Goodbye to our year of chances...

Maybe you remember this picture from my last new years eve post.....well, we took some BIG chances. We changed our family's life big time. We moved 2,400 miles across the country.

Without jobs.

Without a house.

Without a specific plan.

Without very much money.

But we're here. The girls love their new life. Anna remarked today how the falling snow makes her happy. And that little remark made ME happy. So during these last few hours of 2008 I'll remember all the changes and chances we took.....and remember the reasons we took those chances and have faith that it will continue to work out.

And I'll leave you with Anna's smile from breakfast on this last day of the year.....And also I want to share these beautiful photos I took this afternoon from our living room window....I had just walked in and saw these precious does two feet from the window.....foraging thru the snow.....feeling THEIR faith that they would continue to find food....they knew what to do and so do I.

Wishing all of you a lovely 2009!

2008 Christmas Memories

Merry Christmas from the "two yoots"!

Hope you all had a nice Christmas...we did. The girls were very happy with their gifts, Santa brought Natalie the much-desired Nintendo DS and Anna finally got her guitar (oh joy ;-) One of the really neat gifts for Anna was a dance cam that connects to their TV.....it is really easy to use and she has so much fun dancing to the different selections they have and she sees herself on her own TV.....cute idea! (And bonus, she and Natalie can burn off all this energy inside!)

They both LOVE playing "Rock B@nd"





TM and N had a nice quiet time decorating the gingerbread house (while Anna took a nap)...each side is decidedly different! I liked it.

We went ice skating for the first time on Friday. Yeesh. The injury count was 100%. R sliced his finger on a skate. Anna hurt her sides. Natalie has a "sprained butt". And I injured my pinkie pretty badly (broken? jammed joint? I don't know....but it is still swollen like a link sausage and purple around the joints....oy) And the funny (ha) thing is I didn't even fall! Pitiful. I banged it on the glass as I was trying to catch myself. Next time will be with the kids in their own lessons with instructors who can actually TEACH them, instead of us trying to help them. Oh well.....another lesson learned!

We took N to a Lady Griz (University of Montana) basketball game last night. They are really good and we had so much fun watching the girls play basketball who really knew what they were doing. It was a great venue & N enjoyed it immensely. We'll do that again for sure!

It is snowing like mad here today....big, fat, heavy snow. Just the kind I'm really looking forward to shoveling later today (NOT!) And it is really icy to boot. They had to close the road that leads to our house today due to ice & accidents. I'm not going anywhere today or tomorrow. But the snow is very pretty ;-)

Goodbye 2008! It has been a great year.....
I can't wait to see what 2009 has in store for our family.

Ouch!

I have Wii butt! (too bad it isn't "wee" ;-) And Wii arm and Wii hand. Yeesh....a wee bit of Wii bowling and I'm falling apart!! Ouch, it hurts, but it sure is fun....I especially like our family of Mii's......particularly R, who sports really fab grey dreadlocks and quite a smirk. N's Mii looks just like her with rose colored glasses & a big smile. (She is also the crack bowler...who knew?) And Anna has really picked it up so fast! Thankfully my Mii looks a little hotter than I do in person....but who knows.....if I keep up all these lunges, maybe I'll be more fit too!

Hope you all had a great Christmas....we sure did!

I (was) Dreaming of a White Christmas....

And boy howdy do I have it! Enough already! It is WHITE for cryin out loud! And still snowing....even though the forecast & current conditions say "cloudy" and there isn't anything on the radar.....however, I can tell you with certainty that it HAS been snowing beautiful fluffy flakes for more than 24 hours. I even (Foolishly) single-handedly shoveled the entire driveway (for the 2nd time yesterday) in the late afternoon to be sweet to the hard working souls coming home from work last evening. Duh! THAT won't happen again. So there we were....6 a.m. reveille shoveling this big @ss driveway. And of course 5 hours later you can't even see that it was done....except for the telltale snowbanks....growing ever taller around the edges by the hour.

These pictures are even from yesterday, so they don't show how much more snow there is right now. I do admit it is SO pretty. And I do admit that I would be more excited about it if it weren't for the small fact that I HAVE to get out & drive myself & 3 kidlets to the store because there are a few essentials I have to have to continue with the feast. But I am not going far & it will be better to go now before everyone else in town is shopping. So wish us luck and a little less snowfall for the next few hours!

6 Weeks....

Wow. Has it really been 6 weeks since my last post? And didn't I post something about trying to post more often? Yeesh. Pathetic. I know!!






OK....let me do a quickie bullet post since my last posting. Obviously alot has happened!

• Right after that post, we mad a quick decision to move (only into "town" 8 miles north), so it was a whirlwind of activity.



• Natalie had to transfer to a new school, which we thought would be tramatic for her, but alas, she has done a great job of transitioning and making lots of new friends.



• Anna left her beloved preschool to stay home with me for awhile, but she starts a new part-time preschool in January. And she'll even have a friend she knows already in her class.






• Our new home is amazing....the views we have of the surrounding mountains and valley are so lovely....we're very fortunate.




• It is also wonderful to have our own furniture out of storage & it feels like "home".



• We had a very fun Thanksgiving with a big family/friends gathering of 14! Boy what a difference. And lots of fun (especially playing "Snorta"!)

• Here we are after Christmas tree hunting in the woods (I was singing "Sloshing thru the mud...." to the tune of Jingle Bells. It was the week before we finally got snow....it was incredibly muddy and yucky!





• The cold weather finally arrived about a week ago. It has been basically below zero every night and low single digits for high temps. Boy howdy what a difference from the Gulf Coast! But really we do like it & it is SO SO pretty with all this white snow. It has snowed most of the day today. We already shoveled the driveway once this afternoon, but it has snowed pretty heavily this evening. I guess that means another 6:00 a.m. "muster" of the adults to clean off the dang driveway again ;-)

• Can you find the real Simon in this picture? He likes to nest on Anna's bed with all the other stuffed animals. He can't get warm enough!






• The girls have been sledding for 3 days in a row. Anna got kinda bent out of shape today when she plowed face first into the snow....yesterday she was amused by that, but today was another story. A short sledding trip for today!



• The snow has finally accumulated enough to consider a ski/snowboard trip sometime soon.



• I plan to take the girls ice skating for the first time this week. (Say a special prayer for me that I don't bust my @ss on the ice ;-)



• We learned quickly that we can't worry about the weather. We just toughen up like everyone else who has chosen this life and get out there and go places. So what if the roads are covered in packed snow and ice? Just slow down and bundle up!

Here's wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and a loving holiday season. xxoooo