Family Farm Fun

Everyone, please say hello to the newest addition to our farm family: Festus. He was the kids' Christmas present from us. We picked him up about a week before Christmas, and so far he is settling in nicely. He enjoys cuddling with the kids and definitely enjoys his meal time! Right now, he is inside when we are home, and in the garage in a pen when we are not home. We are also working on harness and leash training to get him outside more. I cannot believe how smart he is already. He picked up on litter box training after just a day, and he already spins for a treat! On the ride home Snuggled with Boo Getting treats from Bubs Napping on Bah If you don't know much about mini pigs, there is a huge misconception about them. Everybody thinks that a mini, micro, or teacup pig will stay tiny its whole life. However, a pig is considered "mini" if it is under 300 pounds! So many people out there starve or stunt their pigs to keep them small due to

Sometimes, I find myself getting so caught up in the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season that I get stressed out. Between buying gifts, attending parties and keeping up with our advent calendar, it is easy to lose track of what is important about the holidays: spreading the love of Christ. Since the kids are getting older, it is a great time to begin talking to them about community service and giving back. This year, I made it my goal to develop two different kindness activities that the kids can participate in. Nursing Home Visit The first act was not necessarily "random," but it has a great lesson with it. On a fairly regular basis, we have discussions in our house about being thankful and about people who have less than we do. These conversations are strengthened through missionary work the kids see happen through the church. However, I wanted to take it a step further this year and talk about how people who have less than we (not just financially) but in terms o

My girls just LOVE crafts. They get so excited when a new crafting kit comes in the mail or when we are home all weekend so that they can craft. Recently, our town's bookstore ( Inklings and More ) came under new ownership, and they have created an entire back room just for crafting supplies. 💕 This may not seem like a big deal, but anyone who lives in a small town knows that conveniences like that don't come along all of the time. Sadly, they hadn't quite stocked their shelves in time for our crafts, and I had already ordered from Amazon, but we will definitely hit them up for our next crafting adventures. This year, we set up 4 different crafts to complete over Christmas. The first one is our yearly homemade Christmas gift, but I can't give details (or show pictures) of that one until after Christmas. Gift Tags This one is pretty simple, but I thought about adding personal touches to the gifts we got people this year. Usually, I buy those little sticker to and f

Who doesn't love a delicious Christmas cookie? Over the years, the girls and I have developed our 3 "go to" Christmas cookie recipes. Our favorites have to meet a few different criteria: They have to have a flavor that we all like. They have to be fairly easy to make so that the girls can help. They have to store easily so that we can share them with our friends and family. Candy Cane Cookie The first cookie we make each year is the Candy Cane cookie. This is Boo's favorite cookie because she gets to help so much. This also makes the perfect companion to hot chocolate as you can hook the cane on the side of the cup. I have always used a recipe from the Christmas Cookie Gooseberry cookbook, but last year our cookies flattened out, so I wanted to try a different recipe. I found a similar recipe at The Kitchn  that used powdered sugar instead. It also called for peppermint extract rather than almond, so we tested it out too. Blending the two recipes together