December 31st, 2008 by Heidi

This is now becoming a common scene in the living room. It’s not enough to just play Tony Hawk skateboarding on the Wii, but the boys feel they need to also stand on their Tony Hawk skateboards while they play. I love it!

December 25th, 2008 by Heidi

From my family to yours!

December 23rd, 2008 by Heidi

Yesterday I spent some time in Connor’s classroom to help them with a gingerbread man project. I always love spending time with the kids. I love their stories and listening to and seeing their thought processes. Here are a few pictures from my time with them.

Mrs. Stewart explains the craft

The group at Connor’s table that I was helping

Toothless Connor sports a green string

Connor glues his man together

Almost complete!

December 22nd, 2008 by Heidi

This is the one day of winter that I actually look forward to seeing. Though today seems much to cold to care about – the significance of the solstice pushes that aside. As the shortest day of the year, it can only get better from here. Now, I’m not kidding myself, I know there are still MONTHS of winter to get through, but at least there will be just a little more light each day. Up here in the north, I really cherish that sunshine. Even when it’s -16* with a -29* windchill [yes, that's what it is right now], the sun shining has a small way of making it feel a little less cold.

And when the sun is shining, we get some beautiful scenery. While picking up the boys this afternoon, this is what we saw. I stopped the truck and got out to snap a few images.

The image doesn’t show how the wind was blowing and drifting or give you a feel for how bitter the windchill was. But the sun was shining, and tomorrow it will shine just a little bit longer. Even just a minute, it’s one minute more than today. And those minutes add up so fast. And before I know it, spring will arrive again and I can put another North Dakota winter behind me.

December 17th, 2008 by Heidi

Our first big snowfall came this weekend. A storm that was well anticipated, it come in quite fierce and lived up to the expectations. We even made national news. The Weather Channel was in downtown Fargo. Saturday evening, the wind started blowing, the temperatures dropped, and the snowflakes fell. It was quite fine and very blustery at times. We knew Sunday would be a doozy. And it was. All day and all night the snow came down – very heavy at times. the wind was gusting 45+mph. The dogs would go out to do their business and within a few minutes their tracks were filled in again. Sometime through the middle of the night the snow stopped and Monday morning the city was burried in snow. Here is what we saw…

Our patio door frosted over in the extreme below zero temps

The trampoline does not look happy

The garage and front door – quite drifted over

This is where the driveway is supposed to be

We couldn’t open the front door

Casey is curious – and yes, the snow blew IN the door

Thank goodness for Roy!

James tackles things from this side

Despite Ruby loving the snow, she is totally unthrilled with the frigid temperatures

This is Casey’s first big snow – he loves it! He goes in and out nonstop all day. He runs and jumps and plays in the snow!

Ok, I’ve had enough now. We can have summer back ASAP.

December 14th, 2008 by Heidi

Yesterday we celebrated Connor’s 7th birthday with his school friends at Skateland. Despite James and I feeling unsteand and uncool on skates, all the kiddos had a great time.  7 friends came and Hannah and Dillan too. We skated and played video games and had some really awesome cake thanks to my friend Marlene made.

Sadly, the lighting at Skateland is dark. I know it’s super cool to have spot lights and colored lights and glow sticks, but it really makes for cruddy images. I all of a sudden felt like an ameteur with a camera. I salvaged what I could to commemorate the day. At least we’ll know that the lighting was so cool that even the picutures didn’t turn out!

Connor was looking for his friends

Marlene and all of her awesome cake making skill made a totally awesome skateboarding cake for Connor.  Connor specificially requested it to say “Tony Hawk” on it. There were even some random Skateland strangers that commented on how cool it was!

Here is the table full of party guests!

Blowing out the candles, cha cha cha.

Doing the Limbo! Connor didn’t win but he got pretty far. He loves playing the skating games.

Happy Birthday Son!! We had a great time!

