Saturday, December 11, 2010

Getting Ready for Christmas

Winter has definitely come to stay here in Hot Springs. I calculated that we are getting almost 15 hours of darkness everyday! It's pitch black at 4:30pm and doesn't get light until 7am. It actually hasn't been that cold, although I do have to scrape ice off the windshield almost every morning as we are dashing to day care. Oh yeah, about day care...

...most of you already know this, but for those who don't: I have decided to go back to school to pursue a degree in Elementary Education. I have been going back and forth on this matter since I first graduated from UF. I finally decided that it's now or never, and we are in a good place to allow me to do this. My last day at the bank will be December 17, after which I will get to spend the holidays with the girls and Kevin and then give the house a good winter cleaning before classes start January 12. I'll be taking 3 classes to start, which I hope will be a good balance with watching the girls full time again. So wish me luck!

So this year we decided to go chop down our own Christmas tree, and we went and got a permit from the Forest Service and took a ride over to the Black Hills National Forest north of Custer. Despite the 19 degree temperatures, Kevin picked out the beauty of a tree below. My feet were freezing, but the girls didn't complain one bit. But I think the most fun they had was playing with a bit of rope that we were going to tie the tree to the roof with.





Here is our tree!





Linnaea puts the tree topper on.





Elise puts an ornament on.





Getting the tree chopped down and home was the easy part. A photo with the two of them smiling and looking the same direction was a challenge.





Our local Santa at the phone company. Again the challenge of getting them to look the same direction...





...maybe if we cut and splice the two photos we'll get a perfect one.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Halloween! Halloween! Trick or Treat! Our costumes can't be beat!

It's taken me a while to post Halloween pics because we forgot to get pictures of the girls in costume! I staged Halloween this afternoon and finally got some. But first...




We set up our bunk beds! We are only allowed to sleep on the top for nap. For night time we sleep on the trundle, until we turn 4.





Decorating for Halloween--Linnaea puts up bat and jack-o-lantern window stickers.





Elise decorates with ghosts and stars.





Making pumpkin pancakes Halloween morning. Elise claimed dibs on the "one with the boot" (the one I messed up in the top right).





Elise as a dragon and Linnaea as a giraffe.

















Elise has dragon wings.





The side view.











Hiking Rankin Ridge.





Linnaea took this picture of Elise. Isn't it great?

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Hiking, Bubbles, and Other Fall Fun

Top Ten October Things:

10. Getting robes, slippers, and warm PJs to get ready for the winter.

9. Having weather warm enough to still play outside, and we haven't even turned our heater on yet!

8. Wearing tights and dresses. Elise refuses to wear jeans (Christmas shoppers, take note!).

7. We have gotten really good at riding our tricycles! We can't go uphill yet, but our driveway has a nice, long downslope that we can race down (and crash into the back of the Subaru).

6. Trying out new hairdos. If I can talk Linnaea into a pony tail, she usually insists on 3 or 5.

5. Getting ready for Halloween. Stay tuned for those photos.

4. Hiking with friends.

3. Going to the fire department (aka "fire apartment") for their open house and getting a ride around town on the fire truck, including lights and siren!

2. Getting big girl beds! Grandma and Grandpa got the girls a beautiful set of bunk beds with trundle. We haven't set the top bunk up yet (due to us getting shorted on a set of bolts for it) but will get it up very soon. However, the girls will have to wait until their 4th birthday to sleep on the top. We've tried explaining it to them but are not sure they'll be happy about it when they see the top bunk up there.

And the best thing about October:

1. Going to the Dairy Queen for chocolate ice cream. The conversation went like this:
Mom: "Let's go to Dairy Queen for a special treat!"
Elise: "Dairy Queen is in the movie Cars!"
Mom: "No, that's Lightning McQueen."
Linnaea: "I'm not scared of lightning."

Reminds me of one of those commercials for Bing, about search overload. Anyone know what I'm talking about?


They're really into headbands this month.





Linnaea's new robe and slippers. Unfortunately, the slippers have disappeared already.





I think this was a 3 pony tail day.





Wearing tights and dresses, Elise's favorite outfit.





Cooking oatmeal in our flannel nightgowns.





Hiking around Sylvan lake. It was pretty chilly but nice outside. And there were no other people there.





A rare family photo.





Elise explores a crevasse.





And Linnaea explores it, too.





Linnaea herself up for this photo, then said "Mom, take a picture!"





Bubbles!





She's gonna getcha!





Both girls making bubbles.





Linnaea on the downslope.





Elise races to catch up.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

A Novel

Firstly, we are finally settled in Hot Springs! Kevin loves working for the Park Service. He likes this area way more than I do. I still have not fallen in love with South Dakota. I miss Colorado very much. The Black Hills area where we are isn't that bad, except that our new town of Hot Springs is sort of a depressed town. Speaking of our new town, in August we moved from Custer to Hot Springs. Hot Springs is larger and slightly less touristy, and a large part of the population of the town is disabled and retired veterans, as there is a State Vets home and a V.A. Hospital (the biggest employer in the area). Our new house is super tiny but has a rent to match, so that is the reason we moved here. We've just had to get really creative with our space. For instance, our bedroom is in the basement, which was quite nice when we were hitting 100+ degrees at the end of August. However, the place is still a disorganized mess since we have not had time to keep up with the mess the girls leave behind. Which brings me to my next point...

