Happy Birthday To My Handsome!

 This is a bit belated, but couldn't let it slip by.  We took Keith skiing for his b-day this year and it was so much fun.  Not your typical day of uninterrupted turns, but it was fun to be together, enjoying the sunny slopes! Janell rescued us at the end of the day and watched the boys while we took a few runs on our own.

Birthday pie with Kahl, Hannah, and Janell.

Silhouettes

Our Sweet Little Sugar Is Now 3 Months Old!

 He's still quite irritated about having to take baths, but loves to be snuggled up when we're all done!

 Thank you, Auntie Roberta for the cute, cuddly fleece blankie!

Peaceful slumber.

Happy Days

A Weekend In Montana

 Last weekend we spent in the Gallatin Valley.  Friday night was THB's Holiday Party at the Gallatin River Lodge near Belgrade.  We spent the night there and were totally spoiled with the awesome service, good food, and first rate accommodations.  The next day we dropped in to Kay and Todd's and had a little play time with Aiden.  That evening we enjoyed dinner and a swim at our hotel with Aiden and family.  Sunday was spent at Belgrade special meeting and oh, how special it was!

Home again, home again, jiggety jig!

Little Monte is growing and changing.  He's staying awake a little more during the day and sleeping longer at night.  You can just about always get a big smile out of him when he first wakes up.

Thanksgiving Weekend 2010

 We had the whole weekend all planned out.  My brother and family were going to drive out from WA and spend a few days with us.  We were all very excited for their visit.  But plans are made to be changed and you just can't fight the weather.  We all ended up snowed in!

 We sure missed having John, Karrie and sweet little Sarah and Emma around here, but all in all, we had a wonderful weekend.

It was our first time to prepare our own Thanksgiving dinner.  Everyone chipped in.  Here's Keith and Boyd peeling spuds.

Basting the bird.

The spread.

Sipping hot cider.

Gobble, gobble.

Friday morning coffee with Daddy.  Thanks for the jammies, Gramma.  They call them their "hook pajamas!"

The dangerous part about having a few unexpected free days at home is that you begin to look around at all the unfinished projects!  Then you get hair-brained ideas about how you think you might get started on them.  And before we could stop ourselves we dove headlong into a wall-patching-trim-painting project!

Time out!  Let's go skating with the Nelson's!

Another time out for the Town Square Lighting!

Back at it again - I painted trim while Keith did a fabulous job of patching and plastering various holes in the sheet rock.  Some of these patch jobs took a lot of creativity and they turned out looking like real works of art!

Well, we finished the trim and the most challenging part of the patching and then cleaned up our mess.  Today was another beautiful winter day and we were glad for a day of rest.  After meeting we headed down to Nelson's for a hot bowl of turkey, wild rice soup and a relaxing afternoon.  The boys enjoyed some time in the snow, sledding with Bransen and Rayah.

A smile for Daddy!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We miss all our family and friends in far away places, but are so thankful for the ones we have here.  We are truly spoiled!

Memory Lane Monday: 3 Years Ago This Month

 Three Novembers ago we opened the door to our new house.....and left it and all the windows open for nearly three weeks!  Walking into this place gave us instant headaches as the air was thick with cigarette smell.  Check out the tar on the wall above the heater!

 We tore out carpet and cabinets, wallpaper, curtains, appliances, leftover furniture, vinyl, light fixtures - the list goes on.

 We were so delighted to find this mixed species hardwood under the carpet!

 We spent 2 weeks priming and painting the upstairs bedrooms and the downstairs family and laundry rooms just to make it livable.

 Then we sanded down all the wood floors and refinished them.

 Our very eager little helper.

 We had so much wonderful help.  Here Georgine C. rolls on a thick coat of primer to seal out the cigarette smoke!

 Our life-savers: Uncle John and Auntie Ellen!

 Keith, attempting to straighten his back after sanding the living room.

Riclyn takes a picture of the first finished room.  She was such a trooper, helping us with painting and sanding and cleaning.  After three weeks, we finally moved in and the rest is history.  Though the project isn't finished, we sure have made some progress and enjoy living in our "new" house.