December 2016

Sledding at Peets Hill - about 400 steps from our house 

I love finding her curled up with a book

Gingerbread house making at the Emerson 

We loved this gingerbread teepee 

Ella receiving a candy cane from santa 

Christmas Stroll 

Climbing wall at the stroll - ran into the Arm's boys from Ella's old school so she was loving it. 

Making Grandma Koch's Christmas cookies 

Downtown Bozeman with Aunt Melissa 

He spent hours taking apart most of his electronic toys 

  

I went climbing for the first time 

Mark left me a note ; ) 

Sweet card from a client 

Gordon's drawing of our family...there's probably a missile in there somewhere 

Ella scraping ice off of our front windows. They are the last windows that need replacing upstairs. Hopefully we will complete that project before next winter. We love living in historic downtown Bozeman with all of its character and convenience but some days I think about the brand new bigger houses 2 miles from downtown that cost the same as our house because of location and think, "did we do the right thing?!" And then I look out the window and see people cross country skiing by our house to get to Peets Hill and I'm like, "of course this is where we are meant to be!" The house will take years to fix up but this location has been our dream for 10 years so it's worth it. 

Someone was sitting in their hot air balloon in the mall parking lot on a below 0 evening. You can tell you live in a small town when seeing a hot air ballon and going to the movie theater is your Saturday night excitement. 

Caught Gordon eating a "breastmilk popsicle" No wonder we haven't had any major illnesses this winter! 

I hosted the WIC holiday party at my house.

Our 8 year old on the morning of her birthday! She asked for erasable colored pencils, this girl loves erasers! 

We threw her a surprise party. She choose to go to Montana Ale works for dinner, thinking it was with just Mark, me & Gordon. We showed up and Melissa, Jeff and Nana were there with balloons, signs and a cake. 

She asked for a dolphin cake and a dolphin cake she got. 

First day at Bridger - Ella pictured above riding the chair lift alone. She hates riding with me because I hold onto her and she's too old for that. 

Ella with the Parker kids 

Gordon showing off his new hat from Gigi 

Ella showing off her new headband from Patti & Grandpa Ben 

Ella & Jaeda 

Every year we say we aren't getting a lot of presents and every year we set them out and realize we went overboard.

Crawling under the tree to find more

Snowing outside - it was a beautiful white Christmas 

Trying out some new gifts 

"Safety goggles" while making electricity 

Burying Ella 

Mark & I spent the day at Bridger alone! Melissa took the kids for the day. 

It was a super cold, windy, busy day but we made the best of it - red chair lifts were shut down due to high winds so the lines at the other lift were long.

Melissa took the kids ice skating 

Gordon drew a sonic wave...and a missile. He usually says missile like the British would & includes one in most of his stories & drawings. 

Ran into one of my favorite Bozeman people at Bridger

Our boys skiing together 

It was a great snowy day of skiing. 

Catching snowflakes on his tongue 

We stayed at Bridger for dinner, the ski patrol torch show & fireworks 

They spelled 17 with the torches at the top of Bridger then skied down to the base. 

I had the privilege of nursing my friend's baby. I was getting really tired of pumping and had the urge to quit...then I nursed Ike and felt inspired to go a little longer. Finn should have enough breastmilk to make it to 1 year!