After ONLY Three Years...

  We have finally come to the completion of the building project that we thought would never end! The garage and apartment above it are finally completed! This is the looking up to the mud room of the main house and what will be "the shoe room". The "breeze room" where I'm standing to take the picture leads to the front yard out the right, the back yard to the left and into the garage behind me.  

I bought cheap white shelves for shoe storage for now - there are four like the one you are able to see in the picture. 
 

The garage has three deep bays with all the bells and whistles. 
 

 A separate storage work room in the back of the garage -

with a half bath -
 

There is a separate entrance and this is the staircase leading up to the apartment. My sister is going to live there for now and she is happily moving in. 

  
The kitchen -
 

My Pinterest Banister - 
 

It has two bedrooms - 
 

It is a large open floor plan with vaulted ceilings, large windows and a lot of light. 
 

We have posts ready for a large deck off the side, but that is on next year's to-do list, not this year's!  We have another wedding to shift our focus to! The view is nice though, just open woods.

Birthdays

 We started birthday week off with Tori turning 14 on the 20th. We had a large birthday party last year when she turned 13, and since events like that stress her out a bit, her first birthday request was not to have a party. We had a nice quiet family dinner and dirt cake. (Ok, now I have to admit that I paused from posting this to see if JD took any pictures on Tori's birthday, and neither of us did - I hate that! I do, however, have wonderful ones of her in the just received wedding photos, so they will be following shortly.)

The very next day was Alayna's birthday. Last year she desperately wanted one of Montana's puppies for her birthday, but Gabriel and I talked her out of it since she was pregnant with Samuel and they did not have a fenced in yard. My part of talking her out included, "Alayna, I will buy you a puppy down the road for your birthday when it's better timing than this year." Since Gabriel and Alayna bought a house this year with a nice big fenced in backyard, and Samuel is like the perfect baby, Alayna was ready for her puppy. I sent the money and she went through a dog rescue group. While the puppy she originally wanted was already adopted, she fell in love with this mystery puppy that was found dumped in New Mexico along the side of the road. Her name is Waffles and she is very in love with both Alayna and Samuel. It's pretty sweet since their other dog Diesel is very devoted to Nathan and Gabriel.  

 We skip the 22nd, but then have Bella's birthday on the 23rd. This year she is half way to grown and very much enjoyed turning 9! We celebrated with a trip to Sky Zone and then her dinner choice and cookie cake.  

 

January

 I'm pretty excited,  because we are about to finally get Alyssa's wedding pictures back. In the meantime, I'm going to rehash a few events since Christmas. Elijah became quite sick on December 27th. JD took him to Urgent Care where he tested positive for the flu, but negative for strep. His sore throat was the worst thing about his illness and he suffered another four days before they called to say that the strep actually was positive also. So the poor kid didn't move off this couch for eight days, yet no one else ever got either illness. We missed the last few fun Christmas events we had planned, but we still enjoyed the Christmas season immensely. When I took down the trees, I left up a strand of lights and a Nativity and the snowmen on the fireplace. I guess they can all come down this weekend as well. 

January 13-14th was the anniversary of the puppies being born and our departure for Disney last year. Alaska is truly the definition of a gently giant and he has no idea what people are talking about when they inquire as to if he guards the goats. 

Alei's dog, Lucca is only a week younger and still Alaska's buddy. However, since Lucca has 10 times the energy, Alaska often has to be firm when he tells Lucca that he's done playing and needs a nap. 

Considering Moriah now has a part-time dog and Lucca comes for occasional day-care, we often have seven dogs here. It can be a bit crowded and hairy. As you can see, everyone has adjusted and we all love and accommodate them. It sure wasn't a planned event to have this many dogs! Oh, and of course, the one resident cat that isn't ruffled at all by all the dogs. 

We have a no big dog on the furniture rule, so you can see Kylie enjoys her privilege as a small dog. 

 Last Sunday was a very rough day. I went to the barn to find Leia, my first female Nigerian, down. She was obviously in rough shape, so the goat vet came out right away. The short story is that I had him also come back late that night to try some heroic measures, but we lost her. He isn't sure what the cause, but the excessive rain and mud has been a huge struggle this winter because parasites thrive in the wet conditions. 

