And Still More

We spent a lot of time at Paul and Rachel's, visiting, playing or eating :-)
Madison and Micah playing horses and Madison, Micah and Alika

Isaac the pirate and Anna the army girl

At Espe's eating ice cream - Abby (she came with us), Madison, Alika, Tiana and Isaac. Madison was lucky enough to get to stay the night there! She had lots of fun. Abby and Madison also had a sleepover with their dolls. Madison had so many sleepovers - Andi's, Victoria's, Alika's and Abby's! She should be good for sleepovers for a long time now :-)

More Visiting

We went over to the Johnson's for dinner and of course a makeover for Amos :-) Look how cute he is in the little stroller! Madison and Victoria have fun dressing him up every time they are together - it is just as funny each time I see it too!

Isaac thinks Ethan is so great - he talked about him for days and kept wanting to go back! It is so nice of him to play with Isaac and show him all his cool boy toys! Hannah was pretty interested in what Amelia was doing - she was glued to her side the whole time she was at the piano and was trying to play herself.

Of course we went to see Kristen and Rogue! It was really cold out so Madison just rode him around the barn a little bit. Look at Rogue smiling for the camera in the second picture (click on it to make it bigger) So funny!!

Madison saying goodbye to Rogue and Isaac to Manly. For some reason out of all the horses there Isaac really likes Manly. He wants to pet him, feed him, talk about him and of course ride him! He did get to sit on his back and be led around the barn last time - I had some pictures but they were accidentally deleted (AAAHHH) As you can imagine, he was grinning from ear to ear :-) We were treated to a "how to bake lefse" while we were there! I had never seen it made (imagine that!) and it was fun to see the process. We sampled it also and it was delicious!! Look at the kids watching the griddle - just waiting for it to be done! :-) I felt inspired to make it myself after watching them and was able to help Brock's mom and sister make it last week. It turned out great and was a lot of fun.

A Visiting We Will Go

After Thanksgiving, Brock headed home to get back to work and the kids and I continued on to MN to do more visiting. We stayed in our house (since it hasn't sold yet) and enjoyed being there again. We had only been gone one month and it felt like it had been so long since we were there. It was so fun to see everyone! We stayed for 1 week and did a couple weeks worth or stuff :-) Every day was packed with activites and visiting, I was exhausted at the end of the visit (in a good way) :-)

Our night at Val and Sheldon's was complete with ice cream, of course :-) Madison and Isaac went with Sheldon to a hockey game and had so much fun! It was Madison's first high school game and Isaac's first ever. They had so much fun - they came back completely thrilled.

Madison was so lucky to get to spend a couple days with Marcy making cookies and ornaments. They were very creative and delicious :-)

We also spent a couple days at Strege's - one big sleepover :-) It was so nice to be there again and of course the kids had so much fun playing. They also had a new little puppy - Lola - that was adorable. :-)

Berlin had fun sharing her food with Hannah :-) They seemed to get along pretty good (although according to Jesse they fought the whole time Denise and I were in town - we're not sure if we believe him ) :-) Madison and Andi with their little turtle - isn't it cute?

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in ND with my family. It was so nice to see everyone again, even though it hadn't been than long since last seeing most of them. We had our meal at the church so had lots of space for everyone - 38 of us!!! We invited two other families for dinner so in all there were 22 kids (that includes several babies) and 16 adults!! It was alot of fun - good food and fun games!

Maggie and Lyrik (my sisters Nicole and Laura's daughters); the three musketeers - Kiaran (Laura's), Isaac and Eli (Levi's); the girls side of the table; Madison and Lily (Laura's daughter)

The baby crew - Jen and her baby Xavier (5 months), my sister Bekah and her baby Georgia (5 months) and my sister Nicole and our nephew Judah (2 weeks)

Hannah loved to push the baby around in the stroller

The two youngest grandchildren - Georgia and Judah (Bekah's and Levi's) Quite a size difference in these two :-)

More Thanksgiving Fun

Snapshots of the rest of our time in ND

Levi and most of his family - Rachel and Judah, Eli and Chloe, Judah and Levi

Bekah and her family minus Dale and Ruby plus one of Levi's - Georgia, Abby and Georgia, Bekah and Georgia and Lia (Levi's) and Violet

Mom and Dad with Georgia and Ruby (Bekah's), Hannah, Maggie, and Bailey (both Nicole's) and Madison

Laura and her kids (plus a few) - Laura and Lyrik, Lily and Ruby (Bekah's) and Kiaran and Isaac

Lots of kids coloring at the table - can you tell who is who?? and also our outing to the Parade of Lights

Life with "friends"

Madison is enjoying life inMT. Although she hasn't met any friends or been to any homeschool events yet she is surrounded by "friends"! She treats her toys and stuffed animals as well as any friend and plays with them like they are real! When she isn't busy playing she is enjoying time with grandpa and grandma. She has been hiking with grandma a couple times and can't wait to go skiing with her as well. She is loving Awana and meeting some kids there. She and Isaac both have their own rooms now and are LOVING that. I worried about how the kids, Madison in particular, would adjust to the move. I am very thankful that our prayers were answered and, despite missing her friends and favorite horse Rogue, she is doing great :-)

Two animals Madison received from Marcy (the lady she spent time with weekly doing art stuff) - she especially loves dressing them up


Madison showing off her science projects - growing beans. She mixed an art project in and painted the pots too.

Madison's herd! She has a ledge that goes across 1/2 of her room and she makes great use of it :-) She loves being in horse country here in MT - she never tires of looking at all the horses here :-)

She even has a little logging/wagon train section :-)