Mommy's (& Daddy's) Big Helper

Liesel is such a big helper.  And she almost gets upset if she can't help. If she sees me standing at the counter doing something she'll run and get her "help me chair" so she can help.  What a sweetie!  One of her favorite things to do is to help unload the dishwasher and spin the lettuce.  Here are a few other things she likes to help with.

Making cookies or anything that requires the mixer

Bring her laundry basket to the laundry room

"Git the bug" aka fly swatting but of course you must do it in a tutu! :)

Helping Daddy vacuum up the fishy crackers she dropped and stepped on

Picking berries

Keeping the pig food from "falling" out

More like hanging on so she doesn't fall out! :)

Oh and did a mention she loves changing the sheets on her bed!  She'd change them everyday if her mommy would let her! :)  I sure love my little helper!

A Snapshot of Today

Our little Indian



"Zay-ah" (as Liesel calls him) sleeping during tummy time



Is it a Nesting Instinct or Just a Burst of Energy?

I guess time will tell which one it really is.  For some reason today I seem to have more energy then I did last week.  Last week I had my on and off days and maybe because yesterday was a day of rest that's why I have energy. 

So what have I done with this energy since 7am this morning...
-Fed Liesel breakfast & got the kitchen cleaned up
-5 loads of laundry with 1 more to go.
-Lowered Liesel's crib mattress
-Set up pack-n-play bassinet for little guy in Liesel's their room
-Raised the straps in Liesel's carseat
-Sort through baby clothes
-Wrote 2 notes
-Gave Liesel a bath
-Paid bills
-Organized the outside shoe shelf
-Took the small bookshelf out of Liesel's room
-Packed most of my hospital bag (and made a list of things to get before we actually leave etc.) 

There still are a few more things on my list but I got way more done today then I expected. I figure I better do it while I can!  Hopefully I won't be paying for this tomorrow! :) 

Part of my motivation is I have a feeling little guy is going to be early.  I'm already 2 cm dilated and Liesel came 2 weeks after I was dilated 2 cm.  We'll just have to wait and see what this little guy decides to do, but I don't think he's planning on waiting until April 13th.  Until then I better take advantage of Liesel's long nap and go work on little guy's crib skirt!

I'll keep you posted! :)

December in Review

Once again I've been a bad blogger.  December has come and gone and I've hardly posted!  Well December has been a very busy month like it has been for most of you so here are some pictures to review the month! (I apologize for there being so many pictures but just look as it as making up for all the pictures I would have posted if I had been keeping up with my blogging! :)

She got up there all by herself and was quite proud of the fact!

Notice her arms are crossed.  She's not mad but she recently started doing this.

Wearing Mommy's apron

My DH ground 75lbs of game meat and made it all into summer sausages! (This is only 1 of the 3 tubs full of meat!) It was quite the project but worth all the work.

Picking out our Christmas Tree

One of our hens hatched a chick but unfortunately it only lived about 1 1/2 weeks

Brr!  We had a couple cold days but at least they were dry!

The creek behind our house

Drinking milk out of a glass like a big girl

Making cookies

The goodies from a Christmas tea my Mother-in-law & I put on

Liesel's stocking in the making

The completed project

I set up my sewing station up stairs & love that I can leave it up all the time!

Christmas Day

My DH's Aunt made these yummy bear claws for Christmas day.

Liesel went to her 1st museum during our Christmas break.  She found the animals quite fascinating!

Big Kitty!

Watching the fish

Our 16 month old!

Busy and then some

I had many  goals the last couple of weeks.  But the goal of blogging didn't make it to the done side of the checklist.  Other things have keep me busy and not all bad just well busy things.
What's been going on...
-My DH and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. (Sure love you Sweetie!)
-DH and I went away for two nights to the coast. We had a wonderful time hiking, talking and relaxing.
-JB's last baseball game was last week. (Yippee, we have our evenings back!)
-All the haying is done and in! (We got the last load in the night before it rain!)
-Liesel turned 11 months (One month away from being a one year old.)
-Our deck railing is almost completed
-My DH went clamming with a friend. I now get to try my hand at making homemade clam chowder!
-And I know there are a few other things I'm forgetting.  On the bummer side my computer decided to retire (without much warning) so I've been using my DH's.  The only problem with his is I can't download pictures, which then translates to not being able to post pictures.  I do have a few pictures on my phone that I've been able to forward to my email so until we get a new computer that will have to do!

