Thankful Thursday 2009 - What a year!

Wow, this has been a crazy year. It started off simple enough, I had my usual winter blues and started blogging in January. I met a wonderful group of people and developed some lovely friendships. I appreciate each and every one of you so very much! When we tragically lost Duke you all were there with your kind and encouraging words. THANK YOU! From the bottom of my heart. It has been a struggle (and it feels silly because Duke was "just" a dog, but he was so much more!) but with the new puppies and finding out we are expecting our second child, I have a new found joy. I hope to be back in full blogging force soon! I have so much to blog about now. I am so thankful for everything in my life. I really have had no good reason to be "down" but sometimes it just sneaks in there and surprises us. I am thankful I have the Lord to hold me and guide me through everything. Without Him, I would surely be in big trouble. Here is to 2009, a year of losses and gains and many lessons and new things learned. And here is to looking forward to 2010, a new year and God only knows what it holds for our lives. But one thing is certain, HE will be the main focus as my family ventures through it.

A Late Merry Christmas and the News

So here is a late "Merry Christmas" to everyone!! I had in mind to set up an automatic post...but I didn't (BIG surprise lol). So I hope everyone had a very lovely holiday!


Now for my big news (Yaya & anyone else TTC, if you are reading this, you might want to stop, I don't want to make you sad or feel bad or anything, though I am sure you have it figured out by now - big hugs!!).








Ok,

Little Jimmy is going to be a BIG BROTHER!!! =) So there you have it! I haven't even been to the dr. yet because I am switching and couldn't get in to the new one until January (they don't even see you until you are at 10 weeks)! But according to my calculations, I am about 3 months along. I didn't even realize it until around Thanksgiving and then I took a test about a week or 2 later to "confirm it"! So hopefully all is well. I feel pretty good now. I was feeling pretty yucky and was really picky about food and smells, etc. But that seems to be getting better, so I must be close to the 2nd trimester already!

Now, Yaya and any of my friends out there who have been ttc and been having trouble, if you did read this, I want you to know that I am continuing to pray for you and I kept thinking about you when I was thinking about posting this. I know I haven't been in your situation and I don't know what it is like, but I do follow what you go through on your blogs and I hurt for you. I hope and pray for you all the time that you will one day be blessed and have your own bundle of joy, whether it is your own child or through adoption. I wasn't really sure what to say, but I care about you!! Sending you all big hugs!!

Oops...

You are going to have to wait a couple days longer before I tell you what is up! ;-) Sorry to keep you in suspense lol. See my previous post if you are totally clueless about what I am talking about =D

We're Elves!

I had to do it! I finally gave in and Elfed myself lol. Make sure you pause my playlist so you can hear it. Enjoy our elfy-ness!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

He's Here!

Welcoming....Luke! I went and picked him up this morning. An hour through the snow one way to meet the breeder (though NOT over 15 inches like some of the east coast, I think we only got 2 or 3) and then he got to come to my dad's for our big family Christmas get together. So he got some socialization!

Here is my sweet baby dog for you all to see =) He's such a cute little chubby furball!! (please excuse my messy house in the pics, its been a long last couple days...weeks.....months even....lol. Once again I have been neglecting my bloggy duties, I have still been a bit down lately. That and laziness are my only excuses....well, there is ONE more, but I can't tell you that until, ohhh, Tuesday night (if I remember) ;-)

Late Belsnickle

Jimmy put out his boots last night (see previous post) with a note to Santa and this morning he found a couple goodies! Here are some pics. Enjoy!


He got a chocolate reindeer (that mommy surely won't try to help him eat...teehee) and a little Elmo doll that doesn't say anything or make any noise. Ahh that's the best kind =D

Have a great day!

St. Nicholas Day or "Belsnickle"

Yesterday, December 6th, was St. Nicholas Day or as we call it in our family "Belsnickle." It is German/Dutch celebration of St. Nicholas' birthday. On the eve of the 5th, children place their shoes on their fireplace hearth (or outside their bedroom door) and in the morning their shoes may be filled with things ranging from chocolates and treats to even a small gift. If they have been naughty, they will of course find coal! For more about it check out the wikipedia page about St. Nicholas.

