Dance Recital {Everybody Dance Now}

Loving the "Boogie Woogie Piggy" Girls!Could Emma get any shorter? She is tiny, but did such a great job!
Ryan's parents flew up for the special occasion. The girls were so excited to perform for them.
They had pictures and dress rehearsal the night before.

Love that GRIN!

Getting ready on the big night!!!

Buns! Makeup! Big Bows! What more could a little girl ask for?

Emma was so excited to put on makeup and held still for everything, even the mascara.

Mara...she was an old pro since she did it last year as well.

BIG RULE: No crying once the makeup is on. So for Mara that definately meant hair HAD to be done first. She still had a few tears after the makeup darnit, but not too much damage.

Flowers from Yiayia and Papou and Sarah's and Tyler!

Love that face!

We are so lucky to have friends and family to come support us!

What a great night!

Their group definately got the loudest cheers! They were the cutest of course, and I am not really bias!

Nesting or Spring Fever?

Saturday I woke up and started the day by cleaning out under my bed! Can we say DustBunnies? It was crazy. I have been wanting to do it for a long time. And with a little help from Caleb and Max (because of course I couldn't squeeze my big belly under there!) It is spotless under my bed. That of course lead to cleaning the windows, which led to straightening up closets....Then we had to go get the chicks. 35 have found a new home at our house.

Emma Loves Them to understate. Caleb and Max had to take a picture of them with their DSI's. What goofs!

Once the chicks were settled, the chicken coup needed a good shoveling out! After a winter build up of poop!!! yuck! Sam and Noah and Caleb helped me shovel it into the wheelbarrow so Ryan could wheel it to the garden. The garden will love us for it. I am hoping for a bumper crop this year with all the "natural fertilizer" we dumped on it. Ryan tilled it all in and I am planning to plant lettuce, peas and onions this week. A little risky, but if I wait, it may never get done.

That afternoon we had to go get the pigs from the Hutterite Colony. Six stinky Swine now have a home at our place as well. Needless to say, I didn't sit all day, and it left me wondering...is it nesting? or just Spring Fever? I think with as much as we accomplished it must be both!

Getting ready for the Pigs!

Pigs are coming! we made their pen bigger and my ingenious man rigged up a watering system for the pigs so that they have constant water on demand. Sweet! less work! Sam and Noah are squirting Caleb!

Love these guys!

Sneaky Max waiting for an unsuspecting victim to walk by so he can spray them!

Noah and the feeder!

Caleb and Noah took a break on top of the well house! Naturally, that is where a break should happen... If you live here.

Welcome to your new home stinky swine!

{Swimming Saturday}

We got invited to a birthday party at the new hotel in Great Falls that has an indoor waterslide!

Since there is not much in the way of entertainment here, the kids were way excited! Can you believe it...an indoor waterslide! So after trying on every swimming suit I own, and having no luck, I made Noah come with me to help with the little ones since I was not getting in! This is Emma's most favoritest pose! She is such a girl! She is forever putting her hand on her hip and sticking out her hip. Don't ask me where she learned those moves! she was born with them.

Max preparing to go down the slide!

Noah was so excited to have his picture taken! He always pulls faces like that when I make him take a picture.

Finally I caught him! What nut! But what a great helper! So glad he was there.

Where were Sam and Ryan?

They opted to stay at home and take down some fencing and start getting our pen ready for pigs!

It's that time again. By the first part of April we will have more chicks, pigs and hopefully 2 cows. I should also be able to start milking the goats again!

Hunter Safety

Saturday we went to Giant Springs to pick up the boys from their Hunter Safety Field Day!

They were so excited for it, carrying a gun, building a fire, shoting a 20 gauge, and building a shelter.

The sight we saw upon our arrival was only one that would be seen in Montana. 125+ kids wearing hunter orange vests and carrying huge guns. Only in Montana! It was a sight. A mini militia. But they had fun!

Seeing the Sun!

Friday was one of those days that will go down in infamy. It was a doozer!

Needless to say that when the sun peeked her head up on Saturday morning, It was a much needed reminder that the sun will always come out tomorrow.

Noah and Sam had their field day for hunter's safety...{more about that later} and after we picked them up we went to the Holiday Inn to do some ancient art paintings.

The kids had a blast and we were able to see some really cool art.

When we got home, we all played outside for the rest of the day. Caleb got his BB gun out,

the girls jumped on the tramp

Ryan shot with the boys, and me...

