Stove Huggers - Keeping warm in North Dakota

This is where you will find us many an evening...  By day we shovel snow and make soup!  As my dear friend and cousin Elaine says, "notexplainingjustcomplaining... oops!  I mean, notcomplainingjustexplaining."  Happy Winter everyone!  ;)

Bygones... but still worth posting!

 Birthday Girl, Watching the wood stove with Grandpa, Kids and G'pa, Birthday project: headbands

 Picking up a project for Evan.  Bottom right:  Hmmm... what are we going to make this into?

Special girls, missed.  One of Lana's creations, a delightful spring visit from an indigo bunting - !

Still kids

I love these pictures of our kids being kids!  This was early on in the summer when the days were lazy and they were just out of school. 

I think they were remembering Calvin and Hobbes.   Our lack of hills made the whole thing rather benign, but still pretty fun!  :)

Mother's Day

 A little reminiscing...  This was my first Mother's Day! 

 

 And the cute little fella with his Daddy! 

 Another Mother's Day - with a sweet little girl addition!

 

 The kids are growing - another Mother's Day picture.  I'm so glad we had this tradition.  Somewhere along the line I guess we must have given it up.  This year though, I felt like it was time to take another Mother's Day picture.

 It is true - like Jeannie said...  when you're a young parent you hear things like "They grow up so fast," and all that good stuff.  It goes in one ear and out the other as you struggle just to hold the household together at that point.  Then, there you are, "Poof!" that parent of older children - teenagers even!  And you understand what it means, and you bite your tongue to keep from saying it to every young parent...  or maybe you just say it out loud, because it's so much how you feel.

A few weeks ago, I was doing some things at work with the Real-Care computerized dolls for my Child Development class.  We had need of some baby clothes, so I dug through my "keepsakes" box and found a little newborn outfit of Evan's to use. When finished, I brought it back home to wash.  Somehow, nostalgia hit me like a ton of bricks when I held that little thing up and looked from it to the just-washed men's coveralls on the dryer.   Same child - extremely different clothing, just an obvious manifestation of all the changes.

 One of our friends told me on Sunday that "Every day is Mother's Day."  I think she's right.  I'm so thankful for my precious children!

March - When Winter Was Still Beautiful

 A quick March getaway to a very cool place nearby.

 We did some relaxing, some sledding, some skiing, and snowmobiling.  It was a real WINTER vacation!

 Ready to go!  This place was located right on a snowmobile trail. 

Mattie- intently listening to big brothers Rip and Snort yipping in the woods (coyotes!) 

We girls did a little sledding before we went skiing.  I honestly think I preferred the sledding.  I guess it's just more my style.

Back home again.  Plenty of snow for fun in the yard.

Like I said, plenty of snow in the yard.  This picture was taken out the west living room window.  It was a beautiful sunset.  It's too bad I'm so tardy with this post, because in March when I took this picture, I would have felt more of the beauty.  Now I feel more of a bitterness, because this very same snow is still here!  A bit less, but still here.  And more is being added to it every few days.  Hmmm....  Well, at least we won't have a drought!!!

It got us!

Last year was a "Non-winter."  We wondered if we'd be so lucky again.  For awhile there, it was mild, but that didn't last.  We've had frigid temperatures, ice,  plenty of snow (although not stellar amounts) and LOTS OF WIND!!!!!  The following pictures were taken 1 1/2 weeks ago when the wind blew hard for 36 hours straight - after a measly 3-5 inches of snow.   We had a "snow day" off from school as well as a 2 hours late...


The initial beauty of the snowfall~

 Lana was checking out the new terrain on the morning of the late school start.  Mattie was tearing around the yard as well, getting her exercise on the new hills.

 There's only so much a snowblower and pickup plow can do with a snowfall that comes with so much wind.  It packed into our yard like concrete.  The chipping began.

 

That's Evan.  I love how he looks in his Grandpa Larry coveralls!  Seriously!  It's like having my Dad around (just a little bit)!

 That's Rob chipping away at the drift - on the other side.  Yes!  He is standing up!  Ugh!  We all got our exercise getting this drift out of here.  Evan was sick, so we missed his help in the beginning, but by Saturday we were all out there working together to get it so we can back out of the garage without running into the "wall."

The little snowblower - doing its noble part.

Come on Spring - We need you!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (Or like Rob says - maybe we need a tractor!?)

Catching up again

 We enjoyed hosting Christmas dinner for Rob's folks and his brother Jeff and family.

Skating indoors over Christmas break. 

Evan and his buddy Connor, making use of the little snow we had in early January

 A beautiful moment in my living room mid-morning in January

 Rob's latest project: framing the coffee shop ceiling

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And sheeting it...  This will make it much warmer in the winter.

 Lana "upcycled" this old cast-off shirt of mine into this SWEET dress today.

And Evan created this beauty today (well, it took some prior time to cut the tree and dry out the wood, etc.  He did the woodburning today.

I've been working on getting older lately!  Life is good.