My Oma (grandmother) is full German so we were brought up with this tradition. The way we always celebrated was to put our Christmas lists in our shoes and put them out by the fireplace on the evening of the 5th. Then Santa would come, pick up the lists and leave some candy and a small gift in the shoes. So on the morning of the 6th we had a nice little surprise! I just love this tradition and will definitely be carrying it on with Jimmy. We are going to do our "Belsnickle" tonight since I honestly forgot to do it on time, but Jimmy is so young it won't matter that we are a couple days late =D I will post some pics tomorrow!

Christmas Countdown Paper Chain

Today we made a Christmas Countdown Paper Chain. I remember making these when I was little, my sister and I just loved ripping the links off each day.

Supplies needed:
2 pieces each of Red, green & white paper
Scissors
Tape or a stapler
Cut 4 strips, longways, out of each piece of paper, except for one piece, cut out 5 strips. You need 8 strips of 2 colors and 9 strips of the third color to add up to 25 strips (one for each day, December 1-25).

Now all you do is make a loop with one strip and tape (or staple) it closed. Put the next strip through the loop and tape it closed and continue adding loops until all the strips are used up. Easy as pie!

If your little one is too young to cut and tape/staple, you will have to do that part. But this is a great activity for teaching toddlers the colors. I asked Jimmy to hand me each strip by color as I needed it. I rotated them green, red, white, green, red, white, etc.

Help your little one count down to Christmas (starting today) by removing one link from the chain each day. Have fun!

Its December!! Homemade Ornaments

It's the 1st day of December, Christmas is coming fast!! Ack, I need to go shopping!!!

I am so excited, this will be Jimmy's 2nd Christmas, but this is the first year he will actually understand a little better what is going on. I can't wait for him to be able to open presents and see the excitement on his face! I am so excited to do Christmas crafts with him, make cookies and all sorts of things. Yesterday, my lovely friend and very expectant mommy Katie came over with her soon to be 3 year old little girl. We made Christmas ornaments! We used 2 different recipes. One was the salt dough kind that you bake in the oven and the other was a cinnamon dough that smells SOOO good!! Here are some pics of the ones we made with links to the recipes:

Salt Dough Ornaments.

Cinnamon Ornaments

We just rolled out the dough and cut it out with cookie cutters, poking holes in the tops with a straw so they can be strung with ribbon or yarn and hung. Jimmy and I are going to be painting the salt dough ones and I will post some pics when they are done. The cinnamon ornaments smell very good and would be perfect for someone with country or primitive decor. These would make great gifts and/or add-ons to the outside of wrapped gifts. Have fun if you decide to try these and don't be tempted to eat the cinnamon ones! Hubby almost took a bite of one last night but thought, wait, those are a bit TOO strong smelling and then he asked me about them. I told him they had cinnamon, applesauce and GLUE in them and he was like eeeeew, glad I didn't take a bite! lol! Enjoy!

The Chosen One

Well, we decided on a puppy! We chose puppy #3. Here are his pics again:


It was so hard to choose! I really loved puppy #1, the blue merle bi with blue eyes (see previous post). He was just gorgeous! But Duke had brown eyes and copper points and in the end I had to go with this sweet little guy who reminded me the most of Duke. I hope he ends up being a nice boy! He is only 4 weeks old so its a bit early to tell his temperament, but I am sure he will be fine (fingers crossed!). Now to think of a name! I am not sure if I like Luke or not (as in Luke Duke, see this previous post), any ideas? I like to keep to the tradition of a one syllable name (for herding dogs - a good short, easy to say name). And I want to keep it related to "Duke" somehow, whether it is the Dukes of Hazard or John Wayne (who Duke was named after). So let me know if you have anything in mind!

Find Me Friday

A pic from over the summer. I wish it were warm!! I am a winter wimp (but I do love Christmastime and the first big snow!)


If you are new this week, all you have to do is post a photo of whatever you want (within reason of course, keep it clean people! ;-) ) and it has to have some element of "peekaboo," "hiding" or "camouflage" in it. Think of one of those hidden pictures where you have to find the hidden images. Or a green frog blending into the green leaf he is sitting on. There are tons of options! Have fun with it!

