Merry Christmas!

May the Lord richly bless you and yours this Christmas and throughout the coming year!
Blessings
Erin

Yarn Along / KCCO

Good morning! Today is a chilly day here in Alberta, however it is about 15 degrees warmer than it was this weekend so I won't complain!
I have worked on and finished several projects in the last few weeks, but sadly was unable to post them and join along with Ginny and Nicole! So this week I determined that I am going to this week! Even if I have to take pictures in the dark!
My current wip is a scarf for myself, which I have hardly touched because I finished 7 frilly sashay scarves in the last few weeks as Christmas gifts! I have also been trying to get to my huge sewing list, as we are doing a handmade Christmas this year! I was able to make a sweet little skirt for my middle daughter, I still need to finish two seams with the serger and topstich over the hem and add some embellishment, but it is mostly done lol! I have more of the same beautiful fabric so I am going to make a similar skirt for Julianna.
As for reading, I was given a couple of easy read Christmas books, I have read one of them, just for some light reading, not sure if I will get to the others!
Hope you are all enjoying crafting this week and don't forget to head over to Ginny's  and Nicole'sto see what all the other ladies are working on!
Blessings
Erin

Three new additions to the homestead!

Technically they were born two weeks ago-however, they are sooo tiny and naked and their mothers will eat them if we disturb them at all, that we haven`t actually seen them until today!
Baby bunnies!!!
There are three, two black and one honey colored. They are sooo soft and sweet and cute and oh I am gushing lol! I LOVE baby bunnies!
The girls were delighted today when they went out to feed and water them, and to their surprise three little balls of fluff hopped around chasing each other! They came running to the house to tell me all about them! Then begged me to come see ( of course I was going to anyway!)
Seriously-there is no cuter baby than a baby bunny!
As soon as it warms up I will go take a picture of them! So stay tuned for major  cuteness!

In other homesteading news, we loaded 110 square bales into the horse trailer yesterday from a neighbor, to go around the bottom of our house-we are now officially hill billy`s... I had hoped they would get put up today, but dad and Les are hosting a group Christmas party from the city today, taking them sleigh riding and having a bonfire out in the back woods, roasting chestnuts over the open fire, and having hot dogs and hot chocolate!  Trouble is it is -25 and much colder with the wind chill! Sure hope everyone dressed warmly!
Guess my house will have to wait until tommorow!
Also wanted to tell you that my buff orpington`s are finally laying! I am now getting on average 16 eggs per day! Needless to say we have had scrambled eggs several times this week!
Well that about sums up what`s happening around here!
Better go put more wood on the fire! Hope you all are staying warm!
Blessings
Erin

The birthday tea party!

Julianna has been asking for a tea party birthday for awhile now, so this year I thought ok-we can do this! I am pretty proud of how it all turned out! The girls were all required to dress in their favorite fancy dresses ( and to bring a change of clothes for going outside).
I have to admit that I searched pinterest for some idea's as I am not that creative when it comes to the finer details! There sure are some elaborate party decor's out there!
We went with a pink/yellow/white theme, the table was set with 7 different mini tea sets, I made mini cupcakes, mini sugar cookies ( I had lots of help decorating them!) little jam heart sandwiches and jelly pinwheels. They had apple cinnamon tea, and were able to serve themselves cream and sugar. I explained to them how high tea started in England, and why people still enjoy it today. Then Julianna served all her guests, and they chatted away! It was quite cute! My girls also bought Olivia a little plastic tea set so she could participate in the tea party! She was sooo cute!
Once they were done tea, they played downstairs (by the way this is all taking place at my parents house across the yard from us as we don''t have room in this little cottage!)
Then after awhile they all went outside to join the boys and men for a sleigh ride. Les and my dad had hooked up both teams and so they had two sleighs going, which always makes for lots of fun as they chase eachother, play catch up and try pushing eachother off lol! After everyone came in and warmed up, we served an early supper, and a bunch more appetizers and junk food!
All in all I think it was a very successful party, and the girls were so thrilled with how it worked out-which of course makes me happy!
So here are a few party pics-not as many as I would like, because my sd card was full!!! Gahhh!

These first two are the morning before the party-Olivia with her new tea set!

The girls were pretty happy with the decor, Les and I were up till midnight the night before to finish decorating!

With one of the cute cousins!

All gone mama! Where`s more!

Happy Birthday to the sweetest 1 year old!

My baby turns one today...trying really hard not to cry about that! This little girl has stolen all our hearts! She is doted on by everyone in our family and her dimpled grins and cute little character have endeared her to pretty much anyone she meets!

At one you are pulling yourself up on all the furniture-but not letting go yet! You are a little chatter box (how could you not be with two older chatterbox sisters!) You can say eight words already! Hi, hot, owieee (in a high pitch whiny voice lol) mommy, daddy, papa and kitty!

You love to snuggle! And give kisses-wide open mouth ones ( and sometimes you try to give me tongue!) You wave hi and bye, and you can blow kisses (sooo cute). You have such a little personality! You are always making us laugh with all your funny faces and goofy antics!

Olivia I am so thankful for you, you have filled our family with so much joy, and brought us all closer together. You have even managed to wrap your daddy around your baby finger! He has never been so willing to change a diaper, and he even insists on me leaving you with him when I have to run to town-this is highly unusual!

Baby girl I can't wait to see who you grow up to be, but please don't grow so fast!
We love you!
Happy 1st Birthday!

