Our Interesting Thanksgiving

The 3 Musketeers going to get help. For what, you may ask? See below.

Andrew and Erica

Stephen enjoying the ride

Nathan being silly

Philly fell in our pond during all the excitement. She was miserably wet.

Luke on Cleo

Sarah riding

Seth on Cleo and consulting with the rest of the Hastings clan

Another one of Seth

Erica the cowgirl! :)

Well, I didn't rearrange the pictures, so they let me type something under all of them. Here's our interesting Thanksgiving story. If you don't know what I'm talking about, read the entry below this. This is the second part of my story. The Hastings came over for Thanksgiving this year. In order, the kids are Luke, Nathan, Seth, Andrew, Sarah, and Stephen. Luke is my age (well, a little older) and Stephen is 4. You know (because you read my previous blog) that the previous night, Thanksgiving Eve, we got a new steer, and that he was very shy and didn't like anybody. I don't really blame after a blown out tire ride. But, we let him out of the trailer, Cleo has her fun with him, and then we all go inside to finish cleaning up and to await the Hastings arrival. We had first heard from them that they were gonna get here around 10 at night. But they call and tell us that "we're stuck in traffic and we'll call when it starts moving." So, the Hastings got here around 10:30. We talk for a while, then we all go to sleep. I woke up the next morning around 7 and went downstairs (all the girls slept upstairs). I saw Mom and Dad outside letting out the chickens and talking, but I ate first. While I was eating, Mom and Dad came in. They looked really sad, and they told me (and everyone) that the new steer, the Black (or whatever we're going to name him), wasn't in our pasture. Since we got home in the dark, and we have a pond, we thought (and were pretty sure) that he had drowned in the pond in an attempt to get away from Cleo. Well, none of us wanted to believe that. So we all went outside and looked around the pond. We didn't really see any hoof prints, then Nathan got a brilliant idea. He saw a low spot in the fence, and decided to climb it and look for hoof prints on the other side of it. He jumped it and looked (along with Kayla, Erica, and Seth) around, and saw some hoof prints. I sprinted up to the house and told everyone that the steer didn't drown. So I went back outside and about 5 minutes later, Erica flew out of the forest and yelled at me, "We found him! We found him! He's about 3 houses down!" So I ran up to the house, and told everyone. They all grabbed a pair of boots, ran outside, and we all tried to find him. Well, eventually he turns up about a 1/2 mile back in our neighbor's property, next to the fence with Tavi. He must have missed her. Then he saw us, so he takes off to the front of the property. Silly me tries to corner him, and so, unwittingly, I chase him back to the back again. So then Dad, being the smart one of the family, tells us all to line up in the forest where the steer couldn't see us. So then Dad goes behind him, and slowly walks forward. The Black then walks up the fence line, toward the chicken coop, where we're gonna keep him. Then, one by one, he asks us to come out of the forest, so that he can't really go back. Then Erica, on Cleo, prevents him from going too far up the fence line. So we got him in the chicken coop. Success! We're all really happy that we got him in. But before we ate breakfast, the Hastings wanted to ride Cleo, since she was already saddled up. So, as you can see, they rode and had a great time. The fence you see in the second pic of Seth is the chicken coop where the Black was. Yea, you read right. Was. But first, I need to tell you about our Thanksgiving! It was way fun. The food was the best I've had in a long time (thanks Mrs. Hastings and Mom!!) and we all had a great time. We ate in the sun room, and then we ran around outside, and later that afternoon, we all rode Cleo again. But, unfortunately, she was in a terrible mood (all she wanted to do was run, and she was taking advantage of everybody) so that didn't last very long. So we all decided to play put out. Or knock out. Or whatever you want to call it. :) It was fun! I'm working on my skills (they're not so great) but the Hastings clan was great at it. I lost many a time to Nate and Luke, and several times to Sarah. Andrew and Seth would have, too, but I was fortunate enough to not really be behind them. Then we ate dinner (leftovers!) and then we played spotlight. That game is so much fun!! Stephen was my partner, and he found some pretty good hiding spots. But so did everyone else. For example, trees. But we had a mishap with those, so we didn't bother with them after that. We played that for a while, then we went inside. The next morning, the steer was out again. Apparently, he found a low spot in the chicken coop, and jumped it into the pasture, then jumped that fence into the neighbor's yard. What a surprise, right? So we all troop outside to find him. But we couldn't. He wasn't anywhere. We drive the truck out there, and Erica saddled Cleo up, but we couldn't find him. Eventually, we found him (I don't remember where) but I do know that we found him around lunch. Oh, I forgot to mention that Mrs. Hastings and Mom are out doing Thanksgiving weekend sales shopping. So while they're gone, we're running around like mad people trying to find the steer. So the picture you see is of Kayla, Erica, and Nathan (right to left) going over to the neighbor's house to ask for help. We corner him, only this time I wasn't out there. Only Dad, our neighbor (who's a member of SWAT), Kayla, and I think Seth was out there. They get him in the back yard with the help of some sweet feed, and he hasn't escaped yet. He's pretty happy, and very shy. He doesn't like me at all. But he loves Tavi. So that's our interesting story. Yep. I know. Hilarious. The Hastings left Saturday morning. I have one more thing to add to this entry, cause I know y'all are bored to tears. On Friday, LSU played the Razorbacks. They were beating us 14 to 3 early in the game. We came back, and at halftime, the score was 30 to 14, LSU. Guess what the ending score was. 31 to 30, Razorbacks. They were thrilled, cause of course I was all excited and was saying how we were going to beat them, and they were doing that to me. LSU stinks!! But Florida also rocks! They are so going to beat Alabama on Saturday!! But maybe I shouldn't say anything. Remember what happened last time. And I really hope that UT gets to go to the BCS Championship! But it'll probably be OU. So that's my blog. I thought I should add all that football stuff, cause that was a big part of my weekend. Talk later.

