Holiday Review

What a week it's been! The Holidays have came and gone, well almost that is.

Christmas Eve Gage and I headed over to my Aunt Judy's for a Christmas brunch. That is always a enjoyable time. Gage gets to hang out with his second cousin Jack who he doesn't get to see all that much. We enjoyed the morning there and headed home to play with his new toys about 1 pm. Gage was playing and wanted to open a toy that had a ton of parts and I told him no to wait till we were home. The next thing I knew he was saying he was ready to go home and telling people bye.

At this age you never know what they will say or do!

After opening his boxes when we got home we headed for the movies. Last year I wanted to start a tradition of going to the movies on Christmas Eve. Only last year didn't go so smooth. We drove in a blizzard to Pittsburg since Parsons shut down early because of the snow. This year I called ahead of time to double check showing schedules. We went and watched Yogi Bear. It was alright. Gage liked it. Allen liked the popcorn so much he ate the entire large container by himself!

Christmas Day was enjoyable. (Except Allen had a major stomach ache, I think eating all that popcorn had something to do with it!) Gage slept in so I was able to have the camera and camcorder ready for him. He came out and was excited to see Santa drank his milk, ate a cookie and left presents.

Since Christmas morning we have spent a lot of time hanging out with family and figuring out what all we received. I am so thankful for having each other and that we are blessed with a healthy son. Allen and I couldn't ask for anything more.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and has a Happy New Year.

Gage's Christmas Program

Gage had his first program for school the other day. He practiced really hard for a couple weeks before the program. He was so excited to be on stage in front of an audience. Here is the link to watch the video.

Gage

Evening Shoot

I was out trying to take some pictures of Gage and was messing with my camera between the practicing and this is what happens! I guess I wasn't paying as much attention to him as I thought. I normally wouldn't show my son's bottom on the Internet but look at that tan line! It's December!

Goldfish Isn't Feed!

One evening I was out doing chores. I noticed Gage had his sack open. I then walked closer to find he was sharing his Goldfish crackers with Scooby. I asked what he was doing and here is the look I got.

And all he said is "Nothing Mom!"

He didn't know calves weren't suppose to eat goldfish crackers!

We sold Scooby back in October. This is old but thought it was cute enough to still share it.

Deer Season

Not that deer season silly, REINDEER! Gage and I had some free time the other evening and made this hat out of construction paper.

Parsons Christmas Parade

Gage and I headed to the Parsons Christmas parade Thursday evening after work/school.
The weather was perfect, cold but not windy. It really made it feel more like Christmas.

Twin Valley Electric had a float in the parade and Adam Myers was an elf up on the electric pole.

Gage thought it was awesome that he got to be in the parade.

All of us employees thought that our float should win. We thought it looked really good!

And we did! We found out this afternoon that Twin Valley won 1st place! I have to say though the guys did ALL the work.

This picture doesn't do it justice. The house and pole was all lit up and in the dark it looked awesome.

Oh Christmas Tree

The Friday morning after Thanksgiving at an early 6:30 a.m. I had a little boy at my bedside wondering if it was time to decorate the Christmas Tree. I got up and started cleaning house before dragging out several Rubbermaid containers of Christmas decor.

Gage did not like having to wait for a clean house before messing it all up again! We finally finished cleaning and started dragging the containers in from the shed one by one. He is such a big help. He requested he hang the decorations on the tree so I let him. Oh, see the GMC hat as our tree topper, yeah that was his idea of decorating too! You can see he put them all in one place pretty much. Can you believe that once I re-organized the tree with those same bulbs the tree looks good! It doesn't look like many ornaments when they are all hung in the same spot.
Doesn't matter what the finished product looked like though, he loved every minute of it. This time of year is all about making memories, right?

Cruise 2010

Allen and I along with two friends went on a eastern Caribbean cruise last week. It was so nice to get away for a few days and just chill. We left at 3 am Monday morning to start our trip.

