New Year Excitement

So ask us how we rang in the new year. I know it won't take much to figure out considering we live in South Dakota and it is winter!


We are in the middle of our first blizzard for the year- it only took one day to accomplish this. We were brave and ran errands early in the day.

By the afternoon we found ourselves snug as a bug in our home with no intention of leaving. Poor puppies are crossing their legs DREADING the venture out to the restroom. I don't blame them. You couldn't pay me to leave this house. Please note that this picture is taken on our front porch. We could hardly open the door for them to step outside.

Happy 2011 everyone! 2010 will be a hard one to top. We have been truly blessed.

Mud On Your Face...

I seriously do not know how in the world I came up with this, but I know how to make Mae giggle and it is just about the cutest thing EVER! One day Mae was being crabby before bathtime and so I burst out in song "You've got mud on your face, you big disgrace. Kicking your can all over the place..." Sing with me people: "We will, we will ROCK YOU! ROCK YOU!". I was so shocked when all of the sudden a giggle came out. Since then it doesn't matter what mood the girl is in, we just sing this song and Mae just eats it up with excitment. I don't have the heart to tell her that I don't like the song.

Perfection???

Ok, I know this may sound strange but I made a goal for myself this Christmas season. My goal was to perfect baking sugar cookies with icing-- we are talking Savage's Bakery style. I know, HUGE goal to reach if comparing it to Savage's Bakery's "Smiley Face Cookies" (Birmingham folks know) but I was determined to do it.
Along the way there were some (several) bumps in the road- but I think I might be close. I know I would be closer but one single ingredient for the icing is very obscure and Jr. down at Husman's (local store)said he wasn't sure what I was talking about when I requested it. Anyone out there know what Meringue Powder is and where on Earth I can find some??? I had to go with an alternate icing which worked out pretty well.
Thank you Pioneer Woman for having a link on your blog to the winning sugar cookie recipe! (Dennis would say I couldn't live without the Pioneer Woman, her cookbook, or blog). bakeat350.blogspot.com

To judge my final product I had to consult Val-- hands down one of the best bakers I know. She swears she can't live without her Kitchen Aid Mixer or without sugar cookies with icing. Val wouldn't let me take a picture of her eating the cookie (although she allowed me to get one with her and Mae). If I did get that picture you would see a smile on her face. Perfection. Savage's Bakery has nothing on me (haha).
My next goal is pie crust. Talk about intimidation!

Supper Club

Being in a small town and not teaching anymore presents some obstacles on being social. I told myself when I quit my job that I must make a point to stay in touch with friends and get out of the house and be social. What better way to be social than to start a Supper Club-- a concept that is foreign here in Presho, I have learned. I initiated the club this past summer and have been very happy with how receptive my friends have been to it! I hosted the December meeting this past weekend and we had a great time. I thought I would post a picture on my blog to share who my friends are here.

Tiny Dancer

I think we have not only a Christmas music lover on our hands but also a tiny dancer. That Mae she is a cutie! She makes me smile every single hour of every single day.

Four Months

Mae is FOUR MONTHS OLD! Wow, it is happening too fast. The highlights of this month include: almost rolling completely over (we have an arm that gets in the way and are trying to figure out how to get past that), taking away the pacifier (tough one), and grabbing anything in sight. Big month, don't you think? We really enjoy the fact that Mae LOVES to be the charmer. She smiles a lot and enjoys talking even more.
We are getting really excited about our first Christmas with her.

p.s. Thank you for the prayers. We had such a wonderful time in Birmingham over Thanksgiving. We did end up having several delays with flights and weather (we arrived a day late). HOWEVER, Mae took it like a champ. Believe it or not, the girl didn't cry the entire way there and back. How lucky are we?

Baby on Board

We are all getting pretty excited about being in Birmingham for Thanksgiving and seeing our family and close friends. Mae has grown so much since our last visit- so I know my family is excited about see us (her) as well!
Prayer Request #1:
Mae is quite different since her last plane trip. Before, she slept the entire time and didn't even realize we left the house. Tomorrow will more than likely be different. Miss Priss loves to MOVE and be independent. Holding her and keeping her distracted might be a challenge. If so, we will then be THOSE people with a baby that others (meanies) groan about on the plane. Oh well, right?! We will get through it.

Prayer Request #2:
Tomorrow's Forecast in Sioux Falls (where we will be leaving)- Windchill 19 below. Wind gust high as 41 mph. 50% chance of snow, freezing drizzle and sleet. Blustery. Burning Question in our minds- will we make it to Birmingham??? Pray, pray pray!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We have so much to be thankful for this year.

