Get a haircut, and get a real job...

Evie finally got her first haircut ever this week. If we only have to get her haircut every 3 1/2 years I'll only have to pay for another 4 or 5 haircuts until she's on her own!

Winter Winds

We decided to get out a little this weekend. Took a trip up to High Cliff State Park on Lake Winnebago. At the educational station on the cliff we learned that Winnebago means “filthy water”. An interesting difference from the “Buena Vistas”, “Mesa Verdes” and “Pleasant Views” that we were used to in Colorado. We had a good little hike and had some nice views.

Not a lot going on this winter. Here's a few pictures from the last couple months:

 The kids in the backyard

 Ice skating in milwaukee

 Christmas

 Gathered around the notebook to see Mattie and Spencer

Opening presents took a lot out of Reuben

January

I thought I'd quick post a few pics from the last week.... it was time to update this blog!
Since it finally snowed here and Reuben had a snow day last Friday, he and Alena had fun playing outside while I got some extra study time!
First belly pic, 16 1/2 weeks, with Alena pointing at the baby. :)
Earlier this week, Alena and I had more fun playing outside and the snow was perfect to build a snowman!
This morning, she had fun playing in the tutu from Grandma! She said "Thank you Grandma" after I put it on her. So sweet I had to share!

And the children are above average...

Photographic update from the prodigals in the west.

Catching up again...

When disease thwarted our anniversary, we took a scenic tour of Victor and learned some history.

 The giant mining trucks are fascinating (as was the hole in the fence)

 Wedding grass!

 Inside an old house, far more "modern" than most of the building there;

Birthday trip up the Mueller State park to check out the aspens

Finally made it up to our friend's property to do some camping and climbing in late October.

 Playing a frisbee game called Flutterguts by headlamp.

 There property is surrounded by 3 sides of cliffs and 1 side of private gate-locked drive.

 Spence climbed face-first into a cactus...

Refresher of our incredibly time consuming costume

 but at least we won!

Taking advantage of the rule "it's not what you know it's who you know." A friend with a garage (that actually does testing on EMP proofing) towed my car to fix up a bunch of small things. No more dying, screeching, stuttering, grinding...

Joel came out for a visit over thanksgiving. We took a day at Keystone to give him a taste of Colorado... Instead it was a half day with a trip to urgent care and sending Joel home with a cast on.

Some thanksgiving day football before going to "Friendsgiving" feast with our many other nomad friends.

Since we have space for a real tree this year, we are starting the tradition of cutting our own from Pikes National Forest. It was nice to get to play in the snow for a bit since it continues to be only dustings of snow down here.