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Category Archives: Andy

Christmas Morning

by Heather | 0 comments

The kids slept in ’til 8am, it was a Christmas miracle :) When Cassidy woke up and saw the tree she exclaimed “Oooh, presents!” We had a low key morning at home together (we’re headed out to visit family this weekend). One of my favorite moments was when Ben opened a gift of birdseed and peanut butter and said “Oh thank you I always wanted one of these!” Haha, he was super sweet, thanking us for all his gifts. He’s been wanting to make a bird feeder with pinecones he collected and now we have the peanut butter and birdseed to do it!
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Andy and Ben received a little fossil dig set to do together.
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The pirate princess!
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Putting together some new Legos.
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Their “big” gift this year was my Legos from when I was a kid. Thankfully my mom saved them and I was able to split them with my brother, giving us each a huge stash. The kids were so excited to dig through and find a bunch of new pieces.
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The force is strong with this one. Awesome craigslist find for Ben *cough* mommy *cough*
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Butterfly wings!
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Dinosaurs and princesses!
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Waffles or cashews?
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The aftermath!
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Cinnamon rolls, a Christmas tradition.
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Merry Christmas!
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All dressed up!

by Heather | 0 comments

We decorated for Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving. The kids had fun helping with the tree and setting up a new to us train underneath it. Thankfully we didn’t need to gate the tree off this year, they’re both a little older and can admire without carnage. I finally have a spot for my nativity scene this year too. The kids even have their own Little People nativity set (even if pieces usually end up all over the house).

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Doe, a deer

by Heather | 0 comments

Last year I shared a little bit about the deer harvesting process and my thoughts on it. This year, the kids are actually old enough to notice and comment on the deer hanging in the garage. We’ve just explained that daddy hunts for deer so we have food to eat, simple as that. I’m not sure if they’ll want to hunt when they’re older but we’d at least like to teach them respect for the animal in life as well as in death.

The one night Ben asked if he could go outside and help Andy in the garage. He’s the “soft” one, always loving on the kitties and saying how cute and fuzzy other animals are. So I was really surprised when he asked but we figured, hey why not?

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Ben being silly when I asked what he thought. Honestly I don’t really think he cared too much about the deer and just liked hanging out with his dad. He told me he liked sitting on the lawn mower and that’s about all I got out of him.

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Admittedly, deer legs on my kitchen table are not my favorite part of the process. Andy does do a really nice job of cleaning up the meat, getting rid of fat and trimming off the silver skin (thin layer covering all the muscles). If you were to take your deer someplace else to get processed they definitely don’t do as thorough work. Deer processing places also just lump your meat together with everything else they received that day when making ground venison too, so you’re not even getting back “your” deer.

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Some of the meat will get cut up into steaks and chunks for grilling. The rest gets ground up for sausages, burgers, and plain old ground venison that we’ll used for everything from tacos to hamburger helper. In all honesty we do prefer the taste of beef over venison, but the venison is SO healthy for you and it’s “free” if you process it yourself (minus the cost of the hunting license). The deer lived a good life outside, not eating junk and not getting injected with anything. Venison is also incredibly lean and high in iron. Actually it’s so lean that you need to add a little oil to the pan when working with it since there’s so little fat.

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The backstraps are the best cut! We marinate them for up to 24 hours and then Andy grills them up, sooooo good!

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Cottage Life

by Heather | 0 comments

We visited my mom and Paul’s cottage this weekend! My grandparents were actually up from Florida for the week too and it was SO nice to visit with them. They met Cassidy and my brother’s daughter, Brielle, for the first time. We’d been together two years ago at my brother’s wedding and I was 7 months pregnant with Miss Cassidy then. Ben didn’t quite make the connection that they were MY grandma and grandpa, but we all had fun!
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4 Generations: My grandpa, mom, brother and niece :)
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Cassidy was NOT thrilled she had to share spotlight time with Brielle ;-)
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Saturday weather was beautiful, 70s and sunny!
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The kids played on the playground behind the cottage and enjoyed making some new friends.
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The kids also got to meet my mom and Paul’s new rescue doggie, Jackson. He is such a sweetheart and was very good with the little ones the whole weekend.
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The weather may have been nice, but the lake was still freezing! I think in the low 50s! That didn’t stop Andy from suiting up and heading out on his jetski. He bought it on craigslist a few months back and has pretty much gutted and rebuilt all the innards. I’m SO proud of him (and maybe slightly jealous of all the attention he gives her…) He even convinced Paul to head out on the lake too, even though everyone else on the cottage lane thought they were crazy. Ben went for a little ride too but said it was too cold and windy and asked to turn around. I’m proud of him for trying!
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All the kiddos enjoyed snuggles with Nonna. My kids were exhausted from all the activity and slept really well for naps and night time (woo hoo!)
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Saturday night, Paul’s brother Dan was at a neighboring cottage and popped over to visit and show us his drone. Andy wished he’d brought his, but there just wasn’t room as we’d taken my car. Andy said he didn’t have the guts to fly it over the water like Dan did anyway ;-)
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Andy and Paul watching the sunset.
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It was a gorgeous sunset that night. We don’t always get to see a spectacular one every time we’re there (in truth it’s usually just twice over the summer we visit) but there were lots of clouds to reflect light and lots of interesting colors and hues. I took so many pictures and it was so hard to pick my favorites.
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Even Jackson was out on the deck enjoying the evening with us.
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Sunday was a bit gloomy, grey and rainy so we stayed inside most of the day. The kids enjoyed lounging in their jammies and playing on the tablet together.
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A cuter shot from Paul. This picture almost makes you think they get along ;-) They are pretty good buddies :)
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We had such a nice time with you mom and Paul, thank you for having us! (I know, you’re saying “duh, of course!”)
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I know it’s regular life for you, but cottage life is a special treat!
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