After we made it onto the ship we headed for our first port of call...Tuesday's day was at Nassau

Nassau is definitely a place we will go back to. It was beautiful and had several activities to do. We rented scooters and did our own playing around in town for a couple hours. Then we went to the straw market where all the deals are. We then had an excursion to go on in the afternoon. It was a guided tour around town and then in a submarine like boat to go to the reefs to see fish. I would have rather snorkeled but this was fun too.

While on this excursion we also on water seen where Tom Cruise, Oprah Winfrey and several other actors have mansions on the water.

After the excursion it was time to get back on the ship after a fun day at port. After dinner Tuesday night we went to the comedy show on the boat and the comedians were really funny.

Wednesday we were at Half Moon Cay when we woke up. It is a Carnival owned island which has sand that feels like moon sand (maybe that's part of the name?!) Allen and Chuck had the deep sea fishing excursion so Trisha and I headed for a day at the beach. The guys had fun, Allen had fun until he became sick with motion sickness. They were in a little fishing boat in the middle of the ocean. They both caught fish Chuck's got off at the boat and Allen actually caught a Blue Marlon (they said that they were rare for where they were fishing) but it flipped up in the air and fought long enough it broke away. Trisha and I enjoyed sunning all day with some strawberry daiquiri's. The water was pretty cool at first but then enjoyable once in. It was a nice day for us to do nothing but get some sun rays. Trisha received a bit too much but I didn't burn at all.Thursday we were at Grand Turk, T.C. and that day I have to say I did not enjoy. The beach was just another beach nothing special, and they had several shops but nothing that caught my attention and that was it. We went to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville to spend the day. They had a water sport called "The Flow Rider". Allen did this where you surf and knee board against a water jet on some mats. I wish I would have done this but I didn't know what it was till Allen started and by then the spots were all sold out. So once again I just laid out in the sun and watched Allen. He actually did rather well. He lasted the longest out of all the people doing it on the surf and knee board! My husband is very good at water sports though what can I say.

(Too bad the guys head is in most of the way!)

Friday was "Fun Day at Sea". Turned out to be a bit boring. We went to the gym and art auction and walked around the ship. That night they had a different comedy show that we went to. Woke up about 6:30 a.m. Saturday to the noises of workers at Miami working on the ship. We got up and around and got off the ship around 8am

We had all day Saturday to tour around Miami Beach. We had been there but the Chuck and Trisha hadn't so we showed them around for the day. Headed to the airport and flew home.

We returned to a really sick little boy. He got sick Friday night so I had to take him to the doctor Monday. The outcome was strep throat.

All in all I think that everyone should take a cruise. It is for some people and not for others. We enjoyed ours. Chuck & Trisha are ready to go again! Allen and I learned we would rather do a destination based vacation but none the less enjoyed our trip.

My little Spiderman

Halloween Preschool Party

Last Thursday Gage's Preschool had their Halloween Party. They started out with normal activities and then we went to party mode. They came to school dressed in costume, Mrs. Ward carved a pumpkin with the students help, played "pin the nose on the pumpkin", went trick or treating around the school and had Halloween snacks. Then when it was time to go I sent them home with a Halloween bag full of goodies.

Dirt Bike Fun

Allen had a couple derby cars a guy wanted but he wanted them on trade. With the trade came a 50 cc dirt bike. It is an older model so it's a little bit bigger body then what they have now. That just means Gage is still too little to ride on his own so mom and dad get to have fun too!

Frog

Gap Casting Call

My sister suggested Gage be enetered into this contest. He was entered Tuesday but the website has hardly worked since. Gage needs your votes to win. If you would like to vote here are the details.

Name:Gage

Category: Boy

Contestant Id: 446045

http://www.gapcastingcall.com/GapCastingCall/EntryDetail.html?id=446045

Frog

Can you find the frog?

