Christmas Fun

Christmas came and went so quickly!  We had a wonderful time and enjoyed all of the cookies, crafts, and other fun that comes along with the Holidays.  One of my favorite recipes is Kris Kringle Cookies.  It was my Grandma's recipe and happens to be one of my favorite cookies.  The kids and I decided to whip some up a couple days before Christmas.  I had all the help that one girl could ever ask for!

 My favorite part!  Licking the beaters!  Apparently the kids enjoy it as well!

 That evening Kimber went shopping with Clint, so Dane and I decided to decorate!  He did a great job! 

 The weather was pretty cold and snowy, so then on Christmas Eve we decided to make spice ornaments.  They were fun to make and my house smelled absolutely delicious!

 Mom came over Christmas Eve and the kids got to open the big present from her.  They got the coolest kitchen and have already had a great time playing in it!  Then Mom flew out on Christmas morning to Hawaii to spend the Holiday season with Erik and his family in Hawaii; so it was just us hanging out on Christmas day.

 Here is Kimber sportin' her new hat, opening another present!  We all got spoiled and had a wonderful day.    Thank you to everyone who sent gifts and goodies to our family!

 Dane opening his big gift from Santa...  Could it be what he really, really, wanted?  

 It was!!!  Both Kimber and Dane lucked out and got bikes from Santa.  Unfortunately, it was subzero temperatures and snowy, so they rode the bikes around the house for a while!  

As I said we had a wonderful time.  I think that we only wish that our family was closer so we could have enjoyed the day with all of them as well!  We were thinking of everyone and send our love now and always!

Catching up post #3

Last Saturday was my birthday and it was a really great one!  During the day was the kid's Christmas party through Clint's work.  It is so nice of them to put on this great event for the kids.  Here is Dane waiting for his turn to go see Santa.  

I think this is the hardest part. All of the kids have to wait for their name to be called! 

Kimber would have nothing to do with any of that.  She is pretty sure that Santa is not someone that she needs to go anywhere near, much less sit on his lap!  She was more than happy to hang out with Daddy and Noah.

Dane finally got his turn and was thrilled to see Santa and chat with him!  Plus he got a cool nerf gun, so it doesn't get much better than that! 

After the party we went home, the kids took a nap, and then Grandma came over and I got to open my presents!  Pink tipups!  I am a lucky girl!  With the recent cold weather, we may actually get to use them soon!  :)  Then my mom stayed with the kids and we got to go to the adult's Christmas Party!  It was a really great time!

Catching up #2

About a week and a half ago, Clint went duck hunting with Noah and Bones. (I had to work...  bummer)

They had a great time and harvested some beautiful ducks.  Here is a juvenile goldeneye that was hanging out in the decoys.

Bones doing what he does best!

A proud pup with some greenheads and goldeneyes

Bringing in another one!

Dane also had his Christmas program later that same week.  We had talked about not pulling up his shirt, (last year he suck his hands up the front of his shirt and wadded it all up so his belly was hanging out...  it was awesome!)  He was really working hard to try and keep his hands where they should be...  and he did a great job!  The program was good and all the kids did a wonderful job singing.  I'm so thankful that they go to such a great child care facility that takes time to do so many great things with the kids!

After the program, we decided to go to the park cause it was such a beautiful day!  Both kids wanted to ride in the same swing so I decided to oblige them.  They enjoyed it until Dane decided he wanted out...  then it got kind of crazy cause they were really squeezed in there!

Sorry it's been so long!

I fell behind in pretty much everything the last couple of weeks...  except for work, truffles, and treat boxes! :)  Even my Christmas cards suffered!  Clint actually finished his before I did!

Now, I am trying to catch up.  As the kids sleep I have laundry going, the kitchen is clean and now I will try to catch up the blog by starting a couple weeks ago when we put up our tree!  This is the first year that Dane really got into it and has a long enough attention span to care!  He took it pretty darn serious and actually put most of the decorations on.  Yes, they are mostly located on one part of the tree, but that's half the fun!

He did have a few moments of kindness when he actually let Kimber put up a decoration or two!  She always seemed to put them in the "wrong spot" and this caused a fair amount of crankiness between the two of them!  But, then we would have a quick reminder chat about treating people with kindness and he would try to be more patient!  He is a great big brother, and really does put up with a lot of crap from her! 

 Daddy did go goose hunting one day...  The kids and I weren't invited...  someone (I won't mention names but it starts with a "No" and end with an "ah") is no longer one of my favorite people.  It will take some time,  perhaps a future elk/mule deer hunt or maybe an ice fishing trip for him to reestablish himself.  :)  Just kidding, it was actually someone else's hunt and they only had room for one so Clint was able to go along.  They had a great time and brought home a few geese.  Here are the kids checking them out!  

I think that Dane and Kimber may be "discussing" the best way to hold the goose, or something like that.

 My mom's birthday was December 4th and we all went out for dinner.  She is beautiful and happy and we all had a wonderful time.  I couldn't seem to get the kids to look my direction for the picture, but here we are back at her house for cake and presents.