My goats are much more than goats to me, they are pets. Leia would have been six in May and I don't feel like she had ever fully recovered from delivering quads last January. This may be my last year breeding any of the goats, breeding is when more problems arise and I just want them to live happy lives. 

This kitty, Tally, is one of my two barn cats that were dumped at the end of my driveway over 10 years ago and she has always loved the goats! 

My next blog is going to be this week's birthdays - we have three in a row in January. Then, the big news is the garage and apartment reveal - it is finally only days from done!!! In the meantime, my office is almost complete, as well as JD's. 

Christmas 2018

We had a much quieter Christmas than usual, since Alei, Moriah and Chris all flew to Colorado to have Christmas with Gabriel and Alayna and my darling grand-sons. It's funny to consider just six kids and one son-in-law quiet but it really was compared to what we are used to! I missed the chaos and extra mess honestly. 

I have fought with the lights on this tree all of December; two strands are currently out and I think the whole thing is going to come down earlier than I hoped. I bought lots of new lights in many varieties on the 26th, so next year we will be set!

 

Tori got two ferrets for Christmas and we only took video, so I'll have to get some pictures of them. They are quite entertaining; Selah is in love with them and has set up playgrounds for them. My plan is their run time is the hours Tori spends doing school in her room anyway.
 

Aunt Deb and Elijah

Bella and Selah

Tori

Kylie guarding her Christmas bone from the big dogs.

I was pretty excited about company we have scheduled for tonight and tomorrow night, however, Elijah has a wicked cough and I think I'm going to have to postpone both occasions. 

Ready or Not

 After dragging the kids through town for nine hours the other day, I think we are ready for Christmas. I came home and ordered the last few things and the big girls have helped me wrap them as they have rolled in. The girls are all great shoppers; it's poor Elijah who was requesting to go home the last several hours.

 Look at these super darling cookies that Tori made as a gift for a friend - I just love them. 

 We are off for some caroling with friends to several shut-ins. Merry Christmas!

December Miscellanious

 We have really been enjoying the Christmas season, just not taking enough pictures to prove it. Elijah is obsessed with football! Here is a ticket he made for Chris, Moriah's fiance, to come and watch a game with him - 

We have been blessed to do several new Christmas activities this year; we went to the Richmond Ballet for The Nutcracker for the first time, we saw CYT's A Christmas Story, which was greatly entertaining, and tonight we attended Winterfest at King's Dominion. It was really beautiful but got so, so cold!

Last year I got the basic Willow Tree nativity; this year we added the shepherd and animals. Next year I am hoping for the wise men. 

JD made me these two mug racks for the overflow mugs he buys me on travel - they are from wood we had the Amish mill after clearing for our house. 

 Here is some interesting cauliflower that just came in the farm share box - I'm kind of drowing in strange greens around here that I'm not sure what to do with.

  
We often have two polar bears relaxing in the living room; Alaska is scared of the wood floor so we put a towel down for him to walk in and out. 

 We had PJs and pancakes at CC with a book exchange and "minute to win it" games; the kids had a blast.

Today we finally made gingerbread men and sugar cookies; there are still a few dozen awaiting decorating tomorrow. 

 Tonight Alyssa joined us at King's Dominion Winterfest. This was in front of the Christmas tree at the entrance -- it's so big that you can't tell it is a tree. The lighting isn't good, but it's still the best I got!

 See? My other attempts were even worse.

  
Alyssa with our friend's son.

Last School Year

 Here are last year's CC school photos - I already can't believe how much older the kids look. Yes, I just down-loaded them from the email attachement that I received back in March, (better late than never!)

Bella gets her hair relaxed now and has new glasses.  

3rd grade photo; 4th now

Selah has grown a ton in the last year, went from wearing 8s last year to 12s this year; never did actually unpack many 10s. She is also getting her hair relaxed and wearing it down most of the time. 

4th grade photo; 5th this year

 Elijah had his eyes closed in his first picture and looks quite "cool" in this one. 

Elijah - 4th last year also; 5th now

  Julia was 6th grade last year, 7th this.

  
Tori was 7th last year and is 8th now - she will be a high schooler next year!