorry about that. Seems like it is all I write about! But this one is really cool! Often when hens begin to lay it is very common for two yolks to be in one shell. They are normally found in quite large eggs. Today I was fixing Logan an egg for breakfast. Of course he found the largest egg I had and I cracked it in the pan and was amazed. It had not one or two yolks but THREE! I of course grabbed the camera and called everyone to see this amazing egg. I must admit I was the only one truly thrilled. Mason thinks I am crazy by this point! Emily then chose the second largest egg only to be disappointed when it had only one yolk. I looked up triple yolk on the internet and found that the odds are one in a billion. But with all the eggs produced daily maybe that isn't such a huge thing after all. I found another really unusual thing that can happen that did happen a few weeks ago, a yolkless egg. Guess those would be handy when making angel food cakes!