Happy Halloween!

We carved pumpkins this year, and we made the mistake of getting three huge pumpkins to carve.  It was a ton of work, there was so much pumpkin guts in them!  Here is a photo of Shawn and Ellie just getting started.

 Here are the three of us with our finished products.  They turned out pretty good!

 Happy Halloween Everybody!!!

Thirty

I guess turning 30 wasn't so horrible...  I'd been dreading it for about 30 years and I survived it without any major battle wounds.  Shawn invited a bunch of people over for cake and festivities, and it was fun to see all of the people that came.  He also made me a cake and decorated it all on his own!  My husband is so nice to me...  :) 

And of course there was a ton of Wii playing going on that evening.  What would be a good get-to-gether without come competitive Wii action?

Greenbluff Fall Festival

Each weekend in October the farming community of Greenbluff hosts it's fall festival.  We just had to go up and be a part of the festivities.  We ate some fresh hot pumpkin doughnuts, picked out our fall pumpkins, and enjoyed the unseasonal temperature of 80 degrees!  It was a beautiful day.  Here are my people resting on a straw bale. 

 Shawn eating a yummy pumpkin doughnut.

 The family

 Here's Shawn hauling away all of our pumpkins we purchased!  We are really looking forward to carving them to display by our door this year.  It's our first time with trick-or-treaters in our new home! 

Sweet 16

Ellie turned sweet 16 a couple of weeks ago (I'm late on the blogging) and she went down to get her license that day right after school.  She was so happy to have passed and now she's an independent woman driving all over town!  Here is a photo of her and her dad at her birthday party. 

And a picture of her super cool cake!  A family friend made it for her, and it was so tasty too!

The baby in the baby carriage!

Yep, Shawn and I are expecting a little baby!!!  I made some cute little cinnamon buns to bring in to work today.  Check out the cute little tags on the toothpicks! 

We are due on April 19th, so I'm about 3 months along so far.  We could not be more excited!

First comes love...

I'm sure most of you can remember the ending to this little rhyme, but I can't seem to! 

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes.... 

How does it go - what comes next???

:)

Shawn's Best Friend

Shawn's pup Nick passed away yesterday - he was 16 years old.  (That's like 112 in human years!)

Nick was an amazing dog.  Those who know me well know that I am NOT a dog person.  I haven't ever come across a dog that I really tolerated, let alone liked.  I liked Nick right away.  He was quiet, calm, and so nice - he never barked, jumped on me, licked me, or did any of the other gross dog things.  He just hung out and liked to be pet and taken for walks. 

I only knew Nick for the past 5 years, but Shawn brought him home 16 years ago.  Nick was there through Shawn's divorce, through raising a daughter, through job changes, moves, and life for one and a half decades.  Ellie doesn't know life without Nick.  I remember when Shawn and I were dating and he talked about how when he was single for so many years Nick was his only companion;  he was his best friend. 

Nick's health hadn't been great for about a year, and he took a bad turn yesterday.  Shawn had to make the unthinkable decision to put him down and it was horrible to see my husband so heartbroken losing his long-time friend.  We know now that he's in doggie heaven running for hours just like he did in his youth.  Rest in peace Nick.

Brace Free!

Ellie got her braces off!  It's hard to believe that she had them on for over a year already, and her teeth are beautifully straight and brace free.  She was SO excited to get them off before school starts, and she was also excited to be able to eat corn on the cob again.  Here she is in all of her glory!

Metaline Falls

Two weekends ago we went up to visit Metaline Falls, which is a tiny little town not far from the US/Canadian border.  We went up there because Ellie has a "special friend" who lives there that she was just dying to see.  While we were up there, we went to check out this cool cave.  Here is the entrance to the cave - it's a loooong way down!

Still going down...

Here is a photo of Ellie and her friend Brandon inside the cave

It was cold in there!  39 degrees all year around.  The tough boys were just wearing shorts and tees and were shivering, but when we asked they weren't cold.  Typical boys.

After we were done with the cave, we decided to take the short hike (only .25 mile) to the Canadian border.  It's pretty cool because you can just walk across!  Weird. 

Here is a photo of the border.  On the left is the good old USA, and to the right of the clearing is Canada.  There were a few security cameras hidden in the trees that we noticed, and we were sure to smile big at them. 

Here's my handsome husband not looking afraid of the warning sign.  We're rebels!

Furry Friends

Check out this little guy.  He's a marmot, and we've got them all over our neighborhood!  When we first moved in and saw one nesting in some rocks in our front yard, I thought it was a beaver.  Through talking with some ladies from work and Google searching I realized that it was no beaver, but a marmot. 

Notice how FAT he is?  That's because him and all of his other fat furry friends come in my yard and eat my flowers, weeds, tomato plants, and pretty much anything else that's green and near the ground.

Shawn's tried sprinkling a whole border of mole/pest repellent around our house, but it doesn't seem to bother them.  I may have to invest in a BB gun!

Priest Lake 2010

Every year Shawn's side of the family goes up to Priest Lake to camp for the week.  This year we had quite a large group (about 30 of us) so we ended up getting all 5 campsites that lined the north cove of Kalispell Island.  It was so nice because it felt like we were the only people on the island.  Here's a family photo at our campsite.

The weather was beautiful!  Sunny and warm all week - but the water was freezing!

Here's a shot of Ellie and her papa playing some catch on the beach one morning.

4th of July Weekend

Shawn and I went over to visit my parents for the 4th of July.  It was extra special because my sister was also there with her 3 kids visiting - we hadn't seen them since they moved to New York a year ago!  We did so much fun stuff during the 5 days we were there.  The first day we went to see Toy Story 3-D, and it was so cute!  Here we all are waiting for the movie to start.

Here is a photo of me and my nephew Kai.  I forget that little kids don't know to just look at the camera when trying to take a picture of ourselves - I think this photo is pretty cute - he's looking at me like "what are you doing?"

Here is my sister Julie and nephew Hayden eating some yummy Mexican food

We also spent the afternoon going bowling and also mini golfing - it was so much fun!

One day we spent the day at some long-time friends of the family, Ron and Donita Polson's lake cabin.  It was SO fun, and nice to be able to spend some time relaxed near the water.  They had a cool fire pit that we roasted marshmallows on.  Here are some photos from that day at the lake

The s'mores were REALLY messy.

On the way home from the lake we stopped at a firework stand to purchase some legal explosives.  Fireworks are illegal where we live, but not at my mom and dad's!  YAY!!  I love fireworks and it was so fun to show them to the kids because they had never done them at home.  We bought some smoke bombs, sparklers, pop-its, and some other things. 

Here's Kai doing some pop-its with Grandma

We really bonded with the kids while we were there, especially little Kai.  When he moved away last year he was just a tiny little guy, so Shawn and I were so happy that he liked us when we came to visit!  He loved to play with both me and Shawn, it was so nice. 

Here is a photo of Kai and his Uncle Shawn practicing going down the stairs

I love this photo of Hayden and Shawn playing Wii - Hayden looks so tiny and Shawn looks so huge!!

And here I am trying to get a cute shot with me and the kids.  Now I know what all of you parents go through when trying to get the kids to pose for a Christmas card photo.  :)