Thanksgiving Trip



We made the long voyage to Iowa to spend Thanksgiving with my family.  We all had a really nice time and are glad we made the trip.  My Grandma Dot joined us from Lincoln and my brother and his girlfriend, Angelene, came from San Francisco.  It was so nice to see everyone.  Most of the time was spent just hanging out and catching up.



 

Maya and Grandma Dot doing her sticker book

Snuggle time with Papa Gary

Thanksgiving dinner was a big feast as usual!!

Carving up the big turkey!

Gathered around and ready to eat!!

We also celebrated Christmas while we were there.  My Mom and Dad gave the girls American Girl Dolls which they LOVE.  They were made to look just like them!



Gabi's has glasses just like her.  Maya's has curly hair!



Mom & Dad waiting to open presents!

 

 

We were also treated to a performance of Beauty and the Beast.  The girls had a great time and Gabi listed about 6 favorite parts on the drive home that night.

Waiting for the show to start!

Grandma Dot, Grammy Mary, Gabi, and Papa Gary at intermission.  The gold streamers fell from the ceiling during the performance!

Angelene, Tom, and Maya

Thanks Mom & Dad for all of your hospitality and gifts!  We all had a blast!


This past weekend was a fun one in Buffalo.  It is the official start of the Christmas season for the city and all kinds of fun stuff was going on.  In addition to getting our Christmas tree in the mountains and decorating the house up, we took in the Christmas Parade on Saturday night, made Gingerbread houses with friends, did some local shopping, and got our pictures taken with Santa!

Joe found a good tree this year!

With their gingerbread house!

Hard at work!  I think more frosting and candy was eaten than actually went on the house!

Buddies!  Reminds me of when I was younger...a brunette surrounded by blondies!

We tried out hand at paper dolls yesterday morning.  They had fun with them!

My best friend from high school, Susie, was also in town and came over with her daughter, Bertie, and her husband.  It was soooooo good to see her!  It is amazing how a Brooklyn-dweller and a Wyoming small town girl can remain kindred spirits for so long.  So thankful to have her in my life!

Our girls!

And last but certainly not least....Gabi & Maya are going to be BIG SISTERS!!! We are due with our third child on May 26th (Maya's 4th birthday!) We couldn't be more excited!

Lots of love to you all!  Tara

Fall Fun

It seems like this fall has been flying by.  The weather has been playing nice (except for today...snowing, blowing, and a high of 20.)  Gabi & Maya had a blast around Halloween with their school parties, pumpkin festival, and finally trick-or-treating with their cousins.

 

9 out of 10 Hall great-grandkids.  This is the 3rd annual trick-or-treating outing around Natalie & Rex's neighborhood.

Gabi was a "sparkle witch."  We saw the Wizard of Oz performed by the Community Theater last summer, so she has wanted to be a witch ever since.

Maya was a "beautiful princess."  There really wasn't any other option for her costume. ;)  She loves dressing up as a princess and twirling around the house.

Both Gabi & Maya have been doing gymnastics this fall.  Below is a picture of Gabi swinging through the rings all by herself for the first time!  They are both little monkeys.  I need to get a picture of Maya...she looks so cute in her little leotard.  She loves that thing and would wear it 24/7 if she could.

 

 

We drew a really long hopscotch last weekend.  The girls had a fun time!

Rocky has been tagging along with us on our walks.  Guess he feels like we need a buddy with us since Jackson is gone.



Up on the mesa collecting pinecones.

Buddies.

We ventured down to Laramie a few weekends ago.  Joe ran the Silent Trails race in a blizzard, we warmed up by swimming at the Rec Center pool, and then hit the Wyoming vs. Air Force game.  We were able to see Coach Sanchez, a few parents of our friends that passed away in the accident 11 years ago, and some former teammates.  Joe & Chris ran the race together and had a fun time.

These two have run countless miles together!

Go Pokes!  The girls always have a blast at the games!

The girls and I went and rode on a firetruck this fall as well.  The firefighters had done a presentation in each of their classrooms and they were so excited to get to do this.  The were able to talk on the CB, pull the LOUD horn, and go fast with the sirens on!  There really are a lot of fun things to do in this little community!

Maya and I on the firetruck

The girls have both REALLY enjoyed school and are doing just great!  Gabi's teacher told me she should have probably went to kindergarten this year.  Hopefully we'll be glad we held her back once she gets into high school.  I always liked being the oldest in my class.  Maya LOVES her teacher and is obsessed with writing her letters lately.  She's been able to write her name for a long time, but now can write all of her letters and puts lots of words together if we spell them for her.  I print out these sheets by the dozen and she'll spend hours tracing them!

We are really looking forward to our trip to Iowa for Thanksgiving.  Hopefully the weather cooperates with us!

Lots of love to you all!  Tara

5

Gabi turned the Big 5 last week!  She was very excited and it seemed like it was a week-long celebration.  She had a party with lots of her friends and cousins last Saturday.  Amanda made her a rainbow cake...both inside and out!  It was super cute!

 



Gabi wanted her party to be rainbow themed, so the guests watercolored Rainbow Fish, blew rainbow bubbles, and took home licorice rainbows.  They mostly just ran around the yard and played!

My Mom & Dad were in town the weekend before Gabi's birthday, so we celebrated then as well.  It was so nice to have them here.  On Saturday morning, we set out from our house on a hike and made it about 1/3 of the way up Windy Ridge.  We ended up packing back a ton of rocks for Gabi's collection.

