Pictures for you all!!

Thanks Becca for putting picture online for us!!

Sorry I can't move the pictures around so they make more sense. Becca very sweetly put them all on for me with her computer
and we both thought we could move them around but I can't.
And it would take a LONG time for me to put them on so
better on then not!! :)

L and E with their stick on mustaches. They loved them and they are reusable!!


J and L with their facial hair and their matching PJ's.

Smiling!! Papa's got a funny look on in the back!!

Our 2nd annual family Gingerbread house project!!

We build it close to Christmas and eat it on New Years.

We got a huge kit this year but had icing problems so this is as

done as it gets. E decorated the trees in the front. J and L did

a side of the roof each and Papa and I did the rest.

Baby R watched from her chair and ate Gingerbread cookies...

I think she has the right idea!!!

(from the one that flopped the icing :)

The boys decorating the roof!!

E, smiling as she happily stacked candies on the trees.

E in J's armour that he got for Christmas..

Papa reading "On the shores of Silver Lake" to the kids in their matching PJ's.

I think this was boxing day!!

J with his brand new 'kid guitar' which he's already learned a chord for,

and in his Knight outfit!! Boy is he growing up fast.

This was Christmas morning.

Note the ice on the window, it was only 0F that morning

and we could see out the window!! Bonus!!

E cooking with her new little kitchen on Christmas morning.

We have limited space so we got

her this little set that all fits into the pink box for storage.

She loves it and made all kinds of things already.

Papa is tuning J's guitar in the back.

L with his new log truck... playing with his sisters moose.

He does like his trucks

but they zip around so much I haven't got a good picture yet.

This was also Christmas morning.

The boys using their new swords to help E open her little kitchen!!

She was quite impressed!!

J and L with their armour and pirate stuff on Christmas morning.

They were both SO ecstatic!!

Note: What you see in the back is about 1/3 of our living space. Kitchen and dining room.

The boys are in the living room.

Oh and just in case you are wondering the curtains have new rods that

will cause them to fit properly... the old ones are too short and too brittle!

L looking very piraty!!

We disliked the skulls that were all

over this set so I took them off or colored over them.

Much better and he didn't even notice!!

J without his sword!!

I packed this all together in a box and wrapped his sword separately.

He was SO worried he wouldn't get a sword to

'protect the family!'

From what I know not!! :) But he loves us!!

E looking very pleased with her new horse from Auntie R.

When I took the picture she had just realized that the horse made noise!!

Taken Christmas morning.

Well that's our Christmas in a nutshell.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and God Bless!!

~Christmas~

We are truly blessed and we had a wonderful Christmas. The kids counted down and ate their chocolates from their advent calenders and counted down some more. Then, all of a sudden, it was THE DAY. LOL. The pictures will pretty much speak for themselves but a few verbal highlights are: J, after opening his breastplate, helmet and shield, "Oh I really need a sword!! I really need a sword to protect the household. Mom is there a sword so I that I can protect the household." Then after opening his SWORD. " I GOT A SWORD!! NOW ME AND PAPA AND L CAN PROTECT YOU AND E AND BABY R" He was so excited he really did talk in capitals. E got a stick horse that makes sounds from Auntie R and she thought it was a sucker for ages and when we were opening it I'd ask her "what is that?" and she'd come back with "sucker". Then we got it open enough to see what it really was and she her eyes just LIT UP and she says "HORSE!!!" Then later I went to fix his crumpled ear and it has a button in it that makes noises and she LOVED it. It's so heavy for her 21 lbs that she can only play with it in short bursts but she always goes back to it. It was Baby R's 1st Christmas and she enjoyed the fun. She really liked her stocking and the chocolate that went with it. She's a real chocolate hound. L had a great Christmas and seems to really enjoy his new replacement "big Papa dump truck" and his new log truck.

