Valentine's Day Weekend

Mike got home a couple Fridays ago after being in Denver for a week. He asked the girls what they wanted to do for the weekend and after some debating, we decided to drive up to Rapid City. We took the longerish way and drove through Wind Cave, Custer State Park and Hill City. It was a really nice day so we got to enjoy the scenery and Kylie developed a new love for prairie dogs. :)

We stopped at the mall for a little bit then went to the hotel.

We had thought we would do dinner and a movie, but dinner took just a smidge too long, so we ended up going to Chuck E Cheese after dinner so the girls could play some games. Kylie has been asking to go there for almost 2 years...... Chuck E Cheese and Disneyworld. Hopefully eventually she can get to that second place too. :)

We all got dressed up fancy and were headed out to the steakhouse when a sudden rain storm came through and it POURED! And don't forget the insane wind creating some horizontal rain. :)

Supper was absolutely delicious and was a wonderful time.
Sidney didn't really get to eat much supper.....she fell asleep in my lap. It was fabulous. :)

After we left supper and had some fun at Chuck E Cheese, the girls got to play in the pool for a little bit.

We went to bed late and slept in. Had breakfast and then spent 2 hours wandering around Menards looking at all the fabulous things we would love to get during the process of fixing up our house....
Next couple big projects: finishing garage (inside walls) and then re-wiring the house.
We'd also love to put in a real sidewalk from the garage to the house this summer too. And not to mention the dozen other little things we'd love to update in the house. :)

Here are some pictures to make reading this worth while. :)

Prairie dogs.....just cause they are cute.

fell fast asleep in my lap. my sweet little baby.

working on the city word scramble in the kids menu

family pic back at the hotel

a couple of cuties warming up in the hot tub

Mike got back home today after being back down in Denver for another week and a half. Hoping he gets to stay around home for a few days before they start doing prescribed burning down south.

I'm glad he came home today though because I needed help fixing things! The garage door went crazy on me and wouldn't open this morning. Had to climb a ladder so I was tall enough to open it manually far enough to get the car out of the garage.

And a lightbulb exploded in the bathroom this morning too. I've never had one explode before. It scared the heck out of me. It sounded like someone shot out the window! Thankfully it was all contained behind the light fixture, but I can't reach them without bringing in the big ladder from outside, but thankfully Mike is taller than me and fixed it. :)

I'm really hoping nothing else breaks when he is gone next!

Sidney Dance Update

Back in December Sidney was sort of decided to go on a dancing hiatus....and didn't participate in, or even go to her December classes. Well, after the Christmas break and her getting both her costumes in January, she is back at it full force....let's just hope she doesn't want to take another break in April or May!!

The girls are moving along in dance class. Sidney's class is almost done learning each of their songs. They are a long way from doing it by themselves yet though. :) But they are getting there!

Here is Sidney's ballet and tap dances as of now. I am only allowed to watch the first class of the month, so I won't really know how the rest of the month goes! But Sidney didn't do too bad last week for a 3 year old with a short attention span. :)
Even Ms. Shauna said she is glad to see how much better Sidney is doing.


I'm not going to share Kylie's right now since the tap dance I got wasn't in focus and the ballet video I got all the kids were so far off...including Kylie....maybe this month they will clean things up a little and next month I can share it! :)


Here are a couple pics from warm up time.

I don't remember what they were doing....but I'm pretty sure

Sidney will be amazing at planking.... :)

Ballet Dance

Tap Dance

I turned 30!

I turned 30 last week and I'm cool with it. I wasn't too worried about it, and it's been good so far....mostly. We have all been pretty sick for the last week, so that has been miserable. Very miserable.
Mike was able to get some antibiotics Thursday, but they haven't seemed to have kicked in yet. Hopefully soon though!  He left yesterday for a class in Denver. - So Mike's 31st birthday wasn't very much fun, since he was sick and had to drive to Denver....but we made the most of the morning with cards and gifts and lots of hugs.  We are saving yummy cake and goodies for next weekend in hopes that we all feel better then! And cake works on Valentine's day too!

On my birthday, Mike got me a certificate to get my toes all purdy. It was nice to get an hour to relax and do nothing. :)

And I made a delicious from scratch chocolate cake with from scratch chocolate frosting....it was amazing!

