This and That

At Canadian Tire we found a large raw hide bone. The kids could not wait to bring it home for Ranger. Ranger thought he hit the jackpot!! He did not want anyone touching it for fear it might be taken away.
Look at how possessive he is when then kids are sitting by him.
One end is already chewed off. I think his mouth is sore because he has taken a little break from chewing. It's been a while since he's had some bones so I think he is out of shape.
This is the design Russell made with popcorn. How sweet. Russell decided to spend some of his Christmas money and bought himself a John Deere skid steer. For a few years now Russell augers, grades, loads and what ever else he can think of. Yesterday and today he has been doing lots of using the bucket of the skid steer to load the popcorn into the grainery.
This was Chloe's design. In the top left corner of the picture it is I, a heart and U. Very cute. I love it when they come up with little ways to to show their love to me. They are to the age where they write little notes and draw cute pictures for me. It made my day.
Russell has always had problems with grains. The last little while things have been getting worse again so we decided to put him on a cleanse and and take him off of grains totally for a month. Well the month is over now. I have been creative with my cooking. Today I made gluten free blueberry muffins. The recipie only made 12 so I didn't taste them but he said they were very good (I made regular blueberry muffins for the rest of us). So while I was in the "trying new things mood" I made gluten free pizza crust. I bought Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour. I had been reading reviews about gluten free pizza crusts and how good they are. So I found a recipe from Bob's Red Mill web site for pizza crust. I have to get use to the texture of the dough. I caved a little and added a tiny bit of wheat flour.
This is the pizza ready for the oven. I got a recipe from Angie Letniak that makes the best pizza. You put all the toppings on the dough and place in a cold oven, than turn the oven on to 500 degrees F and let it bake. Not sure if it would work for this but....
Ooohh la la!! What fantastic pizza. Curtis and I like it better then the regular crust. The kids thought it was great as well. Russell loves being able to have bread type foods. The flour is very expensive so I will only be making it for him. So we will all be having waffles for breakfast in the morning. Russell has had perogies, pasta and a piece of garlic bread this week and seems to be OK. I know if his system gets saturated, we will be back the square one. We are just limiting his grains to a few times a week or when we are not eating at home.

Sunday in the Snow

What a beautiful day. The temperature is above freezing and the sky is clear. Curtis went up on the roof to see how much snow was up there. On this side of the house, the valley faces north so more snow collects there. It was 2' deep in places. He just did a bit of shoveling around the vents and eaves.


Mr. Grant came over with his quad that has tracks on it. Curtis took it for a spin in the yard. Well the spin didn't last very long as he got stuck by the lease road.

Mr. Grant walked out there to give a hand. The snow is so deep and hard to walk in. The quad was just about buried.


So after some shoveling and rocking, the quad came out. Mr. Grant had to empty his boots of snow. After walking through that much snow, snow gets everywhere.

Instead of staying on the lease road, they cut across our yard and almost were stuck again. I think these 2 guys just like to see how much the machine will go through. We go on quad rides with Grant. While Bev and I stay on the trails, the guys are off on a different trail with more mud.
Our family went out on a little quad ride this afternoon with Ranger. We stopped on the side of the road and climbed the windrows left from the grader and jumped into the snow. What fun. The battery was dead in Russell's camera so no pictures this time. While on the road, it was like we were in a tunnel.

Snow Snow Snow

The temperature warmed up so out the kids went. I looked out the window at them to see they were having a hard time in the snow. I thought they were just playing. I had them come back to the garage. I quickly put on my winter gear, grabbed the camera and headed out. If the snow was truly that deep, I wanted pictures of it. As I started trudging over the banks, I realized it was very deep. The snow on the level is to my bum and I'm not 5' tall!! So the kids had to almost swim through the snow. I had a hard time breaking trail because I could not lift my legs high enough over the snow to take another step. A great workout at best.
Ranger only goes out where the snow has not been plowed after someone else has made a trail.

There is not much of a slide for the kids go down. Russell had fun cleaning off the play center.

It is hard to tell here because everything is so white. The snow banks are very tall. The grader sees our yard is getting drifting in because we can only push so much with the quad and opens our driveway back up. These pictures were taken a few days ago and there is more snow. I will take pictures of the tunnel for our driveway and post them later.

I am very thankful I live in the country. In the city, there is snow plowing but no snow removal. They make windrows down the center of the street and leave it there. This amount of snow is normal for this area. The last several years have not been normal in the snow department. Chloe and I took the quad out on the road before it was plowed. It just floated over the snow, we had fun. Ranger had a good run. Curtis will shovel the 2 valleys on the roof on Sunday. The rest of the rood does not collect that much snow. The snow won't be going away for a few months yet so we are going to enjoy it.

Mom & Dad's 35th Wedding Anniversary Celebrations

The most beautiful kids in the world. This was taken before the activities got underway.

Mom's sister, Melody, flew in from Florida just in time for the cold weather so she could be here for this special vow renewal. She did all the floral arrangements and did a fantastic job.
The Whitmore's
The Weich's
I love this picture, Auntie Melody and her niece Chloe.
Pastor Shawn Brummund giving words of advice and encouragement from scripture.
Praying for the couple.
THE KISS!
Not sure what was going on here but I love the expression on their faces.
Curtis giving a tribute to Dad.
There will be many more years of smiles for each other.

The three siblings together.
Our family. What a great looking bunch we are!
A carrot cake beautifully decorated by a church member.
Mom's favorite colors are purple and orange. Very stunning.
The floral center pieces just tied everything in.
I think this is the first time they have had a chance to "cut the cake". I they had fun. The evening was full of pleasant memories, great company, and delicious food.
After all the excitement, one must rest. That time came the earliest for baby Victoria.

Winter Activities

Well we have finally received the snow we have been praying for and so desperately need. I'm the sure the farmers will be in good moods now!! There is lots of beauty around.

The little triangle you see is one f my evergreen trees. This tree is about up to my waist with no snow. Now it is all covered.
These pictures were taken at 9:30 am and there still is not much light. I do notice it staying light longer in the evening but the mornings are still dark for a long time.
The snow in our bowl by the walk out basement is half way up the garden doors. I wanted to take a picture but everything is so white there is no definition as to how deep the snow really is.

The snow up around the tires on the truck was just from overnight. When the wind stopped blowing, Curtis went out and started plowing. It has been snowing on and off for over a week and the snow was beginning to add up. With temps in -30's with a wind, being out on a quad was not going to happen. Now the temperature is -25 Celsius and no wind, so it's really not that bad out. We're going to feel like we are in a heat wave if we hit -10 Celsius like the weather man is predicting. Looks like the warmer weather will be here just in time to see my head back to Florida!!

Chloe had her friend Ciera come skating with her on Friday.

First one, than the other. The second top tooth was not that loose. As soon as she lost the one, within a few days, the second one came out. Two less to clean for the hygienist this week. I should see if there is a deal because she does not have all her teeth!
The month of January is going by not too bad. We have been doing creative and fun things in school to keep the kids occupied. We are very happy for the warm basement where we spend most of our time. With the cold weather the doggy has been sleeping in the house. As long as I get to sleep before Curtis and Ranger, I'm good. They both snore. If it warms up this week, outside he goes to sleep with the cats. They are missing his heat I'm sure.
We will be starting on building the shelves for Chloe's walk in closet. She can't wait and I'm tired of not having a place to put her things. So stayed tuned for some pictures of the finished product.