Jamming to The Allman Brothers

Totally relaxed in the dentist chair!

A good example

This is Ben in the dentist chair. Totally hypnotized by The Lion King. Headphones in.....it's a good thing too so he can't hear the screaming from the little girl whose dad is forcing her to hold her mouth open!
That will be a fun trip to the dentist next time!

A picture for you, Evan

So this was a bloody one! And it even made a cracking sound before it came out! I did the cracking and then Hun her did the pulling!

Looking good

Beautiful

Handsome new smile

Just plain funny!

Whose nostrils are those?

Rainy

Even so....frozen pipes again this morning!
They thawed by mid morning but definitely thinking about when it gets really cold!

I just love her!

Hard to tell

But that is a bald eagle in the distance.

Happy days are here again

So you can call Scott MacGyver! That guy can fix anything. I am not sure if I will tell it 100 percent accurately , but I think this is how it goes.
He bought a ton of tubing and tapped into the tank or where the water comes out of the tank and ran the line all the way down rattlesnake road where the line T's. Then he connected it there and now we have water.
There must have been a section there that was frozen that he just bypassed.
The sound of running water and flushing toilets has never sounded so completely awesome!!!

Transportation

This is Scott's new mode of transportation in the winter. The truck will not make it up rattlesnake road so he uses a snowmobile and pulls the generator in a giant lead.

The elk munching on the hay

Sisters

Too cute

Adorable

The ride home

Started off at the ranch dog, now a new addition to our family

So, the elk are coming down the mountain and are starting to eat the hay we leave out for the horses. They have absolutely no fear. Our solution to this was to get a dog and tie it up over by the hay to scare the elk away.

Katie and I ran into town to do our laundry and decided we would stop at the animal shelter to see you if there were any dogs that could withstand the weather and were a dog that would bark a lot. 

Now, you have to understand something about the animal shelter here. It is pretty relaxed. And I mean really relaxed in comparison to what it is like to adopt a dog back in Wisconsin. We tried to do that last year and a woman have to come to our house and ask us about 5 pages of questions. And then you could even still be rejected.

At the animal shelter in Utah, you just go in, pick the dog you want and pay 20 dollars cash for it. And that is what we did.

The woman who works there said that this dogs number had been up 2 * to be euthanized. She just could not do it because the dog was so sweet and she was sure that someone would come and claim it.

Katie and I fell in love almost immediately. Katie thought of the name Betty and it fits her well. As far as we can figure she is maybe about 6 to 9 month old acts very much like a puppy still, likes cats, loves kids, can sit, lay down and Shake. She is already answering to her name!

I do have to admit it is like having a newborn baby. Last night I was up an outside with her at 930 pm, 1230 a.m., then again at 1 o'clock a.m. because then she had to poop, then Ben was up at 2 o'clock and snuggled into bed with me and Scott, and I was back outside with the dogs at 4:30am! Needless to say I am very, very tired today! But I still love Betty!

More updates on the house

An updated picture of the house

Yep, it is cold

So this is what the windows look like on the inside of the cabin.
The cabin is not really fit to live in all year round. We love it nonetheless, as long as you're not standing by a window! :-)

Now, let me clarify just 1 thing.
Just because we do not have running water does not mean we do not have any water at all. We have about five 5 gallon jugs that we use to fill up over at the ranch house. If I am going to wash the dishes, I simply heat up water and for it in. If we need to flush the toilet, we simply pour water into the tank and flush. We usually have a pot of water sitting in the sink to wash your hands so that is no problem either. There is heat and hot water running over at the ranch house so we just pack up and head over and clean up there.

Of course, this is not an ideal situation, however it is doable.

Melting it down

So this is what life looks like when the pipes freeze.
We have had frozen pipes since last week Friday. It has been as cold as minus 40 in some areas that are low laying between mountains. We have not gotten that cold, but have seen minus 15 or so. But with the sun shining it certainly does not feel that terrible.
This coming week should be about 40 degrees so we are keeping our fingers crossed that the pipe will thaw and we will have water. Otherwise it is going to be a very very very long winter.

It really is beautiful here

So the snow in the cold weather have arrived here in the Utah mountains! I am grateful everyday that we are able to drive up log Canyon Road and the driveway to the cabin. Initially, we were thinking we would have to use a mini truck with snow tracks, snowmobiles or something else that would get us up to the cabin through the snow. But with the county plowing love Canyon Road and the plow that Scott put on the diesel truck things are looking bright.

Lego Land

The boys got a lot of Legos for Christmas and we have been spending the bitter cold days putting Legos together.
This is a Lego meeting of all the working guys!

I have heard that THIS is going to be a "game changer".
It's working as we speak!

Singing songs about whiskey and beer.
Where does he get this from?

Katie teaching Hunter to knit.

Benny turns five!

A wonderful holiday back in Wisconsin

We went back to Wisconsin for 2 weeks for the holidays. It was wonderful! We had a wonderful time with family and friends.

We are so grateful for all of our family ties and the friends that still stay close at heart even though we live in Utah. We have much to be grateful for this holiday season and throughout this whole new year.