Puppy Christmas

Here is Tebow coming out of the box Christmas morning.

John, Will and Tebow

Will playing ball with Tebow

Christmas Portrait

Sometimes, trying to take a family picture is more trouble than it's worth.

Fall Activities

The kids have had a pretty active fall. We've put a garden in the ground, built a scarecrow and also a pig pen. You can see pictures of the scarecrow and garden at http://gardenliving.blogspot.com. I blog for work about living outside with kids and family and trying to create a garden space. The pig pen is for our 4-H club. We don't have any pigs yet, but we'll be getting them in the next 10 days! All of the kids are very excited.

Ssshhh...It's a secret!

Well, not really because I can't keep a secret. Will is getting a puppy for Christmas. This is him. Isn't he cute?

Thanksgiving at the Lakehouse

Grumpa and Kaity relaxing on the swing. What a good picture of them.


All together now: KAITY, PULL YOUR PANTS UP!



The gang.

You know you live on a farm when...

your 2-year-old girl prefers to pee in the grass rather than the potty.

Will and Jack

These two spend a lot of time together, and yes, this is how they normally look.

More Beach Pictures

SeaWorld

More Grandma & Grandpa's

Pictures from Grandma and Grandpa's

Beach Babies

Over Labor Day, we visited Scot for his birthday. He's living on Jax Beach now. The kids had a blast. Although Kaity was terrified of the water. Will loved everything about the beach.

Flavorful Puppies

We're getting Will a puppy for Christmas, so I printed off a bunch of puppy pictures for him to look at (mainly lab and aussie). We're trying to figure out what he prefers and what color he likes. We've got the pictures posted on the fridge and every day he tells me which is his favorite - so far it's been chocolate lab. Yesterday, when he got home he told me he likes the chocolate and banana puppies - the brown and yellow labs. So, John said if we get a yellow female, we should name it Chiquita. Will likes Uno for a name. But, he also comes up with some pretty crazy other names too. As a side note, all the puppies are Kaity's favorite.

Too old for bedtime kisses?

Well, Will is finally too old for bedtime kisses - from Daddy at least. He still is okay with mine. John didn't seem that upset about it, but I can't believe he's old enough for this already. Where does the time go?

2008 Calendar

I'm starting to think about the calendar for next year. But, since I lost most of my pictures when my computer got hit by lightning, I need y'all to send pictures to me. Thanks!!

Mommy & Kaity

Alli took Mommy & Kaity pictures for us last week. We had matching outfits and it was a lot of fun. This is one of my favorite shots she got. It's got the Baughman Center in the background and is kinda at a cool angle. Alli's helping clean up the pictures, so I'll have more to share.

Will's First Sleepover

Will is having his first sleepover Friday night. Jack from church is spending the night and then Will is going to Jack's basketball game on Saturday. Neither of the boys know yet, just in case it doesn't happen. I just can't believe that Will is old enough to have sleepovers. Time sure does fly. Kaity will be a problem though. She's going to want to play with them and they're not going to want to play with her. She has a crush on Jack and he's in an anti-girl phase, so that could be fun.

I'm also teaching Jack's sisters to crochet Friday night. I'm really excited about that. It should be a lot of fun.

Weekend at the Beach

We had a great weekend visiting Uncle Scot at the beach. Scot lives about 2 blocks from the beach - basically on the beach. It's pretty cool. Will loved the beach and the water. Kaity loved the sand, the waves not so much. We went to the zoo in the afternoon and had a great time. It wasn't as humid on Monday. We'll have to make a trip back to Jax and see Uncle Scot again soon!

Will's fish

Since Will was so good while I was gone to Montana, I told him he could get a fish when I got back. We went yesterday and picked out two 15 cent goldfish for his little 1-gallon tank. He named one "Jack" after his friend at church and the other "Uncle Scot" after Uncle Scot obviously. One of them might have changed names this morning - he likes "Nemo" for a name now. Jack and Scot should feel priviledged that he thought of them.

The People's Center

We visited the People's Center yesterday. It has a small, but very nice museum. Also attended a drum demonstration and played a local game. They provided dinner - elk stew, fry bread, and huckleberry cake. All very good, but we had to eat in the drizzling rain. And, it was COLD!

This year's conference has had a large emphasis on extension in tribal lands. It's been really interesting to see how the tribal land grant colleges operate and the struggles the reservations have.

The view from the hotel

The hotel looks across Flathead Lake (the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi) to the Rockies. I took these about 7:30 just as the sun was coming up over the mountains.

Made it to Montana

Well, I made it. It was a very long day of travelling. I got up at 4:30 EST and went to bed at 8:30 MST. Flying exhausts me. Montana is beautiful and we'll definitely need to come back here in a couple of years with the kids. The conference is a little disorganized for me so far, but we'll see how it goes when it actually gets started. We're going to the People's Center today - the Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreille Tribes. I'm excited. It should be a lot of fun. The poster session (the whole reason I'm here) is tonight.

First leg of the trip (the easy part)

I've made it to Riverview. I fly out early tomorrow morning from TIA. Mom and Dad have been doing quite a bit of work around here - gardening, painting, etc. The house and yard look good. Dad's new car is very cool. I'm going to try to take some picture of it tonight to put up. I wonder what the weather in Montana is like.

In the house and off to Montana

So, we finally got in the house and somewhat settled. It's so nice having everything on 1 level. And DOORS, who would have thought that such a small thing could mean so much! The kids are loving their new rooms and are doing pretty well on keeping them clean.

It's been a busy week for us. I trimmed Kaity's hair last weekend except she moved and I cut 2 and a half inches off. Luckily, she's cute and the new cut is cute. It works in her favor. No pony tails for a while though.

Will is doing awesome at karate. You can see that his motor skills have improved tremendously. He has his first promotion test on the 26th. He'll get to be a junior yellow belt. Kaity actually got to join his class for a few minutes yesterday. She's fascinated with the karate class. She usually sits at the threshold of the door and watches. She practices more than Will does and knows the names for all the moves. Since she was so interested, Professor invited her to join while they were kicking the dummies (?? - I don't know the big punching bag things). She had a great time with the big kids.

I'm off to Montana very early Saturday morning. I'll be at a conference all week. Pray for John and the kids. Luckily, I have wonderful sisters and they're both coming to help some while I'm gone.

Superheroes!

Will's Karate Demonstration

He's been in karate about 3 months now. This was his first demonstration at a local art festival. He did pretty good for being the youngest one there by far.

Little Ballerina

Kaity gets to take ballet classes when she's potty trained. It could take her awhile. But, here she is practicing in the mean time.