P.S. This was really published on Dec. 1. The computer's just confused.

A Pre-Thanksgiving Story

This is our new steer!

Erica is the pretty princess.

Well, lots has happened! So much has happened that Mom told me to separate before Thanksgiving and during/after Thanksgiving into 2 separate blogs entrys. So I shall. This is, obviously, the one before Thanksgiving, since I'm going to do them in chronological order. I couldn't get some of the pictures to move or allow me to put words underneath them if they allowed me (ever so graciously) to move them, so I decided to ignore them. The pictures (if they were in chronological order) would have Sawyer being puffy and showing off first. Then Erica and I being pretty pretty princesses. We were bored and hyper, so we decided to play the game. We recruited Kayla, but she didn't enjoy it at all. I couldn't get a pic of her, but I took some of Erica and myself. It was fun! I took the picture of the house today, about 5 minutes ago for Maryanna. I love you girl. Here's your picture. My room is the one above the front door on the right. That's my window. And now for the black cow and the weird trailer. That's a long story. This is why Mom is making me separate before and after Thanksgiving. Here goes. We (Dad, Kayla, Erica, and I) borrow a trailer from a friend, Mr. Audalay. We buy all our hay from him, and he's a really good friend of ours. We borrow it from him to take Tavi and the goats over to him to be bred. We fix it up (it's hard to tell, huh?) and then we keep it for a while so we can take Tavi back when she's done getting bred. Well, we go over there Wednesday night at around 5 to pick her up. We did it that soon and that late because Dad had told Mr. Audalet that we wanted a steer from him and whenever he rounded them up to just separate Tavi and the steer and we'd come pick them up. He calls and says that he's got them locked up in his pens and wants us to go get them. We have to weigh Dad's truck first (because if we weigh the truck and trailer before we get the steer and after, we'll know how much he weighs and can pay Mr. Audalet accordingly) so we weigh and pick up the steer, go back, weigh again, and then pick up Tavi. You can guess by this time that it's just about dark. And I left out one little detail that should make this really interesting for you: the trailer has no back lights. (I know...bad! Really bad!) So we're driving home in the dark with two cows in this dumpy, 65 year old trailer. (The tire that is the subject of my story you are about to read is pictured: it's the front one of the two seen.) And our friends, the Hastings are supposed to be there that night, and we needed to finish cleaning the house. Well, Dad decides that without lights on the trailer, we're not going to take the interstate. We'll take Walden. Well, we're not 2 minutes onto Walden when this little car goes in front of us, then slows down goes behind us, then goes back in front of us again, and rolls down his window. I know. Busted. I wish that was what had happened! The guy inside the car says "Hey, you've got a blown out tire that looks pretty bad." We say thanks and pull over into this subdivision. It's 6 at night, and in Texas that means it's been dark for about 30 minutes. We call a friend, Jeremy, who lives in Sour Lake to come help us cause we have a spare tire, but it's completely empty. So it takes him about 40 minutes to get to where we are. While we're waiting, we pull the tire out of it's spot and guess what comes out with it?! A dead hornet's nest, a dead spider, and a huge mound of dirt. It was really gross. It was cold, too. It was pretty much a nightmare. But the worse is yet to come! Haha. There was some fun. But it started out a nightmare. The Hastings were so much fun! I'm so glad they came!!!!! But the most interesting thing happened the next morning. Thanksgiving morning. It was pretty much a nightmare and very unimaginable. You think I'm joking. Read on.

