Christmas Play For Papa Part 3!

Well for some reason I cannot load Part 2.. I will keep trying in the next few days but for now I'll give you Part 3. 

This is the 1st verse and chorus of one of our Christmas Bluegrass songs "The KING as a Babe Comes Down" by Cherryholmes.

The RAT!!! Yes.. Another one!!

This picture is so NASTY I can barely look at it!! We've been hearing 'funny noises' under the house for some time. Honestly we thought it was the cat's or the pigs or maybe even Chip. Then one afternoon I opened my garbage door under the sink IN THE KITCHEN and something RAN across the front of the doors!! EEK!! I squealed and SLAMMED the door shut. There was a chair across the front of the door before you could say Lickity split! I was on the phone to Papa just seconds after that! He laughed.. -evil eye- and I got a little bit upset. He stopped laughing. But he wouldn't come home to deal with it.. 'just leave the chair across the door and I'll deal with it later.' Not exactly what I wanted to hear let me tell you. I called my cousin.. he likes to kill things and he's home from the bush.. besides Korey did tell me he'd really rather not be the one I call next time! (AND I DON'T BLAME HIM AT ALL!! YUCK) Mr. B, the cousin I called, saw no reason to rush over either and I knew I was sunk.. I was going to have to just deal with it until Papa got home. I was hoping it was the squirrel the kids have been feeding all fall.

So when Papa got home that night he found the trap and set it and also found a way to keep the doors locked without using a chair and we waited. TWO days later...I wake up to a BANG BANG BANG!! Papa has killed the rat. As you can see he had it's head caught in the trap but these things are TOUGH and it was still very alive so Papa to his large knife handle to its head!! 3 hits!! 

Here it is with J's hand!!

Now we're pretty sure this one has a friend but Papa has taken apart part of the bathroom and spray foamed a very large hole that we did not think we could get at from inside and couldn't get to from outside.. and I've not heard any more scratching or thumping or ANY more noise at all in the middle of the night. Though I have to admit the cupboard doors in the kitchen stay locked at night and in the bathroom the stool had a bucket of rice on it until just this afternoon... in front of the door that leads to the where we've seen and heard rat activity.

The kids really enjoyed the opportunity to study up on rats in our book PETERSON FIELD GUIDES MAMMALS and discussing which rat it was and why. It was a Bushy Tail Wood Rat.

Update.. There is another one!! Papa is going to set the trap under the SHOWER tomorrow!! Thankfully it cannot get into the actual house from under the shower! Papa will have to take part of the wall off to get the  trap in there and then we've just got to wait for it. I think this spring we will be moving the bags of animal food PERMANENTLY away from beside the house! DUH!!! Though to give us some credit.. it did take them almost 7 years to figure it out!

Christmas Play For Papa Part 1.

Every year for CHRISTmas the kids learn a verse for Papa as their gift to him. This year they did this little play. I helped VERY little. I did the script :) It's almost word for word out of Luke 2 in the Message Bible. They practiced like crazy and all knew their lines perfectly! In the recording J accidentally said half of L's lines. This is only the 1st part. I have all of it on video but it takes forever to download so I'm going to do it in parts!! J3 is a sheep.. His ears are just around his neck.. he's a black sheep :)

Making Cookies!!

We had a blast!! We made gingerbread cookies and brought some to Great Grandpa W!! They also made him a Christmas craft.

J3's 1st cookie!!

Snow Fun.

Jed and his snow carving. I think he said it was a bird! 

This one is Levi's and it IS a snake.. :) They've also made snowmen, snow angels, and snow balls. It has been very warm this winter so they have been spending long hours outside!

The Sign On the Hospital Door :)

It's a little late but this is the sign the kids and I made for our hospital door when Baby G was born. This way people could find our room easily, not that it's hard, and the kids knew which room was ours straight away because the sign was on the door. It also was a good last minute project to keep us busy while we waited for her to appear. It's a family tree. :) I got the idea from a fellow Momys who made one with her kids. 

Griggs Family Homeschool: Christmas Party!!