Last weekend we took a road trip to Sioux Falls to hang out with my parents, Mike's parents and his brother and nephew. It was nice to get away from Chadron for a couple days and see family! We just hung out and ate massive amounts of food all weekend. :)

There was a big water slide there that was perfect for Kylie and she loved being able to go down it all by herself.

I have very few pictures....but here is what I have. :)

Good Morning Nebraska

Sidney "reading"

Kylie discovered the BabySitters Club books

She read almost the whole thing in one day!

Grandpa trying to figure out how to do one

of Kylie's craft thingys that none of the rest of us

could figure out. :/

Grandpa Rick coming down the slide

Grandma Brenda

Grandpa Mark

Sidney napping away. :)

Kylie's first attempt at signing her name in cursive on our drive home.....not bad.

nothing a little practice can't fix.

January Recap

We haven't been up to much this past month.
Kylie had another cold, but at least it was a quick one this time. Then she gave it to me, and Sidney and now Mike is just starting to get over it.

Back in December, Sidney was pretty adamant that she didn't really care for dance class anymore. (This starting right after we ordered her costume for the ballet part of the recital.) But thankfully, after having a couple weeks off for Christmas break, and her helping me make her tap dance costume, she is back in love with it and it once again asking a couple times a week when the next dance class is.
Both of Kylie's costumes have come in, but Sidney is still waiting for her ballet costume. She is at least excited about her tap costume though. The girls had to pick out animal costumes, but Sidney didn't want any of the ones in the catalog. She was insisting on being a flamingo. :/ Sigh.
But I got it figured out and I got her costume made during break. It is super cute.

It looks a lot better when she is in her dance shoes instead of cowboy boots and her

hair is up in a bun with her pink feather hair tie, but you get the idea. :)

Otherwise this month, we have just been busy with school and dealing with Kylie's pets. :)

Sadly, her guppy passed away last week, but at least Kylie has 8 more baby guppies to keep her occupied. We buried Belle in the flower garden this past weekend in a little paper box Kylie made and I think that made Kylie feel a lot better. :)

We also got to go sledding a couple days ago. And the girls got to go the first weekend too. That was fun.

Here are a bunch of random pictures.

Sidney, still in her pajamas, but ready to go sledding.

Sledding out at a family friends house.

Kylie's mealworm turned into a beetle over Christmas

break, so she got to bring it home. - - It is still living in the bug barn, in her room.....

Everything was really frosty one morning!

Sidney and I got to the library too early one day, so we had to

wait in the car.....so Sidney practiced her driving skills.

Terra figured out how to get in the furnace room ceiling...... I couldn't

find her ANYwhere one day, and the furnace room was the last place

for me to look. Still couldn't find her, until she meowed and I looked up. Sigh.

Ember wanted to play Sneak Snacky Squirrel with Sidney and me one day.

Some of the treats Kylie has made with her Chocolate Pen

she got for Christmas.

On MLK day, the grade school kids joined the college and job corps kids

doing a march through part of town to the college, where they then listened to

a speaker and sang some Martin Luther King JR songs. Kylie is in the pink coat in the middle.

Mike joined her for the last little bit of the march, while I ran Sidney to dance class.

Then I went back and joined them for the speaker and songs before going to pick up Sidney.

Sidney during one of our weekly bounce house sessions.

A beautiful sunrise one morning that I actually woke up early enough for.

You can kind of see 5 of the 8 babies in there.

Out at a friends house on an early release from school day.

Got to play outside, have cocoa, help feed their goats and then we came back to town

to do some sledding. :)

The girls barely had to walk up the long hill. We took turns giving them piggy

back rides, back up.

Kylie letting her bug crawl around the bowl of food we mixed up for it.

(I think it enjoyed being out of the bug barn for a bit.) :)

And, Kylie learned to whistle yesterday! She is so excited and proud of herself! It is so cute!

We have a fun week coming up here. It's my birthday!! Then we are spending the weekend in Sioux Falls with both our sets of parents and a sibling or two. :) It'll be nice to see you guys!!

Hope your January is going well and you are surviving the winter!!!