Friend Filled Weekends

We are so blessed to have the close friends we do. Many of them, like us, don't have family near by, so we cling to the friends we've made and they become our family here. Many of us are going through tough financial times, but we know we can lean on each other for prayer and support.

Within the last month, we've been invited down to the CWAM base in Meeteetse to spend 3 weekends with our friends Kurt & Heidi Lancaster, and their boys JD & Joshua. We've had Thanksgiving there and last weekend we had a little Christmas party with a few other friends. Jason was also asked to do some work for a friend down there, which was perfect timing when we were there. Both Heidi and I are from Manitoba and brought up Mennonite, so we both like to cook. We thought we would try our hand at cottage cheese perogie making. A favorite meal of both our families. They didn't turn out too bad and were quite yummy, but not quite as good as the ones we both buy when we're at home. We made about 4 dozen in the nap times of all 3 children. JD wanted to help once he got up, so he had his own piece of dough to practice.
We were quite proud of ourselves that there were no "leaky" seams when we cooked them.

Two weekends ago, Jason went to a conference, which left me and Katelyn at home. It was quite the weekend. The blower moter on my car quit the day after he left, leaving me with no heat in my car! That's not fun when the temps are well below 0F. Again, my friends stepped in to help the helpless, lonely momma. Sheila Henson was my "personal chauffer", taking me and Katelyn back and forth to Cody to the mechanic. She would take Katelyn so she would be warm, as I bundled myself up to drive the 30+ minutes in the cold car. That Sunday, the Hensons and I drove into the mountains to look for their Christmas tree and ended the day with supper at their house. Micah and Katelyn have seen a lot of each other and are quite funny when they are together.
Katelyn was being such a goof. She was sitting beside Micah but would bend over and pat him on the back and then sit up real quick. It was hilarious to watch.
"Micah, I've got a secret..."
If she can, she will try and go straight for his face with her little hands. We have fun watching them together. My girl growing like a weed, at 7 1/2 months

This week of Christmas, we will be in Billings with Jason's family. His sister is coming home for a few days along with some other friends we haven't seen since June.

Merry Christmas Everyone! We'll get to Canada again in 2010!

"Lost" Addiction

Jason has been hooked on the tv series "LOST". If you've never watched, don't start because it will hook you, like a book you just can't put down. We had never watched it before and he has trouble watching series on tv because there is such a long break between episodes. So, he's gotten on Netflix and watches season after season without interruption. He's been doing this for quite a while now, watching 2 or 3 or more episodes at a time, sometimes until 2am. Since he watches on the computer, he can watch wherever he wants to, which is most times, on the bed with headphones. So he tells me he took some pictures of Katelyn. Of course I had to see what he had been up to. This is what I found.

A Great Thanksgiving

We were blessed to spend this Thanksgiving with friends. Instead of seeing Jason's family in Billings, we wanted to see some of our close friends who we don't get to see too often. We drove down to the CWAM base on Wednesday and ended up staying until Saturday. We were just enjoying our time with Kurt and Heidi and their 2 boys. Our friends Red and Eric drove down from Bozeman, John and Theresa came from Cody and we came from Powell. There was a whole mishmash of people from many different states. The only ones that were born in Wyoming were John and Katelyn. Just goes to show, you never know who God is going to put in your path. The food was good, but somehow it's just never like mom or grandma makes :) Kurt and Heidi's boys had been sick but were slowly getting over their colds. The guys took a walk as they waited for supper and discussed what needed to be done, work wise on the base. Red and Jason, being both carpentars, they have a desire to see this place look good and have things done right. Katelyn found and new toy and JD showed her how it all worked.

Friday, Jason, Kurt and a few staff from the base, headed up to deserted town in the mountains, Kirwin, to look for a lost cow. Kurt and the staff from the base had been checking cows for a local rancher who grazes in the mountains. They had gathered the cows but this one cow was really wild and got away. The rancher told Kurt that if he could find her, to shoot her and take her for meat. Since Jason didn't get a shot at a deer or elk, he wanted to shoot something with his new gun. So they went on an expedition, leaving Heidi and I with the kids. After they all had a nap, we headed outside to feed their horses. Just as we were walking up their lane, the guys came back and said they had to drive to Ralston, to our horses, to pull out porcipine quills out of Jason's horse. It seems Saber got a little too curious and his nose met the defense of the porcipine. The boys wanted to go for a ride with their dad, so they loaded them up, dogs and all and headed to Ralston, leaving the girls all to ourselves.
Katelyn loved the Jumparoo that Heidi had brought back with her from Canada, knowing that Katelyn could use it at their house. She jumped and jumped and jumped. She also went through some of the boys clothes that they had outgrown just to see what she had for Katelyn. There was this adorable little hat that will be great for next summer. She had a green vest/jacket and some overalls and jeans. Yes, they may be boy clothes but both genders could wear them, even if it's just at home or going to the barn. Most of them will be for next year or this winter.

Saturday we woke up to quite a bit of snow and everyone was just lounging around. Low and behold, Jason got a call in Meeteetse, to move some furniture. He had put an ad in the local paper for any handyman work. Since we were already in Meeteetse, it worked out great. Kurt was willing to help him out, so off they went. The kids went down for a nap and Heidi and I were left to peace and quiet.