Liesel at 11 months

A Fun and Busy Week

It is hard to believe the week is almost over. As I was out on a walk this evening I reviewed all the activities of the past week and I have to say it has been a great week!


Monday day wasn't to exciting as I did laundry and grocery shopped but in the evening my DH and I had a wonderful dinner of Tuna steaks, yellow squash (fresh from the garden), and french bread with a yummy olive oil/herb dip. We enjoyed the nice quiet evening, eating our dinner out on the deck.


On Tuesday I went out to the back field and picked blackberries and made 5 pints of jam, plus I made 3 1/2 quarts of applesauce from the apples a friend gave us! They both were very tasty!



Wednesday I went down to my in-laws and my sweet sister-in-law and I hung out and did some cooking. I canned salsa with tomatoes and onions from our garden. My sis-in-love canned beans and made fresh salsa! We were going to make pies but my DH, JB and I had to go pick up a few calves. We did make it back to my in-laws after prayer meeting were my sis-in-law fryed doughnuts while I glazed them. They were sooo good! It reminded me of going out for donuts with my dad. We might start a tradition with this!!!!



Thursday morning I discovered that Callie has met a friend in the night and even though she is a friendly dog this new friend didn't take to well to her. Her friend was a skunk. I know I should have expected it sooner than later but wow, was it a scent!! JB and I gave her a bath in tomato juice, which made her white fur turn a slight shade of pink!



When my DH came home he gave her a second bath! Poor Callie girl. She hasn't been in the house since then!

I also had a very new experience as I cougar watched with my DH and JB for about 3 hours that night. My DH's cousin had a cougar attack and kill their pet goat the night before and it continued to stay around the property. My DH's cousin and his wife stayed up most of the first night watching for it but never saw it. Since my DH has a cougar tag he spent several hours the next night watching for it and JB and I tagged along. We never saw anything and we found out the next morning that the cougar had been back sometime after we had left. Who would have thought a year ago I would be doing that!!!



Friday was a fun busy day as I swept out the shop and added the wood shavings to the chickens' nesting boxes. Then JB and I picked 2 gallons of yellow plums, 1 gallon of strawberries and about 1/2 gallon of blueberries. Of course we ate a few along the way! :)



Today I made strawberry jam and I'm going to try a new recipe and see if I can make strawberry-lemonade concentrate! That will be tasty to have.


We also spent a good few hours of the day catching cows. Though I have been told that the cows are typically more afraid of you I still get fairly nervous when one starts running towards the gap that I'm guarding! If anyone would have seen us trying to corral those 4 cows they would have been laughing. The first 2 cows only took us 45 minutes to get caught and loaded into the trailer. The other two were quite a pain to round up. We tried to get them loaded in with the first two but one wouldn't be caught and the other one went into the chute and then broke through part of the fence to get back into the pasture. We came home dropped the first two cows off and went back when the owner had brought the other two into a smaller fenced in area. It then took us close to an hour and a half to get them loaded into the trailer. Though it really wasn't that fun I did get the giggles watching the cows go in every direction but in the trailer! We finally got them in and what a relief that was.


The next thing that happen makes me just laugh. Once we got the animals all dropped off I went to check on how the 4 pork steaks were thawing. I discovered meat bees all over the bag and only 1 pork steak in the bag. Apparently Callie had gotten into the bag while we were gone and had eaten all but 1 steak! One can only laugh and quickly switch to plan B which turned out to be hamburgers!


Looking back, I can say it sure was a fun and busy week! :)

Busy...

Wow, it sure has been a busy last couple of weeks, hence no posting in awhile. Even though it has been busy, it have been a wonderful couple of weeks. We had several family birthday celebrations (mine included), a shopping trip, wrestling matches, a day at the coast, major pruning, wood chipping, firewood collecting, people over and the list could go on but I'll stop there. I just wanted to let you know I'm alive and I really hope to be better at posting more regularly!! :)