Momma and the crazy cows out back...


I just walked out to get a loaf of bread from the garage fridge and there was a baby cow hollering in the back field - the last time this happened he had his leg caught in the barbed wire.  So I headed to the fence to see what was up.  Well it seems that the storm blew the gate closed and it was caught in a fallen tree branch.  Their Momma's were on the other side.  :(  So I climbed the barbed wire fence (with my basset protector Sadie barking her head off behind me) to go open the fence.  Now let me set the scene - I am in rain boots and it is muddy muddy - I mean water running in the field squishy gross muddy.  So I trek over to the gate and pull it open.  The Momma's are at this point turned staring at me.  I then back my way back to the fence - thinking they may charge me or something and climb back over the fence.  Here comes the Momma's - babies start to nurse - life is good, right?  


So I head to the garage to get my loaf of bread.  As I come back across the yard I see that one baby is still hollering at the barbed wire fence.  (Some 50 yards or so from the gate.)  So with bread in hand I trek back across the flooded yard to see where his Momma is.  Well the old gal is still across the fence grazing.  What? The other two Mommas are patiently standing while their babies are nursing.  So I am immediately struck by the sadness of this one baby who is bawling in the field.  I am figuring that he's hungry because the gate has probably been closed most of the night.  Oh my heart is breaking for this sweet baby.  So I trek back across the fence and make very wide arc around the Momma cow.  Now mind you I chose the Momma because the other two Mommas nursing their babies are between the gate (me) and the bawling baby.  So in my mind I am thinking perhaps I can shoo the Momma toward the baby who is standing nose through the barbed wire fence bawling.  :(  awww!  Well my plan was short lived because the Momma turns to face me and takes a few steps towards me and stares.  Ummmm...I begin to think here I am in a flooded, muddy field in rain boots holding a loaf of bread.  What in the world am I going to do if this old gal tries to run at me?  Seriously?  So I make my way (under her very watchful eye) back to the fence, where Sadie is still standing guard barking!  


So now I am walking to the back door every few minutes checking to see if Momma cow has decided to join her bawling baby.  Oh how my heart is breaking for this little guy.  


I know she'll come to him, perhaps he closed the gate initially (haha) and she is teaching him a lesson.  Or maybe she told him to come to the other side of the fence last night and he stayed out too late.  I am not to know I suppose.  But perhaps even cows practice tough love...


Off to check the back window again...

Well look at me, I may actually have December blogged before the end of January...well what a marvel that will be.  LOL - Oh well, life is busy and at least it's getting done (eventually) right?  Unlike the scrap booking...oh but that is another story.  LOL

For Christmas with the families we met up in Blanco county.  We met Hubby's family in Marble falls for dinner and a trip to the "lights on the lake".  We ate at a fish place, Doc's I think it was, yummy!  They have some great catfish there.  Red got a bucket of worms (chicken fingers).  LOL - he thought that was very funny!

He liked that it actually came in a bucket.

Before dinner we stopped off at a park so the cousins could play together and we could open presents.  There were some really cool ducks and geese in the water, and loud!  LOL  I learned something though - ducks do not open their mouths like Daffy Duck to "Quack".  They keep their mouth closed.  I had never noticed that before.  Funny! 

We took the kids through the lights on the lake - it is so pretty.  They also got to see Santa while they were there and we drank hot cocoa.  Here's the brother's with Mimi Net by that cool light tunnel. 

For Christmas with my side of the family, we met at Uncle Pickle's - he got a new meat grinder for Christmas.  Boy was he happy.  He had a deer that he needed to be processed.  So Bug got to experience grinding venison.  He enjoyed helping out. 

We also finished another puzzle while we were there.  I love to puzzle! 

When we got home Crazy Scamper stepped on something (on Christmas Eve no less) and cut the bottom of his foot.  So we felt sorry for him and brought the pup inside.  I bandaged his foot with some salve.  Hopeful he would leave it alone.   

As the evening wore on we watched Santa delivering gifts around the globe.  He was getting closer to Texas, so Daddy and I encouraged the boys to head on to bed.  Well Red was ready to go.  He trotted to his room and found some "ear plugs" that came with their own eye covers.  LOL  Crazy kid! 

Here's Scamp hobbling around with his sock...he as not happy!  LOL

Santa had a variety of cookies this year...and almond milk of course.  'Cause you all know Santa is allergic to milk, right? 

The Santa bags were hung by the tree with care. 

Ready to be found with goodies inside Christmas morning!

And Billy Bob Jim Bob James...well Bernard decided to leave him behind for Red to take care of until next year.  Bernard even left them a note, how sweet.

Oh recycling bin here we come! 

A special gift from my Red! 

Daddy got a new t-shirt from Team Bring It from the boys! 

I got a bucket of mixed nuts, yummy!  Papa will be so jealous!

And the Pièce de résistance - the trampoline Santa left in 

the backyard!  It took Bug about 2.5 seconds to throw on some layers and head out in the freezing cold to jump jump jump!  Let me tell you exercise is not a problem in our home school!!! 

The pup pups got a new bone!

Scamp thought his was greeeaaat! 

Sadie is excited, can you tell? 

Lady Bug took hers to her house! 

So as the day wore on we ended up with pup in the kitchen as the boys felt sorry for Scamper with his sore foot...well of course we can't leave out the girls, so in they all came.  Sadie didn't like being locked in the kitchen!  LOL 

But she tolerated it.   

Scamp was still upset over the sock.

