The Great Pumpkin

When God blesses you with a great big pumpkin, you'd better have a party. The Saturday before Halloween, our friends, the McGrails had a party to carve jack-o-lanterns and THE pumpkin! The seeds were even enormous, so I saved some and thought I'd try grow them in Minnesota soil...maybe we'll have a party next year!

We're busy with details of selling our home and also trying to make the most of our friendship here in Montana.

Tears and joy

With excitement and sadness, we're announcing that we are moving to Minnesota! We have been praying for an opportunity to get closer to family (in Minnesota) for 2-3 years but the door has always been closed. Beginning November 9, Derrick is starting a new job and it's going to allow us to relocate to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. We were blessed in the option to have him work from home until our house sold (which honestly, we expected to be quite a while). About a week before we even had our home on the market, the five of us began praying, thanking God in advance for selling our house. After 6 days on the market, we were able to sell our Billings home! I guess God wanted us in Minnesota sooner than later. We close on our house here on December 5.

Of course, it's a busy time and stressful with so many details to handle. It's a daily battle for Derrick & I to remind ourselves to find joy and peace in God's presence.

We were able to go to Fargo to visit Bryce a couple weekends ago and the weekend prior to that, we were in Pipestone for my cousin Ashley's wedding. Being with family and sharing the news has made us so excited to be able to cultivate more family relationships!

However, it is saddening to consider leaving relationships we have built in Montana. It's been a blessing to be involved in our church and small group, in our neighborhood and in the girls' school. Our friends here have been our family! Thank you all!!!

Life is sweeter with friends!

Aliya painted pictures with her friends...something that's more for girls than boys.

Madison & Breanne made Aliya ice-cream cupcakes.

She got 'em all!

The tip of Gabe's nose...perfectly smeared with cake & icing. Gabe loves to give Aliya hugs and then immediately asks if he can play with the train set.

Aliya being her assertive self, concerned about how her friends are eating their ice-cream cupcakes.

Everyone be silly now!

I don't think her dad's a Huskers fan...

Aleena was excited to go to "Maason", "Aeea" and Breanne's house. Little girls are so sweet together.

Sweet little Carter!

My Aliya

Three years ago, pregnant with our little Aliya, Derrick stayed up all night waiting for her to arrive, trying to figure out what to name her. Breanne became the big sister and Derrick and I became out numbered. (Well, Derrick, he's TOTALLY outnumbered!)

It's been so rewarding to watch Aliya turn 3. In the past months, she's been really turning into a "big girl." She's constantly saying, "...because that's what big girls do," and "probably...." and "it wasn't me," or "that was me." She's just learned to pedal a big girl bike. And she's even making her own friends.

This is her friend Aleena. She made the list of friends to invite to her birthday party. I've never seen a 3-year old play Barbies or Little People quite intently as she does. She has begun dressing herself very cutely in the morning and can even get the tags in the back. She dresses up, wears clip-on earrings, thinks she can operate the ipod, dances like her sisters and still loves her song, "...I love the way you hold me..."

We are so blessed with such a smart, healthy, happy, content little girl. Happy Birthday my Aliya!

First Day of School maybe, but summer's NOT over!

Just because school started this past week doesn't mean by any stretch of the imagination that summer is over! We've had some of our greatest camping and boating yet this summer the past two weekends.

Breanne has started first grade with Ms. Barkac. She loves it! She asked Derrick if he liked going to work better than staying home. She said, "I like going to school better than staying home." She's making new friends and adjusting very well.

Madison started second grade with Ms. Rensvold. She too seems to be enjoying it. It's fun to having her reading more. She can just take over in the mornings with reading what's for lunch and such.

Last weekend, we took a long trip up to Canyon Ferry (over 200 miles away). (Above you can see Aliya's cherry goatee.) We had two family friends join us: the Eknesses and the Ottenbachers. The camping sites were terrific and we had our own little "private beach."

It was fun to watch all the kids play. Gracie and Breanne were inseparable! They had a fort and enjoyed lots of time swimming and tubing. And in addition, all the kids (except Aliya) tried water skiing. Madi was 100% successful! Go Madi. She went across the bay we were camped along and even crossed some pretty big waves Derrick said. When she let go and Derrick picked her up, she was grinning ear to ear and said, "My legs were tired." Breanne is her biggest cheerleader!

This past weekend, we packed up Saturday morning and spent one night at Tongue River Reservoir. It was a great get away after having begun school routines.

Madi got to have Alyssa and her mom, Ms. Laura, join us for the day on Saturday. It was a treat! Alyssa was a little go-getter and even got up on water skis for quite a ways.

Today we just enjoyed a day as a family. Aliya did a little tubing today, but I think we figured out that the highlight of tubing for her is when we stop and she gets to stand up and sing, "I'm surfing, I'm surfing!"

What a joy to see our children playing together, imagining and having fun!

A Special Birthday Wish

to a very special grandpa!

Honeymoonin'

While the kids are away, mom and dad will play! Our girls have been visiting their grandparents and cousins in Minnesota for the past two weeks, so Derrick & I have been enjoying time together-alone! It's wonderful to not have to fight for his attention..to not have to share him.

The last weekend in July, we were able to camp with our friends the McGrails in the BigHorn Mountains. (Yes, Mike, it only took 5 years, but we finally made it there!) It was the perfect weekend to be camping at 9000 feet above sea level as temps in Billings were in the 90s! Apparently, Becky needs to take note that you should always pack a sweatshirt when camping...just in case it's cold at night.

We saw more moose in two days than we've seen in our entire lives! We spied 5 moose throughout the weekend, most of them right at our campground.

We did a little hiking with Doug and Sarah to the revitalizing Medicine Wheel (yea, right) and the Porcupine Falls.

On Sunday, we headed down the mountain back down to 3000 feet above sea level and took a dip (as the girls like to say) in Yellowtail Lake. It was beautiful on the south end of the lake, which I've never seen before. Derrick got in some water skiing and the rest of us got to relax and soak up the sun (or shade!)

This past weekend, we headed out to the Crazy Mountains outside of Big Timber. We hiked in about four-miles and set up camp for two-nights near Granite Lake. We initially set up on a little island between Blue and Granite Lakes until other campers said they had spotted five wolverines near our campsite. I asked Derrick if we could find another site...yikes!

Crazy Peak

On our hike up we watched thousands of butterflies flutter around lots of wildflowers.

And as we climbed, amazed at how much snow is still up on the mountains and actually hiked on some sections of snow! Derrick was nice, he didn't throw any snowballs at me & he even let me use his sweatshirt..because again, I didn't pack one.

Big Timber Creek

The weather was excellent all weekend! We tried our hand at fishing a number of times without any luck but were both successful in finishing 400-page novels throughout the weekend.

On Saturday, we hiked around Blue and Thunder Lakes and went boulder climbing up along a waterfall, which afforded us some spectacular views! (Yes, that is one of many large snow banks still up on the lake!)

On our hike out Sunday, we both agreed that although we don't enjoy the girls complaining about hiking, we sure missed having them along with us to enjoy the sites, smells and sounds of camping! We are both ready for them to come home!

We'll wrap up with a shot of Aliya and Derrick tubing on Yellowtail Lake before she left for Minnesota...