Baby Goat Pictures? You're Kidding Me!

Yeah, yeah, cringe all you want. But I just had to put that pun in there. ;) #sorrynotsorry

Chowboy's goats just finished their kidding season! The babies are so cuuuuuuute *squishes them* and while I didn't get pictures of all of them, I did get lots of pictures of our two bottle goats, Minnie and Emily! 

(Minnie has a twin sister named Pearl. Get it? Minnie & Pearl??)

(Also Emily has a twin sister named Jillian)

Minnie is the black one, and Emily is the red. They didn't really stand still enough for me to take a really good picture, so the result is...well...quite something. ;)

"Did someone say...CHOCOLATE??"

"You're in my spot. Move."

"I'm so photogenic."

"Guys, being a model is too much work."

I'm...not even sure what she's doing here. I thought I had her at a perfect angle, and then...just as I snapped a picture, she stuck out her tongue!

She apparently didn't like me to hold her that way...
(ft. my fabulous double chin)

Emily was either trying to give me a hug...or chew my hair. Pretty sure it's the latter.

It's the CIIIIIRCLE of LIIIIIIIFE!

Were you able to handle the adorableness?? *grins*

Oh, and one last picture before you go as a farewell from Emily:

"G'byyyyye!"

And so it Begins...

The adorables are starting to come into the world! Meet Jimbo, Sarah, Ashwy and Caleb, the first calves of the season!

Well . . . I actually didn't get a picture of Ashwy. Because when I was finally in a position to snap a shot, she'd disappeared. Go figure.

Jimbo

Of course the little guys wouldn't let me close. I guess I'm scary. *halo*

Caleb & his mama

Me: You could stare at your cows all day, couldn't you?
Kordell: Yeah, probably.

Kinda hard to see Sarah...she's the little one on the left

Yeah, he kinda loves his cows.

The cows were quite anxious to get fed!

Cows that are too hungry to be wary of the phone. *smirks*

FOOOOOOD

He actually has some of them tame enough to let him pet them.

No, Kordell...a little bit to the right...ahhhhh, that's the spot.

So yes, that happened almost first thing this morning. What do you like to do during your weekends?

Memorable Decorations {Part 2}

Last time I talked about the memories behind our Christmas decorations, we ended in the front room.  I'd like to now take you over to the family room, where more surprises await.

First of all, let's hop to the south side of the house, where windows offer perfect places to drape some greenery.  And what better addition to the greenery than snowflakes?  Probably about ten years ago, my grandma patiently attempted to teach me how to do a simple chain crochet stitch, which I promptly left to do other, more interesting things.  Well, finally, a few years ago, she gave me the idea to make lace snowflakes for my mom.  I readily agreed, not knowing how tedious it would be to learn new stitches and put them to use.  But I'm quite pleased with how they turned out!

A hop and a skip away, and once again, we've got a homemade gift that the guys made probably six or seven years ago.  Mom wanted stocking hangers, and so her sweet husband once again surprised her with eight shining, gold-painted hangers.  I remember that we all gave them to her—Daddy and us kids—and though I didn't do a thing, they were still partially from me, and that was special.  Though it made my brothers slightly irritated.

And let's just take a moment to admire these stocking handcrafted by my very talented mother, shall we?  Not only are they simply stockings, but cowboy boots!  Yeah, have I mentioned her love for western decor?

Now let's take a step back from the mantle (where we put the village every year until we decided to put it on the piano this year) to examine Kordell's fascination/obsession with lights.  The dude seriously finds a new place to string lights every year. (Let's not forget that one year Birdo strung garland across the room suspended from the ceiling... but that's another story.)

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Our house is certainly all decked out this year!  How about yours?

Memorable Decorations

Today marks the start of the 12 Days of Christmas blog party!

Come with me, I'd like to take you on a tour through our house.  Our Christmas decorations are put up, and there are some specific ones that I'd like to show you, each with a special meaning or memory. (And thanks to Kara for taking most of these pics!)

First stop is the front yard.  Looking at the house, you'll see a tree covered in lights, and then a star of lights on top of the house.  That star has been on the house every winter pretty much as long as I can remember.  But once upon a time, Mom really wanted lights on the house, and one year Daddy suddenly surprised her with a homemade star.  You can see it from a couple miles away, and it's certainly a major part of our Christmas decorations.