The kids couldn't participate in their class 'over the phone' Christmas Party (Our only working phone has no speaker phone!) so we made our own!! We had hot chocolate and cookies, played several games of BINGO and made a craft!! Super fun Party!! Next year we might even ask some other homeschoolers to join us! This year it was sort of spur of the moment :) 

They all take turns calling out the numbers, I did the 1st game but this way they can do it themselves and they love to call out the numbers so I'd be taking away a privilege if I did it! 

Christmas Letter 2011 :)

“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21

A Christmas Letter :)

Feels weird to be writing this letter already, we have no tree, no lights up, no decorations at all. It is December but when you live with the Grinch, I mean Josh, things happen a bit later in December then most households. (Since I wrote this letter we've gotten a Tree, decorated the house and done some baking :)

Well we've had another crazy year. We sure keep busy around here. Here are some highlights to the kids year.

*Jed finished Grade 1 at home and made the honour roll for all 3 terms :) He started Grade 2 this fall. He's out of his class in reading ( We are going to test after the new year and see where he stands, but his teacher believes grade 3 or 4 level.) and is half done his years paces for grade 2 already. His fathers child in many ways. He is most recently learning to cook and spent an hour looking at online recipes just this morning. He loves games.. at the moment it's chess.

*Levi learned he LOVES to draw and will spend hours each day drawing amazing pictures. He is an amazing fact book on dinosaurs, dragons and many animals. He started grade 1 at home this fall and soaks it in like a sponge. He loves to add but could skip subtraction, writes very neatly and enjoys reading the little stories in the paces.

*Emmaline also started Grade 1, at home, and learned to read with the ACE program. She still battles asthma occasionally but is a much healthier child since her diagnosis. She is one tough little girl. She still walks on her tip toes and enjoys subtraction and reading and dislikes adding.

*Rose was a flower girl in my cousins wedding this fall and did a WONDERFUL job looking as cute as she is :) Her latest cute statements are “Do you like my clothes?” and “Protect the princess!! I'm the princess!!” She insists on 'doing school' and totally loves the two little work books we got her. She has a lot of patience with Jesse and often plays with him while we do school and seems to enjoy mothering him.

*Jesse started walking and talking and generally growing up into a little boy instead of a baby. He is quite a roughneck and loves all things boy. He and Maggie, the cow, seem to have a relationship and he loves all things animal. We are enjoying watching his personality emerge, and wondering at his future.

*Announcing Grace Rebecca Ruth who joined our family on November 18^th, at 11pm weighing 8lbs, 4oz and 20m inches long. She is a wonderful baby and everyone loves to hold and cuddle her. She's just what we needed. Praise the Lord!!

As for Josh and I we spent a good chunk of the year battling a herniated disk in Josh's back which is finally on the mend, homeschooling, raising children for the Lord, farming, building and working. Oh and going to school!! Josh is now officially a certified mechanic!!! YAY!!!

Josh's back started acting up while he was in school this spring and got progressively worse until I finally hauled him into the ER as he was in so much pain he didn't even argue with me!! Several weeks later we mostly had our Papa back. He is still on some drugs but is mobile and working and generally normal :) Well... as normal as he gets :)

Our 1^st year of homeschooling went very well!! Jed learned a lot and so did I :) Both Levi and Emmaline learned a fair amount considering they weren't actually IN school. This fall we started year 2 and are planning on staying the course. We love it. We would not do it any other way!!

On the farm this year we had a great year. Our sows gave us 17 of the cutest piglets EVER, we put 179 chickens in the freezer, and we even got peas from our patch :) Maggie, the cow, had TONS of grass with the wet weather and we never ran out of grass for her all season! She has now been milking for over a year and is hopefully bred. We paid to have her AI'd to a Jersey bull this fall. The two calves lived the spring to fall in the back leased acreage and at the neighbours (OPPS!) and grew like crazy! They will be ready to butcher next fall and I'm drooling for steak already! We cleared another small area and seeded it to grass. We were super blessed by lots of chicken butchering help, panels from our neighbours and being able to help out a friend who in turn helped us out immensely after Baby Grace was born.