New puppies, tigers, cows, etc....

I finally got a pic of Tavi on here!

This is the puppy Kayla is going to get for Christmas! Isn't it cute??

The puppy being sweet with her aunt

As you can see, the puppy loves KK!

The tiger, Brutus!

Well, top to bottom! :) Tavi is finally pictured for all to see! I talk about her all the time, but you've never been able to see her before! Now you can. The picture was taken about 1 year ago, when we first got her. She's about a year old in the picture. She has grown bigger since then, and the tag in her ear was taken out as soon as she would let us near her. She was very skittish at first, and Cleo didn't help! We let Tavi into the pasture, and Cleo decides some fun at poor Tavi's expense, and herds her all over the pasture! I wasn't there to see, (I was at choir) but I heard stories. Now for the puppy!! I love puppies, don't you? They're so cute! And Kayla's new one is really cute (exceeded only by my puppy, Philly, and it's tied with Grace for cuteness). I didn't see the puppy, but Dad and Kayla went to see it. Here's what's happening with the puppy. She's not old enough to be taken away from it's mommy, so Kayla went to save her pick of the litter, and we can pick her up sometime in mid-December. (Kayla could say the exact date and time and then go into a monologue about how cute she is and how much she loves and misses her! But I could have too if I was separated from Philly! hehe) She went to see it on Sunday when we got back from church, and she was dying all the way home from church and drove us all crazy when we were eating! But she loved the puppy. And everybody found out about it at the Harvest Banquet last night at the church. There was lots of yummy food, but I was the unfortunate victim of being too far back in line, so I missed out on mashed potatoes, rolls, and Mom's deviled eggs. But it was still great, and I get it all again in 3 days!! hehe! :) I'm pretty excited. But at the Harvest Banquet, we raised 490 pairs of shoes for the program Shoes for Orphan Souls. It was pretty cool. But, before I forget, about Kayla's puppy: if any of y'all think of a cute name for her, then just comment and tell us. Kayla is at a loss for a name for her puppy, and she doesn't like any of the names we've come up, so y'all's help would great, and fun! And about Brutus. He's not really evil looking like that in real life. He was angry at Erica and I because we wouldn't give him any more food. So that's why he's glaring. But he purred while we took the pic. He hasn't caught any more little mice things, except for the 2 I told you about. Or at least I thought I told you about. I don't know whether to be grateful or not! :) And Maryanna, I'll put a pic of the house on here for you in a little while. It's rainy and cloudy and almost dark so the picture wouldn't be good at all. So I promise I'll do it next time I blog! :) Sorry I couldn't do it now. It was great to talk to you, girl! And everybody else, we would love to hear from you. Either updates or names for KK's new puppy!