We spent Christmas Eve with my family, those who could make it, at T&D house. They have a great big house which is great because our family is growing every year. There are 12 grand kids and 14 adults so far. The pictures of us in dresses and 'good clothes' as the boys call them, are from Christmas Eve. We all managed to match which was neat and one of these days I want to take a family picture in our "Christmas clothes." When and if I can find someone to take it I'll post it. We had a great time with the family and the kids had a blast playing with the cousins. One of the Cousins said a pile of verses for us all and J chimed right in and said his Christmas verse as well. L said his later when we were all leaving after his 'shy' had worn off. J's was Luke 2:10 and L's was Luke 2:11. E's was Heb 13:1. "Let Brotherly love continue" Which is the 1st verse our kids learn.

Papa and I got a wonderful Christmas present from an unusual source. A real blessing!! A friend of mine knew of our washer problems and also knew of a family who had just gotten a new washer and dryer set because their dryer quit. So she called us and asked us if we wanted it!! We did!! Our washer was 30++ years old and worked but not very well. It leaked oil out the bottom and had started leaking oil into the washer while it washed!! The new washer and dryer were in the 'big city" where our friend lives and her and her husband rented a dolly and loaded them up (turns out the dryer may be a quick fix) and brought them to us!!! He dropped it off yesterday and helped Papa take the old one out and the new one in. Papa crawled up under the addition and fixed my water freezing problem and now I have a "new to us" washer ( we think it's about 5 to 7 years old) with running water.

Christmas morning was spent at home reading the Christmas story from the book of Luke, opening gifts, taking pictures, playing and eating a great breakfast of pancakes, sausage, homemade syrup and eggs, thanks to Auntie R!! In the afternoon we went to the W gathering (my mom's side) and saw a bunch of Aunts and Uncles, my grandparents and my cousins and their kids. One of my cousins brought their 2 day old baby and we got to see him for the 1st time. We all had a great time and stayed late to enjoy part of the evening with them.

All and all we had a great Christmas Holidays. Boxing day was spent at home and Papa took the boys out sledding with their new sleds. It snowed most of the day and we relaxed and played most of the day. I read an entire book (390 pages of a mystery!! :) and Papa read a good chunk of his new beer making book. In the evening we watched "Finding Nemo" one of the kids Christmas movies and had a snack night. After the kids were in bed Papa and I had a 'Movie date" and watched "Junior" with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. A very funny movie that Papa had never seen before and we both really enjoyed.

Baby R's 1st Christmas!!

Baby R, still tiny but not really a baby anymore as she is crawling and cruising and trying to walk!, and Papa on Christmas Eve. That red thing in front of her is a Christmas dress from Grandma and Grandpa F which was size 3 months and fit my 9 month old perfectly. The dress came with neat tights that had black shoe shapes on the feet of the tights so it looked like she was wearing little black dress shoes! Which is a real bonus when you can't find black dress shoes to fit or stay on her tiny little feet!! The thing that she is so excited about is a toy cow that makes a sound that is suppose to be a mooo but sounds like something else entirely!! She loves it!

The top picture is of Christmas morning and the pink thing in her hand is her "Baby's 1st Christmas" Ornament. The dollar store fish between her legs is a greatly sot after toy from the biggest to the littlest child. Strange things that kids just love!!

Merry Christmas!!

Well it's that time of year again and this year I've decided to email our letter and photo around to those who have email and print them for the very few who don't.

Our family has grown again and we welcomed Baby R Griggs into the family on March 10th 2008. She was 7lbs 15.9 oz and 19 3/4 inches long. Now at 9 months she is a healthy smiley if small girl who loves her siblings and BEAMS with love for every one. Papa and I both think she is our happiest baby yet. She weighs in at a mere 14 lbs and about 25.75 inches tall but is crawling like a pro and cruises along the furniture. She is a little joy to us all and we thank God for her.

E turned 2 on Oct 22 and is also a very small girl. She weighs in at just 21lbs but is a full 33 inches tall. She is our daredevil and climber. With 2 older brothers she has a "if they can do it, or even if they can't. I WILL TRY IT!!" attitude. So far she hasn't broken anything but I suspect she'll be the 1st one in the ER with a broken bone. She has scared us both several times and luckily scared herself as well so maybe she'll settle as she gets older. She is a little mother and cleans up after the boys and herself, loves to help with 'chores' and mothers her 'babies' and protects them from her brothers. E and Baby R seem to have the start of a great relationship and we hope and pray that it continues.