Next stop: front room.   Remember the Christmas tree that I mentioned?  If you turn to the right after entering the front door, you'll find that tree, laden with lights, garland and ornaments.  Have I mentioned that handmade gifts are kind of a thing around here?  Kordell made mom a box of cutout western (western decor is Mom's favorite) ornaments—bull heads, horseshoes, cowboy boots, etc., and Mom then wrote names of Jesus on them.

A few feet from the tree, you'll find Mom's grand piano covered with a ceramic village.  This village has been collected over the years, with my grandma adding to it every year for quite a long time.  It's probably the decoration us kids enjoyed putting up the most when we were little.

Next to the piano, you'll find a short chest of drawers with this nativity on it.  Us kids had our own nativity scene that we were allowed to put up ourselves.  I don't know how many pieces have been hot-glued (have I ever mentioned that hot glue is another of this family's specialties?) back together again.  So if we got to put up Mom's good brown nativity, man, we were privileged! (If you look closely, you can see that the angel's wing has been glued together... yes, we did mess up sometimes)

On a second chest of drawers around the corner lies this nativity calendar.  On each day of December, counting down to Christmas, you open one of the little doors and pull out an item to stick on the scene.  I remember calculating the number of days to see which of us siblings got to open baby Jesus on Christmas Eve.  We alternated every year, even though we argued about it every year.

These two characters are found pretty much anywhere in the house.  Pushing the yellow sticker on the mouse's foot presses a button that activates it to start dancing and playing its guitar and singing Jingle Bell Rock.  Santa has a switch to turn him on, and once that switch is flipped, he sings Jingle Bells any time he senses a loud noise, or when someone taps him.  These two guys were the best white elephant gifts ever!

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Everyone has their favorite Christmas decorations and memories.  What are some of yours?

Also, don't forget to check out Faith's blog for all the links to the other participants in the blog party!  (Also, there's an epic-looking giveaway going on with all sorts of epic stuff like books and music and I don't even know what else.)

My Cattle Adventure—Part 1

A couple days ago, Kordell called to see if I'd help him haul some cattle.  Sure, I thought, I bet this'll be blog post material!

Well, I changed into work clothes, grabbed the phone for pictures (sorry, the phone's camera isn't exactly superb, so that's the reason for the poor quality of the pictures), slipped on my shoes, and headed outside, where Kordell was just pulling in the drive with the trailer to back up against the loading chute.

Well, he took one look at my footwear and sent me back inside to get some mud boots.  Kansas has finally gotten several inches of rain (right in the middle of bean harvest, unfortunately...), and naturally, this means the cattle pens will be quite sloppy.

So I get back out to the working shed, and he hands me this epic sorting stick with a flag on the end.

We walk through the shed to the alley, and at this point I'm very glad for those mud boots...

Almost lost them in the mud a couple times!

Once we're out of the alley and into the feeding lanes, it's time to set up some gates.

And finally, we get to the cattle themselves.  Kordell stuck his flag's handle in his side pocket, so walking behind him cracked me up!  It was like one of those little kid's bikes.  I never had to guess where he was!

Not too happy to see us... ;)

Kordell's job: slowly herd the cattle toward the open gate.

My job: make sure the cattle don't sneak past me to this side of the shed.

So there I stood, flag in one hand and phone in the other, desperately hoping that I won't drop the device in the muck, staring down the cattle as they warily made their way toward the gate.  "Don't wave the flag, and just talk quietly," Kordell had said.  I already knew that.

But it sure took away from the fun.

See ya!

There was one fella that was a little stubborn, but just a little, so after just a little flick of the handy-dandy flag, I chased him right back into the alley.

Well... okay, Kordell actually got him out.  But I did splendidly at lending my incredible presence and moral support.  And don't forget that flag's daunting appearance!

So after they're locked in the alley, it's time to set all the gates back to the way they were.

We'll avoid the fact that Kord basically did them all because I hadn't done it for a few years. Having four brothers to help Daddy kinda prevents that.

And thus ends part one of my cattle adventure with Kordell!  Tune in next week for part two, featuring Jarvis... ;)