Christmas Day hound dog.

At the end of December was the Girls In Action Award Program as Church.  Very exciting stuff!!! 

The girls helped to make the lemonade! 

Team Work! 

Ms. Kimberly made us a precious banner! 

Ms. Marsha and her team of decorators worked so hard to make it pretty! 

And all these goodies - woo-hoo! 

The girls sat on the stage (next to my custom decorated stand!) 

What a spread! 

My notes - because I was sooo nervous!  And the girls vests and corsages! 

Here's my girls - ready to get their vests! 

Ms. Teri opened up the ceremony for us! 

The girls did so well! 

Thank goodness for Ms. Teri who is such a great speaker! 

So pretty! 

Victoria, one of my older GA girls helped to hand out vests - Thank You Vicky!!! 

Kylee getting her vest! 

Madeleine getting her vest! 

Victoria joined us after we had ordered the supplies and since I couldn't get more vests in before the ceremony I had corsages made to signify which badges they had earned.  So proud of these girls! 

Showing off their badges! 

She is so proud! 

Me and my girls! 

Crazy group! 

Well there it is, right up to the last day!  Whew, what a year!  I can't remember just how it started, but let me say it ended on a great note...what a blessing this group is to me, I am so excited to work with them.  I feel so lucky that God has blessed me with this opportunity.  I pray I can do it justice.

Until next time...we-

December traditions at the Johnson house...I love traditions don't you?

I love doing an advent calendar with the boys each year and I made this one a few years back.  Since we can't fill it with chocolate anymore (dairy allergies stink!) I decided to do a bucket list of sorts this year.  So each day I put in an activity we could do together.

Day 1:  Decorate our Santa Bags

Memaw made these awesome Santa Bags for us...I love this idea, it's a new tradition at our house.  Each of us decorated a corner of our bag.  Every year we will add a little something to our bag...so by the time the boys are ready to take their bags to their own family homes, what a story they will tell.  :)  On Christmas Eve we put our bags in front of the tree for Santa to fill with goodies.   

Red of course picked the Alamo! 

Peanut painted a Picachu...I forgot to get a pic of the finished picture - we had to let the yellow dry before adding the finishing touches. 

I put a flower on mine. 

Daddy painted an awesome tree! 

Day 2:  Make your own candy canes! 

Day 3:  Make Christmas Cards 

We decided to make Christmas cards for some of the soldiers on our Hearts for Heros mailing list. 

Bug made a gingerbread man for his card. 

Here is their finished cards! 

Day 4:  Write letters to Santa 

The boys decided to send their Santa letters to the North Pole via Bernard instead of the USPS. 

Day 5:  Make Christmas ornaments - we did the salt dough cut out ornaments. 

Day 6:  Read a book and drink hot chocolate!  Yum!  Have you ever read Amelia Bedelia?  She cracks me up...she is so funny and so very literal...I love it!   

Day 7:  Pop popcorn and watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas! 

Day 8:  Take a picture with a Santa - well there just happened to be one on the tree we decorated for Uncle Pickle - it was a tiny one, but oh so cute! 

Day 9:  Make your own snowman!  Well since Texas didn't make any snow, we had to go with the foam kind...lol.  So we pulled out the foam and jewels and yarn and got to work!

Are they awesome or what?  Bug and I decided to go with the less conventional ice cube snowman, Red wanted to keep it traditional with the snow balls. 

Day 10:  Drive around and look at lights. 

This is one of our favorite December activities!  We went up to Marble Falls for the lights on the water display...what a beautiful display it was!  We loved it!

Check out all these lights! 

I think this was my favorite - the flag with fireworks! 

Red decided this was Bernard feeding his reindeer.

Merry Texmas Ya'll! 

Santa was on a cocoa break, but Daddy and I decided to have a rest in his chair!  hehe! 

Check out the tunnel of lights!  Cool! 

Day 10: Sting Popcorn

We hung our string on Uncle Pickle's TV cabinet.

Day 12: Have a snowball fight - well again, Texas failed to give us snow, so we had to come up with some snow of our own...marshmallows anyone?  LOL

We waited until dark because that's just more fun right?

Four kids running around the yard, hurling marshmallows at one another - can you say FUN!!! 

Then we had to clean up Uncle Pickle's yard!  We played "marshmallow basketball! 

Day 13:  Call Memaw and Papa and sing a Christmas Carol - we chose We wish you a Merry Christmas! 

Day 14:  Decorate Christmas Trees - they are quite eclectic aren't they?  LOL

And that would be where we fell off the advent calendar wagon...life got busy as we did more traveling and visiting and just enjoyed Daddy being off and being out of school.  So we skipped some days, but oh well...we'll try to do better next year!  :)

A birthday cake for Jesus!  Check out all that icing!

Day 16:  Decorate a cake and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.  Have you ever decorated a cake with 3 little boys - well if you haven't you are sure missing out - it is lots of fun!!! 

They were so excited to try out the cake that we forgot to sing!  LOL - so we added some candles, sang to Jesus and then ate another piece!  LOL 

Day 18:  Make a gingerbread house - this was fun and very messy.  Check out this crazy bag...I ended up taping both sides which split, but still ended up with very messy hands!  LOL  Oh well it's fun, fun, fun! 

Here is our finished house...a little messy...lol!  Bernard was impressed I do believe! 

I am going to have to come up with some new ideas for next year...hmmm...better start thinking it's only 12 months away!  LOL

Until next time, we-