Here is Dane pulling in a pike!  It actaully turned out to be the biggest pike of the day!  Nice work Dane!

Monster Perch at Lake Francis!

Monday we were joined by some friends for ice fishing on Lake Francis.  Noah is one of Clint's coworkers and the cute little guy is Kyle...  his son.  Not only did we have good company, but when we got out there the weather was fantastic and the fish were biting!  What a phenomenal combination.

Throughout the morning we caught a fair amount of nice perch and a few northern pike.  Here are some pictures from our day.

Kyle and Dane with a nice perch that Noah caught

Kyle was a pro...  pulling in perch all by himself!

Dane with a monster perch.  I think this was the biggest perch I have ever seen.

Noah and Kyle

Dane, Daddy, and the Northern Pike that Dane caught all by himself!

Noah, Clint, and our catch

Clint, Kimber, and I

By about noon the wind was blowing really hard, so we decided to get off the ice.  It was super fun though and we look forward to doing it again! 

A trend...

For those of you who follow our blog, have you ever noticed a trend?
Spring - Hiking along the River and fishing on the Missouri
Summer - Fishing out of the boat
Fall - Bird Hunting/Big Game Hunting
Winter - Ice Fishing

I realize sometimes that I fall into a blogging rut.  But, I'm not really sure how to change that.  I try to sprinkle in some photos of kids doing other things, or nature...  but this is our life, and how we spend our free time.  Although I really like my job, I don't think that pictures of my office would be very stimulating, and although pictures of Clint's work may be interesting...  they frown on that.  So, with that said...  this weekend we went to the cabin.  Now I'm going to share pictures and I hope that is okay with you!

Oh wait...  one more thing.  I'm sorry about the typos.  Before kids I spent a lot of time making sure my posts were perfect.  I wanted the wording right, and no typos.  Well, now it's a matter of getting it done when I have time, so please excuse the mistakes! 

Kimber and I getting ready to go for a ride!

 I didn't go all the way to the top, because the weather had warmed up and created a layer of ice on top of the snow.  I anticipated I may go pretty fast...



In case you can't see my face...  I should have a thinking bubble that says "oh shit".  Cause we were going pretty fast!



Safely at the bottom!

 We will never get over the scenery and we must be instilling our appreciation in our little ones.  One day I was driving with Dane and there was a pretty sunset with lots of colors.  I was distracted and not necessarily appreciating it until he says "mama, that's beautiful" and I realize that yes...  it is beautiful!
Here is a picture that Clint took.  I thought it was pretty incredible!

Haystack Butte

Rocky Mountain Front

 Now, you can't see him...  but, Clint is just off to the left, cracking his bullwhip.  :)  Dad always said a tired kid is a good kid! :)  Notice the rocks in front of the sled.  We figured that would slow him down! 
Okay, I'm just kidding.  Until Clint told Dane to pull it with the rope, this is how he thought he should get the sled around!

 When we weren't on the ice, we were at the cabin, or taking a drive to look at wildlife.  Here is Kimber.

A Bighorn Ram

White-Tail Deer

We ended up spending Saturday and Sunday night up there and coming back this morning.  It warmed up a bunch and then rained all last night so we headed back and got some things done around here.  Now both of my guys are looking pretty slick with nice haircuts! 

A little ice fishing, a little duck hunting, a lot of fun!

Clint is now on overnights which is very bittersweet.  He gets to see us all more; in the morning when he gets off work and then in the evening he is home for dinner and the kids bedtime.  I really like those parts, but he doesn't sleep as well, so that is hard on him.  Then on the weekends we get all crazy and do what we did on Friday.  Clint got home and we decided to head straight out to Willow Creek for some ice fishing.  It was supposed to snow and rain on Saturday and then get subzero temperatures again.  So, we decided to get out there before it got too nasty. 

We had a great time, Dane pulled in his very first fish.  He has helped us before, but his fine motor skills were still developing, so it was hard to grasp the line and pull the fish in without dropping the line a hundred times or getting wrapped up in it.  When this would happen he would get frustrated and tell us to do it.  Well, this was about a 12" trout and he did it all by himself!  I didn't get it on video, but I will try to the next time we get out.  He was so stinkin' proud. 

He was almost as excited about pulling Sis in the sled, and I did get some pictures of that.



Daddy and his Princess




A nice trout on a sunny day!



Then on Saturday we snuck down to the Missouri for a little duck hunting.  We had both kids, so the kids and I were Clint's cheering squad.  It ended up getting really windy and cold, so Dane didn't last too long before saying that he was done and wanted to go home.  Clint did shoot a couple ducks while we were there...  Here is Dane with one of them!



A golden eagle that flew over checking out the decoys



Lastly...  here is a picture of Little Kimber.  She is getting SO big and fun.  I think she will be mobile sooner rather than later...  not necessarily good news for us.  :)  Cause I think we will have our hands full once she can get where she wants to go!

Wearing Papa's hat!

A nice long weekend!

Despite not getting to go ice fishing at the cabin...  we had a fantastic weekend!  I took last Thursday off so that we could spend an extra day out at the cabin, but the weather was really cold and snowy...  I mean subzero temps, about 8 inches of snow in about 24 hours (for us that's a lot) and wind...  too much for us to take 2 little ones out on the ice.  As you have probably noticed, we don't have an ice house, so we are kind of at the mercy of the elements.  The cabin is only a place that we go when we can get out and recreate.  16 x 20 feet is not enough room to stay sane when you are trapped inside with the kids all day...  so we decided to stay home and make sausage.  Woo hoo!  Not necessarily the most fun alternative, but we always enjoy the end product.

