Little House on the Snow-Covered Prarie

Waking up to an unexpected snow Monday morning was not exactly the way I had planned to start my week! At first, (I have to admit), I was a little excited... after all, it was our first this fall/winter season! Jaxon slept in that morning till about 7:30 and for the first time since Christmas Day of last year, I wanted to wake him! When he finally woke up, he of course wanted to get right out there and build a snowman... little did I know at that point how perfect the snow was for just that!

Right before we headed out that morning, we lost power... no big deal, it happens a lot! On my way to town the roads seemed fine and after a short delay we continued on our way to my Mom and Dad's. I was beginning to wonder on my way there whether or not I'd be able to make it home that night... the snow was falling so fast and there seemed to be an endless amount of it! Upon arrival, I learned that Sam had gone to school so how bad could it really be?! My sister-in-law was on her way over too, (they had lost power about the same time we had.) All morning the snow continued to fly, school got canceled and Kent called to inform me that at noon we still had no power. Huh?! Oh well, Mom still had juice and it was nice and warm there! About an hour later things began to change!

We lost power at about 1pm there and ended up having a giant Meier/Welch family slumber party! We all thought for sure that by the next day everyone would have power again and things would go back to normal... we were all very wrong!

Kent and I have a well, which (pardon my pun), is all good and well... (that is until you lose power!) With 36 calves to water we had to come up with a way to make sure they had what they needed and fast! We ended up collecting water from our downspouts for the first 3 days. That worked, but by Thursday we were becoming concerned that we may run out. Between the water we needed for them, the toilet flushing and the small amount we were able to use for personal hygiene... we knew that if we were going to be w/out over the weekend, the water would be gone! We resorted to having them go back to the dairy for a few days... very sad!

With no power and no running water the moral at our house was down! We were all having trouble sleeping at night and smelled as though we were homeless! We were able to stay somewhat warm at night thanks to our wood burning stove but were too exhausted most nights to keep wood on and ended up waking up to a very cold house!

Our power finally came back on Friday night only to lose it again 8:30 Saturday morning! Thankfully by noon, the power was back on and we had a phone again! YAY! (Did I forget to mention that when our power came back on our phone, Internet and cable went out?!) Anyway, things are back to normal and even though it was ruff, things could have been much worse! Jaxon was a trooper throughout the entire ordeal and even though he was battling a terrible cold he still managed to remain his happy little self... most of the time!

Appreciate the little things in life... being able to flush your toilet is truly a blessing!

Farmer at Heart

Few things in life excite our child more than one of these "big, green monsters"! We have been waiting in anticipation for the harvesting of this bean field since earlier this summer. Jaxon's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree upon discovering this beast in our backyard! He had a hard time focusing for the first few minutes and I had an even harder time getting him to eat his lunch! As we sat on our back steps enjoying our cheese pizza and the sights and sounds of the combines running, I couldn't help but think of how lucky we are to have this kind of simple entertainment at our disposal. As the afternoon went on, we scoured our 5 small acres for the best spot to watch. Jaxon has spent lots of time perched upon these red rocks so it was no surprise to me when he drug me out to join him. He was a bit distracted by the traffic going up and down our road... at the moment I shot this picture, there was another big, green combine headed out to the fields.

We were thankful to wake up this morning to dry ground... now if only it can stay that way to allow the farmers to get their crops out of the fields. Jaxon and I miss Daddy on those long days away at work and this weekend was no exception. Thankfully we had Grandpa around to keep us company on Saturday. We spent the day moving calves and bales... (this is another one of those exciting moments in our child's life!) And even though he has been begging for the past 2 days to go w/ his Grandpa, (I know deep down it's not because he wants to be away from Mommy)... he's a farmer at heart!

Jaxon's October "ArtBoard"

Since Jaxon and I are always doing art activities, I thought it might be fun to start documenting these pieces for him as a keep sake. Throughout the month of October I taped every drawing, painting, collage, color book page, etc. to our fridge and at the end of the month, hung all of the work on my kitchen bulletin board. I then took a picture of the board... here's the first of many in a collection I call, "Jaxon's ArtBoard"! The "ArtBoard" stays up for the entire month of November, and at the end of the month, all of his work goes into a file folder. I then put up the November art and so on, and so on! Keep watching for more to come in upcoming months!

Costume Creation

Costumes, up until this year, have been pretty easy for me to find! The first year we were given a costume as a gift from Jaxon's Papa & Grandma Welch, that year he went as Superman. The next year my Mom came across a really cute farmer costume and last year he went as a football player.

This year, Jaxon was very admit about being a certain carnivore from the Jurassic period... Buddy (the t-rex) from PBS's new cartoon, Dinosaur Train! After discovering there were no premade costumes and that I would have to come up with this on my own, I began searching through his closet for an all orange outfit. Since I am no seamstress, I knew I would more than likely need to go another route and by another route I mean construction paper and duct tape! It turned out to be a pretty inexpensive costume, I paid $6.50 total and that was because I ended up buying the orange hat!

I am pretty proud of what I was able to come up with and even though no one else knew who he was supposed to be, he did and that's what matters most!