Merry Christmas from our house to yours

The tree that looks best in the dark

Stockings hung by the front door with care

Allison 

Sarah

Brittney

Alex

Brittney and Victor

Christmas Time again

Last year we had a houseful of little people to do all the fun Christmasy stuff with. This year its not quite so busy and frantic and a little bit subdued. It's all good. It is what it is. We have a Charlie Brown tree leaning askew in the living room, we've baked until we couldn't bake anymore and the gifts are slowly trickling into the hiding
places in and around the house. We are keeping it small this year. Saving our pennies and not going too far overboard. It'll be different and it'll be just fine. I've got a few crafty projects going and that always makes me feel good. Happy Christmas to all.

Labor Day 2010

In typical MT fashion, we went from warm and sunny to cool and rainy to winter in the course of two days.

Dani came the cabin with Alex, Allison and me. Mom and Dad met us there and we had a lovely weekend of playing in the "river", hiking to the meadow, listening to the musical stylings of Alex on guitar and hunkering down against the cold.

Grace, Logan, Molly and Kevin came up for the day on Saturday. Kevin went hunting, until a freak hail storm rolled through. Grace and Dani had a wonderful time playing together.
Grace had trouble remembering Dani's name, so just called her "my friend" all day. They're so cute together.

It was quiet, restful and relaxing....well, as much as could be expected with a three year old and three pugs along.

Buddha enjoyed his first visit to the cabin and christened every tree and bush in sight. Chloe and Zoey snarffled around and had a wonderful time frolicking in the grass.

All in all a good time was had.

Genealogy

My new passion. I've been working on my family genealogy for several weeks now. Have made lots of progress only to realize how much more there is to find. I've read as many books as I can get my hands on, to familiarize myself with HOW to find what I need to find. It's all seems a bit overwhelming, until you break it down into bite sized pieces. And may I just say, Ancestry.com is my new guilty pleasure. What a treasure trove of information with more and more added almost daily! Am currently wondering how/if I should develope a family history blog. I need another blog like I need a hole in my head. Will chew on that idea a while longer.

Lazy

Can't understand why I haven't blogged in almost a year. What's been going on? Well, we finished up 2009 with Katie, David and the kids in Missoula for Christmas. Such a treat to have them around for a couple of weeks. Thommy, Alex and I went to Seattle/Oak Harbor for spring break. Had a nice overnight at Katie's house then hit the big city for some good food, the Muse concert and a bit of sightseeing. It was quick and super fun. Now it's summer time again and its flying by.

Sarah is in N.C. working for the Lost Colony Theater and having the summer of her life. Living right on the beach with a bunch of creative souls and just enjoying every minute.

Katie is getting ready to send David off to Afghanistan for the third time. Not enjoying the thought of that at all. Allison is packing to leave for Conrad for a month-long job with Erynn Flaherty's dad. She'll work and live with them and I think is pretty dang excited to go. Brittney is living at home again, working at Rosauer's and filling out college paperwork. Yeah! Alex is working with me every day and hanging out with friends or playing his guitar afternoons and evenings. I really want to do something fun with him, but working every day is cramping my style. We're planning to be at the cabin for Labor Day weekend. Can't wait for that.

Allison and I rode the Hiawatha again in June. Gorgeous day and super fun ride.

I've had some reenacting adventures over the past year and just finished up Daly Days last weekend. Super fun, again. I'm loving every minute of it.

Pug club is going gang busters. We have over 50 pugs in memebership. We've got Pet Fest and Homecoming parade on our events calendar. Should be lots of fun.

Mainly life is the same old same old with some fun and adventure thrown in the mix. My goal now is to blog at least a few times a year, if not more often. We'll see if that works out for me.