As always, when life picks up its pace, blogging is one of the first things to go. 😊 Now, because of my procrastination, I am an entire month behind! 😳 (I don't know how these new emojis work on other's computers, so if it messes this post up, let me know and I'll take them off.)
Sit back and enjoy a glimpse into our busy lives!
Abi made cinnamon rolls (over a month ago). Mister Doughy was having himself a ball poking holes into the dough. :)
I had asked Sam to gather all the laundry so that I could start it when I got home from a cleaning job. Dobers was so cute tugging and pulling the heavy laundry baskets.
I finally finished the last six baby dresses for Kels! I had volunteered to sew up a bunch of dresses that she had cut out, but couldn't find the time to do. I think I sewed somewhere around 30-40 dresses altogether.
Irish weather 😉
This is the consequence for leaving ones phone lying around...
Kels put Alaina's hair in two piggies for the first time! It was absolutely adorable!
Here's a groaner for ya...
Abi and I clean a dusty old granary office. As you can see, they have a serious millipede problem during the winter. That pile was probably about 6-7" long and maybe an inch deep. I was completely grossed out! At least it was in Abi's part to clean. 😉
So true...
Chupps have finally found their new "forever home." It needs gutted so they've been having a lot of work days to get it done. This work day, the girls worked on pulling nails, scraping up disintegrated carpet pad, and cleaning.
Ancient carpet pad...
The boys "working" on the roof :P
Abi and I went to Omaha with Mabel, Lois Ann and Valeria. They wanted our "professional" advise on paint colors, etc for their house. We had a fun day of shopping!
Ouch. Unfortunately, this all too true for most Christians.
Opal adores one-on-one moments!
For sisters' meeting, we decided to cut out quilt blocks for CAM. Mabel also taught some of us how she makes her braided fleece blankets.
Aunt Carol had to hold onto a piece of the blanket so that it wouldn't unravel. We were calling her Linus. 😋
Lil' Tups
She doesn't enjoy sisters' meetings yet, but when there's food...
We cut out over two quilts worth of 5"x5" squares.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I was so glad when the elections were over! I saw this comic strip at a house that we were cleaning. I thought it was rather fitting.
I heartily agree!
Ah... Fall... A time of plenty.
Babysitting these little guys is always so much fun! I was trying to blog, but with two wiggly littles climbing all over you, you tend to type things you don't want to type or click on things you don't want to click on. 😁 I gave up after awhile.
Lunch time of 'ronies, they're favorite food!
Hm... This little guy loves, I mean he loves, coffee and hot chocolate, as you can tell by his mustache.
I found this yummy tea at Walmart...
Kels had to go to the store one day. She wasn't able to take Laina with her, so we got to watch her for the first time! She was so sweet.
I made them hot chocolate, which they loved!
Cute fat thing!
She really likes KK.
"Ah'm binkin' muh eyes."
Abi got almost the entire front of our barn painted!
You know the old adage, "when it rains, it pours"?
Our furnace's motherboard is very sensitive to moisture. As most of you know, we have an old farmhouse basement that isn't so great at keeping the damp out. We run dehumidifiers, but occasionally (ok, more than occasionally) we forget to dump the buckets out and the moisture builds up. Long story short, the moisture fried the motherboard so we didn't have a furnace till almost the end of November. No big deal, thanks to our iHeaters.
During the whole furnace fiasco, our sewer backed up. 😝 We thought our septic tank needed pumped, but the guys that came to do it said it didn't. They snaked the sewer line, which seemed to fix it. Thankfully, it's been working great ever since! It was no fun not flushing toilets, not doing laundry, or running water down the drains. We couldn't take showers... 😳 We had to wash dishes the old fashioned way by filling containers in the sink, then dumping them outside. I'm so glad it's over! We're warm, we smell good now that we can take showers, our laundry isn't piled to high heaven, and we can wash dishes the modern way. Yoohoo!