L will be 4 in April and is 32 lbs and 37.75 inches tall. L has turned into a little reader in the last few months. He loves to look at books and make up or tell the story in the book. He still loves his trucks but books are a close second. He is very reserved with people until he gets to know them then he loves them completely. He loves to play simple games like Simon says or round and round the haystack. He loves his brother and the two of them are great friends. L recently found that he likes to draw and he is often at the chalk board drawing families. We've also found that L is very talented with snow. He makes awesome snowmen with ears and everything all by himself.

J will be 5 on Jan 5th and is 45 lbs and 44 inches tall. He is a wonderful willing helper. He enjoys telling hunting stories or singing hunting songs he makes up himself. He often 'reads' books to his younger siblings and has several books completely memorized. He learns quickly and retains almost all of what he learns. He enjoys singing, adding numbers, crafts, reading, pretending and tea parties with E and L. He will not be starting school until 2010 when we will be homeschooling him. We legally have to start then and are planning on taking the next year to research our options.

We had some other big changes this year. Papa has started his commercial transport mechanic apprenticeship as of Oct. So far we all love it. It gives us a lot more time as a family and a regular schedule which is really nice. We eat supper together almost every night and the work is steady and interesting for Papa. He mostly enjoys the challenge of diagnosing problems. The only part that is frustrating for him is that he can only fix what the customer wants fixed, even if it really needs it. To Papa that is leaving it half done and he dislikes leaving anything half done. The hours are nice and the schooling can be done close by which is an answer to prayer.

We also did some changes in our farm this year. We had our 1st calf ever born on the place this spring and had fun with him and another calf that we were given as we tethered them around, figured out several milking problems and tried to keep them and the cow happy. All in all we enjoyed them and are looking forward to the beef. We also hand cleared 2 acres with a chainsaw and lots of hard work. We did leave some trees as a wind break and canopy but we think we took out about 3 log truck loads of trees. Then we limed and seeded it and watched it grow. We are really looking forward to spring and the new patch of grass. We plan on finishing the 1/2 acre that is still down, and taking a few more trees out, and clearing another acre or 2 this spring and summer. We also did 6 pigs for the 1st time ever this year and raised them up on milk. They were summer pigs so we still have them and will probably butcher in the new year.

Our house is on hold as we save money to start the next stage. We did get the trusses built and the next thing we need is tin for the middle roof. We have decided that it can wait until we have what we need. Papa is planning on making several things in the trailer to make our storage problems more manageable. He is going to make the kids bunk beds which will free up a lot of room in their room. We've also turned the back bathroom into a storage room with a toilet which helps.

I keep busy with crafts, farming and reading when I'm not busy with the kids, household stuff, baking, gardening, sewing, and a hundred and one other things that need doing. I enjoy it, for the most part ( I honestly don't know anyone who enjoys toilet training and all the mess that goes with it) and like to keep busy. I also keep up our blog which I really enjoy as I am a writer at heart and writing about our kids and lifestyle suits me wonderfully.

Our family is still attending home church with 3 or 4 other couples in this area. We switch from house to house and instead of Sunday school teach our children verses and read them the Bible nightly. Both the boys have a wonderful clear conceptions of who God is and what He has done for us and what He does do for us. They often floor me with their questions and insights and often supper time is spent teaching them God's ways.

Luke 2:10 and 11. Then the angel said to them. "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born for you this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord. "

Merry Christmas!!!

Love

The Griggs Family.

The Tree!!

We got our tree on Sunday. Papa and I went on a walk-a-bout on the place and found one we both liked. We cut it to size and surprised the kids with it. Here they are with a ornament to place on the tree.