New Friends

I would like to introduce you to
Pooh
and Tigger You know how I told you that Mae just loves her toes? Well we have made a very fun discovery (thank you, Heidi) this week. Pooh and Tigger socks that rattle. I don't know who came up with this idea- but it is brilliant. Mae, Mom and Dad have been entertained for hours by these. My only fear is that we have a major shoe lover in our future.

A Happy Husband (and Wife)

So the talk around our house for the past month has centered around "deer". Where the big deer are, how to go about getting the big deer, what to wear when pursuing the big deer, what to use (rifle, bow) in order to get the big deer, etc. Well Dennis not only got A big deer he got THREE big deer. Two with a rifle and one with a bow. One of his friends recently told him if he wasn't so good at farming he should be a professional hunter. I agree that Den is good at hunting... I just don't know if I would like the "professional" part. I like the short season and limited hunting tags. Congratulations to Dennis on another successful year of deer hunting!

Tough Love

Ok so Dennis and I have been completely SPOILED with Mae. That is until about 2 weeks ago when she decided after 6 weeks of sleeping through the night not to do that anymore. We have tried just about everything we can think of to get this girl to stay asleep. Everything except for the dreaded "tough love" approach. All parents know what this is, right? I am talking about ignoring and letting Mae cry it out. We began the process last night.
I don't know who this was tougher on?
Mae

Mom

or Dad.

Sidenote: HAHA! I am beside myself on laughter with these pictures of Den and me. We posed this morning for these. They are the worse pictures ever taken in the history of this world but don't you think it gets the message across on how we feel?!

So Mae starts out crying at 3:30. Mary tells Dennis not to get out of bed and to let the girl cry. This goes on for 30 minutes and then Mae is WIDE AWAKE. Crying starts over.

Finally at about 5:00 goal achieved.

Will the fun ever end?? Wish us lots of luck tonight. This "tough love" business is TOUGH.

Toes

Today marks Mae's 3 month birthday and I am left wondering where does the time go? People warned me that time will fly by. Now I know what they mean. I was at a dinner last night and I was talking with a friend of mine about Mae's "teething issues". Yes, you heard right- I am convinced my baby is already teething. I was telling her about how Mae has decided to not sleep through the night anymore. My friend told me, "you won't ever remember the little things like that. You will often wish you could have that time back." I was reminding myself of that while I was feeding Mae at 3:30 this morning...

This month Mae has made a huge discovery: HER TOES!

Did you notice something about her toes (Dennis thinks it is cruel to point this out-but I am so entertained by this and have to share)? Her middle toe is shorter than the two that surround it. Do you think the length of this toe will ever catch up? Don't you think that is strange? I know Mae thinks it is strange because she can't keep her eyes off of these. She is obsessed.

Happy 3 months to my sweet baby girl!

A Weekend of Firsts...

Mae had a very exciting weekend. We started it by loading up and heading to the cabin.

Can you see a mini van in our future?? I don't know how we did it. We were able to fit both dogs in the back with Mae AND they didn't even bother her the entire trip. Talk about impressive, don't you think?

We enjoyed our time at the cabin. Dennis has been so busy this fall with farming and hunting so sneaking away for several days was so nice. We had not been to the cabin since December... TOO LONG!
We got back to Presho just in time to welcome our one group of trick or treaters- doesn't get more exciting than that, does it? Mae was a pumpkin and looked so cute (for about 5 minutes before she spit up all over her costume).
Hope everyone had a great weekend as well!

Daddy's Little Girl

All fathers with daughters would have to agree that the relationship between the two is unlike any other thing. I am the luckiest girl in the world (besides sweet Mae) to have a dad that I always looked up to and is a true example of character and strength. My dad never fails to share how much he loves me and how pretty he thinks I am. I have the best dad! I love you Dad. I am a true Daddy's little girl.

Mae has the best dad as well. There is some incredible connection between these two and there is nothing in this world that will ever come in the way of this. Daddy's little girl. I saw it the moment she was born.

Wow! Can you believe how much Mae has grown if you compare these two pictures?

Here is another Daddy's little girl. I HAD to post this picture of Scout. She cracks me up.

Pheasant Hunting....

seems to always bring wonderful people our way. It amazes me how fortunate we are to get visitors from so far to our little town of Presho. Most of the credit goes to pheasant hunting... although I like to think they come to see me!

We started the season off with one of our favorite friends stopping by while her mom and dad took turns hunting.

On Sunday we welcomed another favorite who we have not seen in SO long. Mr. Hydinger we love you and are so glad you and your friend Jim took the time to stay with us and visit!


