Unique hair day....

Tori had a lot of fun combing Kelly's hair. I was surprised she stood still for that long. She was so proud of her braids. All 7 of them!

Mountain Bluebirds

These little birds have been "hanging
out" all around our place today! I feel so blessed to see these beautiful birds
up close!

This is a Pine Siskin, part of the finch family.











A Dark -Eyed Junco.......

Interesting "Moon" facts ......

I thought I add this post to go with the moon pictures below....I used this as a science lesson for the children as they watched the moon rise on Saturday night.


Earth, the moon and the sun are all bound together by gravity, which
keeps us going around the sun and keeps the moon going around us as
it goes through phases. The moon makes a trip around Earth every 29.5
days.

But the orbit is not a perfect circle. One portion is about 31,000
miles (50,000 km) closer to our planet than the farthest part, so the
moon's apparent size in the sky changes. Saturday night (Jan. 10) the
moon will be at perigee, the closest point to us on this orbit.

It will appear about 14 percent bigger in our sky and 30 percent
brighter than some other full moons during 2009, according to NASA.
(A similar setup occurred in December, making that month's full moon
the largest of 2008.)

High tides

Tides will be higher, too. Earth's oceans are pulled by the gravity
of the moon and the sun. So when the moon is closer, tides are pulled
higher. Scientists call these perigean tides, because they occur when
the moon is at or near perigee. (The farthest point on the lunar
orbit is called apogee.)

This month's full moon is known as the Wolf Moon from Native American
folklore. The full moon's of each month are named. January's is also
known as the Old Moon and the Snow Moon.

A full moon rises right around sunset, no matter where you are.
That's because of the celestial mechanics that produce a full moon:
The moon and the sun are on opposite sides of the Earth, so that
sunlight hits the full face of the moon and bounces back to our eyes.

At moonrise, the moon will appear even larger than it will later in
the night when it's higher in the sky. This is an illusion that
scientists can't fully explain. Some think it has to do with our
perception of things on the horizon vs. stuff overhead.

Try this trick, though: Using a pencil eraser or similar object held
at arm's length, gauge the size of the moon when it's near the
horizon and again later when it's higher up and seems smaller. You'll
see that when compared to a fixed object, the moon will be the same
size in both cases.

More lunacy

If you have other plans for Saturday night, take heart: You can see
all this on each night surrounding the full moon, too, because the
moon will be nearly full, rising earlier Friday night and later
Sunday night.

Interestingly, because of the mechanics of all this, the moon is
never truly 100 percent full. For that to happen, all three objects
have to be in a perfect line, and when that rare circumstance occurs,
there is a total eclipse of the moon.

A departing fact: The moon is moving away as you read this, by about
1.6 inches (4 centimeters) a year. Eventually this drift will force
the moon to take 47 days to circle our world.

Skywatcher's Guide to the Moon
Top 10 Strangest Things in Space

Large Moon......

Isn't perspective an interesting thing? The moon looked small "in" Kelly and Brad's hands. I try to remember that when I am going through what seems like an impossible situation. I'm glad that from my Papa's perspective it looks different and that HE holds my future!!

Kelly falls in LOVE...PUPPY LOVE!!!

We went over to a friends and they had 4 puppies. The golden one was Kelly's favorite. She totally fell in love. She wrapped him up and he went to sleep. She kissed and cuddled him like a baby! She kept saying things like "Wouldn't it be so neat if I could have a puppy like this one? or, I really wish I could have a pet......." It was so hard to say NO!

Wyatt, Brad's friend is the proud owner of these puppies.

It was his dog's first litter.

When you can sew, you'll never know what you might be asked to sew! Our neighbor has this ice fishing hut and it was torn at the zipper. He asked if I could fix it. I first made a call to my mom....(a much more experienced seamstress) and she said it shouldn't hurt the machine so I was game to try! Sure enough it worked, even though I pressed the pedal with my knee and Brian had to help me with back- tacking! Mr. John was happy and I was glad to bless him.

Sledding on Christmas Day!

There wasn't a lot of snow but it was enough to have fun!

Our friends Barbie and Cynthia came over to dip peanut butter crackers, peanuts, and pretzels with us.

Making "Gingerbread" house....

The night before Amy left we went to the Hayden's with several other families to make gingerbread houses. Each family made a house. We had a lot of fun and it was interesting to see "personalities" in the customized houses! These people would be families that are in our home school group.

This house was our family's house. Notice the Moroccan roof with the wash line and the PA part...the Keystone above the door.