Fear?

She has none...

Ski-Don't??....

Ryan and I are both avid snowmobilers.  Well we were anyway but then we had kids which puts a wrench in taking off for a weekend or a day on the trails.  Now that we're all done having babies and Danica is easy enough to leave for more than a few hours we're getting the sleds going again.  The snow season has started off well and Price county trails are open.  We haven't started our sleds in two years.  The last time we rode Ryan hit a deer and a mile down the trail some corn that the mice in our garage decided to store in my muffler started on fire.  It was an interesting trip.  My mom has offered to take the kids overnight Tuesday night this week and Ryan and I are hoping to head up to Prentice on the sleds for supper and a few cocktails.  Two year old gas and a snowmobile that needed a tune up two years ago (let alone after sitting for 2 years in a dusty, dirt floor garage) makes for a lot of work to start.  Ryan's Yamaha V-Max started right up.  My Ski-Doo Formula 500?....well, not so much.

I really do love the smell of snowmobile exhaust...but not this much.





It did finally start and I got to take it around the field a few times but priming it constantly to keep it running was not my idea of a good time. She's headed to the shop for a tune-up before she sees any trails.





Ryan took Sawyer for his first snowmobile ride ever. He's hooked and its all he's talking about.

Christmas Number One

We had Christmas at Ryan's mom's house.  She made a turkey with all the trimmings.  It was very good even though there was a bit of a time miscommunication and we were a little late.  After lunch we opened presents.  Of course every ones favorite part.  Honestly, I like watching everyone open their presents more than opening my own. 

Great Uncle Gene playing with Danica



Sawyer helped Grandma and Danica open presents. A job he enjoyed very much.







Victor (Ryan's "adopted" dad and the kids "adopted" grandpa)



Danica loves stuffed animals and babies. I think its the faces. She loves to talk to them.





One Christmas down...three to go.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Landon was in a play at the Ogema Town Hall.  The kids from the elementary school do it and its separate from the school's Christmas program.  Landon played the part of Max, Grinch's dog.  He had two lines that we practiced all week.  He needed to wear all brown for the his part.  Do you know how difficult it is to find a completely brown boy's shirt?  In our area...very difficult.  I ended up buying him a white shirt and some brown Rit dye and dying it in the kitchen sink.  It turned out very well considering I'd never done it before.

Landon did an excellent job playing his part!  I was so very proud of him!

The Creek

I pronounce it crick.  Apparently its an up-north Wisconsin thing. This winter we're trying to keep it open for as long as possible to help with the electric bill.  The last 2 years its been almost $300 a month for December, January, February, and March between the house, the fencer, the lights and water heater in the chicken coop, and the stock tank heater.  During the summer months its less than $200 a month and the only difference is the heaters and the coop lights.

So every day I walk the quarter mile through the pasture down to our creek and break open the ice with a splitting maul. Sawyer went with me today while Danica was napping.







I am not a strong girl...my arms get tired fast swinging that thing.  Ryan makes fun of me because its a pretty light splitting maul...I think he said 15lbs when he was picking on me today. Usually the ice is pretty thin and it breaks through easily with one swing.  Last night it got down to 22 degrees below zero.  The ice was probably 3 inches thick on the upper side of the culvert today and it took more swings than I really cared for.  My arms are going to be sore tomorrow.

Top side of the culvert.




Bottom side of the culvert.




I could barely carry that splitting maul and hold Sawyer up through the deep snow on the walk back to the house because my arms were so tired. 

And of course, because I am not one of those people that was blessed with coordination or grace, I managed to slam my hand between the handle of the splitting maul and the ice during one of my last swings.  It feels amazing...really.

And We're Up!

She was pretty excited with this new "position".  She stood there a good 10 minutes and is now constantly trying to figure out what else she can grab on to-to get up.









She even showed off her one-handed skills.

Anabel's First Birthday!

Anabel's birthday was actually December 7th but since that was a weekday we celebrated on the following Saturday during the worst snow storm in my memory.  We got close to 20 inches.  Ryan was home so we braved the roads in our pick-up.  The roads were actually better on the way home than on the way there.

Amber and Jake played the Xbox Kinect.  It was very entertaining.  They did some track and field games.  Hurdles, discus, javelin, long jump, and some sprinting. 





Anabel was trying to get in on the fun...



We sang Happy Birthday. Anabel was perfectly polite eating her cake. She picked off little puffs of frosting and ate them one by one.  Even after Amber stuck Anabel's hand in the cake she still ate very neatly.









And then the best part! Presents!



A little backstory...For the last 4 years I've been the only "child" in my family with kids. So every year my siblings find it amusing to buy my kids the noisiest most obnoxious toy they can find. Unfortunately they forgot that one day they would have their own children and I would return the favor. On Friday, Ryan and I went up and down every toy aisle at Walmart and played every single toy and then picked the two loudest for Anabel..one for her birthday and one for Christmas. Anabel LOVED her rock-n-roll guitar! It plays lots of loud obnoxious rock tunes...they sound like sweet, sweet revenge to me.