Dane's Birthday and a fun weekend!

March 9th, Dane celebrated his 3rd Birthday!  Holy cow, where has the time gone?

He had a wonderful day, treats at daycare, then I picked him up early and we went to feed the ducks, went and picked up Kimber and then headed home for pizza.  Clint's still on overnights, so he had to sleep, but about the time we got home he was ready to join in the fun!  So, we ate pizza, opened presents and then had some cake!  Here are some pictures of the festivities!

Dane really enjoyed this gift...  I'm not sure what you would call it, but he loves it and it was from my supervisor, Miss Kate, who he adores!

My pictures are a little out of order, but here is Dane blowing out his candles.  It did take a few tries, but he finally got them all out! 

Another favorite...  a forklift from Grandpa and Nana.  This is a pretty darn cool toy and he would have taken it to bed it he could have!

Another tractor... this kid is all boy and loves his tractors and dirt!

Playing with his new forklift while wearing his new backpack that was a gift from Aunt Shannon and Uncle Sam.

Dane had a great day and Clint and I really enjoyed it as well.  This was the first year that he got the concept that it was his special day...  and that was pretty fun! 

On Sunday, we headed up to the Rocky Mountain Front by Dupuyer to hike around and look for shed antlers.  It was Clint, Brock, Dane, Kimber and I.  Although a little chilly, the weather was actually pretty nice and we had a wonderful time. 

Now we are headed into another fun weekend.  Clint gets off Sunday morning for his weekend, so tomorrow I think we will spend some fun time with Grandma, get our shopping done, and then on Sunday or Monday head out to do some hiking or fishing with the kids.

Here is the "Seal Pup"!

Gotta love those kiddos!

This weekend we decided to make some sausage.  60 lbs of polish sausage to be exact.  Yum!  Brock came over to help us so about 10 am yesterday we started rolling.

We have realized there are 3 ways to get something done with the two kids.  You can send them away...  but what fun is that?  You can lock them in a room...  but the neighbors start wondering at all the yelling  (Mommy, Daddy, LET ME OUT!!!!)  Or, you can involve them (Dane) and give him a job.  Well, I was kidding about the first two so we gave Dane tasks and got him involved and we had a great day.  

Here are some pictures from our fun, productive day! 

This is Dane cutting his own little pieces of meat.  He was right next to me so I could closely monitor what he was doing.  But, he did great, was very careful, and learned a lot.

Everyone's working hard and having a good time.  Brock was so much help.  He jumped in and helped with every part and then played with Dane during the down time.  We really enjoyed having him!

I look a little crazy here.  (you would too at this point! lol)  But, Kimber was tired from all of her hard work!

Stuffing the sausage into the casings.  Everyone is posing.

Brock was working hard!  I was sneaky when I took this one so no one posed!

Then it was time for baths!  Dane is so good to Kimber.  She was splashing, stealing his toys, and crawling all over him but he just kind of ignored her and kept playing or would hand her a toy he didn't want.  He is a really great big brother.  Here are some bath time pictures of our kiddos!

As I'm writing this, Clint is finishing the last batch of sausage.  We had to smoke it in four batches.  Then we bake it to make sure it gets hot enough.  Lastly, we vacuum seal it and put it in the freezer.  Now we will have lots of yummy sausage for months to come!