Christmas Crafts and Cookies

For some odd reason the Christmas season insists that you craft. I'm not sure why it does but it does. And I love it. Crafting with kids is fun. Crafting with BOYS is funner yet. The other day we did Paper Christmas trees and E got to make a pipe cleaner bracelet. Today we painted hanging ornaments for the tree. J had a bear, L had a star, and I had a moose. E got to color and Baby R was locked in her chair with a gingerbread "Mary" (the men are Joesph) as the kids call gingerbread woman. Christmas time also calls for cookie making and decorating and we made cookies last week and we were hoping to decorate them this week but we didn't have water for part of it and the week is getting away from us. Anyway. L wanted his star to be yellow so I got him a paper plate and put a little paint on it and off he went. J wanted brown for his bear and so we all started to paint. L covers about half of his star (the middle half :) And wanted another color, green. So green goes on top of the yellow. Still looks cool. Then J wanted red for his hearts under the bear. Fine. Great. I like how he paints. L perks up (painting so far for him is a tad boring but all these colors are fun) "I want red too." OK. No surprise there. "I want BLOOD!! I want blood on my star!" Then the two of them proceed to have a talk about how stars don't bleed so maybe the star was butchering something, chickens or maybe bears or something, and got covered in blood?? I just closed my ears after that and hoped L would want another color to cover the BLOOD. I'm still shaking my head. I've crafted, being a girl, with girls for years. Blood doesn't come up. EVER. It's like a taboo topic. But a Christmas craft with my boys and here we are having a, what they consider, perfectly normal and fine conversation about blood on their Christmas ornaments. He did pick another color and another and another and the blood got pretty much covered up but in the end his star was red but blood was not mentioned. We all had a great time. E actually colored 2 sides of her page from the coloring book quite well which is neat and we'll have to start coloring more. The boys have never been really interested in coloring but maybe with E coloring they will too. J did an awesome job on his bear and it is brown with blue eyes with a pink scarf and hat and red hearts hanging under it.

Another Pig Story.

OK OK I'll admit it. A pig has me for a favorite too. I'm not sure which one but one of our pigs really loves me. Or maybe it used to it hasn't done anything in a while. But I thought... fair is fair if I tell about Papa and Wilbur I'd better tell about The Egg pig. You see one day when Papa and I were moving the pigs this fall... I made a friend forever pig. Quite on accident I can assure you. I was waiting for Papa to be done messing with the wire and I found a egg in the hay. Now the chickens have been in and out all summer so I have no idea how old this egg is. So I have a bright idea. I'll feed it too the pigs. Good thing I did as it turns out it had been there for some time. Well one little egg shared between 6 pigs and no one gets much, if any. So I was just going to put it right in one pigs mouth. So I showed the egg to the 1st pig that comes along and sort of pop it in it's mouth and hold it there for a second until it chomped on it. Worked great. I was wearing gloves so I wasn't too worried about my fingers. The pig went crazy with pure joy!! At least I think it must have been pure joy, I would have thought from the smell that the pig should have been retching but the pig seemed to enjoy it very much. Actually I know that crazy pig loved it. Every time I went into the pen for a long time I would have pig follow me trying to get at my hands. The Egg pig was born!! He'd nudge me on the hand just like a dog does, begging for more eggs. I never did find anymore eggs in the hay, even though I looked for quite some time:)

Haircuts and Kittens.

Haircuts. Last week when Papa had a few days off I cut hair. Male hair. LOL. The boys figured we should cut E's hair as well and she caught on and asked "haircut??" a few times. So we explained why not to her and she was mostly fine with that. But after each haircut the person who's hair was just cut has a quick shower so rinse all the hair off. Well J's hair was cut and he showered, the L's hair was cut and he showered, then Papa's hair was cut and he showered. And confused little E says "Haircut??" Nope. "Shower??" she says with a worried look. I laughed. Nope. Relief!! Pure and simple relief flooded her face. No more questions asked just in case I changed my mind. Once she gets in the shower she has a great time but she really would prefer not to.

