Jared's First Kill!!

So Jared got his first deer! Very exciting. He shot a doe, about 120 pounds. We have made summer sausage, pepperoni sticks, and jerky out of it ouselves....and can't wait to get another one now because it is SO GOOD!! Especially the sausage. It has been fun to figure out how to do it ourselves as well. We borrowed a friend's smoker, another friend's dryer and jerky gun which we used to load the sausage casings, not the jerky. Now Jared want's his own smoker...we'll see :)

Turning 4

Conner turned 4 on October 8th. We celebrated with the family that day and he had his first birthday party on Saturday, the 11th. He wanted Spiderman on Wed. and Buzz Lightyear with his friends. Spiderman was easy, but there is NOTHING out there for Buzz Lightyear anymore so I had to make it myself. The invitations had a picture of Buzz and one of the green martians that I cut and pasted a picture of Conner's head onto. On the back it invited the kids on a mission to defeat Emperor Zurg in his plan to end all birthdays! They were especially invited by Buzz Lightyear and space ranger Conner Parr. The kids a a lot of fun with that. Jared took everything down before I could get a picture, but I hung black balloons with neon glow in the dark star stickers on them and yellow stars from the ceiling fan in the living room, and there were stars put up all over the walls. A black, shredded, curtain hung in the doorway between kitchen/living room with a sign that said, "Welcome to Pizza Planet". The kids played pin the badge on Buzz, balloon mania (see how many you can keep in the air) with balloons that had pictures of Toy Story characters on it, duck-duck goose (kids's choice), and they colored their treat bags when they arrived which were paper bags with pictures of Buzz on them for them to color. Then we ate pizza and drank yellow koolaid with green ice cubes (supposed to then combine and make blue right?) and watched the Buzz Lightyear movie, opened presents and had cake. The cake turned out horrible looking, I just ran out of time and energy. It was supposed to have a picture of Buzz in the middle, but oh well. It is supposed to be a space cake with two planets on it. It tasted great though! So after cake we had a scavenger hunt ( I mean, a special mission to collect items Buzz had left in space!) where the kids had to find their treat bags which were hidden in the living room "quadrant". All I have to say is that I am so glad it is OVER! A birthday party with seven 2 1/2 to 5 year olds is exhausting! Thank goodness I had Jared and our friend, Dotty, there to help. Conner had a great time and that's what matters.

Potty Training!

Okay so I have started potty training Raelee, and it has been way more difficult than Conner! But she is making a lot of progress now and rarely has an accident. Usually only when we go out. I sure picked the wrong week to begin potty training. It was the week before Conner's birthday and we were out every day to the store shopping. We had to buy her new pants and underwear while we were out because I didn't have enough spares for while we were out. It was a nighmare. But I knew there was no going back so I pushed through it and now that things have settled down she is doing great.