Ready for Christmas!

Season's Greetings!  We sure are enjoying the Christmas season including the Buffalo Christmas parade and other festivities, a trip to Denver for a couple of Christmas parties, and lots of baking and gift wrapping!  We are looking forward to a few more Christmas parties, Gabi's school Christmas program, and our trip to Breckenridge with my family for Christmas.



All dressed in their Christmas dresses ready to go to town to visit Santa (will post a pic of that after I figure out how to get the scanner connected to my new computer - it is quite comical!)

Sweet girls in front of our first real Christmas tree cut!  Joe, Dave, and Greer went on a tree cutting expedition in the mountains after Thanksgiving.  We actually picked this tree out while hiking last summer. :)

We put our old fake tree in the girls room and decorated it up very girly!  They love it (and it makes their room so cozy!)

Sweet Maya

Silly Gabi

The girls and I cut out and decorated Christmas cookies this morning.  I then spent the rest of the morning cleaning the kitchen...yikes.

We wish you all a Blessed Holiday Season!  Merry Christmas!

Love,
Joe, Tara, Gabi & Maya

Turkey Day Fun!

Hello!  We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It sounded like it was a beautiful day where most of our loved ones were celebrating.  It certainly was a great day here in "God's Country!"

Gabi put the bodies on the base, the head (butterscotch chip) on, and the candy corn feathers on.
I assembled the two peices and added the eyes and waddle. :)

Gabi and I made 25 chocolate turkeys (a Grandma Dorothy tradition) on Tuesday night.  We planned to take some to Evonne's (our babysitter's) house and have one for all of our guests.  The girls thought they were just great and I guess Jackson did as well....he ate all but 8 of them. :(  So, we had a do-over on Wednesday night so each of our family members would have one sitting next to their plate. :)  Darn dog anyways.

Gabi adding the turkey head.  I just realized that she isn't wearing her glasses in this picture...I wonder where they were.  Usually she is very good about keeping her glasses on and enjoys having them.

Grandpa Don carving up the turkey!

The kiddos at their table!  Yummy turkey!!

Just about ready to sit and enjoy the food.  That's butternut squash soup using squash from our garden...it was really good!  Dave & Joyce made hurricane drinks for us that they had enjoyed while in New Orleans last week.

After the feast, the guys took all of the kids outside for some sledding behind the 4-wheeler!  They had a blast and we have decided this is one of the many reasons we love living in the country!



Ready to go!!

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Couldn't wipe the smiles off these faces if you tried!

Joe gets in on the fun. :)

"old-fashioned" sledding too :)

 

Back inside warming up with those turkeys Gabi made!!

We had our traditional ornament exchange.  Sorry blogger is being annoying and won't let me load these pictures the correct orientation...grrr. :)

Gabi received a tinkerbell ornament!!

Maya gave Uncle Greer a trout ornament made locally.

Group Photo time.  I wish I had gotten a photo of all of the attendees together.  I guess we were having so much fun that we forgot about doing that!

On Friday morning, Amanda & I went to Billings for a power shopping trip.  We did really good and had a fun time!  That afternoon, "Nona" (Greer's mom) took Gabi & Gio to see Happy Feet 2 (the 3-D version) in Sheridan.  These two have quite a good time and really enjoyed the movie and the car ride.

We are so thankful for all God has blessed us with.  Much love to you all! Tara

Thanksgiving...a bit early

Hello!  Not much new around here.  We are all doing great!  Our first snow storm arrived Thursday evening that resulted in a 2 hour school delay (yay!) and about 12" total.  We're really looking forward to Thanksgiving with Joe's family, a trip to Denver in a couple of weeks, and our week in Breckenridge over Christmas!  Here are some pics:

Curly-Q

These are our lovies.

The life of a cat.

We're training her early.

Gabi loves the snow.

Maya does not like the snow...this is her "I'm cold and want to go inside now" pose.

Gio joined us this morning for a little fun with watercolors.

 
We have so much to be thankful for...family, friends, health, good jobs, and a beautiful place to call home.  Hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!! 

Love, Tara

Halloween Fun

Here are some pictures from our Halloween adventures.  The girls had a great time and the weather held out long enough for us to get our fill of treats.

Headed towards downtown Buffalo to the "Monster March"

The crazy candy corn and silly giraffe!

The best part of Maya's giraffe costume is the rear end.  I got her shaking her hips (which she is really good at anyways) and about fell over from laughing so hard.  You can see for yourself how cute it is here:

Lots of cousins together and Kate & Ella's house before trick-or-treating!

Bombarding the neighbor's front door..better hurry up, Maya!

We headed to Diane & Splint's house after trick-or-treating for some more festive fun.  The lefty couldn't quite break the pumpkin pinata, but she sure gave it her best shot.

Joe, Gabi & Maya carving pumpkins the night before Halloween

Maya loved the seeds and goo from the pumpkin...she also loved the roasted pumpkin seeds that it turned into!

 Thanks for checking in on us!  Lots of love!  Tara

Gabi's New Glasses

Gabi is very excited about her new glasses!  She was more than willing to smile for the camera this evening (she usually runs and hides as soon as I pull it out!)  I'm just hoping it stays that way.

We are very lucky that a school screening detected an issue and then our eye doctor (who just happens to be our great friend, Chris) confirmed the problem and recommended glasses.  She sees just fine, but her eyes aren't "sharing," so the glasses will help them work together better. :)

We are enjoying fall, our new home, and every minute we get to spend together.  The girls are looking forward to Halloween...Gabi is going to be a candy corn and Maya will be the infamous giraffe! :)

Love to you all!  Tara

Four

Happy Birthday to our sweet Gabi! We had a little celebration on Sunday evening with cake and mint chocolate chip ice cream (Gabi's favorite!) My parents were here, so it made the day extra special! On Monday, Gabi did "Show and Share" at her Preschool. She insisted on bringing our cat, Rocky, to show her classmates. She did an excellent job of telling everyone about Rocky, including that he eats mice, he purrs a lot, he likes to petted on his chin and ears, and that if you pull his tail, he will whap ya! We were very proud of her.

Gabi has also been playing soccer this fall. She really likes it, but isn't very aggressive and is the littlest one on her team. Nonetheless, she runs around the field after the ball with a huge smile on her face (and that's all that matters).

We were able to attend the Nebraska vs. Wyoming game in Laramie last Saturday. I grew up a huge Nebraska fan (and still am except when they play Wyoming!) My Mom & Dad came out from Iowa and my brother came from San Francisco (where he recently moved to). We had a great time tailgating and watching some good football (well, kind of....)

We called this "The Poke Sandwich"...it isn't too different than what happened on the field!

There were a lot of Nebraska fans in the stadium, but not enough to create the usual Sea of Red.

Maya kept stealing cookies at the tailgate. She is becoming a cookie monster like me!

Grandma Phyllis' 80th Birthday was last Sunday (the 18th). We had a big party for her at Amanda & Greer's home. Everyone had a wonderful time and the kids were excited about helping her blow out her candles.

Silly Maya:

Things have been super busy around here. We will be moving into our new house this weekend!

Lots of Love, Joe, Tara, Gabi & Maya