P.S. Y'all are probably wondering, "What's up with the different sized pictures?" Well, it's just something that I'm experimenting with. Which size do y'all like better?

I can post pics!

sweet girls

Phils

Gracie

this picture turned out really good, this was the first pic last night that I took after I realized the power of the flash!

the turkeys: Tom Sawyer, Henny Penny, and Turkey Lurkey

OK! I figured out how to put pics on and type what I wanted to under them! Yeah! Three cheers for me! Hahaha. Maybe I will start blogging now if I can think of anything to say since I figured this out. Don't mind my babbling. Erica

Critters and other things

OK I'm not sure how to put pictures on, so I'm not sure if this is going to work or not. Last night Tom was puffing up and gobbling, so I ran up to get the camera to take a pic of him and when I get back, he decides he's done. How timely. I'm going to try to put some pictures on I took last night and this morning. I took several and if they turned out I will put them on, but it wasn't until the very end when I discovered the flash so most of my pics are really dark and you can't see any of them. :) Anyway, oh I'm going to try to put a video of mom and Kayla blowing up a balloon and letting it go, but I may have to take it off ... so, we'll see. Today we have been cooking pie crusts and it has been a blast, they actually turned out. (see previous blogs) Mom made 7 and will probably use them all on Thanksgiving. 13 people can put away a lot of food.

In Honor of the Hastings. :)

We always take pictures before we leave the Hastings house. This one is about 1 year old.

I found a pic of the goats! This is Joy, as a kid.

In Galveston, there was a paddle boat at our rental house. It was fun. Go, Grandma!

This is Brutus, my wonderful cat. Isn't he so cute?

This is about 2 years ago, when we went hiking, we found crawfish. It was way fun!

Sarah holding one. She was a lot braver then I was when it came to holding those things!

This is a picture of us, including two friends, Lannie and Clay. They are so much fun! Another picture of us in the paddle boat.

There was a pool in Galveston, and the boys were throwing us girls. It was way fun.

Erica took this picture when we were at Caddo Lake. Isn't it great?