December 14th, 2008 by Heidi

Friday was ‘gingerbread house’ day in Dillan’s kindergarten class. They were actually 2 milk cartons, slathered with icing and graham crackers stuck to them – but that’s ok, it’s the concept. Parents showed up to help their child with the decorating and to have some fun. Dillan was so into the decorating of the house. Some of it he was very meticulous about and other parts he just willy nilly slapped things on. I really think he was more interested in eating the goodies than making the house. We had a really good time together – he loves when I’m able to come to his class with him. He’s so proud to show me all around and all the neat things they have in the classroom.

Dillan’s teacher, Mrs. Meline, caught us both at a weird face moment – but here we are – she took our picture.

December 7th, 2008 by Heidi

Business has been good to me this fall. Finally! Just a few short months ago I was feeling discouraged and frustrated and wanting to throw in the towel. I had some great words of advice shared from friends and some good kicks in the rear too. I stuck with it. And it paid off nicely. Enough that I was able to dive in and upgrade my camera – the source of some of my frustrations. It arrived yesterday and while I’m consumed with finishing the last of my session images, I haven’t had much time to fiddle around with it. There is a learning curve with this one – it’s a bit different than what I’m used to.

But so far, I’m so in love. The clarity and color is gorgeous. The low light issues I was having are disappearing. The sound of the shutter makes my heart flutter, seriously.

To add to the love, I photographed my gorgeous and stunning Hannah. How could my heart not do backflips with a natural beauty like her infront of the lens on my spiffy new gear? wowsers!

December 4th, 2008 by Heidi

Seven years really isn’t supposed to go by so fast. Today Connor turned 7. And he’s so excited! He’s such a great kid! He’s always full of hugs and “I love you’s”. He’s enthusiastic and compassionate and growing up a fine boy. He was so excited to get a ‘big’ skateboard. And this one is extra cool because it’s a “Tony Hawk” board. I’m not sure what he’ll do waiting for spring to get out and use it! Though trying to get a good picture was a bit hard, he just wanted to ham it up – that’s my boy! I love you, son!

November 27th, 2008 by Heidi

You won’t find an obligatory yummy turkey image here. In my family, we have this problem that prevents a nice picture every year. It’s called, turkey skin. We pull the bird out of the oven, set it on the counter, drain the juices for gravy, and gather around the counter like baby birds feasting for the first time in hours – anxiously awaiting the debagging of the turkey. We’ve learned not to all dive in at once and start to pull the golden skin from the bird for extra fine dining. We patiently await the dividing up and handing out of our portions. This year, Hannah graduated from little kid who’s not allowed to be near the skin to teenager who can have a small portion. Less for me. Phooey! She’s lucky I love her.

The turkey was awesome but the gravy was especially yummy. I’m not quite sure what my special touch is but we love my good gravy.  Other staples included mashed potatoes, cranberries, corn, beans, buns, and desserts! I’m so full. I definitely over ate. And I’m counting down until I can snack again before bed!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. There is nothing like a laid back and casual gathering of family for a big feast of all of our favorite foods. There is no conscious effort to be healthy eaters. We add a lot of butter and sour cream, gravy is made from all of the turkey juice, and we eat until our eyes are bulging – at least once. We get painfully full. We turn into tryptophan coma zombies. And we love it.

The kids went outside for trampoline jumping. I don’t know how they managed to keep their turkey in. I suppose they’ve not learned to be true gluttons yet.

So what are we thankful for?

Heidi: good health [scope came back perfect even though I haven't made it back to talk about it] – family – love – and a full tummy.

Hannah: everything

Connor: us – everybody in the whole entire world except the people who don’t clean up the earth.

Dillan: turkey!

I wish James could have been here – and my dad and my sister and family. It’s just not the same without them.

I’m looking forward to leftovers tomorrow and the next 3 days with the kids. We’ll avoid shopping at all costs. I think we’ll hit up the library and maybe play some board games. It’s going to be super chilled out for sure – just the way we like it!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!