Rest stop!

Maya the "tough girl mountain climber!"

Morning snuggles with Grammy Mary

 

We went out to dinner at the Tunnel Inn in Story (yum!)  They surprised Gabi with a slice of birthday cake!

Opening presents from Grammy Mary and Papa Gary!

We had yet another celebration on Gabi's actual birthday with the "ranch family".  They came over after dinner for cupcakes, ice cream, and presents.  Gabi's teacher at school made her the Birthday Crown.

 

 

 

Here are some more pictures from the last couple weeks:

 

Maya playing at the park

Crazy hair morning for Maya

Maya's "work"...she would trace letters, words, and numbers all day if she could!  She is starting to write them all on her own as well.

Out on our adventure today...rock surfing.

Lots of love to you all!  Tara



Soooo....it has been awhile.



Hello!  Hope this finds you doing well!  We have made it through summer and have had a busy couple of weeks getting back into the school of things. :)  Our summer was super fun and even though I'm a little sad to see it go, I was excited to get back to teaching this year and the girls were excited to return to Ms. Evonne's to see their buddies and especially to start preschool.  We all function better with routine anyways (well, at least I do.)

 

Here are some pictures from the end of summer.

 

My running buddy, Katie, lives up the creek from us and has let the girls ride her horses.  Gabi is a natural.

Maya loving up on Rocky...both girls have given him so much more attention now that Jackson is gone. He loves every minute.

Playing in Gio's sandbox with buddies Tera and Kodi at the Pig Roast Greer & Amanda hosted a few weeks ago.

We put sod in about a month ago and it has done really well despite a major lack of rain.  Our sprinkler system rocks and I will now admit that it was worth every penny.  Greer and Chris really helped us out and we are thankful for their time.

Backyard all raked out and ready to go!  I had a few choice words for the weeds we had to pull out of there. ;)

Here we go...the Bobcat came in handy!

Almost done!

FINALLY DONE!  The girls have longed to do this all summer!

 We've gone on a few hikes, camped out in the backyard last weekend, and spent an evening at the cabin a few weeks ago.  Here are all 5 cousins playing in the canoe!

 
We traveled with Greer and Amanda to Austin, TX over Labor Day weekend to attend the Wyoming vs. Texas football game.  We had a great time...ate lots of yummy food and hit the town.  Gabi & Maya stayed with Dave and Joyce and had a heck of a good time.

At the University of Wyoming tailgate.

Texas stadium...we sat in the middle of a sea of burnt orange....a little intimidating but they were pretty nice to us.

Both Gabi & Maya started preschool last week.  Gabi is in Pre-K and Maya is in the 3/4s class.  They both love school so far. 

Gabi's 1st day of Pre-K

Maya's 1st day of 3/4s...of course she had to wear her absolute favorite dress in the world.

Maya and her buddy, Kade. She doesn't ever call him "Kade", she calls him, "my buddy Kade."

There has been a fire burning in the mountains near us since August 14th.  It started by lightning and has now grown to over 6000 acres.  We have had helicopters with big buckets of water flying over our house and haven't been able to open the windows much because it is so smoky.  My treadmill has reluctantly been used more than I'd like because I can't run outside.  They're getting a pretty good handle on it now, but it got pretty scary late last week. 

Hard to see the flames in this picture, but they were definitely visible on many occasions, especially at night.

 

This was probably the worse day...taken from the mesa above the ranch.

 

 

The harvests around here have been unbelievable!  The apple trees in Don & Phyllis' yard went crazy!  On Labor Day, we shook most of the apples down and pressed them into apple juice.  It was a lot of hard work but that apple cider sure is going to taste good this winter.  The kids definitely got in on the fun!

Picking up the apples.

One of many hauls.

"Heads up!"  Joe was up in the tree shaking down the apples.  I'm sure every kid got bonked in the head at least once.

The handy apple washers.



In addition to the 18 quarts of apple juice, I've also canned 14 qts. of applesauce, 27 pints of salsa, 34 pints of green beans, 26 pints of diced tomatoes, 14 half-pints of pizza sauce, 12 qts. of spaghetti sauce, 9 pints of tomato sauce, 5 pints of zesty zucchini relish, 9 half-pints of jalepeno jelly, 13 quarts of Colorado peaches, 5 pints of apple-chipolte BBQ sauce, and 5 pints of Sombrero BBQ sauce.  My canner is offically put away for the season...I kinda got in a little over my head (aka...lack of time for all of that once school started!)  I have frozen a lot of veggies as well including green beans, jalepenos, and green peppers so far. The garden this year was definitely a success...and is not done....there is still a lot to be harvested and enjoyed/frozen.

The girls still love to play outside, especially in their new grass.  It will be hard to keep them in once the weather turns.  Gabi is an expert bike rider!  Often, Joe and her will go for a bike ride after dinner and she loves every minute.  She is kind of a wild woman on that bike, but not major injuries yet (knock on wood.)  Gabi is also getting really good a hula hooping! 

Gabi took this picture of herself with my phone. :)

There is a new face on the ranch!  Dave and Joyce got a new puppy, Rusty.  He is super cute and the girls just adore him...they want to go see him everyday.  It will be fun to have him around.

 Until next time...and hopefully that is sooner than later...Happy Fall!  Tara