Here are the last of the New years party and the new friends we met. WE also went Ice Skating for the first time. Maggie decided that she really wanted to take ice skating lessons, so we thought of her and her soccer days where she really wanted to take soccer and during the first practice came running to me proclaiming that she didn't like it all they did was kick the ball! So we went ice skating first to see what she thought! Charlotte fell a lot! She didn't seem to mind too! Maggie fell and she has said that someday she wants to take lessons, but it is not a dire need anymore. We had fun going. It has been many years since I have been. We went to an outside one where the ice was not even all the way around. The inside ice skating rinks were being used for hockey games.

Christmas eve we had our Nativity play and opened up the gifts from under the tree, and had a nice relaxing time. Derek had a great birthday! We went with 3 families to a friends cabin in the mountains for the New Year! We had soooo much fun! We went sledding down the steep curvy driveway and then were pulled up behind a excursion in a big black sled to the top to do it all over again! We went ice fishing and snowmobiling, and had a big dance for the new year. We played lots and lots of games too. Here are some pictures from it.

December happenings

We had a busy December time! Maggie and her preschool Christmas party, Charlotte had her party also and so did Spencer, but I wasn't able to take pictures. We had cats in our tree and eating the tree and under the tree constantly, as well as did I mention in the tree? Our white cat is 10 lbs now and loved to climb the tree, she ALWAYS got stuck also. We also went to the art museum and saw the Mythbusters exhibit. The blue light with the kids teeth showing and was cool. They did a test of if you got more wet running or walking in the rain. The water had some stuff in it so you could see under the blue light looking in a mirror if you got more wet walking or running. The kids loved it so much, they ran every time so we never could tell. They kept running and running. Another cool one was the exhibit with the swing held only by phone books. We also went to a little German Christmas party downtown and had some yummy treats!

Charlotte's 4th birthday!

I am posting this a little late, but...better late than never right? Charlotte had her first birthday party at our house. It was a lot of fun! She invited her favorite little friends. We made gingerbread cookies, necklaces, opened gifts, played around, played a dance game, and it was only 1 hour long!

Check out this icicle!!!

It snowed here last Wednesday and we had a temperature that has not gotten up above 10 degrees since then. (It is Sunday!) So this icicle Seth broke down today and we took a picture! It is amazing he got it off in one piece!

Mt. Rushmore, the wind cave, and the mashed potato mountain (Devils Tower)

We took a fun two day trip to Mt. Rushmore and the wind cave, as well as Devils Tower. It was a fast but fun trip! The cave was amazingly huge! A 16 year old boy discovered and mapped a lot of it and it is still being mapped because of how many tunnels there are in the cave. It had the largest amount of box work. We took a picture but I am not sure how much justice the pictures shows. It was beautiful! When we got to the cave we saw lots of buffalo roaming around. We stopped because there were a few hanging out right next to the road! By the time we got to Mt. Rushmore we were all starving and it was getting dark, so we ate at Mt. Rushmore. Maggie calls it Mt. Russia. It was great food. We had buffalo stew, and Seth had that and a buffalo burger. He is always hungry! That night we stayed in a hotel and the next morning on the way home we went to the mashed potato mountain I call it (from Close Encounters of the Third Kind) really called Devils Tower. It was fascinating! Back in the early days, the people around the tower built a wooden ladder to climb up to the top! Crazy people!