:: Holiday Travels ::

Thursday evening Justin and I drove up to Phoenix to catch a late flight to Pennsylvania.  We arrived at 8 am on Friday morning and Mommy picked us up from the airport.  We went home for a yummy breakfast prepared by Hope.

Friday afternoon we went to Green Dragon Farmers Market and saw barista Lillia at the coffee shop.  She made us some delicious lattes :)  Just what we needed to warm up from the chilly weather.

Saturday we traveled down to Maryland to Pop-pop & Mom-mom's house for Christmas.

Serenah was a little angel and slept the whole way!

Family picture at Pop-pop's house :)

We left the celebration in Maryland and drove to the next event!  The annual Sanger Family Christmas Dinner held each year at Uncle David and Aunt Jeanette's was the destination.

David and Nathan playing Connect Four :)

Sunday was the Children's Sunday School Christmas Program.  

Grandpoppy and Grandmommy came for the program and spent the day with us afterwards.

Sunday night I looked over and saw David had made a "corral" with pencils through his toes to keep his horses from getting away! lol

Mommy and I went for a walk on Monday and Justin followed with Benjamin on the scooter.

David and Elainah were walking with us too but they decided to hop on the scooter for an easy ride home! :)

It was a quick trip, but a very fun filled one!  We got home to our house in Arizona a little after midnight on Tuesday.

Puppies!

This past week Justin and I went and picked up two puppies!  They aren't any "specific" breed but we think they're adorable and will make great family pets!  We chose a boy and a girl, the girl we named Lexi (left) and the boy is Rex (right).

Justin was rubbing Rex's tummy and he fell asleep...

Relaxing in the shade :)

They like to go for walks, but their energy level can go from 500 to zero in .2 seconds!! lol

We were walking around the house and I stopped for a few seconds and they just planted themselves on my feet and fell asleep! I think it was their way of saying, "No more walking, please!" :D

& then there were 3...

I'm sure most of you have heard by now but for those of you who haven't yet, we're having a baby due April 2017!  Justin and I were very excited to go have an ultrasound this past week and find out the gender of little Strite.  We told my family over FaceTime and then did a little gender reveal with Justin's family to tell them all "It's a Boy!"  We bought pink and blue balloons and pushed a pin through all the pink balloons so they had little holes and would deflate quickly after being blown up.  Everyone chose a balloon and that was their guess, then we had everyone blow them up at the same time.  The people who chose pink were blowing for a few seconds before they realized there was something wrong with all the pink balloons but the blue were staying inflated.

Baling Corn Stalks

After the corn harvest was finished, Justin began the process of baling corn stalks.  They pull an attachment called a "flail shredder" behind a tractor that chops the stalks and husks and throws it all into a row which the baler can then bale.

All the corn trash flail shredded and in rows ready to be baled.

In the baler tractor one evening.

The baler has an accumulator on the back that holds three bales.  Once there are three bales, it automatically drops them off.

It was pretty dusty one day!

After the field is baled, Justin drives around in the tele-handler and stacks the bales.

To haul them out of the field, someone drives a semi around and Justin uses the tele-handler again to load the trailer.  Then they stack them in the pivot corners where they will be loaded onto other trucks and sold.

The first part of the video is a time-lapse of Justin baling and the second part is him stacking bales in the tele-handler.

A Successful Mule Deer Hunt

This week was Justin and Jaylon's mule deer hunt.  Thankfully they both tagged out within the first 6 hours of hunting!  Lots of yummy deer jerky is going to be in the making now!

Jaylon glassed a herd just as the sun came up.  They snuck through two miles of grass and mesquite bushes where Jaylon shot his deer and then ten minutes later Justin shot his in the same area.

 This was Justin's first mule deer hunt!  His buck scored 160!  

Some friends of ours have a taxidermy business so they are mounting it for him.

 Justin's heart shot.

Skinning out Justin's deer.

We finished butchering and had all the meat from both deer packaged by that evening!  

