Our New Niece

 This precious little babe is our new niece, Collins Emmalyn.  She was born January 25th, 2013 at 12:12 pm.  She weighed 8 lbs 4 oz and was 21" long.  All is well with Collins and Mama.  We can't wait to meet her in a couple weeks.  She's gonna be one tough little lady with an older brother and two cousins that are all boy, but she'll also be one spoiled little princess.

Swimming Fun

The kiddie slide was a big hit...

as was standing under the waterfall.

The boys loved the slides.  Most times Carter half covered his face, more of an 'oh my!' look than actually covering his eyes for protection.

I have more pictures of Henry than Carter, but maybe that is because Carter never stood still long enough to get a picture that wasn't blurred.  I haven't looked at the videos yet, but there's gotta be a good one of Carter somewhere. 

Henry liked the waterslides but he was also content to just float, I get that.

 

All ready.

Some Random Fun

As we were leaving for New Year's in Bismarck I threw a neck pillow back to Henry.  He thought it should be a hat. 

Our basement is unfinished.  It is -4.3 degrees outside.  Gotta find something to do.  Best idea they could come up with - a shooting range.

Carter had a blast and was pretty bummed when they ran out of beebees.  Mom to the rescue.  We are reloaded and ready for more. 

Carter likes to watch Grey's Anatomy with me.  That started when he was about 2.  Landon has fire meetings on Thursdays so the only way I could peacefully watch my 1 show was to let him watch it with me. This night he got the recliner.  He had his feet up and his little bear and a blanket and was set.  Then Landon, sarcastically, asked if he was comfortable and if we could get him anything.  Carter's reply was yes, he'd like that pillow Landon was using.  We laughed til our show came back on. 

Lately Henry just wants to wear underwear.  So we let him.   

He also likes to carry around guns in a cowboy hat and Dad's boots. 

I'm not sure what he was preparing to do, but I think he should be safe enough.

He would kill me if he knew I posted this, but it is too funny not to.  In fairness I have some videos of me in a swimsuit that I'm willing to post, so I think we'll be even.  He was pretty convinced that we needed a WII after the weekend in Bismarck.  

Hunting and Fishing

Carter has started to hunt with Landon.  He takes his toy shotgun and gets dressed up in camo just like Dad.  Luckily we live in an area with plenty of wildlife and friendly landowners so their hunts can be as short or as long as they want them to be.  Carter lines them up, counts them, rearranges them, pets them, counts them again, and makes up stories about them.  He also wants a knife so he can help clean them.  He's even started to help cook them.

Well, he didn't cook them, but he did help assemble some pretty yummy dove stuffed jalapeno poppers.

Ice fishing is in full swing around here.  I finally figured out to keep one coat for fishing and one coat for school/trips to town/church, otherwise everything stinks like fish and I end up washing coats and bids several times a week.

More Sledding

On this day Henry was the one that asked to go outside.  I wasn't sure what we were going to do since the snow was not snowman snow.  We wandered around the backyard for a bit then grabbed the sled and headed out front.  Henry and I went down a few times then Landon and Carter came home from ice fishing and joined us.  The little sled was fine, but the BIG sled is better.  The whole family can fit in this one.

The boys hitchin' a ride to the top.  (After a dozen times down and up I decided it was okay to skip Jillian's workout for the day.  And my legs are very glad I did.)

If we aim just right we can end up at our front door. 

When the boys are a little older we'll have to look for a bigger hill.  This sled really gets going when you put 4 or 5 kids in it or an adult with the kids.

1st Day of School...

Well, 6:45 pm after the first day of school.  We decided to start Carter in Pre-School this month.  He goes Tuesday and Thursday from 12:30 to 3:00.  His class has three girls and one other boy.  He was so excited to go to school.  He ate all his dinner and picked up all his toys last night and was very cooperative and did everything we asked him to.  But he didn't have much to say about school after I picked him up (other than telling the other little boy "call me, maybe" as we were leaving).  On the 30 minute drive home tonight he was asleep only a few miles into the trip which was no surprise since he's still a napper.  We left him in the car while we made super yummy elk tenderloin fajitas, waking him up when the food was on the table.  Instead of eating he wined, skipped dinner, and went to his room to finish crying while we ate.  When we were done I went to check on him and this is what I found. 

This video doesn't do justice for Santa's music.  It is LOUD!  We could hear it with the door closed, down the hall, with Henry jabbering.