I have gone back to work full time as a teller for Wells Fargo. I won't spend a lot of time telling you about my feelings for the job since this is a public blog. The biggest complaint I have is that I am out of the house for over 45 hours a week. My days are long and exhausting, and I really miss being a stay at home mom. We're usually up by 6:15am and home by 5:30pm. After dinner, cleanup, and bedtime, I finally get a chance to sit down at 8pm. Kevin works 10 hour days so gets Fridays off with the girls, which means they are in day care only 4 days a week. They really love it but the day care situation here is pretty horrible. It's cheap, and I truly believe you pay for what you get, meaning little outside time, lots of crummy food and more TV time than I like. But they love going and love their friends there.

Finally some photos:



Wearing Mommy's shoes.





This photo is so typical: Elise trying to steal Linnaea's treats.





On a hike at Wind Cave National Park.





At our very first theatre movie, Toy Story 3. We loved it! The popcorn and fruit punch was the best. Getting there in time to sit in the second row was a pain in the neck, literally.





Sitting at the parade in Custer.





Daddy and the girls waiting for some candy. The competition was fierce as kids tried to scramble for the the candy thrown from the floats. Daddy had to help fend off the other kids so we could get some.





Making silly faces.





Chilling at our new home. We finally got to set up our hammock again after almost 2 years.





The waterfall in downtown Hot Springs.





At Fall River. It's fed by a hot spring (hence the town name Hot Springs) and the water was really warm even though it was cold that day (Labor Day).





Some more naturally hot water. Apparently this is one of 180 hot springs in the area.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Recent Funny Sayings

Both girls have a terrible habit of reaching onto the cutting board to sample whatever I am slicing, especially cheese. Today Linnaea reached up and I said,"Linnaea, please don't reach on the cutting board or I will slice your finger!" And she said,"Then I'll have to get a new finger?"

Yesterday I was holding Elise and told her I loved her so much. She said,"No, you can only love one kid." I asked her,"Which kid is that?" And she said,"Linnaea."

Yesterday I was washing dishes and I heard Linnaea say,"How 'bout I stand on it and you push it?" I could only imagine what they were attempting to do, but I didn't hear any crashes or screams so disaster was narrowly avoided.

Yesterday we were reading an Olivia book where Olivia pretends she is the tattooed lady at the circus freak show. So after I explained what the writing all over her body was, we flipped the page and Olivia was tiptoeing somewhere and leaving footprints. Elise said,"Look, Linnaea! Olivia's leaving tattoos on the floor!"

Today Elise was counting the dalmations in her 101 Dalmations book. After she passed 10 it was,"Eleven, twelve, firteen, firteen, firteen, and eleventeen."

Today we were driving through Wind Cave National Park and looking at all the prairie dogs. Linnaea said,"I want so many prairie dogs to fill up my present for my birthday. Then I can say 'Look how many prairie dogs I have!'"

Also driving through Wind Cave, we were going towards a hike that goes up to an old fire tower. Approaching the parking area I pointed out the tower and Elise said,"Is that where the princess is?" I told her,"I don't know, we'll have to see" unwittingly motivating her to race to the top of the mountain. She was the first one there.

Thursday, July 1, 2010


Lately, Elise and Linnaea have been playing really well together. After breakfast they will go and find something different to play with and have interesting conversations with each other. This particular morning the coolest thing they could find was our laundry baskets, so they brought out their pink pillows and "warm white blankets" to make cribs for themselves. They will usually do this for a few hours until I drag them out of the house to the park, library, or lake. Or I can just get a little bit of cleaning in.





Partners in crime.





The story of my life. Two girls, two different directions.





Buffalo herd at Wind Cave National Park. Apparently this is the most genetically pure herd remaining, and if any of the adjacent Custer State Park herd get into Wind Cave, they are not so kindly removed. Custer State Park does a fall roundup and thins the herds for the winter, selling the extra buffalo for meat.






We bought a kite ages ago and have been saving it for when our friends, Jonathan and Lisa, came to visit. They came this past weekend and we finally brought it out. The girls loved it, except for the fact that the wind was blowing the kite towards the sun, so it was too bright to actually see the kite.





Elise holds the kite string. She actually dropped it once and Kevin had to chase it. He had to run after it and reach down about 7 times before he finally got it. If only I would have had my video camera.





One, two, three...takeoff!





Mountain goat number 70, on the side of the road on the way to Mount Rushmore.





Linnaea is ready for exploring "Mount Mushmore."





Can you guess who got to carry these items once these two little girls were tired of doing it?





Heading up to the monument. That's me in green and Kevin in the black jacket.





Elise and Linnaea look at the "presents."





Our favorite thing to do (that drives Mommy crazy) is painting with watercolors.





Shhhh...this is going to be a masterpiece.