Well, substitute one problem for another, huh? I finally figured out how to do more then 5 pics in an entry, then I can't figure out how to type underneath some of those pics because the words are coming out blue and underlined, and I can't make it go away without erasing the pic. So I've stopped trying for now, and just didn't type anything under the picture. But right now, you're probably wondering why all the Hastings pictures, right? Well, in honor of them coming (and me being bored) I decided to put some pictures of them on our blog, and on the way, I found some other fun random pics. But I also thought of something else. Did you ever notice that right now, there are more pictures then words? That's kinda crazy. But you can blame it on me, I guess. I am the one posting all of them. (Except for the last 2 entrys. The one of all of us girls wearing masks and the one that just says that 'the Hastings are coming...bye peeps'.) Those definitely weren't me. But others are entitled to a little blogging on here, I suppose. :) Now for the stories behind the pictures. I really should stop showing y'all what happened 2 years ago. It's probably boring y'all. But I get bored and then I think of this, and then I want to show y'all everything. But for the stories. (Focus Alissa!) All of the pictures of the Hastings are self-explanatory. The hiking was way fun! I will remember that for forever, along with Buffalo Creek. Right, guys? It was a blast! I found that picture of Joy on my hunt for pictures, and I decided to include it cause y'all have never seen them. The other one is Cookie, and we don't have many pictures of her, but when she gets back (which I'm hoping is very soon!) I'll get a pic of her on here. Along with one of Tavi. We need one of her on here, too. The picture of Joy, though, was when she was in our garage. She was really lonely, and constantly bleated and got into trouble, so we had to goat-sit her. It was crazy. So she's sitting on top of the ball box in the garage when none of us felt like watching her, but she wouldn't be quiet. And Brutus! He's a cutie and a sweetie. I love him so much! The other day he found 2 mice things, but I don't really know what they were. Because when we got out there, it was hard to define what it was. We were really proud of him, though! He's so cute when we find it. He knows what he did, and expects extra food for it. I love him! He was the first animal we got on our farm. Cleo rolling is fun to watch. I love it when she does. Especially when she's in the backyard. You can get some great pictures! Sometimes you can catch her when she's laying down for a long time. But her favorite part is rolling. I have no doubt that she does it at least once a day. :) The paddle boat, and the one of Claire, my cousin, flying through the air is when we were on family vacation in Galveston with Dad's side of the family. We rented a house (sniff! I think it's gone! sniff!) that had lots of cool little things like a paddle boat, a pool, and every mermaid thing you could think of. (Right, Jenna? haha!) It was really cool. Well, in the paddle boat pic, we, or should I say Kayla and Claire, convinced Grandma to go paddle boating. It was great to watch. And the other one of us 3 and Claire. We had fun doing it, but I got tired fast. That can wear you out! And now, y'all are probably wondering about the human pyramid. Well, it's a long story, and I'll definitely make it longer, cause I add stuff in. But here goes. We went on a mission trip this summer with our youth choir from church. "We" meaning Mom, Erica, and I. It was a lot of fun, and we were there for the 4th of July. But I'll get to that in a minute. So we went to Boston. It was a lot of fun. A blast. And some day (probably not far into the future) I'll devote an entire entry to Boston, but not today. Long story short. The guys that went wanted to make a human pyramid. Really badly. And they had tried lots of times. In one of our performance songs, they even did one involving 6 of them. 3 on bottom, then 2, and 1. It got easier and easier for them. They tried one with 4 on bottom and had a hard time with it, but eventually got it. So then they decide to try 5 on bottom. It was great. You can't tell, but there are about 40 people watching along with the person who took this picture. Probably everyone who went to Boston was watching. They tried the first time, and fell. Then they decide to try again, and they get it. The guy on top was probably up there for about 4 seconds. Maybe 5 if you push it. But closer to 3 or 4 seconds. Not very long. But it was still cool. And since this entry was supposed to be about the Hastings, I'll finish with a word about them. I love them, and they're coming for Thanksgiving, and they'll be here in 5 days. I can't wait. I'm way excited!!! I'm giddy with excitement! We're going to have so much fun! :)

October Vacation

who could that be?

and this one?

oh, one more! who is that masked girl?

star gazing

roasting marshmellows for smores, yummy!

pretty as a picture

how sweet :)
They're smiling now!Fun at the park

3-man totem poleMy favorite picture!

These are a few more pictures from our "camping" trip (in a cabin) to Caddo Lake in north Texas. We only went for 2 days, but we all had a wonderful time. From hiking to eating to getting messy from eating smores (always a must while camping!) to star gazing to playing games & fun in the park. We stopped by a small town & went shopping - yes shopping. It was fun, we found a few funny treasures & of course, photo opportunities. :) We also took a few pictures that may qualify as "school" pictures - we'll post them soon. Shelly

The Hastings are coming!!!

Hey guys! I'm so excited! The Hastings are coming to our house for Thanksgiving! We get to hang out with them and play around and celebrate all at once. They won't get here for another week though. :( They are getting here Wednesday night and leaving Saturday morning. Talk later peeps.

Some Pics

This was taken when Kalee came over. Love you, girl!

The strange way she looks is from the fun side effects that the Photo Booth has.

This is a great one of Erica. :) Don't you love her hair?

This is an older one of Erica and me being silly.

This is one of the family photos we took on Sunday.

Well, there isn't much to say on this one, since I just finished the other one. I think this might be about 30 minutes after the other one. Kalee lives in AZ, for those of you who don't know my awesome cousin. :) She was so much fun to have here!! And I tried to get a good one of Kayla, but there isn't a recent one of her that looks okay. That's the best I could do. I did get a good one of Erica though. Don't you like it? I don't know exactly what I'm doing in the other one, but oh well. Maybe LSU or Florida had just lost a football game. :) But the scrap on my chin in that one is from an unfortunate meeting with the bottom of a pool. And the one of us was pretty good, I thought. It was Dad's idea for all of us to wear black. I didn't like it, but it looks ok. That's all for now, again. My school has to get done sometime. Ciao!