 Me and my little man!

 Grandma had help blowing out the candles!

 We also had a really great snowstorm about that time.  The kids loved it, even Kimber had a good time playing out in it!  

Here is Kimber, surrounded by Christmas treats.  She's pretty sneaky...  I almost fell for it when she said, "hey mom, look over there"!

 We also all enjoyed making some decorations!  Notice Shep hanging out as well!  He is really a nice pup!

 I looked over at Kimber and this is her "I'm concentrating" face.  She consistently makes this face any time she is really concentrating on something and it never fails to make me laugh!  In case you haven't noticed, she tends to be the little ham of the family!

Quick Trip to The Cabin

Last weekend we headed up to the cabin and had a nice time.  Then only bummer is that it was cut short.  On the way back from the beautiful drive that we took on Saturday Kimber started throwing up.  That continued and after a couple hours I decided that we better head home where we have electricity and running water...  oh the little things that I appreciate when we have a sick toddler!  We still had a great time and enjoyed some of the beautiful views.

Little man checking out the elk!

Gibson Reservoir is SO LOW.  It is almost scary.  We really need to have a wet winter to get it filled back up again.

This is the boat launch.  The end of the launch is a long ways from the water!

Black Friday... Shopping or Hunting?

I have gone black Friday shopping in the past but this year I didn't have it in me...  Mom was home and graciously offered to watch the kids for us so we decided to head out one more time to look for a whitetail doe for me.  This was the first deer hunt of the year that we didn't have at least one of the kids.  Slightly bittersweet really.  Dane is getting to be quite the little outdoorsman.  He will be quiet when asked, he doesn't mind bellycrawling beside you...  (although he will find little treasures to show you!) and he is getting to the point that he can hike and keep up pretty well.  

However, Kimber is at "that" age.  A little challenging all around. Too old to be happy falling asleep in the pack.  Too young to know how to be quiet or that bellycrawling is fun...  so it's a little harder with her along.  But, we try to keep her with us as much as possible.  The only way they learn, and the only way they grow is to keep at it.  I do have one memory from this year that I will hold dear for a long time.  Dane and I bellycrawled out to the edge of our property to look for deer below.  We scanned the area and saw that none were on our property yet, so I turned around to wave Clint and Kimber forward.  The next time I turned around, Clint is crawling with Kimber walking right beside him with a hand on his back.  The smile on her face and the fact that she was (almost) the same height as him (crawling) just made me happy to have her along, sharing these moments with us.

Okay, back to black Friday!  Packing for this hunt was remarkably easy...  so we quickly got our gear together, dropped Dane and Kimber off at Grandma's with hugs and kisses,  (they didn't miss us a bit!) and headed out to one of our favorite spots.  As we hiked up the bottom, Clint spotted a whitetail buck bedded down in a tiny draw, looking uphill.  We laid down and started looking harder.  That is when we realized that there was a doe bedded down right above him.  

We admired them for a few minutes and discussed the shot.  It was 189 yards.  She was bedded down in a position that I couldn't shoot her in the chest so the choice was either wait for her to stand up, or shoot her in the neck.  Well, I've never shot one in the neck before (at any range) so I was hesitant.  But, Clint said he believed in me and the choice was mine.  As I studied her though the scope I felt steady and confident, so I decided to take the neck shot.  Things went as I had planned and we had harvested our final deer for the season with one shot.  

The buck was obviously rutting pretty hard, cause he didn't want to leave his girlfriend!  We were able to get some nice pictures of him before he finally decided that we were up to no good.

After enjoying the view and the experience we thanked the beautiful doe for her sacrifice  loaded up and headed out.  It was truly a wonderful way to end the season!  

A lot of fun with family

The child care facility that the kids go to is really great.  The hold all kinds of fun events including a Christmas Family Day.  This year Grandma and I took the kids and we all had a nice time.  There was cookie decorating; Kimber couldn't wait to get to the eating part...  in fact the frosting barely made it on the cookie.  There was also playdough, woodworking, and Santa!!!!

Dane was really excited to see Santa and hopped right up on his lap to chat without any hesitation. He sat down and asked Santa where his reindeer were...  then when prompted said that he wants a "real gun with real bullets".  Santa said that maybe a nerf gun would be better!

Kimber would not go near Santa and actually was quite adamant that she "doesn't like Santa".

Last weekend we headed out to go hunting on Friday.  The weather was pretty nice, a little cold and windy, but it was fun anyway.  Dane and I took a nice walk looking for some deer.  We didn't find any deer, but the view was beautiful and Dane had a really good time.  Kimber hung out with Daddy and they went and looked around for birds and such.  

Then on Saturday we went fishing on the Missouri with Kimber, Dane, Noah, and Kaylee. The weather was amazing and once we found the right spot, the fish were biting and fun was had by all. 

Kaylee reeled in a big one!  Great job!

Dane and his awesome Dad!  (my hot rockin' hubby!)

Noah and Kaylee