Deer Class

This post is not for those who can't handle blood, guts and such.... Turn away, now!

The day after Chase's birthday Al, Connor, Grampy, Brother Affeltranger and I participated in a deer processing and usage class. I had been wanting to take this class for over a year, but I got very sick last fall and did not get well until January. So when fall came around this year, I contacted John Fishback, the biggest 10 year old you'll ever meet (I know it is hard to believe there is a bigger 10 year old than Al but he does exist!), set up the class and off we went for a day or skinning, deboning and wrapping venison.

This was a LONG day, we arrived at 10:00 a.m. after a 1 hour drive and didn't leave until 5:00 p.m. Connor was in little boy heaven! He made all sorts of fun crafts and I think John had a great time showing Connor all of his cool stuff. Connor made a bone knife, tomahawk, bow with several arrows and a quiver, shield, belt to hang it all on and a blow dart gun with darts.



We had 4 deer to process - 3 white tail deer and 1 sika deer.


This was our first of the button bucks.



This was a ball joint with the tendon running through it. We tried to tie in some science for the day since we're studying animals this entire year. We read all about deer before arriving.

The crowning event for Connor was taking off the deer head, with a hacksaw, and then using the same saw to remove the antlers.

This is John Fishback :) He and Al were having fun looking at one another through the trachea...science, right?

Connor helped with some of the processing, here he is helping to skin one of the white tail.

This is Brother Affeltranger having a grand ole time.

This class filled our freezer with yummy venison that we've been enjoying nearly every night!

Chase's 2nd Birthday

Chase is now 2! Here are some pictures from the happy celebration, including the birthday cake.


When your birthday is close to Christmas, you don't get birthday paper/bags, it is always Christmas stuff in our house. This was a gift from Connor. He cleaned out his men drawer and put them all into a bag for Chase. There were Star Wars figures, Rescue heroes, army guys...all sorts of men! Chase was very excited, but I think Connor was even more excited to be able to give a gift to Chase.


Some favorite gifts included a very loud imaginext dragon and wooden train engine.


Chase has been fascinated with choo choos lately so he got his very own train cake on a Rice Krispies track.


He was pretty excited! i don't think he ate any cake, but he loved picking off the m&m's


All the kids helped me decorate it.

Chase is certainly a handful, but he's also sooo much fun to have around. When he's happy, he's really happy and when he's not happy, he's unbearable!

Its the most wonderful time of the year

I love Christmas! I love the weather, I love the season and celebration, I love the feeling of Christmas...it is all WONDERFUL! I wanted to take some time to document some of our Christmas traditions and some new ones we're starting this year.

We do daily service during December. We make a list of people we want to serve and then each day we choose someone from our list and think about what we can do for them...it's not very formal, but it gives us something to work from each day and keep in the spirit of giving.

We knit hats for the homeless - The Original Pancake House in Rockville collects handmade scarves, gloves, hats, etc to give to the needy on Christmas morning. They serve Christmas breakfast to 400-500 people and on their way out the door they give them these handmade items to keep them warm. We use the Knifty Knitter so even Lillee can make hats on her own.

We stop all "school work" for the month of December. During the school year, my kids work from individual charts that we call their "Daily 5" From a list of 9 or 10 options they choose 5 to do each day. Examples of a daily 5 may be 20 minutes of literature reading, 20 minutes of math, 15 minutes of creative writing. This allows the kids the opportunity to choose what they are in the mood for rather than me forcing a schedule on them.

In December I make them a December Daily 5 that has no school work, but all Christmas focused options. For example, (1) 20 minutes knitting hats for the homeless, (2) 20 minutes building our Lego nativity (we are making a large Lego nativity this year - last year we made small, individual Lincoln Log nativities, but I wanted a larger family project this year), (3) prepare a daily service for someone outside of our home (we work from our service list mentioned above and since I have 2 kids in school we serve 2 people/families every day!), (4) personal enrichment (they have to spend 20 minutes doing something to help themselves grow in a positive direction - this could be exercise, quality reading, learning a new skill, the list is endless) and (5) Christmas music (20 minutes of practicing a Christmas song on the piano, singing or signing - the church website has some of the Children's songbook in ASL signing videos).

We also started the month off by sending presents to Jesus. We buy a dozen helium filled balloons (next year we'll do 18 so each of us can send 3 gifts...I love the symbolism and wish I had thought of it sooner!) and write our gifts to Jesus on slips of paper (we used these cute slips this year), laminate each one, punch a hole in them and tie them to the balloons.



I took pictures of our "gifts" to remind the kids (and us parents) throughout the year what we promised to do for Jesus.


We then go outside and release the balloons and the kids have a great time watching them float away.




The day after we released the balloons this year, the first thing Connor said when he woke up was, "Mommy, do you think our balloons have made it to Heaven yet?" How precious is that?

Our scripture advent will begin 12 days before Christmas.

We still have the Lego advent calendar, which isn't Christ-centered, but is fun for a family that loves Legos.

We seem to change a little bit at a time, but we're slowly getting on the path to a more Christ-centered Christmas.

Farewell to an Amazing Man

My friend, Stan, for whom I told you about a few months ago has passed on to be with his Heavenly Father. You may read about it on the Magic Quilt site.
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Stan and Lila have been such an inspiration to me in the 7 years I've known them. They have the most beautiful relationship and are truly best friends. My heart goes out to Lila as I know this is such a difficult time for her, but I am once again inspired by her strength, love and dedication to her husband. When she had hoped that Stan would slow down, stop working and just care for himself, she continued to support him as he went to work each day because that was what Stan wanted to do.

I've had met many inspirational couples through the church I attend, but Stan and Lila are the two people I that hope Al and I can become most like.

I am about to leave for Stan's funeral...my heart is heavy, but as my husband and I just reinforced a lesson on Forever Families with our children, my heart is also full of joy with the knowledge we have of temple work and the opportunity we have to bind ourselves together here on earth so that we might be together again in heaven.

The Magic Quilt

I wanted to share this awesome project with all who read my blog.

I can't explain the magic quilt any better than having you visit these links and reading about it yourself. If you're interested in participating in the next magic quilt project, please contact me or join the sisterhood of the magic quilt.

For anyone who knows Stan Tolman, he is the first recipient of the magic quilt and you can read all about it here.

And here is the post of Stan receiving the magic quilt.