I had told Dane he didn't have to go to "school" on Thursday (and Friday) so even though we were processing meat, he stayed home with us.  So with Kimber on our backs and Dane on the chair next to us we got started!

I wear gloves when processing...  mostly because that makes it is easier to go from meat duty to baby duty.  The burger really sticks to your hands and with gloves I just have to wash, not scrub and scrub.

Well, Dane thought he needed gloves too!

Here is Dane helping grind.  We ended up  making about 100 lbs of burger and sausage!

 We did the grinding on Thursday and then we stuffed on Friday.  Here is Dane...  once again a great helper!

Stuffing the summer sausage

 Then on Saturday we went shopping, made our thank you's for Christmas, baked bread, and hung out!  I got a new vacuum for Christmas and one of the parts was broken.  So, we took it back and got a good one.  Holy crap!  I know I'm a weird girl, but I'm so excited about my new vacuum!  It rocks! 

Dane showing his artistic side!

 Of course we played in the snow!

 Dane holding his sis!

 Today Dane wanted to bake, so we made some muffins.  Here he is filling the muffin tin.

Kimber is doing well.  She is a good baby, but doesn't sleep like Dane did.  Up until a few nights ago she was waking up numerous times a night, with teething, a cold, and growing she just wanted to nurse a lot.  Between work, trying to run, keeping up the house, etc, I had reached that point where I was just exhausted.  When I'm that tired I cry too much.  I'm not mean, I'm not really witchy...  I just cry.  My Dad had a saying when I was a kid...  he said "just go to sleep and everything will look better in the morning."  So true.  Anyway, this weekend, I got sleep.  Lots of it.  Like 10 hours two nights in a row!  Kimber settled down and is only waking up once or twice!  Woo hoo!  I feel like a new women!  It's amazing what a little sleep will do! 

Now we are back at it for another good week! 

A Day On the Ice!

Sunday we went up to one of our favorite ice fishing spots for a fun day on the ice.  Kimber hung out with my mom, so it was just me and the boys.  It was our first day ice fishing this year and I don't think it could have gone better...  we had so much fun!  Here are some pictures from the day!

Setting the tip-ups

It was cold and we forgot to bring a blanket or something for Bones to sit on so that he could get off the ice/snow.  Here he is making the best of the situation!

Are you going to eat that?

Sledding was so much fun!

The moon right over the mountains

This was a really nice trout that I was able to land.

Dane and I with a nice Rainbow Trout

Clint and Dane with another nice trout

What a sweet pup!

As you can see we had a really great time and can't wait to get out there again.  The plan was to head out again on Thursday and take both kids...  but we have a winter storm warning Wednesday and Thursday...  they are calling for 6 inches to a foot of snow, winds gusting to 40 mph, and temps in the -10s to -20s.  Needless to say, that isn't exactly great weather to go sit on the ice...  so we will see what happens! 

Merry Christmas!

We hope that everyone's Christmas was as fantastic as ours!  We were entirely too spoiled as were the kiddos!  This was Dane's first year understanding the whole "Santa" concept.  Of course we left the snack and milk by the fireplace and Dane was super excited to find that Santa had eaten it.  Clint also put a little snow by the fireplace before Dane got up, and Dane kept saying "that's not nice" that Santa left snow in our house!!! :)  After finding our stockings...  Dane and I jumped in the car and went and woke my mom (Grandma) up at 6:30 to come join in the fun.  She was a super good sport and came back with us to enjoy the morning.

Here are some pictures of the kids!

Dane got this little toolbox from Grandma and it was a total hit!  In fact we had to put it away so that he would open the rest of his presents!  He sure did get some neat stuff...  A tool bench, books, clothes, bath toys, and some Lincoln logs.  What a haul! 

 Grandpa Karl sent Dane a really neat gift.  He sent him a side by side toy shotgun. (a gentleman's gun) This has also become one of the favorites and since playing with it is a supervised activity...  he is constantly asking to play with his gun.   

 Kimber got these cool blocks from Sam and Shannon!  She loves them!

Thank you everyone for all the great gifts.  We missed those of you that we didn't get to spend the day with, but look forward to seeing you again, hopefully in the near future! 

Brock's First Duck!!!!

 Last weekend we went duck hunting down on the River.  It was me, Clint, Brock, Dane, and Bones.  There weren't quite as many ducks as there have been, but there was just enough! 

Brock did great and was able to get his very first duck.  Clint had the decoys set up just perfect to get the ducks in close.  Sure enough Brock was shooting well and was able to shoot a beautiful goldeneye!

Here are some pictures of the happy hunter!

Waiting for them to come in.

A proud hunter and his ducks

 Dane adores Brock.  Brock is so patient with Dane and does so great with him.  Here they are hamming it up!

 We are so fortunate.  Bones is the perfect pup for us.  Not only is he great with the family in the house, but he is quite the hunter.  Here he is waiting for the ducks.  You can't really see it but the water was frozen into a thick sheet on his vest and his whiskers around his eyes had ice hanging off of them.  What a stud! 

Brock and Dane

Clint and Brock

 I even got to shoot this time and add a couple ducks!

Dane and I

 Then we went to the Christmas party that Clint's work puts on each year.  They are so generous and get gifts for all the kids.  Here is Dane receiving his present.

Lastly...   Dane and Kimber.  You could never tell they are related!