I was able to clean out closets, pantries and the accumulation of junk that found itself into our garage this winter.

Something about cleaning out and sweeping up totally lifted my spirits.

There is hope, spring will come, and life will be better after a good day in the sun!

Thank you sunshine...it was much needed.

{As a side note, that evening it started to snow...I won't complain, I had a whole day of sun, but Emma, seeing it out the window exclaimed..."What he heck! It's snowing!" My sentiments exactly!

What the Heck!

32 Weeks...and counting!

Green Girl!

Sporting her green! for St. Patrick's day!

And no, I didn't cut her hair, just put it up in really tiny curlers for the night!

getting bigger!!! and Bigger and BIGGER!

Baby Bump!

Iam feeling really good! Baby Ark is definately head down, and I in the full swing of my gusto of energy that always propells me through the last trimester. Kids are getting so excited, Emma kisses my belly and tells me everyday "mom, I love your baby!" as she pats my tummy.

Mara is still convinced that it is a girl, even though Ryan and I are leaning toward a boy. Caleb is convinced that I am going to scream when I have the baby and it tends to be his biggest concern right now. He is full of questions. Max is so excited and Sam is positve that he saw on the ultrasound that it was a boy! (even though Elaine said it would be really hard to tell gender, even if we wanted to know since the baby was sideways t the time.) Sam saw the baby move the other night and was totally impressed! It did an alien thing where one side of my belly poked really far out and then spasmed to the other side. That is the first time he remembers seeing anything like that. His comment "What does that feel like inside!" Pretty cool buddy, pretty cool. Noah thinks the baby is a girl and says he is excited to see it.

We are just in a holding patten fora little while longer.

I can't believe how fast it has gone!

{Happy St.Patty's Day}

We spotted the leprechaun this morning! How about you? Hope your St. Patty's day is filled with laughter!

{" I am still mad!"}

I was busy fixing dinner the other night and helping Max read, and had "many irons in the fire" so to speak. Ryan was talking with Emma and something she wanted he didn't want her to have or do, I am not exactly sure the conversation between them...like I said I was doing a bunch of other things. When all of a sudden, Emma stormed off crying (fake, of course) ran to her room and slammed the door. In the back of my mind I thought I would go talk to her after I was finished with a few pressing things. Well, I forgot about her. I know mother of the year, but she wasn't making noise and I had dinner to get on and many things on my mind. Things quieted in the kitchen, dinner was baking and I was just cleaning up when all of a sudden I hear Emma's door open up. "I am still maaad!" she says punctuating every word in a sing-song voice. I just busted up laughing! What a nut!

Then at lunch the next day we had soup and I had added some asparagus to it. She got a bite of the asparagus and chewed with a disgusted look on her face. When I asked her what the matter was she said "I don't love that!" pointing to the asparagus. I Love her though!

"Thinkin' and wishin', Hopin' and prayin'

So the temperature decided to send us a heat wave and it actually got above 32 degrees today. Plus, I have to give it that, it is considerably much better than the negative degrees it has been, still... I find myself longing for warmth....warmth from the sun!

I have been thinking about the ups and downs. I am not normally a negative person, in fact I ususally don't have time to dwell on things I can't change or that cause me grief, it's not my thing, but I just have to say that I have been analyzing the ups and downs of living in Montana lately. The weather is definately a downer at the moment. I miss the tulips,daffodiles and anenomes that should pop up right now. I miss that I can't plant my peas, carrots, beets and lettuce right now, in fact, I still have to wait two months before I do. At the present my garden is still frozen solid and under snow. I miss spring walks about this time of year, I am stir crazy to get out and breathe warm fresh air. Not that there aren't good things like.....well I can't think of any at the moment, but that doesn't mean I won't try really hard to find them. You know focus on the positive... but that will have to be a diffrent day right now I am longing for this....

{this is for you hun!} Why don't I live here, right on top of this bluff! Right in that patch of sun. I would never go inside! I would stay outside digging in the dirt all year long, can't you just see a herd of goats a few cows and chickens grazing there? I can!

And every night I would stroll along the beach with my family. In the warmth. With no shoes.
and eat the coconuts and mangos, pineapples and avocados, crab and fish that just wildly grow all around. I am pretty sure I could just live off the land and that would be totally cool! After all civilization is way overrated, don't you think?
So here's to memories, cause that's all I get at the moment, but I will take them!