Sledding with Stangls!!

Despite the cold and wind, all of us children except the two youngest in each family enjoyed several hours of sledding Saturday afternoon.
Coming from 'flat' Kansas, our younger children had never been sledding except when following a tractor!! They soon discovered that speeding down a steep hill is every bit as exhilarating as flying around behind a tractor!
The snow was packed down, and had formed a thin layer of ice, which made for a fast descent and limited steering capabilities. :)
It became a game to see how many people we could fit on the sled at one time; it helped to have a lot of smaller persons to cram onto the sled!

Climbing back up for another slide....

Seth...

Esther preferred to go down the hill minus the sled; which worked great until she hit the ramp..........:)

From Phoebe......

Following her recent detist appointment, I asked Phoebe if it was hard not to talk while she was getting her teeth cleaned.
Phoebe smiled and shook her head.
"Oh no, I talked lots, but it was hard with her hand in my mouth!!!" :)

Snowball fights........

Esther, armed and ready for a snowball fight!!

Smiles from Our Crew!!! :)
(Can You Guess Who is Who?!?!)

Sledding.....

Left to right; Esther, Seth, Micah, Tabitha, Elizabeth, Moses and Noah!

Our family's favorite way to enjoy the snow is to go sledding with the tractor. Who can keep their grip on the bar the longest, while their face gets blasted with snow?! Who can shove the most people off the bar, while still holding on?!?! And when the tractor stops, who will be the one still holding onto the bar?!?! Most often yesterday, the answer was Noah and Seth, but we girls managed to hold our own ground in the long run!!

At the bottom of the hill, looking back up at those who lost their grip along the way!!

"The Plow" is the name of our smallest sled (no, we don't usually name our sleds), a 3 foot piece of uncomfortably molded plastic that came into our possesion a few years back. It is the worst sled for spraying snow in your face, and anyone who rides on it or beside it will be covered in about 50 tons of snow before the tractor stops. However, it has long been Esther's favorite sled, and she refuses to use any other. Often when the tractor stops, we have to spend several minutes digging her out because of the massive ammount of snow that she gets plastered with. The following picture is a demonstration of "The Plow" at work.....

(Esther is on the far LEFT!)

On one round, Roscer grabbed a ride, but as soon as we picked up any speed, he had the sense to jump clear.

Anyone care to join us on our next sledding adventure?!?!

Silas.

This little boy knows just where to go when he is cold!! :)

Sledding.......

Who will go the farthest on their sled?!?!?!

Snow!

Micah, Tabitha, Charity and Moses enjoying the snow!

Wrestling.......

Step back folks, give 'em some room!!

In the end, Seth won, much to Noah's dismay!!!

UNO Attack........

(Scott just got 6 more cards!!!! Hooray! Oops, he doesn't look to happy about it!) :)

Sledding......

(Dare I leave the porch for a better picture??? Hm, let me think for a minute---Seth, plus snow equals a snowball, and with his aim, I don't think I'll venture any farther!!!) :)

Butchering III

Our Grinding Girl!!!

Butchering Beef II

Tabitha and Moses worked to cut the meat in smaller chunks for the grinder...

Butchering Beef I

Last month some friends blessed us with a cow, and we decided to butcher her. We had the locker kill and quarter her, and with Dad and the boys home from work last Saturday, we tackled our 1,200 pound project!!!

We were so grateful for our neighbor and friend, Earl Meyer, and all his wonderful help! His experience and expertise were much appreciated by us novices!!!

It took us a little over 7 hours to get her completely processed and in the freezer....Hamburgers, anyone?!?!

Will it Snow?!?!

On New Year's Eve, we had our first snow; a light dusting that added up to about 4 inches in the end!!

And now, our second snow is forecasted for this week-end! Oh- the excitement in the faces of our younger ones, and the hope that the snow will be enough to keep Daddy home from work for a day!

Auntie Phoebe!!

"I love my Aunt Phoebe!"

Happy Belated Birthday!

....and Justice had his 1st birthday on January 5th!!!

Happy Belated Birthday!!!

Paul turned 1 one December 30th........

Grandboys!

Paul and Justice with Papa and Nana--Christmas 2006!

Grandboys!

Justice and Paul with Great-Grandma (Dad's Mom), Christmas 2006!!

Foosball Tournament!

A close matched game, but in the end...........Seth prevailed!

Foosball!

Joshua, Moses and Micah are great buds and enjoyed playing foosball together with Charity!

Deer Hunting II

The successfull ladies!! :)
Lydia and I sat togther Satuday night, in the spot where Scott had gotten his big doe, hoping for a chance to fill our tags. We didn't have to wait long!!! As Lydia took her nice little nap, some deer came out giving us the perfect opportunity......I shot, but I will spare you the details, and just stop with assuring you, she (which turned out to be a he) wasn't goin' far!! Within 10 minutes, some more deer joined us, and Lydia made a great shot and her deer dropped almost instantly. We were very excited, despite the fact that they were much smaller then Scott and Seth's deer, after all, size isn't everything!

Deer Hunting!!!

This past week-end we were thrilled to have Dad's brother and part of his family visit us from New Mexico! They flew in Friday night and joined us for supper of Esther's yummy pizza!!! :) After supper, we enjoyed a wild game of "Catch Phrase", which had us all rolling with laughter!!
Saturday morning the boys were up early for their first excursion. They came back mid-morning, empty-handed but excited at the thought of the huge breakfast awaiting them!!! We enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship over breakfast, but soon everyone was ready for some more hunting!!
Aunt Judy decided not to join us in the hunting, but instead enjoyed a massage from Esther!!
We chased a whole bunch of deer out of a pasture, hoping to get Uncle Bernard a shot, but the deer managed to avoid getting in his sight. I nearly got run over by several deer, and because I didn't fire a shot, a rumor started that my trigger finger was paralyzed. :) Seth had a classic hunters moment, and missed a couple shots, but ended up bringing home a deer!!!