Kittens. The kittens are still very tame and the other night I picked one up (the black and white) and pet him and brought him in and got him warm and purring. It's a little male which is what I thought. The other one is still more testy and I haven't gotten him yet. I'm pretty sure they are both males as our two males have accepted them completely. Patches, the mother, is gone again and both Papa and I haven't seen her for over a week. We suspect she has kittens again somewhere as she did this last time as well. Miserable time to have kittens. I need to go dig in the shop and see if I can find them. I don't think they are there though as last time she took herself far off and we did not even see her for 4 weeks. She doesn't even come to the house to eat. We are probably going to fix her this spring. Depending on a few things.

Parade Awe!!

Update Dec 8th.

Well we've had a interesting week, or 2, and this is in no particular order :) Our extended family has grown again with the arrival of Kirsten (said Keersten) on the 4th!! WAHOO. Congrat's D&A and the Oakster!! I told you you'd have a girl!! :)
The kids have all been sick and we went nowhere and did nothing this weekend. Baby R got it first and then L and E Saturday morning and J Saturday afternoon. I've got a bit of it as well, but Papa, as usual, hasn't gotten it at all. E gave us a scare Saturday night, barking and having trouble breathing. She had a touch of croup and we put her in a steamy bathroom and night air in turns and put her mattress beside our bed for the night. But she recovered quickly and last night slept in her crib. Thank You Lord. Baby R was better by Sunday morning, back to her smiley self. L and J were done by Sunday afternoon. Except J still has a cough, very normal for him to keep a cough for weeks after a cold, mild or otherwise. So E is really the only one left. So we had a lazy weekend, watching movies, puzzling, Papa plowed the driveway with the skid stear from work (one of the perks of the new job), Papa also made a new batch of beer (and a mess!!! 2nd time it's ever boiled over!! YUCK). We skipped church and our Saturday night games night with B&B and just spent time healing.
Friday night was the town Christmas light parade and we had a blast. The kids loved it and got pocket fulls of candy!!! We went out for hot chocolate after and had a great time. I have some pictures I'll try and post later.
Speaking of Christmas we also took the oldest 3 kids to the local dollar store and let them pick a gift for each of their siblings. Papa stayed in the travelall with the kids and I took them one at a time into the store to pick out gifts for each other. E is a very fast shopper, L is SLOW, and J took time to figure out what each one would like and did a great job of it. When we got home I took them one at a time into the bedroom and we wrapped them. Lots of fun. J keeps telling me "my mind keeps telling me to tell them what I got them.. But I won't" L has told J at least once what he got him but J pretends, or really doesn't, not to hear him. L also insists that the gift he picked for Baby R is for R and L. We will share!!! E is so quick she really has no clue what she got them. They can't wait to get a tree so they can put them under it. We did decorate for Christmas already, stockings up, lights up nativity set up and awed over, some other pretties up. Bows are everywhere. It was great fun.
We have been having wacky weather. Warm, warm, warm, COLD for 24 hours with 10 inches or more of snow, then WARM and rain, rain, rain. They shut our local highway down for several hours one day dealing with the ice everywhere. One morning I woke up and went to check the pigs and looked out and there was 6 piggies sleeping happily in my milking area!!! So Papa went out before work and chased them in. But he didn't have time to fix the pen so I went out early to fix it and found we had gotten 10 inches or more of snow, wet and sloppy. I found a pallet and was tying it to the hole :) when Papa came back for the shovel. Stuck in the yard. A few minutes later I could still hear him spinning so I went out to lend a hand... or my weight actually. The car is very light in the back and rear wheel drive so I stood on the back bumper and off we went. A few trys later we made it out the driveway. Our road had not been plowed but there was tire tracks so off he went. Pushing snow with the undercarriage. I went and finished my fixing and Bindy still wasn't there so I decided to go have a look down the road and make sure Papa wasn't stuck some place. I got to the end of the driveway about the same time Papa did. He didn't think he could make the turn to the hwy so he'd gone down the side road and was stuck. So he started up the Travalall and called work to say he'd be late and we headed out to pull him out. I love my travelall. She goes anywhere and does anything. She had no problems. We hooked up the car and he pulled me to the nearest connector road (to the hwy) and a few minutes later he was off to work in the car and I drove back home in the travelall. Just in time to milk the cow. What a morning and all before breakfast. He normally would have just taken the travelall to work on mornings like that but I was meeting him in town later for the parade and the car will not fit us all.
Sometimes after the kids go to bed we watch a movie and have a 'date'. With or without friends. When we do this we've been putting music on for the kids so they can't hear our movie (we live in a small space and even with their fan on they can still hear our movies) and will go to sleep. The 1st time we did this we did a CD of hymns. The kids liked it and the next time I assumed Papa would do the same CD. Well we put the kids to bed and he did the music and 20 minutes later I'm still hearing awake noises out of their room so I went in to see what was up. Here Papa had thought the kids would like some change and put his "Natural Guitar" CD in for them. Well the CD is great and I like it. But it has wolves howling in the background of over half the songs. Poor kids are all freaked out!! WOLVES!! LOL. Papa felt bad, he hadn't thought of that. So I switched it for the hymns and everyone was in dreamland in no time. After doing this CD 3 times J comes up to me and asks me if I want to hear a new song. J is very musical and constantly learning new songs and making up his own songs. Sure I'd love to hear his new song. He sang me the entire 1st verse of Amazing Grace. A few words where off a bit (wrench, "mommy why is he a wrench??) but the tune and timing was right. Amazing kid. He's getting a child's guitar for Christmas and we are all wondering if he'll pick it up easily and naturally. He already plays Papa's guitar but can't reach both ends to play properly.