We even welcome family of friends. Katie's father-in-law stopped by to introduce himself and it was so much fun to make that connection. I wish I had taken a picture with my camera to capture the moment. Katie, if you receive the picture from Jimmy's camera forward it my way so I can post it.

We hope all that are reading this post will feel inspired to come our way. If not to just visit, you can also take up pheasant hunting. We would love to have you!

Life in the Country

Well, Dennis let me in on some news tonight: "You live in the country now, that is how it is out here. Get used to it". Uh oh... you can only imagine what led to this conversation. Let me set the stage...

These window wells are stationed all around our house. They are designed specifically for letting lots of light in our basement (or as Brenda Meadows would say "our lower level")and for this purpose they are very beneficial to the design of our house. So it seems.... What I didn't realize was, these window wells are also designed to serve as a shelter for poor lost or hurt animals. Skunks, cute baby rabbits, an occasional Milo the cat, salamanders, frogs.... and MUSKRATS. You heard me right. Last night before bed Mary discovered a strange animal in the window well which Dennis helped identify as a muskrat. Where on earth did this creature come from??? I would have taken a picture but I was scared to death to get near it. So this picture is from the internet.

The animals who grace our window wells are very good at getting down into these but can't climb out. So after many nights of getting emotional after discovering a little creature stuck in a window well Dennis finds himself outside trying to save the poor things (cussing under his breath). He is always the hero (I am sure to make a huge deal out of his act of kindness). I tell him that this is great practice for when Mae gets older and wakes us up in the middle of the night crying and begging Den to save the little animal outside her window. Can't you see it now?
The latest animal was pushing it though. Dennis propped up a board in the dark for it to climb up (he wasn't going to touch that scary thing) and as it was told to me, "You live in the country now, that is how it is out here. Get used to it." He also went on to warn me that this plan might not work and to prepare myself that the thing might die down there. Wouldn't you know it, we woke up this morning to find that the muskrat climbed the board and escaped. Den's the hero once again!
*Please say a prayer that a snake NEVER discovers the window wells.

Harvest Time

Mae and I went to deliver pizza to the harvest crew tonight. I couldn't resist taking pictures of Mae with Den at her first harvest. These are just a couple of ones I like best. Den was beaming-he just loved having her out there! This was the first of many harvests to come.

Smile: Part Two

I told you we were working on our smile! Doesn't it just melt your heart? :)

Two Months

Where does the time go? This week Mae turned two months old. She had her very first set of shots on Tuesday.... let's just say Mae took this much better than her mom did. The doctor said that she was a very healthy girl- now 9 pounds 7 ounces. Mom and Dad are so proud of her!

Smile

Is that a smile I see?? Ok, not the best picture of the cute smile that melts my heart every time I see it... I worked hard to get this picture to show off to all of you. Give us a couple more weeks and we will have that smile mastered for the camera.

The Twins

Our little Mae is growing and growing.... and filling out. I was amazed when I looked through her pictures from the past 8 weeks to see how much she has already changed. So we can now all agree who she is looking more like every day!

Mae's First Trip to Birmingham

Mae made her very first trip to Birmingham and survived her first time flying in a plane! Going into this adventure I was a complete wreck- worrying about Mae flying and what crazy things could go wrong. Turns out she is already a pro and did not even wake up on the plane going and coming home. So with this first out of the way we are a bit more confident about our next flight over Thanksgiving week. Thank you to those who said a prayer for us!

We had such a great time in Birmingham and were happy for Mae to meet the Meadows side of the family and all of our dear friends. Although Mae probably won't remember this trip, this will always be a memorable one for Dennis and me. We were proud to introduce her to everyone. We can't wait to get back down there during Thanksgiving.

Bath Time

Becoming a parent has been very rewarding and at times has been challenging! Dennis and I are fortunate that Mae is a very sweet and somewhat laid back baby (so far). However, we have definitely been through the many motions of trying to "figure out" what bothers her and how we can fix that. For example bath time. This initially was a dreaded thing in our household. After advice from friends and several directions on how to make this more enjoyable, we figured it out! I know how to put my baby in a trance by just using a warm towel. Just call me the baby whisperer. Now I need to come up with a solution to crankiness during the witching hour. Any advice?

First Month

So a very dear friend of mine forwarded a really cute idea on how to track the first year of Mae's life. Check out the calendar picture. More months to come! Thanks for the idea, Em!

Mae's first photoshoot with Buddy went well... for the first 20 minutes until interupted by "bathroom issues". We will save that story for another time! Here are a couple of pictures. Isn't she so cute? When I look at her I see Dennis. Of course Dennis looks at her and sees me. What do you think?