Chili Supper August 23

As you can see this is the quilt that will be auctioned off at the Chili Supper for Gage's preschool class. I have spent a lot of time & money, along with Gma Hoobler's assistance, in making this quilt go together. The theme this year was "Mound Valley Mustangs at Home on the Range"
Each class has a parent from their classroom make the quilt and then it is auctioned off with all proceeds going 100% to the classroom for their use.

So, if you don't have anything going on Saturday, Oct. 23, please come to the Chili Supper and support Mound Valley Grade School. There are all kinds of baskets, quilts and other items auctioned off plus you can enjoy Chili or Vegetable Soup along with drink & desert.

Hope to see you there!

A Normal Monday

Nothing too exciting has been happening around the Winters household the past few days. Preschool is well underway and Gage seems to be doing pretty good.
Gage has some preschool work books we picked up at Walmart that he likes to work on. Sometimes this is what he does while I cook supper.

He can sit at the bar and work on his workbooks while I can also oversee what he is doing.

But then sometimes the workbook isn't so fun so we get the craft sack out and he gets creative.

Scooby

Scooby (even though the calf is a girl) and Gage have been hanging out pretty much every night here lately. The weather has been awesome and Scooby is at a fun stage right now. All she wants to do is suck your fingers or follow you around. Gage has gotten to where he likes to feed her some of the time but has figured out some awesome tricks too! Balancing act

Look, no hands!

Go Away Flies

Flies, they are every where right now at our house. The baby calves have attracted a billion (my guess would be more) flies at our home. We have been weaning our calves and had them in the corral for several days and the flies also came with them.

When we got outside they are always around. And the cooler weather makes them even slower so they are driving me nuts!

(note fly on ear and hair!)

I sure hope it frost soon for my allergies and for flies! I tried taking some pictures of Gage last night and they wouldn't get off of his head! He didn't think it was too funny though since he thinks they are gross and a bother also.

Day 25 Your day, in great detail

Today in great detail.

Spent the night last night at Aunt Kelli's.

6:30 a.m. Gage woke up ready to play with his toys we leave at her house. Mom reminds him "the son is not out yet go back to sleep"!

7:00 a.m. Gage woke up ready to play with his toys we leave at her house.

7:30 a.m. Mom turns on Sponge Bob and says be quiet for a few more minutes

7:35 a.m. Gage goes and plays with his toys (Did I mention Gage and I shared a coach to sleep on)

9:00 a.m. We were up and Austin cooked us some yummy pancakes and bacon! Thanks Austin

10:00 a.m. Went to Medicine Shoppe to get my allergy medicine

10:30 a.m. Austin, Kelli, Gage and I are headed to Ottawa for my favorite Primitive Store "Country Living"

11:45 a.m. Arrived in Ottawa and went to several flea markets

1:15 p.m. Headed back for Burlington to pick Allen up from his golf tournament

2:30 p.m. Headed for home

4:30 p.m. Got home, watered the calves we are weaning

4:35 p.m. I went to go get a bale of hay while Gage and Allen stayed home to work on his McCune derby car.

5:00 p.m. Back home and bottle feeding baby calf

5:15 p.m. Headed in to clean the house

7:30 p.m. Needing a break from cleaning the house. Ordered "Casey's" pizza and sat down to update blog.

You are now caught up on my day. I plan on finishing the night by picking up pizza at 8 and relaxing. My son has a pile of books he has brought me to read so we may finish the night reading books.

Mystery

Yesterday evening we had a "surprise"! This surprise showed up in our pasture. Our cows didn't have it and we contacted the guy who owns land next to ours and all his cows and calves are accounted for. So who does this calf belong to?


I'm pretty sure it's Gage's baby now. Last night it was all we could do to get him in the house away from it. Then he snuck out the back door and was headed for the barn in the pitch black when Allen came in wondering where Gage was. Gage had told me he was going to go tell daddy something and he snuck out to the barn just to make sure the calf was going to bed.





When we were out there he also talked to the calf and I overheard him saying "It's okay, come to mama baby calf". Too cute!


This morning it was rise and shine no complaining since Gage got to go feed.