The day Big Sissy and The Farmer were the same age ... It's a leap year birthday

It's a big day at the pigpen.  It is an occurrence that only happens once every four years.  As you know today is February 29th, but what you might not know is it is also The Farmer's birthday... that's right The Farmer is a Leap Year baby so it isn't every year that we get to celebrate his birthday on his actual birthday.

So today is special for all of us since it is The Farmer's real birthday, but it is even more special for Big Sissy as her and The Farmer are finally the same age.  Since she turned 9 in October, she's been waiting for today so she and her daddy could be the same age.

To celebrate his big birthday, she made him this sign:

So Happy 9th Birthday to The Farmer!!  We love you at this pigpen!

I'm an aunt ... again

I've said it before, but I love being an Aunt.  I was blessed with 4 amazing aunts and feel very lucky to pass on the traditions and love they shared with me with my nieces and nephews.  Well last night, my youngest sister, Auntie K, blessed us all with a new niece to love and spoil for the rest of our lives.  I don't know yet when I will get to officially meet her, but thanks to technology I received a picture of her on my phone within an hour or two of her being born.  It's not quite the same thing as being there in person, but it is pretty amazing to have already caught a glimpse of her.  And thanks to Facebook, this morning I was able to see a picture of my new niece with my mom and two of my other nieces, Cousins L and A.

Also, thanks to Facebook, my other sister, Aunt L, received a few congrats on the new baby within minutes of posting the pictures of our new niece.  I had to laugh out loud when I soon saw her status update letting everyone know that the baby was her niece and not her daughter.

Oh how technology and social media have changed our lives...

My random return...

The month of January has flown by and now the groundhog has seen his shadow which means another month is underway.  The start of 2012 has brought a lot of work travel for this full-time off-farm working momma which hasn't left much time for blogging or really much else besides work and being a momma.

February isn't looking much better, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel and hopefully with time my blogging will return to some sort of normal schedule, but in the mean time, here's what I got... a bunch of random thoughts.

One month of 2012 has brought the pigpen one case of strep throat, one ear infection, and 2 migraines.  Believe it or not, we may be off to a slower start than past years.

This may or may not have to do with the unseasonably high temperatures we have been experiencing, but I'm not holding my breath.  I'm waiting for winter to appear when we least expect it.  Let's face it, I live in a place that is supposed to have 4 seasons... I like the 4 different seasons, but don't want to experience winter in March when we are supposed to be getting ready for Spring.  Time will tell.

I hate that I live a little over 30 miles from our state's capital and can not get a good high speed internet connection at this pigpen.

I love fountain cokes and yes, the foam cup makes all the difference.  This also applies to McDonald's Sweet Tea.

I am both excited and scared to death that Big Sissy has officially enrolled for her first year of 4-H.  How is it possible that I have a child old enough to be in 4-H?  And for the record, I feel exactly the same way about her starting to read the Harry Potter series.  She is on book 3 of the series.

The Hunger Games was the December book for my book club.  I was unable to attend the December meeting and unfortunately, never found time to read the book... that is until about 2 weeks ago.  Let me just say, it was amazing.  I ended up reading all 3 books in the series in less than a week.  (This was one place where the work travel really came in handy as I had lots of reading time at the airport and on the plane.)  I would highly recommend the series and can't wait for the movie to come out in March even though I may have to wait for it come to Redbox before I ever get to see it.

We love Redbox at this pigpen.  So far this year, we have seen Mr. Popper's Penguins, Courageous, and Moneyball among others.

We love football at the pigpen and I'm so thankful, we were able to spend a few hours last night at the NFL Experience and the Super Bowl village.  Indianapolis is quite lucky to be hosting Super Bowl XLVI and we were lucky to soak it all up last night.

Speaking of lucky, Uncle A, my brother, has tickets to the Super Bowl thanks to that special lady in his life that we adore.

I'm addicted to Cookies & Cups recipes after finding her recipe for Salted Caramel Butter Bars on Pinterest thanks to Martini.  Two weeks ago I made those said bars and The Farmer called them "caramel crack."  Last week I made her Swirled Caramel Pretzel M&M Blondies.  I think I might try out her Peanut Butter Cup Fluffernutter Blondies for the Super Bowl.  Besides her recipes, I also love the commentary she shares prior to each recipe.

I can probably count on both hands the number of times I have wore a dress in the last 5 years; however, I am planning on packing 3 dresses to wear next week while I'm gone for work.  I've decided that they are really pretty comfortable and so easy to pack.

And I think I'll end my random thoughts with one really random happening in my life... I currently live 3 hours away from where I grew up and most of my family still lives.  Any way, Big Sissy's basketball coach is from that same town and we just may or may not have graduated from high school together.  What a small world!

What random thoughts do you have running through your head right now?

Bubby and his work jeans

Bubby loves him some work jeans AKA jeans he can wear on the farm and get dirty with no repercussions.  In fact every new pair of jeans he gets, he asks if they can be work jeans.  And much to his dismay the answer is no quite frequently.  Now don't get me wrong, he has about 5 pairs of work jeans, but to him you can never have too many work jeans so I knew when I had the opportunity to review a pair of Wrangler jeans I knew that Bubby would be the ideal reviewer. 

