Watching the Snow

It was kind of pretty lastnight looking out the window and seeing the reflection of lights from the tree, as well as the snow coming down outside. Kind of just a cozy, Christmas-y feeling. It's been nice having the family home and safe and warm and not having to go anywhere on the yucky roads. I've been busy making Christmas candy while Randy's been busy making deer sticks, jerky, etc. The kids have been enjoying watching holiday movies. Have to enjoy it while it lasts! And pray that the roads get better so we can make it to the Live Animal Christmas Play this weekend!

Tunnel of Fun!

Daddy and the boys decided to make a tunnel in the snow today.

Here are the boys inside of it.

And here is Hannah inside of it.

Here is a view from the inside looking out.

Here is mommy and daddy inside the tunnel! (via Jeremiah Photography!!)

Our Deer Hunt

My husband took me out deer hunting with him the last Saturday in December. I tried to upload the pictures back then, but they wouldn't load that day for some reason so my husband keeps reminding me that I need to post these pictures, so here they are! He got a nice symetrycal 10 point buck with his muzzeloader. I went out with him last year too, but only saw a couple deer then. But this year was much more exciting with 8-10 deer (almost all bucks) going through, and some of them right below the stand we were in! Talk about an exciting deer hunt!

Recipe Request for Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix

Here is the recipe you requested Jessica!

8 qt. box instant dry milk
6 oz. powdered coffee creamer
15 oz. Nestle Quick drink mix
2 C. powdered sugar

Dump all ingredients into a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Store in a tightly sealed container. (I use a cleaned out ice cream bucket) To use: Measure 1/3 C. mix into a mug of hot water.

It does cost a bit to put this together, but it lasts through the whole winter. If anyone has any questions, don't be afraid to ask!

A hot drink on a cold day!

Is anybody else tired of these freezing temperatures? Anyway here are a couple of my favorite hot drinks to warm me up on a cold day! My middle child and I have taken a liking to the Land O Lakes Mint Hot Cocoa......so yummy. Only problem is that they don't sell it in a canister, they sell it by the single packets.


This Chai Latte is a new thing for me. I am not a coffee drinker, but I do like tea and I recently came across this and really like it! It is black tea with cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and ginger. I may try to figure out how to make a homemade version of this mix. I make our hot chocolate mix from scratch. I'm always out for a food challenge as well as a "way to save money" challenge! We shall see!!!

4 Wheeler/ Sledding Fun

Here are "the guys" on the 4 wheeler getting ready to pull the sled

Here is little Miss Hannah getting ready for her ride!

There she goes!

They all switch off and take turns. They even got me on there. Then I had Randy show me how to drive his new toy so that I could pull him on it! This is probably the most entertainment you will find in little old Coggon!

Our roadtrip yesterday.....

Can anyone guess where we went for our roadtrip yesterday? Well my wonderful husband has been on ebay a LOT lately pondering over 4 wheelers. He bid on one that was down in Kentucky and he won it! The owner (Justin Basham) was wonderful to work with as he was willing to meet us halfway to save us the cost of having it shipped. So early Monday morning everyone got up and we were on our way down to Wentzville, Missouri for the day! While Randy was visiting with Justin, I was playing with our GPS to see what was around for restaurants. I thought....*hmmmm, I wonder if there are any Cracker Barrels around*. So I typed it into the GPS and found one in St. Charles. Once Randy and the kids got back in the truck and he looked over and saw his wife batting her eyes at him he said to the kids- "Looks like mom's up to something"

Looks like the batting of the eyes won. I FINALLY got to go to a Cracker Barrel! I kept hearing all the time how good they are and I finally got to go to one! It was excellent!


Jeremiah and I were "fighting" over who would get the HUGE Hershey bar! For those who don't know, I am a chocoholic. I figure it's better than being an alcoholic! And of the 3 kids, Jeremiah seems to have picked up the chocolate gene too. His eating likes are almost identical to mine while Micah's are almost identical to Randy! And we're not sure about Hannah yet. Anyway, Jeremiah and I were able to refrain from purchasing the chocolate bar!


Then lo and behold, what was nearby but a Bass Pro Shop store! Of course we HAD to go there!
We had fun looking around in there and Randy was a good little boy. The only thing he bought was some straps to tie down the 4 wheeler with for the trip home! Needless to say we all had a blast on our little road trip to Missouri!

Snow Day!

When we got up this morning, this was the snow in front of the patio door.

It was 7 1/2"

Then I got ready to go out to start cleaning the snow off the deck and I couldn't even get out the door! I had Randy get me a yardstick so I could measure the drift in front of our porch door.

It was almost 17 inches!

Here is a picture after I finally found a path out the door!

Here is Randy with the snowblower! (the easy job)

So guess who got the shovel? (the hard job)

Actually Randy offered to help with the deck, but I being the farm girl that I am, was having fun getting a good workout removing snow.

Am I done yet? Oh yeah, one more deck to go!

Wait a minute....what's he doing? Sitting in the van talking on the cell phone? O.K. how about the kids?

Ohhhh, must be nice! Sound asleep in bed.

And the other on is sound asleep in OUR bed. Little stinkers!