Happy ninth birthday!

Today my oldest daughter is nine! I really don't know where the time has gone.
Julianna, you are such a sweet special girl. You have a servants heart, and this year I have seen you grow so much in your walk with God! You read your bible all the time, you are so eager to learn everything you can about Him, as well as everything else! You are such a blessing to me, you are very helpful around our home, you adore your baby sister and love to dote on her. You are always willing to help you brother or sister, and so patient and kind in showing them how to do new things. I love you so much sweetheart! I can't wait to see the beautiful girl you grow up to be!

Yarn along!

I finished it!!! In time for the baby shower! (I am really bad for trying to finish things by a certain time and always fail miserably!) The little Milo for River, with the owl cables-I love it!
I also finished (all but the weaving in of the ends!) two frilly scarves for Christmas presents! Those things work up sooo fast! Next project -that I am going to cast on this evening is a scarf for myself, I liked the colors of this yarn-King Cole twist Aran. So hopefully there will be some progress as it has been snowing here like crazy and really there is not much else that is more enticing than knitting  in front of my wood stove, while the snow falls!!!!
Happy crafting and don't forget to join along with Ginny for yarn along and see what everyone is creating!
Blessings
Erin

More adventures in homesteading(Edited to add photos!)

We have finished our chicken coop and huge wonderful run-thanks to my hubby who worked on it during his holidays this year! We have moved our new chicks (who are already 6 weeks old!) out of the brooder and into the big coop. We set up a temporary divider both in the coop and outside in the run. They are so much happier now! And growing like crazy! Their feed bill is starting to hurt a bit! As I am buying purely organic feed for them and the grass has stopped growing in the run *gulp* Good thing they are worth it, and that we are selling most of them! All that is left is for me to paint everything and for Les to put the people door on properly to get into the run. This is where more adventures begin...

We have had a really bad wind storm the last couple of days (which is usually what happens right before the weather changes so am now bracing myself for some COLD and SNOW) Les had just put up a temporary door into the run out of a piece of old plywood. In the wind it had blown down and I had gone out twice to put it back up and try to brace it into place. I guess I was unsuccessful for when the kids went outside to get into the vehicle to head to AWANA both dogs were eating two of my chicks!!! GRRRR I was so mad at them! So I chased them with the van, honking my horn, I chased them all the way to mom's and she put them both on a leash for the rest of the day and night. Needless to say when Les got home from work that night he got right at fixing that door!

In other homesteading news, we have some new additions to the farm. A couple weeks ago Les brought home 8 rabbits from an auction sale he went to (thankfully it wasn't horses as he has a really bad habit of buying horses at these auctions when we can't afford them lol!) These rabbits are for meat. There are four males and four females, Les picked the best of the males and put him in with Benjamin's female Freckles-we should be getting babies in about two or three weeks!! Then he put the females in what was the chicks brooder and the males he put in the rebuilt moveable hutch that he put much stronger wire on, so the dogs don't get in this time!

And one other new animal is a horse the girls have named Cash (because of all the cash they are going to win barrel racing with him lol) We had been hoping and praying for a really good kids horse, we had gone to a couple of auctions that were advertising really well broke kids horses, but they were going out of our price range. All summer we had been hoping to get another horse because despite the fact that there are over 16 horses on this ranch, only three of them are broke for riding, and two are young and still spook easily and the other is my dads OLD ranch horse that he's had since I was born, and has a bad leg and doesn't listen lol! The girls started taking riding lessons at our wonderful neighbors house ( we just love her, and she also teaches cubbies at our church for awana) Her and her husband have a neighbor that wanted to sell this older really well broke horse. Les went to see him, was so impressed that he bought him on the spot! He got him really cheap as the guy lives in the city and was just boarding him out at this neighbors farm and didn't want to feed him over the winter. So praise the Lord we now have a bomb proof kids horse!

Well that is all for now, I will leave you with some pictures of the coop and rabbit hutches!
Blessings
Erin

The male rabbit hutch

Curious chickens, they always come running to me!

The big chickens run, and you can see the new wind fence in the background

The main coop, awaiting paint and a proper door to the little chicks run

See the plywood door!

Freckles and Floppy Ears! Our breeding hutch

This is a terrible pic, but this is our makeshift brooder, it was here when we moved ..
We had cleaned out the woodshed that day to make room for all the wood, so all the feed storage was sitting out! It too is awaiting paint!

Les set up a work table for me, so that when he is cutting with the chain saw, I can be cutting the pile of old rails from the old fences he and my dad to out.

We filled our woodshed about half full in about two hours, it sure helps to have so many extra hands!!

What is left of the wood Les drug home through the summer, some really nice big birch logs! He has them all bucked up now, just needs more time to finish splitting it all!

The other side of the run, if you really look you can see the split in the middle

The pile of old rails I get to chop up with the chop saw!

We also got started on the insulation for the floors...it is a really slow process!

Some random fall photos

A few weeks ago a really good friend and I did our annual fall photo shoot. When we first started we each only had one child, now there are seven between us! This of course made for a very interesting attempt at photos lol! I love taking fall pics of the kids, however my new camera and I were not agreeing on things *smile* in other words I spent much of the time fighting with learning how to use it in manual mode and having many photos not turn out. In the end I got a few really good ones, and thats what counts! So here is a fall photo buffet!