A health and long life to the farmer

In honor of my dear Farmer hubby ~

Let the might and the great

Roll in splendor and state,

I envy them not, I declare it.

I eat my own lamb,

My own chicken and ham;

I shear my own sheep and I wear it.

I have lawns and green bowers,

Fresh fruits and fine flowers,

The lark is my bright morning charmer.

So God bless the plow

In the future as now--

A health and long life to the farmer.

~Old English Rhyme

Happy 40th Birthday Sweetie!!!!
We are sooooooo
B L E S S E D
to have you as our Daddy!
Love you MORE!

Wishin you many more years being outstanding in your field! 
xoxoxo
Leslie, Sarah n Jack

Happy New Year !!!

Hope you all rang out the old and rang in the New Year joyfully!

We did!!!

Not a raucous evening (unless you count going out in my jammies near midnight to check horses). Just reading last years memory highlights and resolution questionnaires and filling out this years while wearing silly hats. 

Snuggled up and reading our new Christmas book "The Boxcar Children" in bed.

And then...

Hunting together as a family on New Years Day.
I truly hope this will become a new tradition with us. So far The Farmer seems to have taken to it like a duck to water. He's never foxhunted before although he's played a supporting role behind the scenes. 
I had no doubt he'd love it. He's a natural rider and has been training dogs to hunt since he was a kid. Throw in his perfect horse Bonnie The Clyde, kind and helpful fellow hunters and great food afterwards... Who wouldn't love it?!

At a snowy team Hunter Pace last month ( he's wearing a winter coat under his riding jacket)

I am soooooo HAPPY looking over and seeing him riding beside me!
Now my kids, that's a whole 'nother story...
They ride like champs and when we're halfway through I love seeing their smiles beside me.
But it takes 'bout half a hunt before they quit fussing.
THAT'S our New Years resolution; kids STARTING the hunt SMILING.
Thanks largely to their new hunt friends Ms. Susan and teen idol Heather they ended this ride beaming.
The awesome Masters of Carrollton Hunt invite the kids to ride in at the front as they bring hounds in up.  My kids were hooked.

Jack, Heather and Sarah riding in with Carrollton's Maters. 

Now I'm off to finish catching up on last years chores so that I can move on to this years projects.

2013 is off n running and I gotta keep up better this year!

Best wishes to you all this year!

Busy little feet of all shapes n sizes

Wow, it's been a busy month.

As usual on the farm we've enjoyed overwhelming blessings and fun

and a wee bit of stress n drama as we prepared for Christmas... 

Our Elf Clayton has continued to keep us entertained...

He brought us Elf Pillows,

And roasted marshmallows n made s'mores on our fake fire!

He even made a tire swing in our tree!

Clayton delivered a letter and special seeds from Santa!

We followed directions, planting them (looking suspiciously like TicTacks) in sugar and sprinkling with salt til they grew into Santa gumdrops!!!

Our little riders on little reindeer ponies rode in a BIG parade in Lisbon!

Sadly I was "behind the scenes" so got no great pics this year.

Mostly I snapped pretty things from behind or after...

We enjoyed a dinner with "Santa?" at our favorite family restaurant, Baughers...

And went to Christmas at The Kennedy Center for my gift followed by an early Christmas at my Aunts!

We've also been torturing small animals in the name of seasonal silliness.

Now it's Christmas Eve and we've been VeRy JoYoUs!!!

We began by foxhunting as a family this morning! ! ! ! 

Use your imagination as although we were dressed festively, these are the only pics I got.

You see, we're having a WHITE CHRISTMAS!!!!

We've exchanged some gifts - the highlight for me being when Jack gave Sarah a mirrored mug with cocoa so that "she could see how beautiful she is in the morning even with bedhead."

She gave him his dream - a box FULL of hotwheels!

Nanny brought fun toys and laughter as usual!

But sadly we had to abort our trip to church tonight after much dangerous sliding in the VW.

Still, we've left out cookies n thank you note for Santa and will be reading Twas The Night Before Christmas with visions of sugarplums soon to follow.

And as always, Clayton reminds us of the true meaning of the season.

God Bless you all dear friends.

Merry Christmas!!!

Even Elves get sick

Aww, I feel even worse now...

Not only do I have the flu (last in the family)

but it seems our Elf Clayton is sick in bed(Kleenex box?!) too!

Good thing he found everything he needed to get comfy

~ I see he brought Little Noses decongestant drops!

We were supposed to ride in a horse parade tomorrow but between the weather n the flu I'm doubtful.

Hope you're all well and tucked in snug!

It's Dec - that means Elf mischief!

 We are officially in the Christmas spirit. How 'bout you?

Our Elf, "Clayton," has returned!

And he brought many Elf buddies...

And what's an Elf without ToYs?!

 On Dec 1st the men went out hunting and Sarah slept late while battling the flu...

Clayton snuck in quietly on a reindeer.

Later we went and cut our tree at our local farm

Grandma JoJo came out afterwards and showed her support by going out hunting with the boys!

We decorated the tree ...

and then we all hunkered down together in our bed to watch...  

ELF!!!!  of course

We came down Sunday morning to find a special surprise Elf breakfast!

Sarah was FULL of drama!

All things Elf or SnOw prevailed ~

powdered doughnuts, elf cups of milk, snow caps, elf lollipops, elf paddle boards, white warm socks, white popcorn, a Santa movie, cookie mix and, of course, syrup! 

Also included; cotton balls (snow???) scattered all over the table and an Elf voice recording toy.

This morning Clayton himself went from my nice list to naughty... We think he's unhappy with our glorious above normal temps and was asking for weather more like his home... 

He wrote out "Let It Snow" in cocoa mix on our counter and 

hung around on a snowflake to watch our reactions.

He also cut out snowflakes (leaving the mess)

And taped them to the back door around our countdown calendar.

Hope you all are counting your days full of fun!