If you would like to join in, please make sure to link back to my blog and use my button if you like. If I decide your image(s) is/are inappropriate, I have the right to delete your link. Other than that, have fun and I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with! Oh, and I plan on having weekly themes in the future, but if you don't have a photo that falls into the category, you can still participate. And I don't mind if you add this into another Friday blog carnival. As long as you remember to link to me, that is great! Ok, that's all for now, lets see those photos!

Here is a button for you to use if you would like to participate. Thanks!

<a href="http://www.theblessedcountrymom.blogspot.com"><img src="http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f208/nuttzi/findme.jpg"/></a>

Thankful Thursday

In following last weeks post, I am so thankful that we are going to pick out our newest k9 addition to our family on Saturday! So without further ado, here are some pics of the 3 puppies I will be choosing from.

The pups are out of 2 litters. Here is the one from the Oct. 6 litter. He is a blue merle bi (no copper/tan marks) with blue eyes. He is stunning!



These 2 pups are from the Oct. 23rd litter. There are 2 pics of each of them. They are blue merles with copper/tan marks. Not sure if they have blue eyes yet, will see on Saturday!

Blue male 1:


Blue male 2:


Well, there you have it, I wish I could have them all lol!! Which one is your favorite?

I hate having to pick, but then again, I am glad I get to! When I got Duke when he was a puppy he was the last one left so I didn't have a choice. But he was perfect! I am sure whichever one of these pups we end up with will be perfect too, they have wonderful bloodlines and are raised in a fabulous setting by a very responsible woman who knows what she is doing and has been doing it for over 30 years!

Now I want to mention - I am all about shelter dogs and rescuing pets that need homes. But I really wanted a puppy so that I can raise him and know his quirks and know how he is getting trained. He will be raised around a toddler, cats and horses (among other things) and I need to KNOW how he is going to act. I didn't want to bring in a dog from an unknown situation and have him end up turning on my child. I know that any dog could potentially do that, but it is less likely if he is raised in such a way to be used to a certain environment.

Here is an example - our border collie Cody is a craigslist "rescue." And he is a mostly outside dog because he is way too much for little Jimmy (we got him before Jimmy was born). He is very jumpy and rough and that is because he was not properly trained (and the fact that he is a high energy breed). He barely knew the sit command when we got him and he can be a bit snappy with his mouth (he has never bitten us, but he is playfully mouthy, kind of like a puppy) - not good for a toddler who likes to run up and grab whatever he wants! Cody is one of those dogs that would be labeled "not good with small children." I know there are really good dogs & puppies out there needing homes, but the search gets harder the more requirements you need the dog to meet. And the fact that these pups are related to Duke make them very special to us. If you hadn't noticed, we are quite sentimental. ;-)

I better stop now or I will keep going on and on, so thanks for stopping by & visiting the puppies and have a wonderful day!

Find Me Friday

Peekaboo, I see you!



If you are new this week, all you have to do is post a photo of whatever you want (within reason of course, keep it clean people! ;-) ) and it has to have some element of "peekaboo," "hiding" or "camouflage" in it. Think of one of those hidden pictures where you have to find the hidden images. Or a green frog blending into the green leaf he is sitting on. There are tons of options! Have fun with it!

If you would like to join in, please make sure to link back to my blog and use my button if you like. If I decide your image(s) is/are inappropriate, I have the right to delete your link. Other than that, have fun and I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with! Oh, and I plan on having weekly themes in the future, but if you don't have a photo that falls into the category, you can still participate. And I don't mind if you add this into another Friday blog carnival. As long as you remember to link to me, that is great! Ok, that's all for now, lets see those photos!

Here is a button for you to use if you would like to participate. Thanks!

<a href="http://www.theblessedcountrymom.blogspot.com"><img src="http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f208/nuttzi/findme.jpg"/></a>

Thankful Thursday

I haven't done a Thankful Thursday post in a while, wow! Well, hopefully I will be back at it now.

