It's a Marshmellow World in the Winter...

On Christmas Day, the snow fell in increasingly larger flakes! As you can tell from these pictures, I guess we had around 10" of fresh snow. It was a lovely day and a gorgeous snow. The temperatures since then have fallen drastically. Today it got up to about -10 from -25 this morning. I think it's supposed to be at least that cold tomorrow. As beautiful as this winter wonderland is, I'm pining for a Mexican riviera right now! How about a holiday cruise next year, fam? I think I'm up for now!

Under all this snow lies our woodpile. Huh. Fortunately, there is a tarp separating the wood from the snow, but Jackson's fort is all snowed in!

Christmas

Our Christmas Eve was pretty low-key. Pat worked and I relaxed and baked! I made these wafer cookies, an apple tart, and a turtle cheesecake for Christmas Day. When Pat got home from work, he went back to work in the garage, putting up insulation.

Christmas morning I got Pat up by bringing him some puppies in bed along with his coffee. I have to say that it didn't exactle bring him out of bed!

I proceeded to bring all the pups up for Christmas morning until we went to our friends. They were so sweet!

Rowdy even got a Christmas present!

My finished tart and cookies.

After spending my morning on the computer webcam with my family, we loaded up our goodies and went to our friend, Aaron and Stacey's house for dinner! Our new traditional Christmas Crab dinner with Aaron's amazing shrimp gumbo stuff was absolutely marvelous and stuffed us completely.

2 Weeks Old!

Their eyes are beginning to open! They are also beginning to enjoy a tummy rub now and again!

They are fun to bring in and play! True, they only sleep, but even that is pretty cute!

Too Cute!

Today

One Week Old!

Nature's Christmas Decorations
Rowdy's huntin' for wabbits!

Winter

This winter has been relatively mild until lately! We have been well below zero at night and just above during the day. Even though it is too cold to draw in a deep breath, it still has it's beauty. In fact, it has been total glitter! Literally breathtaking!

This morning, early, this moose made itself known to Rowdy! I'm glad they didn't make too close a connection.

On a different note, the eagle and snowy trees were from my trip to take Mom up to Anchorage.

Super Sweet!

Just a couple more pictures!

Puppies!

This is Bella yesterday...uncomfortable, huh?!

Here's our momma today! She had 9 puppies: 4 black, 3 yellow, and 2 chocolate! I haven't gotten a final tally on girls/boys. Maybe tomorrow!

Thanksgiving Flashback

Thanksgiving Day brought us several guests! We had a wonderful time with a delicious dinner followed by a rousing round of shooting! For a really fun laugh, check out "Something to Blog About" for a double take!

Mom's week here was full of walks with the dogs through the snow laden trees as well as making fudge, cheesecake, cookies, and more! I then solicited her to take a few pictures of us and this was the best one!

Thanks, Mom!

Thankful

I am so thankful that my mom has been here! I'm also thankful that she has documented the trip so well! She has taken her camera all over and has posted blog entries faithfully. If you'd like to know what I've been up to the last several days, please take a look at her blog! We've had a wonderful Thanksgiving week so far! I'll probably "steal" a couple of her pictures, but til then, take a peek at her "Third Stage" blog!

Tuesday

My friend Linda gave me a flower that just opened up! It is gorgeous!
Pat is very excited about our other decor addition! We picked up the European Mounted Moose! We really like the way it looks up on the wall. I think it will be nice looking down on the Christmas tree in a few days! Mom took a great picture!

National Adoption Month

I've been alerted to the fact that it is National Adoption Month from several different places lately. It got me thinking. There are verses in the Bible that talk about the charge of caring for orphans and widows. In this adoption focus, I've noticed that the "widows" part seems to be less emphasized. It's not that I don't think it's important to care for orphans, in whatever capacity one can, but I think many have forgotten the "widows." I take this to mean any elderly person who is primarily alone. I see it very often: elderly people left at nursing homes and visited rarely if at all. Pat suggested something to me recently that made me certain that he is the most perfect husband for me! He suggested that we "adopt" a grandparent! Yes, we do have grandparents, but we don't live near any family. We also know there are grandparents who do not live near their families. This presents a perfect opportunity! I have high hopes that we will be able to find our adopted person/couple. I plan on visiting one of the Senior Centers to start the search process. I hope that I can encourage anyone to not forget the other end of the pendulum. Children are so important, and I think it is an amazing thing for people to adopt a child. I also think it is amazing for people to adopt a widow(er). Happy National Adoption Month!

achy

ow. I just came in from scooping/scraping the snow off of the "ceiling" of the garage. The roof has rafters, but no roof, so the last 3 inches of snow made a lovely carpet up there. In an effort to avoid mold growing in our new loft, I shoveled as much snow off as possible. Oh, and this is after I moved a load of wood onto the deck. We like to keep a small load up close so Pat can keep the fire going during the night and stoke it first thing in the morning. I'm tired and my back hurts. That's my rant! Tonight should be better. Group night. Tomorrow Pat's off work - slow week - so we may be lazy or we may go and run a bunch of errands! That's what's up!
Oh, by the way, check out "Something Clever!" That's my niece Sydney singing!

It's a Dog's Life...

Rowdy has been giving Bella baths lately. It's kinda sweet!
They know that inside is for relaxing! (except when pat wants to wrestle with Rowdy!)

The lake is frozen solid, so that has exponentially increased our roaming room! I just wish the darkness was less. It's tough to want to run them when I can barely see them!

Birthday Surprise!

Pat gave me an incredible birthday surprise! He fibbed a bit (more than he needed to since I rarely question him!) and told me he was bringing home some garage stuff Saturday. He pulled in with a large box on the trailer. I thought it a strange size for garage door openers, but hey, I've seen stranger things. He wanted to bring it on the deck instead of storing it in the garage, which again I thought odd, but it wasn't important enough to argue against. He opened the box, just to make sure he got everything, and my jaw dropped! I kept saying, "What?" I was quite impressed with the range! I'd looked at them but thought we'd wait until ours died before getting a new one. This one has a huge window that you don't even need to light to see into! I love it!

On a different note: Pat is thoroughly enjoying our dogs. Somehow they have become indoor dogs. This is obviously not my doing. Our garage is also coming along. I just hope it's done by Christmas - at least closed up.