Puddles!

Such a nice warm day to play in the water, don'tcha think?! :)

Easter 2014

Went to Kalispell for the Easter weekend. Rodney had a four-day weekend for spring break. We got up there late Thursday night. Or was it early Friday morning? :) Got to see the baby lambs. Jace was there for the day, so the girls had fun playing with him and then Hannah got to go with him and Bonnie to pick up Paige from school. Rodney and Dale checked out some minivans and found a decent one that was a good deal. Went back to look at it Saturday morning and ended up buying it, a 2007 Dodge Caravan. Turns out it's a small world after all since the guy who filled out our paperwork is from my neck of the woods in MN and my Dad knows his dad. We craigslisted our car up in Kalispell and sold it the following week. The girls are pretty tickled with the van, Hannah said "it's awesome!" many times on the way home that weekend.
Saturday afternoon we went up to Alvin's for a bit. Girls had fun playing with their cousins. And getting a boat ride from Danica. Sunday we went to the potluck at Krack's and the girls enjoyed their first Easter egg hunt. All the other kids were done, but these two wanted to keep going. They did find a few more.
We took off after lunch on Monday and stopped along the Swan to shear a few sheep for a lady. Got home after supper. Had a happy puppy dog who was excited to get out of the kennel.

April 2014

Howdy-

Not sure where this month went to, but here we are at the end of it. We had a few trips to Bozeman for interviews, as Rodney was on the hiring committee for a new MSU Ag Ed professor. That was quite the experience for him, but he enjoyed it. We started mini van shopping and ended up finding an 07 Dodge Caravan in Kalispell. We went up there for Easter weekend/Spring break (Rodney had a 4 day weekend). Amanda's brother Alvin and Danica are living back there again so we enjoyed seeing lots of family. Calving was wrapped up last week when the last heifer finally calved. 13 calves (8 heifers and 5 steers) running around in the pasture is entertaining for the girls. Hannah and Nicole are really enjoying the warmer weather. Had a bit of rain for a few days; the big puddle that was left behind was used by two little girls that didn't mind getting cold and wet. Last Saturday Rodney and a couple of his FFA boys went to Columbus for a lawn tractor pull. It ended up being rainy but they all enjoyed themselves. Rodney's tractor pulled the load the first time, but spun out the second time. Our Gospel Meetings were wrapped up a couple weeks ago, as Dennis and John went to MN for Special Meeting rounds. Looking forward to preps and conventions now.

 

'Til next time-

Rodney, Amanda, Hannah and Nicole

 

 

A few random pictures/videos from the month:

putting Nicole back to sleep after coming home from Union meeting

her favorite place to hang out - so she needs to bring all her "toys" up on the deck

Hannah likes to take pictures

first time trying girl scout cookies

Hannah likes 'em too

chocolate!

our meeting kids

Gilbert was born the middle of January

the girls think he's pretty neat

 

New family member

Our neighbors had a batch of puppies in January and wanted to give the girls one. We made the mistake of going to look at them :) and finally gave in and brought one home the middle of March. Got the cutest one outta the bunch, a boy, and Hannah came up with the name Charlie. Guess we shouldn't have taken their word for it, that it was a boy, 'cause it turns out it's a she! Guess before you get something, you should check it out for yourself. :) Now she is known as Molly. And for the most part she's a decent dog.

Not sure what we were thinking, getting a puppy, but hopefully she'll turn out to be a decent dog. She's got into my flowers numerous times and destroyed the lilac bush shortly after we planted it, hopefully that will pull through. Has dug up plants in the garden. But now she's got herself a handy dandy little collar that gets after her when she does something we don't like. Just need to be watching her so we can zap her!

Another little quirk of hers that we don't like is her hauling anything and everything up on the front deck. Never know what we'll find in the morning. Dried afterbirth, chucks of wood, hay, the other day it was a fawn, cow pies, deer bones....really don't want to be attracting flies to the front door!

My new daily repeat to myself: she's just a puppy, she's just a puppy....

These are from when we brought him her home:

Later in the month:

Puppy kisses!