Parade Awe!! 2

Papa and Wilber the pig.

Baby R with her 1st pony tail. She has 2 times as much hair as E did at the same age. She was not happy and this is the best pic I got.

Baby R!!

Baby R having a bath in the kitchen sink. If you look close you can see her top tooth. Her bottom tooth is on the other side hidden by her top gum!!!

Thanksgiving and Papa's Days off.

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Sunday and got in the Thanksgiving mood by making hand turkeys. We all made one. So we had a hand turkey family!! We have a 3 gallon bucket of mixed pea's and beans and that is what we used for decorations. They are very easy to make. You get some colored paper and trace and cut out your hand. Turn it over so you can't see your trace line, slather with glue and add beans, peas or some people use different kinds of dried pasta. Even E had a great time doing this. With Baby R's it took both Papa and I to get a trace of her hand and then I just put glue on it and dumped a bowl of beans and peas over top. Waited a little bit and tipped it back into the bowl to get the extras off and it was done. I figured that was what she'd like to do with them. But I didn't want her eating any. E put the entire bowl she had one at a time on her glued hand in a big pile and yelled DONE!! So I dumped the extras off and let her do it again.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Papa's last boss, his wife and his daughter. We had a great time. Ate extremely well as per normal. Our one lonely turkey was great, breast nice and juicy just the way Papa likes it. We did not weight him, we forgot, but he weighed considerably more then E. (And he BARELY fit in my huge turkey roaster, we had to tuck the wings in as I cooked him breast down.) She is 20 lbs so we assume the turkey was late 20's early 30's. I made the best pumpkin pie ever, from the pumpkin J and I did, and a pretty good apple. After the meal we taught them to play Pinochle, which my team actually won!!! Gasp. I must be having a winning streak as that was 2 games, on two different nights, that my team has won. Both times we won by about 500 points!! YAHOO. The kids read books with Amy and watched us play. J and L had a cute discussion over supper about who's muscles where bigger which we all got a kick out of. Baby R loved the pumpkin pie and cranberries.