Little brothers are meant to be scared, right? I have a weakness for hiding behind corners and jumping out at people. 😏
There's nothing like an Iowa cotton candy sunrise!
KK took the camera to their job one day. They were steel roofing a barn. Way to go, guys! I'm just glad that's their job, not mine.
During harvest, the granary office that we clean gets super dusty! We can dust, and by the time we leave, it's all dusty again.
Mom, Abi and I made lunch for Chupps and our guys as they worked on their house one Saturday.
Abi and I were shopping at Walmart for different things. I had to get some candy for someone, so while we were in the candy aisle, she spotted these jellybeans. Apparently, she'd been craving them for a long time. Craving is now satisfied.
Need a good excuse not to do something? Here's a good one.
I've been having fun with the Pixlr app on my phone.
Isn't she cute!?
All of us pooled our resources and bought Abi a new iPhone for Christmas. We decided to give it to her now instead of waiting. 😊
Yet another example of when a little brother gets ahold of your phone...
They were all so cute eating their snacks after singing at the Care Center.
They just love the red punch that's served. It tastes nasty and it turns everything red that it comes in contact with!
I thought this was hilarious!
I decided to rearrange our room. I had to enlist Mom's help to hang pictures, though. I was too short.
Coffee stops are a must when you go to town!
I still have 35 euro from our last trip to Ireland. I'm saving it for the next trip. 😉
One of my favorite songs...
Mom, Abi and I cleaned church the day before Thanksgiving. We watched the littles that day too. The only safe place for them was sitting on the counter to eat Casey's donuts.
Then we took them shopping with us. They were very hungry, so we got them McDonald's chicken nuggets, their favorite. I just love doing things with them!
I know you aren't supposed to try hats on at a store, but they were so cute!
I thought this was so funny. It sounds just like our guys!
Pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving
This year, our church decided to serve Thanksgiving to the needy and those that had nowhere to go for the holiday.
Mom and I had a lot of fun decorating!
We hosted it at our church.
The master chef, my dad.
Servers
We played piano music over the iPad for background filler.
A veritable feast!
We only had 11 people show up from the community. We're hoping that as word gets around, more will come next year!
Abi bought a bunch of these cute egg baskets during a Black Friday sale at Orschelns. She's using them for the Christmas goodie baskets the we make every year for our neighbors and cleaning clients.
*Note: Notice Josh photobombing my picture?*
Oh dear.
I forgot to take pictures, but one of my best friends, Amy Gingerich, payed me a surprise visit a couple weeks ago. Emma Zook's sister lives near Amy, so when the sister came to visit Zooks, Amy texted me that she'd sent a Christmas present for me along with them. She kept insisting that I need to go to Zooks to pick it up. We were trying to get ready for overnight company so I told her I didn't think I'd be able to make it. Maybe Zooks could just bring it to church? No, she told me, it's fragile and she doesn't want the chocolate to melt. After thinking on it for awhile, I texted her, asking if the gift was her. She was like, oh! I'm way too bus, etc, etc. So I dropped it. Later that day, someone pulled into the driveway. It was Amy! She was only able to stay one night, but oh, did we have fun! Thanks for the amazing visit, Amy!
(Amy took that picture of Sam)
KK filled all his deer tags this year!
He also got a 12 point buck, but did't get a picture with it.
Mother and Son
Our company stayed from the Friday after Thanksgiving to Tuesday of the next week. We made biscuit dough pizza for our Sunday evening supper.
Dork
Loren and Kelly Fanton are planning on moving here to our church (actually, they just moved yesterday). They were a fun, easy family to host!
Talitha finally had her calf! He was born November 28 at 3:02 pm.
His name is Gus. 😊
I love plaid!
Hobby Lobby had these adorable dishes that I really wanted...
Sorry guys, I just had to put this on here...
I found these cute footie jammies for Lynna for Christmas during our Black Friday shopping. I can't wait to give them to her! She's going to love them!
