Weekend Winter Weather

The snow started falling Friday and didn't quit until Sunday, but the temperature kept dropping so the flakes kept getting smaller and smaller. The kids were dying to try out their new sled from Grammie and Pa, so Jason lit a fire and they played for hour and a half!

Christmas Stroll, Downtown Great Falls
There was a light parade, tree lighting, and polar bear plunge. The downtown stores stayed open late and there were food vendors. It was a chilly evening, so we kept walking (except for a stop in the toy store ;-) and didn't stay out too long!

Booty Shake

Move over Tom Cruise!
Yes, Gracie is watching her reflection in the TV screen.

Great Deal!

I was so excited about this purchase - I had to share (I know it's geeky, but I try to focus on my small accomplishments!).
Yesterday I went to Albertson's and got all of this for $4.18! Yes, I used coupons, but I thought this was still pretty impressive for less than $5!

Emmett: Future Forester!

When Emmett was born, the couple who gave me my first job as a forestry intern, sent this to him. It finally fits! He loved the whole getup - especially the red suspenders! :-)

Trick-or-Treat!

Ready for candy: Cinderella, a baseball player, and "Chuck" (it's a duck costume, but Jason thought she looked more like a chicken, so we called her Chuck!)

Lets go!

Gracie had a BIG Halloween party at school on Friday, so I came to help. It was combined with the Kindergarten class and completely planned, organized, and run by the kindergarten parents. They made several crafts, decorated cupcakes, & played games - and of course had tons of sweets! I think they all had a great time!

Before coming to the school gym for their party, they paraded through all the classrooms to show the school their costumes. (There were A LOT of princesses!)

Playing pin-the-nose on the pumpkin and spider ring-toss.

Making spider cupcakes.

At the party...Cinderella and her cat! :-)

Checking out their loot at the end of the party.

Brotherly Love (not on Halloween, but it was so cute I had to post it!)

Freezer Filler

On October 30th I took Gracie deer hunting with me for the first time. She was really excited and couldn't wait to try out her special deer hunting pants. We drove south of town and parked the truck near some fields frequented by whitetails. Gracie and I talked about our 'quiet voice', staying behind daddy, kneeling down, holding our ears, and other fun stuff and began to sneak to the edge of the field when the first doe came out of the trees. Gracie was a bit hesitant and I'm glad she's short, but I was able to coax her to crawl on her knees through the tall grass.

Gracie even wanted to stay with the deer while I walked back to the truck... She also helped dress the deer out.
In WA, John and I went out for a day looking for big bucks but all we found were big tracks and lots of scenery. We probably did about 10 miles that day.
Here's a photo of one of the guys I've gotten to know from WA, enjoyed hunting with over the last 5 years, and hope to have as a hunting buddy here in MT down the road.

Jessie Clapping

Pumpkin Time!

Making Mrs. Potato Head pumpkins (using fake pumpkins).

At the "real" pumpkin patch. We had a hayride, straw-bale maze and a lot of fun!
Jessie wore her duck costume, but Jason said he thought she looked more like a chicken, so we just called her a "chuck". She didn't seem to mind - she slept through most of the activities. :)

Amy: The Early Years

Last Christmas I scanned all my parents slides onto the computer. I have finally started looking at them and putting together photo books, so I thought I would post a few that are "fallish" - basically my birthday and some of my other favorites.

1980, 2nd Birthday

1981, 3rd Birthday with Grandma Esther

3rd Birthday in Uniontown

Fall 1983 with Ian

Ian and Gabby (?)

Christmas Eve 1987 with the Hunter's

Summer 1981

1983 with Gram

Aunt Margie's Wedding - with cousins Kate and Tom & Great Uncle Father Dan

With cousin Joshua

1984 in Uniontown with Grandpa Jack, Ian, and cousins
Christmas 1987 with Grandpa Jack & Grandma Nette

Antelope

This August marked a very important event: I was now officially a Montana resident and could buy hunting tags at the cheaper rate... Amy told me to start off slow with the hunting thing, so I did, and went out and bought 3 deer tags, 2 antelope tags, waterfowl license, upland game bird tag, and wolf tag. Somehow I lived to tell about it.

Antelope season started on October 11th - both tags were filled by 3pm.
Antelope summer sausage, jerky, and pepperoni sticks this Thanksgiving!

Jessie's Video

Ducky

Finally, after 5 years of heat and birdless borderlands I'm in a region where every creature worth chasing is within a 1 hour drive. Today I dusted off the duck call and brown camo coat to see if I could remember just how far to lead a green-head flying 20 yards out, left to right at 15mph...

With my trusty companion

I took a co-worker out with me too, and as he didn't have any decoys to contribute, I set him up with 1 bag of decoys on his back and another bag turned backwards carried on his front. When he turned sideways it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen, but no photo at 4 a.m. About a 20min walk through 6in of water.

Like riding a bike...

Open prairie with little elevation - haven't hunted ducks in something that looked like an open grassland but there was water, and ducks, everywhere.
Happy hunting