I am thankful that I went to bed before 10:30 last night, first time in a loooooong time, and now I am awake and feel pretty good at 7 this morning! Wahoo!!

I am thankful that little Jimmy is still sleeping as I type this.

I am so very thankful that we sold my car Monday and Jim's 4-wheeler on Sunday. Because now we can pay off a little more of this:

That's my truck. And my sweet Duke, the day before he died. Its bittersweet really. You see, I have been having a struggle with this dumb truck because, in the first place, we should never have bought it and taken on a truck payment. WHAT WERE WE THINKING!!! Well, we weren't and that's all there is too it. But secondly, the day Duke got hit was the day I was moving Jimmy's car seat from my car to this truck. So that's why I took my eyes off of Duke for a moment, I was unbuckling the car seat from my car. And then I turn around and Duke is running away from the road and a car is slowly driving on.....and then Duke collapses...and I freak out. Sooo....I blamed it all on buying that truck. I insisted that we sell it. I pretty much didn't want anything to do with it because it was a constant reminder of why my doggie is no longer here (I am still dealing with all kinds of guilty feelings, but its getting better, finally). Well, it hasn't sold. There have been a couple people interested, but no one has come to look. With winter right around the corner, that is the best time to sell a 4-wheel drive so we'll see what happens. But I am now content to keep it if I must ;-) (oh real tough decision right? You all must think I am nuts, it is a great truck and we did get a really great deal on it). I really now really just hate the idea of having a truck payment. I mean, we were debt free except for our house!!! Dave Ramsey eat your heart out!! We already live on beans & rice, rice & beans (well, not ALL the time, I do love it though!), I never buy anything for myself unless it comes from Goodwill (clearly the truck did NOT come from there lol) So anyway....long story...but I really am thankful that I have this truck, whether we do keep it or end up selling it. Plus, it is really fun to drive ;-)

Ooh and on that note about Duke, I am so thankful for 3 little blue merle male Aussie pups that I get to choose a new one from. Yay!! AND they have some of the same bloodlines as Duke =) I will post their pics next week sometime and you can tell me which is your favorite.

Well, that's it this week, thanks for stopping by and remember to always find something to be thankful for no matter what is going on in your life!

Honoring Those Who Have Served

Thank You to all of our Veterans!

Find me Friday!

This is from my photo archives as I failed to get a good "find me" pic this week. Thanks for stopping by and joining in!


Can you find all 5 vultures? (make sure you click the pic to enlarge it!)



Here they are if you can't see them all =)



If you are new this week, all you have to do is post a photo of whatever you want (within reason of course, keep it clean people! ;-) ) and it has to have some element of "peekaboo," "hiding" or "camouflage" in it. Think of one of those hidden pictures where you have to find the hidden images. Or a green frog blending into the green leaf he is sitting on. There are tons of options! Have fun with it!

If you would like to join in, please make sure to link back to my blog and use my button if you like. If I decide your image(s) is/are inappropriate, I have the right to delete your link. Other than that, have fun and I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with! Oh, and I plan on having weekly themes in the future, but if you don't have a photo that falls into the category, you can still participate. And I don't mind if you add this into another Friday blog carnival. As long as you remember to link to me, that is great! Ok, that's all for now, lets see those photos!

Here is a button for you to use if you would like to participate. Thanks!

<a href="http://www.theblessedcountrymom.blogspot.com"><img src="http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f208/nuttzi/findme.jpg"/></a>

Halloween & Fall 2009

I know, I know, I am a LITTLE behind....I think my motto is becoming "better late than never"! So anyway, here are some pics of our place this fall and of Jimmy's first time really trick or treating.

Awesome hat!


Just....a....little.....farther!

Ahhh, got it! Bleeecchhh!! Mom, you didn't tell me it was so slimy!!

Helping Mommy carve

Jimmy giving his pumpkin a kiss

The only way I could get him to smile was to put the kitty near him!

Walking in town with Daddy, first time trick or treating (sorry for the blurriness, it was getting and I forgot to use the flash!

Look who we found! Its our lovely friend Angie!!

And then we found Jimmy's cousin, Supergirl!