This and That during prepping for Christmas

                                               Our Christmas tree

                                          Grandpa and Jayla

                                          Jayla helping mix up blueberry coffee cake

                                          Haulin hay to the cows

                                          Grandma are you sure she's not going to buck or something!

                                          Learning to milk the goats with Grandma

                                          Peanuts for Patches and he was nice and didn't get fingers too

                                          Making "Birdseed Bread" for gifts today

                                          First batch done and cooling

                                          Two batches of Birdseed Bread and only two a bit overdone( stove got stoked and I didn't know it) and the stoker didn't know I was baking ! LOL!!!  Nothing to bad just on the ends of two loaves.

Weekend with the grandkids

We were so blessed in having both of our grandkids overnight last weekend. They both had loads of fun and pooped out Grandpa and Grandma*wink*  Here are a few videos and pictures of the kids playing with the goat kids and feeding the lambs. :o)

We're still alive, in case you were worried! Update w/ pictures

It seems as if life keeps speeding up, rather than slowing down for our family. Since Christmas we've been enjoying spending time with our granddaughter, Jayla and our son, Jon whom we were out of touch with for over a year, so we have lots of last time to make up for. :o)

 This is our granddaughter, Jayla, she'll be two this month and is she ever precious to all of us!

                                  Grandpa, Grandma(me) and Jayla being shy for her pictures.

 Mike's Mom was married on New Years Eve to Leroy, who had been a part of our lives since Jon and Cortney were babies themselves. Leroy was diagnosed with lung cancer in July and  passed away the 26th of Jan. We miss him everyday, he was indeed a very special man to all of us!

                                  Our son, Jon and Jayla

                          Jon, Jayla, Great Grandma and me at Great Grandma's birthday party.

                                     We did a mini remodel in our kitchen, the refrigerator used to sit where the ladder is in this photo, but with the wood cook stove so close the frig ran all the time and with electric prices on the rise we needed to do something. So... where you see the frig. now used to be where my china hutch used to be and now the china hutch is where the frig used to be. Of course none of our projects go off without a hitch, and our hitch was.... the cabinet above the frig needed to be removed, but the installer used glue to place the trim along the ceiling, so when we removed it guess what it tore the sheet rock on the ceiling! Now we've patched this with mud and will have to sand prime that area and repaint the entire ceiling but it will have to wait until we're no longer using the wood cook stove, so we can tape everything off with plastic*sigh*

 While we were moving stuff I decided to paint two walls a sage green to give the kitchen some color. It turned out very nice and we all love the added color.

 Behind the stove is the second wall to be painted and then we finished off baseboard trim, ceiling trim and add a mantle to the brick behind the stove with a shelf that goes through to the living room side in the cubby hole behind the stove( see below). With it all finally finished we're moving onto finishing the mud/laundry room now.

                                            The cubby hole and mantle all finished


We'd been anxiously awaiting our does the kid, checking on them every couple of hours. On Feb 28th I'd checked the does at approx. 3:45pm and they both were in their barn because it was snowing cats and dogs and Ginger especially hated snow and rain. Both were fine, no sign of labor and distress. At 5:00pm we went out to do evening chores, as I open the gate I saw Ginger lying on the ground outside, I knew something was wrong, because she wouldn't have been out in the snow for anything, not even feed. I quickly approached her and realized she was dead, still warm to the touch, I tried to see if there was anything in the birth canal, but there was nothing. So sadly we lost Ginger and her baby(ies)  Now worried about how Angel was going to react to being alone I was up checking her every hour or so. On the morning of Feb 29th she was sad but no sign of labor, so we headed out for Cortney's cleaning job at 10:30am. When we arrived home Cortney went to let the dogs out while I checked on Angel when I looked in the barn, guess what I saw?????( see below)

                        Leap Year kids!!!!This little doeling all wet and trying to make it to her feet

               The white doeling was born first was dry and moving around well already. So we dried them both, cut and dip their cords in iodine and watched them nurse!

 Angel is Cortney's goat, can't you see how happy she is!  She was so worried about Angel kidding and the time she'd be alone, but she wasn't alone long, PTL!*wink* The dark doeling is named, Poppy and Cortney gave her to me because I lost Ginger, what a sweetheart my daughter is Huh?

                         This is Pansy, Cortney's doeling

                                 Angel is so proud, look she's grinning! Angel is such a wonderful mother too!

                               Happy Mama and kids! They doelings and Angel are all doing great, romping and jumping. Our weather has been so nice, 60F yesterday, so the kids romped, bucked, jumped and races off and on all day yesterday. Today is nice too, so they'll have fun again. I can't believe how quick they are and how fast they are growing. They are the highlight of our days! I'm still sad over the loss of Ginger and her kid(s) but that is unfortunately part of life, the vet thought since she'd been starved( remember we rescued and adopted them last Summer) that it weakened her heart and she had a heart attack, it had to have been something like that because it was only alittle over an hour since I'd checked she and Angel and both were chewing their cud in the barn.*sigh*
                               If I wasn't a glutton for punishment, I've added in an EMT course that will run til the first of June to my already hectic schedule. I am alittle stressed and this morning woke up with a head cold to top it all off!  Thanks for catching up and I hope to find more time to post pictures of the shop progress( trusses will be going up soon and then the metal roofing) the garden and our animals. Peace be with you all and know I think of you and the blog all the time, it's just finding the time and energy to make it here to post*wink*  Let me know what's been going on in your lives too, we love the interaction with each of you!
Many Blessing to each of you this week and in the coming weeks.
                   

I hesitate to share this.....

Yesterday was our only Grandaughter's 1st Birthday.  We have not been allowed contact with Jayla since last Easter. I'm not going to go into details but will add that our Ds has also disassociated himself from his entire family, his Father, sister and myself, as well as Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and cousins. I don't even begin to understand this, I've racked my brain over and over again and a still small voice keeps telling me, " It's beyond your control, let it go."  So it is with a heavy heart that we think of our Grandaughter Jayla on her 1st Birthday, wondering how beautiful she must be now, , if she talks, crawls or maybe even walks. She is in our daily prayers and maybe someday we'll get to meet her again, God willing.

                                  

Grandma power kicking in.... heeee, heeee

Mom( Bobbi) and wide awake Jayla
Her hair is a light brown with red tones and blue eyes!
Cortney is in 7th heaven, a niece and she's hoping to be able to babysit
Jayla and Jaymz. She just loves kids and they seem to be drawn to
her.

Nothing else mattered today, but tomorrow we have laundry to finish
and get hung outside. My wringer washer is down for repairs(oil leak)
but was blessed to come up with yet another wringer washer*grin*
It's square instead of round and works like a charm. Once Mike
gets it resealed and running again, we'll be able to get laundry done
twice as fast.*wink*

Thanks for all the compliments, she is a blessing from God and we
feel privileged to have her. :o)

Thank God for small blessings.... She's here, our granddaughter!

Our precious granddaughter arrive a few weeks early, today! Jayla Rae weighs 6lbs 14 oz.
and was 19" long. Mom and baby are doing well and Dad is so proud!

So tired, it was a long day!
Jayla did show us her beautiful eyes and was quite alert for several
minutes, before falling fast asleep.

Proud Dad, he was so excited!
Big Brother Jaymz, Grandpa Mike and Jayla Rae
Grandma Kelle and Jayla, she's perfect and I'm not just bragging
Aunt Cortney, me and Jayla , so tiny.
Big Brother Jaymz and Aunt Cortney, she can't wait to babysit Jayla!

This sure lightened my mood after the health care vote on Sun.

evening. None of that seems so important right now. We're simply

enjoying our precious gift and blessing. :o)