Anna's Baptism and CNY

Well, phooey. This is the kind of photo you get when you ask someone to snap an after-baptism photo...and when they say "that looks good!"....you accept it as such. Oh well.....one blurry photo of Anna and her baptism day at church. At least it is something. It was definitely different than what I had anticipated for her baptism. It was very sudden. We had planned to join this church & have her baptized here, which was fine, but last Sunday when we knew today was "joining day", we discovered that it was also baptism day. Oh sure, we could have waited & planned a baptism affair, but we decided there's no time like the present and after all, she's been home over 2 years now and is almost 5 years old! So here we were with less than a week before the big day. And you know me....the southern girl....whose girls USED to be dressed up all nice and pretty in the south...but here in Montana they wear jeans (GASP!!) to church! Can you believe that? Anywho...I digress.....Uh oh....what would Anna wear? Note there are NO FRILLY DRESS STORES around here. Nope, not one where a beautiful smocked dress or something like that could be found. So I scoured the closet. Hmmmm size 4 smocked white dress...perfect except for all the red & green Christmas bows around the collar. Nope that won't do. And then there's that size 2 cream smocked dress...no way that would fit a kidlet who is almost 5 but hey, what's the harm in trying it on? Can you believe it fit? Normally she would wear it a bit longer, but hey, at least it is frou-frou enough to wear to a western baptism. So here she is in Natalie's old size 2 smocked dress looking as beautiful as can be!






And then after church we were off to the house for a quick wardrobe change......Chinese New Year lunch at a local restaurant......We spent an hour last night going thru the selection of chinese clothes..... too big, too small, too tight, snaps needing to be sewn on.....luckily we settled on matching red dresses....which are actually my favorite because I think these girls look SO pretty in red.

And a RARE, ELUSIVE photo of me. I'm always behind the lens, but decided to come out from hiding momentarily. OK, now you won't see me again for awhile (lucky you).

Cool dragon hats, huh? One of the mom's brought this craft for all the kids to do....they all loved it and we got lots of roars. And she also read a book we all enjoyed. Now I regret not buying it at the bookstore last week when I was there. it is called "The Seven Chinese Sisters" pretty cute.

Natalie is out selling more girl scout cookies.....she is quite the salesman....she has already sold nearly 200 boxes of cookies! Whew....I dread actually getting all the boxes, but I'm so proud of her.....she really take it seriously & is out there with Roger in this frigid weather selling as many as she can. Bye for now.....thanks for stopping by for a visit.

Camping in January in Montana....

....what could be more fun than camping out in January in the mountains of Montana with an arctic cold front whooshing over you? ? ?

....Why nothing could be more fun of course! Especially if you're camping INSIDE the house next to the fireplace :-)

The girls have been hounding poor daddy for quite some time to have a camp-in. So he finally gave in & here is the result. They are now reading bedtime stories (after a bit of ghost story telling). Oh and the best part about this is that I get the whole king-sized bed all to myself tonight.....ah....pure bliss!

On another note, Anna had her first field trip today. Her class went to the library & had a wonderful time.

Hmmmm......the photo below shows just how petite little Anna is! The other kids are basically the same age...maybe a few months older. She's a little spitfire.

And here she is checking out her very own book. We do love books in this house!

GO GATORS!!

Go Gators Go!!

Tonight the Florida Gators vie for the BCS Championship against Oklahoma. Roger is a huge fan (I would say fanatical) and he has taught his kids well. (Note Simon's great "Gator Chomp!")

Let's hope the Gators win! Otherwise my normally calm husband will be -- shall we say -- unbearable?? (And that is putting it mildly -- and kindly!)

Oh happy day! I'm thrilled to know that SOMEONE else around here likes banana/mayo sandwiches too! YUMMMMMMM!!



I'll leave you with these shots (this is what I see as I'm at the computer) of an extraordinarily sunny morning. The sky was so blue and crisp!

Patience Personified (Catified??)

"Hey, what's a guy gotta do to get some of that tuna salad you're making??"

Not exactly what I want to see sitting at the kitchen counter, but I have to admire his persistence and observance that when some big dumb humans sit in these seats, they get food!

Not much going on around here except a round of weird weather....snow, followed by rain, next incredible wind, and now sunshine. And this all within the last few hours. Temps will be falling now & more snow and back into the single digits. And for those naysayers that think we southerners will never make it here due to the weather, I say "nanny nanny boo boo". Yeesh, it really is not bad at all! I'll take this over humidity, hurricanes, palmetto bugs (aka giant flying cockroaches! eewwwww!!) and mosquitos the size of chickens! I say BRING ON THE SNOW and BELOW ZERO TEMPS!!!! We can take it! hee hee