A bunch of random stuff...

Here's one a shoulda thrown in with the last blog entry about butcher day...

Of course we went to Sandgren's Tree Farm to get our Christmas tree.

The kids were not totally into it.

Violet hated the tree we picked out and was not shy about voicing her displeasure.

Violet and Henry both love hot cocoa. Here's a picture from a recent Johnson family breakfast at the Swedish Village Cafe.

Henry is juggling pre-school and dance class, but continues to stay focused on his art.

I now have a vast collection of his drawings of "guys." After he completes a drawing he makes me cut it out with scissors so he has a sort of paper action figure (or as he says, "FIGGERRRZ!)Usually he draws superheroes or Andre the Giant or just random dudes and wildlife. I thought this guy had a highly unusual wang but a very cheery smile.

This is from the Christmas Dance Revue at the Grandma's studio. Henry, Jada, and Violet tripping the light fantastic...

Violet & Henry share a tender moment of Christmas joy...

Violet was asked to pick out her favorite new Christmas present so she and cousin Emmy could play. Obviously, she went with the Dora undies. A couple of classy broads...

Maybe it's no small coincidence that Violet decided she was done with diapers. A few days ago she started using the toilet and I don't think she has had an accident since. She held out a while longer than Henry did but it was basically the same deal. They both kind of did it on thier own. Violet is more of a secretive pooper though. We've missed out on giving her positive reinforcement several times because she will sneak off and grunt one out in secret. It makes me seriously wonder how she is handling the wiping situation though when she does these secretive poops. This is the opposite of Henry, who almost always requests wiping assistance. Interesting stuff, eh?

Violet's gift from Santa was this dolly that closes its eyes when it lies down.

MC Sassy Pants strikes a pose...

I'll just say what everyone is thinking -- how did that end up with that?

No goat fatalities to report (knock on wood). The chickens are doing well and are producing two eggs a day right now. The neighbor gave us about a year supply of cracked corn for the chickens and goats from the corn that was planted in our back field. So that's pretty cool too.

Drawing Knives & We Have Eggs...

We have drawing time at our house pretty regularly. Henry has been into this for quite some time and Violet is just starting to get into it. A while ago, we were settling in for a session of art when Violet demanded that I draw her a knife...

Not just any knife -- a bowie knife.

I was like whaaaaat?

But, as always, I got right to it...


...and gave her my best bowie knife rendering.

Violet was pretty happy with her knife drawing.

Big news on the ranch -- after nine months of heartache and pain our chickens have finally started to lay eggs. It started last week and we have been getting about one a day. Hopefully that increases when daylight hours increase and it gets warmer out.