Building!! What a crazy mess. We plastered the 1^st coat on to our straw bale addition late this summer. 17 wheel barrows of plaster finished the 1^st coat and equals about 17 man hours of plastering! We still have two coats to do. The second coat is mixed and waiting for Josh's back to heal and some free time. HA free time, what a contradiction in terms! :) Josh also got the addition plumbed and winter ready and completely wired with lights in the right places. I got a brand new HUGE washing machine which cuts my laundry days in half. We also replaced the hot water tank, so the only appliance we have not replaced with new ones in the last 5 years is the dryer and we really try not to use it at all.

Josh finished his apprenticeship this summer and swore in for his Canadian citizenship so now he is a certified US/Canadian mechanic and still loving it!! He still works at Valley Diesel with the same great guys. He has now completed 2 apprenticeships and garnered a college diploma!! What an amazing man I married!

The kids are growing, learning about God, work and some schooling too. We keep busy answering questions, finding answers and learning more and more about the children God gave us. At 7, 6, 5, 3,1 and 2 weeks old we find we are always learning something. It's amazing.

I keep busy with homeschooling, farming, blogging, reading and keeping all our ducks in a row while taking time to play with my new iPad2 Josh surprised me with this fall. We have now gently entered the high tech world. We still don't have a cell phone yet but I can't imagine it will be too long before that happens.

Josh and I passed our 12 year anniversary this fall and in August I passed a momentous moment in life.. I've now officially known Josh half my life! What a wonderful God we serve.

Merry Christmas to you all!! Remember JESUS is the reason we celebrate this fun season!

“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21

Merry CHRISTmas From

The Griggs Family.

Visitors For Grace.

We've had a LOT of visitors who have come to see Baby G!! And we loved every minute of it!! SO if you haven't come yet and want too.. DO!!!  :) These pictures are of some of the people who came and blessed us with a visit! I do not have pictures of everyone who came! JenK from Our Peculiar Lives and her family are some I missed, Rita and Weston are another. And I'm probably missing a few! Sorry!! The pictures are in no particular order :) Just as they loaded! Some pictures are at our house, some at Grandma's and some in the hospital. 

Mr. B fresh from guiding deer up north.

My newly married cousin Amy :) 

Cousin Ruger was so pleased. 

Cousin Kacey. 

Mrs. B Baby G is named after this wonderful lady and it was a neat moment when the two met!

My Aunt Susan and Uncle Joe! 

My cousin Justina and her 4 children. The kids all held Baby G for a quick moment! 

Our WONDERFUL FRIEND Lan and her 4 children. Except for Joshua they all held her as well. My kids love these kids and they have a BLAST together!! 

My parents one of their visits! They've seen her several times and we finally got a picture!! :) 

My sister Ang and her girls M and C. This was the girls 1st look at Baby G. 

M holding Baby G. C actually opted out which surprised me as when J3 was a baby she wanted to pack him around!! 

Ang's husband Korey. She looks like she's smiling in this one! Or passing gas :P 

A good friend of ours Amber whom we met in 'the city' the last time we went!! 

Grandma, my mom, in the hospital.. our 1st visitor! 

My sister Ria and her husband David, one of the 1st visitors as well.. their kids are Ruger and Kacey. 

Lan in the hospital.. she put a very put out Baby G to sleep right after this picture was taken!! 

And Last but not least.. and probably not last either :) as I'm thinking their might be a few more pictures yet, My sister Ang in the hospital. 

~Cooking Lessons~

While Baby G and I were chilling at the hospital right after her birth Papa taught J how to cook bacon! Yes BACON with all it's ins and outs and splatters! Then a few days ago we were making pancakes and the kids wanted to help so we let them :) J made the bacon and E and L took a turn at the griddle... cooking pancakes! Now we just need some one who can cook eggs :) 

Will not be too long and I won't have to help make breakfast at all!! 

Baby G Needs Toys!!

My wonderful little 'mommies' brought Baby G a bunch of toys the other day while she was laying on the bed. They even tucked their babies in with her...' so she has company!' 

Pizza Night!!!

Papa made us some yummy chicken and pepperoni pizza the other night! It was really good!! 

Grace's 1st Bath

5 days old.

She liked it honest!! 

She truly loved it. J took the pictures.

A Few More Of Baby G!!

Grace's Newborn Pictures!!

These pictures totally speak for themselves!!

 I have to admit this bottom one is my FAVORITE!!! 

Thank You Jen!!