All in all, it was a great weekend, minus me getting sick Saturday night and spending my Sunday on the couch. But I've recouped and have things to do, not that I'm that motivated. Katie is sleeping now and I'm still in my robe. Oh well. This week, I have Mother's of Preschoolers (MOPS) to attend Tuesday morning. Wednesday, I'm helping at our church to serve the Cody Ministerial Christmas Lunch, that is still going to be a mystery how I'm going to do that with Katelyn. That night we are also decorating the church for Christmas so that may be our home group. It is so hard to believe that 2009 is almost behind us in another 4 weeks.

Dog sitting

Nothing exciting has been happening around here. Jason is still looking for the elusive deer and didn't get an elk and those chances are getting harder with places to hunt closing. So right now our freezer is empty, but there still is some time.
Our friends Kurt & Heidi called us up frantically on Saturday, asking if we would watch their dog, Cubby, for them for the next week. I like Cubby or Chubby Cubby as we affectionatly call him, so I said yes. The last time we watched him, we had a heart attack. We left a gate open in our haste, and he and Tucker got out. Our neighbor put Tucker back for us because he knows he is our dog, but didn't know about or see Cubby. My stomach hurt all night and we couldn't sleep that night, worried that we wouldn't find him. Their 2 yr old son, JD had faithfully and reluctantly left him with us knowing he would get him back. We needed to find that dog Thankfully the dog catcher found him the next street over and took him to the pound. Boy, was he happy to see me the next day. So this time, we're keeping him on a pretty short leash and a close eye.
Katelyn is just in love with animals, as we're finding out. She laughes and giggles at anything Tucker does. He throws a bone at us, he comes up to us or he barks and she giggles. So it's safe to say that she also likes Cubby and he's good with her. He just loves the attention.

I had to take a picture of Katelyn yesterday for a future scrapbook page, documenting her growth month by month and she just couldn't sit still or leave her pony alone. So I got some cute shots.
"What up homey?"

"Must... get... Camera!"

Katelyn got a big kick out of riding on Daddy's shoulders and looking in the mirror. Her giggle is so contagious.

High Chair

I finally purchased a high chair a couple of weeks ago and it has been a big help. It just wasn't working to feed her on my lap all the time and this is good training to eat at the table as a family. She loves it and she looks so tiny it in. She bangs her toys on the table and sits there for quite a while. Today I made banana bread and I put her in it in the kitchen behind me and she was happy to sit there and talk and play.

I also got her to take a bottle, somewhat. It's amazing what the right nipple does and a little apple juice and water does. I just give about an ounce of drink just to help her "stay regular". It seems to be helping. She doesn't always suck on it and she'll get distracted and chew on it. "Look ma, no hands!"

Playin' in the Leaves

Since it was a nice day out, I thought I would take some 6 month fall pictures in the leaves. It didn't go as well as I would have liked, but she was still super cute.
I brought out the corn just to see what she would do, and she laughed when I shook the husk. Too funny.
Of course, we had to have a little meltdown. The onset of a very rough weekend of fever and pain.

6 Months!

My baby is 6 Months old! No words can describe how much I love this little girl. We've gone from this little peanut at 7 lbs 14 oz, 18 inches, to 15lbs 7oz and 26 inches long
I never got a picture of Dr. Spomer with Katelyn after her delivery, so I thought now was a great chance to get a picture with her. I absolutely love her as a doctor. She is so friendly, personal and so wanting to help you. She even let me use her personal pump. How many doctors would do that for you? You can tell that she loves her job and the kids that come through. I was so blessed to have been able to get on with her. I have somewhat of a phobia with male doctors and feel so much more comfortable talking to a woman about woman things. She was so awesome during delivery too. Other doctors would have rushed into a c-section after Katelyn's heartbeat dropped, but she was willing to just wait and see what would happen, which it turned out all okay. At Katelyn's 4 month check-up, Dr. Spomer's RN Lisa Hobby, checked out Katelyn. She loves her job and is so much fun. I have been blessed at this office. They make me almost want to have another one, just so I can keep seeing them. I did say ALMOST!

But after seeing the Doctor and nurses for the 6 month check-up, Katelyn got 3 shots and that led to a very hard weekend. It had been a hard week to start off with having Jason sick. So I was nurse maid and mom. Thursday were her shots and then it got worse. Jason was slowly recovering and Katelyn had not gotten sick. I was loading up on vitamins so I also didn't get sick. After her shots, she had a fever for 2 days and didn't sleep very well without me holding her or feeding her. I slept in her room all week so I wouldn't get sick. Thursday night, we both had a hard time sleeping. I had her sleep with me but she woke up so often during the night that I was praying for the day to come. Jason came home during the day to help me out so I could sleep but we both ended up sleeping together. She slept, and I couldn't because if I moved she would wake up. Just one of the roughest nights we have had since she was born. Thankfully, she is over that, but still have a cough. So I don't know if she got sick and cranky from the shots or from Jason being sick and then getting the shots to lower her immune system. I don't know but thank God we got through it.