Misc. March Iphone Pics

I may have been out of the blogging loop, but I just discovered you can sync your iphone pics directly to your blog! WooHoo!  That's awesome!  I am getting really bad about carrying my DSLR around and usually take so many pics with my iphone.

 St Patrick's Day!!!

Of course the Leprechauns visited!

And we made rainbow cookies again.  Grandpa joined us for dinner of corned beef and cabbage!

The boys and I stopped for Shamrock Shakes while in town.  

Carter had an assignment to write about the person in his life that is worth their weight in gold.  He chose his brother. He wrote 1 1/2 pages about what a good person and brother Alex is!  Melt my heart!!!  I love how my boys are best friends and I should add that the girls are pretty good friends too!

My Birthday was in March.  The kids took me to my favorite place to eat in Iowa so far. 

 Nadya was at a  sleep over so Hallie's Best friend joined us too. Alex ordered their

garbage burger and didn't come close to finishing it. 

Grandpa went to school for Grandparents' Day.  

He had to bop around four different classrooms to visited everyone.

Alex interviewed and wrote a report about Grandpa.

 

And calving season officially began which kept Doug pretty busy.  He checked on his cows twice a day.  Once in the morning and once at night to make sure they were doing okay. Sometimes I would join him.  This little cutie was born on my birthday.

Meet Stormy.  This is actually Grandpa's calf, but Doug and Alex found him in pretty bad shape as he was born during a March snow storm.  His mom had died and left him cold and wet in a pile of snow which is not great for a young calf.  Doug, Grandpa and Alex spent hours working on him trying to warm him up and get him to eat. It was quite a learning experience for Alex. I was a little worried because Doug didn't think he'd make it.  It looks like he is taking the bottle in this picture, but he didn't.  They had to tube him for a few days before he finally decided to suck.  I am happy to report that stormy is doing fantastic and all of cousins have enjoyed having a bottle calf around.  This is stormy the night we found him and after he was dry and warm.

Fourteen

Nadya Mae turned 14!  She has officially been a teenager for an entire year.  What fun!!!!  I asked Hallie to wrap her gifts and this is what I got! 

For her birthday she requested Zuppa Toscana Soup and she helped make and decorate her cake.  She wanted lemon cake and lemon ice cream!  Smart girl!!!!  I've trained her well.

After dinner and cake, she opened her presents.

After presents we all took turns giving spankings!  She was a good sport!

Her birthday prompted a growth check for all the kids!  They are all getting so big!

Hallie isn't pictured because she is being a stink!  I told her I was going to insert a sleeping picture of her, but I never got around to doing it.  I am happy to report that we've painted our mudded wall though!

Nine

Alex turned nine in November.

I still can't believe he is half way to 18.

He celebrated his birthday party with three of his friends at a fun place called Fun City.

We opened presents and piled in the van for the drive.  

It was a little over an hour.

The boys ate lunch, played arcades and drove the cars.

After we went swimming.  The boys enjoyed the tube slide.

And before we left they attempted to rock climb.

For Alex's actual birthday, we had Uncle Joe and Aunt Diana over for dinner, ice cream and cake.

We ended up using Alex's cupcakes that were meant for his class treat as a cake,

as he couldn't pass out his cupcake because the cupcake policy was not made clear to us.

(Yes, they were store bought, but they were the wrong brand.)

Alex had a good attitude about it though and that's what counts.  :)

And they were yummy!

NINE!!!!!!!

(Don't mind the kitchen mess, we were in the process of getting new appliances.)

We tricked Alex and put one of his presents in an old box.  (A gift he had already received.)

I love his look of disappointment on the left and how happy he is on the right once he realizes our trick.

Shortly after Alex's birthday, Doug and the kids piled in the Van and headed to Utah for Thanksgiving.  

I couldn't go as I had to work so I had an entire week of "me" time. 

Of course, my family couldn't resist another reason to celebrate so Alex had

 another birthday celebration in Utah too.

And he and Doug even managed a little hike while in Utah.

So, there you have it.  We now have a 9 year old and it's a great age!

October

I'm so behind...... So, so behind...... Sorry, but I am just going to take it one month at a time.

We live in the country and country living means country critters and country critters mean country solutions. So, we got Kitties...... Four of them! They live outside and sleep in the shed at night.  They are so cute and so playful and are already doing a great job catching Mice.

Meet (from left to right) Snow, Garfield, Tiger, and Sparkles.

They've been a great addition to our family and they get along with everyone except our dog, Angel.  

In fact, when they see Angel this is what happens.

Which sometimes leads to this-

The beauty of being so behind on my blog is that I can happily report that the kitties are much better at tolerating Angel.  They still hiss and their hair stands up, but they don't resort to climbing trees and running from her any longer. The kitties have been a lot of fun, except for when the sit and "meow" at the windows begging and pleading to become inside cats.  

We Celebrated Doug's Birthday!

We were lucky to have Aunt Georgia, Gramdpa Roger and Cousin Adam join us.

(Nice face Hallie)

We had lots of leaves this Fall.

You don't bag up your leaves in the country, you burn them.

Carter can officially ask for his two front teeth for Christmas as he lost another tooth.

The boys had a harvest party with their Boy Scouts Troop.

They each bobbed for Apples and Alex won the best costume award.

Carter had recently lost his two front teeth so he came up with his own strategy all on his own.  I had no clue of his plan but he immediately plunged his head straight down into the caldron causing the water to rise and the apples to fall out.  He came up completely soaked, but grinning from ear to ear because his plan worked.  

The boys had parties at school as well.  They were required to dress up as a character from a children's book  so Carter was Jack from Jack and the Bean Stalk and Alex was Harry Potter.

We went Trunk or Treating at the church as well as Trick or Treating in town.

(The girls did not dress up this year but the boys did.)

Alex was a vampire and Carter was  Spyro from Skylanders.

Grandpa took Carter to the Symphony.   Grandpa said he was well behaved and Carter said it was good.

We really enjoyed our porch this Fall and our time with Grandpa!