Merry Christmas from our little Elves.

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Our first Missoula Thanksgiving

We had a nice and relaxing Thanksgiving.  We were so excited to have James, Wynn and Acadia join us. 

 

 We bought our turkey a little late, so all they had left was a 23 pounder!  It was huge.

The aftermath

 On Saturday we drove up Lolo Creek about 20 min. away and went on a christmas tree hunt.  It was a beautiful canyon and the kids loved sizing up every tree we passed. 

Success!

More success!

We ended with a nice winter picnic

Our Big Buddy Turns 4!

 Wilson turned 4!  We had a nice low key birthday for him.  A couple of presents, we explored the Rocky Mountain Elk Preserve visitor center and had cupcakes self decorated with lots of blue sprinkles. 





 


 We were gearing up for the Jedi Training Party on Saturday.  Courtney was the master Jedi planner and played lots of games with the eight crazy little boys we had.  This was Wilson's first ever friend birthday and he was so excited for everyone to come over.
 

                                          Jedi training with pool noodles for light sabers.

  The Emperor came to test the Jedi's skills. (Some of the boys were a little nervous.  The camera flash came on, so you can't tell, but with the glow in the dark light saber in the dark basement, he did look a little scary.)

The Jedi cake

And a little bear too......

Wilson is such a sweet boy and we loved watching him get so excited about his birthday!

Halloween........

Here is my attempt at an update.  Instead of my usual million picture posts, I did some smaller ones that also have lots of pictures.  Not sure if that is an improvement. 

There is a great trail system about 3 min. from our house where we like to walk.  The colors have been so pretty.

 
 Macey loves to collect moss and we make her choose her treasures wisely or our house is overflowing.  Macey also lost her first tooth!  She accidentally pulled most of it out by trying to untie a knot with her teeth.  It left a pretty deep whole.

Courtney's artistic genius

Have you ever heard of Larch trees?  I can't believe it took me 33 years to find out about these pine trees that change color in the fall.  They are so amazing and beautiful!  I didn't get a very good picture of them, but you can see them starting to change behind the yellow cottonwood. 

 Every year I forget just how much candy we bring home.  I get so excited for the kids to get lots and then after it has been sorted and counted we have WAY too much.  The kids are good about not eating too much, me on the other hand.......

Avery the Viking Princess

Wilson....Luke Skywalker

Two cute cowgirls

One long haired baby.   Her hair is only growing behind her ears.

Pumpkin Carving time

So scary

Yeah for Visitors!!

We were so lucky to have the Peay family come up and visit us for MEA break.  It was pretty rainy and cold the whole time but nobody seemed to care.  The kids just loved playing together.  We were able to get out and do some fun stuff.  We went to the U of  M little (very little) children's science museum, Garnet ghost town, the Carousel and Dragon park, Big Dipper ice cream, the farmer's market and the play place at the mall. Bentley even made it on a couple of mountain bike rides.  I joined him for one and it was so pretty and he was nice to wait up for me on the uphill and the downhill.  We love having them here and hope they come back and hope they tell everyone else to come too!!

Garnet ghost town

sweet outhouse

little wet, little cold, little muddy

Eating lunch in an old barn

Fall Soccer!!!

Avery, Macey and Wilson all did soccer this fall.  It was fun, but kept us very, very busy.  Soccer practice three times a week with three games on Saturday was a little much.  The weather was good for most of  the games except the last one which was freezing!  The girls had fun (with a little bribery), but Wilson loved soccer.  He looked and sounded like a little dinosaur running around on the field every game.  It was so funny to watch all of his expressions.  He didn't care at all where the ball was but just ran around crazy.  Maybe next year he will learn to focus a little better.  The girls mostly did it for the treats.  I just want them to get really into it, but they don't care very much.  Is it time for me to actually listen to what they want to do, instead of tell them over and over that soccer is so fun.  I still have hope.

and dirty little Wren loved every game too!

 

Should we be nervous?

      This post is mostly for my mom and dad who came to visit us a couple of weeks ago.  It was so fun to have them here and show them around Missoula.  We explored the University campus, a couple of local parks and trails and ate lots of tasty food and ice cream.  We were sad to see them go, but know they will be back soon.  However, my dad was a little disappointed when he left because he really wanted to see a bear.  It seems like all anyone ever talks about is all of the bear sightings in our area, and my dad had his heart set on seeing a real life bear.  We looked and looked and almost left a pot roast outside tied to the fire hydrant, but no luck. 
      Well Dad, yesterday Wren and I got home from taking Wilson to preschool and we noticed something right next to our driveway.  Yep, a nice big bear poop.  It is really only about 15 feet from our back door.  It kind of scares me a little to think a bear was right outside our house when I was safely sleeping inside.  They are just nice black bears, but still a little creepy.  So sorry, no actual bear sightings, but one is marking his territory just outside my house and will be waiting to say hello when you come and see us again.

Wren liked it too

    

Travelers Rest State Park

The kids new favorite past time...riding bikes

The Baby turns one!!

        It is always a little surreal when the baby turns one. It has a been such a fast year and it is hard to even remember when Wren wasn't a part of our family. And then at the same time it is still a little strange we have another baby. Another person in our family. The other day at the dinner table I was excited looking toward the future, wondering what it will be like with Wren sitting and talking and eating with us, just like everyone else. I wonder what dynamic she will bring. She sure brings a pretty strong one now. We had a pretty low key birthday for her. We went to the library for story time and then Wren took a nap while we blew up a couple of balloons. She loves balloons.  Court came home and made a doggy cake. Wren loves all animals, especially dogs. She makes a little woofing, panting sound whenever she sees one. We then let Wren eat her cake and that was her birthday. I didn't really even buy her any presents. Pretty bad, but she doesn't need anything and doesn't really care, right? Hopefully she won't remember her boring 1st birthday. She is a sweet baby and we love her. She does scream a lot and it is really loud and ear piercing, but we love her in our family. She is so fun to be with and is always so expressive and full of life.

We also had a nice labor day weekend.  We explored Lolo Creek and had a nice picnic dinner surrounded by trees. 

 

On Monday, we went up to Seely Lake with some friends from the Ward.  Along the shore is a nice beach area and the kids loved the sand and cold water.  We also had fun exploring the lily pads.  We ate dinner at a dock side burger joint.  A nice Montana weekend.