#66 Done!

We completed another item from our 101 Things list, but first, here's two cats who also enjoy the box! June has been pretty sick this week so after Matthew goes to bed the box gets set up so she won't go in it and get sick. The cats like to jump on the top and then fall into it. Okay, so they probably don't like the fall, but that's how it happens, and if I'm being completely honest, it's hilarious.

And then they try to get out, providing entertainment for all.

Anyway, on Saturday we headed to Bozeman's Christmas Stroll downtown. We visited some Bernese Mtn. Dogs, heard lots of music and caroling, drank lots of hot cider, checked out the gingerbread houses and enjoyed the cold weather as best possible.

On Sunday, we headed up to the mountains to cut down our own Christmas tree (#66 on our list). As a short background, my brother and I have fond memories of heading up to the mountains outside Laramie with my dad to cut down Christmas trees. Dad was a stickler for a decent tree and we always managed to find an impressive one. James and I were not so lucky. Matthew and I had a bit of a scare on Saturday with him in the backpack and me losing my balance so he's been a bit fussy now anytime I seem off-balance. Apparently I don't trudge through waist high snow very smoothly so he didn't enjoy any of the off-trail tree searching, which turned our quest for a tree to a quest for a tree fairly close to the trail. In a forest among the other trees, our tree looks like an awesome little tree with a "few" bare spots and was by far the best tree we had seen during our adventure.

On our porch, however, it looks like the Charliest of Charlie Brown trees. I'll take a picture before we decorate it so you can see its pathetic state compared to what I hope will be an awesome decorating job, but dang it, I'm still proud of it. It's definitely on par with some of the other trees we've seen cruising around town on rooftops and it only cost $5 for the permit and we got to spend a gorgeous day in the mountains. Next year, however, I'll seek out a stand of anything but lodgepole pines :-)

We weren't the only family out searching for trees and after Sky had a run-in with a dog he ended up on leash most of the time. He still seemed to enjoy himself!

And back in the parking lot as we tied the tree to the car, Matthew learned one of the secrets of this tradition, a nice thermos of hot cocoa waiting for you when you get back!

The look:

The lunge and sip:

The lip-smacking satisfaction:

Matthew has an announcement to make

and he is apparently not pleased! Mommy's very special early Christmas gift was a new glider/rocker for the nursery, in preparation for what will hopefully be an early birthday gift next June. All this means that we've at least finished one more of our 101 things to do, #23 - have a sibling for Matthew. I don't think he's as excited as we'd hoped he'd be :-)

After I'm certain I spent 1,000s of hours in the noisy, uncomfortable glider rocker we got when Matthew was born, when these plush, comfy rockers went on sale at the local baby store, we decided it was time for the old one to go to presswood furniture heaven, or at least Craigslist.

Matthew seems to like the chair so far for pre-nap and bedtime cuddles, so maybe it's just the thought of being a big brother that scares him, but he was not having any of this sitting in the chair by himself business.

Luckily, he was easily pleased with what he thought was the perfect gift for him, the box the chair came in.

Turned house with door.

My guess is he loves it so much because it has "doors" he can both open and shut. He can't quite open the doors in our house consistently so most days this is his door experience:

- open and close door gently

- close door to hard and it latches

- scream because he accidentally shut himself in a room

- mom comes and opens door

- wash. rinse. repeat.

- mom moves Matthew out of room and closes door

- scream because mom is a big old meanie

- wash. rinse. repeat.

Oh the joys of toddlers :-)

And because I'm getting even lazier with my blogging, here's two videos I mashed into one of him and his "house". We'll see how long it stays in the house before Christmas takes over and we literally run out of floor space. I don't really need to use the kitchen right? We can just keep it in there :-)

My little fish

Friday was the last day of our "swim lessons" which completes #29 on our 101 Things to Do list (which I promise I'll update and fix soon!). Matthew is still kinda meh about the whole thing, but we've gotten to a point where (if he's in a good mood) I can pass him underwater to the swim instructor which I think is pretty good progress all things considered. James came to watch and join us for a picnic the other day and took some pictures. It was not one of Matthew's best days, but he does love chasing the balls around the pool!

Randomness

As little man's birthday is fast approaching, I promise I'll inundate the blog with pictures of him. In the meantime I thought I'd share a few other things. First, I completed #65 on our list of things to do. Admittedly, I did not donate to Locks of Love, but instead to the Pantene Great Lengths program. After reading this article I decided I might use Pantene's program instead. I don't think there's anything wrong with the Locks of Love program as described AT ALL, it was that truthfully I didn't have to grow out my hair as long. So on Sunday, my hair went from this

which truthfully I "styled" like this 98% of the time

to this final result (pardon the crazycakes face I make when I take my own photo, I promise I'm not stoned). I'm really pleased with the cut as it looks fairly good when it's "styled" by me (i.e. washed and then fingers run through it eventually). Meanwhile, 9+" of my hair is being sent to Texas as we speak.

A Fabulous Day

You should know I'm posting this well past my bedtime, but I'm waiting for James to get back from filling sandbags . . . PLUS, as I was trying to go to sleep, some crazy woman rang my doorbell looking for someone at 11 frickin' 15pm. Crazy. So I decided to blog in the meantime :-)

First, on Monday we were going to go hike the falls at Sinks Canyon for my birthday, and then this happened:(Photo courtesy Dain Medow and the Fremont County Flood Facebook Group)

Fremont County is facing record flooding. Our extended family's ranch is taking on water and the road to Riverton for us is now blocked off right outside our driveway. We can see the river from our house now, though we are fortunate to be high and dry. Please, please keep this area in your thoughts and prayers as the current forecast looks like this:
and not surprisingly, the National Weather Service is predicting it will get worse before it gets better. You can check out more information and pics at the facebook page (which for lord only knows what reason is the emergency mgmt team's "official" method of communication): http://www.facebook.com/FremontCountyFlood2010

Anyway, back to the slightly lighter matter of our Monday excursion, before we headed out to help with flood matters. Our second choice was we were going to go to the Handcart Museum (also on our 101 things list). However, Matthew napped weird (welcome to my life) and well, we were a little worried about the highway washing out and getting stuck in Sweetwater Station. Sooo, we headed to the park for a fabulous picnic! In exciting news, Matthew has finally mastered the straw, which means I can stop packing a sippy cup around. Hooray!
However, his newest, favoritest food are blueberries.

Then we went swinging



And we found these cool stepping stone things that were the perfect height
and nicely spaced for cruising attempts

Then much to our surprise, we completed another one of our 101 things. While we were at the park we were working with the dogs to chill out and look what June decided to do:

TWICE!

Though it wasn't the original plan, we are able to cross another one off our list.

Before we left we stopped to take some pics of James and I with Matthew.



Then we headed to the Wind River Heritage Center, formerly and kinda currently the Jake Korell museum. It was unique. The mounts truly are fantastic and I can imagine on the days when you catch Jake there, it's quite the experience. The rest is well, a work in progress.