Drifted In

We woke up to quite the winter wonderland this morning. Last night the wind really picked up and with all the fresh snow we are really drifted in today. Luckily neither of us really has to go anywhere today. My work is pretty flexible about me staying home when the roads are bad.

For some reason the snow really drifted right in front of the front door to our house:

And right in front of the garage:

I don't think the picnic table is going to see any use in the near future:

So for now, we are staying in our warm house and only venturing out when absolutely necessary!

Snowing & Snowing

This has been a really snowy & cold winter for Missouri! Yesterday it was pretty much a blizzard when we went out to feed the cows.

The bulls:

#275 had our first calf last Wednesday and we've kept them up in the barn ever since. It's just been so cold and snowy and there isn't much cover for them out in the pasture, so they get to stay in the corral & barn. He's a cute little Yield Grade calf so we want to take good care of him. The poor little guy looked pretty cold yesterday when it was really snowing & his mom had him outside:

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here is a step-by-step as Kelly Jo opens her Valentine from Mom & Bruce:

1. This Valentine is mine, I'm outa here!
2. Through the paper:

3. Now for the box:

4. A taped shut box is nothing that I can't handle:

5. Success! Got my toy, now I'm outa here:

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

27 & 23

On Thursday, Feb. 11th I turned 27! I also started the 23rd week of my pregnancy that day. I have definitely never spent a birthday pregnant before, but it was a nice day. Luke met me in Kirksville and picked me up from work and took me out to dinner at Ruby Tuesday. Then when we got home I had several presents and cards to open. Thanks to everyone who was thinking about me and helped to make my birthday great. Here is a picture of what I look like now that I'm 27 and 23 weeks pregnant (17 weeks to go):

Snow Day!

Last Tuesday we had a much welcomed snow day! These days I'm pretty much open to any excuse to take a day off of work. I just get so drained after working all week that any sort of break is much appreciated.

The Loyd's got us this for Christmas and we didn't think we'd get to try it out this year, but sure enough it's come in very handy already:

I spent alot of the day cooking, since I don't seem to do that much anymore. I thawed out the last bag of strawberries from my garden and made some strawberry shortcake for a summery, winter treat! I couldn't believe how well they kept--they tasted great! I also made chili for lunch and swiss steak for dinner.

It was nice to get to spend some time with Luke. Seems like we have been on very different schedules lately and haven't really had much time together. Although I did get nervous when I walked into the kitchen and saw this little project he was working on. Maybe it's just me, but I always get nervous when he starts bringing saws into the house...at least it wasn't the chainsaw this time:

We are supposed to get more snow again this weekend, so maybe we will be in luck again!

Celebrating 10 Years

Last weekend Luke & I went to Columbia to celebrate his 10 year reunion with his pledge brothers from the Alpha Gamma Rho Fraternity. It has been 10 years since he started college and joined the "brotherhood". There was a lunch banquet in conjunction with the AGR Classic Cattle Show on Saturday that we went to and then we spent the afternoon hanging out with his pledge class & their wives. Ten out of the 18 members were there, so it was a pretty good turnout. I hadn't met hardly any of them since most had graduated and moved on before I came to the University of Missouri. It was neat to see how they were all kind of at a new stage in their lives. All but one was married and most of them either had pregnant wives or little kids (so we fit in pretty good).

Here is Luke with his 10 year membership certificate:

Luke's pledge class, 10 years later:

Now we are looking forward to his 10 year high school reunion this summer in Carrollton! 10 years seems like SO long ago, but I'm not too far behind him!

Working Cows

Two weekends ago Luke's parents came to stay with us and help work the cows. Luke has finished the inside of the barn now so we can work the cows without having to be out in the mud/snow or the dark. It worked really well and since I'm not much help these days, it was really nice of Steve & Debbie to come and help Luke.

Luke preg checked all the cows and sorted off the few that were open. On Sunday we hauled them to Kirksville for the sale on Monday. The REALLY good news was that we were finally able to sell the crazy longhorn cow that we have hated for SO long. This is the cow that jumped over the hood of Luke's pickup the last time we tried to sort her off by herself. She then jumped at least 3 fences on her was out to the far corner of our land. Needless to say we didn't see her for a few days (maybe even weeks) and we really didn't care! So, we finally got to sell her and she was almost 1600 lbs so I'm glad that we finally got some money out of her.

The Millers brought their 6 month old puppy, Baxter, with them too. Baxter is already as tall as Kelly and much stockier. They had a good time keeping each other company, chasing cows & playing with sticks.

Ice

Here are some pictures from a couple weeks ago when we had some ice. The whole "ice" thing still amazes me as we never got anything like this in Montana.