Winter Wonderland

Winter and snow finally arrived in MT.  We enjoyed the winter wonderland last weekend and played in the snow with our sled and played before it turned too cold to go outside. We received another 8 inches of snow this week but the temperatures dipped to -20 ish and with wind chill were -40 ish, so we didn't go outside. 

 Mikayla had her perschool Christmas concert and it was a lovely program with a few mischievous moments as you would expect from preschoolers. Mikayla was very serious but did her "job" as she was supposed to.  Her and Sean have been belting out Christmas songs all week. 

Odd & Ends

Ron and Linda headed to Wisconsin for Ron Sr's 90th birthday party. We got to watch Sammy while they were gone.  The kids loved having him and want to watch him again soon. 

The kindergarten classes at Sean's school had their Christmas Concert. It was a cute program and Sean did a great job. He appeared to love signing and was very attentive to the task at hand. He must take after his mommy. 

Finn, Rachel and Ewan came to watch him too.

Christmas Prep

Preparing for the holiday means getting the tree.  I sent Ethan on a hunt to find a Christmas tree. We both knew we wanted a tall tree this year since our new house has taller ceilings but I wasn't quiet expecting the width of the tree!  It took 10 strands of lights and every ornament we own to decorate.  It's a gorgeous tree, the kids love it and it will be a great memory of our first Christmas in our new house. 

I was trying to get a good picture for the Christmas card, they were goofballs but it capture their spirit. 

Thanksgiving

We decided to keep things low key this Thanksgiving and stick close to home. We spent Thanksgiving day with Ron and Linda, enjoying a yummy dinner and good company. 

  The kids did some crafting while Ethan and I enjoyed a nap. 

 Sean likes to eat his pumpkin pie like he eats pizza.  

Mom! Mom! Take a picture of me. 

The rest of the weekend Ethan worked on the basement project, we have a good start on 1/2 of the framing, expanding our bathroom and reworking the stairs.  It's a lot of work and Ethan is a little obsessed with it but he is enjoying the project and working on our own place. 

Park Fun

The kids and I headed to a park one Saturday afternoon to have some fun.  When we got there we met two very nice twin boys who had created a cool city on the basketball court and sidewalk.  They made a note that said "feel free to play with this city, please put the cars back here".  They even gave Sean and Mikayla a care to take when we headed home.  

 They had the most important stores, Target, JcPenny, Kmart, Lowes.

It was a good weekend adventure and Sean even wrote about it in his class the following week. "I made some friends in the park". 

Baby Fever

When 2 month old Ewan White began coming to the house for daycare Sean and Mikayla fell in love with him.  Sean decided he wanted to be the caretaker. He held him and played with him, fed him his bottle, and even changed his messy Diaper!  Then announced " I'm not doing  that again!"

Mikayla was so excited about Ewan and can't wait to have a baby in her tummy!  Grandma told her she would have to finish preschool first, then kindergarten, then elementary school, then middle school, then high school, college and find a job and then get married.  Mikayla yelled  "I have to get married!  Why do I have to get married?"  Grandma asked, "don't you want a daddy for your baby?" Mikayla answered "Finn's going to be the daddy!"  

Girls Weekend

For Linda’s birthday present I planned a weekend for the two of us to go to Billings and do some antiquing and shopping. We headed out Friday afternoon and stayed the night so we could take our time shopping.  Friday we had a wonderful dinner at the Texas Roadhouse following by a shopping spree at Hobby Lobby (Linda’s first trip to this store), Scheels and Kohl’s.  We headed back to the hotel to rest for the next day.  Saturday we both woke up early as usual so decided to a take in a nice 3 mile was in River Front park. Then we headed to some antique shops before coming home and enjoying a nice bbq diner with the family.  

Happy Halloween

With Halloween on a Monday this year we didn’t do anything extravagant.  The kids and I went trick-o-treating around River Rock after school and then came home and went to bed.  Sean dressed as an angry bird this year and Mikayla as a butterfly.  

Pumpkin Carving

Papa Ron and Grandma Linda brought dinner over one night and so we decided to have them help us carve pumpkins.  Ethan was smart and took the easy way of carving a pumpkin but the rest of us didn’t do a bad job.  Mikayla insisted on giving her pumpkin a butt which was located where an ear would be, we weren’t quite sure what she was doing but Grandma helped her carve a “butt”.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trips

Mikayla’s preschool and Sean’s Kindergarten class both went to Rocky Creek Farm for a field trip.  Grandma Barb had the opportunity to take in the day with Mikayla and I was able to chaperone for Sean’s class during his trip.  Both days were wet and cold but the kids had a good time and picked some great pumpkins. 

 After the pumpkin patch Sean's class spent a few hours at the dinosaur park. Sean was beat and fell asleep as soon as we started to head home.