Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas

We have just finished up our third Christmas this year. So nice to spread it out over a month! We had our first Christmas with my family in Texas on Thanksgiving (I'll post pictures soon, I hope!) We had our second Christmas in Billings last weekend with Ed's family. Then we had our third Christmas now!

I wasn't thinking as I added these pictures, so they are in reverse chronilogical order!



Halee Christmas morning with Stocking Stuff

Hannah's stocking

Ed's parents

Lots of homemade gifts this year. Halee made this candy dish.

Ed's new hat

Hannah's new jammies

Halee's new snuggy

Wow, Poppa! That's quite a tape measure!

Magnetic earrings were quite a hit this year

We did some Wii playing too!

Hannah's new snuggy
It has been a blessed holiday. Hope yours was too!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Holiday Happenings

Here is a snipette of the girls Christmas Program. The first 3 videos are of Halee's class. She is in the 2nd row withe the red "Santa" dress on. The last 3 are of Hannah. She is in the second to top row with a green and white sweater on. Enjoy!

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Happy Halloween

This year we hosted a pumpkin carving party for the YAC. We decorated our garage for the festivities. Here is what the serving line looked like.

We made several different appetizer type foods that were "halloweenish." Here we have eyeball meatballs.

Floating Hand Punch

Pumpkin Roll Ups

Spider Web Dip


Then the carving began. This year we even let Halee do her own carving. She actually did a pretty good job!


Hannah









And here are all the end results!


Then Halloween finally came. Hannah chose to dress up as a fairy.

And Halee as Snow White.

We went trick or treating around one block of our neighborhood. Then we visited Highgate Senior Living and the church building parking lot for Trunk or Treating. It was a great event!

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Harvest 2010

This year we had big expectations for our garden that did not come to fruition. We tripled the size of our garden, planted several rows of different veggies. The cool summer and huge hail storm did not help!
For over a month, I have been gathering the necessary supplies to can beets, one of Ed's favorites. I borrowed a pressure cooker, had to buy the pressure gauge, found the recipe and read up one what to do. Today was the day! I went out this morning pick the beets and found that the voles really like them. So, needless to say, 6 beets is not worthing canning! I will cook them up for dinner and Ed can eat on them this week. He's a bit disappointed.
The items that grew well are the squash and pumpkins. For some reason I thought we would need 2 rows of yellow squash. What was I thinking? We have more squash than we know what to do with. The voles like it too, so I am sure they will get their fair share.

We do have 2 good size pumpkins. Someone told me that you should carve the kids names in them and when the grow, the names will be scarred into them. You can see Halee's name on the bottom of the pumpkin (along with vole teeth marks!).




Another item that actually grew were the carrots. Last year was my first year to grow carrots. Someone shared a tip that in the fall when you pull the carrots, tear the tops off and put them in a ziplock bag. Do not clean them! They will keep in the fridge until next year. Last year we had carrots until January.

3 gallon ziplock bags full of carrots!

The girls have been waiting until they could have a carrot from the garden. (We have company this weekend and they are all enjoying carrots!)

Happy Harvest!

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Summer 2010

I know it has been a while since I made a post. We are just very busy and finding time to download pictures is not top priority! So, here is a brief version of what he have been up to...

In May, we made our journey to Florida to visit DisneyWorld. This is a dream I have had since I was small and it finally came true. We had a blast. Of course that trip should have a blog of it's own, so I will just give you a few highlights.

We arrived on May 9th. Monday we began our journey at Animal Kingdom. Here we are in front of the tree of life.

Tuesday we visited Epcot.

Wednesday we made our way to Hollywood Studios.

We saved the best for last...Thursday we visited Magic Kingdom. We bought tickets for 5 days and decided to visit Magic Kingdom for 2 of those days...Thursday and Saturday.






Friday, we took a break from DisneyWorld and went out to play in the ocean.



We picked this day in particular because one thing Ed has always wanted to see was a space shuttle launch. We ended up on a beach about 30 miles south (because we were not willing to sit in traffic).

It seems like we spent most of June at Yellowstone Bible Camp. We went there for Memorial Day weekend and our family camp. We were home a week and then back for Elementary Camp. During that week, we shot off a few fireworks at home and then went to the Kmart parking lot to see the city show.

The girls got a little scared because one of the fireworks fell over and started shooting towards us. So, they decided to watch from the garage.


This year I was able to cook at Elementary Camp. This camp is much different from what we are used to...more structured most of the time. This is the class of Pre-Campers.


Camp is also a good place to make great friendships. Here is Halee and Emma.

and Hannah and Lindsey.

A very talented artist painted this picture perfect place. This was the theme of Elementary Camp this year.


Hannah came home for camp and went directly to a birthday party. At this party she got 10 strands of blue tinsel tied into her hair and her fingernails painted. So much fun!



It has finally warmed up here in Bozeman. We are hitting the 80's most every day now. So, the girls got the slip and slide out one day.


Last week, Ed's family came to town. This is Ed's cousin Charissa whom we haven't seen in several years.

They decided to go camping up at Hyalite. Monday evening we invited our YAC group to join us for dinner.

Hannah at the creek with Charissa and Arthur.

Yesterday was a great day to float the river. The girls wanted to try to tube it. It didn't last long, but great intentions!



Ed let them row a while so that he could fish. We mostly went in circles down the river because they were each rowing in different directions.

And now we are heading to Wyoming Bible Camp. Summer is coming to an end, but it's been fun!