Party On!

Winter turned 6 years old today! She has become such a big girl. She even has lost her first teeth a couple of weeks ago. Winter's cousin Lille also turned 6 this week, so Catherine (Joe's cousin) and I threw a birthday party for both the girls yesterday. We wanted to have the kind of party that would let the "city kids" experience the farm life for an afternoon. We set up a petting zoo with a cow, 2 sheep, 3 goats, baby chickens and pony rides. There was also plenty of fishing and general exploring going on.

It turned out FABULOUS!! We had a TON of guests so it was nice and hectic and stressful for me. I think we had a total of 26 kids and 20 adults at the house. After a couple of hours outside with the animals we moved inside and had cake, icecream and presents. It was so great to be able to have the space for all of those people!



We kept the party going with a lasagna dinner with 19 of our guests. Then, when everyone except the Morphises had left, somehow we still weren't partied out. I really love the board game "Settlers of Catan" and so do they, so we stayed up until the wii hours in the morning playing that. Today was only slightly more relaxing with church and a visit to the parents' house. Joe's sister Nancy decided to come visit for 3 weeks to help out with Great Grandma Benac, so we got to have dinner with them, Mark and Kelly and mom and dad. That's 3 out of the 6 kids together!! Next week Ruth will probably be back, so we'll have 4 out of 6!! Almost a family reunion. Now only Angela needs to come down too .... hint hint.....

Spoils of war

We had a fabulous Christmas this past tuesday. On Monday night we reinacted the story of Christ's birth. The kids had a lot of fun being baby Jesus, Joseph, and the donkey

The most exciting gift for me (beside the horse) was the raclette grill mom and dad gave me. It's a grill that you set in the middle of the table during dinner and everyone grills their own food at the table. This is a Swiss tradition and they have a special Raclette cheese they melt and eat with potatoes. Since Dallas is such a big city, we get the conveniences of cool grocery stores. So on wednesday I went to the Central market and actually bought some of this Raclette cheese which has been imported from Switzerland. While I was there I also picked up some good stinky cheese from Italy, and some yummy French style bread. It's too bad that we don't live closer to that store (but probably a good thing too!!)
Tomorrow we are having a birthday party for Winter's 6th birthday, and combining it with her cousin Lille's birthday. We have fun stuff planned and it should be a great madhouse with 32 kids, and their parents. It's mostly family, and some friends. We are planning to set up a petting zoo with a cow, sheep, goats, and also pony rides.
It's been very rainy here the last couple of weeks, and now it's VERY muddy. When we were in Switzerland I bought some mud boots, and didn't realize just how much I would need them. It's extra muddy now, because some males (I won't name names) in our family took a Jeep to the upper pasture, so the "road" to the back is really, really, really muddy now. My poor horses have also been suffering from the mud, and slipping and sliding all over the place. So I decided to put them in their stalls for a couple of days. Faith (my horse) has become very attached to Cookie, and started freaking out when separated from her. I actually got one of my fingers stuck when she yanked up her head, and it nice and thick and purple now....

Well, according to my good friend Tiffani, we are now officially white trash. You ask why? Well, a couple of days ago Joe and his friend Neil shot some rabbits that were innocently hopping around our farm, and we ate them that night for dinner. It was actually not too bad. The idea of it is actually worse than the taste. It tastes kind of like chicken. Plus it's nice to know that if we ever run out of money and food, we can just go outside and catch a fish or shoot a rabbit for dinner.

Days fly by

I can hardly believe that it's been 5 days since I last wrote anything!!
We just get so busy with everyday life that the days fly by.
I'm excited to get a couple of days of rest with Christmas. Tonight we started the festivities with clam chowder. Tonight is the arrival of Mark and Kelly, which is very exciting.
Really what it comes down to... I'm just too tired and lazy to write right now... so adios!

Believe the Power!

Yesterday I got a horse!!! I am sooo excited. Her name is believe the power, but I think she'll go by Faith.
She is a very large horse (16 hands for any of you who know anything about horses). She's a 8 year old mare. When she was young she raced on the track (no, she didn't win any money). She is very sweet to me and comes right up to me in the pasture. Unfortunately she is not so nice to Betsy. Earlier, she full on attacked her! That kind of freaked me out, so I seperated them, and put Faith with cookie. They seem to like each other, and now share the lower pasture. I was just out there talking t0 Tina (the lady that sold us the house and who lives next door now) and she told me how to figure out how to fix the electric fencing. There's a short somewhere, so right now I am just hoping and praying that she won't try to get out of the pasture, because she totally could if she wanted to.
Anyways, I have to get back to my large list of to-do's. Most of them don't include playing/riding the horses. :(

Ginger bread house

We just got home from sunday dinner at Joe's parents' house. We celebrated Jesus' birthday with birthday cake and everything. After dinner the kids got to assemble and decorate a gingerbread house. They have been looking forward to this for the past 3 weeks, and were super excited the whole way through. With a little help from me and mom, I think it turned out pretty nice! Also, Joe's grandma Benac is back home from the hospital (she recently broke her hip) and we feel so blessed to be able to see her so frequently.
I can hardly believe that Christmas is just over a week away. I am very excited though, because Joe's brother Mark and his wife Kelly will be coming to visit, and it's been entirely too long since we have seen them. I just can't wait to see Kelly's pregnant belly (she's due with a baby boy in March)

Word spreads fast

When we moved to Leonard we joined our new ward in Bonham. As you can imagine, this far out of the city the wards are pretty far in between. The Bonham ward was only recenlty made from a branch into a ward (a branch is a really small congregation). Coming from a place with a large LDS community, I have to say I was a little scared and apprehensive about moving into a small ward. There is the prospect of big important callings, and of course the decreased chance of having some families in there that are similar to ours. So far, we are doing good on the callings. Joe got a calling to be the assistant ward clerk, which takes about 2 hours every sunday... not too bad! I still don't have one. We also got lucky with the whole friends/family situation. We live only 5 minutes away from a great family with 3 kids. 2 of the 3 kids are the same age as our kids. Sterling has a friend named Van (which the kids mistakenly called car), and Ginger has a girlfriend named Parker. And I have a friend named Teresa. I feel so blessed to have someone close by whom I think I will be very good friends with. She also has all kinds of farm animals, and makes me green with envy over her cool chicken coops and chick incubator/heat lamp setup. I know, kind of silly things to be jealous over, but I can't wait to have my own chickens so I can gather fresh eggs every morning. Some other fun things about a small ward: everyone was super excited when we moved in, and welcomed us into the ward. After not having to give a talk in 6 years, Joe spoke the 2nd week in church. 30 minutes after telling the bishop I play the harp, a sister asked me to play for the Christmas program. Any day I would rather play the harp than give a talk!! This has also gotten me to start practicing again! (it was a long 4 months of no harp music for my soul).

Another animal on our farm

Last week we first saw our hooty friend. We have some kind of bird's nest right outside our front door, and one day as I was peeling the tape off the window after painting I saw him just sitting there staring at me. He isn't there all the time, but doesn't fly away when you go outside.