Meet Mater

When Josh's bunny unexpectedly died, he was crushed.

He was also lost without a furry little buddy to love.

So...I am pleased to introduce...

Mater the guinea pig.

Mater Tot

The Mater Man

Mater Tater

Everyone already loves this little guy.

Especially Joshua.

Surprisingly he doesn't hide in his little hut all day long.

I would if I was him.

Maybe it is all the treats that he gets fed.

Pretty soon he'll be as wide as he is long and he won't fit through the door of his hut.

But, in the meantime, all is well...

Joshua is happy...

So, life is good. :)

We Love Our Ducks!

It's no secret around here that we are Duck fans!

The last couple of years we have been privileged to get to know Brandon Bair (#88) and his beautiful wife and QT pie daughter.

When they come over to our house, Brandon (who is 6'7") has to Duck (get it?  Duck...Ha! Becky made a funny!) to come in through the door. 

Even Levi has noticed that Brandon is not small.  "Dad", he said. "Brandon Bair is a lot bigger then you!" 

Yes, Brandon is a big guy and he is a amazing football player.  But what is so wonderful about Brandon is that he is also a really good person, through and through, and such a wonderful role model for the young people in our community.

In the off-season, Brandon can often be found at the youth games in our small town, supporting the local teams and graciously autographing various items.

When we heard the AMAZING news today that the Ducks are ranked Number 1, we were thrilled, both for Brandon (who is a senior this year) and for the entire team.

We will certainly miss "The Grizzly" (as the commentators have nicknamed him) next year as we are confident that a NFL draft is in his near future.

Recently, Brandon gifted us a bunch of tickets so Corey took the four oldest boys and watched a game...up close and personal.

Our most fav Duck player...

We Love Our Ducks!!!

Go Ducks!

Yummy Cobbler

This is our most fav cobbler recipe...

We make it with either apples or peaches.

Yummy!

**From Betty Crocker**

4 cups tart cooking apples
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. oats (either kind)
1/3 c. butter, softened
3/4 t. cinnamon
3/4 t. nutmeg

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease bottom and sides of 8 inch square pan.

Spread apples in pan. In medium bowl, stir remaining ingredients until well mixed. Sprinkle over apples.

Bake about 30 minutes or until topping is golden brown and apples are tender when pierced with a fork.


**I use whole wheat flour and have substituted bean puree for 1/2 of the butter and it still tastes great!

**We times this recipe by 4 and bake it in a half sheet pan.

**Keep a ziploc in the freezer and if you have apples that go too soft to eat, simply peel, slice and stick in the freezer bag. A full gallon ziploc holds enough apples for a half sheet recipe (times 4).

**Substitute peaches for the apples=our favorite!

Enjoy!

Beads, Beads and more beads

My dad, who has more stuff then anyone I know, came across a big ol' box of mardi gras beads at a garage sale.

He immediately thought not of the parent that would have to continually pick them off of the floor of his granddaughters and scooped them up.

My kiddos love these beads and didn't even have to flash anyone to get them.

This is a good thing, trust me.


Hope they are peanut butter proof.

Notice she picked out all the purple ones...

Levi kind of looks like Mr. T, doesn't he?

And Matthew made a sling for himself because he wanted to look like Grandpa.

My dad was in a sling at the time.

Apparently rolling a full sized excavator downhill (while not wearing a seatbelt) will get you a concussion, broken bones and stitches.

Luckily, Matthew didn't choose to reenact that part.

Thanks Dad!

I think...

Our Flock of Chicks

This summer saw us getting our own flock of chickens.

The "coop" is an old shed that we got for free off CL.

The chickens were preowned and were given to us by someone who didn't have time to care for them anymore.

Josh and Liz have named most of them.

Snack, Drumstick 1, Drumstick 2, and Chicken Dinner.

The hens must know this because they are laying eggs really good.

This is our bully hen.

She is such a brat.

The bully chicken was picking on another hen...mercilessly.

The poor chicken had lost all her feathers and was constantly red and sore all over her head and neck.

I bought some really nasty tasting, brown, thick ooze stuff to slather all over her neck in hopes that she wouldn't taste good to the bully hen.

How do I know it tastes nasty?

Here is a tip for you.

When smearing on nasty, spicy, thick brown goo onto the offended chickens neck...

Be sure to keep your mouth closed so that you won't end up with any of it in your mouth when the chicken shakes her head.

Enough said.

But even that didn't work.

Although, I know I won't be biting her neck anytime soon...

Luckily, a week long separation seemed to do the trick.

Maybe the bully hen has a really short memory but when introduced to the chicken she had offended, she didn't even seem to remember her.

As long as the eggs keep on coming...

And we find a way to keep them out of the neighbor's yard...

Then they will all live happily ever after...

The End.

This is wrong on so many levels...

I can't remember what they bribed him with...

I just hope it was worth it...

Remember all that jewerly?

If I was super crafty and had unlimited amounts of free time, I would have sorted through it all and come up with tons of cool and trendy crafts in which to utilize it.

But, after finding lots of big clumps of tangled jewelry...

I folded just like a lawn chair.

I dumped it into Ziploc bags and sold it at my garage sale.

See this big ol' tangled mess?

Gone, I tell you, all gone!

I did end up making a bit o' moo-lah too, which I love!

These earring really cracked me up.

They reminded me of my hair in high school.

I took all the watches out and put them in a Ziploc too.

I sold the whole bag for $20.

Just so that you don't think that I am a total jewelry crafting dud...

I did keep some cool, vintage looking rhinestone studded pieces.

Cuz, I love me some bling.

And, someday, I might come up with a use for them.

Someday...