We moved the pigs again. Papa took the boys outside to make a pig run. We needed to move them about 200 feet so he made a pole and wire run from one area to the other. This worked great and the pigs are now in the under cover area where our cow spent last winter and what we've had so far this year. They will stay there now until butchering day. Which, being under a roof should be fairly easy to hang them. They are totally enjoying it (we poked holes with a rock bar and filled them with corn and they are happily turning it upside down.) but poor Bindy was really horrified!! PIGS in HER covered area. She stood a ways off and stared at them. She refused to go get a drink all day (it's by the pigs). She was so nervous milking that Papa only got 2 gallons that night and I got 2 the next morning. She heard the pigs 'whoof' and just about scared the daylights out of me. Her whole body did the lift up and move inches trick!! While I was milking. Now that's she's gotten used to them a bit she tattles on them. One of them got out yesterday and she bawled and bawled until we got it back in. Now the entire strength of the fencer is on the pig pen. I doubt they'll get out again. This morning I got about as much milk as I normally do so she has adjusted well. The plan right now is to butcher at least the biggest 3 between Christmas and new years. Maybe the biggest 4. We already have a line on Berkshire wieners for April and we are looking forward to trying the breed.

We loaded up the kids in the back of the Travelall and went and got a load of poplar from the back. 30 minutes and we had a truck bed trailer loaded and unloaded. I love being prepared!!! Because our weather this year is so mild we have not been burning any pine unless we need to start a fire. So we have been going through more poplar then normal. Which is fine with us as we have TONS of the stuff split and stacked.

Turkey Butchering day.

It was time. The turkey was big and fat. Thanksgiving was coming. The bird had to die. LOL. We borrowed a huge pot essentially. In German it's called a maul groughpen. (my spelling) It has a metal bottom piece that holds a huge metal bowl. Under the bowl there is a door where you put a propane torch and this heats up the bowl and you can cook with it, render lard or scald birds. With big gatherings they make soup in these things and it's amazing how many people you can feed with 20 gallons of soup!! 20 gallons is roughly what it holds. It's perfect for scalding turkeys. We only had the one so Papa just held it. But if you had more then 5 turkeys you'd really want a dipper on a board, lever style. As it was it took both Papa and I to get him out of the water that last time. We set the kids in front of a movie, with Baby R in her exersauser and headed out to butcher him. I had set everything up in place during nap time and so all we had to do was light the torch and start. Papa lit the torch and killed the 5 roosters someone gave us. Then while the water heated for the turkey I split the breasts open on the roo's and took out the breast meat. The rest of the bird went to the pigs. (we had the breasts for supper the next night with friends. YUM) By the time I was done the water was about to temp and Papa went and caught the turkey. I thought it would take a bit but Papa just walked in, picked him up and walked out. We have a stump with 2 nails in it and Papa put his head in between them and handed me the turkeys legs. CHOP went his head!! Back went Momma!! I just about landed on my rear!!! The turkey flapped his wings after he died and I was trying to hold him still and getting pulled and pushed and manhandled by a dead turkey. Papa started yelling "LET GO" and I finally heard him and dropped that big old turkey!! We think he weighed between 25 and 30 lbs dressed out.

Funny things Kids say.

We had oatmeal for breakfast the other day and J pips up "I feel just like Moses." I stared at him "WHAT??" Oatmeal to Moses. What a jump. "Look" Says my creative son. He has just a thin layer of oatmeal in the bottom of his bowl and he took his spoon and took a scoop of oatmeal right down the middle. Sure enough I thought. Moses parting the red sea. Or in this case J parting the oatmeal sea. LOL.

On the way to the baby shower the other night we pulled into the church parking lot and L says "Are we going to a WEDDING??" (we had a lot of weddings this summer). So I explained that it was a party for a new baby. Well he comes back with "A Baby wedding??" Of course his brother thought that was hilarious so we all giggled about it for a bit. After that there was no going back. Baby wedding was the joke of the night.

E loves our friend Becca. Us ladies had girls night a few nights ago and Becca's husband Blair was here with the kids and Papa while we were out having fun. They all had supper together and E just could not understand why Becca wasn't there. "Becca??" she'd ask Blair. "Becca's at girls night with Momma" he'd say. "Becca??" she'd ask again. LOL. I guess she asked him so many times that he finally asked L "Where is Becca??" L knows this answer already from listening and parrots "At girls night with Momma" Then Blair asks J, "At girls night with Momma" I guess after that she quit asking.