Thank you Lord for another successful hunt and freezers full of deer meat!

This Won't Happen Again Until 2034!

Justin was out glassing for deer, when he took this picture of the moon.  He didn't realize (I didn't either) that the full moon that night was the brightest and closest full moon to Earth since 1948!  The moon won't come this close again until November 2034.

"The Super Moon" 

(click to read the article on Branham.org)

An Awesome Surprise

Last week my Mom, Elainah, and Serenah flew out to Arizona to surprise me for an afternoon.  I had no idea Juliana had picked them up from the airport or that they were going to be waiting in Chic-fil-A when I walked in!

Serenah is getting so big!

Saying good-bye at the airport.

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Autumn has Arrived...

Autumn has arrived and with it comes a later sunrise and an earlier sunset...

We have such a beautiful view every morning!

Mountain ranges on the east and west make a beautiful background!

Jessica is here visiting with her two adorable children :)

Jason loves the calves.

Judah turned one this month.  Jenny and Micah had a little party for him at the Strite's one evening.  He wasn't quite sure what to do about the candle :)  We all love this little munchkin so much!

It's hard to believe just a year ago he was this tiny!

Uncle Joshua giving rides to the littles :)

Harvest is happening and farmers are busy all over the valley.

I've enjoyed getting to ride with Justin while he drives the grain cart.

There is a break in their corn harvest so Justin is busy swathing a few pivots of alfalfa now.  This coyote was so close to the swather one afternoon!

The boys took apart Joshua's quad to see if they could fix a problem with the fifth gear.  Justin's knowledge of engines always impresses me! :)

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I can't take credit for these cute fall decorations, but I thought the picture was too festive not to share :)

Alabama Road Trip

Nathan and Laurisa recently tied the knot in Laurisa's hometown of Mobile, Alabama.  Justin and I drove the fourteen hundred miles to the wedding, stopping along the way at Magnolia Market in Waco, Texas, and enjoying the beautiful scenery along the way.

Our first state to enter...

As you drive into the west side of El Paso there is a huge statute of a roadrunner on the hill.

We spotted this armadillo statute in the middle of a little Texas town.

In Waco we went and found my favorite fixer upper house.

After seeing the Harp House we drove over to Magnolia Market at the Silos in downtown Waco.

Of course we had to sample the sweet treats available at the Magnolia Flour bakery.

...inside a corner of the market...

If you don't know exactly what the story behind the Magnolia Market is, I'll try to briefly explain...

Chip and Joanna Gains are a couple from Waco that own a construction company called Magnolia Homes.  Chip does the demolition and remodeling of the homes and Joanna does the designing part before they hand it off to their clients.  They have their own TV show now called "Fixer Upper" and Magnolia Market is where they sell decor for homes, t-shirts and hats, garden supplies, Joanna's paint line, and so much more.  They used to have a smaller shop but just recently renovated "the silos" in downtown Waco where their market is located now.  They also have a B&B, the bakery, a small garden supply shop called "Magnolia Seed and Supply", as well as their construction business.  They are a very inspiring couple who work well together and create beautiful homes!  

Louisiana was a pretty state to drive through.  We took a little detour around some road work on the main road and passed fields and fields of sugar cane.  I've never seen sugar cane fields before so that was pretty cool! 

We also spotted a message.com sign while driving in Louisiana!

We drove for miles and miles on these bridge type roads above the swamps and small bodies of water.

When we entered Mississippi it was raining really hard so this is the only picture I have of the Mississippi state sign.  I tried to get a picture of every state sign as we entered but you know the one sign I missed was Alabama's :-/ 

The wedding was a grand event held in a gorgeous ball room.

Happily married couples :)

Joanna and I

On our way home we stopped at a Bass Pro Shop and walked around for a bit.  This is the biggest snapping turtle I've ever seen!  Thankfully I didn't come face to face with it back in PA in our neighbor's pond!

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