Bubby couldn't wait to try out his new work jeans.  In fact he put them to work right away in the house and found out they were perfect were helping him slide down the hallway

and decorating his John Deere Christmas tree in his room. 

But truthfully, he couldn't wait to wear them on the farm and show them off to the pigs. 

His new Wrangler jeans were perfect for meeting our first litter ever of 4-H pigs.

Bubby really loves his new jeans and I love that they have an adjustable waist which is such an amazing feature in children's clothing. 

In fact, Bubby's only concern was that his new wallet wouldn't quite fit in the back pocket,

but in the scheme of things he was just ecstatic to have a brand new pair of work jeans... especially Wranglers. 

Thanks Wrangler!!

Now to win a pair of Wrangler Kids' Jeans, please visit The Real Farmwives of Ameirca's page and sign up. 


While Wrangler did give me a pair of jeans to review, all thoughts, pictures, and opinions shared on this blog are my own. 

Back to reality with the end of 2011 and the start of 2012

Well as hard as it is to believe, the Christmas season has come and gone even though my Christmas tree is still in the process of coming down this weekend.  It wasn't my intent to stay away the last few weeks, but I was trying to balance being a working mom and spending as much time as possible with my kids as Big Sissy and Bubby don't go back to school until Monday.  I don't know if I succeeded really well with either one, but during my unintentional boycott of social media, I did have some great work appointments and some fun with the kids. 

So I thought I would just share some of the highlights...

Thanks to Pinterest and B. jane brewing and her Hot Moma Makeovers, Big Sissy made matching shirts for herself, Little Sissy, my mother-in-law, and Cousins L, B, A, and E. 

Big Sissy made some yummy cookies for Santa with some special Hershey kisses.

Little Sissy got to place Baby Jesus in the manger as Big Sissy read us The Christmas Story from the bible. 

The Farmer read "Twas the Night Before Christmas before the kids went to bed on Christmas Eve in their coordinating Christmas pajamas. 

My in-laws came over for our traditional Christmas breakfast on Christmas morning. 

Big Sissy went from this

to this after donating four 8 inch pony tails to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program and a cute new haircut from Aunt L.

We rung in the New Year complete with a pork crown roast decorated by Big Sissy and a special 2012 cake made by my mother-in-law, Big Sissy, and Bubby. 

We saw Alvin and The Chipmunks:  Chipwrecked

and we cheered on the Lady Boilers to victory!

Now it is back to reality for all of us this week as Big Sissy and Bubby head to school on Monday and I have a lot of work travel to do during January and February that starts on Monday.  So as much as we love breaks from our normal schedule; hopefully, the return of our routine will bring some regularity to our lives. 

So what have you been up to while I've been away?

Christmas Tradition #7 from the pigpen

It's here.... well almost.  It is hard to believe that it is Christmas Eve.  I've said it numerous times already, but I absolutely love this time of year and our family has built many traditions over the years that make the Christmas season very special for us.  Today I will share tradition #7 and although I have more to share, they will have to wait until another year as I think it is appropriate to end with tradition #7 this year as it just might be my favorite.

When we decorate our house for Christmas soon after Thanksgiving, we love to set up our nativity as I'm sure many of you do.  The nativity itself is not the tradition, the tradition is when Baby Jesus and the 3 kings arrive.

Baby Jesus does not arrive in our manger scene  until Christmas Eve when we gather around as a family before going to bed to read the Christmas story from the bible.  So since Thanksgiving weekend, we have been patiently waiting for tonight when we can celebrate the birth of Jesus and the real reason for the season.

Our 3 kings have also been waiting patiently since Thanksgiving weekend.  You see they are making their journey to visit Baby Jesus on the Epiphany, January 6th.  January 6th is my mom's birthday so growing up we always made a big deal of the 3 kings arrival on the 6th.  So until they arrive on Epiphany, our 3 kings are "traveling" to our manger.

Merry Christmas to you and your family!!!!!

Christmas Tradition #6 from the pigpen

I started sending Christmas cards after I graduated college.  After we had Big Sissy, we included a photo with our Christmas card or sent a photo card of the kids.  5 years ago we started the tradition of taking our annual Christmas card photo with the kids thanks to a suggestion from Ice Tea.  This year, Big Sissy, Bubby, and Little Sissy all wanted to old a pig so we were quite literally 3 kids and lots of pigs.

I thought I'd share some of our outtakes  as there are a lot of them because if taking a picture with 3 kids isn't hard enough only someone like me would add not one, but three live pigs to the mix.  As usual, after about 20 pictures, we ended up using the very first picture I took for our Christmas card thanks to closed eyes, moving and/or non-smiling kids, moving pigs, hair in the eyes, and operator error to name a few.

So with no further ado, here are some of our outtakes:

What do you do for your Christmas card picture?